Craig Altemose - Steering
Craig Altemose is an Energy Action Fellow and a member of the Sierra Student Coalition's Executive Committee. After graduating from Eckerd College in 2006, Craig enrolled in a joint degree program between the Kennedy School of Government and Harvard Law School. Craig comes to the climate movement from the peace and social justice movement, and is particularly concerned about the effects of climate change on the human race.
David Sievers - Agenda
David is a senior majoring in Philosophy at the College of William & Mary and a member of the Sierra Student Coalition's Executive Committee. He has been involved in local chapters of the Student Environmental Action Coalition, the Tidewater Labor Support Committee, the Virginia Organizing Project, and any other progressive work he can get his hands into. David narrowly lost a bid for Williamsburg City Council in 2006 and has remained active in politics and student representation locally and nationally, and believes that Powershift will be a historic marker for the fight against global warming and is excited to be a part of it.
Amy Ortiz - Anti-Oppression
Amy is a student at New College of Florida. She is on the Southern Energy Network's Steering Committee, and is active in the Florida student network and on her campus. She approaches climate change activism with a holistic perspective, recognizing the disproportionate impacts that global warming will have on the poor of the world, as well as the environment. Her passion lies in broadening the youth climate movement to make it more inclusive and diverse, by engaging and empowering low income youth and youth of color. Her vision ties into her interest in anti-oppression work, which she believes to be an essential step in creating a youth climate movement that has the ability to engage a great diversity of people.
Kevin Pai - Communications
Kevin was born and raised in Taichung, Taiwan, came to the US at age 17, and later traveled to Baltimore, Maryland, to study at Johns Hopkins University. He is currently a sophomore and an active member of Students for Environmental Action (SEA) and Hopkins Energy Action Team (HEAT), having worked on publicity and media committees for both groups. Through an amazing collaborative effort, SEA and HEAT significantly raised Johns Hopkins' community's awareness on environmental issues. HEAT successfully pushed the University to commit to carbon neutrality and to step up the role in battling climate change. Kevin brings this organizing experience to the Power Shift comms team and looks forward to an amazing event to help grow the movement.
Kari Fulton - DC March
Kari is a Campus Climate Challenge Coordinator with the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative. She is a 2007 graduate of Howard University's John H. Johnson School of Communications and a current fellow with Young People For. Since high school, Kari has worked to improve the socio-economic and educational standings of those with low income and people of color. She continues to fight for the representation and protection of all those impacted by the effects of climate change.
Angie De Soto - Entertainment
Angie is a senior at Virginia Tech majoring in environmental policy and planning and minoring in political science. She has been working in the climate movement for the past 17 months, and is pursuing a PhD in international sustainability planning. She hit the streets with the Sacramento canvassing office to raise support for and pass the first state-wide global warming bill, was trained by The Climate Project to educate citizens on the science, effects, and solutions to global warming, and has been coordinating the Campus Climate Challenge in conjunction with the Environmental Coalition on her campus since the fall of 2006. Angie is ecstatic about being a part of solving the defining challenge of our generation by helping to plan a monumental event in both the movement and all of history!
Lea Lupkin - Entertainment
Lea is pursuing a Bachelor’s in Environmental Policy with minors in Sociology and French at Roanoke College in Southwest Virginia. As a freshman, Lea became a leader in Earthbound, Roanoke's environmental group, and learned to see the world in terms of System Dynamics. After witnessing the horrors of mountain-top removal mining occurring a few miles away, and then being inspired by the urgency of climate change and her peers, Lea started her own Campus Climate Challenge campaign. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Roanoke Valley Cool Cities Campaign, and recently helped to form the Virginia Climate Action Network. Lea finds happiness in empowering others and repaying the world for her blessings.
Gabriel Elsner - Fundraising
Gabriel Elsner grew up in the heart of West Los Angeles, the home of SUVs, traffic and overwhelming pollution. When he moved to Berkeley, he decided to act by promoting a clean energy economy to stop global warming. Now he is interning with the Energy Action Coalition to plan Power Shift, and continues his work as Vice Chair of the California Public Interest Research Group.
Jeff Gustafson - Job Fair
Jeff is currently a senior at the George Washington University, where he plays a strong role in coordinating the University's campus sustainability movement. Jeff is also the chairman of the Waste Reduction Committee of the Washington, DC chapter of the Sierra Club. For Power Shift, he has coordinated the efforts of a student committee charged with putting together the best group of sponsors out there, and to organize the Job Fair to help students attending the conference learn more about leadership opportunities after graduation.
Nathan Wyeth - Lobby Day
Nathan co-founded and chaired the Sierra Student Coalition's Student Action on the Global Economy (SAGE) Program, created in response to the environmental threats posed by the current model of corporate globalization, which grew from 30 students on the East Coast to almost 500 college and high school activists in over 40 states. Nathan is the youngest individual to have served on the Sierra Club board of directors, and was a recipient of the 2002 Brower Youth Award. He has also worked for the Clinton Global Initiative's Energy & Climate Change program, and is currently a senior at Brown University.
Christy Hartman - Recruitment
Christy is a senior at West Virginia University pursing a degree in philosophy and geography. She is currently a Building Environmental Campus Community fellow and has been organizing on campus for a year after receiving life-altering training as a Greenpeace Organizing Term student. She works on the Campus Climate Challenge to promote solutions to global warming and increasing awareness about mountain top removal. Christy is interested in learning more about the connections between energy, oppression, health, poverty, and peace.
Elizabeth Shope - Sustainability
Elizabeth is a junior at Harvard University, where she works for the Resource Efficiency Program, a group of students who interact with their peers and promote sustainable living on campus. She is also an active member of Harvard's Environmental Action Committee and co-chair of the Sustainable Allston project group, which is working to put a wind turbine and an organic farm into Harvard's Allston development plans. Elizabeth has worked for the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, DC, in addition to organizing the sustainability aspects of Power Shift She is a lifelong environmentalist and cares deeply about sustainability, stopping climate change, and building a clean energy future.