Member Backgrounds

Members’ Educational and Professional Backgrounds

Voting Members

Ancram: Colleen Lutz.

Austerlitz: Cara Humphrey is at the forefront of the renewable energy industry and successfully built a loyal following an impressive referral network. Cara was recruited to Astrum Solar and as a Solar Consultant before being promoted to Sales Manager of NY.  Cara managed over 18 Solarize Campaigns throughout NY, CT, and MA, and is well acquainted with NYSERDA project expediters, and related non-profits throughout New York State. Most recently, Cara worked as a consultant in New York for a Commercial-Industrial Energy Efficiency Company working with local utilities as a Program Expediter. She has proudly served on the Town of Chatham’s Climate Smart Committee, more recently the Austerlitz Climate Smart Committee and Citizen’s Climate Lobby.

Canaan: Sarah Crowell

Chatham: Rick Werwaiss: Over the past 30 years, Rick Werwaiss has worked with conservation sustainable agriculture organizations including the National Audubon Society, Wildlife Conservation Society, American Farmland Trust, and the Heritage Breeds Conservancy among others. Rick's ability to nurture relationships has been a leading hallmark of his career.  Over the course of his career, Rick has acquired training and expertise in board development, fundraising, strategic planning, program development, and staff management. Rick is currently engaged with a pig farm in Kinderhook and serves as President of the North Chatham Free Library.  Rick grew up at the mouth of the Connecticut River and earned his bachelor’s degree in history and philosophy from Bates College in Maine.   

Claverack: John Bradley: My wife and I moved to Claverack in 2018 from Long Island City. I am retired from a career mostly in health care management.  My activism started with the Peace Corp in the mid 60’s, working with squatter settlements in Lima Peru and co-ops in the Andes.  After grad school in Regional Planning and Economics in Pittsburgh Pa, I was a community organizer for several years, helping to found a consumer co-op and a Committee on Occupational Safety and Health, working with local unions in the steel towns around Pittsburgh.  This led to a management position with a United Mine Workers’ medical clinic in the nearby coal fields, and then a series of management positions with regional agencies, hospitals, physician practices, and even a stint as a planner for US Steel. In 2007, I ended up as a minor executive at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens.  Through this progression, I was interested in change management. I learned about quality practices such as process improvement and sought to apply them in healthcare. I volunteered as an examiner in the Pennsylvania Baldrige Program for several years. Working in the Rust Belt and in the healthcare industry, I was continuously confronted with the aberrations and dysfunctions of real world market economics. Ever since leaving grad school economics, I sought to learn about how to relate systems thinking to market economics, especially drawing from the fields of natural ecosystems, evolutionary biology and anthropology.  I am pleased to have a practical opportunity to work with the EMC and the Climate Smart Communities. It is reassuring to see growing interest in grassroots environmentalism, stewardship of our natural commons, and a ‘new economics’. 

Clermont: OPEN

Copake: Cara Boyle

Gallatin: Carol Smilie

Germantown: Barbara Hughey

Ghent: David Newman

Greenport: Michael Grisham

Hillsdale: Mary King

Hudson: Michael O’Hara, Vice-Chair.  Director of sales and marketing with Lotus Energy, a local provider of solar electric systems; former City of Hudson Public Works Commissioner; former Operations Director for Sustainable Hudson Valley; trained in environmental systems design.  EMC member since 2010.

Kinderhook: Melissa Miller

Livingston: Stan Yarian

New Lebanon: Bruce Shenker.  Software developer and outdoor enthusiast.  BA in mathematics from Middlebury College.  EMC member since 2013.

Stockport: OPEN

Stuyvesant: Christian Swengingsen.  Retired. Serves on ZBA. Active in restoration and events at Stuyvesant Depot, and trail building and maintenance at Hummel Park nature preserve. BS with physics concentration. Two years post-grad, Waldorf education certificate. Taught high school physics, technology, and geometry for nine years.  Designed and built hundreds of solar heating systems; seven-home hybrid subdivision featured in LA Times magazine.  Public Information Officer, Columbia County Amateur Radio Emergency Services. Member of EMC since 2016.

Taghkanic: Robert Brush

Village of Chatham:  Amy Walsh

Village of Kinderhook:  William Mancini

Village of Philmont: Tom Paino

Village of Valatie:  Donna Welton

Non-Voting Members

Columbia County Department of Health: Tara D. Becker.  Public Health Sanitarian with the Columbia County Department of Health, Division of Environmental Health since 1994.  EPA Certified Lead Risk Assessor. Executive Board Member and Past President of the Central Atlantic State Association of Food and Drug Officials.  AAS in Environmental Science SUNY Sullivan Co. CC, BS in Environmental Policy from Marist College.  Lifelong avid perennial gardener using sustainable practices and native (non-invasive) plant species.

Cornell Cooperative Extension of Columbia and Greene Counties: OPEN

Columbia-Greene Community College: Dr. Steven Gavlik

Academic Background 

Long Island University -- BS Marine Science/Biology 

University of South Carolina -- MS Marine Science 

University of Rhode Island -- PhD Biological Oceanography 

I joined the CCEMC to better understand the process by which issues of environmental concern are discussed and brought to the attention of county government representatives. At CGCC, I teach a range of courses in the sciences, such as Anatomy and Physiology and General Biology. My scientific interests include fish physiology, endocrinology, and development, which were the topics of my graduate research. More generally, I'm interested in understanding how life "works" (physiology) from the whole animal down to the cellular level -- it just so happens that I picked fish as my organism of choice for research!