Catherine Rawson is the executive director of Northwest Connecticut Land Conservancy (NCLC), board member of the Land Trust Alliance and Connecticut Land Conservation Council, member of the Land Trust Alliance Leadership Council, and a steering committee member for the Working Lands Alliance. She previously served for ten years on the Land Trust Accreditation Commission, including four years as chair, and on the Land Trust Alliance Conservation Defense Advisory Council. Catherine is a graduate of Bates College and Vermont Law School, where she studied environmental law. She holds a master’s degree in environmental management from the Yale School of the Environment. Prior to joining NCLC, she served as an assistant attorney general for the State of Connecticut.

Since 2011, under Catherine’s direction, NCLC has significantly expanded its regional impact and organizational capacity, strengthening its ability to advance long-term, sustainable conservation. The organization is now recognized as a conservation leader in Connecticut and beyond, receiving an EPA Environmental Merit Award in 2013 and accreditation from the Land Trust Accreditation Commission in 2015. During this period, the organization also expanded its professional team fourfold and increased its financial reserves more than fifteenfold, reaching $11 million to support its conservation mission.

During her tenure, NCLC also launched a partnership program that now provides a wide range of services to land trusts across Litchfield and northern Fairfield Counties. This work has included three land trust mergers. The organization merged with Brookfield Open Space Legacy in 2019 and Naromi Land Trust in 2020, leading to its transition from Weantinoge Heritage Land Trust to Northwest Connecticut Land Conservancy. Most recently, in 2025, NCLC merged with Candlewood Valley Regional Land Trust, continuing its trajectory of regional collaboration and impact.

Catherine’s professional experience in the environmental field spans more than 20 years and includes serving as a law clerk for the Environment Division of the California Department of Justice and for General Electric’s Corporate Environmental Programs as well as work for three nonprofit organizations in environmental program management and education. Catherine was recognized for academic achievement at the Vermont Law School with American Jurisprudence Awards in Torts and Legal Writing. She also served on the Vermont Law Review and the Journal of National Security Law. In 2017, Catherine was named one of Connecticut Magazine’s 40 Under 40.

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