Dorothy Bassett

Dorothy Bassett was born and raised in Chatham on Cape Cod. She grew up swimming and sailing in Pleasant Bay, and learning about the Cape's ecology during clamming trips with her grandfather, father, and brother, who were all commercial fishermen. Through Cape Cod Community College she earned an associate's degree and internship at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory. She later graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Massachusetts Boston with a certificate in Geographic Information Systems and bachelor's degree in Earth, Ocean, and Environmental Science. After working as an environmental specialist and hazardous materials chemist in Boston, she took a solo trip around the world through thirteen countries across four continents, learning about different environments from the African Maasai Mara to the New Zealand glow worm caves. After returning to the US she worked in robotics at MIT, at the Chatham Marconi Maritime Center's Wireless Technology Museum and STEM Education Center, and at the Chatham Conservation Foundation. Since 2014 she has been working with Cape nonprofits, and earned a Tufts certificate in Leadership and Nonprofit Business Management. Dorothy is currently working in Development and Outreach for Pleasant Bay Community Boating, volunteers on the board of the Friends of Pleasant Bay, and the Scholarship Committee for the Cape Cod Association. She bought a house on Muddy Creek and enjoys frequently kayaking down to Pleasant Bay. She is an enthusiastic founding member of the Sipson Island trust, and brings nonprofit experience, a passion for conservation, and a drive to care for and protect public access to conservation land on Cape Cod.