Who We Are
Meet the Team
Executive Director
Keetu Winter
Keetu Winter co-founded the Wellspring Commons Stewards in 2022, to develop the vision for Wellspring Commons, a land-based hub for changemakers to address current pressing social and environmental problems on local and regional scales, modeling not only practical solutions but also a shift from a human-centric to a biocentric worldview.
Keetu is a graduate of Knowmads School of Business in Amsterdam, NL, an entrepreneurship development program. She worked with 7-time Grammy-winner and earth music pioneer Paul Winter, co-producing his albums, video projects and livestreams, coordinating his national and international travel, and managing a variety of his events including the annual Winter and Summer Solstice Celebrations in New York City.
Drawn to more directly address the climate crisis, Keetu became passionately concerned about protecting wild and open land as the solution to biodiversity loss and climate change mitigation. The catalyst for Wellspring Commons came when one of the largest remaining tracts of land in Connecticut was listed on the market and threatened by development. Keetu has felt a strong connection to this land, which is close to where she grew up, for her entire life. She is deeply committed to building climate resilience in Southern New England through tools and methods that foster connectivity and support the health and dynamism of intact ecosystems, with a focus on giving all life a right to thrive.
Board Member
Cherry Liley
In the planetary crisis, efforts to build local resilience contribute to the healing of the greater whole. Ideas around healthy food and soil, ecology and ecological design, decentralized economics, more just and equitable distribution systems, democracy, human sustainability and the health of the environment all blossom from a connection to place. Cherry co-founded Wellspring Commons Stewards as a creative forum for multidisciplinary collaborations towards sustainability solutions in northwest Connecticut, as part of the larger story of the regeneration of the Housatonic River Valley Watershed.
Board Member
Susan Masino
Susan A. Masino, Ph.D. is the Vernon D. Roosa Professor of Applied Science at Trinity College. Her long term neuroscience research spans among brain health, metabolism, and behavior, and disorders such as epilepsy, autism, and pain. She is senior or co-editor of several books, including “Adenosine, A Key Link Between Metabolism and Brain Activity,” “Homeostatic Control of Brain Function,” and “Ketogenic Diet and Metabolic Therapies: Expanded Roles in Health and Disease.”
Dr. Masino’s interests lie the intersection of health, climate, and ecology. She was a Charles Bullard Fellow in Forest Research at Harvard, and collaborated with a climate scientist and an ecologist to publish the seminal paper on “proforestation.” She co-chaired the Phase 1 report of Science and Technology Working Group of the Governor’s Council on Climate Change in Connecticut (GC3) and is on the Simsbury Open Space Committee. Dr. Masino is the Hartford County Coordinator of the Old Growth Forest Network and a board member of Aton Forest and the Pinchot Institute for Conservation.
Board Member
Steve Dunsky
Steve Dunsky has written and directed films for more than thirty years. As a filmmaker for the U.S. Forest Service, his projects cover a wide range of conservation issues. He has produced the award-winning feature documentaries The Greatest Good, Butterflies & Bulldozers, and Green Fire. In recent years, he has helped to organize the Visions of the Wild Festivals and Geography of Hope Conferences, both in the San Francisco Bay Area.
He holds a B.A. from Bowdoin College and an M.F.A from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. He grew up in New York City and Connecticut and lived in California for over four decades. He recently returned to Litchfield County, where he is working on a variety of conservation projects.
Advisory Board
Tim Abbott
Regional Land Conservation & Greenprint Director for the Housatonic Valley Association
Tom O. Murtha
Carbon Hound, Regenerator, Rewilder
Dr. Carl Safina
Ecologist, author, MacArthur Fellow, founder of the Safina Center
John Davis
Executive Director of The Rewilding Institute; Editor of Rewilding Earth
Andrea Panaritis
Executive Director of the Christopher Reynolds Foundation
Paul Winter
7-time Grammy-award winning musician, founder of "Earth Music" genre
Thomas Linzey
Senior Legal Counsel for the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights
Susan Witt
Executive Director of the Schumacher Center for a New Economics
In Memoriam:
Will Raap
Founder of Gardener's Supply, Intervale Center, and Earthkeep Farmcommon