Our Staff & Board
Staff Collective
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Organizational Development Director
Staff Collective Member
lily@350vt.org
Lily joined 350VT’s staff in 2017, and since the organization began shifting to shared leadership in 2019, her main areas of work have been organizational development and operations. She has also contributed to various educational and community-building projects at 350VT, like collective grief gatherings, a Just Transition study group, and the climate justice zine project. Since 2008, Lily has been involved in various groups and various forms of study related to permaculture, nonviolent communication, intentional communities, earth-based spirituality, and collective liberation. She lives in Burlington and goes to the lake and into the woods as often as she can. She loves making music, especially singing with other people.
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Organizing Co-Director
Staff Collective Member
rebecca@350vt.org
Rebecca has worked as a volunteer for the past decade with various climate justice organizations including 350VT, Sunrise Montpelier, and Citizens for Climate Advocacy. She's also worked as the Community Climate Program Manager for Climate Economy Action Center of Addison County.As a parent of a jubilant and curious seven-year-old, the effects of climate change have become more poignant and tangible in her family's day to day life. At the same time, Rebecca is buoyed by the way our movement is growing and changing; she is thrilled to be joining the 350VT staff and working with 350VT's thoughtful, caring, and dedicated base of volunteers. In this work, she wants to continue to learn how to genuinely center equity, anti-racism, and justice in our organizing spaces; work toward a just transition; and co-create a regenerative world.
Rebecca lives with her family on a hill in Northfield where she tends a rather wild no dig garden, explores the woods whenever possible, and tries to be present for the sweetness/difficulty of parenting.
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Organizing Co-Director & Communications Lead
Staff Collective Member
mieke@350vt.org
Mieke Riddlebarger (they/them) is a Community Organizer and the Communications Lead with 350Vermont. They studied Political Science, Public Policy, and Economics at Simmons University in Boston, MA. Previously, they worked in the Massachusetts State House as a Policy Aide and served as a Field Organizer in Southeast Ohio with the Ohio Democratic Party. They are interested in the intersection of policy and identity, with a focus on rural life and culture. They live in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom with their two housemates and have found it to be similar to their hometown in Appalachian Ohio. When not criss-crossing the state with 350VT, they can be found doing puzzles, making jewelry, watching movies at the Savoy, or cuddling with their cat, Azula, and their snake Zuko.
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Fundraising Director
Staff Collective Member
rose@350vt.org
Rose has felt a deep spiritual connection to the natural world and wilderness since their early childhood, roaming and playing in the Mojave Desert and southern Sierra Nevada mountains. Working as a fundraiser and outreach coordinator for a Swedish sustainable forestry nonprofit is where they developed their fundraising, leading four projects, two of them international. As climate action is a deeply motivating factor in all aspects of their life, including how critically it dovetails with social justice issues, they are honored to have their work be a direct expression of their values and sense of urgency. You can find them biking around Burlington with their bright yellow bike bags, on their way to play samba, or to community dances, or most likely to hike at Rock Point, their favorite local ecosystem to find inspiration and peace.
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Organizing Co-Director
Staff Collective Member
katayoun@350vt.org
Katayoun got started in organizing through Starbucks Workers United in 2022, and continued her organizer journey as founding member of 50501VT after the 2024 election. Born and raised in Vermont, Katayoun has had the chance to see the effects of climate change in Vermont firsthand, and she is thrilled to be bringing her organizing experience to 350VT! She lives in Essex Junction with her cat Cassie, and when not working on organizing can be found making all sorts of art, cooking, line dancing, or wandering around trying to make use of her photography degree by taking photos of birds.
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Operations Director
Staff Collective Member
ashley@350vt.orgAshley Torres (she/her), is the Operations Director at 350 Vermont. She is passionate about climate justice, community care, and building systems that help people and movements thrive. She first got involved with climate organizing as a marketing intern at 350.org in Sydney, Australia back in 2018, and is grateful to be able to continue this work with 350VT.
Ashley studied Sustainable Business and Marketing at NYU’s Stern School of Business, and since graduating, has supported nonprofits, creatives, and small businesses as an Online Business Manager—especially those led by neurodivergent, LGBTQ+, and women-identifying entrepreneurs.
She is originally from Port Washington, NY and now lives in Bolton with her partner and cat. Outside of work, you can usually find her foraging, rockhounding, skiing at Mad River Glen, or cooking vegan meals.
Additional Staff
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Families Rise Up Organizer
familiesriseupmontpelier@350vt.orgHannah grew up in Hartland, VT and now has a home with her family in Plainfield, VT. She is a clinical herbalist, homesteader, and mom. Hannah has cared about climate justice for as long as she can remember, and credits her parents for bringing her to large mobilizations and marches from a young age. She has been involved in activism for over a decade, including direct-action campaigns such as the Tarsands Blockade in TX and anti-fracking in PA, along with community and climate- justice organizing closer to home.
Despite the overwhelming fullness of life with two little ones, Hannah believes she is a better organizer since becoming a mom; she is reminded multiple times a day about the importance of humor, compassion and patience, and she has to be efficient with her time, and clear about her priorities. Working toward the world she wants her kids to inherit is top of the list. She is passionate about connecting with other families to find joy and meaning, to build a network of support and community, and to embolden each other toward meaningful action for climate justice and collective liberation.
Board
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Board Member
Ashley feels a deep connection to the forested land on which she grew up in rural VT. She was captivated by Greenpeace’s bold efforts in the 70’s to save the whales and her love of whales continues to this day. Raising a child in a world of disappearing species and a radically changing climate led Ashley to engage in local activism. She takes inspiration from the unnamed individuals throughout history who have collectively driven positive change in the face of injustice and impossible odds. Ashley owns a manufacturing business where she enjoys supporting employee growth and finding ways for her business to tread more lightly upon the earth. She organizes with StopVTBiomass, Standing Trees, and 350VT.
Ashley holds a BS in Government from Smith College, and an MPA from the University of Vermont.
In her free time she enjoys outdoor pursuits including attempting to identify neighborhood birds. She treasures the company of family and friends.
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Board Member
Heather has traveled and worked in many roles centered around community organizing, environmental education, and nonprofit management. She first connected with 350VT in 2019, when she took on the role of Families Rise Up organizer. She held this position from 2019-2022, working to help families with young children find a sense of place in the climate justice movement. She is immensely grateful for the community of families she has met through her work with 350VT who have helped her feel hopeful in an increasingly overwhelming world and who constantly inspire her to direct her anxiety to meaningful action.
These days her primary job is mom, though she is also a fervid gardener with a small market business. Heather feels incredibly lucky to have found home on a beautiful mountain top in Tunbridge where she can tend her garden and play in the woods every day with her kids.
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Board Member
Ita is a hot sauce connoisseur and can often be seen traipsing about town talking loudly, in the drama, interrupting hurtful remarks and breaking up fights. They are a founding member of CQ Strategies, which helps organizations become more culturally proficient and equity literate through education, resources, and on-going support.
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Board Member
Ali has been involved with organizing work since their time in high school where the pandemic truly invigorated her political and environmental awareness in the world. She recently graduated from University of Vermont after studying Political Science and Environmental Studies.
They are passionate about public transportation and environmental justice, often dedicating time to brainstorming how to bolster buses and trains in Vermont. They have been involved in 350Vermont since 2024 starting as an organizing intern on the peaker plant campaign. In their free time, they vigorously dance, play music, read, spend time with friends, travel to various cities, and go on long walks in green spaces. Ali currently lives in Rutland County.
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Board Member
Maggie is an outdoor enthusiast and opportunistic eater, motivated by good food grown in healthy soil. Her engagement with combating the climate crisis emerged from working directly with the land as an organic farmer in some of the world's most beautiful natural landscapes including Vermont, the East End of Long Island, and Tuscany. She is equally likely to be found either contributing to carbon drawdown on her own property through gardening and land management with her husband and their two dogs, or peer-pressuring friends into running long distance races through Vermont's mountains and valleys. Maggie currently works administering agricultural development grants for Vermont's Agency of Agriculture and is excited to join the hard-working board of 350Vermont to support climate justice on the ground in her home state.
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Board Member
Jessica Van Oort is a writer and editor, and the social media coordinator for the Five Wits Press. She lives in Pawlet, VT, where she is on the Planning Commission and the Selectboard.
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Board Member
Dan is an educator and community organizer working to create a just and sustainable future. He likes spending time with his family and riding his bike.