2025 Executive Committee Election
he Miami Group Executive Committee has nine seats. Members are elected for two-year staggered terms.
There are five open seats for the 2026-2027 Executive Committee, and there are six candidates. The candidates for ExCom this year are Nancy Bertaux, Larry Falkin, Jeanne Nightingale, Barry Randall, Susan Sprigg and Braden Trauth. Candidate statements are available below.
Ballots must be cast before December 13, 2025.
In order to cast your vote, you will need to enter your Sierra Club member ID. You can find your eight-digit membership number on your membership card or on the mailing label of your Sierra magazine. If you received a postcard or email notice about the Executive Committee election, you will also find your member ID provided there. If you need help finding your member ID, contact the Sierra Club membership office at [email protected] or (415) 977-5653. If you have other questions, please contact the Miami Group via email [email protected].
Nancy Bertaux
Nancy is Professor Emeritus of Economics & Sustainabiity from Xavier University, where she founded and directed two interdisciplinary undergraduate academic programs; served as Chair of Xavier’s Sustainability Committee; ran a sustainability speaker series; supervised student sustainability interns; published articles on sustainability topics; and advised students on a variety of real world volunteer sustainability projects in the Cincinnati area. She also co-directed a student sustainability study trip to Colorado and represented Xavier on the Greater Cincinnati Green Business Council. She has taught many courses in workforce diversity and sees equity and justice as integral to environmental goals. She is a lifelong Cincinnati resident and would like to focus her volunteer efforts in her retirement here. She hopes to bring her experience and expertise in envisioning and building new programs; organizing, analyzing and implementing projects; and in motivating and cooperating with individuals and teams to the Sierra Club’s Miami Group. She first became involved with sustainability in the 1970s as a teenager volunteering for a local Explorer Club, which sponsored a cleanup of the Little Miami River. This cleanup was crucial in getting a “scenic river” designation that stopped a variety of polluting activities on the River. “Think globally, act locally” — we’ve heard it many times … but it works!
Larry Falkin
I am a long-time Sierra Club member and current SCMG Executive Committee member. I organize the Sierra Club board game nights and lead Sierra Club’s effort to address Cincinnati’s storm water management and sewer equity issues. Before retiring, I led the City of Cincinnati’s Office of Environment and Sustainability, where I spearheaded the development and implementation of the Green Cincinnati Plan.
Jeanne Nightingale
Jeanne Nightingale, PhD, has been a member of the Sierra Club Miami Group since 1985. She currently serves as co-chair of the Conservation Committee, co-chair of the Education Programs Committee, and co-chair of the Past Plastic Cincinnati Coalition. For the last two terms, Jeanne served on the Executive Committee. She represented the Sierra Club on MSD’s Impervious Surface Fee Stakeholder Sessions. As a past president of Woman’s City Club, she leads WCC’s Environmental Action Team and she works with the Natural Resources committee of the League of Women Voters. At St. John’s UU Church, she leads the Green Sanctuary Team working on Environmental Justice projects. Retired from the French Department at Miami University, she is currently employed as Director of Program Research at Nightingale Montessori in Springfield. She recently won a USDA grant to grow its edible schoolyard, and with her sister Nancy (co-founder of the school), Jeanne developed an Early Childhood Reading Curriculum for neurodiverse learners.
Barry Randall
As a Sierra Club member for many years, I have tried to live our motto, “Explore, Enjoy and Protect.” An avid hiker, backpacker, paddler and cyclist, I’ve always enjoyed Sierra Club activities. In 2013 I became certified as a Miami Group Outings Leader to encourage others to enjoy the natural world as I have throughout my life, believing that those who experience the outdoors will come to love, respect and protect it. In 2018 I became the Miami Group Outings Chair, inheriting an active group of volunteers that every week introduces new people to Sierra Club and the outdoors. I am a certified National Outings Leader Instructor, and most recently have become co-Chair of Ohio Chapter Outings Committee in an effort to expand outings across the state.
In addition to Outings, I have been the Secretary of ExCom for the past six years, Chair the Miami Group Communications Committee, and am a member of the Miami Group Educational Programs Committee. If given the opportunity to continue to serve on the Miami Group Executive Committee, I will work to reinvigorate the organization by partnering with like-minded organizations both within and outside of Sierra Club.
Susan Sprigg
Susan Sprigg has spent her career working toward healthy, sustainable communities. Much of her work has been focused on public health and health care; however, in the past decade she has increasingly felt called to address public health by addressing the health of the planet and ecosystems that support us. Currently the Director of Operations at Cardinal Land Conservancy, she also serves on the Environmental Advisory Board for the City of Cincinnati, and is a certified Electric Coach with Rewiring America, a member of the Izaak Walton League, and a Climate for Health Ambassador from ecoAmerica. She strongly believes that humans are part of nature, rather than separate from it, and is interested in discovering ways to integrate sustainability into everything we do. This includes continued expanding our audience to pull in new partners in the work.
Braden Trauth
Braden Trauth, a lifelong Cincinnati resident with deep roots, is an Assistant Professor of Industrial Design at UC’s College of DAAP and has spent 25 years studying and practicing Sustainability and Sustainable Design. This includes building and living in off-grid homes called earthships, studying permaculture with the founders of the field in Australia, establishing the Cincinnati Permaculture Institute and its edible/native landscape nursery, Growing Value, and training hundreds of students and leaders in the field. He established with colleagues the world’s first Regenerative Agriculture Certification, Permaganic Authenticated which has gone on to influence the field in major ways. He has also served on numerous local non-profit and government boards with strong focus or missions in sustainability including the City of Cincinnati’s Environmental Advocacy Committee and Urban Agriculture Advisory Board where he was president as well as the Midwest’s Professional Permaculture Organization where he just stepped down from a four-year role as board president for the six-state region. He has also taught sustainable farming and living abroad in countries like Haiti and India. He would hope to bring these years of knowledge, experience and vision to the Sierra Club Miami Group to help it further its mission.
