Chapter Leadership Committee

Our chapter was one of the first in the country, established on Oct. 1, 2017. Elections are currently held in March each year with terms lasting one year — from April 1 to March 31. There is a two-year term limit for contested positions.

The Leadership Committee and other roles may evolve and the election schedule may change over time.

If interested in playing a leadership role, let us know — especially for helping us build diversity and youth involvement.

ELECTED CHAIRS

CHAPTER CHAIR | Tom Coleman

A native of Boston, Tom has worked at many organizational levels in manufacturing, information technology, and in process improvement disciplines. In 2018, he retired as chief information officer and now works in the field of environmental, social, and governmental education and activism. He is a Climate Reality Leader, the chair of the chapter’s Presentations Group, Electric Vehicle Campaign, and is actively engaged with the work of the chapter. Tom holds a Bachelor of Business Administration, is a Certified Business Process Master, and is Certified as a Change Management Professional.

EMAIL TOM

CHAPTER VICE CHAIR | Bruce Mainzer

Bruce currently serves on the Electrify Public Transit and EV teams of the Chicago chapter. After getting a masters degree in transportation from Northwestern, Bruce worked for 10 years in public transportation, including stints with the Chicago area RTA, Illinois DOT and Metro-North Commuter Railroad in New York City. He then worked in the travel industry for United Airlines, Norwegian Cruise Line, Vail Resorts, Hyatt Hotels and Carey Worldwide Chauffeur Services. Bruce retired in 2019, after serving for the last 13 years of his career as a marketing and pricing consultant for hotel owners and major travel industry brands. Bruce enjoys all forms of transportation and after owning convertible foreign sports cars, he is now a big fan of his 2 year old EV. He and his wife love to travel, especially to Paris, which is his second favorite city after Chicago.

EMAIL BRUCE

CAMPAIGNS CHAIR | Pam Tate

Pam is currently co-chair of the chapter’s Campaigns Committee, co-chair of the Task Force on Electrifying Public Transit, and Chair of the Our Climate Moment Federal Advocacy team. After serving as the CEO of a national non-profit in the education and workforce development field, she left that role in 2018 to devote her life to the climate crisis and was trained in 2019. She has a large Golden Doodle named Paddy and loves to go for walks in nature. She is a lifelong lover of giraffes and spends considerable time on saving them from extinction.

EMAIL PAM

PUBLIC EDUCATION CHAIR | Scott Reed

Scott is a retired Chicago Public School chemistry teacher. He was trained in August 2020 and has focused mainly on presenting to a variety of groups. He enjoys live music, spending time with his family, vegetable gardening and biking.

EMAIL SCOTT

COMMUNICATIONS CHAIR | Cynthia Linton

Cynthia helped start the Chicago chapter and is now its chair. A retired journalist and j-school professor, she was trained in 2017. ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ in 2006 inspired her to take action on climate. When there’s no pandemic, she enjoys traveling the world and Chicago theater.

EMAIL CYNTHIA

MEMBERSHIP CHAIR | Open

ELECTED At-Large Chairs

Natalie Lichtenbert

Natalie Lynn was trained in Miami in 2015 and has been with the Chicago chapter since its inception. In 2019, she became the lead for the West Suburban regional group and then in 2020, she became an At-Large Chair on the Lead Team. A lab scientist by day, she spends the rest of her free time with environmental and wildlife groups, and creating films for her production company Environmentally Fashionable/Globally Healthy.

EMAIL NATALIE