2024 Officer Election – Sierra Club Miami Group

2024 Executive Committee Election

The Miami Group Executive Committee has nine seats. Members are elected for two-year staggered terms.

There are four open seats for the 2025-2026 Executive Committee. The candidates for ExCom this year are Sally Dannemiller, Bob Gedert, Marie Kocoshis, Gail Lewin and Michael Miller. Candidate statements are available below.

Ballots must be cast before November 30, 2024.

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].

Sally Dannemiller

An active member of the Miami Group for the last five years, Sally has served as Chair for the past two years. Her interests lie with Conservation- the protection of our environment in Southwestern Ohio: opposing the continued extraction of fossil fuels and expansion of that infrastructure, working toward waste diversion from landfills and concern about pollution from PFAS and other threats to our air, land and water. She is a big believer in getting the word out about things people need to know and how they can take action to support environmental goals. A former teacher, Sally has worked diligently with a number of communities and non-profits over the many years that she has called Cincinnati home. In her free time, she likes to hike, bike and paddle.

Bob Gedert

Bob has been a Sierra Club Member since 1977, renewing his membership as his career has carried him through various states. He moved back to Cincinnati in 2017 and has been involved in the Sierra Club Miami Group’s Past Plastic Committee, as well as a strong member of the League of Women Voters Natural Resources Committee. Bob is retired from a 45-year recycling career, guiding communities toward sustainable materials management through a system approach, bridging recycling best practices. Operational efficiency, and sustainability. He is the immediate past president of the National Recycling Coalition. Currently he is writing a book on the effects of plastics on human health, the environment, and its impacts on climate change. The book offers direct actions one can take to eliminate the harms of plastics and to slow the effects of climate change. Bob also teaches a class on climate change at Xavier University. Said Bob, “I feel I can contribute to local policy development, governmental affairs, education programs, and membership development.”

Marie Kocoshis

Marie said she is running for Miami Group Executive Committee to be able to make a difference in the world. There are many campaigns that Miami Group has taken on; Marie’s hope is to remain on ExCom to see them to the finish, along with fellow members. It is very rewarding to speak in public as a Miami Group member and get respect and even sometimes get heard. Marie values the goals of Sierra Club and recognizes the amount of work it will take. She is enthused that Miami Group is addressing the solid waste dilemma in Hamilton County with a Pay As You Throw program; this encourages recycling and hopefully makes citizens think about what they are purchasing with all the throw way packaging. Also, Marie hopes Miami Group will have a program for organics (maybe large scale composting) to keep organics out of landfills and reduce amount of methane released into the atmosphere. Marie’s pledge is “Do as much as you can, as long as you can, as often as you can.”

Gail Lewin

Gail has served as a member of the Executive Committee for the past two years and has served as the Chair of the Miami Group Political Committee the past six years. Gail said that as a result of her service on ExCom, she has a better understanding of how the entire Miami Group functions and how it can enhance communication, education, and service, to its members. Miami Group needs to invigorate the club with a new generation of leaders to maintain its traditions and find ways to come up with innovative programs to meet local environmental challenges. We need to get the word out on the work performed by the Miami Group’s Conservation, Education, Political and Outings Committees. The Political Committee endorsements have been successful in electing public servants who take action in response to environmental issues concerning the Metropolitan Sewer District, the Brent Spence Bridge, plastic bags, landfills, public parks, recycling etc. Said Gail, “If elected I will continue to work to improve the operation of the Miami Group Sierra Club.”

Michael Miller

Michael is professor Emeritus of Biological Sciences and Environmental Studies from the University of Cincinnati where he taught for 40 years, teaching Aquatic Ecology, Urban Ecology, Community Ecology and the Introduction to Environmental Sciences to thousands of students. During that time he participated in research on aquatic ecosystem structure and function on rivers and lakes in the Midwest, SW Ohio, and the Alaskan Arctic working on water chemistry, algal composition and primary production, zooplankton dynamics, and benthic macroinvertebrates, and fish ecology. His research in the Alaskan Arctic began in 1964, continued with the International Biological Program (1971-1974). This helped his team locate from Barrow to the Brooks Range where he helped open the US Tundra field station at Toolik Lake in 1975 and has worked 29 summers in N. of the Arctic Circle. This team became what is now the NSF Tundra Long Term Ecological Research program. He has also conducted paleolimnological research on Holocene climate for 11 years where he helped core and analyze sediments from 30+ lakes cored in Ecuador, the Galapagos, Kiratiba in the equatorial Pacific, Arctic Russia (Siberia and Kola Peninsula), Alaska, Mexico and along the Amazon in Brazil on three expeditions.