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2024 Connecticut Chapter & Group Executive Committee Elections

Terms: 2 year terms 2025-2026

Chapter Executive Committee Candidates

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Tanya Bourgoin

Tanya was born and bred in CT and is a lifelong resident of the state, with the exception of a few years spent in Colorado attending Colorado State University. She started her first conservation advocacy organization in elementary school. After receiving a pin maker for Christmas, she recruited her friends to form a group to sell the pins, baked goods and branded pencils and donated the proceeds to

national wildlife causes. In high school, she and a few close friends founded a school-wide organization to promote diversity, tolerance and inclusion long before most people were thinking about such issues. At the age of 6, she helped her grandmother raise an orphaned baby squirrel, and in 1998 she attained her wildlife rehabilitation certification. Tanya is the President of the Friends of Machimoodus and Sunrise State Parks which she co-founded in 2016. In September of 2022, she was proud to be elected to the board of Friends of CT State Parks. Most recently she was appointed to serve on her town's Sustainability Team. In November of 2023, Tanya was elected to the board of selectmen for the Town of East Haddam. She is honored to serve her town in an official capacity and proud to represent the residents of her community. She has been a DJ on WCNI Radio, a non-commercial listener-supported station in New London for the past 15 years, serving as the fundraising director from 2015 until this past March. When she’s not in a meeting, she likes to be outdoors with her husband, dogs, ducks and goats.

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Sydney Collins

Sydney Collins is the Sustainability Coordinator for Regional Campuses & Environmental Justice at UConn. She is a queer, neurodivergent climate advocate based in New Haven, CT. She graduated from UConn in 2023 and gained experience in municipal government as an AmeriCorps VISTA in Buffalo, NY where she organized community engagement initiatives with green infrastructure and climate

vulnerability planning. During her time at UConn, she served as Sustainability Coordinator and Student Services Director at the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) where she supported programming and university advocacy around student needs and climate action.

 

Sydney deepened her understanding of climate justice and liberation as a UConn@COP fellow at COP27 in Egypt, and she is committed to amplifying climate justice and addressing the roots of climate change tied to systems of oppression. She is interested in the intersections between climate justice and recovery, growing up in a community affected by alcoholism and substance misuse. Currently, she is active in the Sunrise Movement's New Haven chapter and involved in the @StopProjectMaple campaign against fossil fuel expansion in the Northeast.

 

In her free time, Sydney enjoys bicycling, yoga, holding space for recovery, and hip-hop dancing.

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Kate Donnelly

Kate is a life-long grassroots activist for peace and social justice. Her environmental awareness began at the first Earth Day celebration in 1970. She participated in many campaigns over the years from the anti-nuclear power movement to the recent campaign against the Killingly fracked gas power plant, and against the Line 3 pipeline in Minnesota. She is co-founder and chair of the Hampton Green Energy Committee,

member of the Windham/Willimantic NAACP Environmental Justice Committee, and No More Dirty Power in Killingly.  Kate has been a partner in Donnelly/Colt Progressive Resources for 47 years, providing the movement with organizing materials such as buttons, posters, and stickers. She was First Selectman in Hampton, worked as an organizer for Neighbor to Neighbor and Solarize CT campaigns. She lives in Hampton and has three adult children. She believes that intersectional organizing is the only way to guarantee a future for our environment and for a peaceful and just society for all.

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Brian Martin

A resident of the city for the past 13 years, Brian Martin has a heart for Hartford. His passion stems from the fact that Hartford is nearly 18 square miles, and though replete with innumerable religious institutions, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies, people and entire families continue to fall through the cracks. Brian has always had a love for nature. Growing up in Brooklyn, NY, he lamented the fact

that he had limited access to the great outdoors. Summers were spent in North Carolina, where he could explore with abandon. And that’s what he wants for Hartford youth: The benefits of learning to recognize and appreciate the nature in their own neighborhoods and connecting them with programs that take them beyond the confines of the city. Currently, Brian is completing his undergraduate studies at Trinity College in Hartford. Additionally, through the local nonprofit, Hartford Communities That Care, Brian works at New Visions Alternative School as the Youth Empowerment Coach. And he serves as Community Organizer for the national nonprofit, Trust For Public Land.

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Ryann McCabe

Ryann, a lifelong Connecticut resident, is passionate about environmental justice and making our cities and suburbs more sustainable and climate resilient. She began her journey with the Sierra Club as a volunteer with the Remington Woods Campaign and now also serves as Co-Chair of the Conservation Committee and as a member of the Legislative Committee. She’s also trained as an Outings Leader.

Beyond her work with the Sierra Club, Ryann is an active member of Aspetuck Land Trust and The Connecticut League of Conservation Voters. A former educator, Ryann loves helping others learn about native plants and suburban wildlife conservation. Her home is part of both the Pollinator Pathway and the Aspetuck Land Trust’s Green Corridor. In her free time, Ryann enjoys trying new outdoor activities, making art, and reading in her hammock.

Shoreline Group Candidates

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Jeff Gross

Jeff Gross is a life-long adherent to sustainable living practices, but only found Sierra Club in 2016, when he volunteered to lead the new program now known as Clean Transportation for All.   As is the case with some of the Sierra Club priorities, including wind and solar energy, the Transportation's campaign work at the levels of legislation and public awareness is being reinforced by market forces.

Jeff has served on the Chapter and Shoreline Group Executive Committees.

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Richard Melchreit

Richard Melchreit has been a member of the Sierra Club since 1989. His interests and priorities include the climate and ecological crisis; habitat protection; and conservation, propagation, and landscaping with native plants. He feels that the environmental community needs to continue to foster our collaborations with youth to promote social and environmental justice and fight against climate and ecological

breakdown. As a public health official and physician for over 30 years working in the infectious disease section of the Connecticut Department of Public Health, he is acutely aware of the importance of environmental protection and our connection to nature to promote human health and well-being as we are inextricably entwined with the biosphere and cannot survive (or would want to survive) without it.

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Susan Petit

Sue Petit serves on the Sierra Club Shoreline ExCom and the Connecticut Chapter Political Committee, on the latter helping to conduct interviews for candidates looking for endorsement.  She has also been fortunate to have been able to travel back and forth to Africa, meeting with researchers and working on wildlife conservation projects, and is passionate about wildlife photography, both here and

in Africa.

Greater Hartford Group Candidates

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Lisa Eldridge

I have always loved the outdoors, and my favorite activities are hiking, biking and kayaking. Over a decade ago, I decided that I wanted to learn more about climate change and other significant environmental issues, so at age 50, I went back to college and got a degree in Environmental Science. This gave me the knowledge and confidence to join an environment committee in my previous hometown. Currently

I am a member of the Environmental Action team in Glastonbury, having just stepped down as co-chair for the past 4 years, and I am co-chair of our town’s Pollinator Pathway. I have been a Sierra Club member for the past 10 years because the Sierra Club’s mission mirrors my values. I feel it is very important to do what I can to protect our environment for present and future generations.

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Richard Eldridge

My involvement in cleaning up the environment began when as a Boy Scout, our troop picked up trash along the roadside. I grew up interacting with nature as our family spent weekends at a cottage on a lake. Since then, I have been involved in activities and protests to better protect our environment. I was active in getting a fracking waste ban passed in CT. We gathered signatures and brought the signed

petitions before the Town Selectmen to have them implement a town-wide ban. Through the actions of many CT towns, this was then passed by the State Legislature. I recently participated in the annual Source to Sea cleanup on October 5, 2024, which was run by the Connecticut River Conservancy. Currently I am a member of the Environmental Action team in Glastonbury, having just stepped down as co-chair for the past 4 years. I look forward to continuing my work to improve the protections that are in place as well as creating new ones to better preserve our future.

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Chris Feely

My husband and I moved to Connecticut in 2016, and I started attending the monthly Greater Hartford Sierra Club meetings. Since then, I’ve been active in promoting clean energy and in conservation actions, such as events and campaigns to promote electric vehicles, electric lawn care equipment, and electrifying homes (furnaces, stoves, hot water heaters). I’m also directly involved in a West Hartford

working group to replace turf grass spaces with native plant gardens and meadows and a land conservancy woodland restoration project. In addition to those hands-on actions, which include removing invasive plants, helping plant 40+ trees at the conservancy, and helping plan, prepare for, plant and water a native pollinator garden at Wolcott Park, I advocate locally and at the state and national levels for regulations (cleaner cars and trucks) and climate action legislation, such as community solar and solar canopies. I like to walk, hike, and bike, and I support efforts to make roads safer for bikers and pedestrians. I’ve hiked in several parks and reservoirs in CT and hope to visit more in 2025. I also hope to increase outreach to Sierra Club members and others on the Sierra Club mailing list for attending monthly programs, advocating for targeted proposed legislation, and participating in events and outings.

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Steve Olshewski

I joined the Sierra Club in the late 1980's, and became active in the Greater Hartford Group in the early 90's, as I wanted to help protect this beautiful planet of ours. I was especially concerned about attempts to weaken and repeal our bedrock environmental laws, such as the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts; as well as attempts to open up our National Parks to industrial use,  such as oil and gas drilling.

Unfortunately, threats to our environment have continued unabated as there are those who still wish to pollute, destroy and overheat our precious planet. 

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