EQUITY TRUST - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Founder, Chuck Matthei, Was Nationally Known As a Visionary Thinker and Activist for Social Justice
Chuck Matthei was a practitioner of the philosophies and writings of Gandhi. He was an activist who emphasized non-violence as a way of life, participating in the Peacemakers organization and taking strong, often difficult measures to oppose war in any form. Chuck had a long association with the Catholic Worker movement, supporting both its network of soup kitchens and shelters and its critique of social systems that harmed the poor. Throughout his lifetime, Chuck remained true to his deeply held humanitarian convictions. His experiences and these convictions were significant factors in directing his efforts toward community economic development. Chuck died of cancer on Tuesday, October 1, 2002 in Voluntown, Conncticut at the age of 54. This gentle, brilliant nonviolent activist will be missed by many; he spoke to the core and possibility of each person he touched.
Dan Rosenberg, Treasurer is a social entrepreneur and food system activist based in western Massachusetts. He is founder and general manager of Real Pickles, an organic food manufacturing company producing naturally fermented pickles from Northeast-grown ingredients. In 2013, Dan oversaw the conversion of Real Pickles to a worker-owned cooperative using an innovative community financing model. Dan is also active with Slow Money, serving as a steering committee member for the Pioneer Valley chapter.
Jim Oldham, Executive Director, joined Equity Trust in 2010, bringing with him close to twenty years experience working for social and environmental justice nationally and internationally. Jim is the founder of Las Lianas Resource Center, a bi-national US/Ecuadorian non-profit organization that partners with indigenous peoples for collective rights, environmental protection, sustainable development, and cultural autonomy. Jim was executive director of Las Lianas from 2003 through 2009. Prior to that, he directed Las Lianas' predecessor, the Amazon Program of ISIS at Hampshire College. Between 2006 and 2008, Jim also worked with inner city communities in Worcester, Massachusetts, as the environmental justice coordinator for the Regional Environmental Council. He got his start in non-profit organizations as a community organizer and then director of a small food bank in Seattle.
Job Titles:
- Vice President of the Board
Jody Bolluyt, Vice President is a biodynamic farmer in the Hudson Valley and runs Roxbury Farm, one of the largest CSA farms in the country. Jody grew up in rural Iowa working for large-scale corn and soybean growers during summer vacations. She graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in biology and botany. In 2000, working with Equity Trust, Jody and Jean-Paul Courtens secured long-term land tenure for Roxbury Farm on 150 acres of land to which Jody now holds a lifetime lease. Through the help of Equity Trust, Roxbury Farm CSA members, and Open Space Institute, Roxbury is now a protected farm, one of the first to make a new kind of land tenure work, and it is becoming a model for other small farms around the country.
Madeline Miller, Clerk has worked in nonprofit administration for nearly two decades. She started her career in the development office of New England Public Media and then worked a long stint at The Orion Society/Orion Magazine. She is currently the Director at Artspace Greenfield, a small community arts organization. She also has a small consulting business in nonprofit strategy and philanthropic advising, Nimble Giving. Madeline did her undergraduate work at Evergreen in Olympia, Washington, and is a graduate of Harvard University's Executive Education program in nonprofit leadership. She lives in Greenfield with her husband and children, a small flock of chickens, and an enormous garden.
Job Titles:
- Senior Real Estate Attorney With the TJX Companies, Inc
Michael Wallace is a senior real estate attorney with The TJX Companies, Inc. Prior to that he was an associate at a Boston law firm, where he had a broad-based real estate practice. He received his law degree from Boston University and a master's degree in U.S. History from the University of California, Los Angeles. Between graduate school and law school, he worked for four years as a guide leading hiking and cycling tours in various regions of Italy, during which he deepened his appreciation for historic preservation and sustainable agriculture.
Job Titles:
- Founder, Chuck Matthei, Was Nationally Known As a Visionary Thinker and Activist for Social Justice
Beginning as a teenager active in the Civil Rights movement, Chuck developed an approach to poverty and inequality that linked activism, economics and property issues into a powerful political message. His work has influenced many diverse movements, including community economic development, efforts to preserve family-run farmlands, the community loan fund network that ultimately became the basis of the Community Development Financial Institutions, and permanent affordability housing policies in Vermont, Massachusetts and many other states.
As Founder and Director of Equity Trust, Inc. (founded in 1991 and based in Voluntown, Connecticut), Chuck utilized his vision and expertise, as well as his creative financial management skills, to provide leadership and support to important domestic and international projects. In particular, he focused on alternative models of land tenure and economic development. Equity Trust has provided technical and financial assistance to projects all across the US, in Central America and Kenya. Examples of projects include: helping the last Gullah/Geechee community on Sapelo Island, Georgia acquire and protect land on their island in order to save their community and culture; acquiring 140 acres of land in the Hudson Valley that will be preserved as agricultural land and used by Roxbury Farm to provide food to its 650 community supported agriculture members; assisting students at Williams College to convince the school to create a community investment program as part of its endowment; and a series of conferences and publications on "Property and Values: Striking an Equitable Balance of Public and Private Interests", undertaken in cooperation with the American Bar Association's Commission on Homelessness and Poverty. A charismatic public speaker, Chuck consulted extensively with community groups, religious organizations, governmental bodies, universities, financial institutions, and foundations on a range of topics including socially responsible investment, land stewardship, affordable housing and other economic issues.
From 1980-90, Chuck served as Executive Director of the Institute for Community Economics (ICE), then based in Greenfield, MA and now located in Springfield, MA. ICE pioneered the modern community land trust and community loan fund models. During Chuck's tenure, the number of community land trusts increased from a dozen to more than 100 groups in 23 states, creating many hundreds of permanently affordable housing units, as well as commercial and public service facilities. With colleagues Chuck guided the development of 25 regional loan funds and organized the National Association of Community Development Loan Funds, now known as the National Community Capital Association. From 1985-90, Chuck served as a founding Chairman of the Association and from 1983-88 he served as a founding board member of the Social Investment Forum, the national professional association in the field of socially responsible investment.
Rob Crowner, Loan Fund Manager joined Equity Trust in the spring of 2012. He manages the Equity Trust Fund, working with lenders and borrowers, and also keeps our financial systems running, tracking budgets and overseeing our books. A graduate of Amherst College, Rob lives in Amherst, MA where he serves on the Planning Board. Rob previously served as a staff person with the Holyoke Community Land Trust and managed the Hampshire College Bookstore. He likes to ride his bike in the hills and back roads of the Pioneer Valley.
Russ Fox is Faculty Emeritus (Planning and Community Development) of The Evergreen State College, and has a long history of public service in a wide variety of governmental and nonprofit community development initiatives in the state of Washington. He is a founding director of South of the Sound Community Farm Land Trust (SSCFLT), dedicated to preserving farmland in areas south of Puget Sound and to keeping it farmed forever. In addition to Equity Trust, the three nonprofit organizations with which Russ is currently most involved are SSCFLT, Capitol Land Trust and Vital Ground.
Scott Reed, Board President, has worked on land tenure issues in Western Massachusetts for more than thirty five years as a member and director of the Valley Community Land Trust and one of the founders of the Greenfield Area Community Land Trust (now the Pioneer Cooperative of Franklin County). He is a software engineer, green jobs trainer, and retired organic CSA farmer. Scott is connected with the New Economy Coalition and involved with several other nonprofit organizations including Racial Justice Rising: coordinating committee; Co-op Power (board member); Visioning BEAR Intertribal Coalition (volunteer, trainer); and Wellspring Cooperatives (business development committee).
Terry Gibson, Project Manager, joined Equity Trust in August 2023. Terry is a self-taught artist, organizer, activist, and designer. With a long history working in the service industry, Terry brings extensive knowledge of customer-facing products, accessible designs, and overall user experience. Terry is an adult learner graduating with a bachelor's degree in Human Services from Springfield College in Spring 2024. He has earned several certificates, including a Content Marketing certificate from UC San Diego in 2020 and a creative writing certificate from Wellesley College. In addition to his work with Equity Trust, Terry is a project coordinator with Neighbor to Neighbor MA, leading various initiatives covering environmental and social justice and economic disenfranchisement. His work organizing crosses multiple intersections, including public art projects highlighting our climate crisis and leading on community garden designs that strengthen neighborhood resilience. Terry is also a lead organizer developing a community land trust to ensure permanently affordable housing is consistently available in the Lower Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts, in a collaborative project of Neighbor to Neighbor, Wellspring Cooperative, Equity Trust and other partners.