2022 Officer Election – Sierra Club Miami Group

2022 Executive Committee Election

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

There are four open seats so please vote for no more than four candidates for the 2022-2023 Executive Committee. The candidates for ExCom this year are Sally Dannemiller, Marie Kocoshis, Gail Lewin, Jeanne Nightingale and Marilyn Wall. Candidate statements are available below.

Voting will begin November 21, and ballots must be cast before December 21, 2022.

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

With the Miami Group, Sally has served for the last several years on the Executive Committee as Vice Chair. She’s active with the Conservation Committee, also serving as Vice Chair. Recently, she helped form the Hamilton County Solid Waste Caucus in an effort to move toward Zero Waste via waste diversion initiatives. She’s worked with the Past Plastic Cincinnati Coalition (PPCC) to reduce plastic consumption and has opposed natural gas pipeline expansion in Hamilton County. Additionally, Sally is active with the Corryville Community Council and is a member of the Burnet Woods Park Advisory Council.

Marie Kocoshis

I feel I have found my environmental home in the Miami Group Sierra Club. Miami Group has folks who are willing to give inordinate amounts of time and energy working against pollution and the resulting inequities and for policies and programs that help improve the lives of citizens in Hamilton County and beyond. The environmental assaults are unending. This work energizes me. It is hard to prioritize and Miami Group provides leadership to show the way and the ins and outs of governmental entities like OEPA,& USEPA.

I look forward to another year working for clean air and water and against the polluters with members of the Miami Group.

Gail Lewin

As a current member of ExCom, I take my role seriously as I vote to ensure we are spending our funds in a reasonable manner for the important environmental issues we are supporting. We have monetary challenges and we need to deal with them in a realistic manner. I have served as Chair of the Miami Group Political Committee for the 2021 election where we endorsed Cincinnati City Council and Mayoral candidates. In those races, three of our Council endorsees were elected and our Mayoral candidate won his race. In 2022 we have endorsed a federal candidate for the First Ohio Congressional District, and candidates for running for the Ohio US Senate, Governor of Ohio, and Ohio State Representatives. This is vital in the current political atmosphere of climate change denial. Based on role at ExCom and my leadership of the Political Committee, I would appreciate your vote in the upcoming election.

Jeanne Nightingale

As a longtime member of the Sierra Club Miami Group and serving on ExCom and ConsCom these past two years, Jeanne has grown in her appreciation of the critical importance the Club’s leadership particularly at a time when the health of our natural ecosystem is increasingly at risk. Active with the Past Plastic Cincinnati campaign to ban single-use plastic waste in our city, she believes that forming such grassroots coalitions not only strengthens the Club’s advocacy, it energizes public commitment to the vital protection and restoration of the ecosystem. Broader community engagement becomes key as we push back against governmental and corporate entities who are increasingly clever at finding ways to usurp local rights to safe drinking water, clean energy, and municipal waste management, through preemptive bills, misinformation campaigns, corrupt practices, and bureaucratic hurdles that impede public input.

Her work with the Woman’s City Club Environmental Action Group, League of Women Voter Natural Resources Committee, Ohio River Guardians, Communities United for Action, Impervious Surface Fee Stakeholders Working Group, and the Green Cincinnati Plan, has been to generate wider citizen participation in community efforts to strengthen urban resilience and to safeguard human and environmental health. Working with the broader faith community, including St. John’s UU Green Sanctuary Partners, Faith Communities Goes Green, Pachamama, and the Rights of Nature movement, helps connect spiritual practice with ecological consciousness. The Sierra Club, she believes, must take the lead in further diversifying the environmental movement and thus leveraging its capacity to be more equitable and inclusive in our advocacy for environmental justice.

Marilyn Wall

Recruiting and training new volunteers needs to be one of our Group’s priorities for 2023-2024. Our challenges to achieve environmental protection and restore our ecosystems remain high. We need to engage more people in this work! I’ve personally found that being on our local excom to be challenging and rewarding work to both strengthen our Group and protect the environment and people. The Sierra Club’s emphasis on the need to address all injustice, not just environmental wrongs, is an opportunity for us to partner with more people and organizations to confront the injustice of racism, sexism, poverty, the criminal non-justice system along with environmental injustice. I hope all members will join us in these efforts.