• Meet the Team

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    Dori Drachman | PREP Co-Coordinator and Liaison to the Community Power Team

    Dori led Peterborough Energy Action last year to pass the 100% Renewable Energy warrant article. She serves on the Peterborough Energy Committee and as Co-Chair of the Board for the Monadnock Sustainability Hub (the Hub) where she worked with the organizing group for the Community Power Coalition of New Hampshire. In 2019, Dori led Solarize Monadnock in Peterborough. In a previous life, she was an elementary school classroom teacher and then a teacher/naturalist with the Harris Center. She co-founded a charter school in NC. Dori lives at Nubanusit Neighborhood and Farm, a cohousing community that values sustainability where she has a solar array on her home and an electric bike.


    “The climate crisis is the most urgent issue of our time. I’m grateful to live in a town that supports this important work."

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    Bob Haring-Smith | PREP Co-Coordinator

    Bob has lived in Peterborough for four years, since retiring from a career spent largely as a math and computer science professor or in IT support at various universities. He worked previously on the Solarize Monadnock and Peterborough Energy Action campaigns, as well as providing volunteer help for Peterborough Players, the Monadnock Chorus, the Peterborough Town Library renovation project, and the Monadnock Summer Lyceum.

     

    “I believe that fighting climate change is one of the most important actions we can take for the benefit of our children and grandchildren.”

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    Elizabeth S Alpaugh-Cote | Research & Planning Group

    Beth is a committed volunteer community activist in Peterborough town government as well as in local arts and science organizations. She is a member of the Water Resources Advisory Committee, the Contoocook and North Branch Rivers Local Advisory Committee, the Master Plan Steering Committee, and numerous sub committees for the Master Plan. Beth has spent 16 years helping at Peterborough Players from backstage to front of house. She also taught a robotics class at the New Boston 4-H a couple of summers. Professionally, Beth assists others to run their businesses. She is an owner-operator driving for Mayflower, and has run her own businesses for the past 30+ years.

     

    Beth is an enthusiastic electric car owner. She drove a GEM for 18 years and now has had a Smart Car for the past 2 years.

     

    “I want to see more green energy solutions (for Peterborough) such as solar, wind, hydro and maybe geo-thermal.”

    Jonathan Bass | Baseline Data Working Group

    Jonathan is also a Member of the Peterborough Energy Committee. He has a B.S. in Business Administration & Entrepreneurship and is the Director of Operations at IMBY Energy. Jonathan created the techno-economic analysis used for the ConVal solar array.

     

    “Clean energy has been the focus of my entire professional career Data modeling. I'm interested in helping the town make informed decisions about renewable energy projects.”

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    Brian Field | Chair, Research & Planning Working Group

    Brian worked as a member of the Peterborough Energy Action campaign. A resident of Peterborough for over thirty years, he has had careers in oceanography and environmental consulting, banking, and is now retired from a twenty year career in science education.

     

    As a teacher at Milford and Conant high schools, Brian developed and taught courses in sustainability after a Fulbright trip to Japan to study Education for Sustainable Development. He is a past board member of the Peterborough Unitarian Universalist Congregation and was a member of Peterborough’s Open Space committee. He enjoys hiking, Irish music, and making writing instruments.

     

    “I am passionate about teaching the next generation not to repeat the mistakes of the past and optimistic about helping correct those mistakes.

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    Jean Foster | Communications Working Group

    Jean has been an environmental justice activist for 15 years with groups such as 350MA, Mothers Out Front, and more recently the Fridays for our Future youth climate strikes, and Extinction Rebellion. Jean lives in Nubanusit Neighborhood and Farm, an environmentally sustainable cohousing community where she is happy to have rooftop solar panels provide most of her electricity.

     

    Before retiring, Jean worked in the tech industry wearing many different hats such as technical communicator, user centered web and UI designer, and usability and accessibility consultant.

     

    “I believe that addressing climate change is our most pressing task to ensure that our grandchildren and their children inherit a liveable planet.”

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    John Gillies | Community Input Working Group

    John worked for twenty years doing outdoor education for the Colorado Outward Bound School and spent twenty years working in county government administering adult and child protection programs. He has a BA in Environmental Studies from the University of Michigan and a Masters in Counseling from the University of Northern Colorado. John and his wife recently moved here from Colorado to be closer to grandkids.

     

    “Direct action to address the climate crisis is a personal priority of mine.”

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    Anne Huberman | Research & Planning Working Group

    Anne is a retired academic librarian and a grandmother living at RiverMead. She has previously worked with Solarize Monadnock and Peterborough Energy Action and currently works with the Peterborough Energy Committee, is the secretary of the Monadnock Citizen's Climate Lobby Chapter, is on the Peterborough Open Space Committee, and is an alternate on the South Peterborough Tax Increment Finance District.

     

    She is an enthusiastic EV driver, has a wonderful heat pump in her lakeside A-frame, and is doing what she can to lower her carbon footprint at Rivermead.

     

    “I believe that if we all act now to do everything we can to mitigate climate change, our grandchildren will be able to enjoy living in a habitable world.”

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    Karen Johnson | Community Input Working Group

    Karen brings Office Management and Bookkeeping experience to the work she has done with many volunteer organizations. She likes to ask hard questions - specifically “who's missing from the table” which makes her a perfect fit for the PREP team tasked with getting feedback from the community.

     

    “I would like there to be a world my grandchildren can grow up in.”

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    James Kelly | Baseline Data Working Group

    James has been a member of many non-profit boards and committees including the Peterborough Economic Development Authority. He founded and ran a world-wide strategic consulting firm and was a board member and consultant for a world-wide energy management firm. His major focus has been positive collaboration supporting sustainability. James believes that energy sustainability can best be managed in our local community.

     

    Since retiring James spends all of his time as a volunteer in the Peterborough community.

     

    “The 100% program is an exciting way to change the world. It is not driven by big business profitability.”

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    Carol Kraus | Community Input Working Group

    Carol majored in Psychology in college, got an RN, and later an M.Ed. from Antioch Institute of Open Education. She is a retired RN who worked mainly in psychiatry and substance abuse, and then switched to become a Trager practitioner.

     

    Carol has served on the SOLARIZE project, the Peterborough Energy Action Committee, and is currently on the League of Women Voters Peterborough Plus Committee which holds local candidate forums, voter drives and other public education activities. As a resident of Nubanusit Neighborhood & Farm, a sustainable cohousing community most of Carol’s electricity use is produced by solar panels and the community’s heating comes from locally sourced wood pellets. (In 2008 when the community was built wood pellets were made from discarded wood; sadly this is no longer the case!)

     

    “I still think that addressing climate change is our most important challenge. I have nightmares about the climate crisis and how it is already affecting us, our children and future generations of humans as well as all living beings on Earth.”

    Steven Lipofsky | Research & Planning Working Group

    Steven volunteers with the MaxT Maker Space, is a past Board member of the Peterborough Historical Society, has worked on the Chamber of Commerce Gala Committee, and the Monadnock Art Tour. His past professional experience includes Photography, video, drone, legal, technical, electronics, mechanic: Knowledge of electronics, technology, experience and contacts with renewable energy resources;

     

    “I love Peterborough and the area and am committed to sustainable energy and environmental issues.”

    David Macy | Baseline Data and Research & Planning Working Groups

    David holds an M.S. in Management (Antioch) and has been the Resident Director at MacDowell since 1994 during which time he has overseen gross capital improvements totaling more than $10M. David contracted and managed installation of two solar arrays currently providing sufficient electricity to power the 40 building facility. He developed a migration strategy toward renewable energy, including deep energy retrofits of numerous buildings and a switch over to heat pumps.

     

    “(PREP’s work) holds the potential to change and improve the town's trajectory.”

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    Emily Manns | Research & Planning Working Group

    Emily wears other volunteer hats including as Chair of the Peterborough Energy Committee that brought solar panels to Conval, and EV charging stations to the Riverwalk lot (coming soon!) She is a member of the Master Plan Steering Committee, the Treasurer of the Monadnock Summer Lyceum, and is constantly inspired by the message of the Mothers Out Front climate action group.

     

    Emily has a BSc. in Chemical Engineering and an MBA, and began her career in the oil patch where she learned about methane’s contribution to climate change. She has been a consultant and expert witness on environmental costs of electricity following the first IPCC Report in 1990, and is currently a Community Power consultant and energy analyst for Standard Power.

     

    Emily has discovered her superpower is driving a clean energy transition narrative. She has solar panels on her home, and asks everyone to support restored funding for all cost-effective efficiency measures under NHSaves.

    Michael Nork | Baseline Data Working Group

    Michael has an MS in Environmental Studies from Antioch University New England with focus in sustainable development and climate change. His professional background is in recycling, composting and sustainable materials management. He currently works for the state of NH, Department of Environmental Services on the Energy Plan Committee. He is skilled in conducting research, data analysis, and regulatory interpretation (i.e., making sense of rules and statutes and how they apply in practice). Michael has served with the Peace Corps. He has participated in Peterborough Earth Day roadside litter cleanups with the Conservation Commission and considers his work with PREP a way to perform community service while working for positive change and making connections in his community.

     

    “Climate change is a huge concern for me, and I think how we produce and use energy is a key component of fighting the climate crisis.”

    Jim Van Valkenburgh | Baseline Data Working Group

    For over 25 years Jim has worked in the commercial end of alternative energy for manufacturers, distributors and dealers of solar, biomass and energy conservation products. His Peterborough home utilizes passive solar, active solar hot water, and a new 7 KW solar PV system. Jim has written multiple articles on biomass boiler retrofit projects which have appeared in the Green Energy Times. In the 1990s Jim taught a class on Practical Solar Energy at the UNH School of Lifelong Learning in Nashua.

     

    Jim’s 8 year involvement with Froling Energy gives him a broad technical understanding of biomass heating technology.

     

    “I want to contribute all that I can to making this a successful effort which will enable us to set and to meet realistic and attainable goals.”

    Jamie Young | PREP Website Manager

    Jamie moved to Peterborough in 2019 with her husband, Doug, after retiring from administrative work in higher education and research and raising three daughters. Her interests include regenerative farming and sustainable food and fiber production. When she’s not at the keyboard she keeps her hands busy spinning, dyeing, weaving, and knitting wool or other natural fibers into something to wear.

     

    Jamie managed the Peterborough Energy Action (PEA) Team’s website and served as a General Team member. She is also a General Committee Member with the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL).

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