GCA Board of Directors

Liz Raisbeck, GCA Co-Chair

Liz is a 12-year resident of Groton, where she retired from a 25-year career in environmental policy work in Washington, D.C.  She was Sr. Vice President for Regional and Government Affairs at the National Audubon Society for nine years and held senior positions at National Parks Conservation Association, River Network, and Friends of the Earth.  She was also staff director to Congresswoman Claudine Schneider (R-RI). Liz is committed to helping promote sound economic development in Groton balanced with protecting our natural resources, especially our drinking water and rivers and streams that feed a threatened Long Island Sound.  She is a strong proponent of assisting our young oyster fishery, which is dependent on clean water to grow and thrive.

Eugenia Villagra, GCA Co-Chair

After searching the coasts of Connecticut and Massachusetts for a sailing port, Eugenia and her husband finally settled on Noank. Though boating lured them to Groton, Eugenia’s volunteer work with local land trusts, and now Groton Conservation Advocates, has been her primary focus.

Eugenia came to environmental work circuitously. She graduated from Clark University in Worcester, MA, taught history in an American school in Costa Rica for six years, returned to the States and then completed an M.A. degree in Political Science and International Relations at Penn State University. Her teaching experience, combined with two years of intense training in art history, qualified her for service as a docent at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art as well as teach art history as an adjunct professor at a local community college. She is delighted that the communication skills learned along the way (teaching, researching, writing, editing, desk-top publishing and webmastering) are being put to good use to protect land, water and wildlife in southeastern Connecticut.

Zell Steever

Zell has lived in Groton for most of the last 50 years where he has served on numerous environmentally related working groups.  Most recently, he was the Chairman of the Groton Town Council’s Climate Change and Sustainable Community Task Force from 2008-12.  He wrote the final report of the Task Force with recommendations on how Groton could improve energy efficiency and prepare for climate change.  He was also a member of the Groton Energy Efficiency and Conservation Committee from 2013-16.  Zell was a member of the advisory board for the Groton Utility Drinking Water Quality Management Plan in 2007-08 and the Chair of the Groton Conservation Commission in the early ’70s .

Zell’s professional career was in water resources policy at the state and federal level.  He has worked for the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, and the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers.  He was the Director of Water and Related Resources for the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection in the early 1970s.

Although technically retired, Zell can often be found helping to build boats at the Mystic Seaport. 

Jessie Stratton

Jessie has spent most of her adult life working on environmental issues including serving in the Connecticut  General Assembly for 14 years, 10 of which she served as House Chair of the Environment Committee.  She retired in 2016 after serving for five years as the Policy Director for the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP).  In that capacity she also helped found, and was a member of, the Executive Committee of the Connecticut Institute for Resilience and Climate Adaptation (CIRCA), a partnership between DEEP and UConn housed at UConn's Avery Point campus in Groton.

GCA Steering Committee Members

Board of Directors and…

KRISTEN EARLS

Kristen has lived in Groton since 2016, attracted by the town's commitment to open space, its rich natural history, and cultural resources. After studying environmental science and government at Connecticut College, she spent ~20 years in New York in marketing, communications, and education - largely focused on conservation and sustainability - with the Rainforest Alliance, American Museum of Natural History, Natural Resources Defense Council, and mission-driven brands such as GrowNYC, S'well, and Folger Shakespeare Library. Most recently, she founded Weather, a growth strategy consultancy. She is focused on GCA's community engagement and advocacy efforts, and is an enthusiastic proponent of sustainable development, open space expansion and equitable access, sustainably-managed local farms and fisheries, and place-based environmental education for all ages. She received her M.A. in International Education from NYU.

and five others who prefer to remain anonymous.