Please see below the biographies for the four people running for the Executive Committee of the Sierra Club Hoosier Chapter. Their biographies and accompanying photographs are presented in alphabetical order by last name.
If you are a member of the Sierra Club, live in Indiana, and are eligible to vote in this election, you will receive a link to the ballot either by email or by mail. Please do take the opportunity to vote and make your voice heard.
If you have any queries, please contact hoosier.chapter@sierraclub.org.
*This ballot has now closed*
Richard Hill
I have been intensely involved in environmental issues since the 1970’s. After a period in the U.S. Navy, where I was an electrician in the engineering department of a nuclear submarine, I moved back home to Madison, Indiana. My experience in the Navy gave me a deep respect for the importance of the concerns involved with the design, construction, and operation of nuclear power plants. Upon coming back to Indiana three things happened that sparked me to get active. These were the pollution at Love Canal, the construction problems at the Marble Hill nuclear plant near Madison, and the accident at Three Mile Island. Since then I have worked on a great variety of projects centered mainly in southeastern Indiana and northern Kentucky.
I believe my most important achievements include the parts that I played in the abandonment of the Marble Hill plant, the establishment of the Big Oaks National Wildlife Refuge at the former Jefferson Proving Ground, and a federal court victory against IDEM and the EPA regarding the lack of enforcement of the Clean Water Act relating to Confined Feeding Operations in Indiana. I was also The Community Co-chair of the Jefferson Proving Ground Restoration Advisory Board and continually challenged the Army in efforts to clean up the depleted uranium at JPG. I was also active in a case involving Indiana-Kentucky Electric Corporation’s coal waste landfill at their Clifty Creek power plant in Madison which led to the Indiana Supreme Court confirmation of associational standing for citizens groups in Indiana. I was President of Save the Valley for many years, served a couple of terms on the Hoosier Environmental Council Board.
I currently serve on the Hoosier Chapter’s Finance and Energy committees and am the Chapter representative for Beyond Coal’s Duke campaign. I look forward to serving the Chapter again for the next two years.
Julie Lowe
As a child I loved being outdoors playing in the woods and streams and now I enjoy kayaking, camping and hiking in southern Indiana forests. My love of Indiana forests is what brought me to the Sierra Club where I eventually found a path to advocate for the protection of Indiana State and Hoosier National Forests. I became a Sierra Club member in 2011 while living in Columbus, Indiana. A few years later, I received a postcard in the mail inviting me to come to a Sierra Club, Winding Waters Group cookout and tree identification walk in the park. This is when I first met other members and became active in the Club. I’m proud to be the Executive Committee Chair of the very busy Winding Waters Group. Over the years, the Group has accomplished many things such as bringing awareness to our community of the environmental harm Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO’s) can cause, Hoosier Riverwatch stream monitoring and instructing, championing the use of solar energy and working to clean up invasive plant in our parks. Winding Waters Group initiated a Sierra Club Grassroots Network Team that organizes an annual native Indiana plant sale, establishes native gardens and donates plants to the community to improve habitat and protect pollinator animals and insects. Our team also provides education in the classroom and field trips to students about pollinator conservation. As Chair of the Group, I was invited as a liaison to the Hoosier Chapter Executive Committee (ExCom) in 2017. I ran for Hoosier Chapter ExCom in 2018 to be elected as an At Large member and in 2019 became the Hoosier Chapter Chair. I am also the Chapter Delegate to the Council of Club Leaders which meets annually and votes on resolutions to be considered for future National Sierra Club campaigns. If elected to the Hoosier Chapter ExCom I will continue to focus on forest protection and legislation, clean and efficient energy solutions and support a Green New Deal which carries the promise of economic opportunity for millions and offers practical and attainable solutions for the climate crisis.
Grant Smith
I have been involved with consumer/environmental issues since 1982. I initially worked as a canvasser for Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana and I became its environmental lobbyist and organizer in 1986. Later I was named Energy Director and in 2004 became executive director of CAC. I handed the organization over to a new generation in 2011 and began work on energy issues for a small Boston-based nonprofit, Civil Society Institute. In 2017, I was hired by Environmental Working Group as the organization’s Senior Energy Policy Advisor.
Jean Webb
I retired from 30 years in Pharmaceutical Operations working at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson, and AstraZeneca. I hold a B.S. in Chemistry/Business Administration from the University of Evansville. I became an environmental activist in 2006 after listening to a women question legislators at a public meeting about what they were going to do about the pollution documented in a recent Associated Press article (that women was Wendy Bredhold, now the Beyond Coal Senior Campaign Representative). After that meeting I joined with Wendy and several other women in the community and we attended air permit hearings, Vectren’s rate hike hearings, and spoke at Legislator Town Halls. I served on the board of Valley Watch 2012 – 2015, and I joined with Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign as it began its presence in the Evansville area in 2015. I became the interim Chair of the Hoosier Energy Committee (Ex-Com) in August 2019, and was invited to join the Hoosier Chapter Executive Committee at that time. If I’m elected to Chair the Hoosier Energy Committee, and to an At Large Member of the Ex-Com, I’ll work to ensure that the organization focuses its actions to most effectively address the climate crisis and the protection of our common natural resources.