Yvonne Chu
PRESIDENT
I moved to Syracuse, NY in 2015 and joined Climate Change Awareness & Action (CCAA) in the first couple months of its formation. I have a B.S. in Environmental Science from SUNY Plattsburgh and am currently employed at Onondaga Earth Corps, Inc. as their Office Manager.
I am passionate about engaging the community with implementing stronger climate policies that moves us closer to a solution to the crisis and empowering all people to take actions that could help them to reduce the overall greenhouse gas footprint. I have been a climate activist for over 10 years and have organized, spoken at, and participated in dozens of marches, rallies, and campaigns in that time. In my role as President of CCAA, I hope to make an impact on others by influencing them to join me in a journey that takes us through solutions to climate change.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/yvchu01/
Peter Wirth
Vice President
I’ve lived in CNY since 1971. I’m a life long political activist and environmentalist. Before I retired I was a public relations consultant for 20 years and focused on issue oriented organizations covering everything from a local recycling company to Washington based nonprofits focused on foreign policy issues. I am also one of the cofounders of Climate Change Awareness and Action .
pwirth2@verizon.net
Sonia Y. Kragh, MD
Treasurer
I retired from my career as an internist in 2019. All my life I have enjoyed being outdoors for recreation, including hiking, gardening, rollerblading, coaching youth sports, pickleball, you name it. I feel drawn to heal the planet, working on Sustainable Solutions with the local community, friends and family, and organizations like the Syracuse Rose Society. Sierra Club and Climate Change Awareness and Action.
Kim Cameron
Secretary
Peter Michel
Co-Chair of the Education Committee
Peter is a retired architect and a sculptor and a grandfather of 6. He is concerned
for his grandkids future and for the past 8 years has become an activist and
engaged in learning about the solutions to the climate crisis and sharing the
results of his exploration. He’s been active in the Citizens’ Climate Lobby, and the
Environmental Sustainability Rotary Action Group as well as CCAA. He is
especially excited about the work of project Drawdown, Project Regeneration and
most recently the Foundation for Climate Restoration and how these can inform
and inspire our actions.
Ken Johnson
Membership Committee Chair
I am a retired professor of Communication Studies at Syracuse University for 31 years. After retirement and upon reading Elizabeth Kolbert’s The Sixth Extinction, and other literature, I concluded that the time is up if we are to avoid climate catastrophe. I joined CCAA to do my part to reduce fossil fuel use.
Roseann Lorefice
Communication and Public Relations Committee Chair
Jan Kublick
Legislative Liaison
Jim Doherty
Board member and Co-Chair of the Education Committee
I have been very concerned about Global Warming/Climate Change since the 1980’s when teaching it at Nottingham HS in my end-of-the-year World History instructional unit concerning Contemporary Global Issues, Environmental Degradation, specifically Global Warming. In the last couple of decades, there has been the political and social disruption of millions of emigrants compelled to leave various areas of the world. Can you imagine the future disruptive societal impact of the predicted hundreds of millions of emigrants leaving areas of the world stricken by drought, food insecurity, and civil war caused by or related to global warming? Is this the world that I want my granddaughter, Charlotte, to grow up in?
George Lorefice
Audit Committee Chair
George Lorefice is a retired Quality Control and Quality Compliance Director from Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Prior to that he served in the US Navy and then worked as an aquatic biologist/limnologist. He has
retained his interest and concern for environmental matters and looks to CCAA to provide education
and hope to the public to address our climate change challenges.
loreficegj@gmail.com