Climate Advocacy & the Sacred Wild

Karyn is a Co-Executive Director at Creation Justice Ministries. She formerly worked  at Bread for the World, focusing on the intersections of climate change and food security. She is a member of the American Baptist Churches’ Creation Justice Network. She earned her M.Div from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary  and undergraduate degree from Michigan State University. She is pursuing a M.S. in Global Food Security focusing her studies and research on sustainability at the University of Edinburgh. She is a board member of the DC Food Policy Council under the administration of Mayor Muriel Bowser. Karyn is also a trained beekeeper.

Carol is the Director of Blessed Tomorrow, a coalition of diverse religious partners united as faithful stewards of creation. She is an ordained pastor in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and pastored congregations in Kentucky for 14 years and served on the KY Disciples’ regional staff. Carol founded and co-directs the creation care program for the denomination, Green Chalice. Carol earned her MDiv from Lexington Theological Seminary, a M.S. from the University of Kentucky, and a B.A. from Transylvania University. 

Carol lives in Lexington, KY, has three adult children (Benjamin, Elijah, and Sarah) and one old dog. She loves to hike, kayak, cycle, garden, and read.

Nana was named the White House Champion of Change for Climate Faith Leaders by U.S. President Barack Obama, and recently, received the Alfredo Sirkis Memorial Green Ring Award for climate activism excellence from former U.S. Vice President Al Gore. She believes that environmental degradation and climate change can unite the world community to face the challenges together with a deep commitment to sustainability and environmental justice for all people. Nana was featured among 20 Earth Defenders in “One Earth: People of Color Protecting Our Planet” which was launched during Earth Day 2020 in Canada. She was recently featured among 28 Green Changemakers from different parts of the world in “Dünya Ortak Evimiz” or “The World is Our Common Home” which was launched during World Environment Day 2022 in Türkiye. And in the last few years, she also serves as the Vice Chair of Muhammadiyah USA, an international branch of Muhammadiyah, one of the two largest Muslim organizations in Indonesia. She currently serves as Senior Ambassador for GreenFaith, an international, grassroots, multi-faith, and spiritual environment and climate action network.

Tori serves as the National Organizer and Spokesperson for Young Evangelicals for Climate Action.

She holds an undergraduate degree in communications and political science from Gordon College (B.A. '16) and a masters of environmental law and policy from Vermont Law School (M.E.L.P. '19). Tori spent 4 years as Communications Director for YECA and the Evangelical Environmental Network, YECA’s partner ministry. During this time, she also served on YECA’s national steering committee. Tori brings a passion for political organizing and policy advocacy to the role, as well as professional communications and marketing skills.

Tori was born and raised in New England and currently lives in the Boston area.

Scott is a partner, dad, spiritual director, pastor, and sojourner. He is working with people and communities that are loving one another, their neighbors and creation as the Director/Minister of Bethany Congregations, a ministry of the Bethany Fellows, and Co-Minister of Green Chalice of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). He seeks to build stories of resilience through intentional gratitude, honored grief, wise discernment, and embodied action.  

Prior to living in North Carolina, Scott and his family served in the vulnerable cloud forest of Monteverde, Costa Rica, Where he learned to how to climb Fig Strangler trees, spot Two-toed Sloths, call like a Mot Mot, and listen to people and nature in a new way. Scott is an ordained pastor with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and enjoys accompanying people during transformative experiences. Scott continues to become aware of the deep connections among pollution, poverty, violence, racism, oppression, climate change, eco anxiety and the spiritual brokenness in the world. He hopes to foster curiosity, listen deeply and tell stories of active hope and Good News in the midst of great challenges. 

Doug is a pastor and environmental activist who began as the Director of Pastoral Ecology at Anabaptist Climate Collaborative in February 2018. In this role he organizes and leads pastoral retreats on climate change, helping congregations reduce their carbon footprint and engage society more broadly in climate action.

He continues as a pastor of Benton Mennonite Church, Goshen, IN, a Green Patchwork congregation with Mennonite Creation Care Network. Doug first became passionate about creation care about 20 years ago, when he discovered that the Elkhart River, where they often baptize, sometimes is compromised with too much manure. For 15 years he led a Hoosier Riverwatch group there. The congregation, whose vision includes “pursuing God’s peace at the river,” has also led river cleanups, installed solar panels, includes recycling, and has a green group. 

Doug recently completed a Th.M. in theology and ecology at the University of Toronto and has a M.Div. from Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, IN. He is also trained as an Indiana Master Naturalist. He previously served as a conference minister with the Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference. He is the father of three young adult sons.

The Reverend Michael Malcom is the Executive Director of Alabama Interfaith Power and Light and a licensed and ordained United Church of Christ Minister. Rev Malcom is the former Senior Pastor of Rush Memorial Congregational UCC in Atlanta, GA. He is the founder of The People’s Justice Council which is a 501(c)3 non-profit focusing on environmental justice. Rev Malcom serves as the Environmental Justice Minister for the Southeast Conference of the United Church of Christ. He is currently the co-chair of the Building Power from the Grassroots Action Team with US Climate Action Network, co-facilitator for the International Solidarity Working Group with the National Black Environmental Justice Network, co-chair of the Climate Impacts Working Group with the Kitchen, and a board member for the Southeast Climate and Energy Network.

Rev Malcom’s academic journey began at Beulah Heights University where he graduated in May 2008 with an undergraduate degree in Biblical Education and Leadership. He earned a Master of Divinity Degree from the Interdenominational Theological Center in 2011. To help him in the role of a pastor he completed five units of Clinical Pastoral Education at The Atlanta VA Medical Center and AnMed Health Hospital in Anderson, SC. In May of 2016, Rev Malcom graduated from the Terry School of Business MBA program at the University of Georgia. In October of 2017, he completed a post master’s human resource management course at Cornell University. In 2019 he completed the Convergence Leader Project with the Center for Progressive Renewal and the Just Energy Academy with Partnership for Southern Equity.

He considers himself an impassioned environmental justice advocate, fighting against environmental racism and injustice. He's heard, believes, and evangelizes the message of environmental justice. Rev Malcom does this through education and advocacy from a faith-based perspective. He sees environmental justice as the moral obligation to love your neighbor and the solution to the climate crisis. Rev Malcom says, "There can be no environmentalism without environmental justice. If you help the people, you'll heal the planet."

Phoebe has been drawn to the intersection of faith and environment since college, where she had an open-minded, agnostic poli-sci professor challenge her to explore how spirit-led movements could make an impact in civic debates around eco-justice. She got to work with a citizen-science research organization (Earthwatch) and then got to help communities build homes with their neighbors (South Shore Habitat for Humanity), until 2010 when she was introduced to Lutherans Restoring Creation (LRC). This grassroots movement in Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA); led by clergy, lay people, campus ministers, outdoor camp staff and seminary professors offers a support system to connect, empower and equip one another. In 2017, this network became an official non-profit with a vision to promote the integration of creation care into the full life of the church.  Now, as Director of LRC, Phoebe gets to lift up stories from across the ELCA and help leverage the assets of our affiliate organizations. She also facilitates a global, virtual certificate course at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary which encourages faith-based action as part of the Center for Climate Justice and Faith. When she's not on Zoom meetings; she's either walking her dog, petting a cat, carting her busy kids around, or watching a comedy with her husband. She lives just outside of Boston, where the Massachusetts people originally and continually care for the land.

Joelle Novey is the director of Interfaith Power & Light (DC.MD.NoVA), which works with hundreds of congregations of many traditions across Maryland, DC, and Northern Virginia to save energy, go green, and respond to climate change, and speaks widely on the role that faith communities can play in the climate movement. She's active in several Jewish communities in the DC area, including Minyan Segulah, and serves on the advisory board of Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action. 

I know it's cliche, but I became an environmentalist through reading Walden in college. I picked my major by going through the University of South Florida's course catalog to see which major had the most interesting offerings. I found 100% of the classes in Religious Studies to be fascinating and so that became my major. I also wanted to help make the world a better place and it was clear that religion was a very powerful force in the world, one that could be used for good and for evil. I could see it in my own life, how my own Reform Jewish upbringing made me ripe for the environmental teachings in Walden. I felt that by understanding religion I'd be better equipped to practice tikkun olam (heal the world). While in college, I stumbled my way into my first professional job with the American Jewish Committee, which (I see in hindsight) set me on a path to a now-lifelong career in the nonprofit Jewish sector. After a couple years with AJC I was ready for more learning and moved with my new husband to Colorado for graduate school and a master's degree in Religious Studies from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where I wrote a thesis on Jewish environmentalism.

Over the years I was involved in many secular and Jewish environmental efforts as a volunteer and weaved it into my professional life wherever I could. In 2010, Hazon (Hebrew for "vision"), a national Jewish environmental organization, was launching a branch in Colorado and looking for a regional director. I thought I was perfect for the job, they agreed, and I've been with the organization ever since! In 2009, I transitioned into a national role as the Director of Food and Climate, where I get to focus on helping the Jewish community understand the connections between Jewish values, food choices, and environmental and climate impact. In 2023, Hazon merged with Pearlstone (a Jewish environmental retreat center) and the organization is now called Adamah (Hebrew for land/ground/earth/soil). 

Rabbi Elliott Tepperman has been the spiritual leader of Bnai Keshet, in Montclair, NJ since 2002. His rabbinate embraces spiritually courageous Judaism and loving pursuit of shalom and justice for all people. He believes that Jewish practice is most transformational when deep internal work becomes a springboard for building community and engaging with the world. And likewise when we bring the profound and mundane challenges of our personal and public lives to bear on our Jewish study and worship.

Elliott Tepperman is a founding member of the IAF-affiliated New Jersey Together. He is currently organizing to build the sanctuary movement in NJ with Faith in New Jersey (PICO). He has worked with Bend the Arc teaching Congregation-Based Community Organizing at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and other seminaries. He was a member of Bend The Arcs 13^th Selah cohort. He is a past President of the Montclair Clergy Association and he served as President of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association.

He is married to Sarah O’Leary and is the proud father of Akiva-Lev, 19, and Sam, 17. Surprisingly, he now finds himself swimming, running and playing guitar.

In 2019, Rabbi Elliott won the Rabbinic Human Rights Hero Award from T'ruah, the Rabbinic Call for Human Rights.