About Us
The Seattle Group focuses on transportation, affordable housing, equity and supporting climate-friendly political candidates and initiatives. The Executive Committee of the Seattle Group meets the first Monday of each month at the chapter office in Seattle.
Follow us on Twitter at @SierraClubSEA, check out our blog at https://medium.com/@SierraClubSEA, and join us on Facebook.
Volunteer Opportunities
The success of our efforts will depend on having a dedicated group of volunteers! If you're interested in working on local Seattle issues or others, please contact our chair, Robert Cruickshank, Seattle Group chair (cruickshank at gmail dot com).
Political Endorsements
The Seattle Group leads the Sierra Club endorsement process for Seattle City Council and Mayoral races, Seattle-based seats in the Washington State legislature, and other local and regional offices and ballot measures.
Outings
The Washington Chapter runs frequent outings throughout the state. See the statewide Meetup page for upcoming events.
Executive Committee
Members: Brittney Bollay, Robert Cruickshank, Leah Missik, Audrey Neubauer, and Chad Newton.
Executive Committee Elections
The Seattle Group is governed by an Executive Committee (ExCom) of up to nine members. ExCom members are elected to two-year terms by Club members in Seattle.
Seattle Group Executive Committee Members and Bios
Brittney Bollay - Brittney is an urban environmental advocate with special interests in housing, transit and transportation policy. In addition to having served on the Seattle Group ExCom since 2017, she is an elected leader within the 36th District Democrats and a board member of the Vera Project. Prior to moving to Seattle in 2006, she lived in five other countries and three states. She enjoys birdwatching, gardening, and baseball, and when she goes on vacation she loves trying every type of public transit she can find.
Robert Cruickshank, Committee Chair - Robert has been a longtime environmental and sustainability activist, committed to carbon reduction and protecting our natural environment. Before moving to Seattle in 2011, he worked to protect California's cap-and-trade system from an oil company funded effort to repeal it at the ballot box, and promoted sustainable community development on California's Central Coast. Here in Seattle, Robert has worked in the office of Mayor Mike McGinn, doing communications work to help carry out his leading environmental and climate action initiatives. He has also fought for better transit in Seattle and in the Puget Sound region. Currently, Robert works as Senior Campaign Manager for Democracy for America, a job that includes supporting anti-fracking activism on both coasts, as well as supporting Sierra Club-endorsed candidates for local, state, and federal offices.
Leah Missik - Leah has been involved with the Sierra Club with her family from a young age and was the first Beyond Coal Campaign intern in Kentucky, her home state, in 2009. Leah has worked in the environmental sector for her entire career, specializing in climate transportation policy. She works for Climate Solutions as their Senior Washington Transportation Policy Manager, where she helps develop and implement policies that will accelerate our transition to a clean energy economy with a focus on transportation. As a volunteer, she also does Russian to English translation for Russian environmental, human rights, and anti-war activists and is eager to facilitate international connections between environmental groups and foster dialogue on effective activism.
Chad Newton - Chad is an environmental advocate focused on leveraging urban housing, transit and renewable electricity to significantly reduce carbon emissions, and is a lapsed hiker and backpacker. He is currently a quality manager for Sound Transit, and previously worked for 20 years as an engineering consultant for wastewater treatment design. He studied environmental engineering at the University of Washington, taught engineering at Kabul University in Afghanistan for one quarter, and managed an Engineers Without Borders volunteer project to replace several schools in Sri Lanka destroyed by tsunami. Locally, his advocacy kick-started the process to integrate the Seattle Center Monorail into the Orca transit payment system, and develop a safe-routes-to-school project at his daughter’s school that is funded in the Seattle Public Schools capital levy.
Audrey Neubauer, Committee Vice-Chair - Audrey has been a member of the Seattle group since 2021 and also serves as the group’s representative to the Seattle Conservation Committee. Audrey has worked in the clean energy sector since she graduated from Kenyon College in 2019, with a special focus on equitable renewable project siting, development, and effective grievance and conflict management strategies.In addition to her Bachelor of Arts from Kenyon, Audrey holds a Master of Sustainable Development from the University of St Andrews in Scotland. When she’s off the clock, Audrey enjoys backpacking, spending time with friends, reading, or enjoying delicious local food and drink!
Bill Sampson - bio coming soon!