Our Team
Founding Board Members
Tena Perrelli
Tena Perrelli is a year-round resident of Westport, New York. An avid gardener and graduate of the University of Vermont’s Master Gardener program, Tena learned to think boldly and take risks during her 24-year tenure as Director of Customer Service at Gardener’s Supply Company, headquartered in Burlington, Vermont.
While Chair of Westport-Wadhams Community Alliance’s “Flowers Plus” committee, Tena and the group spearheaded a visual revitalization of Westport by rejuvenating neglected public garden spaces and creating new gardens. The dream of establishing the Lake Champlain Botanical Garden grew out of the committee’s search for a location for a small public lilac garden. That dream quickly evolved into the distinct concept of a botanical garden with the development of a mentoring relationship with Coastal Maine Botanical Garden and Cornell University’s Landscape Architecture Department.
Tena has a particular interest in water quality and preserving ground water aquifers. She is especially hopeful that the LCBG will serve as a working example of innovative water management, including supplying Garden irrigation through wastewater re-use, contributing to the sustainability of the Lake Champlain Basin.
Living in awe of the everyday beauty that surrounds her in the Adirondack Park and on the shores of Lake Champlain, Tena regularly contributes by adding yet another garden to her yard, much to her husband’s chagrin! Helping to preserve this stunning environment by fostering appreciation through a beautiful garden destination for all to enjoy while bolstering our rural community is her driving passion.
Elizabeth Maffey
Elizabeth Maffey splits her time between Wyndmoor, PA, in the Philadelphia suburbs and her family’s home in Westport, NY. Since 2021, she is the owner of the Bessboro Shop in Westport, which has been a retail anchor in the town for over 40 years. Elizabeth also serves as the Treasuer of the Westport-Wadhams Community Alliance with the purpose of nurturing collaborations among public and private entities to support economic growth, cultural vitality, and environmental sustainability. In this spirit, Elizabeth became interested in the effort to create a botanical garden in the area which would contribute to the growth and viability of the area in a consciously environmentally sustainable way and she felt that her professional experience could be helpful in the effort.
Elizabeth spent her 30 year professional career in the secondary mortgage industry working for both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and mortgage insurer Radian Guaranty. Her career focused on all aspects of the operational risk management lifecycle, business governance, and business implementation. Her background included developing and implementing corporate-wide initiatives, organizational build-out and process optimization to support business growth while adhering to governance and control practices. Elizabeth also worked extensively with corporate enterprise and operational risk functions to champion an operational risk discipline to improve results. Elizabeth hold Bachelor of Arts degrees in English and Religion from Randolph College (formerly Randolph-Macon Woman’s College) and served on their Board of Trustees for 18 years focused on Audit, Governance, Enterprise Risk, and Strategic Planning.
While Elizabeth is not a “gardener”, she sometimes has some luck in her own suburban garden. However, it’s the opportunity to create and implement a vision for a beautiful, creative, and fun space for visitors of all ages, and all gardening-skill levels, that is so compelling and educational.
Patricia Troyan
After ping-ponging between the Midwest and the East Coast during her childhood, Pat Troyan found herself drawn to the bright lights of NYC, where she started her career as a producer and film editor. Drawing on her creative instincts and attention to detail, from budgeting to finished product, Pat worked on national commercials, political campaigns, documentaries, corporate videos, and television programming, maintaining a calm head in often tumultuous seas.
Sailing was a passion for Pat and her husband, Fred, who dreamed of cruising the world upon retirement. Searching for the perfect vessel led them to Canada, where the beauty of Lake Champlain was too mesmerizing to ignore. Starting in 2002, summers were spent aboard their boat in Willsboro, New York, and in 2016, they made a permanent move to Westport.
Throughout her life, Pat was more at home in the woods than in the house, more likely to be found tending summer flowers and vegetables when not sailing than anything else. She is deeply committed to introducing children to the love of our natural world, so they can develop a life- long passion for protecting our precious planet. One of her priorities for the Lake Champlain Botanical Garden is a Children’s Garden, featuring activities that promote learning as well as a beautiful and safe place to play. She is very happy to be involved with like-minded people who believe dreams do come true.
Susan Romanoff
A native Vermonter, Susan is perpetually awestruck by the view of the Adirondacks across Lake Champlain. Susan’s experience as Creative Director at Gardener’s Supply Company has given her a profound appreciation for how gardens delight, inspire, and enhance well-being. The value of making gardens accessible to all is one that deeply resonates with Susan.
Thus, when former colleague, Tena Perrelli, invited her to collaborate on the ambitious plan of bringing a botanical garden to life right across the lake, Susan’s answer was a resounding Yes!!
Susan envisions the Lake Champlain Botanical Garden as a place that draws people repeatedly, through its uplifting places and programs that provide stimulation, excitement, repose, reflection—and community.
Advisors
Mitch Glass
Mitch is a landscape architect with over 30 years of experience working with diverse geographies, contexts, and landscapes. He is currently a lecturer in the Departments of Landscape Architecture and City and Regional Planning at Cornell. Prior to teaching, Mitch worked on local and regional projects in the US and on international master plans.
Mitch has been working with Lake Champlain Botanical Garden since Spring 2023, when Tena and Pat proposed a collaboration between his Landscape Architecture class and the LCBG. The student visit to Westport in Spring 2024 marked the beginning of a partnership, in which, Mitch’s students have developed conceptual designs for the LCBG that celebrate the area's natural beauty, stunning scenery, deep history, and welcoming community atmosphere. Their approach adopts Mitch’s principles of ecological repair, combining aspirational ideas with on-the-ground realities. In addition to the contributions that his class has made, Mitch has become a frequent and valued contributor to LCBG’s visioning and planning work.
Mitch would love to see an LCBG that integrates and celebrates areas of field, forest, and water in a way that people can only experience in this location.
Master of Landscape Architecture, University of Virginia.
Lecturer, Department of Landscape Architecture | City & Regional Planning
Director, tRUST-lab | Regenerating Urban Spaces + Terrain
Faculty Fellow, Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Faculty Advisor, ULI Hines Student Urban Design Competition
Kate Simmer
Kate Simmer and her husband fell in love with Westport while visiting in 2001. After purchasing the Decker Farm in 2016, she and her family relocated permanently to the area. Kate serves Westport as Clerk for both the Town and the Court.
Kate’s passion for gardening only deepened through her studies at an agricultural high school, after which she earned a degree in Ornamental Horticulture and Environmental Design at Delaware Valley University. Following internships at the Horticultural Center, the Japanese House and Garden, and Bartram's Garden in Philadelphia, upon graduation, she began working at Longwood Gardens, before pursuing a Master’s Degree in Special Education. Today, she gardens on her farm and professionally on behalf of clients. She is happiest in the middle of a thriving greenhouse, and hopes to help the community learn to enjoy gardening as well. As Kate says, “Gardens are a perfectly peaceful place for people to connect with the earth and quietly spend time together.”
Kate would love to see a blend of beautiful gardens that incorporate food, farming, and maple sugaring, providing people with a chance to experience the agricultural practices that make this area so special.
Nancy Howard
Nancy Howard brings a rich history of the Adirondacks to the Lake Champlain Botanical Garden project. She was the co-owner and Manager of the Wawbeek Restaurant and Resort in Upper Saranac Lake along with her husband, Norman for more than a decade. She was Board President of the Tupper Lake Chamber of Commerce and went on to be a Founding Trustee of the W!ld Center in Tupper Lake, New York, recently voted the Best Science Museum in the country in 2024, where she also served as the Board Secretary for seventeen years. Nancy was also a Board member of the Adirondack Economic Development Corporation. So as not to get bored, Nancy went on to be the President of the Adirondack Garden Club 2018-2020 and served on the Westport Chamber of Commerce, the Flowers Plus! Committee and at the Westport Heritage House.
Nancy also taught school, worked for several publishing houses and was a Town Correspondent for The Press Republican. The Lake Champlain Botanical Garden is incredibly fortunate to have the wealth of her experience and skills available as the project moves forward. She is our greatest and beloved cheerleader.
Maia Buckingham
Maia Buckingham is an avid outdoorswoman, spending time hiking trails throughout the northeast, when not at home in Richmond, Vermont. Maia is excited about this growth on the west side of the lake!
Maia is lending her experience as a web designer in the gardening and outdoor recreation industry to the Lake Champlain Botanical Garden. As a digital designer at Gardener’s Supply Company, Maia was instrumental in building a great user experience for our website visitors. Maia has volunteered in many local farm and food programs and in her local trail community and understands the value of farms and forests in our area. She is excited about LCBG’s plan to highlight native plants and their importance to our ecosystem.
Drew Farrell
Drew has been drawn to gardens from an early age. He was president of his high school’s garden club, and spent summers working as a gardener at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, NY.
Drew is one of Cornell’s landscape design students who developed conceptual designs for the Lake Champlain Botanical Garden. After researching and visiting Westport, NY, Drew and his fellow students, under the guidance of Cornell lecturer Mitch Glass, developed and presented garden design concepts to the LCBG board. These designs have inspired the board to dream big—and to continue its relationship with Mitch and his students.
As part of his garden design project, Drew designed a logo that symbolizes the LCBG, and its place between the Adirondacks and Lake Champlain. His logo design draws from historical Adirondack tourism advertising and signage. The LCBG board has enthusiastically embraced his design and is proud that the logo represents its vision of the Garden.
Drew, who is currently in his senior year at Cornell, hopes the LCBG will serve as a catalyst for drawing people to the beauty of the Lake Champlain Valley and the Adirondack Park!
Kirsten Liebl
Kirsten Liebl is a sheep farmer, weaver, and gardener. She runs Wollecru, a sheep farm and seasonal nursery with her family in Westport, NY. Her professional background includes working in public horticulture at both Winterthur and Chanticleer gardens, as well as over a decade of production vegetable and cut flower farming. She is excited for LCBG to fill a horticultural void in this region, and to show how gardening in our cold climate can not only be beautiful, but also beneficial for plant and animal biodiversity.
Ann Mason
Ann is an international education leader with over 25 years’ experience in academia, higher education internationalization, and U.S.–Latin America academic cooperation. She most recently served as Executive Director of the U.S.–Colombia Fulbright Commission in Bogotá, Colombia, where she created the third-largest Fulbright scholarship portfolio in the world through a robust partnership network and research exchanges that prioritized social inclusion and impact. Drawing on her extensive international experience (four years backpacking around Asia in the 1980s and 30 years living in Colombia) and education (she holds a Ph.D. in political science and an M.A. in international relations from Yale University), Ann brings a global and intercultural perspective to all her endeavors, including her current work as a freelance academic copyeditor.
A North Country native from a multigenerational family, Ann felt a profound sense of belonging to the Champlain Valley, visiting as often as possible and returning for good in 2020. Growing up on the shores of Lake Champlain off the southern tip of Valcour Island, she experienced awe every morning as the sun rose behind the Green Mountains of Vermont. The Adirondacks were Ann’s playground: skiing at Whiteface, paddling on its lakes and rivers, and hiking in the high peaks.
Ann is now a year-round resident of Westport, with her husband, children, and grandchild frequent visitors. She can usually be found outdoors on a trail somewhere. She collaborates with several local nonprofit organizations in multiple capacities, including the Lake Champlain Botanical Garden. Ann would love to see LCBG manifest the region’s natural beauty and biodiverse landscapes, including forests, wetland habitats, and pastures.
Debbie Pastore
Debbie has extensive experience and leadership in Development and Special Gifts with non-profit organizations that include the Adirondack Council, Hotchkiss School, Dartmouth College, The American Trust for the British Library, Indian Mountain School and Vassar College. She grew up visiting her grandparents in Westport and ever since, it has always been her ‘happy place.’ In 2007 she and her husband put down their own roots in Westport, loving the beauty of the Adirondacks and the people. Debbie is currently the President of the Ballard Park Foundation, and is honored to assist in seeing the area flourish through her support of the Lake Champlain Botanical Garden.
Erin Ransom
Erin grew up, and continues to live, in Burlington, Vermont, on the eastern shore of Lake Champlain, with her husband and dog, Millie. Erin previously worked at Gardener's Supply Company for 22 years, working in customer service for 10 years, and moving into marketing for the last 12, where she managed the email & SMS marketing program. While she has not been directly involved with a non-profit before, Erin has long been volunteering her time for her community, with a particular focus on helping to support and maintain school gardens, and programs that provide fresh farm produce to local food programs. She is excited to lend her email management skills to keep people in the know about the Lake Champlain Botanical Garden project. We encourage you to subscribe to our email list for Erin's updates!
Natalie Stultz
Natalie Stultz is a photographer and filmmaker based in South Burlington, Vermont. She has deep connections to places on both sides of Lake Champlain, spending time with family at their Port Kent cottage and exploring the surrounding areas of Westport and Essex.
As a storyteller, Natalie is especially drawn to the people and artisans who inhabit our landscapes, as well as to the natural beauty of our surroundings. She has expertise in photographing and filming flowers, plants, garden spaces, and gardening activities for publications, books, and websites. Natalie’s professional and personal work delves deeply into the world of botanicals, having visited and photographed many botanical gardens across the U.S., Canada, and Europe.
Natalie’s vision for the LCBG Welcome Center includes a gallery space and outdoor sculpture garden—which she would love to help curate!
Portraits in the garden by Natalie Stultz.