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Erika Godwin-Saad | Chair of the Board
Erika Godwin-Saad is currently the environmental manager for Mars Petcare US, Inc. at the corporate office located in Franklin, Tennessee. Erika provides environmental regulatory support and technical assistance for twenty pet food manufacturing facilities with operations in the United States. Her primary duties include oversight of company environmental compliance, environmental permitting and support of facility engineering projects. Prior to her work with Mars Petcare, Erika worked for six years with the Big Bear Municipal Water District in Southern California managing lake water quality and nutrient remediation studies funded by Proposition 13 grants. Earlier in her career, she worked for a Tennessee-based environmental consulting firm, where she served as a project scientist, health & safety officer, and ecotoxicology laboratory manager. Erika attended Texas A&M University, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology in 1988 and also Master of Science degree in Oceanography in 1991. |
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Lloyd R. Baker | Treasurer
Lloyd Baker, a native Tennessean and long-time Nashville resident, has over 30 years experience in the healthcare industry, with specialties in corporate account management and sales for leading health technology companies. With a life-long commitment to recycling, composting, and organic gardening, Lloyd is centrally focused on improving and protecting the environment in our great state. "I will always try to leave our beloved Tennessee much better than I first found it", says Lloyd. Lloyd has a Bachelor of Science from Middle Tennessee State University in Business Administration. |
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Rod McDaniel | Board Member
Rod McDaniel is the chief executive officer of the largest Nashville-based electronic recycler, S3 Recycling Solutions. S3 services customers across the U.S. and Canada, creating client-specific e-waste solutions to help organizations dispose of surplus equipment in a safe and environmentally responsible manner. A native of Nashville, Rod began his career in the technology industry in 2007. Prior to joining S3, he served six years as a technology professional with Metro Nashville Public Schools. In 2018, the Nashville Business Journal included him in the 40 Under 40 list of young professionals who are making epic moves in the City. |
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John Fenderson | Board Member
John Fenderson is currently the Southeastern Regional Coordinator for the National Network of Forest Practitioners, a 501c3 organization whose mission is: To promote the mutual well being of workers, rural communities, and forests by supporting individuals and groups that build sustainable relationships between forest and people. He is the Environmental Affairs/Public Outreach Coordinator for the Tennessee Division of Forestry. He has also coauthored papers on: Carbon Sequestration Principles for the Southeast; Valuing a Forested Viewshed. In the late Eighties, he worked for Greenpeace, while in the mid Nineties he worked with the Nature Conservancy, and the US Forest Service in California and Alaska. John is an Avid Sailor, having worked at a boat yard in Maine, an avid hiker/backpacker, waterfowl hunter, flyfisher, and wooden boat builder. His most memorable experience is during a Field study in Ecuador while documenting Indigenous use of Plant medicines in the Amazon watershed. He is married to his wife Brandy and they have a beautiful daughter Ella Claire, that he shares his experiences with on a daily basis. He graduated from Tennessee State University with a Bachelor of Natural Sciences. From the University of Tennessee, he obtained his Masters of Science in Forest Economics and Policy. He also attended Northwestern University with primary interests in Environmental and Natural resource policy; Land Use Planning; and market based payments for Ecosystem Services. |
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Don Safer | Board Member
Don Safer is former Chairman of the Board for the Tennessee Environmental Council. His 25 years in the natural foods business built his awareness of the causal relationship of environmental contamination and human disease. He is a member of “Know Nuclear in the TN Valley”, a group that educates community leaders, environmental advocates, public officials, and concerned citizens about nuclear waste, the nuclear industry, and the need to stop generating nuclear wastes in Tennessee and to manage the wastes we already have responsibly. Don has provided expert testimony for the Tennessee state legislature concerning nuclear waste issues and he is a frequent contributor to the Tennessean. Don is also an avid paddler and a board member of Tennessee Scenic Rivers Association. Don has a Bachelor of Arts from Vanderbilt University in Sociology and Anthropology. |
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Corey Chatis | Board Member
Corey is a small business owner with over 18 years of experience in education and information systems. For the past nine years she has served as a technical assistance State Support Team member for the Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS) Grant Program, where her specialties include strategic planning; implementing and maturing data governance programs; identifying how SLDSs can inform and influence decisions by policymakers, administrators, and educators to improve instruction and college and career readiness; and building partnerships between state education agencies and school districts. Prior to joining the State Support Team, she was a Senior Program Officer for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation where she managed a grant portfolio focused on data system investments to support college and career readiness. Corey started her career in longitudinal data systems at the Tennessee Department of Education, where she oversaw the agency’s SLDS and served as the Data Governance Coordinator and the EDFacts Coordinator. She has a Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College and a Master of Education from Vanderbilt University. In her free time, Corey enjoys taking hiking trips to US National Parks. |
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Samantha Goyret | Board Member
Samantha Goyret is the Executive Director of the Northwest Tennessee Local Food Network based out of Martin, TN who mission is to catalyze actions to increase access to locally grown and produced food. She holds a non-profit business administration degree from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Throughout her career, she has coordinated various food insecurity projects throughout the western hemisphere including working at United Way of Tompkins County, serving on various nonprofit Board of Directors, and volunteering at Food Banks and local Food Pantries. Serving as an Agricultural Extension Peace Corps Volunteer in Paraguay, South America, she is fluent in Spanish and proficient in Guarani with conversational skills in Portuguese and Swedish. From a young age, Samantha developed a close connection with the natural world while cultivating her family’s garden and exploring her grandmother’s woods. She is a TN Master Gardener who enjoys teaching children how to cultivate & eat vegetables, plant trees, and improving the communities of West Tennessee through her passion of locally grown and produced food. |
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Mary Wilder | Board Member
Mary has a B.S., in Education from Western Michigan University, and a M.L.S., in Urban Studies from the University of Memphis. Her University College Thesis was on Stormwater Management and Municipal Development. She has been a Memphis Resident since 1973 and is a member of MidSouth Clean Water Group, the Evergreen Garden Club, serves on the Overton Park Parking Lot construction committee representing the Overton Park Alliance and is board member of the Overton Park Conservancy since 2019. She is also a master gardener and maintains a community perennial garden on the V&E Greenline since 1995. |
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David Greider | Board Member
Since 2015, David Greider has served as the Vice President of Member Services at the Nashville Health Care Council where he is responsible for overseeing the Council’s diverse membership network, building strategies for engagement and guiding initiatives to nurture Nashville’s health care innovation ecosystem. He enjoys building strong relationships with members, community leaders and other constituencies in and around Nashville’s health care industry. Before joining the Council, David held the position of Membership & Outreach Manager for the Center for Nonprofit Management (CNM). For five years he directed all aspects of CNM’s membership encompassing a network of over 800 nonprofit agencies. In this role, David would lead yearly renewal campaigns, engage in member visits, guide new agency member start-ups and manage the CNM member database. He received his B.A. with a concentration in marketing from Tennessee State University and his M.B.A. from Lipscomb University. David currently serves on the board of the Tennessee Environmental Council, led Nashville’s Young Nonprofit Professionals group for four years and is a 2012 Nashville Emerging Leaders Alumni. |
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Frank Grant | Board Member
With a 35+ year career, Frank has a long history of creating and growing businesses in a variety of health care and technology industries. He had successful careers at Amplion Clinical Communications, Adreima, Cisco Systems, IBM, SunTrust, and Hitachi Data Systems. Currently, he serve as the CEO of Grant Ventures. |
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Jimmie Welch | Board Member
Jimmie Welch III is a service-oriented entrepreneur with a passion to help the planet. As a licensed realtor based in Nashville, he helps families navigate the home buying and selling process. Jimmie also has nearly a decade of business development experience. He has worked with companies to reduce their carbon footprint by implementing large scale recycling or incineration programs. Jimmie was born and raised in Louisville, KY and has a bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Journalism from Western Kentucky University. He has called Nashville, Tennessee home since 2017. |
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Chase Hively | Board Member
Chase is a husband, father and Tennessee native. A long-time resident of Sevier County, he grew up exploring the “hilltops and hollers” of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. There he developed a passion for the responsible stewardship of our natural resources. Currently the Senior Environmental Manager at Ready Mix USA, Chase provides environmental regulatory support and compliance assistance for over 80 ready-mix concrete manufacturing facilities in the Southeast US. Providing leadership in the areas of sustainability, environmental stewardship and community engagement are important aspects of his role in the company, with facilities recently achieving Conservation Certifications from the Wildlife Habitat Council and Environmental Excellence awards from industry associations. Prior to his work with Ready Mix USA, Chase taught Environmental Science, Biology, Ecology, and Microbiology at various colleges and schools in the Knoxville area. A herpetologist at heart, his Master’s Thesis explored the influence of anthropogenic habitat alterations on freshwater turtle assemblages in the Sabine River, Texas. More recently, he has examined the distribution and population viability of introduced house geckos in Tennessee. Chase holds a B.A. in Biology from Carson-Newman University and a M.S. in Biology from the University of Texas at Tyler. |
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Maris Masellis | Board Member
Maris developed a love for the planet at a very young age, cleaning up the beaches with her mom in Point Pleasant NJ. In June 2019, Maris co-created Zero Waste Trash Talk, a platform to spread knowledge and inspire others to shift their lives using new sustainable habits. She now hosts their podcast along with Michael Britt and Jessica Johnson, with plans to spread the sustainable word even further! Maris believes that if we stay connected and share knowledge with each other, we can change the world for the better. Maris also teaches kickboxing at HOTBOX Fitness and just became a Lululemon ambassador where she is leading her peers to more sustainable practices and empowering them to help others do the same! |
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Thomas David Robinson | Board Member
Thomas was born in St. Louis Missouri, and grew up in the leafy, small hamlet of Okemos, Michigan right on the edge of Michigan State University. He graduated from The University of Alabama in Huntsville in May of 1995 with a degree in Communications. Thomas was also a member of the NCAA Division 1 Ice Hockey team, the UAH Chargers. Upon graduating from UAH, Thomas began his career in technology sales with a small regional company, A+ Communications, which was based here in Nashville, TN. Since then Thomas’s career path has focused on Human Capital Management and Talent Acquisition software (SaaS), and he has worked and held several senior executive positions for multi-national companies such as Careerbuilder.com, Monster, and Velocity Resource Group. Some of his largest clients have included UPS, Community Health Systems, HCA, and Berkshire Hathaway. Thomas currently serves as Vice President of Software Sales Recruitment for Top 10 Sales talent, where he is also a franchise owner. https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-robinson-7235182/ Thomas met his wife, Meredith, in downtown Nashville at the famous Market Street Apartments where they both lived as neighbors and close friends. After a brief courtship, they married and relocated about 7 blocks east to the Historic Edgefield neighborhood in East Nashville. They still reside there with their wonderful, handsome and intelligent teenage son, Max. Thomas remains active playing men’s league hockey, and riding his mountain bike through the city regularly with his son. |
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Christopher Lundgren | Board Member
Christopher Lundgren is a lifelong educator and currently the Social Sciences Dept. Chair at KIPP Nashville Collegiate High School. As a teacher of government and economics he hopes to invest his students both with a sense of personal responsibility toward the environment, but also an awareness of the ways that corporations can influence governmental regulations in order to shirk their own environmental responsibilities. He believes the most effective way to stave off climate disaster for humans is to show young people an alternative to the consumerism that threatens our very existence. Christopher is excited by the opportunity to bring young people of Nashville into greater awareness of the enormous challenges facing Tennessee’s environment and ways to combat them. Christopher earned a B.A. in Evolution and Ecology from the University of Chicago, an M.Div at Yale Divinity School, and an M.A. in History from the University of Virginia. |
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Ariana Ramos | Board Member (Non-Voting)
Ariana Ramos has been working for non-profits for almost nine years. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, she’s witnessed the importance of maintaining the environment and speaking up about it. Passionate about diversity and empowering the younger generation to help save the environment through advocacy and education. Ariana is proud to be doing her Young Leaders Council with the Tennessee Environmental Council since it aligns with her morals and beliefs. |
Board Members Not Pictured
Lisa Thompson I Board Secretary