The Vermont Chapter of the Sierra Club has nine excellent candidates running for the Chapter’s Executive Committee. The Executive Committee consists of nine members elected by Vermont Chapter members. Please only vote for no more than nine candidates. Write-in candidates will be accepted. The top five vote-getters will receive a two-year term, and the other four will receive a one-year term. The Executive Committee Election opens on December 1 and closes on Monday, December 30 at 5:00 pm. Vermont members will receive an email to vote on December 1.
The Executive Committee manages and oversees the Vermont Chapter’s finances, develops and approves position statements on conservation and environmental issues, represents the Chapter to the public, state and federal governments, and other Chapters, and oversees the activities of the various Committees and Campaigns. Dedicated leadership on the Executive Committee and support from members are crucial to our continued success.
2024 Candidates for Executive Committe
Nancy Braus
Nancy is interested in joining the executive committee of the Vermont Sierra Club to continue the environmental work she has been doing her entire adult life. She is a parent, grandparent, retired left-leaning bookstore owner, outdoors fanatic, progressive political junkie, animal lover, and e-bike rider.
The most intense environmental battle she worked on seriously was the struggle to shutter Vermont Yankee- which was successful in 2014. She worked with the wonderful folks of Safe and Green and CAN for about 6 years- and learned a huge amount from some of the amazing organizers she was fortunate enough to work with. They walked in the winter from Brattleboro to Montpelier in 2011, and she learned the power of a collective public walk- they are fun, bring people together, and are very visible to the public.
After VY shut down, she got involved with 350 Vermont- helped organize and lead a couple of multi-day walks, as well as locally trying (and failing) to get anything that resembles bicycle infrastructure in the Brattleboro area. They are still trying and failing here. She is particularly interested right now in working to ban certain toxins that are proven to cause Parkinson's and cancers. The EPA seems singularly useless, so we likely have to work state by state, but she wants to work on any campaign the VT Sierra Club decides is the priority.
Linda Cooper
Linda participates in hands-on volunteering with the Sierra Club and community groups. She has three volunteer jobs focused on food distribution to people who need it. She also attends rallies and protests focused on environmental issues.
If re-elected to the Vermont Sierra Club Executive Committee, she would want to focus on member engagement; this carries over to her views on grassroots engagement, as she feels it is important to engage members and the community. She also wants to encourage new interest in the Vermont chapter of the Sierra Club and to familiarize herself with the priorities so she can help people become involved in those areas.
Tom Fagan
Originally from New Jersey, his wife and he moved to Rutland County, Vermont seven years ago. They visited the state for the first time in 2017 and stopped at Main Street Park in Rutland where there were ice sculptures being carved for Winterfest, met a few movers and shakers in the community, and moved to the area six months later. The endless outdoor opportunities are what beckoned them to Vermont and have made this wonderful state their home.
He will bring his experience as a fundraiser at the American Red Cross to help support our Sierra Club donor outreach. He also is on the board of Rutland County Audubon, holding the publicity and media outreach chair and the Rutland Young Professionals as the Secretary. He believes there are many organizations throughout Vermont that share similar missions and goals. These organizations can, and in his opinion should be, working together to help move the shared missions forward. Collaboration with other organizations, like the recent bird walk earlier this month, would be a top priority for him.
Christine Hallquist
With the recent change in leadership in Washington, she believes there is a significant amount of work that lies ahead for us.
Having served as the former CEO of Vermont Electric Cooperative, she has dedicated the past two decades to the decarbonization of our energy systems. In 2004, she had the opportunity to listen to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report and explore wind energy in Gaspe with a group from Vermont, including then Governor Douglas. Today, her focus remains on ensuring that every Vermont address has access to fiber optic Internet which is necessary for a smart grid, building upon the foundation laid by her previous efforts.
Her background in energy issues includes leading the largest wind and solar projects at the time. Additionally, she was the Democratic candidate for Governor in 2018, with a primary focus on climate change in her initial platform. She pivoted when she found that a minority of Vermonters were concerned. Following the campaign, she pursued a joint venture in Canada to develop a new battery for the grid utilizing porous silicon battery technology. For further insight into her work, she invites you to watch the "Denial Documentary" on YouTube.
Mark Klinedinst
Volunteering with the Sierra Club is important in that he wants to see greener and healthier environment now and for future generations. He has worked with environmental organizations for many years. One notable win that he has worked on was to stop a power company from falsely billing customers for a supposedly green generating plant (link below). He thinks we have broad support in Vermont to bring people together to enjoy nature and act to protect the environment with legislative initiatives. Some of his passions include travel, surfing, hiking, gardening, and wood-working. (http://markaklinedinst.net/selected-publications-and-activity/) Mark is a Ph.D. Emeritus Professor of Economics.
Luke Miller
Protecting and promoting appreciation for wildlife has always been important to Luke. He would be excited to remain on the Vermont Sierra Club Executive Committee to play a part in protecting our state's natural resources and driving our transition to a zero-carbon economy. Luke’s past experience in environmental policy and current work at NEEP allow him to add value to the Sierra Club Executive Committee.
Currently, Luke works for Northeastern Energy Efficiency Partnerships (NEEP) as a senior policy associate. At NEEP, Luke works to promote regional adoption of decarbonization policy across the northeast. Thus far, he has coordinated with NEEP partners in the private and public sectors to form working groups to maximize the impact of newly available federal funds through the Inflation Reduction Act, and he has worked on multiple reports to facilitate successful adoption of effective building decarbonization policies.
Participating in Sierra Club events and meetings has been a great way to learn more about what we can do to advocate for climate-focused changes in the world around us, and Luke would like to continue to contribute to that goal in any way possible. By remaining on the Executive Committee, Luke would be able to continue supporting work to accomplish the Club’s goals.
Nathaniel Shoaff
Nathaniel Shoaff is a senior attorney in the Sierra Club's Environmental Law Program based in Montpelier, VT, focusing on transportation electrification and the climate impacts of fossil fuel extraction on public lands. He's worked at the Sierra Club for 15 years. For the past six years, he's worked closely with Robb Kidd and others engaged in the Vermont Chapter's work on electric vehicles and other transportation issues. Nathaniel joined the Sierra Club Environmental Law Program in 2009 after spending two years in private practice in San Francisco. His work entails policy advocacy on behalf of Sierra Club's Beyond Coal, Clean Transportation For All, and Conservation campaigns, and he's litigated National Environmental Policy Act and Clean Water Act cases on behalf of a dozen conservation organizations in state and federal court. Nathaniel received his B.A. from Middlebury College and his J.D. from Vermont Law School.
Sheng Sun
Since 2019, Sheng has been directing the Law Lab for International Sustainable Development at Vermont Law and Graduate School (VLGS), where he specializes in environmental and climate regulatory and policy issues related to trade and supply chains. His work has focused on areas such as regulating trade to combat illegal logging, conserving global forest systems, and optimizing supply chains to support the global clean energy transition. Before leading the Law Lab, he served as the Law and Policy Research Officer for the US-Asia Partnership for Environmental Law at VLGS from 2016 to 2019. He has led law and policy research projects funded by international development and aid agencies, as well as environmental NGOs. His experience also includes serving as vice president of an East Asia-based law and consulting firm specializing in international trade and investment, as well as working as a marketing officer representing the Philippine government from 2008 to 2012.
Throughout his career, he has been deeply passionate about nature conservation and environmental protection, which led him to the Green Mountain State. His work at Vermont Law and Graduate School has allowed him to become connected with both local and global communities that share his commitment to environmental advocacy. As a law and policy researcher, environmental and climate advocacy are central to his responsibilities.
Zach Hozid
Zach has always enjoyed nature and enjoyed cherishing it with others. Zach spent his childhood playing outside in rural South Dakota, rural New Mexico, and Alaska, developing a fondness for nature, while respecting it as well. In college, Zach studied anthropology and sociology learning how human systems function. Zach then moved to Vermont to study law at Vermont Law School and combine his understanding of cultural systems with environmental law (and also human rights). Zach now works as an attorney at Costello, Valente, and Gentry, P.C., representing clients in a number of matters including civil rights, personal injury, family matters, and environmental and land use matters.
Zach is proud to serve on the Executive Committee of the Vermont Chapter of the Sierra Club. Zach has been an Executive Committee member since 2020 and he's served as the Chair of the Committee for the past year. I look forward to continuing to volunteer with the Sierra Club to bring people together and address our pressing environmental challenges.
When not working or volunteering, Zach can often be found out walking in the woods or cross-country skiing near his home in Tunbridge.