President
David Alicea is the Long Island & New York City Organizer for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign. A native Long Islander, he has been actively engaged in advocacy work since 2010 working on electoral races across the tri-state area. Since August 2013, David has been working for the Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign as they work to make New York State a renewable energy leader. David graduated from Stony Brook University with a BA in Political Science and is currently completing his Master’s in Environmental Science with a focus on Communication at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.
Vice President
Elysa Hammond is the Director of Environmental Stewardship at Clif Bar and Company. In this position she oversees Clif Bar’s efforts to reduce its environmental impact and to expand their support of organic, sustainable food and agriculture. She also advises the Clif Bar Family Foundation on environmental grant-making. Prior to her position at Clif Bar, she worked in research and education projects related to traditional farming systems in Indonesia, Mexico and Peru. Elysa holds a M.F.S. degree from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and a B.S. in Crop Science from California Polytechnic. She works from her home in New Rochelle, N.Y.
Secretary
Donald McCrimmon, Ph.D. is McDevitt Research Associate at Le Moyne College’s McDevitt Center for Creation and Innovation in Syracuse, NY beginning with the 2014 spring semester. As McDevitt Research Associate, McCrimmon he investigate changes in bird migration patterns as they have been influenced by climate change under the auspices of the Center for the Study of Environmental Change and the Jesuit Environmental Change Network. He also teaches in Le Moyne’s department of Environmental Science Systems. He earned a Ph.D. in zoology from North Carolina State University.
Treasurer
Michelle Jennings has over 30 years of advertising and marketing expertise across many media platforms including digital, streaming, social, mobile, broadcast, place-based, integrated cross-platform and event marketing. She became licensed in New York State Real Estate in 2013. Her broad marketing and sales experience brings a different type of expertise to NY Interfaith Power and Light. Additionally, Michelle is active in Citizens Climate Lobby, 350.org, and Christian Education for Huguenot Memorial Presbyterian Church, She resides with her husband, Phil Price and has two wonderful grown children. She holds a BS in Marketing / Business Administration, University of Maryland.
Gerard A. Falco, Esq. has been a practicing litigation attorney in Westchester County for over thirty years. He currently is chair of the Environmental Stewardship Committee at the Metro New York Lutheran Synod. Gerry is particularly interested in renewable energy and he assisted his church in becoming one of the first in the state to convert its electricity needs to photo-voltaic power. He enjoys spending his time with his wife and two boys and is an avid sailor and rower.
Sirin Hamsho is a wind turbine electrical design engineer at General Electric, Schenectady. She holds a MSc. Master degree in management of renewable energy from university of Versailles from France where she used to live with her husband Omar, PhD in control system Engineer, before they moved to the United States. In addition to her BS in Electronic engineering studies, she holds a BS of Islamic law from Damascus University in Syria where she was born. Sirin has dedicated her life to spread God’s message of peace between nations and to build bridges between the East and West. Sirin is also a board member of Al-Andaluse Islamic studies in Syria and a consultant at Center of Women of Faith and leadership at IGE, Washington D.C . She lives with her husband and her tri-lingual three year old daughter in Niskayuna, NY
Ed Smyth is a senior manager and consultant for KEMA, which is an international consulting firm for the energy industry. In particular, Ed designs and manages energy-efficiency programs, services, and program evaluations, and primarily for the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority (NYSERDA) from his downtown Troy, NY office. He attended the College of St. Rose in Albany for both a B.A. (Communications) and MBA. Ed is a member of the First Reformed Church (Reformed Church in America) in the village of Wynantskill, where he lives with his wife Christine and two sons.
Patricia K. Townsend Ph.D. is an anthropologist and a Presbyterian elder. Pat is author of two college textbooks, Medical Anthropology in Ecological Perspective (with Ann McElroy, Westview Press) and Environmental Anthropology: From Pigs to Policies (Waveland Press), to each of which, in successive editions, she has added increasing coverage of the implications of global climate change. She is a member of North Presbyterian Church in Williamsville, New York, where she regularly teaches adult education classes on social justice issues, including a series in Fall 2008 using the workbook Low Carbon Diet: A 30 Day Program to Lose 5000 Pounds by David Gershon. She served for more than three years as part-time Commissioned Lay Pastor in a small Buffalo church and now does occasional supply preaching throughout the Presbytery of Western New York, often touching on environmental themes.