Allison Chin, President
A veteran of the Board, Chin is currently serving in her fourth term (May 2022 - May 2025) and 11th year on the Sierra Club Board of Directors. Her prior service (2007 - 2013 and 2015 - 2018) included six years on the Executive Committee as President (2008-2010, 2012-2013), treasurer (2010-2011), and fifth officer (2007-2008, 2011-2012). Chin is a longtime volunteer and lifetime member of the Sierra Club. She became active with Sierra Club through the fight to protect public lands and as an outings leader. She has been serving on Board-appointed governance committees or the Board itself since 1999 (outdoor activities leadership, organizational effectiveness, finance and risk management, leadership development, trainer/coach/facilitator).
She is a retired biologist who led multidisciplinary domestic and international project teams focused on discovery and development of novel therapeutics. Since retiring in 2008, Allison has been immersed in non-profit governance, organizational and leadership development. She is a founding member of the Green Leadership Trust, a network of people of color and indigenous people who serve on environmental boards. Allison is particularly excited about working with organizers, activists and change makers to facilitate the deep individual and group work that is transformational and long-lasting.
Shruti Bhatnagar, Vice President for Conservation
Shruti Bhatnagar is a lifelong environmentalist and is a Wilderness Guardian at the Sierra Club. For years, Shruti has lent her breadth of experience and diverse perspective to the Sierra Club, serving in a variety of volunteer leadership roles including Sierra Club Maryland Chapter’s Conservation Committee Chair, founding member of the Growing for Change Equity taskforce, Group Chair, National Sierra Club’s Federal Organizing Program Co-Lead, on the National Board of Directors, serving as member of the National Conservation Policy Committee, Volunteer Leadership Advisory Committee (VLAC), Business Partnerships and the Finance and Risk Management Advisory Committees.
Her 30 years of experience centered on equity, social and environmental justice includes serving in leadership positions at private, non-profit, community, philanthropic, and political organizations and as a management professional. As a community advocate in Maryland for two decades, Shruti has been advocating for bold systemic policy changes at the Federal, Maryland State and County levels, working on campaigns, building coalitions and expanding diversity and inclusion initiatives. She was a lead organizer for the National Women’s March and has been recognized as women making history. She has been a mentor to youth and emerging leaders.
Shruti is particularly excited about building a strong environmental movement that is rooted in equity and justice and uplifts the power of our grassroots volunteers and teams.
Patrick Murphy, Vice President for Chapters, Groups and Volunteers
Since first joining a Sierra Club Activist Outing to defend Utah wilderness in the 1990s, Patrick has been a volunteer leader for over 25 years. His work has broadened in those decades – from wilderness preservation to climate change, and from Sierra Student Coalition activism to Sierra Club’s internal coaching, conflict resolution, and transformation into an equitable and anti-racist organization. He is an Outings leader, Group and Chapter volunteer, and member of the Board’s Equity and Finance committees.
David Scott, Secretary
Dave Scott is serving in his fifth 3-year term on the Board (May 2023 - May 2026). As Secretary, he’s serving in his eighth year as a member of the Board Executive Committee, having previously served as Vice President (2010-2013), President (2013-2015), and Treasurer (2018-2020). He has also chaired the Board’s Conservation Policy Advisory Committee.
Prior to his time on the Board, Dave held leadership positions that included Ohio Chapter Chair, Regional Vice President for the Midwest, and leadership roles on the national Conservation Governance Committee. First drawn to Sierra Club activism by a desire to protect Alaska wilderness and the Great Lakes, Dave has spent months in northern Alaska, the Tongass National Forest and other places Sierra Club played a major role in protecting.
In addition to his Sierra Club roles, Dave has had a long career as an attorney. Initially, he worked as a poverty lawyer in Appalachia and several midwestern cities, and later worked to protect the civil rights of people with disabilities. He’s taught university writing courses with an environmental theme, and he’s been a contributor to the NY Times Letters and Book Review pages since 2000. Over the past 25 years, he has cared for six rescue dogs.
Cheyenne Skye Branscum, Treasurer
Cheyenne Skye Branscum is an educator and environmental justice leader based in Oklahoma. Her work the past several years has been especially focused on improving the lives of tribal members and rural Oklahomans through better access to education and a clean environment. Within the Sierra Club, she has served as Oklahoma Chapter Chair, Oklahoma Beyond Coal volunteer, CCL delegate, CCR chair, History and Future Task Force member, Restorative Accountability Implementation Team co-owner, and Governance Task Force member. She also runs the Oklahoma Geo Team, a nonprofit focused on improving GIS education to middle and high school students, especially those typically left out of STEM programs.
Clayton Daughenbaugh, Director
Clayton’s first steps as a Sierra Club activist were taken in a 1995 Activist Outing to the red rock wilderness of southern Utah. He hasn’t stopped since. That work led to an appointment to the National Wildlands Campaign Committee (equivalent to the current Conservation & Outdoors Campaign) and a subsequent appointment to the Our Wild America Leadership Team. In addition he’s been a long standing member of the National Utah Wilderness Team. His work on southern Utah has contributed to that state having more permanent public lands protections in the last 2+ decades than any state other than California. Clayton was also a founding member of the Grassroots Network Support Team (national and regional volunteer driven issue teams) in 2012, a position he continued until his election to the Board of Directors. He is a long time member and past Chair of the Wildlands and Wilderness Grassroots Network Team. Early on in his activism Clayton served two years on the Chicago Group Executive Committee.
In addition to Sierra Club roles Clayton is a retired organizer having spent 20 years working as a community organizer, followed by a similarly long period as a conservation organizer working on public lands protection ( 1+ years with the Sierra Club but otherwise with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance). He’s now retired. He loves to hike, enjoys baseball (a lifelong Houston Astros fan), and treasures time with his family. He can claim to be a born Texan and attended college in Dallas. His father is a retired United Methodist minister and Clayton remains an active participant in his local church.
Michael Dorsey, Director
Dr. M. K. Dorsey is a recognized expert on global energy, environment, finance and sustainability matters. In 1997, Rotary International bestowed him their highest honor: The Paul Harris Medal for Distinguished Service to Humanity. A graduate of the University of Michigan, Yale and the Johns Hopkins University, presently Dr. Dorsey is a limited partner in the Spanish utility-scale solar concern IberSun, s.l, a JV partner in the Indian based panel manufacturer Pahal Solar, and the inaugural board secretary of Black Owners of Solar Services.
Dr. Dorsey is a serial organization builder and leader in for-profit, non-profit, scholarly and governmental realms. In the for-profit arena, Dr. Dorsey is an active investor, as well as co-founder and principal of Around the Corner Capital—an energy advisory and impact finance platform. In non-profit realms, in 1997, Dr. Dorsey helped co-create the northern California headquartered Center for Environmental Health. In 2013, Dr. Dorsey and two former student collaborators co-created the predecessor to the Sunrise Movement.
In academia, Dr. Dorsey was a professor in the environmental studies program at Dartmouth College and has also been guest faculty at leading institutions around the world. Dorsey’s significant government engagement includes his role as a task force member of President Clinton’s Council on Sustainable Development, a member of then Senator Obama’s energy and environment Presidential campaign team, and appointment to the EPA’s National Advisory Committee.
Beyond boardrooms, Congressional hearings and multilateral summits, Dr. Dorsey has a long legacy of exploring, researching and working to protect wild places and spaces–around the U.S. and across the planet.
Erica Hall, Director
Erica Hall, an experienced member of the Florida Chapter and the Suncoast Group's Executive Committees, has also forged strong partnerships with Sierra's national campaigns. As the former Vice Chair of Sierra Club's Council of Club Leaders (CCL), Erica demonstrates a profound commitment to the environment and the Sierra Club's mission, advocating for diversity, equity, and inclusion within the organization.
With a wealth of experience as a community organizer, advocate, and legal professional specializing in urban agriculture, food policy, and neighborhood revitalization, Erica has actively participated as an Executive leader in various initiatives and organizations across different cities including the Florida Food Policy Council, the North American Food Systems Network, and the Inter-institutional Network for Food, Agriculture and Sustainability (INFAS) which connects food system scholars, educators, and action-researcher activists across the United States. INFAS envisions a US food system that is environmentally sustainable and socially just. Erica’s diverse expertise, spanning nonprofit management, legal administration, and legislative affairs, positions her as an invaluable member of the Sierra Club's board of directors, in perfect alignment with the organization's goals and mission.
Rita Harris, Director
Rita joined Sierra Club 21 years ago and has served in numerous capacities such as Environmental Justice Organizer, Beyond Coal Organizer, diversity & anti-racism trainer, and environmental conference coordinator. Her work has revolved around working with neighborhoods seeking a healthy community, clean air and water, and adequate green spaces free of toxic hazards. Current volunteer activities have included serving as co-leader of the Organizing Department’s Leadership Team and co-facilitating anti-racism training workshops. In Sierra Club’s early efforts around diversity and inclusion, she served on the original Diversity Council (2006-2009) that was the catalyst for the establishment of the Office of Equity & Inclusion. Ms. Harris has worked with several other non-profit organizations and has advocated for a variety of environmental causes.
David Holtz, Director
David’s passion for environmental protection, social justice and belief in people-powered political change led him to become a Sierra Club volunteer. David has served at local, state and national levels with Sierra Club and has held staff and management positions with Michigan and Florida-based environmental and progressive groups, including Sierra Club. For more than a decade David worked as a newspaper reporter and is a former senior aide to a Member of Congress from Michigan, where he resides. He is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran.
Cynthia Hoyle, Director
Cynthia Hoyle is a Life Member of the Sierra Club having joined the club in 1983 working to create the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in Oklahoma. After moving to Illinois, she worked with the Prairie Group as Vice Chair and on the Transportation Committee. She served on the national Stopping Sprawl Campaign and the Clean Transportation for All Healthy Communities Campaign. She was a member of Urban Infill Policy Task Force which produced the Guidance for Smart Growth and Urban Infill Policy in 2021.
She has served on the American Institute of Certified Planners Commission, American Public Transit Association Climate Change Standards Working Group, and the Champaign County Blue Ribbon Environmental Panel. Cynthia is a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners and is the author of Traffic Calming published by American Planning Association. She is a League Certified Instructor through the League of American Bicyclists and President of Ride Illinois.
David Karpf, Director
Dave used to be the young guy on the Board. He has been a member of the Sierra Club since 1995, and spent his high school and college years as a leader in the Sierra Student Coalition. He previously served on the Board from 2004-2010, while he was a graduate student. He has now rejoined the Board as an associate professor in the George Washington University School of Media & Public Affairs, where he teaches and conducts research on how social movements make use of new technologies to build power in the digital age.
Aaron Mair, Director
Dr. (Hon) Aaron Mair is a retired New York State public health epidemiological-spatial analyst, environmentalist, and 57th national president of the Sierra Club with an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters for his international climate work from the State University of New York at Binghamton. Dr. Mair is the Adirondack Council’s “Wilderness Campaign Director” responsible for connecting all New Yorkers to the nation’s largest environmental treasure. As a national environmental justice movement pioneer, founder, and activist of the Arbor Hill, NY community in Albany, he was responsible for the creation of the W. Haywood Burns Environmental Education Center and the Arbor Hill Environmental Justice Corporation. He the Wilderness Campaign Director for the New York Adirondack Council.
Karl Palmquist, Director
Karl Palmquist is a systems biologist and community advocate. He has been a Sierra Club volunteer ever since he was recruited by the New York City Group to analyze data on the environmental and health impacts of plastic pollution. Karl has served on the Executive Committees of both the New York City Group and Atlantic Chapter and has held numerous elected positions, including as the current Chairperson for the Group.
During his tenure, Karl has worked to strengthen the Sierra Club's ties with local communities. He strives to use data to both empower a deeper understanding of the challenges we face and holistically define potential solutions to some of our most pressing environmental issues. He is honored to serve Sierra Club members on the Board of Directors and is excited to strengthen and expand the Club's grassroots base. Karl received his B.A. from Swarthmore College and his Ph.D. from The Rockefeller University.
Meghan Sahli-Wells, Director
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Meghan Sahli-Wells spent nearly a decade in public service, championing environmental justice and building progressive power both locally and nationally. The former Mayor of Culver City (CA), Meghan led the city’s transition to 100% renewable energy and phase-out of oil drilling. Known as the "Biking Mayor,” Sahli-Wells helped craft Culver City’s first bicycle and pedestrian master plan, established a robust Safe Routes to School program, and served on the Metro E Line (light rail) Construction Authority. In 2014, she joined President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper Community Challenge, and launched Culver City’s equity and youth empowerment initiatives. She also helped lead regional efforts to ensure equitable housing policies in transit and jobs-rich communities, and passed groundbreaking tenant protections in Culver City.
Sahli-Wells is a founding Board Member of Local Progress, a national network of progressive elected officials, and former California State Director of Elected Officials to Protect America, where she mobilized elected officials to pass bold climate legislation and end fossil fuel extraction. Today, she is a strategic policy consultant working at the intersection of mobility, housing, and environmental justice, with a particular focus on urban oil drilling.
Sahli-Wells holds two bachelor’s degrees from UCLA where she majored in World Arts and Cultures, and in French. She lived in France for 14 years and has traveled extensively, studying visual anthropology, conducting sociological research, working as a translator, and raising her children.