Larry McGuire – President

Larry McGuire is an ordained minister for Community of Christ, living in Marion, IA with his wife Kim, son Cory, and Baby, their miniature Dachshund who really runs the house!  His ministerial responsibilities include working with individuals and congregations on witnessing and hospitality.  Currently, he is part of a pilot project for the denomination on transforming congregational life.

Larry has a deep commitment to care of all of creation and interreligious efforts in his community.  He has served as president of the Inter-Religious Council of Linn County and is an ambassador for community relations for the IRCLC.   His current help with earth stewardship is focused on helping re-build the Linn County, IA area after the devastating floods of 2008.  He serves on several task forces helping the community to recover with a focus on using safe environmental products in the re-building process.
 

Rob Hogg - Vice Chair

Rob Hogg is an attorney in private practice and a state senator from Cedar Rapids.  In the state senate, he serves as the chair of the Rebuild Iowa Committee and vice chair of the Senate Environment and Energy Independence Committee, among other committee assignments, and is recognized as a leader on disaster recovery and prevention, energy efficiency, and renewable energy.  He is an active member of the Iowa Environmental Council, Sierra Club, and Indian Creek Nature Center in Cedar Rapids.
 
In 1999-2000, Rob served as global warming project coordinator for Ecumenical Ministries of Iowa.  Before going to law school, he received his M.A. in energy and environmental policy from the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota in 1991.  Rob is a member of Christ Episcopal Church in Cedar Rapids, which he attends with his wife, Kate, and their three children.
 

Liz Johnson –Treasurer

Liz Johnson is a law student preparing for the bar exam and residing in Iowa City.  She works as a research assistant for Professor Patrick Bauer and has completed two judicial externships with federal judges during her time in law school. 

Liz became involved with peace and justice efforts while pursuing her undergraduate degree at Clarke College, serving as a peace and justice intern through Clarke Campus ministry.  Previously, she worked with the Grinnell Area Arts Council to create board vision and management books, in order to assist them in guiding the Arts Council based on its mission and history of decisions.  Her interest in environmental justice and protection is focused on her belief in the dignity of all living things; it is illustrated by her love of public transportation, her studies of eco-feminism, and her interest in vegetarianism and veganism. She is a student of Buddhism.
 

Lauri Young - Secretary

Lauri Young is a newly retired RN and Health Promotion Manager who sees care of the environment in the context of our responsibility to promote the wholeness of health for the planet and all who live on it.  In the 1970's she and her husband, Jim, began recycling glass bottles, carrying their own sacks to grocery stores, and in 1981 moved into their passive solar home.  After many years of caring and working on an individual basis, she is glad to have the opportunity to participate in an organization dedicated to spreading the word of sustainability to others.

Lauri and her husband live in Cedar Falls where they share an interest in distance road biking and travel with a special interest in visiting three daughters and 2 grandchildren.  Lauri also serves on the board of Lutheran Services of Iowa, the Art and Culture Board of Cedar Falls, and volunteers with a number of organizations, including a local free medical clinic.  She is especially proud of her ability to sheet rock and lay flooring etc. following volunteer efforts in New Orleans.
 

Ray Heinicke - At-Large Member of the Executive Committee

Ray became concerned about man's effect on God's creation in 1971 after auditing a class on environmental stewardship at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago taught by Professor Joe Sittler and Dr. Phil Heffner.   However, he wasn't able to do much about this concern initially because of the demands of raising a family of 5 kids and the absence of a major environmental movement at that time.  After moving to Iowa in 1982, Ray joined the environmental community, becoming aware of the problem of global warming and climate change around 1990. In 1993, he noticed an article in the Register about a group of concerned citizens forming an organization to address water quality problems in Iowa. Also at this time, he decreased his consulting activities to spend more time with volunteer activities related to world hunger, food security, and environmental problems, eventually making 5 trips to Africa. He was one of the first individual members of the Iowa Environmental Council (IEC) and shortly after became a Board member, serving for nearly a decade.

In all of the NGO environmental organizations he has belonged to, the main emphasis has been to solve problems based on man's self interest, with little or no thought be given to the idea of man as an integral part of God's sacred creation. It was this thought that led him to join a small group of likeminded thinkers that helped to bring Rev. Sally Bingham, founder of the national Interfaith Power and Light movement, to Des Moines in 2006 where she challenged the attendees to start a statewide Iowa Interfaith Power and Light organization.  In 2007, he resigned from the IEC board to devote his time and energy to forming Iowa IPL.
 

Bill Cox

Bill Cox is a physics teacher at Dowling Catholic High School who is nearing retirement.   He is a former Peace Corps volunteer, member of many environmental organizations, and active in his church.  He combines his professional scientific background with his experience in education and a recognition of our moral responsibility to live sustainably.  For the past few years he has been making global climate change presentations to schools, parishes, and civic organizations.

Linda Farkas

Linda is a newly retired Sr. Vice President of Marshall and Ilslely Bank, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  She and her husband, Ed, came back to the Iowa City area to be close to their daughter, Pam, son-in-law, Mike, and two grandsons, Sam and Jack. She is an active member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Iowa City.

Linda received her B.A. and M.B.A. from the University of Iowa.  She is currently serving on numerous boards in Iowa City, including, Iowa City Library Foundation, Riverside Theatre and Backyard Abundance.  Her hobbies are travel, reading , music, and hiking. Her passion is environmental advocacy and living simple so that others can simply live.

Mike Lubberden

Mike Lubberden has worked for the facilities department at Central College in Pella for 31 years.  He began as an HVAC technician, then supervisor of trades, and is currently the Director of Facilities Planning & Management.  Mike is a graduate of APPA's Institute for Facilities Management and Leadership Academy, and is a LEED Accredited Professional.  He is a member of the Association of Higher Education Facilities Officers (APPA), the Iowa Renewable Energy Association (IRENEW) and the American Solar Energy Society.

Ruth Ratliff

Vice-President of University of Northern Iowa Foundation, Ruth has served in various positions at UNI since 1976.  She has also served on the boards of the Cedar Falls Historical Society and other civic organizations and coordinates adult forums for St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Cedar Falls.  Ruth is a member of the Black Hawk County Gaming Association board of directors and enjoys Iowa barn quilts, having supplied photogaphs for the Grundy and Butler County Barn Quilt projects.

Sister Cathleen Real

Sr. Cathleen Real is a member of the Davenport based Congregation of the Humility of Mary. She recently retired as co-director of Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat (a 200 acre farm and natural prairie preserve) and is a former professor of math and college president. She is currently a member of the Sierra Club, the environmental forum of Quad City Progressive Action for the Common Good and Pacem in Terris (a diocesan committee to select recipients of a peace and justice award).
 
Cathleen completed faith-based training in addressing climate change with Nobel Laureate Al Gore as the principal trainer.  It was in this training in Nashville last October that she first met Tim Fink, Bill Cox and Sen. Rob Hogg.  For the past year she has kept busy preparing and giving power point presentations about climate change.  She is concerned about the difficult task facing the negotiators at the Copenhagen Conference and keeps the need for climate change action in her prayers. 

Wendell Saunders

Wendell Saunders retired as a VP from Goodrich, an aerospace company, in 2006 after 34 years of service.  Wendell and his wife Connie have two children Scott and Dara that are both married and they have two grandchildren, Ben and Aenea.  Scott’s wife, Medea, is the pastor at the United Methodist church in Story City. 

Since retirement Wendell has been devoting his life to community service and his church, Immanuel United Methodist in Des Moines.  As trustee chair for the last three years he has dramatically reduced the energy use at the church and worked diligently to reduce the church’s carbon footprint.  Over the past three summers Wendell worked on mission trips to Denver, Kansas City and Mission SD helping those in need.

Wendell is also devoted to his department at ISU and has served on the advisor committee for over 15 years including acting as guest speaker on industry to the students in the department.  His department is committed to using technology to solve problems by responsibly using the earth’s resources.

Dr. Jim Martin-Schramm

Jim Martin-Schramm joined the Religion faculty of Luther College in 1993.  He is an ordained member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and holds a doctorate in Christian Ethics from Union Theological Seminary in New York City.  Most of his scholarship has focused on issues related to ethics and public policy.  He is the author of Population Perils and the Churches’ Response, (World Council of Churches, 1997), the co-author of Christian Environmental Ethics: A Case-Method Approach, (Orbis Books, 2003), and the author of Climate Justice: Ethics, Energy, and Public Policy, (Fortress Press, 2010). 

Jim served as a member of the Population and Consumption task force of the President’s Council on Sustainable Development during the Clinton administration.  Jim serves on the board of the Iowa Wind Energy Association and is a member of its Legislative Advocacy Committee.  Jim has also been active in sustainability initiatives at Luther College. He served on a task force devoted to these issues during Luther’s latest round of strategic planning and is chair of the Energy and Water committee of Luther’s new Campus Sustainability Council.