Philadelphia

Brady Russell began working for Clean Water Action in the late summer of
2008. He became interested in the environment while watching TV specials
about Earth Day in 1990 back home in Pittsburg, Kansas. Since college,
he's been a professional organizer working with religious communities,
low-income people, national organizations, coalitions, unions and, for
three years, as the Campus Organizer for the student government at the
University of Wisconsin at Madison. He joined the fight against
charitable choice in the early years of the Bush Administration, worked
with a small team of Pennsylvania lobbyists to win the state's first
investment in home heating assistance for low-income people, helped pass
the minimum wage increase for Pennsylvania and convened the first local
forums on the Governor's plan to expand health insurance coverage in
four different cities across Pennsylvania. He graduated in 1999 from
Cornell University. 

Mary Donahue, Canvass Director

Colleen Meehan,  Program Organizer

Colleen joined the Clean Water Action team in early 2010.  Since then, Colleen has worked on various campaigns aimed at protecting Pennsylvanian's drinking water sources.  She has been a proponent in our grassroots fight to better regulate natural gas drillers in Pennsylvania. Colleen has also worked on a state and local level to better manage stormwater runoff in order protect Pennsylvania's streams and rivers from pollutants.  Colleen is Clean Water Action's representative in Philadelphia's Recycling Alliance, which works to promote expanded recycling within the city. She graduated from the University of South Carolina with a BA in political science and focus on environmental policy.  During her time in South Carolina, Colleen was an active member of USC's Amnesty International affiliate group. 

Joe Nye

Joe grew up in the Philadelphia area and graduated from Temple University with a BA in Political Science. Working as a canvasser for Clean Water Action for two years, in 2006 and 2008, he was a part of the victorious campaigns to unseat Sen. Rick Santorum and elect President Barack Obama. In 2006, Joe also campaigned to reduce mercury emissions in Pennsylvania by 90%. After graduating from Temple University in 2010, he worked on two congressional campaigns as a field organizer and also has experience as an employment counselor focused on low-income Americans.  Joe returned to Clean Water Action because of his strong to desire to hold politicians and large corporations accountable for their actions and looks forward to many more victories in the years to come.

Pittsburgh

Myron Arnowitt served as Clean Water Action's Western PA Director for eleven years and is currently the PA State Director. Myron has worked as a community organizer for over 18 years for a variety of neighborhood, environmental, and social justice organizations in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Chester, PA. Myron's local work with CWA in Pittsburgh included establishing PA's first community air monitoring program, and passage of strict air pollution compliance regulations. He has also helped residents with contaminated drinking water sources and worked with the Pittsburgh School District to reduce pesticide use. In addition to his Clean Water Action work, he serves locally on the board of the Central Northside Neighborhood Council.

Kathy Lawson joined the Clean Water Action staff in June 2007 as the Western PA Director. After years of experience in the business world, her professional relationship with The Learning Disabilities Association of America (LDA) led to an opportunity to express her personal concern for a clean environment as Director of the Healthy Children Project. During her time at LDA, she coordinated the organization's national educational, advocacy, and collaborative efforts to raise awareness of the link between unnecessary exposure to environmental toxicants and learning disabilities. Kathy is a native of Pittsburgh and is delighted to continue her work of preventing harm from exposure to dangerous chemicals with Clean Water Action.

Felicia Sam returned to her activist roots, after many unfulfilling years as a financial systems analyst, to open Clean Water Action's Pittsburgh Phone Canvass in 1988. She became the director of the program, building it into one of the most successful canvasses in the country. Felicia has coordinated work on hundreds of issue and election campaigns, and in spite of the many exciting campaign victories, she feels her most important role has been recruiting and training hundreds of activists and organizers throughout the country, many of which continue to inspire her today.

Tom Hoffman, Western Pennsylvania Director

April 2012 marks his third anniversary with the organization.  During those three years, Clean Water Action has pushed for and won policies that drastically cut diesel emissions from school buses, cut down on diesel emissions from construction vehicles on publicly funded development projects and require publicly funded development projects to drastically reduce the stormwater runoff from their sites.

Before joining the staff of Clean Water Action, Tom founded Pittsburgh UNITED, a coalition of labor, faith, community and environmental organizations that has worked for progressive policies in Pittsburgh. Before Pittsburgh UNITED, Tom worked for the Justice for Janitors Campaign at the Service Employees International Union that won affordable family health care for janitors in Pittsburgh.

Tom loves the biking, hiking, skiing and backpacking.  He is a graduate of the National Outdoor Leadership School.  He plays banjo, guitar and does vocals for Smokestack Lightning.

Steve Hvodzovich, Marcellus Campaign Coordinator

Steve is a life long resident of Pittsburgh. He graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a BA in History and a secondary concentration in Political Science. Steve joined Clean Water Action in 2008 and initially focused on our community organizing efforts in the Pittsburgh suburbs around air quality issues. In 2010, Steve shifted his focus to the Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling issue. As the organizations point person on this issue, Steve has traveled all over Pennsylvania lobbying, organizing, and educating people on the potential dangers associated with this growing industry.

Julie St. John, Community Organizer

Julie St. John started working as a field canvasser with Clean Water Action in the summer of 2009. After a year and a half of pounding the pavement, Julie switched positions and began working with the program department, coordinating efforts to improve air quality in local communities. She works extensively with community groups in the Neville Island and Clairton areas.

Julie recently began working on the Clean Rivers Campaign, a coalition effort to make sure green infrastructure is part of the plan to fix sewer and stormwater issues in the region. Julie holds a MA in communication and a BA in journalism from The Ohio State University. Go Bucks! When she’s not working, Julie likes to spend time with her cat, Alice.

Amanda Hanbury, Pittsburgh Canvass Director

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Amanda, a proud resident of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
began her career at Clean Water Action in the spring of 2008.  After receiving her bachelor’s degree in
environmental studies from the University
of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, she joined the
Clean Water team to fight for environmental justice and is now the Canvass
Director in Pittsburgh.  Amanda has organized all over this great
nation, but her loyalty is with the Yinzers of Pittsburgh.  Amanda enjoys the outdoors, traveling,
Journey, and…..oh yeah, canvassing!

Harrisburg

Nathan Sooy, Harrisburg Campaign Coordinator