Meet Our Staff

David Sleeper

Executive Director

David joined the staff of OHF as Executive Director in February 2025. After graduating from Yale University with a B.A. in American Studies, he embarked on a career in communications and nonprofit administration. He was a communications associate at the Conservation Foundation; Managing Editor of Blair & Ketchum’s Country Journal magazine; and Editor and Publisher of Vermont Magazine, which he founded in 1989. In 2001, he moved to Pomfret, Vermont (the first of three OHF communities in which he has lived, along with Hartland and Woodstock) to work as Director of Marketing and Development for the Vermont Institute of Natural Science, where he had served as a trustee. Following that, he was the Executive Director of the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation for 12 years, before leaving to start his own conservation consulting business. David is a member of the Vermont board of the Conservation Law Foundation and an officer on the boards of Taftsville Community Trails and the Taftsville Cemetery Association. David’s wife, Cronin, is owner of the Plum Tree School preschool, which she started in 2008. The couple has three grown children and eight grandchildren.

Lizzie Coelho

Grants Coordinator

Lizzie Coelho became OHF’s full-time Grants Coordinator in January 2025, having served in that role in an interim capacity previously. After receiving an undergraduate degree from University of Redlands, Lizzie had the opportunity to spend time in Central America volunteering with children in remote areas as a teacher, learning culture, customs, and Spanish. Following her time abroad she attained a master’s degree in social work from the University of Baltimore-Maryland, specializing in management of nonprofit organizations and community relations. She and her husband, Bernardo, who is Multi-Unit General Manager of Nutrition, Environmental Services, and HHR at Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center, moved to Bridgewater in 2021 to raise their four children. Coelho is a member of the joint Woodstock Elementary School and Prosper Valley School Parent Teacher Organization (PTO). Additionally, she is a talented athlete, having competed in water polo and swimming while growing up and now playing pickleball competitively in Woodstock and throughout New England.