Staff

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, Kathleen Logan Smith: Kathleen joined the Coalition as Executive Director in August 2006. Her professional background is in journalism, communications, community organizing, development, and management of nonprofit organizations. She long has been an environmental activist and organizer. She began canvassing in college working with embattled communities and rural residents fighting polluters on issues like toxic waste, medical waste, Superfund, factory farms, and nuclear fuel facilities. She graduated with a degree in journalism from Oklahoma State University and moved to St. Louis in 1995. As an organizer with the Medical Waste Incinerator Group, she helped to build a grassroots, community-based organization. This effort resulted in passage of a St. Louis City ordinance that ended medical waste incineration in St. Louis . Kathleen helped found Health & Environmental Justice-St. Louis (HEJ), an organization working to end childhood lead poisoning in St. Louis and she continues to serve on HEJ's board.


DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH, Dan Sherburne: Since joining the Coalition in 2003, Dan has focused upon researching public lands and water quality issues as Director of Research.. He also manages the Coalition's membership database and financial records. Dan comes to the Coalition with a background in sociocultural anthropology (B.A. from Portland State University in his native Oregon and M.A. from Washington University in St. Louis ) and considerable experience in social and environmental research. The latter included doctoral research into the social and cultural dynamics produced in a resource-dependent locality through public participation in national forest planning.


DIRECTOR OF OUTREACH AND DEVELOPMENT, Erin Noble: Erin joined the Coalition in 2005 as Director of Outreach and Development. Erin graduated from Duke University with a B.A. in public policy. Prior to the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, Erin worked for the Fund for Public Interest Research raising money for MoPIRG and the Sierra Club. She also worked as the fundraising chairman for the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life on Duke’s campus.


WATER POLICY COORDINATOR, Kim Knowles: Kim joined the Coalition as the Water Policy Coordinator in 2005. She has a degree in economics from Rutgers University, a law degree from City University of New York Law School, and a Master of Arts in Public Policy from Saint Louis University. Kim has a long history of working in the public interest, including working with Native American communities. While she was in law school she worked for The National Wildlife Federation in Washington, D.C. and the Native American Project of Evergreen Legal Services in Seattle. Prior to moving to St. Louis she worked as a staff attorney for Indian Pueblo Legal Services and as a public defender for the Jicarilla Apache Tribe. While in New Mexico Kim served as the chair of the AIDS Law Panel, a statewide group of attorneys providing pro bono legal services for people with AIDS.


MCE LIBRARIAN, Rebecca Wright: Rebecca serves as Librarian for the Missouri Coalition for the Environment. Rebecca holds a Masters degree in Library Science from the University of Missouri at Columbia. Upon graduation she took a part-time position as librarian for environmental activist Kay Drey, managing her documents on nuclear hazards. Soon the position became full time and included the donation of her expertise two days a week organizing the Missouri Coalition for the Environment library. The Coalition’s collection was unmanaged for at least 10 years before Rebecca arrived in December 1994. In addition to her library work, Rebecca has helped to coordinate many of the Coalition’s petition drives, speakers for public hearings, and social events. She has also served on the Coalition’s Board of Directors since 1995.