History & Mission
The climate crisis is bearing down on our planet — imperiling lives, health, economy, environment, and entire ways of life — and the Cape & Islands region of Massachusetts is exceptionally vulnerable. With increasing temperatures, ocean warming and acidification, sea level rise, intensified storms and damage, and coastal erosion and flooding, action to address this crisis is imperative.
The Cape Cod Climate Change Collaborative is a non-profit 501 (c) (3) organization whose 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. Our goals are to broaden understanding, deepen partnerships, accelerate programs, and inspire individual and collective action to counter the climate crisis. We accomplish these goals through communication, collaboration, advocacy, and activism.
To realize a resilient, thriving, and sustainable Cape & Islands that moves our region away from reliance on fossil fuels, embraces energy conservation and clean energy, fosters innovative climate solutions, and prevents, minimizes, and adapts to unavoidable impacts of climate change in a manner that is resilient, equitable and environmentally sustainable.
Understanding the climate crisis disproportionately impacts people of color and other underserved communities, we are committed to solving the climate crisis by building a more just, inclusive, and equitable region. We value the voices and contributions of diverse races, nationalities, religions, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, and/or abilities, and seek solutions to the climate crisis that exemplify and advance real diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice.
Recognizing that the climate crisis demands we take urgent action to fulfill multiple goals, we consistently search for opportunities to create synergies to prevent, resist and protect against the impacts of climate change. We believe that nature-based solutions are among the most effective approaches to climate protection and understand that pursuing these solutions also enhances and conserves the fragile ecosystems that surround us, and upon which our sustained quality of life in this place depends.
Leadership
Richard Delaney
Executive Director of the Cape Cod Climate Change Collaborative
Inspired by COP21 (aka the Paris Climate Accord) of 2015, Rich Delaney co-founded the Cape Cod Climate Change Collaborative in 2016. The Climate Collaborative is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to reduce the Cape & Islands region’s contributions to climate change and protect our region from its potentially devastating impacts. Its leadership team includes a coalition of business, environmental, energy, building, transportation, conservation, policy, housing, faith, and civic leaders while its audience comprises over 3,000 concerned individuals from the Cape & Islands and the Commonwealth.
Delaney is well known for his environmental work spanning 45 years, including 14 years as President and CEO of the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown where he continues to serve as part-time Senior Advisor and interim Director of the Marine Policy Department.
Previously, Delaney founded the Urban Harbors Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston; served as Assistant Secretary of Environmental Affairs in Massachusetts; and was National Chair of the Coastal States Organization in Washington DC. Delaney has consulted to governments in over 20 countries regarding climate change, coastal and ocean management, capacity building, institutional development, and public outreach, and participated in numerous international conferences.
Executive Director
Officers
Dorothy A. Savarese
Dorothy A. Savarese is Chair and CEO of Cape Cod 5, a community bank with 26 locations across Cape Cod, Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard and Southeastern Massachusetts. Cape Cod 5 is a nationally recognized organization with a team of 550 employees that has been named one of American Banker’s Best Banks to Work For and a Top Place to Work by the Boston Globe.
Dorothy is a member of the Board and Executive Committee of the Cape Cod Climate Change Collaborative and was recently appointed by Governor Baker to the Commission on Clean Heat, the nation’s first of its kind. The former chair of the Massachusetts Bankers Association, the American Bankers Association and the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce Board, Dorothy was appointed by the Federal Reserve Board to serve as the president of their Community Depository Institutions Advisory Council (CDIAC) for 2021 and 2020. She also served as Chair of the Community Depository Institutions Advisory Council (CDIAC) for the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and was a member of the FDIC’s Advisory Committee on Community Banking. Dorothy holds an MBA from Suffolk University, who awarded her an Honorary Doctorate of Commercial Science in 2021.
President
Fran Schofield
Fran Schofield is a co-founder of the Cape Cod Climate Change Collaborative and has been one of its core volunteers since 2016. Currently the organization’s co-vice president, she sets and implements strategic priorities, chairs its Outreach & Communications committee, and co-chairs Finance & Development and Net Zero planning teams.
With public/private sector experience in coastal zone management, land planning, historic preservation, real estate development, sales and marketing, she brings broad perspective and experience to the issue of climate change. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College, Fran studied landscape architecture at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. She has been active in environmental and political realms for decades and is a past recipient of the Cape & Islands Democratic Council’s “Democrat of the Year” award.
Vice President
Maggie Phelan
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Treasurer
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.
Vice President
Beth Wade
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Clerk
Directors
Rob Brennan
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President, CapeBuilt
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. She has previously represented the Cape Light Compact on its sister organization, the Cape & Vineyard Electric Cooperative, which is has installed 49MW of distributed renewable energy projects. Ms. Downey has been working on energy related issues for over 20 years. Prior to joining Barnstable County in 1994, she served as the SEPA/Public Affairs Manager for the City of Issaquah, Washington. Maggie earned her Masters of Public Administration from the University of Washington at Seattle and holds a Graduate Certificate in Management from Harvard University Extension School.
Executive Director, Cape Light Compact
Rosemary Dreger-Carey
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Chair, 350 Cape Cod
Sarah Griscom
Pleasant Bay Community Boating, Science Program Advisor
Chatham
Sarah is the Science Program Director at Pleasant Bay Community Boating in East Harwich, MA. Her education includes: BS. Earth and Marine Science at the University of California Santa Cruz; PhD. Coastal Oceanography at Stony Brook University, “Bioavailability of sediment-bound metals to two marine bivalves “; Postdoctoral and Research Fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health, collaboration with the Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN), France. Sarah’s work experience: Eight years with the US Geological Survey, Branch of Marine Geology, ship-board physical science technician, navigator, and public education outreach; Five years teaching high school sciences, MA teaching certificate in chemistry; Town of Chatham, water quality scientist. Sarah joined Pleasant Bay Community Boating In 2015 to build science and stewardship programs and work side-by-side with those dedicated to making community sailing, hands-on marine education and environmental stewardship accessible to all.
Other: I come from a family of New England scientists and conservationists but I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area In the 1960 and ‘70s. Our family regularly backpacked in the Sierra Nevadas and learned to scuba dive in Monterey Bay. Surrounded by environmental activists, early on I understood the destructive impact humans have on the earth. A huge step toward restoring our planet requires us to greatly reduce our carbon footprint. My interest is in educating and inspiring the next generation to create a Net Zero world and to help to explain the complex consequence of excess greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere and oceans.
Director of Science Programs, Pleasant Bay Community Boating
Don Keeran
Association to Preserve Cape Cod, Asst. Director
Brewster
Don Keeran is assistant director of the Association to Preserve Cape Cod. He focuses extensively on environmental policy and advocacy for the organization, and acts as APCC’s liaison for most state and federal environmental legislative and policy issues. Don works on the state, regional and local levels on growth management initiatives, promoting the adoption of land use and planning policies that advance smart growth, natural resource protection and climate change. He is responsible for developing many of APCC’s positions on topical environmental issues, including proposals for regional development projects and other projects that could impact the Cape’s natural resources and quality of life. Don serves on a variety of boards and committees focused on issues such as climate change, land use planning, water quality and open space preservation. He has been a resident of Brewster since 1997.
Assistant Director, Association to Preserve Cape Cod
Paul Niedzwiecki
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Executive Director, Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce
Dana Rebeiro
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Massachusetts Community Liason, Vineyard Wind
Ella Sampou
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Community Organizer and Youth Mentor
Susan Starkey
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Co-Chair, Faith Communities Environmental Network
Jim Wolf
Cape Air, Director of Sustainability
Yarmouth Port
As Program Director for Sustainability at Cape Air, Jim’s focus has been to answer the question: What does it mean when an airline goes green? The solutions include conserving fuel in the fleet aircraft, research, development and partnering on electric propulsion aircraft, energy conservation efforts and renewable energy development at Cape Air facilities, inspiring employees to undertake energy efficiency improvements at their homes and in their transportation, and teaming with the communities served by Cape Air to promote conservation, renewable energy, carbon reduction, and responsible environmental stewardship. Jim’s background is in construction and the arts.
Director of Sustainability, Cape Air
Tom Cahir
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Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority (Alternate: Chris Kennedy)
Chris Flanagan
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Executive Officer, Homebuilders and Remodelers of Cape Cod
Bert Jackson
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Chief Executive Officer, Cape Cod Technology Council
Chris Kennedy
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Mobility Manager, Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority
Brian McGurk
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Co-Chair, Faith Communities Environmental Network
Brian McGurk
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Executive Director, J.F. Kennedy Hyannis Museum
Maria Marasco
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Executive Director, Cape & Vineyard Electric Cooperative
Lauren McKean
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Park Planner, Cape Cod National Seashore
Mark Robinson
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Executive Director, Compact of Cape Cod Conservation Trusts (Alternates: Julie Early, Amy Henderson)
Bob Ryley
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Habitat for Humanity
Kristy Senatori
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Executive Director, Cape Cod Commission (Alternates: Heather McElroy, Erin Perry, Michelle White)
Dan Wolf
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Cape Air
Alternates
Kristin Andres
APCC
Matthew Burke
Cape Cod 5
Eugene Curry
Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce
Julie Early
Compact of Cape Cod Conservation Trusts
Amy Henderson
Compact of Cape Cod Conservation Trusts
Chris Kennedy
Nate Mayo
Vineyard Wind
Heather McElroy
Cape Cod Commission
Erin Perry
Cape Cod Commission
Lew Stern
FCEN
Michelle White
Cape Cod Commission