When people of the Great Lakes work together, we can make a huge impact! 

Thank you for everything you’ve done for the lakes this year. You believed in our mission. You stood up for the lakes. You were part of a community of thousands of volunteers, donors, advocates, and supporters who made great things happen for the lakes and the people who live here.

Here are just a few things we accomplished together in 2022:

• We secured a historic federal investment to keep invasive carp out of the Great Lakes. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers now has the full funding to complete the engineering and design, and begin construction on a project at the Brandon Road Lock & Dam, a critical choke point for keeping invasive carp from reaching Lake Michigan and the Great Lakes.

• We won an additional $1 billion federal investment in Great Lakes restoration. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will use the bulk of the funding to clean up and restore Great Lakes Areas of Concern, some of the region’s most environmentally contaminated and degraded sites, by 2030.

• We’re co-convening the State Revolving Fund Advocates Forum, a diverse community working to ensure that once-in-a-generation federal water funds are allocated to the hardest-hit communities and advance resilience to climate change. Our group of community leaders and policy experts is playing a pivotal role in reforming the biggest state water funding programs to ensure that all Great Lakers have access to clean, safe, and affordable water.

• We published a first-of-its-kind case study that found water bills are higher for communities that pull their drinking water from Lake Erie. The study highlights the fact that water users far away from pollution sources are paying the real cost of protecting their families from a problem they did not create: harmful, and sometimes toxic, algal blooms caused by farm runoff.

• We activated our supporters to speak out in support of protecting the Great Lakes. People around the Great Lakes region sent over 13,000 emails to their members of Congress, urging their representatives to invest in fixing failing water and wastewater infrastructure, stop invasive carp, and champion the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and Clean Water Act.

• Adopt-a-Beach volunteers surpassed more than half a million pounds of litter collected at cleanup events since the Alliance began tracking data in 2003. The Alliance’s data shows that more than 85% of the litter cleaned up is made entirely or partly of plastic, putting our volunteers on the front lines of keeping plastic pollution out of the lakes.

And there’s so much more. 

A special thank you to everyone who donated to our Giving Tuesday challenge. You helped us beat our goal of $30,000. I appreciate your generosity.

Whenever you give to the Alliance, you can be confident that your gift is in good hands. The Alliance for the Great Lakes has earned two top charitable ratings in recognition of the organization’s financial health, accountability, and transparency: Charity Navigator’s Four-Star Rating and Guidestar’s Platinum Seal of Transparency.

Have a happy and peaceful December.

The post Big Things for the Great Lakes in 2022 appeared first on Alliance for the Great Lakes.

Original Article

News - Alliance for the Great Lakes

News - Alliance for the Great Lakes

https://greatlakes.org/2022/12/big-things-for-the-great-lakes-in-2022/

Judy Freed

The Alliance for the Great Lakes Board of Directors held their annual retreat November 18-19 in Chicago. At the meeting, the board elected two new Directors and a slate of officers, while saying farewell to six term-limited directors.

New Board Members: Dr. Sri Vedachalam & Dr. Wren Montgomery

Dr. Sri Vedachalam is Director, Water Equity and Climate Resilience, at ECT, Inc., where he works with communities to address their water quality and access challenges. He is a water policy specialist, and his work has covered national water issues such as affordability, aging infrastructure, extreme weather impacts, financing, public trust, and non-point source pollution. Prior to this role, he set up and grew the water program at the Environmental Policy Innovation Center, turning it from a one-person operation to a national powerhouse. During his stint as researcher at the Cornell University-based New York State Water Resources Institute, he experienced first-hand the beauty of the Great Lakes region.

He currently serves on the advisory board for the communications nonprofit Water Hub, and is a member of Blue Accounting’s Drinking Water work group facilitated by the Great Lakes Commission. Dr. Vedachalam is also the Editor for Urban Water at Global Water Forum, a resource for evidence-based, accessible, and open-access articles on freshwater governance. He was named a 2022 Top 10 Young Professional by Water & Wastes Digest. He holds a Ph.D. from The Ohio State University and lives with his wife and two kids in the Washington, DC metro area.

Dr. Wren Montgomery is Assistant Professor of Sustainability & General Management at Western University’s Ivey Business School in London, Ontario, and a Faculty Affiliate at the University of Michigan’s Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise. Her research, teaching, and impact work focuses on environmental and social organizing, how it changes norms and institutions, and how it interacts with corporations. She is primarily interested in unique forms of collaboration and unconventional coalitions with the potential to overcome obstacles to solving many of the world’s most pressing challenges. Dr. Montgomery focuses on the intersections of climate change, water crises, soil degradation, and social justice. Her multi-year research project on water access and affordability – with a focus on Detroit – has received several prestigious honors.

Dr. Montgomery is deeply committed to doing research that has both academic significance and a more immediate impact on the world around us. She does this by helping students to understand the roots of problems and identify leverage points for change, by working with organizations to raise awareness of these challenges, by highlighting successful approaches and tools, by engaging and working collaboratively with impacted communities, and by serving on government and corporate boards. She is also an experienced management consultant and senior government policy analyst.

New & Returning Officers

Jo-Elle Mogerman was re-elected as Board Chair. Susan McDermott was elected to a second term as Treasurer. Tom Langmyer was elected to his first term as Nominating Committee Chair. Vanessa Tey Iosue was elected to her second term as Vice Chair of Policy.

The board also said farewell to six directors who are term-limited after six years of service: Aaron Fershee, Adrienne Dziak, Claire Castleman, David Schmahl, Lauren Bigelow, and Sue Conatser.

“Thank you to all of our board members – past and present – for their dedication and leadership,” said Joel Brammeier, the Alliance’s President & CEO. “Our work would not be possible without their time and expertise. They are integral to the Alliance’s successes in protecting and restoring this resource we all cherish. We look forward to the contributions of our newest board members and share all our gratitude to those saying farewell.”

For a complete listing of Alliance for the Great Lakes directors and officers, visit our Board of Directors page.

The post Alliance for the Great Lakes Welcomes New Board Members, New & Returning Officers appeared first on Alliance for the Great Lakes.

Original Article

News - Alliance for the Great Lakes

News - Alliance for the Great Lakes

https://greatlakes.org/2022/12/alliance-for-the-great-lakes-welcomes-new-board-members-new-returning-officers/

Judy Freed