Board of Directors

• Bruce Lessels is the newest member of the board, having joined in 2023. He is the founder and former owner of Zoar Outdoor, the first whitewater outfitter on the Deerfield. He has been paddling whitewater in canoes, kayaks, and rafts since 1975 and co-wrote The Deerfield River Guidebook as well as the Northeastern Whitewater Guide.

• Christopher Bathurst holds a BS in Forest Resource Management from West Virginia University. He has been working for the national environmental group - Clean Water Action for 35+ years. During that time, he has worked on a variety of environmental and public health issues and has campaigned for many environmental candidates at the state and national level. Chris came to the DRWA by way of kayaking and fly fishing on the Deerfield River for over 30 years.

• Chris Curtis (1st Vice President) is a partner with the environmental consulting firm of Conservation Works, the MVP Coordinator for the Town of Deerfield and Vice President of the Deerfield River Watershed Association. He holds a master’s degree in Regional Planning from the University of Massachusetts. He is retired from a long career as Chief Planner with the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, where he developed the plans for the first National Wild and Scenic River in Massachusetts (the Westfield River), the first National Scenic Byway in Massachusetts (the Connecticut River Byway), and for the New England National Scenic Trail. He also secured over $20 million for the clean-up of the Connecticut River, and won numerous state and national awards for planning.

• Charlie Olchowski (2nd Vice President)

• David Boles joined the DRWA board because he has lived along the Green River for 40 years and feel a strong connection to protecting our rivers and watershed. David leads efforts for the annual Green River Cleanup. “Dive into the Green River on a hot July day and you will understand!”

• Jim Perry (President) retired in 2016 from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Washington D.C., where he served most recently as a Senior Natural Resource Specialist in the headquarters office. Prior to that, he worked in the Western United States helping to manage a wide variety of public lands and natural resources for the American public. Jim has always loved being outdoors and on the go, volunteering, trail-building, mountaineering, skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, sailing, canoeing, and now river tubing. In 2016 alone, he tubed seven times on the Deerfield River and canoed in many of the watershed’s ponds and reservoirs. Protecting the scenic quality and maintaining recreational opportunities and access within the Deerfield watershed is extremely important to Jim.

• Patrick McCoy (Treasurer) studied Environmental Policy and Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is now a director of instructional design for a global professional services firm where he leads learning & change initiatives. Patrick has a passion for outdoor play be it single track sufferfests, casting dry flies on warm June evenings, skinning through the woods in search of hidden powder stashes, or paddling and skiing with his wife, son and daughter. The Deerfield River Valley tops his list of reasons he loves living in Western Massachusetts.

• Sheila Kelliher has served on the DRWA board since 2018. She also serves on other boards within the community such as the Deerfield River Watershed Chapter of Trout Unlimited and the Mohawk Trail Woodlands Partnership. Sheila is passionate about protecting and restoring the Deerfield River watershed and recognizes the value and critical importance of doing so while respecting the natural world. She enjoys fly fishing, kayaking, snowshoeing, bow hunting, hiking, and bird watching along the Deerfield.

• Terry Atkinson (Secretary) has been with the DRWA on and off for about 10 years. She earned a Master's in Integrated Learning with concentration in Environmental Education from Antioch University New England, recently completed Al Gore's Climate Reality training, and has always had a love of lakes, rivers, and the ocean.