Sierra Club chapters, including our Massachusetts Chapter, are overseen by an Executive Committee, a group of up to nine representatives elected by the Chapter’s members—that means you! Each fall, you have the opportunity to vote for the local voices you believe in— voices that align with the issues and perspectives that you feel will best move our work forward. Collectively, this group helps to direct the Chapter’s efforts both internally and externally, which is why it’s so important that our community expresses their preferences for the composition of this group by casting their votes!
WHAT DO EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBERS WORK ON?
Guiding Action from Within - Committee members partner with staff to identify and make structural changes within the Chapter to help better center justice and equity in our work and create a more diverse, effective, accountable, and transparent organization.
Facing Challenges in MA - Committee members work to create strategies and campaigns to address key issues in Massachusetts and bring about the structural changes necessary to effectively face the intersecting challenges of the climate, economic, and racial justice crisis impacting Bay State residents.
Don’t miss your chance this year to vote for the leaders who you think will best move the Massachusetts Chapter forward!
Chapter ExCom Candidates
Reverend Vernon Walker of Cambridge
My name is Rev. Vernon K. Walker, and I am a current executive board member of the Massachusetts Sierra Club. Right now, we are living in dangerous times with climate change rapidly endangering all living organisms on this plant. The climate crisis represents an urgent and existential threat to civilization. Climate change is not a single special interest issue but a multi-faceted and complex crisis affecting every facet of American lives.
Throughout the last two years with Sierra Club, l have helped connect the chapter to other groups that do different types of justice work such as the ACLU. I also serve as the chair of the Political Committee during this cycle, we have been remarkably busy and all hands-on deck with the mayoral race in Boston.
I would like to continue to serve on the Executive Committee, and as a person of color and one who has relationships with many organizations across the state, build an opportunity to build new relationships with organizations and strengthen relationships with existing organizations that the Sierra Club has for the purpose of building solidarity.
Mallorie Barber of Cambridge
I moved to Massachusetts in 2019 to be closer to the outdoor spaces that were core to my childhood. My love for these spaces extends to a belief in a universal right to nature, health, and safety for all people; not only expanding access to the outdoors as they exist today, but empowering communal solutions to the climate crisis. Through my change management and design work, I help individuals shift how they view and interact with the world. I hope to leverage this ability, combined with volunteer experience at racial justice, climate, and education organizations, to support the Massachusetts chapter’s work toward fulfilling that universal right.
Laura MacLeod of Amherst
“Progreso sin Destrucción” was the motto of the first environmental NGO in 1980, Argentina. As a founding member, I dealt with issues for 20 years from assistant to president. The group embraced the SC principles, a pivotal move for activities I organized extensively and to implement national networks. My foundational dream still soars high:global environmental ethics. I participate in the SC toxics and political committees and have led outings as SC leader. I'm a founding member of ZWA and MOF. In the LWVMA energy committee, we terminated the biomass plant. As chair of school PGO, I generate zero waste and climate actions. Active member since 2006, a well-seasoned bilingual educator and coordinator, I kindly ask for your vote to accelerate the ethical change. Gracias!
Clint Richmond of Brookline
My family has been a member of the Sierra Club for many years. I became active with the Chapter on the issue of single-use plastics in 2012. This campaign has expanded into solid waste and toxics. I have also served as co-chair of the Transportation Committee since 2017.
I have represented the Chapter on these issues in the media, hearings, and other public forums. I have served on the Chapter Executive Committee since 2018. I am an elected Brookline Town Meeting Member, and member of the town’s Solid Waste Advisory Committee. My career has been in computer technology.
Marty Nathan of Northampton***
I am a founder and active member of three separate grassroots Western Mass climate justice organizations and a regular climate justice columnist for the Daily Hampshire Gazette, I have worked with the Sierra Club for many years attempting to stop pipeline construction, halt the building of a biomass plant, elect climate justice politicians and bring grassroots pressure to pass necessary legislation in Massachusetts and now at the federal level. I bring a long history of anti-militarism and economic and social justice organizing. I am a physician-researcher who knows well and can articulate the public health risk of fossil fuel drilling, transport and burning on sacrificed communities and the biosphere.
***We are heartbroken to share the passing of climate justice warrior and climate voice, Marty Nathan. Marty was running for a position on our Executive Committee this year, and we were very excited to add her voice and guidance to our leadership. She will be sorely missed.
“She was uncompromising in her beliefs, her commitment to justice, her love for her family, and doing the work that real change requires of us,” - Leah Nathan, Marty's daughter.
Cape Cod Group ExCom Candidates
Allyson Schmidt of Marstons Mills
Growing up on Cape Cod I have always been passionate towards conserving our unique ecosystem. After obtaining my masters in Sustainable Natural Resource Management I was able to apply my studies to multiple nonprofits on Cape Cod including the Cape Wildlife Center, Barnstable Clean Water Coalition, Barnstable Land Trust, Sustainable Practices, 350 Cape Cod, Extinction Rebellion, and the Dennis Solid Waste & Recycling Committee. Working with these nonprofits I was able to gain insight on what environmental & social justice issues are impacting the cape the most along with how to address these issues so that change can be implemented at the rate it is needed rather than waiting for the government to handle it.
With your support, I would be honored to serve with other leading advocates on the CCG’s Executive Committee.
Mary Waygan of Mashpee
I am a life-long resident of Massachusetts and currently live in Mashpee, MA. After graduating from Boston University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Physics, I joined the National Toxics Campaign in their Citizens’ Environmental Testing Laboratory. The Laboratory brought science and testing services to grassroots activist groups combating toxic poisoning of their community. Impressed by the need for accountability in government and corporate America, I have remained active in my community since. I am currently a member of 350 Cape Cod, the Sierra Club Cape Cod & Islands Group, Mashpee Introverts (A Women’s March Group), Cape Cod and Islands Commission on the Status of Women, the Town of Mashpee Planning Board, and the Town of Mashpee Community Preservation Committee. My day-job is with the Town of Yarmouth Department of Community Development. When not working or at a community meeting, I enjoy my time swimming in the waters of Cape Cod. I strongly encourage all to join a local community group or Town committee.
Morgan Peck of Chatham
My name is Morgan Peck, and I have been an environmental and marine science educator since 2013, working with Mass Audubon. In my role as Education Coordinator and Climate Specialist, I help develop place-based and natural history curriculum for students grades K-12, which focuses on stewardship and climate change mitigation and adaptation. Connecting students to the physical world around us, and seeing the interconnectedness of our place within it is my primary goal. Civic engagement is one of my passions, and I hope to help raise awareness about various environmental, and climate change related issues on the Outer-Cape and their solutions. I look forward to continuing to serve with Sierra Club’s Cape Cod Chapter!