Board of Directors
SSAFE Board of Directors
Joel Brody Chair, Collington
Joel Brody holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering and has
had a distinguished career in the computer industry. He has overseen major hardware and software development projects, served as a vice president and company officer, and led his own consulting firm, which provided technical expertise to financial institutions. He has held leadership positions on the boards of several Jewish temples, including multiple terms as president. He also served as a Parks and Recreation Commissioner in South Lake Tahoe, California.
Vice-Chair
Jim Seif served as an Assistant US Attorney in Pittsburgh, PA, and then joined the newly-formed US EPA Regional office in 1973. He was Administrative Assistant to Governor Dick Thornburgh in 1979 and later appointed Regional Administrator of EPA Region 3 in 1985. After practicing law for 6 years in Philadelphia, he was appointed Secretary of the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection in 1994. He concluded his career as a vice president for a Fortune 300 utility company in Allentown, PA. Jim received Lifetime Achievement awards from the National Academy of Public Administration and the PA Bar Association Environment and Energy Section, and has served on several profit and non-profit boards. He was educated at Yale University and the University of Pittsburgh Law School.
Lynn Williams, Secretary Kendal at Longwood
Lynn Williams served Delaware as a volunteer for over 50 years on the boards and councils of a nature center, conservancy, State Parks and State Open Space. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College with a degree in geology, she has always championed the conservation and preservation of earth’s finite resources.
Scot Drysdale, Treasurer
Kendal at Hanover
Scot Drysdale is an Emeritus Professor of Computer Science at Dartmouth College, where he taught for 40 years. He is a former member of the Board at Kendal at Hanover. He is a Quaker and has served in many capacities. He is currently Treasurer of Hanover Friends Meeting, Clerk of the Finance Committee of New England Yearly Meeting, and on the Policy Committee of Friends Committee on Legislation (FCNL). In SSAFE he is Treasurer and co-chair of the Greening our Campuses Project Team. He enjoys biking, hiking, and playing duplicate bridge.
Abbie Fassnacht
The Admiral
Retired Alumni Director Lake Forest College (Bio coming soon!)
Henry Brockenton Thomas
Collington
Henry Brockenton Thomas is Associate Professor Emeritus from the University of North Florida’s Department of Political Science & Public Administration. He earned a BA in philosophy from UCLA, an MS in Systems Analysis from the University of Rochester’s Simon School of Business, and a Doctorate in Public Administration for the University of Southern California. He was a community organizer and Chief of Staff of the FIGHT Organization in Rochester, NY. He is interested in ancient African and Indigenous climate sustainability and knowledge.
Willa Nehlsen, Crosslands, Cartmel, Coniston
Willa Nehlsen holds a B.A. in Science and a Ph.D. in Biology from University of California, Santa Cruz. She also has an M.S. in Botany from University of Washington. She began her professional career on the East Coast, serving as senior scientist and writer for the EPA Chesapeake Bay Program of the Environmental Protection Agency. She then returned to the West Coast, holding scientific positions with the Columbia River Estuary Data Development Program, the Northwest Power Planning Council, the Pacific Rivers Council, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. She completed her career on the East Coast with the Northeast Regional Office of the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Jim Lohr
Enso Village
Jim brings a diverse background to Enso Village, with experience in graphic design, media production, IT, sales, and management. He spent 10 years volunteering with Search and Rescue teams, competed in triathlons, and loved riding motorcycles. Before joining the community, Jim and his wife lived in San Luis Obispo, enjoying time with their grandchildren and managing a two-acre property. At Enso Village, he’s an active member of the Resident Council, Enso Earth Care Team, SSAFE, and other committees. Though new to sustainability, Jim is eager to learn and contribute meaningfully to addressing the climate crisis.
Dulany Bennett
Kendal at Hanover
Dulany Bennett spent the first twenty-five years of her career as a teacher and administrator in Quaker schools. She spent twenty years in Portland, Oregon acquiring a doctorate in clinical psychology and leading the Oregon Episcopal School. She focused on climate issues at all the schools she worked with. She has come to SSAFE with a great passion to use the time and energy of retirement to raise up the urgency of climate action for her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
Chris Sheppard
Ithaca
Chris Sheppard obtained a BA in Neurobiology and Behavior and PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Cornell University. Starting as an intern in 1978, she eventually became the Curator of Birds for the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo. In 2009, she joined the American Bird Conservancy to direct the Glass Collisions Program where she is still employed.
Kamala Brush
Lathrop East
Bio coming soon!
George Kriebel
Lathrop North
George grew up in Philadelphia and retired from the practice of psychiatry in 2013. He has long been interested in living sustainably. In the mid-‘80s he converted a well-oriented ranch house to a solar-envelope house. In 2008-2010 he worked with his son to convert a 1991 VW-GTI to battery-electric. The project won a Wired Magazine contest for reducing carbon footprint. He drove a Volt for 9 years, then switched to a Tesla Model Y. In 2015, he installed roof-top photovoltaics. He moved to Lathrop in November 2019, and joined the resident-run solar study group there.
Robert Gettings
Lexington
Bob Gettings served as chief executive officer of the National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disabilities Services for nearly 37. During his professional career Bob played a central role in revolutionizing federal health and social policy toward people with disabilities. He also helped states bring individuals with lifelong disabilities out of the shadows of large, segregated institutions into the mainstream of American life. Bob current resides with his wife of 57 years at Kendal at Lexington, located in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley.
George Alexander
Kendal at Longwood
George Alexander is a retired journalist and marketer, and a resident at Kendal at Longwood. He has a long history of involvement in environmental issues. In addition to serving as chair of the Energy Committee at Kendal at Longwood, he co-chairs the SSAFE’s Greening Our Campuses Project Team alongside Kendal at Hanover residents Scot Drysdale and Stu White. His blog, www.kendaljourney.com, often covers environmental topics.
Ted Wolner,
Kendal at Oberlin
Ted Wolner is Professor Emeritus from Ball State University’s Department of Architecture and the Honors College, where he worked from 1989 to 2013. He has been an active leader and volunteer with many climate and social advocacy organizations since 2011, including Citizens’ Climate Lobby, Fire Drill Fridays, Poor Peoples’s Campaign, 350.org, and Beyond Extreme Energy. He is also Chair of the Kendal at Oberlin Environmental Concerns Committee.
Larry Litten
Piper Shores
Larry has degrees from UCLA and the University of Chicago and spent his professional life in higher education research and administration. He founded institutional research offices at Carleton College and Dartmouth College, and served as director of research for a consortium of private, selective colleges. He helped establish Hanover, New Hampshire’s sustainability committee and the sustainability office at Dartmouth College. He serves as co-chair of Piper Shores’ Sustainability Collaborative, a group of administrators, residents, board and community members that guides its sustainability initiatives.
Carol Jean Suitor
Wake Robin
Carol Jean Suitor worked in the field of nutrition for more than 45 years—teaching, providing clinical care, writing, and later working with national committees that provided advice to federal agencies. She has volunteered with and served as treasurer for organizations that focus on youth and the local library. Long concerned about the climate crisis, she became active in joining with others to address climate change upon her arrival at Wake Robin.
Mary Lindley Burton
Immediate Past Chair, Kendal at Hanover
Mary Lindley Burton has devoted over forty years to helping individuals in professional transition. Founder of Burton Strategies in New York City in 1978, she has worked one-on-one with over 2000 clients from a wide range of fields. She has guided hundreds of people making job, career and life choices that integrate their personal and professional goals, a core objective for many clients. A native of Minnesota, Mary is a graduate of Smith College (BA, 1972) and Harvard Business School (MBA, 1976).
Jonathan Howe
Legal Counsel
The Admiral
Jonathan is the President and Founding Partner of Howe & Hutton, Ltd. He has written hundreds of articles, papers and books, and has spoken to organizations all over the world on all manner of legal issues. For 21 years, Mr. Howe was an elected public official on the Northbrook Illinois Board of Education, was elected President of the Illinois Association of School Boards, and President of the National School Boards Association. He is one of few lawyers to have appeared and argued before the US Supreme Court.
Michelle Goodwin
SSAFE Executive Director
Michelle Goodwin has worked as a program and project manager in a variety of industries including IT, software, continuing education, and renewable energy. She graduated from Northern Arizona University with a B.A. in Anthropology. She came to SSAFE through Citizen’s Climate Lobby as a chapter co-leader where she discovered an opportunity to meet with SSAFE Board members. After understanding SSAFE’s mission, she “had no choice” but to take a leap of faith to support SSAFE!
