Sierra Club is unique in that it is an organization by and for volunteers.
There are many leaders for our many local activities to explore, enjoy, and protect the nature around us, and some of these leaders serve in multiple ways.
The intention of this top section is to provide a central list for all leaders, and emails for most.
If you're not sure who to contact, then either use our Contact Form, or our general email address: ssjsierra.membership at gmail.com
To discourage spam spider email harvesting, @ is replaced with 'at'
The Suwannee-St. Johns group is governed by an Executive Committee (ExCom), which meets on the second Thursday every month at 6:30 pm. Meetings are usually held in the Santa Fe College Blount Center (downtown Gainesville campus) and are open to all Sierra Club members. There are no Excom meetings during the summer months of June, July, and August. See calendar on our home page.
Sarah Younger — youngersn at outlook.com — Chair, Newsletter
"Mission Accomplished! The challenge of rebuilding our group leadership has now ended. Thanks to all the hard work by the SSJ Steering Committee and Group Empowerment Team from Florida Chapter. I look forward to a time when we can gather together and break bread as we used to with the potluck meals and membership meetings. To share ideas and concerns around North Central Florida, I am happy to speak further with any who share the Sierra Club vision."
Michelle Rutledge — mkayrut at aol.com — Vice Chair, Energy, Archer Solar Farm, and Beyond Coal
"I am honored to be selected as Vice-chair of the SSJ ExCom. It is a passion of mine to give back and help try to make this world a better place. Some of my goals while serving on the SSJ Excom will be to continue to promote a Just Transition to renewables and building new relationships and partnerships with communities in our region. I look forward to serving you and working together with such dedicated ExCom team members."
Tim Martin — ftimothymartin at gmail.com — Secretary, Social Media, Conservation
"I'm interested in helping the SSJ group rebuild and once again become a force for climate and environmental advocacy in North Central Florida. I'm a native Floridian and a long time environmental organizer. My main interests are working to fight climate change, environmental justice, land conservation, permaculture, and outings. I also have a professional IT background, and will assist with communications and social media."
Ray Moorer — rayjmoorer at gmail.com — Co-Treasurer, Political
"My Interest in joining the Executive Committee of the SSJ Sierra Club was always to do my part as a good steward of our environment and not sit on the sidelines as climate change decimates the world. It's always important to put in action the solutions to save our planet. I love that we have minded individual here in the Suwanee-St. Johns Group (SSJ) that will garnered effective plans for cleaning up our waterways and springs, but I am also am fighting that we can do more like making solar a free to the consumer energy option, eliminating "Red Tide" and decreasing phosphate mining here in Florida. That is what I envision for a new environmentally 'Greener' Florida."
Maryvonne Devensky — maryvonne.deven at gmail.com — ICO, Outings
Jane Blais — misstblue88 at gmail.com — Phosphate Mining
"I became involved with SSJ North Florida Working Group six years ago when a phosphate mine was proposed along the New River (Santa Fe's main tributary). The imminent danger this industry constitutes to North Central Florida cannot be overstated. I had the good fortune of working frequently with Whitey on this issue. Hopeful that I can further public awareness and education on this and other critical water issues. This and a pletora of other threats to Florida's waters motivates my ongoing activism and conservation advocacy."
Charlie Collins — charliecollins_504 at msn.com
Karen Garren — iluvfla at cox.net
Joanne Tremblay — jojohighsprings at gmail— Webmaster and social media
David Hastings — david.hastings at florida.sierraclub.org — Co-Treasurer, Political
Amy Crain — amycrain at gmail.com — Programs
Roberta Gastmeyer — rgastmeyer2 at gmail.com — Central Working Group
Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson — merrilleeart at gmail.com — North Florida Working Group
Jon Brainard — jonbrainard at gmail.com — Tricounty Working Group, Education
Gerie Crawford — gerie59 at icloud.com — Florida Chapter's Equity, Inclusion and Justice Committee
Gloria Sims-Fargas — simsfargas at gmail.com — Programming and Education
Jyoti Parmar — parmar.jyoti at gmail.com — Democracy
Sherry Steiner — sherrysteiner at att.net — Recent Board Member, Events
Oscar Psychas — opsychas at gmail.com — Student Leader
See Volunteer page
If you are registered to access the Sierra Club Campfire site, then you can find telephone numbers and 'About Me' profile information for Sierra Club leaders — by logging into https://community.sierraclub.org/ and then entering the person's email address in the search bar, and then selecting to 'Search People'.
If you are a volunteer who is not yet registered to access the Sierra Club Campfire site, then please get registered, (by sending an email request to any ExCom member), and then keep your Profile up to date.
Every Sierra Club member is encouraged to volunteer to help spread social media messages within their own social network. If you have not yet completed the volunteer form, please offer to help now.
When Richard "Whitey" Markle died in early 2020, there were a lot of big holes to fill, because Whitey had been 'a force of nature' in the Suwannee St. Johns Sierra Club for so many years.
Many of our 5200 current members of the SSJ Chapter knew Whitey, and will enjoy watching this Whitey Markle video of a performance including one of the many songs that he wrote.
