Big Milestone in Environment America’s Clean Water CampaignWith the heat of summer and so many people headed out to go swimming, fishing, and boating, Environment America reported exciting progress on their clean water campaign: The U.S. EPA has finally proposed a rule to restore Clean Water Act protec-tions to thousands of streams and millions of acres of wetlands across the country.

More than eight years ago, lawsuits brought by polluters resulted in court decisions creat-ing a huge loophole in the Clean Water Act, leaving thousands of waterways without federal protection from pollution. Since then, Environment America has been working steadily to build support from hundreds of thou-sands of Americans—including local officials, farmers, and other key constituencies.

But with industry opposition mounting by the week, this battle for clean water is far from over.

Yet this summer has shown just what is possible when the going gets tough. As allies of corporate agribusiness sought to halt the rule in Congress through ap-propriations riders, Environment America redoubled efforts to demonstrate public support and

highlight the need for stronger clean water protections in the media.

First, to counter a new round of alarmist screeds from the Farm Bureau, field staff and volunteers organized at farmers’ markets across the country, signing up another 100 farmers in support of the Clean Water rule.

Next, to remind the public of the appalling levels of pollution our waters still face, Environment America Research & Policy Center released the third edition of the “Wasting Our Waterways” report, this time showing that industrial facilities discharged at least 206 million pounds of toxic chemicals into the nation’s waters in 2012.

The report reminded Americans that some of our most treasured waters—from the Chesapeake Bay to the Great Lakes to Puget Sound—remain threatened by massive amounts of toxic pol-lution. Moreover, the group used data from the Toxic Re-lease Inventory to pinpoint toxic dumping by specific industries and even companies. For ex-ample, the research showed that

September 2014Span Newsletter

Environment Colorado releases the “Wasting our Waterways” report in June.

In This Issue . . . Program Highlights … pg 2Updates from campaign work across the country.

Job Opportunities … pg 3Check out these job listings for yourself or a friend.

Alumni News … pgs 3-6Read updates from Julie Miles and other alumni.

In Memoriam … pg 7Remembering alumni Frances Canonizado, Sarah Carnahan, and John Plunkett.

Save the Date . . . pg 8Check to see if there’s an alumni party coming up near you, and save the date for Aspen 2015!

-continued on page 7

in addition to permanently gutting key provisions of the law that have led to its success. This special interest-backed bill is a major setback to Ohio’s historic commitment to clean energy, which was passed five years ago.

Environment Ohio’s Christian Adams issued the following statement in response to the bill: “[It] is incredibly disappointing to see this action from Gov. Kasich, who has professed support for renewable energy since his energy summit in 2011. But actions speak louder than words, and at the end of the day, he sided with polluting industries rather than a commitment to cleaner air and a clean energy future for Ohio.”

Ohio is the fourth-largest emitter of global warming pollution in the country. But under energy efficiency programs implemented in the last five years, Ohio has generated enough renewable energy to power over 100,000 homes, and Ohioans have saved

Page 2

Campaign Highlights

PIRGs Continue Work to Get Big Money Out of PoliticsSince the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, there is more big money and secret money in our democracy than ever before, drowning out the voices of ordinary citizens. And in April, the Supreme Court sided with mega-donors over voters yet again in its McCutcheon decision.

In response, PIRGs across the country have been working toward long-term and short-term solutions that would restore the voices of ordinary citizens. Sixteen states have joined the movement calling for a Constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and restore the people’s power to set limits on big money in elections. PIRGs are also organizing citizens and students to pass resolutions in local bodies of government calling on Congress to pass a constitutional amendment, with over 500 municipal actions so far.

At the federal level, U.S. PIRG is working with allies to build support for the Government by the People Act, which would amplify the role of small donors, ensuring the public’s voice is heard and enabling more grassroots candidates to run for office.

“One of the core principles of our form of self-government is that people, regardless of their race, gender, religion, or income, are politically equal: one person, one vote,” testified CALPIRG’s Garo Manjikian. “Yet, in equating money with free speech, the Supreme Court has effectively declared that some people have more free speech than others.”

Ohio Rolls Back Clean Energy Commitment On June 12, Ohio Gov. John Kasich signed SB310, a bill which effectively halts Ohio’s renewable energy and energy efficiency programs for at least two years,

over a billion dollars on their electric bills.

Toxics Action Center Celebrates Pending Coal Plant ClosureThe Toxics Action Center team celebrated the early June announcement that the Mount Tom Power Station in Holyoke, Mass., will close. Toxics Action Center worked with a coalition of groups and volunteers with Action for a Healthy Holyoke (AHH!), which organized for the plant’s closure. A spokesperson from GDF-Suez, the plant’s owners and the world’s largest utility, headquartered in Paris, France, said they are looking at solar and other uses for the plant’s location.

Toxics Action Center’s Claire B.W. Miller said in a news release that the closure “is only the beginning.” Cleaning up the plant and re-purposing it for a better use are next on the list.

Toxics Action Center’s Claire B.W. Miller with a community group in Holyoke, Mass., celebrating a major milestone in the campaign to responsibly retire the Mount Tom coal plant.

A legacy of environmental protection

We’ve worked together to protect the environment, and made some real progress. But there’s much more to do to create the cleaner, greener, healthier world we all want to live in. Our planned giving program can help maintain your commitment to the planet into the future. Ask us how: 1-800-841-7299 or plannedgiving@environmentamerica.org

A legacy of environmental protection

Alumni Profile

From California’s agricultural Santa Maria Valley to her current home in Brooklyn, N.Y., alumna Julie Miles has built her life around organizing and advocacy.

After graduating from UC San-ta Barbara, Julie worked for the Fund’s Telephone Outreach Project, as an assistant canvass director with the Fund, and then for years as a CALPIRG campus organizer. She fondly remembers working with CALPIRG leaders at the time like Deb Bruns, Dave Bunn, Julie Peters, and the late Susan Birmingham.

Working on the CALPIRG fee fight was a key politicizing event for Julie and demonstrated that students could organize enough to become a threat that special in-terests set their sights on eliminat-

Julie Miles: Affordable Housing Advocate

ing. During this time, she worked very closely with student leaders and staff like Andre Delattre, Ron Pembleton, Benson Chil-es, Matt Baker, the late Elise Jacques, Faye Park, Sheila Ballen, Holly Carrington, and many other long-term members of the campus team.

Julie went on to serve as the Proposition 212 Orange County field director, CALPIRG field director, director of the National Student Campaign Against Hun-ger and Homelessness, and then co-field director of U.S. PIRG, based in D.C. Her last role on Public Interest Network staff was organizing a national campaign around genetically engineered foods.

In 2002, Julie moved to New

York City and was recruited to lead a coalition advo-cating affordable housing. Since 2009, Julie has served as the de-velopment director of Make the Road NY, a member-led organization that employs a strategy combining direct services to mem-bers with organiz-ing and advocacy.

Julie attributes feeling at home in her current work to the fact that, similar to PIRG, she works with extremely smart and ambitious people who put a lot of heart into their work to build power to expand rights, dignity, and respect for low-wage workers in New York, many of whom are immigrants.

Julie says she feels very grate-ful to PIRG for all of the good

training and experience she gained, and of course for the community—Julie counts fellow alumnae Tanya Africa, Joanie Clayburgh, and Mary Raftery among her lifelong friends and loves catching up with staff and dear friends like Wendy Wend-landt and Faye Park when they are in town.

Julie lives in Brooklyn with her partner, Paul, and their son, Max. She can be reached at julmiles@gmail.com.

Julie Miles (back row) with Mary Raftery, Joan Clayburgh, and Tanya Africa

A Selection of Career Opportunities Within The Public Interest Network

Communications Director, U.S. PIRG—Washington, D.C.U.S. PIRG is seeking a Communications Director to develop a communications strategy, to assist state groups with their strategies, to develop materials and best practices, and to train and support our campaign directors and field organizers as they implement national and statewide strategies.

Development Director, U.S. PIRG—Washington, D.C.U.S. PIRG is seeking an experienced Development Director to oversee and build on our existing grant seeking and donor fundraising strategies.

Grant and Development Communications Writer, The Public Interest Net-work—Los AngelesThe Public Interest Network is looking for a smart and passionate writer to work with the network’s advocates, organizers, and fundraising staff to raise funds for a wide array of campaigns across the country, from stopping fracking to getting big money out of politics to requiring GMO food labeling and many more. Candidates must have excellent writing and editing skills, demonstrated success in managing complex projects and producing high-quality work on a deadline, a strong work ethic, and a commitment to activism.

For more information, please visit www.publicinterestnetwork.org/page/pin/jobs or call National Recruitment Director Len Montgomery at 303-573-5995 x326.

Robert Everett FarrellSydney Alexandra Beyer Callum Francis Clark

Page 4

Alumni Updates

WEDDINGS AND BABIES:

Sarah Bennett and her husband, Michael, welcomed their son Gavin on Dec. 19 in Boston.

Sydney Alexandra Beyer was born on March 22 in Steamboat Springs, Colo., to proud parents Emily (Arell) and Mike Beyer.

Jeanette Blize and her husband, Adrian, celebrated the birth of daughter Emerson Skyler Sagan on April 7 in Helena, Mont., where Jeanette works with fellow alumni at M+R Strategic Services. Emerson joins big brother, Everett, who turns three in September. Isaac Bloom and Monique Sullivan welcomed their daughter Adeline to the world last October in Washington, D.C. Gabi Camargo married her high school sweetheart, Andre Martins, in Orlando, Fla. on May 24. Staff and alumni Genevieve Andress, Dan Budris,

MacKenzie Clark, Nick Fiore, Allison Giest and Ilya Slavinksi attended the celebration. The couple feels passionately about comprehensive immigration reform and hopes to see major progress on this issue soon. On a professional note, Gabi started a new position as deputy communications director for SEIU Local 509.

Gavin Clark and Amy Uberuaga Clark celebrated the birth of Callum Francis Clark on April 30 in Denver.

Denali Paige was born to Heather Emmert and Mike Kantor on Sept. 13, 2013, in New Orleans.

On June 7, Brian Hires and Vero Balderas Iglesias were married in Florida’s Lover’s Key State Park. Brian is a strategic communications and campaign consultant on public lands, clean energy, water, and natural resource issues. Vero is an international broadcast journalist

who spent more than 10 years with CNN en Español in the Middle East. The couple lives in Boulder, Colo.

Anjuli Kronheim married Jonathan Katz on May 4 in Philadelphia. Fellow Green Corps alumni Carolyn Auwaerter, Dan Cannon, Emily Carroll, Susan Hildebrand, Austin George and Caitlin Seeley George, Rob Kerth, Katy Kiefer, Sam Landenwitsch and Amy Parker, Leslie Morrison, Ryan Rastegar, and Bessie Schwarz were on hand to help the couple celebrate. On a professional note, Anjuli is now the Southern California Regional Organizer with Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice.

Dyana Mason and her wife, Laura, were thrilled to finalize the adoption of their son on March 24. On a professional note, Dyana has earned her PhD from the University of Southern California

(Dissertation Title: Strategy and Ideology in Nonprofit Advocacy Organizations). The family has moved to Eugene, Ore., where Dyana will join the faculty at the University of Oregon this fall.

Mia (Scampini) and James Moore welcomed their son Oliver Deters Wolcott Moore on April 29. Oliver joins big brother William, age 2 1/2.

Dylan Patrick Reule Milliern was born to Mindie Reule and her husband, Brock, on Dec. 19 in Seattle.

Pesticide Watch Director Mike Somers and alumna Erin (Robinson) Somers celebrated the birth of Lincoln Robert Somers on Jan. 14 in Sacramento, Calif. Mike shares a birthday with his son.

Robert “Robby” Everett Farrell was born in Los Angeles on April 9 to Jenny Shanley Farrell and her husband, John.

Sarah Bennett’s son Gavin

Denali Paige

Josh Zaharoff and his wife, Sarah, welcomed Jacob Arthur to the world on Jan. 31 in Chicago.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS:

Dan Firger has joined the Environment Program staff at Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Ben Flamm is the new regional director of individual engagement at League of Conservation Voters.

Sara Landis is now a development associate at The Reinvestment Fund in Philadelphia.

Isaac Silverman is a new staff attorney at Sierra Watch.

Emily Stone has been named an Ashoka Fellow, for “social entrepreneurs who have innovative solutions to social problems and the potential to change patterns across society.” Emily founded and owns Maya Mountain Cacao and lives in Belize.

Starr Terrell has joined the

Public Affairs staff of Global Prairie, based in Kansas City.

Unger sibling update: Ben Unger has announced he will not seek reelection to the Oregon House of Representatives and has joined the staff of Our Oregon as executive director. Melissa Unger was named political director of SEIU Local 503. Lisa (Chuda) Witzler has earned her PhD in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from Nova Southeastern University and was elected to the board of directors of the International Ombudsman Association. Lisa will serve as vice president of the board this coming year.

Bill Wood, a physician based in Vermont, reports that he recently enjoyed hiking up New Hampshire’s Mt. Washington (an elevation gain of 4,000 ft.) with his 11-year-old daughter, Wells (named for Paul & Sheila Wellstone). You can see Bill in a new video for U.S. PIRG’s campaign to stop the overuse of antibiotics on factory farms at http://youtu.be/rmZIMP7okpg.

Dylan Patrick Reule Milliern

Bill Wood at the AMC Lakes of the Clouds Hut with his daughter.

Emerson Skyler Sagan

Dyana Mason and her wife at their son’s adoption day.

Isaac Bloom and Monique Sullivan with Adeline.

Jacob Arthur Zaharoff

Oliver Moore

Lincoln Robert Somers

Page 6

Welcome Back!

Steve Ma once spent six months walking over 1,500 miles throughout the state of New Jer-sey to shine a spotlight on the undue influence of big money in politics.

Born in Minnesota, Steve grew up in New Jersey and graduated from Rutgers, where he says he majored in PIRG organizing. But the seeds for a career in ac-tivism were planted back in high school, when Steve was can-vassed by NJPIRG and became a member. That summer, he be-came a canvasser himself.

Steve quickly became a student leader with NJPIRG and served as board chair alongside current OSPIRG ED Dave Rosenfeld. During the summers, he ran canvasses in Hoboken, Toms River, Manhattan, Sacramento, and Santa Barbara. When decid-ing on a graduate school, Steve chose a school without a PIRG chapter so he could start one. He ended up at Indiana Univer-sity and organized with fellow

student leaders Karen Berg and Kristina Strinka to lay the groundwork that eventually re-started INPIRG.

After grad school, Steve joined the program staff at CALPIRG, and then returned to New Jersey to organize NJPIRG’s 25th anni-versary celebration and work on campaign finance reform with Curtis Fisher. To adequately address the imbalance of money in politics, Steve felt something dramatic needed to happen, so

Steve Ma Returns to The Public Interest Networkhe left staff and spent six months walking throughout the state. His efforts garnered media cov-erage in all of the state’s major papers, The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and CNN. Three years later, Steve was present at the bill signing for the clean elections law he highlighted with his walk.

Steve then joined the staff of AARP and saw the power of what current Accelerate Change colleague Peter Murray calls “functional organizing”: pro-viding benefits and services for members who can then be organized to bring about social change. After helping to pass more than a dozen laws in three years, Steve knew this model could be used effectively for other progressive causes.

Steve moved to Washington, D.C. and launched Live Green, a membership organization for eco-minded consumers and green business network. Af-ter running Live Green for six years, Steve recently rejoined The Public Interest Network as the senior partner at Accelerate Change.

In his new role, Steve is most excited about the potential for functional organizing to build power and financial sustainabil-ity for partner organizations—enough to bring about funda-mental change on a range of progressive issues. Steve lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, Elli, and their dog.

He can be reached at steve@ acceleratechange.org.

Alumni Updates (continued from page 5)

Brian Hires and Vero Balderas Iglesias

Kristina Strinka and Steve Ma revisit the INPIRG office last October.

Anjuli Kronheim and Jonathan Katz

Gabi Camargo and Andre Martins

In Memoriam

Frances CanonizadoAlumna Frances Canonizado died on July 3 after a brave bat-tle with cancer. She is survived by her husband and their young daughter, and many family and dear friends.

Frances worked with Illinois PIRG and Environment Illinois from 2005 to 2006 and then con-tinued her activism with the Al-liance for the Great Lakes.

Born in the Phillipines, Frances made her home in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood. When she wasn’t fighting for Great Lakes restoration and pro-tection, she focused on being a mom; loved to find and pro-mote great local restaurants and stores; was a big booster for the Logan Square Farmer’s Market and the Garfield Park Conser-vatory; and loved travelling, Christmas music, and the beach.

The family has established a scholarship fund for Frances’ daughter’s continuing education at St. John Berchmans elemen-tary school at http://tinyurl.com/fcmemorial.

Sarah CarnahanAlumna Sarah Carnahan died on March 25 at the age of 53.

Born in Washington, D.C., Sar-ah was a graduate of Harvard and of the Bank Street College Graduate School of Education. In the early 1980’s, she worked as a MASSPIRG campus orga-nizer. She ultimately became an elementary school teacher in Irvington, N.Y., a position she served in for more than 20 years and where she was beloved by her students and fellow teachers. According to a family friend, “Sarah was the very essence of vivacity, joy, caring, … [and] competence.”

Sarah is survived by her hus-band, three daughters, parents, brother, sister, and many other family and friends. Memorial donations can be made to the Ir-vington Education Foundation, www.iefonline.org.

John PlunkettAlumnus John Plunkett died unexpectedly on Feb. 26 while skiing his favorite run at Mad River Glen in Vermont.

Born in Iowa, John studied at Georgetown before working on energy issues with PIRG in D.C. in 1977. John later graduated from Swarthmore with a Bache-lor’s in economics, and went on to a lifetime of work advocating energy efficiency and sustain-able energy, not only in the U.S., but also in Canada and China.

John is remembered as a tal-ented, generous, and extremely vivacious person. He is survived by his partner, his four children, his parents, and three sisters. Donations in John’s memory will go toward the dedication of a single chair at Mad River Glen. Contributions can be made out to Green Energy Economics Group (GEEG), c/o Kimball Office Services, 21 Main Street, #C, Bristol, VT 05443.

Remembering the lives of three alumni

Frances Canonizado

Sarah Carnahan

John Plunkett

Big Milestone in Clean Water Campaign (continued from page 1)corporate agribusinesses, in-cluding slaughterhouses and processing plants, were re-sponsible for approximately one-third of all nitrate pollu-tion dumped directly into our waters. And in several states, refineries were among some of the top toxic polluters.

Looking at the data, is it any wonder that corporate agribusi-ness and the oil and gas industry are fighting the clean water rule tooth-and-nail?

Thanks to extensive canvassing operations in the summertime, Environment America was able

to release the “Wasting Our Waterways” report in more than 40 cities across the country. The report’s findings are featured on the interactive webpage, iheartcleanwater.org.

The EPA’s proposed Clean Wa-ter Act rule is perhaps the most

significant step forward on clean water seen in more than a decade. But even this cam-paign is only one of many steps needed to defend our rivers, streams, and drinking water from a broad range of threats—from fracking to fac-tory farms.

Brian Hires and Vero Balderas Iglesias

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Andre Delattre, Elon Hasson, Gigi Norcross, and April Hasson at the Chicago alumni party in May.

DON’T MISS OUT! Do you receive periodic Span email updates? If not, we may not have your email address on file. The emails include fun alumni updates, timely news from The Public Inter-est Network, social invitations, and great job postings from a variety of organizations. *Also, starting this fall, we will send every other edition of this newsletter in electronic format only, but we can only get it to you if we have your email address.* Please send Alumni Organizer Kirsten Schatz a note at alumni@publicinterestnetwork.org with your current email address so we may keep you in the loop.

September 25, 2014

October 16, 2014

December 2015

Layout: Alumna Rebecca Farabaugh, The Principled Pen, www.principledpen.com

Save The Date!

Alumni and staff gather regularly in cities across the country to catch up with old friends and meet some new faces from the Public Interest Network family. Stay tuned to http://publicinterestnetwork.org/page/pin/alumni/calendar for more details on upcoming events and for photos from past events. If you’d like to help organize an alumni get-together near you, contact Kirsten Schatz at alumni@publicinterestnetwork.org or 303-573-5995 x331.

Austin, TX

Amherst, MA

Aspen, COEligible career alumni should save the date for the next Alumni Aspen vacation!