About
Steering Committee
Anne Jaffe Holmes
Former Program Manager for the Federated Conservationists of Westchester County, Anne Jaffe Holmes seeks to build community around protecting our environment, especially by bringing forward the voices of those who bear the heaviest burdens of climate change. Previously an environmental educator for Westchester County and then for the Greenburgh Nature Center, Anne came to understand that the disconnect between people and Nature so pervasive in our culture creates disease in our bodies and souls, just as surely as it poisons our world and harms other species. Anne can be found mixing her backyard compost or collecting food scraps at the Farmers Market with her friends in the Irvington Compost Crew.
Charlotte Binns
Village of Irvington Sustainability Director.
A resident since 2019 with two kids in the IUFSD. Charlotte is trained as a Climate Reality Project leader and has been an active environmental leader in previous communities, raising funds and passing local legislation to build resilience. For a living, Charlotte has organized municipalities across NY for clean community energy programs and is currently focused on regenerative land stewardship work.
Lisa Antonelli
Irvington resident since 2010, Lisa loves animals and walks dogs with her husband at Paws Crossed Animal Rescue in Elmsford. She is also a Waste Warrier for Hudson Compost Service and a mechanical/electrical fixer for Repair Cafe Hudson Valley. It's perhaps not surprising that one of her favorite hangouts is Irvington Hardware!
Leola Specht
Goofy GPTF'r with hand-me-down mismatched clothing and messy hair. Serious about regenerating the earth through native plants, leaving leaves, hand mow/no blow and removing non-native invasive plants; picking up trash; food scrap composting; zero waste "refuse-reuse-repurpose-repair-recycle" practices (no need to buy trash bags when trash fits in a chip or cereal bag!); no or low emission transportation, safe walking and biking advocate - in a friendly, community-oriented way.
Jasena S.
Mother of 2 school-aged children, passionate about conservation and protection of biodiversity. Jasena joined GPTF in 2019 and is a member of the Communications Subcommittee and the Invasives Removal Squad (IRS). Loves hands-on activities such as cleanups, planting of native plants, and non-native invasives removal events. Jasena believes that solutions offered by the Drawdown Framework can reverse the climate crisis. In her opinion, reconnecting with nature is the key for sustainability.
John Cossins
John is a retired scientist and technologist with a strong interest in green tech and sustainable living. His other interests include hiking, backpacking and nature photography as well as scuba diving and organic gardening. He and his family recently completed a ‘green’ remodel of their house in Irvington.
Nikki C.
Resident of Irvington since 1992, founding member of GPTF. Member of Irvington's Climate Smart Communities Task Force. Passions include tree stewardship and regenerative gardening with native plants to support biodiversity and healthy local ecosystems. Advocate for clean energy; solar homeowner and EV owner, happy to answer questions about same.
Members
Melanie Solomon
Melanie Solomon moved to Irvington in 2020 from San Francisco, where they have municipal composting! She is passionate about that, as well as other aspects of waste management (recycling and upcycling) and electric vehicles. Melanie has been composting since she lived in New York City after college, via a small pile at her parents house on Long Island which once caught fire (and so ended that venture). Melanie and her husband have 2 young, school-aged children who also love composting and EVs. Melanie attended Cornell University and works in Investor Relations. She also spent time in the wine industry, working at Hermann J. Wiemer Vineyard in the Finger Lakes of western New York, which is an organic and biodynamic vineyard.
Suzie Fromer
Suzie Fromer has spent the last 18 years living in Westchester, first in Tarrytown and then in Irvington. The daughter of vegetable gardening antique dealers, Suzie grew up steeped in the twin cultures of environmentalism and repair. She is mom to two teenaged boys with food allergies and is an advocate for OIT food allergy treatments. She volunteered for years with the Irvington PTSA and chaired the board of the Irvington Farmer’s Market for several seasons before stepping down to open a jewelry making and repair business. She started volunteering as a jewelry repair coach for the Hastings Repair Cafe in 2019 and fell in love with the repair cafe concept. In 2022 she went to work for Sustainable Hudson Valley as the coordinator for Repair Café Hudson Valley, a consortium of almost 60 Repair cafes throughout the Hudson Valley, Catskills and Capital Region. She can be found fixing jewelry at a Repair Café throughout the area almost every weekend.
Warwick Norton
Dr. Warwick Norton has been the director of meteorology and climate research to work on the Cumulus Weather and Cumulus Energy funds. Previously Norton was at the University of Reading's Department of Meteorology, a world-leading center of excellence in the atmospheric sciences, having previously conducted research at both Oxford and Cambridge universities as well as at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. Dr. Warwick Norton grew up in New Zealand and currently lives in Irvington. He is a keen plant grower and lover of nature. For part of this summer he could be found in the Hermits Wetland of Irvington Woods battling invasive Phragmites.
Gwen Merkin
Nature mentor passionate about waking up our connections with the earth. Advocates for and practices sustainability at home, works with commercial real estate to address climate change, and leads community-based nature connection programs. Working to resurrect the tradition of being outside to rediscover that we are all connected. I live in Irvington with my husband and two daughters and we are dreaming up plans to regenerate our land and create a suburban homestead.
Bill Estes
An Irvington resident since 2019, Bill has kids at IMS and IHS. He is a member of the Village Climate Smart Communities Task Force, which is preparing the Village for a changing climate while mitigating some causes. He is a lawyer with experience in infrastructure and government, and frequently visits the Reservoir and Halsey Pond for dog walks and runs.
Josie Bloom
Josie Bloom is an enthusiastic food scrap ambassador and composter. She loves pollinator plants and gardening - although please don't look at her front yard since this is a beginning skill! As a social worker, Josie understands the intersections of environmental / climate justice and is proud to volunteer with the Irvington Green Policy Task Force.
Bruce Bell
Bruce has lived in Irvington since 2019. He and his wife have a son at Dow’s Lane and 2 dogs. He currently serves on the Irvington Woods Committee and the Irvington Green Policy Task Force, where he divides his efforts between the stewardship of the village’s green spaces and greening the village’s buildings. An ecologist and plant biologist by training, he teaches biology and environmental sciences in higher education.
Ilene R Bach
Ilene Bach recently started volunteering with Irvington Green and is focused on Climate Smart Communities Certification. She is also the owner of a local business, DHS & Company, Inc., an accounting and business consulting firm located in Tarrytown. The mother of two small children, she also loves traveling/learning about other cultures, cooking, spending time outdoors, science fiction and driving her EV. Ilene has lived in Irvington since 2013 and grew up in Tarrytown.
Abby Diamond
A lifelong New Yorker, Abby moved to Irvington in 2020 and lives with her husband, 2 sons (1 at IMS and 1 at IHS), and 2 dogs. Since volunteering at Earth Day 1990 as a middle schooler, Abby has been interested in sustainability and protecting our environment. She has embraced Electric Vehicles and is enjoying researching and learning about native plants and pollinators. For her day job she works as a learning specialist for middle and high school students at an independent school in New York City.
Judy Klein Frimer
Proud resident of Irvington, NY for 32 years. Joined GPTF 8 years ago to engage in local sustainable activities as part of a Masters Program at Miami University and helped develop Irvington School’s Waste Reduction Program along with a remarkable group of volunteers. Trained at Climate Reality Project, worked on initiatives at the Wildlife Conservation Society (including 96 Elephants) and Climate Smart Community Certification Task Force Coordinator bringing us to Bronze Certification.
Gloria Leahey
Gloria Leahey is an active volunteer with the Green Policy Task Force. She can be found tabling at the Farmer’s Market, writing and doing research, planning events, and serving on the land subcommittee. When she is not volunteering, she is busy raising her children and tending to her pollinator garden.
MJ Wilson
Leah Rae
Juliette Hartel
Todd Wilson
Jan Blair
Jan Blaire has lived in Westchester Co. for over 36 years, and has been an active environmental advocate for most of this time. She has served on numerous boards including the WC Soil & Water Conservation District (as Chair), the WC Ag & Farmland Protection Board, the WC Saw Mill River Advisory Committee, Irvington Environmental Conservation Board, Irvington Green Policy Task Force, Federated Conservationists of Westchester, Hudson River Watershed Alliance, Vice Chair, Irvington Land Use Committee, Irvington Land Trust Board, and Lyndhurst. She is the former Chair of the Westchester Environmental Management Council, served on the LIS Study, and is the former Chair of the Environmental/Conservation Committee for the National Federated Garden Club.
Julia Steinmetz
Julia Steinmetz recently joined the Irvington Green Policy Task Force on the Climate and Energy Subcommittee. She previously lead the Solarize Larchmont-Mamaroneck campaign and rewrote the Pesticide Reduction Policy for the Village of Larchmont.
Laurie Friedman
Laurie is an Irvington resident for 23 years and the principal of a staffing company placing office support in NYC law firms. She is passionate about helping to raise awareness of the negative effects of light pollution and to protect dark skies. As a member of the Dark Sky International chapter in Massachusetts, Laurie is actively involved in getting a dark sky bylaw passed in the town of her second home in Becket, a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. She is hoping to bring her knowledge of responsible outdoor lighting to the village.
Becket is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts
Joan Nelson
Ana Aldana
Subcommittee: Land
John Price
Angela Mathews
Laird Popkin
Student Member: Joanna Paul
Joanna is an IHS Senior and a member of the National Honor Society, which recognizes students who demonstrate outstanding scholarship, service, leadership, and character. The NHS works as an organization to give back to the community.
Joanna has been enrolled in a 3-year program with Rutgers University, where she focuses on plant genetics, specifically on how elevated temperatures affect the plants genome, which is very relevant to the climate crisis.
Joanna is a co-leader of the IHS Marine Club (a.k.a.-O.C.E.A.N Club), which focuses on educating students and the broader community on how to protect local rivers and ecosystems in general. The Club has organized for example river cleanups and also organized sessions with guest speakers such as Michael Forte.
Community Environmental Advisors
Chet Kerr
Chet Kerr and his wife Heather Thomas have lived in Irvington for 25 years. After practicing law as a litigator in New York City for over 30 years, he left his firm in 2016 to do new and different things. He currently teaches, serves on several Not-for-Profit Boards, including the Irvington Historical Society, the Greater Irvington Land Trust, and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, leads the Irvington Pollinator Pathway Project and works on a wide array of civil rights, criminal justice and arts management issues.
Amy Ziff
Amy has 3 kids and is building her pollinator garden meadow in her backyard. When she's not outside she is Founder of Nontoxic Certified and MADE SAFE. Ziff and team developed the Ecosystem Screening approach to evaluate ingredients in common household goods. She is committing to fostering a safe and sustainable future.
Kim E. Richman
Kim E. Richman is the Founder of Richman Law & Policy. His work is focused on Impact Litigation. Kim strives to use law and policy to repair the world by litigating on behalf of everyday citizens, parents, activists, nonprofit organizations, progressive businesses, and trade associations.
Prior to founding RLP, Kim started his legalcareer at a class action securities firm and a criminal defense firm where he litigated many cases to verdict. Prior to engaging in impact litigation at RLP, Kim ran a practice which focused on civil rights and consumer protection cases.
Through his litigation, Kim has worked to clean up our adulterated food systems and the environment through consumer protection actions for over a decade. His cases range from consumer protection actions addressing trans-fat (See e.g., Wendy’s) and GMOs (See e.g., Conagra) to consumer watchdog actions targeting pesticides (See e.g., Nature Valley) and antibiotics (See e.g. Hormel). Historically, Kim has prosecuted cases in order to protect our public health and environment. His active client base consists of everyday citizens and advocates, as well as progressive nonprofit organizations and mission-driven businesses.