Our Board & Staff





Having spent formative years as a child exploring and trying to get lost in French castles with her family, Renée Tribert developed an interest in historic buildings, architecture and art. Since moving to Connecticut in 1988 she has worked at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, the New Britain Museum of American Art and now Preservation Connecticut. She enjoys biking, hiking, and travel, often in pursuit of her adult children. With nary a creative bone in her, she instead appreciates the creativity of others, and discovered The Buttonwood Tree upon moving to Portland in 2019.

Kelly Dougherty holds a passion for both serving, and connecting, diverse and underrepresented communities and is driven to inspire needed change, which she has strived to do through her volunteer work through the Middlesex United Way Young Leaders Society and Hartford Young Professionals & Entrepreneurs (HYPE), as well as through her professional endeavors, having worked in the nonprofit sector for the past two decades, including the Northern Middlesex YMCA, the Valley Shore YMCA, and Hands On Hartford.
Kelly’s expertise lies in development, member/customer service, and social media marketing, but she has a range of personal interests and talents outside of these about which she is passionate, including dance, music, singing, comedy, animal & human rights activism, veganism, traveling, basketball, martial arts, holistic wellness, energy healing, spirituality, drum circles, photography, and poetry, many of which she enjoys pursuing or experiencing at The Buttonwood Tree.

Melinda Brainerd graduated from Loyola Marymount with a B.A. in Theater and has done community theater in Connecticut. An accounting assistant for an Architectural Firm, as well as private bookkeeping, Melinda is serving as our Treasurer. While her passion is theater, she loves live music.

Derrik Bosse is our web and marketing coordinator, and booking manager. He studied at CCSU and earned a B.S. in Management Information Systems with a minor in music performance.
His passions include playing, composing, and teaching music in many styles. He is currently a principal member of Middletown-based group Merganser, an Irish-trad inspired folk group that rehearses and performs at the Buttonwood Tree.