Highstead Staff Directory
Edward K. Faison - Forest Ecologist - email: efaison@highstead.net
Kathleen Kitka - Landscape and Collections Manager - email: kkitka@highstead.net
William G. Labich - Regional Woodland Conservationist - email: blabich@highstead.net
Darel W. Peck - Grounds and Facilities
David R. Foster Chair - Highstead Board - email: drfoster@fas.harvard.edu
Highstead Board
Elisabeth Dudley co-founded Highstead in 1982 with her husband Jim to provide a sanctuary for the study and appreciation of woodland plants and habitats. Over the past 25 years she has overseen its transformation into a natural reserve and conservation center that seeks to preserve nature and ecourage sound stewardship practices through reliable research at local, regional and broader scales.
Henry Dudley lives in Durango, Colorado. He is the Co-Founder and Manager of Dudley & Shanley, LLC, an investment advisory firm based in Red Bank, New Jersey. Henry has a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the Tuck School at Dartmouth College and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Stanford University.
Jane Dudley Jane Dudley's career included 15 years in the IT sector, working on systems design, development, sales and support for several corporations in the San Francisco Bay Area. Additionally, she has served on a number of boards around the country, including Dana Hall School, Congdon Orchards, Inc., and Humanities Washington. She continues to serve on the Advisory Board of Seattle Girls' School, and on two other non-profit boards in San Francisco.
Sarah Dudley Plimpton (Columbia, 1981) Sarah Dudley Plimpton's professional background is in publishing, marketing and public relations. She has served on several foundation and non-profit boards including New York City School Volunteers, East Harlem Tutorial Program and the Paris Review Foundation.
Peter Ashton Peter Ashton is Bullard Professor of Forestry at Harvard emeritus and former Director of the Arnold Arboretum; specialist in the trees and forests of the Asian tropics; founding president of the Center for Plant Conservation, Inc., and former member, Nature Conservatory Board of Governors.
Peter Del Tredici is a botanist and senior research scientist at the Arnold Arboretum and Lecturer in the Department of Landscape Architecture at Harvard University, where he has worked since 1979. Peter teaches courses on the ecology, identification, and use of woody plants in designed landscapesand conducts research in which his primary goal has always been to bridge the gap between horticulture and botany.
Susan Clark is a Publisher and Global Marketing Director for The Economist. Susan is responsible for development of The Economist brand, including advertising and public relations, and has overall responsibility for circulation and marketing in Continental Europe, the Middle East and Africa. She is a long-term resident of Redding, where she has been active in land use commissions and fund raising for the Mark Twain Library. Ms Clark is a graduate of Yale University, holding an MA in East Asian Studies-Anthropology and a BA in East Asian Studies-Art History.
David Foster is chair of the Highstead board and the Director of the Harvard Forest at Harvard University where he has been a faculty member in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology since 1983. David is an ecologist interested in understanding historical and current changes in temperate, tropical and boreal landscapes and the application of this information to the protection and conservation of these lands. He serves on the Board of The Nature Conservancy and Advisory Council for the Trustees of Reservations in Massachusetts and is a member of the Science Council for the National Science Foundation Long Term Ecological Research program.
Paul Brenner is a tax lawyer who for some 40 years has been providing guidance to individuals planning on making charitable gifts and advising charitable foundations in managing these gifts. Currently, he is responsible for almost 500 million in trust funds.
