These are the 2013/14 nominees for election/reelection to the GASP Board. Only dues-paying GASP members are permitted to vote.
Please read the candidates’ bios, and choose “Yes” or “No” in the space below. Ballots must be completed by April 30, 2013.
Candidates will be elected by a simple majority of member votes and the results announced at the Annual GASP Business Meeting on May 1, 2013 at 7:00 PM at 5135 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh. Please RSVP to rachel@gasp-pgh.org if you plan to attend the annual meeting.
Julie Bamonte Burgo is the Pennsylvania Chair of Clean Air Revival, Inc., a national non-profit organization that provides education about the health hazards of wood smoke and other fine particulate pollution. She is a member of several national cancer prevention organizations, including Breast Cancer Fund, Pure Prevention, and Cancer Prevention Coalition. Julie graduated with a degree in psychology from Bethany College in 1989 and earned her elementary education teaching certificate from Carlow University in 1992.
Maren Cooke is currently the Secretary of GASP. She is a planetary scientist by training, having received her PhD from Cornell in 1991. After a postdoc at MIT, she continued working for NASA but also stepped up her activities in science education including teaching, informal outreach, and curriculum development and illustration. A lifelong environmentalist, Maren has been active on air quality, land use, and other sustainability issues since coming to Pittsburgh in 2000. She began working with GASP in 2003.
Greg DiMedio is the CEO at Greener Expressions and leading the launch of the Greener Pittsburgh initiative and website. He is working with nonprofit, business, and government stakeholders to promote sustainability in the Pittsburgh region. Greg has an MA in Rhetoric and Linguistics from the University of South Carolina and over 12 years of experience promoting businesses, nonprofits and causes through print and internet marketing media. An avid hiker and fly fisherman, Greg has served as a steward and lifetime member of Trout Unlimited and as a writer and activist for the Sierra Club.
David Eibling is a practicing Ear-Nose-Throat physician at the VA Pittsburgh and a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh. His career has focused on treating patients with head and neck cancer and teaching, primarily to residents, medical students, physicians and nurses. Throughout his career he has maintained an active interest in one specific source of pollution–tobacco combustion–an interest now expanded to include other sources of pollution that affect all of us, even when outside our homes and businesses.
Thalia Gray received her BA in Archaeology from Cornell and her PhD from NYU, concentrating on early Eastern European history and land use and environmental changes over time. She established an international field school and archaeology nonprofit with Polish colleagues in 1998 (Slavia.org), which is still ongoing. She currently works as a freelance science writer, focused mainly on health and medicine, and volunteers her time with the afterschool program at the Kingsley Association in East Liberty. Thalia is profoundly interested in improving air quality and community interaction in Pittsburgh.
Janis Johnson has been serving as the GASP Treasurer since 2007. Her duties have included overseeing the preparation of financial statements, handling the independent audit, planning and monitoring the budget, and preparing the tax returns. In addition, she has been active in fundraising. She is a retired CPA with a BA degree from the College of Wooster and an MS in taxation from Robert Morris University. As an avid participant in outdoor activities, she is committed to improving the air quality in the Pittsburgh region.
Jonathan Nadle is currently the President of GASP. He served previously as 1st Vice President for three years and as Board Secretary for five years. He has a BA in Political Science from Penn State University, and now works as an energy efficiency expert. Jonathan is an active member of Pittsburgh’s environmental community.
Ted Popovich has served on the GASP Pollution Patrol Team and as an Emissions Evaluator. He has a BS in Engineering from Case Western Reserve University and an MS in Human Resource Development from Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). Ted has had over thirty years of commercial operations experience prior to his retirement from Corning Incorporated. Subsequently, he has been an instructor at RIT and its partner schools in Europe, and currently is a YMCA Health and Fitness Staff member.
Peri Unligil is a physician with University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, specializing in internal medicine, and is also a clinical assistant professor there. She studied biochemistry and then medicine at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. She is very interested in the influence of environmental exposures on human health, and in the health of our local and global environment. She has been a resident of Pittsburgh and member of the Allegheny Group of the Sierra Club for over ten years.
[contact-form-7 404 "Not Found"]
2013/14 Proposed GASP Board
Julie Bamonte Burgo
Maren Cooke – Secretary
Zelda Curtiss
Greg DiMedio
David Eibling
Marla Ferrency
Edward Gerjuoy
Walter Goldburg – Second Vice President
Thalia Gray
Karen Grzywinski
Frances Harkins
Janis Johnson – Treasurer
Jonathan Nadle – President
Ted Popovich
Kate St. John – First Vice President
Peri Unligil