The people featured on this page help lead SSAFE’s mission in a variety of roles. Here you’ll find biographies for our Board of Directors, staff, and a list of chapter leaders.
Many SSAFE chapters have a representative who also serves on the Board of Directors. However, not every chapter is represented on the Board. Every chapter does have a designated Chapter Leader who serves as the primary point of contact for SSAFE.
If you do not see your community represented among the Board members, please scroll to the bottom of this page to find your Chapter Leader.
Board of Directors
Jim
Seif
Acting Chair, Longwood
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.
Liz
Barbehenn
Secretary, Collington
Liz Barbehenn holds a B.S degree in Biochemistry from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from Washington University. She worked as a biochemist at the N.I.H. for ten years before moving to the FDA where she worked as a toxicologist in the Center for Drugs for 13 years. To escape the political pressure from the pharmaceutical industry, she moved to the Health Research Group at Public Citizen to continue the fight for safe and effective drugs. That work continued part-time until June 2024. At Collington, she has overseen the bluebird trail and the Weed Warriors. The latter group focuses on removing invasive plants from our 50 acres of woodlands as well as helping on neighboring county land.
Steven
Fellows
Treasurer, RiverWoods Durham
Steven Fellows brings analytical rigor and environmental commitment to the SSAFE Board. With degrees in engineering, biology, and accounting, he combines technical expertise with systems thinking. For over 30 years, he’s diverted food waste from landfills through work with food pantries and soup kitchens. Early career projects included modeling forest fires and acid rain effects. Currently, he serves on Durham’s Energy Committee and Waste Management Advisory Committee, and pursues sustainability initiatives at RiverWoods Durham. Steven focuses particularly on greenhouse gas emissions measurement and reporting, applying his engineering background and avocational interest in physics and chemistry to climate solutions.
Dulany Bennett
At-Large-Officer, 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.
Vicky
Barrette
RiverWoods Durham
After serving with the Peace Corps in Venezuela and Washington, D.C., Vicky began a 35-year career in healthcare administration with Baystate Health Systems in western Massachusetts. Her passion for using her Spanish language skills, rather than her degrees in government and international relations, led her to coordinate a community health center serving Springfield’s Hispanic community. She later held a variety of inpatient and outpatient leadership positions, including overseeing two electronic medical record implementations. Following retirement, Vicky moved to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and then to the newly opened RiverWoods Durham community in 2019. After emerging from the COVID-19 lockdown in 2022, she became actively involved in sustainability, serving as Co-Chair of a resident initiative that successfully replaced plastic clamshell containers used for takeout dining meals.
Scot
Drysdale
At-Large Officer
Kendal at Hanover
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.
George Blomgren
Kendal at Oberlin
George Blomgren worked for Union Carbide Corp./Eveready Battery for over 40 years as a research scientist, focusing on liquids and electrolyte solutions for batteries as well as new battery systems. He finished at Eveready as a Senior Technology Fellow in 1999. He then began a consulting career dealing with battery problems and solutions as well as legal issues. He also served as an associate editor for the Journal of the Electochemical Society, Chair of several scientific society committees as well as Chair and member of Board of Trustees of the Lakewood, Ohio Public Library. At Kendal at Oberlin, he has served on the Board of Trustees of the Resident’s Association. At SSAFE, he is Chair of the Expansion Committee. He is a life-long advocate for environmental issues.
Davida Foy Crabtree
Seabury
Davida Foy Crabtree is an ordained United Church of Christ minister who served for 23 years as a Conference Minister for Southern California and Connecticut and then as interim in Missouri and Florida. She is passionate about the work of justice in all its opportunities, but for all her life has been an advocate for Earth. Most recently she founded the CT chapter of Third Act in 2023 and continues in leadership of volunteer engagement statewide. She is also a board member of a new nonprofit hoping to save the ministry of Silver Lake Camp in CT, a UCC outdoor ministry. In her spare time, she leads the Environmental Action Community at Seabury and organizes for democracy. She’s the grandmother of five and great gram of twin girls!
Ed
Gellenbeck
RoseVilla
Ed Gellenbeck is a Professor Emeritus of Computer Science with more than 20 years of experience teaching and mentoring students. Since retiring, he has focused his energy on environmental stewardship and community-based sustainability work. His lifelong love of the outdoors includes backpacking, cycling tours, backcountry skiing, and community gardening. During retirement, Ed volunteered for several summers at Mount Rainier National Park, helping protect fragile alpine meadows. He and his wife, Jean Lofy, have lived at RoseVilla since 2019 in a net-zero cottage, where he applies his technical and organizational skills to support sustainability and resiliency in the community.
Robert Gettings
Kendal at 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
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.
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.
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.
Chris Sheppard
Kendal at 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.
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.
Ann
Taves
Pilgrim Place
Ann Taves is a Professor Emerita of Religious Studies having taught for many years in Claremont before moving to the University of California at Santa Barbara. Over the course of her career, she held leadership positions in several professional organizations, including the American Academy of Religion. She has a longstanding interest in landscaping with native plants. When she and her husband moved to Pilgrim Place, she worked with the Building and Grounds staff to create the community’s first all-electric home. She has been a member of the Environmental Concerns Committee (ECC) since she arrived and, with two others, launched the Climate Resilience Initiative with the aim of converting Pilgrim Place’s homes and campus to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change. She coordinated the team that developed and is now working to implement a new Sustainability Plan.
SSAFE Staff
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!
Jenna Woodill
SSAFE Program Manager
Jenna Woodill grew up with the Rocky Mountain National Park as her backyard, fostering a deep respect for the environment. She holds a B.A. in Art from San Diego State University and an M.A. in Global Leadership and Sustainable Development from Hawaiʻi Pacific University. With experience spanning public health, community engagement, and sustainability, she has worked with organizations like The Blue Zones Project, The Green House Hawaiʻi, and Sustainable Coastlines Hawaiʻi to implement programs that support both people and the planet. She is excited to bring her skills and passion to SSAFE’s mission.
Chapter Leaders:
Hanover:
Dulany Bennett, Scot Drysdale
Lathrop East:
Kamala Brush
Otterbein Granville:
Christie Vargo
Pennswood Village:
Rita Bergman
Riderwood Village:
Karen Douglas
