Staff
Christina Mailhos
Executive Director
Christina Mailhos brings more than twenty years of leadership experience in nonprofit management and municipal governance and she offers a strong track record in strategic collaboration, operational leadership, and community engagement. A longtime resident of Northeastern Connecticut, Christina previously served eight years as First Selectwoman of Willington, where she oversaw municipal operations and navigated complex land use and conservation issues, and later led the nonprofit Hope After Loss as Executive Director, guiding organizational strategy, financial sustainability, and stakeholder relationships. An avid hiker and advocate for open space, Christina is passionate about fostering connections between people and the land, and will focus on advancing conservation efforts, strengthening stewardship practices, and deepening community engagement across the region.
Dawn Brandriff
Business & Administration Manager
Alex DiMauro-D'Amico
Stewardship Manager
Alex grew up in the Lower Connecticut River Valley. After attending the University of Connecticut, he lived in New Mexico and Colorado respectively, doing mostly trail building and fuels work with nonprofits followed by several years of wildland fire fighting with the USFS. He’s been able to see much of the country while fighting fires during the summer and traveling during the winter, but began missing the forests of New England. Before finding Joshua’s Trust, he worked for The Nature Conservancy in Maine, which further piqued his interest in land management. He’s now excited about being back in his home state and having the opportunity to learn more about local ecology and conservation.
Zach Placzek
Stewardship and Monitoring Assistant
Zach received his BS in Natural Resources with a concentration in Sustainable Forest Resources from UConn. He is a member of the Connecticut interstate fire crew, and has been involved in a number of prescribed fires with Joshua's Trust and UConn. Zach is interested in forest restoration ecology, specifically building forest resilience against fire, pests, and climate change.
Melica Stinnett
Development & Communications Coordinator
melica.stinnett@joshuastrust.org