Our History & Mission
The Cape Cod Climate Change Collaborative, a nonprofit 501c3, was founded in 2016 by a coalition of business, environmental, public, and nonprofit organizations and citizens committed to addressing the climate crisis in the Cape & Islands region.
As a group, we recognized that climate change, rising sea levels, ocean acidification, and intensified storms were already threatening Cape Cod’s homes, health, habitats, the economy, and entire ways of life. We saw that the Cape and the Islands were likely to experience the effects of climate change sooner and more severely than other parts of Massachusetts and the country.
To address this reality, the Climate Change Collaborative was formed. Our mission is to reduce ways in which the Cape & Islands region contributes to climate change and to protect our region from its potentially devastating impacts.
As of July 1, 2025, the Climate Change Collaborative’s operations are performed by Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce staff under the guidance and leadership of our board of directors and advisors.
Our Selected Accomplishments
Since 2016, the Climate Collaborative has engaged with several thousand stakeholders including environmental leaders, elected officials, municipal planners, energy professionals, business executives, entrepreneurs, members of the faith communities, and youth activists in wide-ranging efforts to accelerate the creation and deployment of climate solutions. These efforts have included:
Formed the Cape Cod Climate Action Network—a chapter of the Massachusetts Climate Action Network—which has resulted in the creation of climate action networks (CANs) in (nearly) all towns on Cape Cod.
Produced 5 annual Net Zero Conferences attended by several hundred people each for in-depth learning, collaboration, and inspiration on climate change, solutions and opportunities for citizen and organizational action.
Produced and delivered the (still active) bi-weekly Climate Action Alerts E-Newsletter to over 2500 individuals sharing global-to-local climate issues, best practices, innovations, and opportunities for action.
Produced and delivered hundred of educational trainings both live and online on the climate crisis, innovative climate solutions, and opportunities for local citizen action.
Worked with citizen activists in the passing of Declarations of Climate Emergency.
Lobbied the Cape Cod Commission to create a regional Climate Action Plan which was completed.
Helped create the Faith Communities Environmental Network, a consortium of 45+ faith institutions to promote climate action, education, and environmental justice.
Co-sponsored Cape Cod’s first electric vehicle car show, attended by hundreds to learn about and test drive EV cars.
Engaged in many forms of advocacy (see more in section What We Do).
“It’s Time for Climate Collaboration” – June 12, 2022: An evening with Bill McKibben, Søren Hermansen and Melissa Hoffer.
Leadership
Officers
Dan Wolf | President
Dan Wolf founded Cape Air in 1989 and served as the company’s Chief Executive Officer from its founding through 2021. Dan continues to serve the company as the Chairman of the Board of Directors and stays current with his Air Transport Pilot license. Dan was elected in November 2010, 2012, and 2014, respectively, to represent Cape Cod and the Islands in the Massachusetts State Senate, where he served from 2011 through 2016. Each term, Dan was appointed as the Senate Chair of the Committee on Labor and Workforce Development, focusing on legislation around labor, workplace safety, and workplace development. As a business and community leader, Dan continues to serve on many of the region’s most important non-profit and civic organizations, including on the Board of the Collaborative, as Chair of the Governance Affairs Committee.
President
Heather Goldstone
Heather Goldstone is an experienced climate communicator who works to blend data and narrative in ways that inspire and motivate. She currently serves as Chief Communications Officer at Woodwell Climate Research Center, a non-profit research organization working with partners around the globe, conducting science for solutions at the nexus of climate, people, and nature. Prior to joining Woodwell, she worked at WCAI and WGBH, where she wrote a blog about climate change, reported on science and environmental issues, and eventually founded and hosted a weekly science-focused radio show, Living Lab Radio. She is passionate about Cape Cod Climate Change Collaborative’s focus on convening and collaboration as pathways to climate solutions.
Vice President
Andrew Gottlieb | Treasurer
Andrew Gottlieb is currently the Executive Director at the Association to Preserve Cape Cod. Andrew has more than 40 years of environmental protection experience in government, was 5 elected to terms on the Mashpee Select Board, and as Chief of the Office of Commonwealth Development, he coordinated Massachusetts’s energy, housing, environmental and transportation policies.
Treasurer
Kristy Senatori | Clerk
Kristy Senatori leads the Cape Cod Commission in designing innovative land use policies, environmental and community resilience strategies, and comprehensive economic development initiatives through a multi-disciplinary approach. After law school, Ms. Senatori worked in the private sector for several years before joining the Commission in 2008 and serving as the Commission’s Chief Regulatory Officer and Deputy Director. Under Ms. Senatori’s leadership, the Commission developed the region’s first-ever Climate Action Plan with meaningful adaptation and mitigation strategies. Our partnership with the Climate Collaborative is critical to the successful implementation of this plan and our ability to address our region’s climate and coastal vulnerabilities. Ms. Senatori serves on many local boards and committees with the goal of balancing environmental protection with economic progress ensuring the Cape remains a special place.
Clerk
Directors
Margaret Downey
Ms. Downey is the Administrator for the Cape Light Compact. Prior to serving as the full-time Cape Light Compact Administrator, Maggie served as both the Assistant County Administrator and Compact Administrator for 17 years. The Cape Light Compact service territory consists of Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard, approximately 205,000 year-round residents. The Cape Light Compact is the first municipal aggregator in Massachusetts. Ms. Downey is responsible for management and direction of the Cape Light Compact’s electric power supply aggregation program and energy efficiency programs. Ms. Downey has been working on energy-related issues for over 20 years.
Maggie earned her Master of Public Administration from the University of Washington at Seattle and holds a Graduate Certificate in Management from Harvard University Extension School.
Director
Maggie Phalen
Maggie has worked at Cape Cod 5, a community bank with $5.2 billion in assets, since 2015 in a variety of roles in Residential and Consumer Lending, Strategy and Operations, and Executive. Most recently, she has been working with the Digital and Commercial Lending teams implementing new technology. Maggie received her undergraduate degree from the Business School at Wake Forest University and her M.B.A. from the University of Massachusetts Isenberg School of Management. She is also a graduate of the New England School for Financial Studies. Maggie has been passionate about environmental causes since she was a child and is excited to spend time working with brilliant, like-minded individuals making an impact in our Cape Cod community.
In addition to her work with the Climate Collaborative, Maggie is active on several community boards, including as the Vice President of Independence House, the Treasurer of the MA Housing and Climate Innovation Center, and the Secretary of the Board at her children’s elementary school. She also coaches her children’s sports teams.
Maggie lives in Eastham with her husband, three children, and yellow laborador. She is an avid runner, skier, and traveler.
Director
Anne-Marie Runfola
Anne-Marie Runfola is the Executive Director of the Center for Coastal Studies (CCS) in Provincetown, MA. A veteran of marine conservation, management, and education, Runfola worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for the past 15 years, serving in several roles including Deputy Superintendent of Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary and most recently as the Senior Advisor to the Directors of the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries.
Before joining NOAA, Runfola was Deputy Director of the Bronx River Alliance, a non-profit, public-private partnership with the City of New York Department of Parks & Recreation focused on river restoration and community development.
A resident of Falmouth, MA, Runfola serves on the Board of The 300 Committee Land Trust. She is a graduate of Ithaca College, and received a master’s degree from Columbia University Teachers College.
Director
Anne Scott-Putney
Anne is the President and CEO of Heritage Museums and Gardens in Sandwich, MA.
Director
Janet Williams
Coordinator, Chatham Climate Action Network
Chatham
With a background in environmental law, education, and consulting, Janet Williams brings a unique set of experiences and skills to the Cape Cod Climate Change Collaborative. She spent a dozen years as an environmental enforcement attorney with the EPA, five years providing legal counsel to commercial real estate developers and lenders, and several years building and teaching social science education programs at the secondary level. She discovered a passion for and commitment to fighting climate change while volunteering as a pro bono legal researcher with the Climate Justice Programme in London in 2005. She’s been in the fight ever since. And she’s not giving up.
Other: Chair, Chatham Conservation Commission; Coordinator, Chatham Climate Action Network; Secretary, Pleasant Bay Community Boating; Member: Conservation Law Foundation
Janet has a BA from Boston College, Teaching Certification from Northeastern University and JD from Villanova University School of Law and is a LEED Accredited Green Associate.
Director
Rob Brennan
Smolak & Vaughan
Smolak & Vaughan
Matt Burke
Matt leads Cape Cod 5, a community bank with $5.5 billion in assets, as Chair and Chief Executive Officer. He has been part of the leadership team at Cape Cod 5 since joining the Bank in 2012, having held the roles of Co-President and Chief Financial Officer. A United States Army Veteran with an undergraduate degree from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and a graduate degree from the University of Massachusetts Boston, Matt began his career in public accounting.
Cape Cod 5 prides itself as an environmental steward in the community, and Matt is honored to represent the Bank alongside other key Cape Cod leaders in undertaking this critical climate work.
In addition to his work with the Climate Collaborative, Matt is an active community member, serving on the Boards of the Massachusetts Bankers Association, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Charlton School of Business, and the ABA Stonier Graduate School of Banking at Wharton. He also serves on the Board of Kingston Youth Lacrosse as Treasurer.
Matt resides in Kingston with his wife and three sons.
Cape Cod 5
Eugene Curry
Eugene Curry is an attorney based in Barnstable, Massachusetts, whose practice is devoted to providing corporate, intellectual property, and regulatory advice to entrepreneurs, artists, business owners and non-profit leaders, with particular emphasis on issues related to the intersection of law and technology.
Gene believes that climate change is the existential crisis of our time and that the work of the Collaborative is essential to addressing this crisis. He serves as Chair of the Cape Cod Blue Economy Foundation and as General Counsel and Chair of the Infrastructure Committee of the Cape Cod Technology Council. Gene is a frequent speaker on legal, business, and intellectual property issues.
A published poet and award-winning chili cook, Gene lives in Gray Gables, Massachusetts with his wife, Lynda, and rescue dog, Amy, who operates as a document retriever when she visits Gene’s office.
Law Offices of Eugene Curry
Rosemary Dreger-Carey
Rosemary is a grassroots climate activist who mobilizes local action to address the climate crisis. She has spent most of her professional career as a freelance marketing writer at Copyrose.com helping companies and organizations get their sustainability message out.
In 2015 Rosemary trained with former Vice President Al Gore and leading climate scientists to become a Climate Reality Project Leader and later, a Mentor conducting community education on climate. She was an original 350 Cape Cod Steering Committee member and led the group from 2020 to 2023. As a Falmouth Town Meeting member, she advocated for a climate emergency declaration in her town, adoption of the stretch building code, the creation of Cape Cod’s first town-wide sustainability coordinator position, responsible offshore wind and solar development, protection of Cape Cod’s sole source aquifer from military gun range pollution, as well as robust climate mitigation policies in our region. She is a Director at Cape & Vineyard Electric Cooperative, a member of the Falmouth Climate Action Network (FalCan), and serves as the Vice Chair of the Falmouth Democratic Town Committee. She lives with her husband in North Falmouth and spends time in California where she volunteers with Third Act South Bay.
Rosemary is happiest when she is working on a team to solve local climate problems, or raising ‘beautiful trouble’ when a wakeup call is needed. She relishes working with fellow Cape Cod climate activists (the best in the world!) and accomplished Collaborative Board and Advisory Board members, whom she now calls dear friends, mentors and climate heroes.
Website: www.copyrose.com; Email: rosemary@copyrose.com
Chair, Cape 360
Rich Delaney
Center for Coastal Studies
Maria Marasco
Cape & Vineyard Electric Cooperative
Morgan Peck
Morgan Peck serves as the Youth & Family Program Coordinator/Climate Change Education Coordinator for Mass Audubon Cape Cod. She has a degree in Environmental Sciences/Marine Science, and has been a wildlife and science educator with Mass Audubon since 2013, based at Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary since 2016. Morgan helps to develop and deliver outdoor nature-based curricula to K-12 students (as well as out of school time programs, like Day Camp!) across Cape Cod which focuses on human-impacts and the importance of habitat conservation. Morgan also coordinates the Cape Cod Youth Climate Leadership Program working to engage HS students in youth-led Climate Change education and community action over the course of the school year.
Morgan writes: “I love the way the Cape Cod Climate Change Collaborative brings like-minded organizations together to impact meaningful change within the communities, as opposed to working on our own in silos. Often, environmental organizations get so hyper-focused on their own action agendas that we forget others might also be working towards similar goals, and we can work together to harness momentum!”
Morgan is also a member of the Sierra Club Cape Cod Executive Committee.
Mass Audubon
Erin Perry
Erin Perry joined the Cape Cod Commission in 2011 and has served as Deputy Director since 2019. Erin manages regional planning efforts and engages stakeholders during the planning process to build consensus. She has led development of plans and decision-support platforms on the topics of water quality, coastal resilience and hazard mitigation, climate change, housing, and economic development. The Commission’s partnership with the Climate Collaborative supports a coordinated and collaborative approach to implementing the Cape Cod Climate Action Plan and ensuring climate considerations are integrated into implementation of other regional plans.
Erin received a Bachelor of Science in Biological Oceanography from Rutgers University and a Master of Arts in Marine Affairs from the University of Rhode Island.
Cape Cod Commission
Mark Robinson
Mark H. Robinson has served as Executive Director of The Compact of Cape Cod Conservation Trusts, Inc. since its founding in 1986. The Compact provides technical assistance to 31 local and regional land trusts and watershed groups operating on Cape Cod, including landowner negotiations, fundraising, land management and state/municipal coordination on open space projects. A graduate of Williams College and the University of Rhode Island, Robinson previously worked on coastal management and water quality issues for the Cape Cod Planning and Economic Development Commission. He has served as Chairman of the Barnstable Conservation Commission, Co-Chair of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy Conservation Study Group, Vice-Chair and Treasurer of the Massachusetts Land Trust Coalition, and Vice-President of the Association to Preserve Cape Cod. He is currently the Governor’s representative to the Cape Cod National Seashore Advisory Commission. He has completed over 800 land acquisition projects in Massachusetts and lectures regularly in regional and national conservation forums.
Robinson writes: “I am proud to be associated with the Collaborative and represent the land conservation community. The Collaborative has attracted tremendous talent to its board from all walks of life on the Cape and its ability to bring so many people together through its conferences and workshops is inspirational. We all can and must work together to get to where we need to be: with the Cape as a shining example of the grass-roots acting to save our small part of the planet.”
Compact of Cape Cod Conservation Trusts
Paul Speer
Paul Speer is recently retired as the Chief Operating Officer of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole. He is continuing his affiliation with MBL as a part-time senior advisor. Before arriving at the MBL in 2014, Paul was President of the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA) in Arlington, VA. CNA is a non-profit research and development organization that provides applied research and analytic support to the Department of the Navy.
Paul received a BA in Geosciences from Williams College and a PhD in Oceanography from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program in Oceanography.
Marine Biological Laboratory
Stephanie Spadoni
Steph Spadoni first joined the Collaborative in her prior role working at the Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority, where she led the organization’s transition from fossil-fueled vehicles to an electric fleet. After her time at the Authority, Steph was delighted to remain a part of the Collaborative. Moving to Cape Cod in 2020 and discovering the joy of being a year-round resident, Steph developed her passion for the Cape. Witnessing the impacts of climate change on this special place, she embraces the Collaborative’s mission to mitigate contributions to climate change. Steph also serves on the Leadership and Advancement committee within Cape Cod Young Professionals.
AECOM
Susan Starkey
Susan Starkey, Advisory Board Member is the co-founder and co-chair of the all-volunteer Faith Communities Environmental Network (FCEN), formed in 2017 as the first Network affiliated with the Cape Cod Climate Change Collaborative. The network has grown from two to forty-two Faith Community members and has close to eighty “representatives” involved. Susan is a retired Organizational Development and Leadership Coach whose work spanned many industries, like medical device manufacturing, state government, high-tech engineering, and higher education. Over nine years of living in Yarmouth Port (after 35 in the Boulder/Denver area of Colorado and her schooling and early life in Michigan), she has served on Yarmouth’s Energy Committee, been a member of 350 Cape Cod, Sierra Club, and now the League of Women Voters/Cape Cod and Third Act/Faith. She believes that the strength of the Climate Collaborative’s voice is in boldly advocating for regional climate solutions that address environmental justice and eco-justice concerns. Susan writes: “We bring grassroots advocates together with business leaders, energy experts, educators, and faith communities and we hope to become a more diverse and inclusive voice as we continue to evolve.”
Faith Communities Environmental Network
Lewis Stern
Cape Cod Eco-Justice and Climate Innovation and Leadership
Michele White
As a Special Projects Coordinator with the Cape Cod Commission, Michele focuses on climate-related initiatives identified in the Cape Cod Regional Policy Plan and the Cape Cod Climate Action Plan. She also supports planning and technical staff in priority regional initiatives and projects. Michele previously worked reviewing Developments of Regional Impact at the Commission and has experience in regulatory review and permitting. Michele believes the Climate Collaborative is an important convener of regional organizations and entities working together to tackle the climate crisis and reduce the effects of climate change on Cape Cod and the Islands.
Cape Cod Commission
Don Keeran
Association to Preserve Cape Cod
Janet Kraus
Bluedot Living
Robin Lord
Cape Cod Health News
Dana Rebeiro
Vineyard Wind
Ella Sampou
Community Development Partnership
Nathaniel Mayo
Intertidal Group
Noreen Browne
Habitat for Humanity of Cape Cod
Nathan Raike
RENEW Northeast
Paul Niedzwiecki | Chief Executive Officer
Paul Niedzwiecki is the Chief Executive Officer of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce.
Chief Executive Officer
Karen Cummings | Chief Financial Officer
Karen Cummings is the Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce.
Chief Financial Officer
Katy Acheson | Executive Director
Katy Acheson is the VP of Community Impact of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce. She is also Executive Director of the Cape Cod Blue Economy Foundation, and runs operations for the Cape Cod Economic Development Council, Inc.
Executive Director
Dina Howell Lyons | Administrative Assistant
Dina Howell Lyons is Administrative Assistant for the Cape Cod Climate Change Collaborative and Cape Cod Blue Economy Foundation.
Administrative Assistant