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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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Jimmie Welch | Secretary
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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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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Samantha Goyret | Board Member
From a young age, Samantha developed a close connection with the natural world while nibbling from her family’s garden which rooted her passion for locally grown and produced food. She holds a non-profit business administration degree from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. 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. She studied the Cochabamba, Bolivian water wars in early 2000 and advocates for environmental awareness initiatives wherever she lives. Before moving to Northwest Tennessee, she coordinated various food insecurity projects throughout the area of Upstate New York. She currently serves as the Director of the Northwest Tennessee Local Food Network, manages the Martin Farmers Market and her urban farm - Barefoot Gardens. She and her husband reside in Martin, TN with their two wonderful children. She embraces TEC's mission with open arms. |
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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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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 Tennessee’s natural resources. Chase holds a B.A. in Biology from Carson-Newman University and a M.Sc. in Biology from the University of Texas at Tyler. A herpetologist at heart, his Master’s Thesis explored the influence of anthropogenic habitat alterations on freshwater turtle assemblages in the Sabine River, Texas. Currently the Sustainability & Social Impact Manager for CEMEX USA, Chase provides support and leadership for the company’s sustainability and social impact initiatives. |
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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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Jennifer Wang | Board Member
Jennifer Wang is a strategy and operations business leader with a background in finance. She has spent the last 20 years working in investment banks, start-ups, and large corporates. Jennifer grew up in Los Angeles, CA and has also spent time living in New York and London, England. Jennifer is also a meditation instructor and co-founded the Nashville POC Sangha, a meditation community for people of color. In addition to TEC, Jennifer is also on the boards of Turnip Green Creative Reuse and API Middle TN. She is a member of the Native American Indian Association of TN and the Global Wellbeing Economy Alliance. Jennifer has a Bachelor of Science in Finance from The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. |
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Jim Koza | Board Member
Jim has a background in Wildlife Biology and received his degree from the University of Stevens Point, WI. Jim has been fortunate to work banding eagles, osprey, reintroducing Trumpeter Swans in Wisconsin as well as working with Chukar Partridges in Hells Canyon Idaho. Jim currently is the Vice President of Sales for Beeyonder, a Boston-based company that provides virtual tours for travelers. Jim has led teams in diverse industries throughout his career including manufacturing, finance, hospitality, travel, and distribution. Jim's mission is always to lead by example and always have a focus on sustainability. Jim lives in Knoxville, TN with his wife Diana, three dogs, and two children and spends his free time, hiking, biking, and hanging out on the lake, as well as tending to his bees. |
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Erica Weeks | Board Member
Erica is a licensed architect who has dedicated her career to sustainability. Erica manages the Sustainability Services Sector at Hastings Architecture, where she works with owners, architects, engineers, and contractors across the country to facilitate sustainability rating systems. Erica has a keen ability to create synergies between disciplines and execute cross discipline calculations to forward ideas. In October 2020, Erica was named a “Shero” in Courage by the US Green Building Council, for continuing to challenge the ‘business-as-usual’ thinking of the design and construction industry to make sustainability an embedded priority. In June 2021, during USGBC Live, Erica was recognized as one of two individual Regional Leaders in the USGBC’s “Big South” (15 states, from Maryland to Texas) for her on-going leadership to create sustainable buildings and communities. |
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Clark Spoden | Board Member
Clark is an experienced trial attorney at GRSM Law. The National Board of Trial Advocacy recognizes Clark as a Certified Civil Trial Specialist. Clark been recognized as one of the Best Lawyers in America® since 2010 as well as several other publications. Since 2003, Clark has also served as a law professor at the Nashville School of Law. Clark is very active in community service. He is the chair of the Nashville Rotary Club Environmental & Sustainability Committee and is on the Executive Committee of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Light the Night Walk, having served as the Corporate Walk Chair for LLS in 2019. Clark is also an avid wilderness explorer. In 2002, he and his son, Cage, took a 186-mile wilderness canoe trip in the Yukon Territory, Canada. In 2008, Clark and his daughter, Anna, climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. Since 2009, Clark and his wife, Norah, travel to Alaska annually for wilderness kayaking trips. |
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Jennifer Nash | Board Member
Jennifer Nash is a native Texan who moved to Nashville to attend Belmont University where she received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree with a concentration in music business and a Master of Business Administration degree. She has since worked in multiple roles in entertainment, advocacy, marketing consulting, and graduate medical education. Starting as a college senior, Jennifer has worked to get recycling and other sustainability programs started wherever she has worked. She discovered a love for hiking and waterfall chasing in 2017, which helped to cement her environmental interests. She also uses the photographs from these hiking trips to showcase nature's beauty and to inspire people to care about environmental sustainability. |
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Lisa Maxwell | Board Member
Lisa Maxwell was born in Texas and has lived in multiple states including Pennsylvania, Michigan, and New York, before calling eastern Tennessee home since 2017. She has marveled at the beauty of the natural resources in each state and has come to respect those limited resources through education about the ecosystems and environments and is passionate about enhancing and maintaining those natural beauties through personal commitments and educating the public. Lisa has 25+ years of experience in Long Term Care (LTC), specifically, not-for-profit mission-based nursing homes, as a licensed nursing home administrator, and is currently licensed in New York and Michigan. She was responsible for both the residents and employees at each community along with all operations. After her last leadership position, Lisa joined The Green House Project™ for six years. As a Project Guide with the Green House Project™, she facilitated working with organizations across the country to build small homes, housing 12 or less residents, by ensuring the organizations met the regulatory, fiduciary, and cultural change initiatives necessary to build, maintain, and operate the homes within each state. Lisa Maxwell is currently a PhD candidate in Industrial and Organizational Psychology focusing on leadership development and coaching. She currently holds a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in International Business from The University of Texas (93), and a Master of Philosophy from Walden University (2021). |
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Katy Lange | Board Member
Katy is an energetic and inspiring healthcare operations leader focused on creating and implementing positive and productive work environments for multi-hospital service lines. She joined HCA Healthcare in 2011, specializing in facility implementations supporting the transition to electronic healthcare platforms. She is currently the Director of Operations for Workforce Health & Safety, focusing on the safety, health, and well-being of all HCA Healthcare colleagues across the country. Katy received her Bachelor's Degree in Business Management from Boise State University and is pursuing a Master's Degree in Healthcare Administration. |
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Lee Johnson Jr. | Board Member
Lee was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and grew up in a small city outside of Memphis called Arlington. He graduated from Middle Tennessee State University with a degree in Political Science and M.B.A. from Bethel University. While at MTSU, Lee was an NCAA Division 1 Track and Field Team member. Lee is a spring 2008 initiate of Kappa Alpha Psi. Fraternity Incorporated. For the past eight years, Lee has been employed with Dell Technologies. His current role is a Sales Leader covering an east coast territory leading a group of 13 Account Managers. Outside work, Lee enjoys playing golf, weekly game nights with his nieces and nephews, and finding good podcasts. |
Board Members Not Pictured
Lisa Thompson I Board Member
Nathan Freeman | Board Member
Don Gentilcore | Board Member
Nathan Freeman | Board Member
Don Gentilcore | Board Member
Tennessee Environmental Council does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability in its hiring, programs, or activities. To file a discrimination complaint, contact Gwendolyn Blanton at gwen@tectn.org or call 615-248-6500.