Our Team
Meet the people behind Tick Free MV.
Staff
Virginia Barbatti serves as Executive Director of Tick Free MV, leading the organization's efforts to reduce tick-borne disease and allergy on Martha's Vineyard through coordinated, community-driven action. A lifelong seasonal resident of Martha's Vineyard, Virginia moved to the Island full-time in 2020 with her family. She spent 15 years in senior corporate strategy roles at companies including Stanley Black & Decker and Wayfair. She went on to build nonprofit leadership experience on the Island, most recently as Development Director at Island Grown Initiative. She came to this work out of a deep commitment to this community and a belief that the Island has what it takes to meet this challenge. Virginia holds a B.S. in Business Management from Penn State University and grew up in Washington, D.C. She lives in Chilmark with her husband and their three young children.
Mary is a communications specialist who led those efforts in government (Human Services & Attorney General), in academia (Northeastern University and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government), and on Island (COVID test site and public health). During the dozen years when marriage equality was on state ballots or in the courts, she led or assisted with the public face of those efforts, including two Supreme Court victories in 2013 and 2015. Mary got her start in news at WVOI and as a reporter and managing editor of the Vineyard Gazette. She lives in Chilmark with her wife, Rebecca Haag.
Grace is Tick Free MV’s Program Coordinator, working to support community-driven efforts to reduce tick-borne disease. She is a year-round Island resident who has been part of the Martha’s Vineyard community since elementary school and is a graduate of the regional high school. She earned a BA from Bennington College, where she studied public advocacy, sustainability, and food studies. She returned to the Island after graduating, driven by a deep commitment to building a life rooted in equity, creative collaboration, community problem-solving, and resiliency. She has since worked with local nonprofits and mission-driven businesses focused on sustainable agriculture and aquaculture, strengthening her connection to the land, waters, and people of Martha’s Vineyard. She also serves as Martha’s Vineyard Liaison for Representative Moakley, helping elevate Island voices at the state level. Additionally find her on the water in the winters commercial bay scallopping. Grace lives in Edgartown with her fiancé and their dog.
Blake is Tick Free MV’s Program Coordinator, bringing a background in conservation, land management, and wildlife stewardship. A year-round Island resident since 2019, he has built his career around connecting the community with the Island’s natural resources while finding practical ways to protect fragile ecosystems and sustainably utilize what they provide. His professional experience includes managing conservation lands, restoring and maintaining wildlife habitat, and controlling invasive species. He has also spent years involved in the Island’s hunting community, developing a particular interest in deer management and the relationship between wildlife, habitat, land access, and tick-borne disease. These experiences have given him an understanding of the challenges and opportunities of managing a shared landscape, as well as the importance of bringing different perspectives together to solve community-wide problems. Blake holds a BA in Journalism and Media Studies from the University of New Hampshire. Outside of work, he enjoys finding new uses for what the landscape provides, from foraging for antlers and eco-printing, to tending his garden and turning logs into vases on his lathe. He is particularly interested in conservation approaches that connect science, land management, and the people who live and work on Martha’s Vineyard
Board of Directors
Bret Stearns is a longtime public servant and environmental leader on Martha’s Vineyard, currently serving as a full-time police officer with the Chilmark Police Department. He previously spent more than 30 years as Director of Natural Resources for the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), leading environmental management and conservation efforts. Stearns brings extensive experience in public safety, natural resource management, and community engagement, and continues to support tribal environmental programs as a consultant.
After a career in communications as a television producer/journalist in documentary films for Public Television and the ABC Network, Carol joined the board of New York City’s largest child welfare agency, Leake and Watts, now known as Rising Ground. Thus began a lifelong commitment to the well-being of children who are caught up in the Foster Care and Probation or Juvenile Justice systems. Carol served on the Children’s Defense Fund Board for over 25 years, and many other organizations serving these populations. In California she has been appointed by every elected Governor since 2006 to the State Advisory Committee on Juvenile Justice and served on the LA County Commission for Children and Families from 1999 until 2020. Carol, her late husband Frank Biondi and their two daughters Anne and Jane first vacationed on Martha’s Vineyard in the summer of 1983. After spending summers in Chilmark for several years, they moved into a new home they built in Edgartown in 1997, the same year they moved to Los Angeles. Carol continues to divide her time between LA and Martha’s Vineyard. Glorious summers are now spent in Katama with Anne and Jane, their husbands, five granddaughters and one grandson. The Biondis served on the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital Board and were among the original supporters of MVYouth. In addition to Tick Free MV, Carol is a current board member of the Martha’s Vineyard Community Foundation and has a deep passion for protecting her cherished island home. “The Vineyard is our favorite place to be and has provided our family with our best memories.”
Richard (Dick) Johnson is an environmental consultant and field biologist known for his leadership of the Martha’s Vineyard Tick-Borne Illness Reduction Initiative. From 2011 through 2022, he directed the Island-wide program, working with local boards of health to study tick populations and reduce the incidence of Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses through research, education, and community outreach. A 2017 fellow of the Martha’s Vineyard Vision Fellowship, Johnson focused his work on developing comprehensive, Island-wide strategies to address tick-borne disease as a critical public health issue. Earlier in his career, he served for 18 years as Executive Director of Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation, where he advanced land conservation efforts across Martha’s Vineyard. Johnson continues to contribute his expertise in environmental science and public health through consulting, research, and community education initiatives.
The Honorable Eugene A. Ludwig is a business and civic leader with deep expertise in banking, regulation, and economic policy. He is managing partner of Canapi Ventures, a fintech-focused venture capital firm; founder and CEO of Cari Network, a tokenized deposit network connecting chartered banks with decentralized finance; and CEO of Ludwig Advisors, which counsels financial institutions on critical strategic and regulatory matters. He is also the founder and chairman of the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity (LISEP), a nonprofit dedicated to improving economic outcomes for middle- and lower-income Americans, and cofounder of the Carol and Gene Ludwig Family Foundation.Mr. Ludwig served as U.S. Comptroller of the Currency from 1993 to 1998, where he worked to expand access to financial services and promote a balanced regulatory framework. He later founded the Promontory family of companies, including Promontory Financial Group and Promontory Interfinancial Network (now IntraFi). He is the author of The Mismeasurement of America and The Vanishing American Dream, which examine the economic challenges facing working Americans.Mr. Ludwig and his family have owned a home on Martha’s Vineyard for many years and have a deep appreciation for the island and its community. He is committed to supporting efforts that protect and strengthen the health and well-being of those who live on and visit the Vineyard.
Isabelle Lew is partner at the law firm Reynolds, Rappaport, Kaplan and Hackney, LLC, where her practice focuses on real estate and municipal law. Isabelle was born and raised in Oak Bluffs and attended the MV High School. She holds a BA from Wesleyan University. After college, Isabelle worked at John Snow, Inc. an international public health consulting firm, where she served as a project coordinator for projects in Mexico and Ethiopia. Thereafter, she attended Northeastern University School of Law. After law school, Isabelle clerked at the MA Supreme Judicial Court with the honorable Margot Botsford. Isabelle moved back to the island in 2016, when she joined RRKH law firm. Isabelle also serves on the board of the Vineyard Gazette and the Martha’s Vineyard Museum. She is a member of the Board of Trustee of the Martha’s Vineyard Bank, and a former long-time board member of the Martha’s Vineyard Community Foundation, where she served as Chair. Isabelle now lives in Chilmark with her husband and two daughters.
Megan Chernin is a Los Angeles based philanthropist and dedicated advocate for children and public education reform. In partnership with the Mayor of Los Angeles and the Superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, she co-founded the Los Angeles Fund for Public Education, where she served as Chief Executive Officer, helping to advance innovative initiatives to support students and schools across the city. She currently serves on the boards of LA’s Promise, Building College Success, and the J. Paul Getty Trust, contributing her leadership and commitment to expanding educational opportunity and cultural access. Earning her J.D. from Southwestern University School of Law and holds a B.A. in English from Manhattanville College. She and her husband, Peter, have been summer residents of Martha’s Vineyard since 1977, where they have maintained a longstanding connection to the community.
Philip (Phil) Hale is the second of three generations to run the Martha's Vineyard Shipyard located in Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts. He attended both the Tisbury school and the Martha's Vineyard Regional High School. Later graduating from American University in 1977 with a degree in political science, he served as President of the Shipyard from 1986 to 2019 and continues today as Vice President. Over four decades, Phil has contributed to approximately 20 boards and commissions serving the Martha's Vineyard community. Current involvement includes the Martha's Vineyard Ocean Academy, where he serves as a Board Member and Advancement Committee member. Past roles include the Tisbury Master Plan Committee, the Holmes Hole Saling Association, Tisbury Harbor Management Committee, and Sail Martha's Vineyard, among others. Having attended his first town meeting in 1968, he has participated in roughly 70% of town meetings since 1977 and understands the complexity of Martha's Vineyard's town government firsthand. He has maintained a lifetime interest in open space and environmental protection. Phil lives in Vineyard Haven with his wife Deborah. Their two grown sons and grandson live nearby. He lives in Vineyard Haven with his wife, and their two grown sons and grandson live nearby
Todd Maclin and his family have been summer residents on Martha's Vineyard (Lake Tashmoo) for over 20 years. He and his wife Diana, along with their two married children and five grandchildren, spend most of the summer at their home here. Todd spent almost 40 years at JPMorgan Chase, having served on the Operating Committee and led the Commercial Banking and Consumer lines of business, retiring as Vice Chairman. He is now active in many business, civic, and philanthropic pursuits, including service on public and private boards, education support for those in need, and service to the University of Texas, his alma mater. When not on the Vineyard, Diana and Todd and their family reside in Dallas. Todd is an active fisherman and enjoys chasing blues, stripers, bonito, and false albacore with his fly rod (all catch and release!). He shares the island's concern about our tick-borne epidemic and is committed to addressing it with the benefits of speed and science.
Senior Advisors
Dr Ellen McMahon specializes in family at Martha's Vineyard Hospital. She earned her MD through Brown University after completing a joint program at Dartmouth College and Brown Medical schools. She remained at Brown to complete a family medicine residency, followed by a 2 year clinical and research fellowship in geriatrics through the University of Connecticut. Spent the last 24 years caring for the island community at the hospital and now facilitates medical management, local clinical operations and quality initiatives throughout the ambulatory departments of the hospital.
Dr. Joanna Buchthal is an MIT postdoctoral associate and the Research Director of Mice Against Ticks, a community-guided project working to fight tick-borne disease by genetically engineering white-footed mice, a primary source of infection for deer ticks. Her team at MIT produced the first Lyme-immune lab mice and the first engineered white-footed mice.
Dr. Sam Telford is a Tufts University professor specializing in ecology and epidemiology of vector-borne infections, particularly those transmitted by ticks. He received his B.A. from Johns Hopkins and his M.S. and Sc.D. from the Harvard School of Public Health and has studied ticks and tick-borne illnesses on the Cape and Islands for over 25 years. His university laboratory produces critical data on the tick crisis, testing hundreds of Island ticks per year for infectiousness.
Jeff Levy is the CEO and owner of Martha’s Vineyard Medical, a primary care medical practice in Vineyard Haven that includes The Tick Center, a resource for providing clinical and integrative resources to patients with tick-borne illnesses and alpha-gal syndrome.
Lea Hamner is an applied epidemiologist specializing in tick-borne diseases and alpha-gal syndrome. Receiving her master’s from Yale in 2016, she served as the epidemiologist for both Barnstable and Dukes Counties from 2023 to 2026. She brings her on-the-ground expertise to local and national efforts including serving as a Steering Committee member for the Alpha-gal Syndrome Expert Advisory Council, a board member of the Alpha-gal Alliance, and a board member of the Massachusetts Epidemiology Collaborative.
Patrick Roden-Reynolds is a public health biologist and expert on the Island’s tick population. In addition to his advocacy efforts with the IIPHEC, he collaborates with the MV Hunt Club to analyze ticks present on harvested deer, manages the deer cooler at the Agriculture Hall, and conducts surveys of tick-infested Island properties.
Tim Boland is the longtime executive director of the Polly Hill Arboretum in West Tisbury, a 72-acre preserve cultivating and protecting plant life endemic to the Island. A lifelong horticulturist and botanist, he served as the Arboretum’s executive director for 22 years before retiring in September 2026.