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
Mallorie Barber
In my first term on the Executive Committee, I served as secretary, participated in a hiring committee, led the nominating committee, and brought more structure to ExCom, helping us to impact the chapter and represent you, our members. I also co-lead the climate research team, which helps local communities implement climate action through education and advocacy. In addition to our community-level work, I am proud of the consistent group of curious volunteers who are new to climate work and are making an impact. Developing individuals’ literacy with and commitment to climate action is a key piece of our chapter’s work. If elected to a second term, I will continue developing new climate activists, bringing supporting structures to a growing organization, and centering equity in the climate movement.
Brian Stilwell
Brian Stilwell has spent more than 12 years as part of the youth climate movement organizing for solutions to the climate crisis at the scope and scale that science and justice demand. After 5+ years leading high school education, leadership development and organizing programs at Action for the Climate Emergency, Brian helped launch and build Sunrise Movement in 2017, serving in a variety of Director level positions. Known for popularizing the Green New Deal, Sunrise Movement has galvanized tens of thousands of young people to make climate an urgent political priority in America, end the corrupting influence of fossil fuels on our politics, and elect leaders who’ll stand up for the health and well being of all people. Since transitioning from Sunrise Movement in 2022, Brian has held a series of short-term organizing positions with the Sierra Club’s Massachusetts Chapter, All In Energy and Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), while also working on launching a local campaign for a fare-free, world-class MBTA. He is excited to support Sierra Club Massachusetts’ work to build a people-powered movement to fight for climate justice and make Massachusetts a worldwide role model for what a just transition looks like.
Laura Rojo MacLeod
“Progreso sin Destrucción’’ was the motto of the first environmental NGO in 1980, Tucuman, Argentina. As a founding member Laura dealt with environmental issues for 20 years from assistant to president. The group adopted the SC principles, a pivotal move for groundbreaking activities she created for the group and other institutions. At present, Laura volunteers in the political action, the plastics/ toxics and the forest protection teams; she has led nature outings, writes editorials, letters to news, councilors, senators, representatives, and supports countless priority campaigns. She is at the forefront of the Water action initiative. A member of educational foundations, she has led the middle school PGO and community towards zero waste and climate action. Active MASC member since 2006, a seasoned bilingual educator/translator and coordinator, Laura kindly asks for your vote to accelerate the ethical change in decision makers. Her foundational dream still soars high: full global environmental ethics. Muchas gracias!
Wendy Morrill
Wendy Morrill is a community organizer in New Bedford, working tirelessly in the pursuit of social and environmental justice. As President of South Coast Neighbors United, a grassroots organization she co-founded in 2015, Wendy and community members successfully defeated a plan to expand unnecessary fossil fuel infrastructure through several towns in Southeastern MA. The group is now campaigning against a proposed trash transfer station which would perpetuate the waste crisis and pose unnecessary risks to citizens and the environment. Wendy’s activism is inspired by her 3 daughters and the hope of achieving a healthy environment for them and future generations.
Errica Saunders
I am deeply rooted in New England. Being born and raised in a working class shoreline community in Connecticut and now residing in Central Massachusetts. I bring with me years of experience as an organizer through 350 Central Mass, an autonomous group of the greater 350 organization. Over the years I have worked and learned alongside incredible organizers to build actions, support legislation and support events all meant to build understanding and action towards a more sustainable world. I believe that community, vulnerability and action are imperative to the environmental justice movement. There is no one way to mitigate climate change. Each of us and our communities can affect policy and change in the fight for climate justice. And justice is the key. We need to approach everything we do through a justice lens, considering our most vulnerable communities and how we can assist in raising their voices in this time.
Tim Cronin
I’m running for ExCom to strengthen our chapter’s volunteer base, advance internal DEI goals, and support volunteers and staff to pass equitable and impactful policy. I’m from Weymouth, and got into this work when a multinational corporation built a dirty, dangerous gas compressor station only a mile from my family. I’ve since dedicated myself to community-led climate & environmental policy that eliminates our fossil fuel dependence and mitigates its health harms. I earned degrees in economics & public administration, doing research to solve inequalities in how our state incentivizes clean energy. I’ve organized small businesses across MA to pressure Beacon Hill to expand renewables, and coordinated a coalition of labor, EJ, and environmentalists aimed at fully funding Massachusetts’ climate commitments. And now, I’m the Massachusetts Director for Health Care Without Harm, a nonprofit to eliminate toxics and carbon pollution from the health care sector, and advance health equity for all.
John Hirst
I have been a contract and procurement manager in the aerospace industry for 40 years. I recently retired and am pursuing my life-long passions - the outdoors, hiking, great forests, and environmental preservation. This pursuit includes becoming an Outings Leader for the Massachusetts chapter. My environmental mantra is a quote by Jacques Yves Cousteau, “People protect what they love.” I reside in beautiful Western Massachusetts with my beloved wife, two dogs, and four cats. What I bring to the chapter is extensive experience in leading professionals and project teams, working with a spectrum of people with varying interests, negotiating contractual agreements, solving complex problems, and managing budgets and changes. My plan is to apply this experience and skills to: 1) the Forest Protection, Climate Research, and Political teams, 2) outreach to environmental justice neighborhoods, and 3) establishment of chapter groups in different regions of Massachusetts.
Cape Cod Group ExCom Candidates
Mary Waygan
Mary Waygan lives Mashpee. Concerned about rapid development, Mary joined the Planning Board in 2008 and has worked to preserve Mashpee’s unique rural character and restore its polluted waterways ever since. Mary earned a BA in Physics from Boston University and a Masters in Environmental Science from UMASS Lowell, and worked years in laboratories. Once on the Cape, Mary worked in the housing and is currently the affordable housing specialist for the Town of Yarmouth. The constant strain between housing affordability and overdevelopment prompted Mary to join the Sierra Club, an invaluable resource for applied environmental science and community-based activism. The most pressing issues for Mary are water quality, the preservation of Cape Cod, implementation of climate solutions, and housing equity.
Morgan Peck
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!
Ella Sampou
I hope to be considered for Cape Cod Sierra Club’s December Executive Committee elections. I admire Sierra Cape Cod’s focus on action oriented education and ability to cover so many on-going campaigns and environmental initiatives across the Cape and Islands. I have spent the past couple years teaching civics and coaching youth climate activists with Mass Audubon’s Cape Cod Youth Climate Leadership Program. Currently, I am working as a community organizer in affordable housing. I hope my background in municipal engagement and issue organizing can be of service to SierraCC, and that by participating in SierraCC’s ExCom, I will continue to focus on developing environmental work across the peninsula.