2025 Annual Meeting
Wednesday, February 26, 2025 - 5:30 pm
Members Meeting @ 5:30pm • Public Meeting Social @ 6:30
Annual Public Meeting @ 7:00 PM
WLT 2025 Annual Meeting
You are warmly invited to join us for the Wilton Land Trust's 60th Annual Meeting. The event will feature presentations from our President, Treasurer, Executive Director, and our keynote speaker. The meeting will take place on Wednesday, February 26th, in the Brubeck Room at the Wilton Library.
5:30 - Members Meeting: Trustees will vote on the 2025 budget and our Members will elect Trustees before the Board votes on the slate of officers.
6:30 - Doors open for refreshments and mingling before the Annual Public Meeting.
7:00 - Annual Public Meeting: we will hear from our newly elected President, Executive Director, and Anthony Pierlioni, our keynote speaker.
The highlight of the evening is our guest speaker Anthony Pierlioni—author, world-traveling conservationist, and Vice President of theTurtleRoom. He'll dive into the global turtle crisis and bring live turtles and tortoises for an up-close experience. This is an event you won’t want to miss!
WLT 2025 Annual Meeting Registration
About the Keynote Speaker
Anthony Pierlioni—author, world-traveling conservationist, and Vice President of theTurtleRoom, has published articles in Reptiles Magazine (USA), The Batagur (USA), Radiata, (Germany), Testudo (Italy), and Trionyx (The Netherlands). His first book Black-Breasted Leaf Turtles – The Natural History, Captive Care, and Breeding of Geoemyda spengleri and Geoemyda Japonica was published by LIVING ART Publishing in 2016.
The book that Anthony wrote with his wife, Shannon, called Turtley Devoted to You was published in 2024. It focuses on turtles, the people who love them, and the people who love them. Anthony was named the 2017 Editor’s Choice for Chelonia Personality of the Year by the Reptile Report. He co-created and hosts the Pondcast, the second longest-running reptile podcast in the world and first-ever turtle show. His show “Turtley Devoted,” is a podcast that he hosts with Shannon.
Anthony received his BA from Rhode Island College, where he played basketball on what would become the best team in school history. He is part of the school’s Hall of Fame as q member of that team from his senior season and was the sole representative of his school at the NCAA’s annual leadership conference. He was recognized by the Rhode Island House of Representatives with their Scholar-Athlete Award.
More about Anthony Pierlioni
After school, Anthony became a social worker and used his training in a career change to veterinary medicine. He has managed several veterinary practices, including large specialty and emergency animal hospitals. His most popular book, Veterinary Leadership Through Fresh Eyes – A Social Worker’s Approach to Veterinary Management, was published in 2023. Anthony specializes in communication skills and developing and facilitating instructor-led trainings, which he does for the world’s largest veterinary company. He travels the country leading seminars, facilitating workshops, and supporting aspiring public speakers in the veterinary field.
Anthony lives in Connecticut with his wife, Shannon, and their two daughters, Cambria and Maddalena. Together they maintain a small turtle breeding farm that specializes in endangered turtles. They provide turtle presentations as a family in communities around the northeastern United States.
Anthony Pierlioni's 2025 Keynote Talk
The global turtle crisis has seen many species go extinct before our eyes. Through a lifetime of work as a champion for the world's most endangered vertebrate group, the impact humans can have on wild spaces cannot be ignored.
The fauna and flora that rely on these sensitive ecosystems depend on not only the preservation of their species, but saving the wild spaces they call home. Today, the global turtle crisis that started in Southeast Asia is now seeing the turtles from Connecticut being impacted at unsustainable levels.
Anthony Pierlioni
Vice President | Senior Director