2025 Annual Meeting

Members visited the Center at Pomfret for Connecticut Audubon’s 2025 Annual Meeting.

The Connecticut Audubon Society welcomes three new members to its Board of Directors.

Gail Martino, Ph.D., of New Haven, Brian Stacey of Redding and Sam Gilliland of Redding were elected at the 2025 Annual Meeting, held Saturday, October 25, at Connecticut Audubon’s Center at Pomfret.

Also elected were members of the Board’s Executive Committee: Pamela Fraser, Ph.D., chair; Richard Perkin, vice chair;  Gilles Carter, secretary; Harshad Kuntey, treasurer; and Kathleen Van Der Aue, chair emerita.

Six members of the Board stepped down, five after their terms expired: former Board Chair Peter Kunkel; Tom Conroy; Joel Papowitz; Martin Torresquintero; and John Tower, and Andrew Holmes, who has moved out of the area.

The meeting featured a keynote address from David Gessner, author of Return of the Osprey and many other books.

The Board also presented the annual Dave Engelman Volunteer Benchmark Award to Shirley Mongillo, a longtime Pomfret resident. Shirley was traveling and accepted the award in absentia.

The three new board members are:

Gail Martino, Ph.D.
New Haven
Gail Martino is a longtime birder, educator, and science and technology leader with a deep commitment to conservation and public engagement. She serves on the board of the New Haven Bird Club, where she leads educational programming, guided bird walks, and fundraising events, and co-edited Chickadee Tales: A New Haven Bird Club Anthology.

Gail lives in New Haven and participates in several community science projects, including Connecticut Audubon’s Osprey Nation program, the Connecticut Breeding Bird Atlas, and DEEP’s Whip-poor-will Survey, contributing valuable field data to statewide bird monitoring and conservation.

A member of Connecticut Audubon, the Connecticut Ornithological Association, and the National Audubon Society, she enjoys sharing her love of birds through science and storytelling. Two of her books—Feathered and Famous: Meet America’s All-Star Birds and Flightlines: Birds in Haiku, Image, and Wonder—will be published in 2025.

Professionally, Gail brings more than two decades of leadership experience in research, innovation, and strategic communication, with prior roles at Unilever and Procter & Gamble. She holds a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Boston College and completed postdoctoral work at Yale Medical School.

Brian Stacey
Redding

Brian Stacey is a retired senior tour architect and travel-design expert with more than 40 years of experience in the international travel industry. During his long career at Tauck Inc. in Wilton, he designed more than 80 motorcoach tours, cruise and riverboat itineraries, and cultural events in partnership with organizations such as the Vatican, the Kentucky Derby, and filmmaker Ken Burns. His work took him to over 80 countries and earned multiple “Tours of a Lifetime” awards from Travel & Leisure magazine.

A graduate of the University of Southern Maine with post-graduate studies at Fairfield University, Brian brings deep experience in planning, organization, and leadership — including international crisis management and customer engagement.

Closer to home, he is an active community volunteer, serving as an election worker and delegate to the Connecticut Democratic Party State Convention, and has participated in local relief and service efforts in Redding.

A member of the Connecticut Audubon Society, Brian looks forward to applying his planning expertise and lifelong passion for nature and travel to support the organization’s mission of bird conservation and environmental education.

Samuel A. (Sam) Gilliland
Greenwich

Sam Gilliland is a retail financial advisor with more than four decades of experience in the investment and banking industry. He currently serves as a Financial Advisor at RBC Wealth Management in Stamford, following leadership roles at Fieldpoint Private Bank, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown, Oppenheimer & Company, and Bear Stearns & Co.

A graduate of Denison University with a degree in English, Sam grew up in Fairfield near Connecticut Audubon’s Roy and Margot Larsen Sanctuary, where his lifelong interest in nature and conservation began.

He previously served on the Connecticut Audubon Society’s Board of Directors from 2016 to 2022. He is also a former president of the Connecticut Venture Group, a statewide nonprofit supporting entrepreneurial growth.

Sam lives in Greenwich with his wife, Beth Davey Gilliland, a literary agent. They have three adult daughters — Anne, Leigh, and Charlotte. An avid outdoorsman, Sam enjoys gardening, hiking, traveling, reading, playing racquet sports and ice hockey, and coaching high-performance driving.