The Proposed Slate of Board Directors for the Annual Meeting includes nominees for re-election to the Board for a three-year term ending in 2026

Todd Cort is currently a faculty member at the Yale School of Management with courtesy appointment at the Yale School of the Environment. He serves as Faculty Co-Director for the Yale Center for Business and the Environment (CBEY) and the Yale Initiative on Sustainable Finance (YISF). He also serves on a variety of advisory boards including the JUST Capital Scientific Advisory Board, PRIME Coalition Academic Advisory Committee, Third Economy, PulsESG and Merck KGaA.

Mr. Cort works at the intersection of sustainability and investor value. Over the course of 20 years, in consulting and academia, he has applied a scientific and economic lens to corporate social and environmental responsibility (or sustainability) in order to identify the tools, mechanisms, metrics and indicators that create the greatest value for investors, businesses and society. Mr. Cort has worked extensively with companies and investors across industrial sectors. His experience ranges from ‘on the ground’ implementation of sustainability programs to corporate level communication and investor strategy development.  He has also worked extensively on integrated programs to meet regulatory requirements while promoting awareness and understanding of sustainability priorities through communications and engagement with communities, regulators, policy makers and internal stakeholders.   

Mr. Cort is a lifelong environmentalist and has volunteered with non-profit organizations in California and Colorado over the years. He joined the Save the Sound Board because he sees Save the Sound as a critical organization to protect the environment in the northeast.

Dawn Henry is the Founder of Henry Strategy Partners, LLC, a boutique strategy and insights consultancy specializing in consumer insight generation, brand strategy and positioning, and consumer research management. She has over 25 years of industry experience, having entered the advertising and marketing business after graduating from Connecticut College. She spent time at the New York City advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, and worked for more than a decade for Diageo North America, the global beverage alcohol company, where she was the VP of Consumer Insights. Prior to starting her own consulting business in 2013, she was Head of Strategy and Research at AgencySacks, a New York City-based communications firm specializing in marketing luxury goods to the affluent consumer market. 

When not focused on her business, Ms. Henry does extensive volunteer work as an environmental activist. Frustrated with the lack of progress on addressing the climate crisis at the national level, Ms. Henry came to Save the Sound to apply her marketing strategy experience to help make a difference in our local region. In addition to her work with Save the Sound, she is on the leadership teams of Sustainable Westport and the Electric Vehicle Club of Connecticut, and a trained presenter for Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project. She lives in Westport, CT with her husband James, 17-year old son Charles, and their Labrador Retriever Baxter.

Katherine G. Kennedy MD is a Board-certified adult psychiatrist in New Haven, Connecticut with a practice focus in psychodynamic psychotherapy. She serves on the clinical faculty of the Yale School of Medicine where she leads the Legislative Advocacy Program and is the Faculty Mentor for the Yale Resident-Fellow Senate Advocacy Council. Within the Yale Department of Psychiatry, Dr. Kennedy co-leads the Advocacy Track for the Social Justice Health Equity Curriculum, supervises psychiatry residents in psychotherapy, and serves on the Committee on Clinical Faculty.

Outside of Yale, Dr. Kennedy is the Chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s Council on Advocacy and Government Relations. She was recently elected to the Board of Trustees for the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry, where she serves as Chair of the Committee on Psychotherapy. Dr. Kennedy also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Austen Riggs Center, a nonprofit psychiatric hospital, where she is Co-chair of the Joint Conference Committee. She is a member of the Board of Trustees for Wesleyan University where she serves as Vice Chair of the Campus Affairs Committee.

Dr. Kennedy has presented at national conferences and published on advocacy, psychotherapy, and supervision. She is co-editor of a book, “A Psychiatrist’s Guide to Advocacy” published by APA Publishing in 2020, and lead editor for a forthcoming 2022 book, “Supervising Individual Psychotherapy.” In January 2020, Dr. Kennedy was elected to the American College of Psychiatrists, and in 2017, she was awarded the Yale Department of Psychiatry’s “Outstanding Clinical Faculty Award.”

Leslie Lee is a past chairman and current board member of Save the Sound. She is Vice President of the Greenwich Tree Conservancy, where she founded The Tree Party, now in its 10th year, and have worked on the creation of the Town-wide accredited arboretum and the Treasured Trees program name plating trees on private property. She served for six years on the Conservation Committee of the Garden Club of America, where she was the Vice Chair for Oceans and then for Energy Policies. Ms. Lee is a past president and Honorary Trustee of The Greenwich Land Trust, where she co-founded Go Wild, now in its 22nd year.

Ms. Lee is also past President and Honorary Director of the Round Hill Association. She served on the boards of the Greenwich United Way, where she co-founded their Sole Sisters program, now in its 18th year. She has also served on the boards of the YWCA, the Stamford Center for the Arts and Meals on Wheels.

Joe MacDougald serves on the faculty of the University of Connecticut School of law as Professor-in-Residence, Strasser fellow in Environmental law and the Executive director of UConn Law’s Center for Energy & Environmental Law. He is also as an Executive Board Member and Director of Applied Research at UConn’s Connecticut Institute for Resilience and Climate Adaptation.

At UConn Law, Mr. MacDougald teaches courses in climate, constitutional, renewable energy, environmental, and land use law as well as runs a clinic that places students inside many environmental organizations, law firms, and government agencies. He is the Director of the LLM in Energy & Environmental Law and the advisor to the JD-MBA program.

In addition to Save the Sound, Mr. MacDougald has been active on several charitable and volunteer boards. He lives in Madison, CT, where he has served as a past Selectman, Board of Finance Chair, and the Chair of the Planning & Zoning Commission. He holds degrees from Brown University, New York University, the University of Connecticut School of Law, and the Yale School of the Environment.

He said: “I really enjoy working with Save the Sound. It is a one of a kind organization filled with wonderful, sincere people that, each day, are helping real people and the environment. Today they are launching a floating laboratory in the sound; tomorrow up at a legislature influencing; the next day they might be in a court room or removing a dam or engaging with community activists.”

Claudia Mezey is a recent graduate of Yale University, where she earned her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and a certificate in Energy Studies. In her current role as an Associate Consultant on the Built Ecology team at WSP USA, an engineering services firm, she collaborates with designers, educators and local officials to create sustainable, resilient and equitable environments both in local NYC and globally.  Prior to her time at WSP USA, Ms. Mezey was selected as a 2019-2020 Urban Fellow with the NYC Department of Transportation (NYC DOT).  Her fellowship focused on planning for large-scale interventions in transportation corridors to increase access to mobility, high-quality public space and amenities for recreation, mitigate urban heat and flooding and confer environmental and economic benefits on communities in need.  From the early roots of her career in sustainability, researching strategies for protecting Connecticut’s vulnerable coasts from severe weather at the Yale UEDLAB, Ms. Mezey solidified her interest in stakeholder engagement, advocacy and climate action—and developed a fierce attachment to the places of the Sound. 

She is inspired by Save the Sound’s strong dedication to environmental protection across scales, using different levers, and its work of supporting and empowering professional and citizen stewards of the Sound ecosystem.  Ms. Mezey looks forward to contributing to an organization with a history of rising to meet the present moment in service of a future that is ecologically restorative and socially just.  Ms. Mezey is based in Brooklyn, NY, where she enjoys long runs in Brooklyn Bridge Park, local sourdough and live music.

Nominees for election to the Board for a one-year term, ending 2024

Paul Ahern grew up on Long Island and beginning at age 12 shared a Boston Whaler with his brother which they kept in Oyster Bay. Paul felt so lucky and blessed to have grown up with that sense of freedom to roam Oyster Bay and Cold Spring Harbor. He said he never lost his love for the Sound or that sense of discovery and freedom it offers. His partner Ilene and him now have a residence in Greenport, so retirement has been a trip back to that wonderment.

Before getting into Renewable Energy, Paul had an advertising background with firms like Omnicom, and ultimately his own agency where he pushed for eco-conscious products and practices. As a second act, he was able to build-up and eventually sell a commercial solar company. He has an MBA from New York University and a B.A. from Vassar College.

Paul describes Save the Sound as awesome. He said: “Their mandate is right in front of us, local and inviting. The legal track record and heritage is both practical and highly effective. As a businessperson, I love results. The leadership is strategic, committed and persistent, in a word successful. The Anthropocene challenge is clearly to manage our species into natural sustainability, daunting as an individual, but I think possible with a collective consciousness. Let’s hope we get there.”

Timothy T. Taussig retired in 2018 as President and Chief Operating Officer of Epoch Investment Partners, an investment management firm he co-founded in 2004. Prior to Epoch, he spent over 25 years in senior business management positions at Trident Investment Management and BEA Associates, both NY-based investment firms; Mr. Taussig started his professional career in 1979 with Aetna Capital Management in Hartford, CT. Tim holds a BA from Dartmouth College and has completed investment and finance courses at University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Graduate School of Business and at New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business.

Tim grew up and always lived in the Northeast.  From an early age going to the Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire, Tim learned to love and care about water quality and the lake (which is still used for drinking water). His mother was involved with Audubon Society where she earned recognition for her commitment to water quality and the environment.

38 years ago, he moved to Larchmont. Tim is an avid boater. He has owned sailboats on Long Island Sound since 1980 -starting in Noank, CT and now in Larchmont.  Helping preserve and protect Long Island Sound has become a personal passion for Tim after 40 plus years of enjoying the Sound.  He views Save the Sound as a truly impactful environmental organization focused on protecting what has been called the “American Mediterranean” and is pleased to lend his support.  Tim also serves on the Board of his nephew’s nonprofit, Backcountry Medical Guides, focused on emergency medicine safety for the outdoors, as well as on Boards for local Shore and Country Clubs. 

Current Board Members

If you are unable to attend the Annual Meeting, please vote by returning your proxy ballot by September 27.

The Board and Staff of Save the Sound
cordially invite you to attend the

ANNUAL MEETING

Sunday, October 1, 2023 from 4 – 7 p.m.

Larchmont Yacht Club
1 Woodbine Avenue
Larchmont, NY

Welcome reception 4:00 p.m.
Program begins at 4:30 p.m.
Election of Directors
Connect + Protect: Building Our Sound Future
Presentation of Awards
Mix and Mingle Reception