Sierra Club Georgia Chapter 2022 Executive Committee Elections

Haseena Charania

I'm thrilled to join the Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club and expand my professional horizons. From working in nonprofit, corporate, and government environments, I have multi-sectoral expertise in international sustainability communications, science and business. Before joining Quantis as an ESG communications consultant, I founded my own sustainability education consulting company. My projects included consulting on a packaging company’s first Corporate Social Responsibility Report and creating a Digital Sustainability 101 course for Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport employees. I've also worked with UPS, Park Pride, and the United Nations. I attended Emory and Duke for my undergraduate and graduate degrees, respectively. 

Jumana Master

As an Atlanta resident and lifetime Georgian, I’m excited to run for re-election to our Georgia Sierra Club ExCom. I have spent my career creating resourceful ways to build more sustainable and equitable communities. Having worked in the nonprofit sector and led strategy to mitigate environmental harms within Georgia communities, I bring strong experience in grassroots organizing and movement building. I have served as Co-Chair for the Partnership for Southern Equity’s Just Energy Circle Policy Committee and have publicly represented a coalition of 15 nonprofit organizations. I’ve educated lawmakers at the national level on Georgia’s environmental issues and have authored climate analysis on the U.S. South read by the UN and Pope Francis. My academic background in public health & human rights includes a strong race/class/gender lens and systems-thinking perspective to environmental issues. It’s important that our movements continue to center those most affected by the climate crisis. The issues and solutions affect us all and it’s critical that we involve youth and communities of color so that our movement is inclusive, informed, and sustainable. If re-elected, I would use the opportunity to strengthen our base and continue to promote our club’s mission in every way I can. 

Krupesh Patel

I lived in Georgia pretty much my whole life and currently reside in Gwinnett County. I joined the Sierra Club in 2017. I have been active in many different campaigns by the local affiliate chapters of the Sierra Club such as the Beyond Coal campaign, Ready for 100 Gwinnett, and the campaign to get MARTA to Gwinnett. In 2019, I helped organize a town hall in Gwinnett County about what a Green New Deal could mean to Gwinnett. I currently serve on the Sustainability Commission for District 2 in Gwinnett County where I along with other commission members are tasked with providing advice and making recommendations regarding sustainability to the Gwinnett Board of Commissioners. I hope to bring my activism on environmental issues as well as my professional background in data science to help push the causes and mission of the Sierra Club Georgia Chapter.

Sarina Sawyer

I believe everyone deserves safe, healthy, and beautiful places to live. I am personally and professionally committed to this belief. For this reason, I am honored to run for the Executive Committee. Before moving to Atlanta, and staying for the past six years, I worked for Sierra Club national in DC doing major gifts fundraising for the 12 states in the Southeast. Through working with the chapters and organizers, I learned how focusing on local issues is an effective strategy and makes the most impact on our daily lives. This experience inspired me to move into a career in urban planning and community development, which is what brought me to Atlanta, where I received my Master's degree in City and Regional Planning from Georgia Tech. Since then, I have worked in comprehensive planning and affordable housing. Currently, I am the Workforce Training and Partnerships Manager at the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance (SEEA). I administer SEEA’s portfolio of workforce development activities, resources, and training programs to cultivate a thriving and skilled clean energy workforce across the Southeast. Outside of work, I spend most of my time snuggling my four dogs, dreaming of better public transit and bike infrastructure, playing soccer, and trying to grow my own fruit and veggies.

Linda Bell

I have been a long time Sierran (since college!) though not able to participate personally until about nine years ago when we retired and moved close enough to join the Centennial Group. Since that time, I have been involved with many group and chapter activities, but the areas I personally find most motivating are political and legislative; thus, I am a member of the Chapter Political and Legislative Committees. Electing government representatives who understand our environmental challenges and are eager to enact legislation directed toward those challenges is critical to saving our planet. Climate change must be addressed vigorously if my grandchildren and yours hope to inherit a livable world. For that reason, I choose to focus on transportation issues and, along with several other Centennial members, am involved in encouraging our Cobb County Commission to place a transit expansion referendum on the ballot. I’ve become increasingly concerned also about plastics: their production (here comes that fossil fuel industry again!), the vulgar accumulation of them in our environment, and some so-called recycling efforts that I believe to be largely a ruse. I hope Sierra Club will be more involved in this issue and am sure we will with members’ increasing concerns.

Deidre Meiggs

When I was an undergrad in college, I changed my major four times. The last switch was to the environmental sciences. When I told my mother, who was incredibly grateful for scholarship funding by that point, she unexpectedly laughed. Apparently, she had made a wager with my grandmother when I was younger that I would end up as an environmental advocate. A few years and many pieces of paper later, I possess postgraduate degrees in Earth and Atmospheric Science and Inorganic Chemistry from Georgia Tech. At present, my advocacy partially manifests in my employment as a passionate educator and Associate Professor of Natural Science at Life University in Marietta, where I teach courses in environmental ethics, food industry sustainability, and environmental science. I have also been an active Sierra Club member since 2015 and a member of the Centennial Group Executive Committee for the past two years. I am thankful to the members of the Centennial Group for giving me the opportunity to expand my environmental stewardship efforts as a member of the Executive Committee and look forward to the opportunity to continue my service if reelected. 

Vanessa Suarez

My name is Vanessa Suarez, and I am currently pursuing a master’s degree in Wildlife Conservation & Management from Unity College. I received my bachelor's in Biology from Florida State University, and throughout school and my career I’ve focused on plant sciences. I’ve worked for the FSU Herbarium, Tallahassee’s IFAS Extension, Bass Laboratories, and two years ago, I had the opportunity to initiate and manage a greenhouse at Ladds Farm Supply. Executing a greenhouse sounded like a dream to me, but throughout the growing season, I realized that I was going against my passion for conservation and environmental protection. I couldn’t have a career in which I continually utilized nonrenewable resources in order to grow non-native plants that required heavy use of fertilizers and water. Therefore, I decided to take a different direction in my career. Now that I am further into my masters, I feel as if I’ve truly found my calling. I have never enjoyed learning about a subject more. I deeply understand the importance of maintaining a healthy planet whilst focusing on environmental justice and sustainability. As my knowledge in the environment grows, I look forward to being thoroughly immersed in environmental protection while learning from like-minded individuals and scientific research.

Jorge Granados

I’m running to continue to be a part of the Sierra Club Greater Gwinnett Group Executive Committee to continue to fight hard for a better environmental future, increase youth membership, and support candidates that will work hard to create policies to protect our greenspace, better our water and air quality, and educating our families, friends, and neighbors in Gwinnett.

Arthur I. Sheldon

My interest in public policy dates back to my youth discussing politics while still in high school. I went to college and received my Bachelors in Environmental Studies then applied to and was accepted into the graduate City Planning program at Georgia Tech. I have been a long time Sierra Club member and currently serve as conservation chair for the Greater Gwinnett Group, as well as being a former executive committee member and vice-chair of that group. I also have co-chaired the state Sierra Club Sustainable Communities Committee and serve on the state Transportation Committee and am our representative to the national Transportation Committee. In 1996, I served on the first SPLOST citizens’ project selection committee as a homeowners’ representative. Subsequently I served on the same committee for the three most recent SPLOSTs as the environmental group representative or alternate. In between those roles, I was one of the original appointees to the Gwinnett County Transit Advisory Board. I eventually was reappointed for a second four year term and served as the board chair and vice-chair. Recently, I served on the county transit study stakeholders committee for the transit expansion study before the MARTA referendum in 2019.
 

Collie Graddick

Collie Graddick is a Consultant with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA), a partner in the Community Table Association of Cooperatives (CTAC), and a lifetime member of the West Georgia Farmer’s Cooperative (WGFC) and the Federation of Southern Cooperatives (FSC). Collie has been with the MDA for 28 years, working in the Seed, Noxious Weed, Fertilizer, Endangered Species, and Pesticide Regulatory programs. He has been a partner and trainer at CTAC for 11 years, assisting immigrant, minority, and small farmers with working together on developing Local Community Cooperative Food Systems throughout MN. Collie grew up on a 200-acre sustainable farm in Hamilton, Georgia, producing fruits, vegetables, and livestock.  He received his B.S. degree in Agronomy from Fort Valley State University, GA and his M.S. degree in Commercial Fruit and Vegetable Production from Tuskegee University, Alabama. 

Amber Hendrix

I have always had a great fascination with nature; the way a flower grows and a bee pollinates — there cannot be one without the other. Every living organism has a purpose and a story to share. As a young child, I wanted to spend every waking moment outside exploring the woods, playing in creeks, and so on. I became infatuated with the art of gardening about a decade ago, enthralling myself in learning as much as I could about the organic process of growing one's own food. I met an amazing mentor and father figure that took me as one of his own. He taught me a great deal about vegetable gardening, and I was able to take that knowledge and apply my own organic concepts to it. Thus I started my very own vegetable garden with a large amount of pre-planning and prepwork. Then I tapped into all the wonderful herbs that grow naturally without human interception and found my soul calling: herbal medicine! I am still in the early stages of educating myself on the processes as well as my foraging abilities. There is still much for me to learn before I start dabbling in my own tincture and tea making. I am incredibly eager to find my way into a career that is centered around plants, focusing on what I love as well as serving others with an open mind and an open heart.

Cathy Knight

I learned to love the outdoors from my Dad and to love books from my Mom. My interests led to a degree in biology. I spent my medical sciences career working in laboratories. It was interesting and dynamic with many opportunities to learn. I feel lucky to have lived in 6 of our diverse and beautiful states: Florida, Georgia, Texas, New Mexico, California, and Idaho. They are as different as apples are to oranges. Beauty is perceived with an open mind. Moving to LaGrange has been good for me. It has great places to pursue my hobbies of birding, walking, biking, kayaking, and camping. I have been a member of Sierra Club for six years but have not lived where there was an active group nearby. I am very excited to be part of the LaGrange Group as well as a member of Chattahoochee Riverkeeper Neighborhood Water Watch. Since retirement, there has been a lot more time to be outdoors. A lot more time to read books too. Reading books outdoors is a double win for me! By looking and listening there are wonders revealed in even a short time spent outdoors. I am always overwhelmed by what I don’t know. We need our world and it needs us to do what is necessary to protect these wonders. Everyone needs a chance to look, listen, marvel, learn and enjoy!

Travis Towns

Growing up in the countryside of Mountville and spending a lot of time outdoors gave me a reverence for Mother Nature from an early age. Going hiking, camping and all sorts of outdoor activities in Boy Scouts further instilled a respect for our environment. My Eagle Scout project was the creation of a nature trail, complete with identification of native trees behind our local elementary school. For the past two decades, I have been a member of the Wilderness Network of Georgia, a men's outdoors club, and have held office in the past. Being more active in our local Sierra Club for several years, I served three years as delegate to the Georgia Chapter Executive Committee and have served as the LaGrange Group Program Chair for the past four years.

Justin Brightharp

I am Justin Brightharp and I am running for re-election to the Executive Committee for the Sierra Club Metro Atlanta Group. My work has been in the clean transportation space, specifically on projects related to zero-emission vehicles in the southeastern United States. I still believe the Sierra Club Metro Atlanta Group has incredible opportunities to be a space for sustainability and how it elevates our communities through education and recreation. Atlanta and Georgia are at the center of federal investments focused on climate and clean technology, and Metro Atlanta Group’s focus on community would be valuable in ensuring climate benefits are felt in our communities.

Eddie Ehlert

I’m Eddie Ehlert and I’m hoping to return as a member of the Metro Atlanta Group Executive Committee (ExCom). I have been a Member of the Sierra Club since the mid 1990s and a member of the Chapter Political Committee since 2008. I became Chapter Political Chair in 2009. I have served on the Metro Atlanta Group ExCom since 2011. Additionally, I joined the Sierra Club Political Team (National) in 2017. I grew up in Metro Atlanta and have witnessed the ever increasing pressures on the air, water, and land we share as our population has bulged while our infrastructure seems stuck in the past. It has become ever more obvious to me that preserving livability in our area requires strict adherence to air quality rules, stream buffer rules, and enhancement of water conservation. Doing so requires electing and keeping members of our Legislature who understand how dependent we are on air and water. It’s up to Georgians to keep our area healthy for all of us. I plan to do my part!

The rules below can be found in the latest version of the Georgia Chapter Bylaws:

4.1 Annual Election. An Annual Election shall be held in the fourth quarter of each year to choose ExCom members. This election and any special elections shall be conducted by secret ballot. A printed ballot shall be mailed and a electronic ballot shall be made available via a secure website for online voting to all Chapter members of record at least four weeks before the closing date of the election, and shall be conducted in such a manner in order to ensure facility of voting and tabulation, and the secrecy of each ballot. A member may vote with the printed ballot or with the electronic ballot but not both. In the event a member submits more than one ballot, the ballot with the latest date shall be counted. The ballot shall allow each voter to vote for as many candidates as there are positions to be filled. A voter may not cumulate votes for any candidate. The ExCom shall specify the calendar dates and deadlines for appointing the Nominating Committee (NomCom), production of eligible voter lists, receipt of names for consideration by the NomCom, receipt of ballot issue petitions, the NomCom report of names of nominees, receipt of candidate petitions, appointment of the Election Committee, printing and mailing dates for ballots allowing at least four weeks for return of the ballots, receipt of returned ballots, and the date, time and place for counting ballots. The ExCom shall provide written notice of this schedule and of the opportunity to nominate candidates by petition to all Chapter members.

4.2 Nominating Committee. A Nominating Committee (NomCom) of at least three Chapter members, at least one not an ExCom member, none of whom may be a candidate, shall be appointed annually by the ExCom not later than four months before the designated closing date of the election. Sufficient opportunity shall be given for Chapter members to submit names for consideration by the NomCom. The NomCom shall attempt to nominate at least two more candidates than the number of ExCom members to be elected, and shall report the nominees' names to the ExCom at least two weeks before the deadline for submission of nomination petitions and five weeks before the scheduled mailing and electronic availability of the ballots. Nominees shall be Chapter members who give their consent. If the NomCom chooses not to nominate a willing candidate, the NomCom shall promptly inform that candidate of the opportunity to seek nomination by petition.

4.3 Petition Candidates. The name of any Chapter member proposed in writing by at least 15 Chapter members prior to the deadline for submission of petitions, and who gives consent, shall also be included on the ballot. The nomination petitions shall be retained until the ballots are destroyed.

4.4 Election Committee. An Election Committee of at least three Chapter members, at least one not an ExCom member, shall be appointed annually by the ExCom prior to the scheduled date of mailing and electronic availability of ballots. No candidates may serve on the Election Committee. The Election Committee shall cause the ballots to be prepared, mailed and made available electronically, and shall count the returned ballots. Challenges of the conduct of candidates or their campaigns shall be referred to the Election Committee. Decisions of the Election Committee may be appealed to the ExCom.

4.5 Mailing and Availability of Ballots. Ballots shall be mailed and made available electronically to all Chapter members of record according to the voter list obtained prior to the election.

4.6 Return of Ballots. Ballots shall be returned to the Election Committee as directed in the ballot instructions. Return of a minimum number of valid ballots shall not be required for the validity of an annual or special election.

4.7 Counting Ballots. The Election Committee shall count the ballots on the closing date of the election, or as soon as practical after the closing date of the election. The candidates or their authorized representatives shall be permitted to be present. The candidates receiving the highest number of votes shall be elected. Any tie shall be resolved immediately, first by a recount, then if necessary by lot at the ballot counting. The Election Committee shall report the results immediately to the Secretary. The Secretary shall immediately notify the candidates, the ExCom members, and other interested parties, and shall report the results to the ExCom at its next meeting. The ballots and nomination petitions shall be retained until their destruction is directed by the ExCom.