Our Team
Chuck Litty
Founder & Director
I have been interested in conservation, ecology and living in sustainably since I was a young child. This interest first manifested itself in a degree in Environmental Science and Forestry where I met my wife. We share a great interest biology and being connected with the land and nature. We are avid gardeners, hikers, and I am an avid cyclist which gives me another avenue to be outdoors many days of the year. For several years I worked in forestry, first at the "dirt forestry" level and eventually began working for the US Forest Service at a research station in Athens, GA, where I was exposed to the quantitative aspects of forestry. This led to a degree in applied mathematics and from there to a lengthy career in GE Capital, where I led an applied mathematics and statistics group. The focus was mostly on developing and maintaining high performing credit models to help automate credit functions, reduce costs, and control the risk in the portfolio. After retiring I returned to my first love and obtained a degree in Sustainable Design, and became a Certified Passive House Consultant. Passive House is away of making buildings highly energy efficient, comfortable, durable and healthier to live in. Since then, I and a group of passionate citizens have been working to transform Southbury into a green community by making more use of clean energy, practicing energy conservation, reducing waste, working towards cleaner air and water, and working towards a vibrant green local economy.
Nannette Trinkaus
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Nannette has always been passionate about the environment and believes we are all stewards of our Mother Earth. Her enthusiasm for sustainability is strongly inspired by her children and her desire to ensure that they and all future generations have a healthy planet to live on. As co-director of Sustainable Southbury, Nannette’s focus is on Community Outreach. Currently she leads and organizes events, public relations, social media and the Plastics subcommittee.
Nannette has a background in art direction and advertising with a concentration in corporate creative services. Working in conjunction with marketing, manufacturing, R&D, engineering, vendors, and agencies has given her the tools to coordinate many different groups for a common goal. She worked at First Brands Corporation and held an executive creative position at James River Corporation before becoming a Creative Consultant. She has received numerous awards for innovation, creativity, and ability to "think outside the box". She’s a lifelong volunteer and has led projects in a range of organizations including: Make A Wish, The Harold Leever Regional Cancer Center, Connecticut Children’s Hospital, Easton Country Day School, Newbury Musical Theatre, and Main Street Ballet.
Nannette loves spending time with her family and is most proud of her two wonderful children. She enjoys playing tennis, walking in nature, painting, and drawing in her free time.
Co Director
Tom Connor
Tom Connor has lived in Southbury with his wife, Emilie, since 1987 and is currently a member of the
Southbury Board of Finance. In addition to his career in Financial Risk Management, he enjoys
racquetball, journaling, hiking, wine, and soccer. Tom has always tried to participate in making
Southbury a more ‘sustainable community’ and welcomes the opportunity to do so more actively and
systematically through Sustainable Southbury.
Treasurer
Anne Marie Hunter
Anne Marie Hunter loves nature for the joy and happiness that is derived from its beauty. When she first moved from western New York State to Connecticut, she immediately realized the air quality was not as clean. What was more shocking was that the residents of Connecticut were not conscious of this fact. That was the start of her quest to improve the environment. Today, the problems have multiplied as our country/world chooses convenience over stewardship of our planet. She wants to be part of the solution.
Anne Marie retired from IBM after holding many IT positions encompassing marketing support, project management, education, personnel and account management. She led many projects and received awards for Leadership and Excellence. She graduated from Nazareth College with a BS in Business and Education.
Anne Marie loves spending time with her grandchildren and volunteering at their school. She is a board member of her condo association, where she has served as Secretary and Variance Coordinator. She loves gardening, plays piano, and plays at golf-- still hoping one day the game will be kind to her.
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Shea Brown
Shea is a father of two concerned about his girls’ future. Fearing the science of climate change he is inspired to help mitigate a grim future by treading as lightly as he can understanding the immense carbon footprint of the average American. He helped pass the town ordinance ban on fracking waste storage, which is now state law. He believes every home should have a garden and a compost bin. He is dedicated to helping Southbury become more sustainable through this organization and realizes that to change the way the world works is to think global and act locally
Kate Trinkaus
Kate Trinkaus is studying for her Masters in Physics at the University of St Andrews. The environment and sustainability have always been very important to her – in fact, she decided to pursue a physics degree so she could make a difference and help improve renewable energy technology! She has completed research projects on perovskite and organic solar cells at St Andrews and at the University of Oxford. Kate helped with a campaign to build a wind farm at her university and has attended climate crisis protests in St Andrews. As part of Sustainable Southbury, Kate assists with social media and public relations, online events, and is a member of the Plastic Subcommittee which aims to reduce single use plastic waste.
PR officer and Event Assistant
Richard Boritz
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I worked in Stamford, CT for 38 years as a School Media Specialist - seven years at the high school level and thirty-one years at the elementary school level. I served for 22 years in the National Guard, most of it in a Field Artillery unit headquartered in Norwalk. While I lived in Sandy Hook, CT, I joined Newtown’s Democratic Town Committee and became its Vice-Chair. I served on Newtown’s Parks and Recreation Commission. After moving to Southbury in 2014, I served on the Heritage Village Long Range Planning Committee and the Human Resources Committee. Currently, I serve as the Southbury Democratic Town Committee’s secretary and as the President of the Heritage Village Democratic Club. I hold a BA in English with a minor in Education from SUNY at Stony Brook and a Masters of Library Science from SUNY Buffalo. I earned a Certificate of
Advanced Study from Fairfield University in Educational Administration. My wife of 47 years, Susan, and I met in college and are the proud parents of two children and grandparents to five.
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Ron Brandes
I am Ron Brandes and I have been teaching math in Waterbury for 15 years. I have a son and daughter.
I am the Co-Group Leader and Liaison for Citizens Climate Lobby (CCL) for Congressional District CT-05. CCL is a grassroots organization that started in 2007 with 29 members and as of August 2020 we have over 200,000 volunteers in 156 counties. We have a bill in congress HR763 (The Energy innovation and Carbon Dividend Act: HR 763). In December 0f 2018 I started a CCL Chapter in Southbury and had monthly meetings. We are actively lobbying for HR 763 with multiple meetings with Congresswoman J. Hayes staff and we are looking for endorsements for the bill from political and business leaders in the community.
In September of 2019 myself and Chuck successfully organized the Southbury Energy Fair & Green Expo with family-friendly activities and exhibitions on Sep 21, 2019. We devised hands-on events to educate the over 450 attendees and provided resources on energy conservation, recycling/waste reduction, clean energy, and advocacy. We arranged to display 20 electric vehicles as part of National Electric Drive Week.
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Kat Bonomo
Hello, I'm Kat. I am a spirited recent graduate Pomperaug high school, fueled by the inspiring people, places, and passions in my life. I'm a freshman at Cal State La for environmental engineering and enlisted in the army national guard as a horizontal construction engineer.Something that pulls me is my determination. I get excited about a lot of things and I use that as motivation to excel. I do a lot in school and there is definitely a lot of stress that comes with it. However, I use the stress to push me to try my hardest in the many different things I am passionate about.I have gotten a lot of experiences from my scatterbrain interests from public speaking in Model UN and debate to getting my hands dirty while leading my robotics team. The opportunities at my school have influenced my project to become what it is.
Growing up, I realized I had a deep passion for the environment and understood the importance of reducing our carbon footprint on earth. In high school, I joined several community and state environmental activist organizations and started an environmental action club called "Eco Friends" with my friend.
The same eagerness has also molded my spirited motivation for everything I create. The aspects of composition that I have thrown into all components of my life have built my identity. Since I was young, I have been fascinated with art and technology. I'm currently an illustrator for the eco magazines "Invisible Earth" and "Eco Gen Zine" and help with the media and website for Sustainable Southbury!
Carolyn Bonomo
I’m a Sophomore this year. In school I do robotics,Film club, PB&J club, field hockey and filming board of Ed meetings.
Out of school I work for rev as a transcriptionist and hang out with my friends. I am passionate about the environment because the environment is essential for heathy living.
If we don’t fix this now the air will become more polluted and the toxins will eventually catch up to us.
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Zoe Baltrush
I am going into my senior year at Pomperaug high school. In school, I actively participate in unified sports, History honors society, letters of love & volleyball.
I also am a leading officer in the club Best Buddies which is an inclusive organization between typical and nontypical learning students.
Outside of school I volunteer with Buddy Ball which is a program that helps teach special education students baseball.
I am passionate about the environment because it is a source of happiness that is under appreciated by the usages of pollutants.
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Brady Pearson
Brady Pearson grade 11
work in the ecology club, usually I work at the Audubon bent of the river in southbury after school.
Very passionate about the environment because it is very calming, I always love helping animals and living creatures in the environment.
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Naomi Stietzel
My name is Naomi Stietzel and I’m a sophomore at Pomperaug High School. In school I take multiple honors classes and one ap course. In school, i’m apart of multiple clubs including the PB&J club, interact club, and eco friends. I also play school soccer in the fall.
Out of school, I spend my time volunteering and playing premier soccer. I work at Our House LLC on the weekends. I’m extremely passionate about the environment because I travel around the world a lot and have seen the damage that humans have done to the earth and the little improvement we have done.
I want to be apart of the change and better our world.
Brittany Kletter
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Most interested in sustainable farming/coops.Michael Pollan inspired us and we were involved in tending many raised beds and learning how to manage chickens.We were lucky to have a managed coop. near our home in western MA Particularly interested in the absence of farm markets and the large number of fast food chains in minority and low income neighborhoods leading to chronic health issues obesity and hypertension
Biology/Art Penn State
Research Asst NIH, Harvard