Utah Sierra Club's Executive Committee (ExCom) is an elected, all-volunteer body responsible for the day-to-day governance of the chapter. It is an important group that should fulfill the chapter's mission and represents our values. Learn about the organization's core values.
A one-month voting period is open to all members beginning in December 6th. We have nine excellent individuals excited to join the Executive Committee. Some have been involved with Sierra Club in different ways and offer an inside perspective. Others are new to the chapter, bringing fresh ideas, skills, and insights.
Members, you have a very difficult choice! Meet the qualified candidates for the 2022 election! We have four open ExCom seats, two that will be one-year terms. Those receiving the least votes of the top six will receive one-year terms.
Some Things to Know:
Terms are for two (2) years and begin January 2024
The Chapter has several Executive Committee positions becoming open that begin January 2024.
To be eligible to run for the ExCom, candidates must be a Sierra Club members.
The election voting period will run for four weeks, from December 6th until January 4th
We encourage nominees to volunteer with us, if not already, before the election period to become familiar with our local and regional issues. There are many ways—digitally and remotely—to contribute, support, and become an activist on the various intersectional issues we’re focused on. Get involved today!
Learn About the Candidates
Patty Becnel
Patty Becnel, a retired teacher and Peace Corps volunteer, has been an active volunteer with the Sierra Club for the past 6 – 7 years. She has been the chair of the Communication Committee, of Ex Com, helped with fundraising, implemented the Smith’s Inspiring Donations Plan, and recently helped restart the Conservation committee. Currently, she is on the Ex Com, the Conservation committee, the chapter representative for the Council Club Leadership, and the SC Western Water Sentinels. She is also involved with area coalitions working to save the Great Salt Lake and the surrounding wetlands. She is energetic and dedicated to protecting our environment while embracing the club’s dedication to diversity, justice and equity.
Jim Catlin
Jim served in the Peace Corps in Africa and joined the Sierra Club in 1977 to help work on off-road issues in our nearby National Forests. He helped our chapter inventory and then campaign to protect National Forests. This work led to the 1984 Utah Wilderness Act and what is now Utah's Bureau of Land Management wilderness legislation, the Red Rock Wilderness Act. As a retired scientist working on grazing, wilderness, energy, and air quality, he helps to bring scientific support to promote landscape network planning.
Over the decades, he served on several state, regional, and national Sierra Club committees. Jim was on the National Sierra Club board of directors 2002-2008, and he is currently serving on two national Sierra Club grassroots teams, Recreational Issues, and Grazing Teams.
Monika Gulbahce-Cinbis
Monika is a highschooler at Skyline, and she is extremely passionate about preserving the environment. Her priority is to advocate for legislation regarding the Great Salt Lake (such as SCR006 by Nate Blouin and HB272, both of which were rejected in the previous legislative season) and raising the lake’s water levels. Additionally, Monika wants to involve stakeholders and youth voices in the discussion. She believes that this is one of the most pressing environmental issues we currently face in Utah and that legislation is not doing enough to tackle the issue.
Monika has seen what can happen to beautiful natural sites when governments fail to protect them in her parent country, Turkiye, and she hopes that we can prevent that same neglect from happening before it is too late for our great lake. Monika has experience in local leadership. She is a high school lead for Grow the Flow and a member of Granite Clean Energy. Additionally, she leads a team of youth in her high school who advocates for permanent action, such as legislation and policy change. Together, they are organizing a town hall meeting with the local community and legislators, including Rep. Moss, Professor Ben Abbot, Rep. Owens and Senator Blouin, to discuss what can be done for the Great Salt Lake before the legislative season starts.
Monika hopes to involve the Sierra Club in these discussions and bring other ideas for change into the Sierra Club through a position on the Utah Chapter’s Executive Committee!
Vincent Lok
Vincent is new to the Utah chapter of the Sierra Club, but not at all to its mission. He has worked primarily at non-profits and most recently completed a statewide bicycling needs assessment that informs stakeholders on more equitable programming and policy to support ridership among underrepresented populations. Vincent’s interest in improving diversity and access to outdoor recreation spans across a handful of projects. He is currently an advisor for Color the Wasatch, a community group making climbing more supportive and inclusive for BIPOC.
If elected, Vincent would like to assist with overall strategic planning and efforts to engage, grow, and diversify the chapter’s membership base — particularly communities who have historically been underrepresented.
You can find Vincent commuting by bicycle almost year round. He has a deep appreciation of the natural wonders in Utah and is grateful for all the opportunities to bike, climb, and hike around the state.
Abbie Nistler
Abbie Nistler is a student at the University of Utah studying environmental and sustainability studies. She works at the University of Utah Sustainability Office on grants to make campus more sustainable. As a volunteer with the University of Utah’s student government, she works towards campus sustainability by hosting events, working on legislation, and collaborating with other offices on campus.
Abbie is passionate about conservation, water issues, environmental policy, and inclusivity. She cares about trying to bring the Great Salt Lake levels up and land use issues in Utah. As someone who has studied this and regularly uses these spaces for recreation, she is passionate about conservation. She believes that environmental policy is key for conservation and water issues in Utah. Finally, she is enthusiastic about inclusivity within environmental issues and the Sierra Club.
In her free time, Abbie enjoys hiking, skiing, camping, backpacking, knitting and embroidery. She always tries to spend free time outside.
Jess Oveson
Jess has been involved with the Utah chapter of the Sierra Club since 2017. She first came in contact with the chapter and the work they do after meeting a Sierra Club outdoors group on a six-day river trip where she was a guide. After ten years of working on public lands, she'd been looking for a way to get involved in protecting the spaces she loved. The Sierra Club has been the perfect home for her. She has served on the Executive Committee since January 2023.
Jess is passionate about land advocacy, DEI in the outdoors, and environmental education. Before joining the Executive Committee, Jess volunteered on various campaigns, and with the Volunteer Engagement Task Force, working to create a more inclusive environment within the Utah chapter. She has greatly appreciated her time on the Executive Committee and the changes she feels she has been able to make to build a better future for all Utahns.
Outside of the Sierra Club, Jess enjoys skiing and hiking with her family of four and dog. In the near future, she is thrilled to be involved with the vigil walks on the shores of the Great Salt Lake during the upcoming legislative session.
Lauren Simpson
Lauren Simpson lives with her family in Salt Lake City, Utah and is a stay-at-home parent to her two young kids. She moved to Utah in 2008 to attend BYU, graduated from BYU Law School in 2017 and worked as the policy director at Alliance for a Better Utah from 2018 to 2021.
Her main area of expertise is values-based messaging for a hopeful, progressive future. She believes that as we invest in climate-friendly infrastructure and work toward walkable cities, our community relationships will deepen and sweeten. She is also stressed out by bad air days!
Lauren was raised in the South (mostly Tennessee) and still misses the humidity and lush tree canopy. She enjoys being a part of her local community, gardening in her backyard, and creative writing.
Nat Slater
Nat Slater is Director of Equitable Community Engagement at Promise Partnership Utah, where they work to center community voices in the organization’s education equity work. Nat holds a Master of Science in environmental humanities from the University of Utah, where they used art-based methods to examine the intersections of environmental and disability justice in Salt Lake City. Through this research, Nat has had the privilege of collaborating with the Sierra Club as well as with a variety of nonprofits, community groups, and activists working to preserve the Great Salt Lake and address local environmental health issues.
If selected for the Executive Committee, Nat’s priorities would include strengthening the Sierra Club’s community partnerships with an emphasis on centering the voices of youth, Indigenous communities, and those most impacted by environmental injustice and air pollution in the Salt Lake region, including west side residents, communities of color, and the disabled community. Nat believes deeply in the Sierra Club’s values, and would be excited to contribute their experience with community engagement, research, and filmmaking to the organization’s mission.
In their spare time, Nat enjoys getting outside to look at birds, go on a bike ride with friends, or collect footage for a new film project. Nat would like to thank all Utah Chapter members for their consideration, as well as their ongoing commitment and care for this place we all love.
Aarushi Verma
Aarushi is a youth climate organizer and an undergraduate student at the University of Utah studying Quantitative Economics. Her volunteer work with the Utah Chapter of the Sierra Club began in 2020 when she was the lead student organizer for a campaign to transition the Granite School District to 100% clean energy. After transferring the campaign to high school leaders, Aarushi helped plan and moderate the governor’s State Energy Planning Forum alongside Sierra Club organizers.
As a Green Grant intern at the UofU’s Sustainability Office, she piloted a stipend initiative to increase grant accessibility to approximately 60 low-income students yearly. In 2022, Aarushi served as Special Assistant to Nate Blouin’s election campaign, aiding a progressive, grassroots candidate to defeat a 23-year incumbent and become State Senator. That same year, she was selected to attend the University of Oxford Climate Change and Human Rights Consortium.
In her free time, Aarushi enjoys choreographing for the university’s Bollywood dance team, playing pickleball, and trying new restaurants. In addition to English, she is fluent in Hindi, Urdu, and conversational Spanish. As part of the Executive Committee, Aarushi will bring her experience to help the Utah Chapter center youth voices and marginalized communities in the climate action movement.
The Election Committee is composed of 3 members. Ava Curtis, Paula Decker, Sara Kenney. Please contact Paula at pauladecker@protonmail.com with questions.