Members of the OEC’s Board of Directors are volunteers from across Ohio committed to defending and protecting Ohio’s natural environment. They each serve as individuals and their work affiliations are for informational purposes only. They are all voting and independent members of the Board.

 

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Rich Shank

Board President
Columbus

Rich has been involved with the OEC for about 40 years, including a stint on the board. He has been with the OEC through it all and has developed an appreciation for the organization’s ability to influence environmental policy in Ohio. Despite changes in leadership, Rich believes the staff at OEC has always remained high quality and committed to the environmental quality of Ohio. As the Board President, Rich is committed to seeing the organization reach its full potential.

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Al Compaan, PhD

UT Professor of Physics, Emeritus; President, Lucintech Inc.
Holland

Al comes to the environmental movement with an extensive scientific background. When the Toledo Water Crisis struck in 2014, Al became devoted to seeing our waterways, especially Lake Erie, protected. He also has been passionate about the growing solar industry in Ohio and sees huge opportunities. Al is convinced that the OEC is the organization with the integrity and muscle to lead our citizens in adopting sustainable practices and technology for a future with cleaner air and water.

 

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Jade Davis

Vice President of External Affairs, Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority (Port of Cleveland)
Cleveland

As Vice President of the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority, Jade manages legislative, regulatory and government affairs, communicates programming, engages community stakeholders, and develops strategic communications initiatives. Prior to his role at the Port of Cleveland, he served as the Senior Director of State Affairs and Outreach at the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) in Washington DC.

 

 

 

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Marianne Eppig

Trustee, Sears-Swetland Foundation
Cleveland

Marianne has worked with organizations dedicated to sustainable development for over a decade. These include the Urban Land Institute, where she is currently a director of advisory services related to sustainable development and resilience, the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, Greater Ohio Policy Center, GreenCityBlueLake Institute, and BrownFlynn, a corporate sustainability consulting firm. She also serves as on the boards of the Sears-Swetland Foundation and the Swetland Center for Environmental Health, both of which focus on the link between health and our environments, as well as the Nature Conservancy in Colorado. She has a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies from Dartmouth College and master’s degrees in city and regional planning and in public administration from The Ohio State University.

 

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Dan Gray 

Chief Operations Officer, Empower 
Columbus

Before joining Empower, Dan Gray served as the Business and Utility Consultant for Williams Allwein & Moser, an advanced energy law firm based in Columbus, where he combined his knowledge of utility rates and regulations with his background in financial modeling to drive value for the customers in complicated energy development projects. Dan managed the energy development portfolio for the firm, including projects ranging from distributed power generation at individual businesses to community-wide energy efficiency retrofit programs. He regularly consults with both end users and developers in the public, private and non-profit sectors. Prior to his work in energy development, Dan ran community engagement programs for successful political campaigns across the country, including the election of two governors, two Senators and nine Congressmen. Dan is a graduate of Case Western Reserve University and earned his MBA at The Ohio State University.

 

 

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Peter R. Griesinger

Producer/Director, Griesinger Films
Gates Mills

In 1969, when the Cuyahoga River was burning and OEC was being born, Peter was on a 10,000 mile film and photo safari (no guns!) in Southern Africa. As a result, his budding environmentalism bloomed into a deep and abiding commitment to Mother Nature. After graduating from Trinity College in Hartford, CT, (1972), Peter made two independent 16mm documentaries on the patriotic, self-reliant culture of West Virginia, one of which, “Small Business My Way”, was a national PBS primetime special in 1983. Peter continued to make contract and independent documentaries, including the “Lessons of the Vietnam War” and a series in the 1990’s,“Natural Capital Speaks”, on the newly emerging science of Ecological Economics. More recently, Peter was a community and environmental activist that helped win long and contentious battles over the preservation of Whiskey Island in Cleveland and the construction of a new library in his hometown. OEC’s commitment to taking on climate change – it is changing faster than we are – and OEC’s profound dedication to helping sustain a flourishing web of life for all who call Ohio home is what it is all about and why Peter is all in.

 

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Andy Jones, MS, CPM

Board Member, Athens Hocking Recycling Center
Rockbridge

Andy Jones is a longtime advocate for water quality and solar power initiatives in Southeast Ohio. She spent the early half of her career as a Public Health Nutritionist and Registered Dietitian for the Ohio Department of Health. Later she worked in Public Health Care Policy for the Ohio Department of Medicaid . She holds a BS in human nutrition from Ohio State University and an MS in human nutrition from Ohio University. Now retired, she serves as a volunteer for a wealth of organizations including the Ohio Certified Volunteer Naturalists, Athens-Hocking Recycling Center, Hocking Hills Tourism Association, Bishop Educational Gardens, and the OSU Extension (Hocking County).

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Rebecca Karason, CEM (Certified Energy Manager)

Director of Energy and Sustainability, Huntington Bank
Dayton

Rebecca Karason oversees energy and sustainability across Huntington’s eight state footprint. Environmental and social stewardship are critical elements in the business decisions that Huntington makes on a daily basis. An energy expert with over a decade of energy efficiency experience, Rebecca has a diverse background in sales, account management and program outreach. Prior to joining Huntington, she served in various capacities at American Electric Power including program manager for the Business Incentive Program. Throughout her career, Rebecca has worked with customers and contractors across the state of Ohio helping them develop and implement energy efficiency projects for their facilities. Committed to connecting colleagues to sustainability, Rebecca created the first-ever Huntington Green Team, a cross functional group of colleagues that generates, exchanges and evaluates ideas to increase Huntington’s environmental performance and to lower its carbon footprint. Rebecca earned her Master’s Degree from the University of Cincinnati receiving a professional certificate in public opinion and survey research, and a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is a certified energy manager and serves on the board for the Columbus Association of Energy Engineers.

 

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William Katzin, MD, PhD

Pathologist, AmeriPath, Retired
Cleveland

Willie Katzin is a Clinical Associate Professor of Pathology at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine where he also received his MD and a PhD in Biochemistry. He recently retired from a practice of surgical pathology at the Ameripath Cleveland Laboratory where he served as the laboratory medical director. His medical interests and expertise focus on gastrointestinal pathology and hematopathology. He continues to teach at the CWRU School of Medicine. For many years Willie has been an advocate for environmental health, recognizing the important connections between a healthy environment and human health and wellness. He has served on the board of directors of the Ohio Environmental Council since 2005 and is currently the chair of the board finance committee and treasurer of the organization.

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Carol Kauffman Nowlin

Manager for Corporate Social Responsibility, Scotts Miracle-Gro
Columbus

Carol Kauffman Nowlin has devoted her career to environmental and social responsibility with a special focus on water quality and equity of access. From 2013 to 2017 she was based in Cambodia, designing pro-poor development projects, helping businesses develop more responsible practices, and responding to natural disasters in the region. A native of Central Ohio, Carol now works for Scotts Miracle-Gro as Manager for Corporate Social Responsibility. In this role she liaises with external stakeholders on environmental issues, communicates and reports out on company achievements and commitments, and leads the company’s environmental nonprofit partnerships in the areas of water protection and conservation and pollinator protection. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Taylor University and Eastern University.

 

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Krista Magaw, MS

Executive Director, Tecumseh Land Trust
Yellow Springs

With a Masters Degree in Public Policy from Duke University, Magaw’s work for Tecumseh Land Trust is a great fit with her values and interests, as well as skills. Exploring potential preservation projects and monitoring of priorities with conservation easements give her a chance to get out on the land and learn from land owners and naturalists, as well as TLT’s experienced board and staff. Historic preservation and restoration has long been an avocation for Krista and her husband, a history professor.

 

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Graham Mitchell, MES

Chief, Office of Federal Facilities Oversight, Ohio EPA (Retired)
Cincinnati

Graham was born in Virginia and grew up in SW Ohio.  He received his education at Miami University with a B.S. in Zoology and a Masters in Environmental Science.  He worked for the Ohio EPA for 29 years where he started in Surface Water and then transitioned to the Superfund type of investigations and cleanups of federal facilities in Ohio. Notable sites include: DOE Fernald, Mound and Portsmouth; DOD Wright Patterson AFB, River Valley Schools (Marion).  Graham retired in 2006 and has since been involved with many non profits such as The Cincinnati Nature Center where he was a board member for nine years including three as Board Chair. He also was a Three Valley Conservation (Land Trust) board member for six years. Graham joined the OEC Board in 2012 and continues to be most impressed with their quality staff and the amazing work they do improving the environment in Ohio.

 

 

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William M. Ondrey Gruber

Attorney, Director of Law, City of Shaker Heights
Shaker Heights

An attorney-at-law who has served as in-house counsel for the City of Shaker Heights since 2002, and as Director of Law since 2012. He previously served as an attorney for the City of Cleveland for 16 years, including as Chief of the Environment, Health and Regulatory Compliance Section. Bill has also served as legal counsel to a variety of non-profit organizations such as the Ohio Environmental Council, AARP, Edgemont Neighborhood Coalition (Dayton, Ohio), and Citizen Power, Inc., in utility and energy matters before the PUCO, U.S. Department of Energy and Federal Communications Commission (FCC). He has helped several cities form electric or natural gas aggregation programs. He also has served in extensive grassroots organizing and leadership roles with non-profit neighborhood, environmental and waterfront planning organizations. For the past 16 years he has volunteered with the grassroots Dike 14 Nature Preserve Committee in Cleveland. Previously he served as a member of the Cleveland Industrial Air Pollution Advisory Committee and the Neighborhood Environmental Coalition, as a board member of the non-profit Cleveland Recycling Center, Inc., and as an Executive Committee member of both the Ohio and Northeast Ohio Group of the Sierra Club. He was also a prior member of the Task Force for Lake Erie Coastal Zone Management sponsored by the Ohio Coastal Resource Management Project.

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Jennifer Sconyers

President and Founder of Abundance Leadership Consulting, LLC
Columbus

 

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Mike Shelton

Associate Director, Office of Energy and Environment, The Ohio State University
Columbus

“Ohio has so many places of diverse natural beauty, yet so many other areas in need of care and restoration. Fortunately, OEC is leading efforts to continue the protection of Ohio’s natural gems and clean up our damaged landscapes to make Ohio a great place to work and live.”

 

 

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Bruce Underwood

Executive Director, Athens-Hocking Recycling Centers, Inc.

Mr. Underwood holds a B.A in Environmental Biology and a Masters in Environmental Science. Underwood was born and grew up in Hocking County where he currently resides with his family. He serves on the board of directors for the Hocking River Commission, a local nonprofit focused on the preservation of the Hocking River, and enjoys hiking the Buckeye Trail, camping, and kayaking in his spare time.

 

 

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Andrew Watterson

Senior Vice President and Head of Sustainability, KeyBank
Cleveland

Andrew is Senior Vice President and Head of Sustainability for KeyBank, a $135 billion financial institution that operates across 15 states in the U.S. Andrew uses his sustainability and organizational change expertise to lead the bank in the development and execution of a sustainability strategy that positions the bank for growth. In his role, he works with the corporate responsibility team and bank leadership to balance margin and mission to achieve dependable results. Prior to his position at KeyBank, Andrew was senior consultant at BrownFlynn, served at the City of Cleveland’s first Chief of Sustainability, and led the coordination of Sustainable Cleveland 2019, an action plan to create an economic engine to empower a green city on a blue lake.

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Charles V. Wellman, M.D., FAAHPM 

Chief Medical Officer, Hospice of the Western Reserve
Cuyahoga Falls

As chief medical officer for Hospice of the Western Reserve, Dr. Wellman directed the medical care provided by the nonprofit agency’s physicians, overseeing the care provided to nearly 2,300 patients for day in a seven-county Northern Ohio service area. Board certified in internal medicine and hospice and palliative medicine, he is considered one of the nation’s foremost experts on end-of-life care, with a career spanning more than 35 years of specialization in hospice and palliative medicine. Dr. Wellman presents widely on topics including pain and symptom control, communicating with the dying and hospice organization and management, and is a leading advocate for choice and dignity at the end of life. Through the Hospice Institute at Hospice of the Western Reserve, he has mentored and taught thousands of medical, social work, therapy and pharmacy students. Since 2010, under the auspices of the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education, he has provided hands-on training and education to several fellows. Dr. Wellman was the Director-at-Large for the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, and has been awarded the Distinguished Fellow award by that association. He is a founding member and co-chair of Hospice of the Western Reserve’s ethics committee, and has also served six years on the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) ethics committee. In addition to his clinical, administrative and educational responsibilities, Dr. Wellman is a tireless advocate for hospice and palliative care at the national level. Currently, he is chair of the NHPCO leadership and workforce strategic coordination committee, and treasurer for the Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.

 

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Tom Winston, PE

Consultant, Longenecker & Associates
West Chester

For 28 years, Mr. Winston served as head of the Ohio EPA’s Southwest District Office. During his tenure, he coordinated all of the agency’s environmental programs, across 16 counties, including the Cincinnati and Dayton metro areas as well as the surrounding rural communities. Additionally, he represented four Ohio governors to the federal level, on the cleanup of federal nuclear and defense facilities located across the state. Since retiring, Mr. Winston has stayed busy, providing expert technical and regulatory advice on the cleanup of mixed radioactive and hazardous tank waste at the nation’s largest environmental cleanup, the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State.