Elizabeth Courtney began her career as a printmaker and ceramicist. After moving to

Vermont in 1974, she developed an interest in land use issues. In 1979, she enrolled in the

University of Massachusetts at Amherst and graduated in 1982 with a Master’s Degree in Landscape

Architecture, she returned to Vermont to practice land use planning. Madeleine Kunin appointed her

to the Vermont Environmental Board in 1985 where she served three governors over nine years and was

chair from 1990 to 1994. She is a 1995 Harvard Loeb Fellow in Advanced Environmental Studies. She

served on the Vermont Law School Board of Trustees from 1995-2004. Elizabeth was the Executive

Director of the Vermont Natural Resources Council from 1997 to 2011 and the Legacy Project Director

from 2011 to 2012, during which time she authored, with Eric Zencey, Greening Vermont: The Search

for a Sustainable State.