Our Commitment to Participatory Planning

To learn more about the Grassroots Fund's deep commitment to participatory and democratic processes, please visit our page on the Planning Committee process.

2018 Planning Committee Members
Ahmad Abojaradeh
Founder and Executive Director, Life in My Days, Inc

​Life in My Days, Inc is a global non-profit dedicated to starting difficult conversations about mental health and disabilities, abuse, trauma and social justice.  Ahmad is a Peer Support Specialist, and a Peer Support trainer, focusing on working with individuals who have endured chronic childhood trauma, living with suicidality, and/or are displaced by war. Ahmad is a Palestinian Rights, Environmental and Social Justice Activist worldwide.
Jeuji Diamondstone
Board member, Renewable Energy Worcester 

RENEW Worcester is an independent group of energy justice organizers and a Community Energy Co-operative of Co-op Power. Through community organizing, it seeks to raise awareness about the consequences of the current energy system and the benefits of transitioning to renewable energy. They believe that a just transition depends on meaningful participation and leadership from those most impacted by dirty energy and excluded from the benefits of the clean energy revolution.
Lisa Fernandes
Communications Director, Food Solutions New England

Along with her role at FSNE, Lisa is the founder and board president of The Resilience Hub, based in Portland, Maine. She has been active in the Portland Mayor's Initiative for Healthy Sustainable Food Systems, MOFGA's Ag Services Committee, the Portland Food Coop, Hour Exchange Portland and is a Master Food Preserver and Master Composter. Lisa is an experienced facilitator, communicator and permaculture designer/educator.
Pat Barnosky
​Coordinator, Urban Garden Resources of Worcester

Pat is the coordinator of the Urban Garden Resources of Worcester (UGROW) program at the Regional Environmental Council (REC) in Worcester. He has worked with the REC's food justice programs for the past several years, after earning a Masters Degree in International Development and Social Change from Clark University.
Patrick Goguen
Shop Manager, Worcester Earn-A-Bike
​
Patrick is a Worcester based Maker. You can see him biking around on bicycles he’s designed and fabricated. He began volunteering at WEAB in the spring of 2014, and it quickly became his second home. He is committed to empowering people by putting tools into their hands, fostering the development and appreciation of cycling culture and community activism in the Worcester Area.
Cheryll Toney Holley
Sonksq (Female Leader or chief), Hassanamisco Band of the Nipmuc Nation

The Hassanamisco Band of the Nipmuc Nation is an Indigenous tribe recognized by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Holley is a co-founder and the clerk of the Nipmuc Indian Development Corporation (NIDC), a Native Community Development Corporation. She also directs the Hassanamisco Indian Museum located on the tribe’s Reservation in Grafton, Massachusetts. For ten years, she served on the Massachusetts Commission on Indian Affairs. Holley is currently employed as the manager of the dermatology clinic at UMass Memorial Medical Center.
Mary Jones
MA and CT Community Organizer, Toxics Action Center 

TAC works side-by-side with communities to prevent or clean up pollution in New England. Mary is passionate about social justice and community-driven change. Prior to joining the team at TAC, she worked as an environmental educator and non-profit development officer in Richmond, Indiana. While in Richmond, she helped spearhead and manage several community initiatives focused on food access and food justice.
David McMahon
Co-Executive Director, Dismas House
 
As co-Executive Director of Dismas, David has helped to build an infrastructure of support for homeless ex-offenders. He has served on the steering committee of the Home Again Initiative and was co-chair of the Restorative Justice Coalition. David also founded the Commonwealth Green Low-Income Housing Coalition, which has worked to introduce energy improvements across 30 buildings in a range of energy saving strategies.
Sally Milius
Director, GROW Windham

Sally Milius is a former high school teacher and service-learning consultant who decided that gardens were much more fun than classrooms and Willimantic the greatest community she could ever call home. In 2011, she co-founded GROW Windham with Alice Rubin, the general manager of the Willimantic Food Coop.
Carol Oldham
Executive Director, Boston, Mass Climate Action Network 

Carol joined MCAN in 2014 after nearly a decade of working on climate for national environmental organizations, including the Sierra Club and the National Wildlife Federation. She has managed regional campaigns, staff, and consultants and has focused on influencing federal climate change policy and increasing our use of clean energy. With her strong background in grassroots organizing and a history of working with communities to make positive change, she was drawn to MCAN's town-based climate organizing model. 
Judy Robinson
​Executive Director and co-founder, Coming Clean, Inc.

Coming Clean is an innovative campaigning strategy to align grassroots, national, EJ, policy, pesticides, fossil fuel and energy groups around a common agenda to target and transform the petrochemical industry. Coming Clean’s strategies include new science and research on varied chemical exposures; building support for synergistic policy and market initiatives; promoting the leadership of environmental justice groups; and developing a coalition of environmental health, justice, and energy focused organizations to support toxics disclosure, assessment, and safer substitution worldwide. 
Maya Winfrey
NYC Community Energy Co-op member, Coop Power

Co-op Power is a multi0class, multi-race network of community Energy cooperatives creating a just and sustainable energy future.
Kortni Wroten
Intern, Renewable Energy Worcester (RENEW)

RENEW Worcester is a Community Energy Cooperative run by Co-op Power members in Worcester County, MA. Kortni is a graduate student at Clark University pursuing a dual Masters/MBA in Environmental Science & Policy. She interns for RENEW because she believes cooperatives are the best way to use diversity to its fullest advantage. She loves that RENEW is committed to social and energy justice work, as she is passionate about creating an environmental and economic system that works for all of us, not the wealthy few.
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