CO-CHAIR

Craig Repasz is President of the Friends of Stewart B McKinney NWR, an organization devoted to supporting this important refuge. He was president of the New Haven Bird Club and the conservation chair of the Connecticut Ornithological Association. He has been the volunteer coordinator for the Connecticut Bird Atlas for six years. He enjoys backpacking and conducts Mountain Birdwatch surveys for the Vermont Center of Ecostudies, focusing on the Bicknell’s Thrush and other high elevation species.

CO-CHAIR

Meredith Barges is a bird-friendly building policy advocate and educator, and a former policy researcher for the Yale Bird-Friendly Building Initiative. Through her work, she helps people to understand and appreciate the complex lives of birds, how birds interact with the built environment, and how our decisions about buildings, lighting, and landscaping affect bird populations, with existential stakes. She co-authored “Building Safer Cities for Birds: How Cities Are Leading the Way on Bird-Friendly Building Policy” (American Bird Conservancy & Yale Law School, 2023). In 2021, she helped to convince Yale Divinity School to join Lights Out. She holds an MA in social theory from the University of Chicago and an MDiv in religion & ecology from Yale University.

ADVISOR

Leo Smith is the Northeast Regional Director and Connecticut Chapter Chair of DarkSky. He works strategically to protect the night across the United States by integrating Dark Sky lighting principles into national building codes. He developed language used to amend the CT State Building Code to cover parking lot lighting and introduced two code change proposals to NY State Energy Code in 2019. He was a member of the DarkSky International board of directors (2004-2016) and voting member of the Illuminating Engineering Society’s Roadway Lighting Committee (2006-2019), serving on its Standard Practice and Residential Street Lighting subcommittees. He is a long-time resident of Suffield, CT.

ADVISOR

Viveca Morris is Executive Director of the Law, Ethics & Animals Program at Yale Law School and an Associate Research Scholar in Law. Her research focuses on the legal, moral, and scientific questions raised by humanity’s treatment of non-human creatures, and on how insights from multiple disciplines, the power of storytelling, and the force of law can together be leveraged to address industrialized abuses of animals, people and the environment. She authored “Why Yale's Evans Hall Is a Death Trap for Birds and What Can Be Done About It” (2020).

ADVISOR

Emily Keating is is the newly appointed Conservation Chair for the Connecticut Ornithological Association (COA). As an avid birder, Emily brings a positive and enthusiastic attitude to the role and is eager to share her knowledge and passion for birds with others. Her involvement in the birding community has allowed her to develop a deep understanding of the ecological importance of birds and the challenges they face in today's world. She is committed to supporting the study, conservation, and enjoyment of birds in Connecticut and beyond.

ADVISOR

Ken Elkins is Executive Director of Connecticut Audubon’s Coastal Center at Milford Point. Previously, he served as the Education Program Manager at Audubon Center Bent of the River, in Southbury, CT, helping students of all ages tap into their passion for birds and nature through STEM education programs, nature summer camp, adult and family programming, and the nationally recognized Bird Tales initiative. Ken was recognized as a Toyota TogetherGreen Fellow for the creation of the Bird Tales program. Ken is past-President of the Connecticut Ornithological Association.