Pennsylvania
Staff
Frederick "Rick" Loomis came to Clean Water Action's Allentown office in 1998 after leaving a 35-year career as a YMCA professional in New England, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. He holds a B.S. and a M. Ed. in Social Agency Administration from Springfield College in Massachusetts. His concern for the environmental legacy we are leaving our youth led him to Clean Water Action. Rick currently works throughout the Lehigh Valley and other northestern PA communities on trash and landfill issues, land-use policies, and stormwater management. He also works with Hazelton residents to fight dredge spoils dumping and with Bucks County residents on MTBE contamination in their groundwater.
Philadelphia
Evan M. Belser returned to Philadelphia after 13 years away in Boulder, CO to join Clean Water Action in August 2005. He is the primary organizer for improving Philadelphia's recycling program, for opposing the shipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) on the Delaware River, and for establishing wellhead protection ordinances throughout the Schuylkill watershed. Evan earned his undergraduate degree in Mathematics and Philosophy from Colorado University and founded a student organization called CU Biodiesel that remains dedicated to advancing the use and knowledge of vegetable-based fuels.
Alisha Deen-Steindler joined Clean Water Action's Philadelphia office in June of 2006. She worked closely with Clean Water Action/Clean Water Fund San Francisco while working as a legislative and policy analyst for the Environmental Justice Coalition for Water from 2003 - 2006. Before that, Alisha attended the University of Oregon for graduate studies where she researched multicultural environmental education, receiving a M.S. in Environmental Studies in 2002. She developed an interest in water policy early on in Miami, FL while getting her B.A. in Environmental Studies at Florida International University with a campaign to get herbicides out of the campus ponds from 1994-1998. Alisha then worked for a federal task force on Everglades preservation in Miami, Florida, called the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force in 1998 - 2000. After six years on the West Coast, she is thrilled to be back east with Clean Water.
Billy Goldsmith has been the Staff and Outreach Director in Philadelphia since March of 2003. After graduating from the University of Florida in the Spring of 2000, Billy moved to Northampton, MA and began doing outreach for Clean Water Action there. In addition to outreach and election organizing, he has organized public hearings in Western Massachusetts to hold coal fired power plants accountable. He also serves a trainer at national and regional conferences for Clean Water Action's outreach programs and has helped train over 10 Staff Directors across the country.
Bob Wendelgass has been Clean Water Action's Pennsylvania State Director since 1991. Bob has been a community organizer and activist for over 30 years, working for several organizations in Philadelphia and in Rochester, NY. Bob's work at Clean Water Action involves leading our statewide campaigns and coordinating the work of our Allentown, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia offices. He also makes sure that we raise the funds needed to keep all three offices running strong. Bob chairs the statewide Campaign for Clean Water, a coalition of 130 groups that promotes stronger protection for our state's rivers and streams, and he serves on several PA DEP advisory boards.
Pittsburgh
Myron Arnowitt has worked for Clean Water Action for eleven years as the Western PA 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 coordinates Clean Water Action's local campaigns in Pittsburgh, including efforts to establish local air toxics regulations and to bring the region into compliance with Clean Air Act standards. 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.
Ashleigh Deemer joined Clean Water Action in July of 2006 as a Program Organizer in Pittsburgh. Her work with Clean Water Action includes working with the Allegheny County Partnership to Reduce Diesel Pollution, which promotes the installation of pollution control devices on dirty diesel vehicles. The Partnership's primary focus has been on school buses and transit buses, which expose many children and commuters to the toxic effects of diesel emissions each day. She graduated in 2005 with a degree in Environmental Policy & Advocacy and a minor in Botany from Chatham College in Pittsburgh. Before joining Clean Water Action, she was an Assistant Canvass Director for a national environmental and consumer rights organization in Brooklyn, New York.
Corey Hawkey returned to Clean Water Action in September of 2006 as a Program Organizer in Pittsburgh. He is involved with the Neville Island Good Neighbor Committee and the Residents for a Clean and Healthy Mon Valley Committee. Both committees are focused on protecting the health of their communities by holding industries responsible for their pollution. Corey graduated in 2005 from Bowling Green State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a minor in Social Studies. Before returning to CWA, he was the Field Director for a state senate race in Brooklyn, New York and Office Manager for Clean Water Action's Pittsburgh field canvass.
Cole Lea, Assistant Phone Canvass Director, grew up in the West End area of Pittsburgh near Neville Island and has been an environmentalist ever since! An activist and political poet, Cole enjoys educating, training and developing new organizers, as well as motivating and reactivating seasoned veterans. She has been with Pittsburgh's Clean Water Action office since 2001 and considers it a great privilege to empower people for a living.
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.
Chris West has been Staff and Outreach Director for Clean Water Action's Field Canvass in Pittsburgh since May of 2006. Chris has been involved in activism with at-risk youth, Working America, and Clean Water Action since graduating from Allegheny College in 2002. He loves working with Clean Water Action because every day there is the opportunity to hold politicians and corporations accountable to the people.
