Councilor Biographies
Jack Buckley, Chair
Jack Buckley was appointed to the Stewardship Council in 2019. He retired from state government in 2018 after 32 years of service, serving most recently as Director and Deputy Director of the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. As Director he was responsible for the oversight and management of the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife which has statutory responsibility for all inland fisheries, wildlife, and endangered species management in the state. The Director represents the state in all matters related to wildlife and fisheries conservation regionally and nationally. The agency owns over 208,000 acres and has a staff of 180 natural resource professionals. In addition to his work in Massachusetts, he has worked regionally, nationally and internationally on fish and wildlife issues. For five years he served as the northeast region representative to the Internal Convention on Trade and Endangered Species (CITES). He has a BA in History from Ripon College and BS and MS in Fisheries Science from the University of Massachusetts. He enjoys running, biking, hiking and playing the concertina.
Melissa Harper, Vice Chair
Melissa Harper is part of the founding team and has been the Chief Executive Officer of Good Sports, Inc. since 2003. In her role as CEO, Melissa leads Good Sports growth, organizational strategy, and partnership development. She is passionate about the role of physical activity in our lives and how DCR can support that with recreational opportunities throughout the park system across the Commonwealth. In addition to roles in nonprofit fundraising and consulting, she also spent nearly 5 years in the management consulting business. Melissa is a lifelong athlete participating in and coaching team sports for her children and community. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and currently resides in Hull, Massachusetts with her husband and their four children.
Ann Canedy, Secretary
Ann was born in Baltimore, Maryland, but her family spent every summer on Cape Cod. Ann finally moved to the Cape in 1991 and currently lives in what used to be the family cottage. Ann is a graduate of George Washington University and New England School of Law. She was elected as a Barnstable Town Councilor in 2003 and served until term limited in 2015. As a councilor, she created the Barnstable Land Acquisition & Preservation Committee and the Water Resources Advisory Committee and worked with multiple organizations and nonprofits to acquire and preserve acres of land. She advocated for the creation of several conservation restrictions for the water protection and open space, including the acquisition and preservation of 14 acres on Sandy Neck. Since “retiring” from public service, Ann remains active by chairing the Land Acquisition Committee and is a member of the Sandy Neck Advisory Board.
Jeffrey Collins
Jeff is a landscape ecologist, outdoor enthusiast, and father of two living in West Concord. He grew up in Hampden, Massachusetts, attended Middlebury College and the University of Vermont, and served in the Peace Corps for two years in Zimbabwe. Jeff has worked at Mass Audubon since 1999 where he currently serves as senior director of conservation science. In this role, he develops research, wildlife conservation, and land stewardship strategies and leads a team of 20 scientists and support staff responsible for statewide bird conservation programs, ecological restoration, and ecological management planning for over 33,000 protected acres throughout Massachusetts. Jeff enjoys (among other DCR favorites) running in the Charles River Reservation and Southwest Corridor Park, biking at Great Brook State Park, cross-country skiing at Leo J. Martin Ski Track, hiking in Wachusett Mountain State Reservation, birding at Halibut Point State Park, and a New Year’s polar plunge at Walden Pond State Reservation.
Dicken Crane
James Dicken Crane “Dicken” Dicken was born in 1953 and grew up on a farm in Dalton MA, then spent a lot of years at boarding school before going to UMass and majoring in geology. From there he went to work in the woods which to him was the best classroom of all. In 1992 he took on managing Holiday Brook Farm and continues to do so today. Aside from the farm and the woods Dicken spent a lot of time on a wooden sail boat gunk holing around the coast of Maine.
Dicken’s wife Ruth grew up on horse back, worked 17 years as a veterinarian tech and is primary problem solver on the farm. They have kids and a grand kid and Ruth is now GiGi.
Dicken is a trustee of Massachusetts Environmental Trust, Board member of the Berkshire County Farm Bureau, Chair Person of the Windsor Conservation Commission and Windsor representative to the Woodlands Partnership of Northwest Massachusetts. He is also the president of The Massachusetts Forest Alliance. He is a former board member of the Berkshire Natural Resource Council and Northern Woodlands Magazine
Philip Doherty
Philip Doherty founded LaborSoft in 2001 and has been the Chief Executive Officer and Lead Developer since. In his role as CEO, LaborSoft has grown from a small company that manages Labor and Employee Relations issues to a company with customers all over the United States and Canada. In his spare time he is active in organized sports with his two young boys and enjoys golfing and kayaking. He is a graduate of Boston University and currently resides in Quincy, Massachusetts
Ted Dooley
Ted is a Strategic Communications Consultant with Merrimack Potomac + Charles. In this role, Ted plans and manages strategic communications campaigns across the country on behalf of several Fortune 500 companies, trade associations, and non-profit organizations.
Ted is an avid sailor and enjoys spending summer months sailing in Massachusetts Bay and around the North Shore. He is a graduate of Boston College and the Public Leadership Program at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
Ted is a member of the Planning Board in Swampscott, where he resides with his wife and son.
Kevin O'Shea
Vivian Ortiz
Vivian moved to Boston in 2009 after finishing grad school in New York City. She calls El Paso home where her father retired after a career in the U.S. Army. In 2012, she participated in a DCR-led community walk where she discovered that a trail would be added along the Mattapan trolley from Milton to Mattapan Station. DCR connected her to the Neponset River Greenway Council, a group of residents from the Boston neighborhoods of Dorchester, Hyde Park, and Mattapan; Milton; and Quincy who have been meeting for 20+ years to support the completion of the rail trail. Vivian started riding a bicycle in 2014 and enjoys inviting neighbors to join her on scenic bike rides on the Neponset trail. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish from the University of Texas at El Paso and, as a National Urban Fellow, received a Master's in Public Administration from the City University of New York's Baruch College. Vivian is the senior outreach coordinator and bike lead for the Massachusetts Safe Routes to School program which works to increase the number of students walking, biking, and rolling to school.
Susan Smiley
Dennis Smith
Dennis Smith has been a DCR customer for decades. He and his wife June have property in the DCR forest program, ride bicycles on DCR trails at Myles Standish and Cape Cod , camp at DCR facilities, and visit DCR historic sites. Smith has served as an appointee of three US presidents and six Massachusetts governors, retiring as the NE Regional Administrator of the General Services Administration in 2009. He currently serves on the Massachusetts DOT Real Estate Appraisal Review Board, the Plymouth Airport Commission, the Environmental Awareness Creation Care committee of his church, and has sat on the DCR Stewardship Council since 2016. He and June have three children and five grandchildren who also enjoy DCR facilities.
Jennifer Wilson
Representing Middlesex County, Jennifer lives with her husband John and three children on the edge of the Middlesex Fells and has spent thirty years of her life enjoying easy access to its beautiful trails and, prior, those of the Blue Hills Reservation.
Jennifer practiced law for 10 years before retiring from professional life to raise a family and volunteer for local government and community. In Winchester, Jennifer has served in numerous elected and appointed offices from 2000 to the present. Her proudest accomplishments in local government were during her tenure on the Select Board, where she served as Chair, championed the rebuilding of Winchester High School, and helped to steward the Town through its disposition of the historic Wright Locke Farm, now a premiere community working farm and educational resource. Other positions in Winchester include a decade on the Finance Committee; fifteen years as a Town Meeting member; and current membership on the Council on Aging’s Board. She also served on numerous ad hoc committees, such as Town Manager and Superintendent Search Committees and the Senior Citizen Tax Relief Committee.
Jennifer is a member of Winchester Hospital’s Advisory Board and an active volunteer at the First Congregational Church in Winchester. In her spare time, she enjoys reading (and talking about reading!), hiking and biking, cooking and playing the piano and 9-ball.
| Date published: | February 1, 2023 |
|---|