Conference – Presenters Bios

We are very grateful to all the wonderful speakers who are participating in this year’s conference.

Presenters are listed in alphabetical order.

Andrew Bowman

Andrew is president of the Land Trust Alliance. Before joining the Alliance in 2016, Andrew served as the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s program director for the environment, overseeing all environmental grant-making. During his 11 years there, Andrew developed more than $100 million in grants and program-related investments. Before his foundation work, Andrew practiced law in Oregon for Defenders of Wildlife and at Perkins Coie LLP. 

Mr. Bowman will be this year’s Maine Land Conservation Conference Keynote Speaker. Visit the Keynote Address page for more information about Andrew and his April 28th address.

Ben Cosgrove

Ben Cosgrove is a traveling composer, pianist, and multi-instrumentalist from New England. His music explores themes of landscape, geography, and environment and straddles a line between folk and classical music. His “electric and exhilarating” live performances are at once dazzling and intimate: music that has been described as “stunning” and “compelling and powerful,” — Red Line Roots has called him “stupidly talented” — all presented with “warmth, humor, honesty, and the easy familiarity of a troubadour.”

From 2012 to 2014 Ben served as the Signet Artist-in-Residence Fellow at Harvard University, and he is a recipient of a St. Botolph Club Foundation Emerging Artist Award. He has also held residencies and fellowships with Acadia National Park, Isle Royale National Park, Middlebury College, Chulengo Expeditions, the Vermont Studio Center, the Schmidt Ocean Institute, and the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, and he spent a year as the artist in residence at White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire and Maine.

Peter Forbes

Peter’s life work is about courageous convening of people across differences of race, class and ideology to resolve matters of consequence to their shared future.  Peter works directly with communities and organizations who aspire to evolve, become more inclusive and equitable, and he leads long work collaborations to achieve land justice in different regions of this country.  Peter is the co-founder of First Light, an ambitious effort between 50 organizations in Maine and the Wabanaki people to increase their presence and sovereignty on the land.  www.peterforbes.org