We knew that climate change was going to impact all of us

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Maureen Aylward is the Executive Director of TownGreen, Inc. where she leads the nonprofit organization’s mission to deliver outstanding climate education, effective regional collaboration efforts, and community engagement programs. Maureen has interviewed hundreds of people as a writer, book author-editor, and television and podcast producer. She previously worked for a Tom’s of Maine-affiliated nonprofit that ran executive values leadership programs where she honed her skills in facilitation and business development. Ms. Aylward taught business sustainability and climate change leadership courses in the Executive MBA program at Northeastern University and was an adjunct professor of business communications and sustainability at Endicott College. Maureen has an MBA in Organizational and Environmental Sustainability from Antioch University New England.

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Dick Prouty founded TownGreen in 2015 as a project of the Gloucester Meetinghouse Foundation. He was the Executive Director of Project Adventure (PA), an international non-profit based in Beverly, MA, for 34 years, until he retired in 2015. Under Dick’s leadership, PA, whose mission is to advance active learning, has become one of the leading institutions in the experiential education field and is responsible for 500,000 new students per year being introduced to adventure-based education classes in physical education, health, fitness, counseling, and in academic classes with integrated experiential learning. Curricula development, training and consulting, publishing books and digital media, leadership development, and organizing and leading learning communities are among the core competencies Dick developed over his time at PA.

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Dr. Jayne Knott is the founder and CEO of HydroPredictions, an environmental consulting firm specializing in groundwater hydrology, groundwater remediation, and climate-change adaptation. She has authored several scientific journal articles on climate change adaptation for coastal road infrastructure and on the impacts of climate change on water resources. Dr. Knott was a review editor for the 4th National Climate Assessment, and in addition to her role on TownGreen’s Board of Directors, she sits on the Charles River Watershed’s Board of Advisors. She holds a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of New Hampshire and a Master’s degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from MIT.

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Greg Federspiel is the Town Administrator for the Town of Manchester-by-the-Sea, a position he has held for 10 years. Previously, he was the Town Administrator for Lenox, MA, and the Town of Stowe, VT. Greg is a leader in sustainability and climate change resilience, specifically assisting the Town of Manchester with resiliency planning in light of sea level rise and climate change, developing performance measurements that include a cohort of sister communities. Greg plays a vital role on the steering committee for a Cape Ann-based multi-year climate research project with the Harvard Graduate School of Design’s Office for Urbanization. As lead grant writer for the project, the committee has secured $760,000 in local, state, and federal funding to address climate change impacts on Cape Ann. Greg is a graduate of Dartmouth College and holds a Master of Science in Resource Management and Administration from Antioch University New England.

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Tom Ehbrecht has managed software teams in the corporate world and sustainability groups at the local level. With experience in connecting people, processes, and technologies, Tom has a track record of managing key business projects that achieve corporate objectives. He has a passion for establishing green initiatives while advocating for local and regional sustainable environmental goals to drive meaningful change. A newcomer to Cape Ann and a lifelong sailor, Tom attended the “Future of Gloucester: Climate Change” event organized by Gloucester 400+ and TownGreen in 2023. He was immediately drawn to TownGreen’s work to raise awareness of climate change and advance both climate mitigation and coastal resiliency efforts.

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Tom Mikus is Head of Research for CO2 Global, focusing his work on making carbon-negative green hydrogen and permanently eliminating waste plastic. For 35 years Tom worked at Exxon and Shell Oil, serving on Shell’s GameChanger team (funding for innovation). He founded and led the CO2 Capture Team at Shell and served as Vice Chair of the CO2 Capture Project joint industry program. He was on the Executive Committee of the International Energy Agency Greenhouse Gas Programme and an advisor to the Carbon Capture and Sequestration Conference. Tom’s 20 patents include flameless distributed combustion, high-efficiency heat and power with CO2 capture, and waste-plastic elimination. He led the Town of Rockport Green Community Task Force and currently serves on three town bodies: Planning Board as Vice Chair, Ad Hoc Water Committee as Vice Chair, and Rights of Way Committee. Tom is a Cape Ann Climate Coalition Organizing Committee member, a HeatSmart Alliance speaker and volunteer, and serves on the state environmental committee for the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts. Tom earned a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering (combustion and turbomachinery) from MIT.

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Bruce Bemis is a multimedia artist whose work has involved elements of space, time, and memory through the adaptive use of outmoded technologies that reimagine past events. Trained in sculpture and experimental filmmaking at the Massachusetts College of Art, his work has been shown in museums and galleries throughout New England including the DeCordova Museum and the List Center at MIT among others. He has taught sculpture at the Montserrat College of Art in Beverly. Currently spending time between Boston and Gloucester, he also serves on the board of the Friend of Blackstone School, a Boston neighborhood group supporting public education at the Blackstone Elementary School in the South End, and maintains an active interest in the preservation of the Good Harbor Beach ecosystem in Gloucester.