President: Rev. Nina Nichols is the Senior Pastor of Christ Church United Methodist in Troy, New York. She has served rural congregations in Central Texas and urban churches in the Northern Illinois and Troy conferences. Nina currently serves on the Board of Directors for Troy Area United Ministries, Rensselaer County Habitat for Humanity, the Troy Annual Conference chapter of Methodist Federation for Social Action, and as Spiritual Director for the Chrysalis Board. Nina has a BA from Trinity University and a M.Div. from the University of Chicago. She is married to Andrew Torres, PhD, and has three children. In addition to her work in the church, Nina is an avid runner. To date, she has completed 5 marathons and enjoys competing in 5K races.
Vice President: Gerard A. Falco, Esq. has been a practicing litigation attorney in Westchester County for over twenty-five years. He currently serves as council Vice President at Emanuel Lutheran Church of Pleasantville and is chair of the church’s Environmental Stewardship Committee. Gerry is particularly interested in renewable energy and he assisted his church in becoming one of the first in the State to convert its electricity needs to photo-voltaic power. He enjoys spending his time with his wife and two boys and is an avid sailor and rower.
Treasurer: J. Henry Neale, Jr., Esq. is an attorney with an office in White Plains. His general practice has included representing individuals, civic organizations or municipalities in disputes affecting the environment. He is a graduate of Amherst College and New York University Law School. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of Environmental Advocates of New York (“EA”) or it predecessor, Environmental Planning Lobby (“EPL”) for almost 40 years. He is a past president of EPL and now serves as the delegate representing EA as the New York State affiliate of National Wildlife Federation. He is a member of Scarsdale Congregational Church and of its Outreach Committee.
Secretary: Rev. Brooke Newell is the Advocacy Ministries Coordinator for the presbyteries of Albany, Cayuga-Syracuse, Northern NY, Susquehanna Valley and Utica, Presbyterian Church USA, providing resources and training to congregations for social justice ministry. The Rev. Newell is a clergy member of the Upper New York Conference of the United Methodist Church. She served as a pastor for 15 years and served one year at the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society in Washington, DC, designing educational experiences for United Methodists on faithful citizenship. She is a 1991 graduate of Yale Divinity School in New Haven, CT. She and her family have lived in Glens Falls, NY since 2006.
Sr. Mary Ann Garisto, SC is the director for Ecological Concerns for the Sisters of Charity of New York of which she is a member, and the Administrator of Sisters Hill Farm, a CSA farm in Stanfordville, New York. In both of these capacities she works toward raising consciousness and awareness of current environmental, agricultural and food safety issues through many types of educational activities and projects. Deeply influenced by her mentor Thomas Berry, she has a strong conviction of the need of people of faith to take responsibility for the care of the earth as members of one single, sacred earth community. Sr. Mary Ann is involved in the activities of many environmental organizations, is a member of ROAR (Religious Organizations Along the River) and served as a member of the steering committee of the Hudson River Project at Garrison Institute. She is a former Biology teacher, and has an MS from Fordham University and a BS from the College of Mount Saint Vincent.
Ed Smyth is a senior manager and consultant for KEMA, which is an international consulting firm for the energy industry. In particular, Ed designs and manages energy-efficiency programs, services, and program evaluations, and primarily for the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority (NYSERDA) from his downtown Troy, NY office. He attended the College of St. Rose in Albany for both a B.A. (Communications) and MBA. Ed is a member of the First Reformed Church (Reformed Church in America) in the village of Wynantskill, where he lives with his wife Christine and two sons.
Patricia K Townsend Ph.D. is an anthropologist and a Presbyterian elder. Pat is author of two college textbooks, Medical Anthropology in Ecological Perspective (with Ann McElroy, Westview Press) and Environmental Anthropology: From Pigs to Policies (Waveland Press), to each of which, in successive editions, she has added increasing coverage of the implications of global climate change. She is a member of North Presbyterian Church in Williamsville, New York, where she regularly teaches adult education classes on social justice issues, including a series in Fall 2008 using the workbook Low Carbon Diet: A 30 Day Program to Lose 5000 Pounds by David Gershon. She served for more than three years as part-time Commissioned Lay Pastor in a small Buffalo church and now does occasional supply preaching throughout the Presbytery of Western New York, often touching on environmental themes.
