skip to Main Content

Welcome New TerraCorps Service Members!

  • News
TerraCorps member in tree

We’re so pleased to introduce you to Kestrel Land Trust’s new AmeriCorps TerraCorps service members, Liam Cregan and Ellie Viggiani, who will be serving with Kestrel from now through July 2021. Liam is serving as Kestrel’s Land Stewardship Coordinator and Ellie is serving as both Kestrel’s Community Engagement Coordinator and as Youth Education Coordinator for our partner, Eagle Eye Institute. Both of them have much to bring to our organization and we are looking forward to a great service year with them. Please join us in welcoming them to the Kestrel team!

Meet Liam Cregan

Liam Cregan in woods“My interest in land protection and stewardship took shape when I started exploring the land between Many Hands Farm Corps (whose delicious produce is grown on leased APR land), Amethyst Brook Conservation Area, and Atkins Reservoir in the Amherst-Pelham-Shutesbury area while getting in shape for a thru-hike of the John Muir Trail (JMT) in the Sierra Nevada. Encountering property boundaries between municipal conservation land, APR land, timber land, and watershed protection land sparked my curiosity. During the JMT hike, I met a woman who had just left a position at the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, and she encouraged me to go back to school to expand my growing land ethic. After working two seasons in Coordinator positions for the Appalachian Mountain Club trails department, I was accepted into the Master of Sustainability Science program at UMass, where I tailored my course load toward conservation issues through a mixture of ecology, environmental policy, planning, and GIS courses. I am enthusiastic about the opportunity to serve with Kestrel as their Land Stewardship Coordinator.”

Meet Ellie Viggiani

Ellie with salamander“Hi everyone! I am so excited to be serving as a Youth Education Coordinator with Eagle Eye Institute and as a Community Engagement Coordinator with Kestrel Land Trust this year. I grew up in Medford, MA but have been living out in beautiful western MA for the past couple of years while attending Mount Holyoke College. At Mount Holyoke, I majored in Environmental Studies and got to study some amazing plants and critters along the way. I’ve always been passionate about the outdoors and sharing my love for nature with others. Nature surrounds us, is part of us, and everyone should have the opportunity to connect with the natural world. I am looking forward to growing as an educator and helping to foster a community centered around inclusion and love for the outdoors!”

 

Back To Top