9th Symposium on Advanced Legal Topics in Land Conservation

Ross is the Land Projects Director for Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation where he has worked since 2011. INHF is statewide land trust with 30 full-time staff involved in many facets of land protection. Ross primarily works on fee title acquisitions and is also involved with conservation easement review. As one of two attorneys on staff, he gets pulled into a myriad of discussions on various topics. When he is not scrambling with his wife to practices, scouts, and events for his three boys (10, 8 and 5) he does his best to enjoy some time outdoors hunting, biking, fishing and searching for a great prairie plant to photo. 

Melinda Ching is a Senior Attorney for The Nature Conservancy where she has provided legal counsel to a range of programs within The Nature Conservancy, including establishing offices in Australia and Mongolia and managing complex legal transactions such as debt for nature swaps in Indonesia.  Her current practice includes providing all legal support for conservation programs in Hawaii, Palmyra Atoll, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado and Idaho. Her current areas of focus are conservation easements and other conservation real estate transactions, lobbying and electioneering counsel and carbon projects.  She has been with The Nature Conservancy since 2001. She is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and The King Hall School of Law, University of California, Davis. She is active in supporting diversity, equity and inclusion at the Conservancy and provides assistance to the Conservancy’s Employee Resource Groups as well as serves as a mentor for various internal mentoring cohorts and young legal professionals.  

Sydney is an attorney with extensive leadership experience advising nonprofit organizations and national foundations on conservation policy, advocacy, and strategic matters. As General Counsel at Lowcountry Land Trust, ensures the permanence of protected lands, effectively working to resolve conservation easement compliance issues when applicable. Sydney has been general counsel for a DC-based organization focused on accountable US fisheries, trial attorney in the Natural Resources Division at the US Department of Justice and law clerk in the US District Court, District of Utah. Sydney holds a Bachelor of History from Colby College, a Master of Science in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana, and a Juris Doctor from the University of Utah.

Alice’s professional passion is helping land trusts to conserve open spaces and ensure that conservation protections withstand the test of time. Alice has a deep respect for the land trust professionals, landowners, and communities that come together to solve complex challenges, protect natural places, and foster a sense of connection to the land.  

Alice is a Partner with Weinberg & Hromadka, PLLC, a small law firm that specializes in real estate, land use, and conservation law. Alice’s practice focuses on serving land trusts in Montana and Washington State. Prior to joining Weinberg & Hromadka, Alice served for eight years as in-house counsel for Five Valleys Land Trust, a regional land trust based in Missoula, Montana, that works to protect agricultural land, water resources, wildlife habitat, and community open spaces. In that role, Alice collaborated closely with the land protection staff to draft, finalize, interpret, and enforce conservation easements and assist with fee land acquisitions, dispositions, and management. 

Originally from Portland, Oregon, Alice earned a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Spanish at the University of Montana. After college, Alice spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar in Madrid teaching English at a public elementary school and taking classes in human rights law at a Spanish university. Alice earned her law degree at the University of Washington School of Law, where she focused on environmental and public interest law. Alice is on the Board of Directors of Homeword, an organization that works to create homes that people can afford and to provide homebuyer and financial education.  

Alice enjoys spending time with family and friends and being in her favorite outdoor places – Missoula’s local trails, Montana’s endless backcountry, and the coasts and mountains of the Pacific Northwest.  

Jonathon is a semi-retired civil litigator and aspiring ski bum, with a B.B.S. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a J.D. from the Lewis and Clark Law School, Portland Oregon. Starting in 1981 as an Assistant Public Defender in Anchorage, and moving into private practices in 1986, he has appeared in state and federal trial and appellate courts throughout the state of Alaska. His practice emphasis is complex civil litigation, and he also serves as a hearing officer, mediator, arbitrator and legal malpractice expert witness. He has been President of the Alaska Bar Association and is currently an attorney member of the Alaska Judicial Council which, as part of Alaska's merit based judicial selection system, nominates candidates to the governor to fill trial and appellate court vacancies. He has received the State of Alaska Attorney General's Pro Bono Service Award for his work on behalf of victims of domestic violence. He regularly bikes, hikes, kayaks and alpine skis (9 days during the 2021-22 ski season). Jonathon considers the Great Land Trust Eklutna River Estuary Conservation Easement case to be among the greatest accomplishments of his legal career. He lives in Anchorage with Kate Michaels, his spouse of 43 years.

Tom was named the Executive Director in June of 2013. He holds a bachelor’s of science degree in Environmental Policy & Behavior from the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and Environment and a Juris Doctor from Florida State University’s College of Law.

A licensed Florida attorney, Tom has worked as a staff attorney for a large not-for-profit health care organization and a public housing authority. For seven years, he worked as a litigator in civil, criminal, and real estate matters. He has volunteered on local and national political campaigns and interned in U.S. Senator Bill Nelson’s Tallahassee office during law school. He serves on the Board of Directors as Chair of the Partnership for Gulf Coast Land Conservation, a coalition of more than two dozen local, regional and national conservation organizations that work to increase the pace, quality and permanence of voluntary land and water conservation within the five state Gulf Coast region. He also previously served as the President of the Alliance of Florida Land Trusts, the umbrella organization for state's 22 land trusts.

Ellen joined Great Land Trust as the Executive Director in 2016 and is responsible for leading the organization to fulfill its mission to conserve and steward the lands and waters essential to the quality of life and economic health of Alaskans.  Working in partnership with private and public landowners, GLT permanently protects the integrity of natural ecosystems, wetlands and streams, and public access to recreational lands throughout Southcentral Alaska.  

Ellen has more than twenty years of experience in non-profit management and has specialized in financial management for stability and sustainability as well as leading efficient and productive teams to complete large-scale, complex projects in remote and urban areas of Alaska.  

An avid outdoors person, Ellen was introduced to GLT when she and her partner, Chris, purchased a wetlands property from GLT. The protected property provides wildlife habitat near the cabin they built themselves. A passionate gardener, enthusiastic baker, and dog lover, Ellen can often be found on Alaska’s trails with Chris and their dogs, Tucker and Finley. Year-round, Ellen enjoys her daily 20-mile roundtrip bike commute to the GLT office, where she works with the outstanding staff, dedicated board, and dozens of diverse partners to meet GLT’s mission.  

Rob runs a solo law practice specializing in land conservation and nonprofit organizations. He has extensive experience in land conservation transactions and related tax matters. Since 2003, Rob has consulted frequently for the Land Trust Alliance, including researching case law, drafting amicus briefs, and keeping track of conservation easement enabling statutes. He also represents dozens of Maine and New Hampshire land trusts. Rob has spoken at many conferences, including the Land Trust Alliance Rally and the Maine Land Trust Conference, and has written several papers on conservation issues in Tax Notes, the Land Trust Alliance’s Exchange, and NYU’s Environmental Law Journal.  

Rob graduated from Haverford College in 1996 and from New York University Law School in 2001.  After law school, he served for one year as a judicial clerk in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.  

When he’s not in the office, Rob is recalling the words of E.B. White, trying to decide whether to save or savor the world on any given day. You might find him planning a climate disobedience action. Or biking across the country with his family. Or volunteering at his local Quaker Meeting. Or listening to the latest Sox game while woodworking or playing the piano. 

Clint joined The Conservation Fund in 2008 and serves as the Central Midwest Regional Director. In his regional capacity he oversees the Fund’s work in Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa and Kansas was well as working in Wisconsin, Michigan, North and South Dakota. Clint is a seasoned conservation professional who has worked since 1988 in land conservation and wildlife management from Alaska and Florida to the Great Plains. He is the Fund’s lead on implementation of the Midwest Habitat Mitigation Project, a $22 million compensatory mitigation program for a 600-mile oil pipeline running across four states. He is a recognized expert negotiator and facilitator, working with federal, state and local agencies, corporations and families on complex real estate transactions, conservation easements, mitigation, public and private funding and finance. Clint serves as a commissioner on the Land Trust Accreditation Commission and on Gathering Waters Conservancy’s Land Trust Council in Wisconsin. He previously worked as a regional director for the Minnesota Land Trust and led a community-based conservation program for The Nature Conservancy in the Dakotas after spending 12 years as a wildlife biologist and land manager. In his spare time Clint enjoys traveling in domestically and abroad, hiking and exploring new places, and spending time with wife and adult children. He is a former structural and wildland firefighter and spent 15 years as an EMT.

Ginny joined The Conservation Fund in 2016, bringing to the Fund and its partners more than 20 years of expertise in natural resource protection and open space preservation.  She leads the Fund’s conservation efforts in Kansas, providing local, state and national partners with the Fund’s full array of conservation programs and initiatives. She also manages significant conservation projects in Missouri and Oklahoma.  Prior to joining the Fund, Ginny served as Executive Director of the Kansas Land Trust, counseled clients on complex environmental, natural resource and real estate matters while in private law practice and served as Assistant Regional Counsel for EPA Region 7.  She is an alum of the Land Trust Alliance’s Conservation Defense Advisory Council, is Co-Chair of the Missouri Land Trust Coalition and is active in climate mitigation planning in the Kansas City metro.  Ginny finds solace spending time with her family hiking and skiing the magnificent mountains of New Mexico. 

Ginny holds a B.A. from the University of Iowa and a J.D. with distinction from the University of Iowa College of Law.  She is a member in good standing of The Missouri Bar. 

Bob Owen has served as General Counsel for Western Reserve Land Conservancy since September 2011 and has been a member of the Land Conservancy’s legal staff since April 2006. During his time at the Land Conservancy, Bob has worked on over 400conservation real estate transactions ranging in scope from straight forward individual conservation easement donations to complex, multi-million dollar acquisitions involving public and private sector parties and often combining state and federal grant funding with private philanthropic dollars. As General Counsel, Bob is responsible for the oversight and management of the Land Conservancy’s in-house legal department and provides guidance and counsel to the Land Conservancy’s leadership and staff on legal matters affecting the organization, such as violation resolution, litigation management, corporate governance, insurance, employment practices, and other matters involving risk management and avoidance. Bob’s leadership as a member of the Land Conservancy’s Land Trust Accreditation Team lead to the organization’s successful bid for accreditation from the Land Trust Accreditation Commission in August of 2019. Bob is a member of the Land Conservancy’s senior management team and serves as the organization’s Assistant Secretary. In addition to his extensive experience in conservation, real property, and non-profit law, as an associate in the Cleveland, Ohio office of Taft, Stettinius and Hollister, Bob focused much of his practice in the areas of real estate and municipal law, leading him to serve a local northeast Ohio community as both its assistant law director and prosecutor for over six years. As such, Bob is well versed in matters involving municipal and public sector clients. Bob currently serves as a Member of the Terrafirma Risk Retention Group Members Committee, representing the Great Lakes Region; previously, he served as a member of the Land Trust Alliance’s Conservation Defense Advisory Council (CDAC)from 2014-2018. Furthermore, Bob served as a member of the executive committee of the Coalition of Ohio Land Trusts (COLT), a state-wide land conservation advocacy and education group, from 2007-2014 and served as its President from 2012-2014. He is a graduate of the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law and obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Hiram College. Bob is a lifelong resident of northeastern Ohio and currently lives in Newbury Township, Ohio with his wife Gina and his beloved dog Jackson.

David Ray is Lowcountry Land Trust’s Chief Conservation Officer. His team protects land and water in South Carolina’s coastal plain using traditional and innovative tools and funding; stewards a wide variety of conservation interests; and works with communities to preserve places of natural resource, recreational, and cultural significance.   Previously an attorney in government, large firm and academic settings, he became Lands Program Director for the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy in 2002.  Subsequently, he managed conservation planning and grant-making programs at the Open Space Institute, and has led conservation programs for The Nature Conservancy in the Southern Blue Ridge and Colorado.  David holds degrees from Davidson College and the University of Georgia School of Law. During his career he has played a significant role in over fifty conservation projects on more than 40,000 acres.  

Misti Schmidt is an attorney partner at Conservation Partners LLP in Oakland, California, where she focuses her practice on the real estate and tax aspects of conservation transactions, including donative and mitigation conservation easements and carbon projects, as well as tax-exempt organization governance. Misti received her Master of Laws in Taxation from New York University School of Law and her juris doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, where she received a Certificate in Environmental Law.