Tanya Bourgoin

Tanya is a lifelong resident of the state, with the exception of a few years spent in Colorado attending Colorado State University. She started her first conservation advocacy organization in elementary school. After receiving a pin maker for Christmas, she recruited her friends to form a group to sell the pins, baked goods and branded pencils and donated the proceeds to national wildlife causes. In high school, she and a few close friends founded a school-wide organization to promote diversity, tolerance and inclusion long before most people were thinking about such issues. At the age of 6, she helped her grandmother raise an orphaned baby squirrel, and in 1998 she attained her wildlife rehabilitation certification. Tanya is the President of the Friends of Machimoodus and Sunrise State Parks, which she co-founded in 2016. She is happy to be on the boards of Friends of CT State Parks and the CT Outdoor Recreation Alliance. She also serves as co-chair on her town's Sustainability Team and is a proud member of Lions International.  She has been a volunteer DJ on WCNI Radio, a non-commercial, listener-supported station in New London for the past 18 years. When she’s not in a meeting, advocating for the environment, building connections or helping her community, she likes to be outdoors with her husband, dogs, ducks and goats. She also shares her home with three cats and several reptiles

Sydney Collins

Sydney Collins is a youth climate advocate based in New Haven, CT. She currently works for the Heat Pump Support Team with EnergizeCT Heat Pump Support Team to expand access and education to heat pumps technologies in Connecticut, an electric way to heat and cool your home. She graduated from UConn in 2023, where she developed her passion for climate justice through campus sustainability work, municipal government, and participation in COP27 in Egypt as a UConn@COP fellow. She is active in the Sunrise Movement’s New Haven chapter. In her free time, she enjoys bicycling, yoga, and hip-hop dancing.

Kate Donnelly

Kate is a life-long grassroots activist for peace and social justice. Her environmental awareness began at the first Earth Day celebration in 1970. She participated in many campaigns over the years from the anti-nuclear power movement to the recent campaign against the Killingly fracked gas power plant, and against the Line 3 pipeline in Minnesota. She is co-founder and chair of the Hampton Green Energy Committee, member of the Windham/Willimantic NAACP Environmental Justice Committee, and No More Dirty Power in Killingly.  Kate has been a partner in Donnelly/Colt Progressive Resources for 47 years, providing the movement with organizing materials such as buttons, posters, and stickers. She was First Selectman in Hampton, worked as an organizer for Neighbor to Neighbor and Solarize CT campaigns. She lives in Hampton and has three adult children. She believes that intersectional organizing is the only way to guarantee a future for our environment and for a peaceful and just society for all.

Ryann McCabe

Ryann, a lifelong Connecticut resident, is passionate about environmental justice and making our cities and suburbs more sustainable and climate resilient. She began her journey with the Sierra Club as a volunteer with the Remington Woods Campaign, helping to preserve a 422 acre forest in Bridgeport. She also serves as a member of the Legislative and Political Committees. Ryann is working on her goal of offering more Sierra Club events and activist opportunities in Fairfield County. She’s also trained as an Outings Leader. Beyond her work with the Sierra Club, Ryann is an active member of Aspetuck Land Trust and The Connecticut League of Conservation Voters. A former educator, Ryann loves helping others learn about native plants and suburban wildlife conservation. Her home is part of both the Pollinator Pathway and the Aspetuck Land Trust’s Green Corridor. In her free time Ryann enjoys taking her son on adventures, making art and working towards her goal of visiting all the national parks. 

David Michel

David is a writer and advocate who served as a three-term state representative from Stamford (146th District, 2019–2025), where he was co-chair of the bipartisan Connecticut Animal Advocacy Caucus and proposed and served on the CT Offshore Wind Commission on Environmental Standards. He's gone on five direct action campaigns under Paul Watson, with Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and later the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, patrolling Florida beaches at night to return sea turtle hatchlings to the water, and documenting dolphin slaughters and cruel tagging operations in Taiji, Japan and the Faroe Islands. He remains a champion also on labor, housing, mental health, and zoning issues, and writes as an independent columnist.