Council Members

Melanie Carmichael

Proudly raised in Red Bay, Grand Cayman, Melanie has served on the National Trust Council as a General Elected Member since 2019 and currently sits as a Member of the Planning Appeals Tribunal of the Cayman Islands. Educated in Holland and England, Melanie is a trained professional and Notary Public who has worked in the offshore business sector for over 20 years, both as a Senior Corporate Administrator and as a Senior Trust Administrator for a private Cayman Islands Bank. Melanie has dedicated herself to building community for over 10 years, she has been an active volunteer in the grassroots organisations such as CPR Cayman, Amplify Cayman and Sustainable Cayman working to encourage the thoughtful development of our Islands. Outside of work, Melanie enjoys time on the water with her family and she especially enjoys Cayman’s natural wildlife and her garden which is a safe haven for an array of water birds and a flock of West Indian whistling ducks.

Alice Mae Coe

Dan Peterson

Dan is a Financial Advisor and Portfolio Manager at CIBC First Caribbean International and began his involvement with the National Trust by helping to secure corporate donations from several institutions in Grand Cayman. He continues to be instrumental in supporting the Council and Executive Director by providing financial advice on various Trust matters. Dan has also volunteered as the Treasurer for the Trust Bodden Town District Committee. In addition to his career in finance, Dan enjoys spending his time volunteering with a number of associations both on and off the island. He is the current chairman of CIBA’s Membership Committee and remains a committed supporter of education.  He has been a National Trust Co-Opted Council Member since 2018.

Peter Broadhurst

Peter A. Broadhurst is a senior attorney and has been practicing law for over fifty years, twenty-eight of which have been in the Cayman Islands.  He is counsel to Broadhurst LLC, Attorneys- at Law. He is a member of the Cayman Islands Bar. He is a current member of the Law Society of Ontario and the Cayman Islands Legal Practitioners Association and former member of the following:  the Canadian Bar Association,  Council Member of the Law Society of the Cayman Islands, the Executive Council of the Company Managers Association of the Cayman Islands, Trustee of the Cayman Islands Chamber of Commerce Pension Fund, Council Member of the Cayman Islands Chamber of Commerce, officer of the Rotary Club of Grand Cayman, Deputy Chairman of the Cayman Islands Immigration Appeals Tribunal and Deputy Chairman of the Planning Appeals Tribunal for the Cayman Islands.  As well as his role with the National Trust, he continues to act as counsel to Broadhurst LLC.”

Peter Davey

Peter Davey has served on the Trust Council for nine years, the last four as Vice Chairman of the Trust as well as Chairman of the Environmental Advisory Committee. He was responsible for establishing the National Trust’s Malportas Bird Reserve, supported of course by the legal and technical expertise of his colleagues. His term came to an end in 2021. Peter is a founding member of the National Trust, the Cayman Islands Bird Club and the Cayman Islands Motorsports Association, for which he served as Vice President for one year. Peter owned jewelry businesses in George Town from 1983 to 2009, including the The Jewellery Center, where as a designer, he penned and created many pieces. His deep interest in the natural world and desire to protect it and give it space, is expressed mainly through his birding activities and his past attempts to photograph every dragonfly and butterfly species occurring in the Cayman Islands. During this exercise, he added two species of dragonfly to Cayman’s list, The Blue-faced Darner and the Halloween Pennant and also re-discovered a small population of Gold-rimmed Swallowtails, which has since been extirpated on account of quarrying. As experienced birders, Peter and Christine Mailer have been reviewers for eBIrd since its inception. Peter’s passion for the long-term success of the National Trust remains unabated.

Patricia Bradley

Patricia is one of the three founders of the National Trust, having served on the National Trust Council in some form since the Trust’s early days and most recently for the last ten years. She is a current member of the Trust’s Environmental Advisory Committee and for many years served as EAC Chair. Patricia also serves on the National Conservation Council. She is a Life Member of the National Trust and has always been involved in environmental issues. She played a key role in developing nature tourism in the Sister Islands. Patricia is the author of several books on Caribbean birds including Birds of the Cayman Islands and Birds of Cuba.

Fred Burton

Fred has lived and worked in the Cayman Islands since 1979. In 1990, he founded The Blue Iguana Recovery Programme as a National Trust volunteer. He has authored a number of books including Threatened Plants of the Cayman Islands – the Red List as well as The Little Blue Book. Fred currently holds the post of Manager of the Terrestrial Unit at the DoE. He formerly worked as the Environmental Programmes Manager of the National Trust and was a key player in establishing the Cayman Islands’ terrestrial protected area systems and worked on wildlife conservation habitats. Fred was awarded an MBE for his services in conservation of endangered species. He currently serves as a Trust Council member.

Lauren Dombowsky

Lauren is a Caymanian who moved to the UK for her Master’s degree in Environmental Diagnosis and Management in 2011. She worked in London as an Environmental Scientist until 2018, when she returned home to become the Senior Environmental Assessment Officer at the DoE. She is now the Manager of the Environmental Management Unit. Lauren was a Council Member and Vice Chair of the Environmental Advisory Committee for 2021 to 2022. She is also the volunteer project manager for the National Trust’s Motus Stations. In the UK, Lauren was a volunteer with FoodCycle and as a result of her efforts, she was shortlisted for the Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM’s) Young Environmentalist of the Year and also won the Lewisham Mayor’s Award for Voluntary Contribution in 2017.

Ellen Lazzari

Ellen is self employed. Her National Trust interests focus on preservation of built heritage and family history, birds and native plants/trees. Ellen has served as a Justice of the Peace since 2004 as well as on Cayman Brac High School PTA as Treasurer from 2010-2015. She took a break from volunteering from 2015 until joining the Trust last year. Ellen enjoys gardening and reading. She also loves driving and road trips. Ellen is a current Council member and Chair of the Historic Advisory Committee. Ellen enjoys gardening and reading. She also loves driving and road trips.

Chris Luijten

As a Cayman Islands resident in 2020 working closely with key stakeholders in the media, government and various grassroots movements,I was able to bring about a movement that helped accelerate the implementation of new legislation to protect mangroves. Together with Martin Keeley I helped form the Mangrove Rangers program which Martin launched in 2020. The program has been widely covered in local and international media and generated a lot of attention for the mangroves by delivering workshops, creating educational content and engaging the community. Aside from mangrove conservation work, I am an Entrepreneur in the b2b SaaS technology vertical through various companies on which I serve as Investor and Board Member. I am the CEO of ITCA, a company that helps software companies with fighting against software piracy. My wife and children are very passionate about the environment, and we support a variety of causes such as the Virunga National Park in Congo, Skyscanner, and the Sea Shepherd. I hope to support the National Trust in its efforts to preserve, protect, promote the beautiful Cayman Islands its flora, fauna, maritime beauty for future generations to enjoy.

Arthurlyn Pedley

Arthurlyn has had a long association with the National Trust for the Cayman Islands. From its formation, she volunteered for the Memory Bank Programme. She went on to work for the organization as ED then as HPM for five years. In those roles, she served on Trust Council. This past year, as a co-opted member, she has been on the Historic Advisory Committee. She is also a long-serving, active member of the West Bay District Committee. Arthurlyn is passionate to preserve our built heritage so that future generations will have tangible contact with their past through buildings and sites of historic significance. A retired educator, Arthurlyn enjoys the outdoors: walking, swimming and pottering around her garden. Because of her love for Cayman’s history, she has taken up part-time work writing historic articles and posts for the Cayman Islands National Archive. Most of all, she’s enjoying being a first time Grammie to her precious Grandaughter.

Laura Powery Egglishaw

Laura Egglishaw (née Powery) was born in West Bay and one of the ‘1000’ babies delivered by midwife ‘Ms. Leila Yates’. Laura attended West Bay Primary School; C.I.High School; I.C.C.I., and received a scholarship from the C.I.Chamber of Commerce to attend St. Godric’s College, Hampstead Heath, London. Laura is a generational Caymanian whose family instilled in her a respect, love and gratitude toward the environment. She was taught to nurture and ‘leave the earth a better place than she found it’. Volunteering and family & community values have always played a large part in Laura’s life. Laura has volunteered for the National Trust from the 1990’s and still does. Her interests in the National Trust are, Environmental; Preservation of land, Culture and Heritage. She also volunteers for LIFE; the Neighbourhood Watch Programme and more recently, West Bay Beautification Task Force. Laura is an executive member of the Grand Cayman Garden Club and a member of the C.I. Sailing Club. Beautifying Cayman and protecting the environment and Community Service is something instinctive and a passion that Laura enjoys.

Olivia Scott-Ramirez

Olivia is from Cayman Brac where she held various leadership roles as a student, including President of Youth to Youth. While at University in North Carolina, she spent a semester in London before graduating in 1999 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Communications. She had a successful career as the Caymanian Compass’ Business Editor and Tourism and Travel Writer for many years, then as a News Anchor with Radio Cayman, before transitioning into the Marketing and Public Relations field. Currently Olivia is the Senior Marketing and Public Relations Manager at Cayman Airways. She has been an Advisor for Junior Achievement and currently sits on the Cayman Carnival Batabano Board of Directors. Olivia has been an active member of the National Trust Council since 2020.

Sonya van de Wouw

As one of the National Trust’s previous Historic Programmes Managers, and having served on HAC, Sonya has a sincere affection for Cayman’s natural and historic heritages, with the latter being her soft spot. She arrived at the shores of these breath-taking islands almost 30 years ago and has since gained a genuine fondness for Cayman’s built heritage – a heritage she deems significant and worthy of preservation in both construct and theory for our younger generations, our residents and our visitors. Sonya believes strongly that preserving our cultural heritage will help build a better Cayman, because she agrees with UNESCO’s assertion that culture, including historical landmarks, and our living heritage, is a resource for the identity and cohesion of communities. Today, Sonya is settling into a life that incorporates her passions: the Italian culinary arts, travelling with her husband, writing, running, meditating and being an Italian mamma, of sorts, to family and friends. She can cook-up a not half bad conch stew and fish run-down and considers herself blessed to be a part of the Caymanian community. She’s also head over heels in love with her 2 darling nieces and can never get enough of hearing the words Zia Sonya!

Hannah Reid-Ford

A multigenerational Caymanian, Hannah Reid Ford has a background in communications and environmental policy. She holds a BA in Environmental Studies and Journalism from Emory University and an MSc in Environment, Science & Society from University College London. Hannah serves as Communications Specialist with the Ministry of Sustainability & Climate Resiliency. In her spare time, she runs a blog and social media pages exploring the traditional environmental knowledge of the Cayman Islands. Hannah is a long-time volunteer with the National Trust and was previously an elected member to the National Trust Council, serving from 2019 to 2021.

Co-opted Member