FCSG Steering Committee
The Steering Committee is the decision-making body of the Fort Collins Sustainability Group. Decisions are made by consensus (see separate menu item for details). There is no limit placed on the number of Steering Committee members; new members are always welcomed. Those interested in joining should support our mission and objectives, and should be committed to attending our monthly meetings on a regular basis.
Rick Casey
Rick moved to Fort Collins in 2018 from Lafayette, Colorado, and was soon attending FCSG meetings regularly. He joined the Steering Committee in summer 2019. Rick had lived in the Boulder/Denver area since 1981. He became actively involved in local politics when he helped form East Boulder County United (www.eastbocounited.org) in 2012, due to his concern about the imminent threat of fracking to Lafayette residents. He has an MA in Regional Science (Economics) from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MS in Telecommunications from the University of Colorado. Rick worked as a full time programmer since 1992, and taught economics part-time at Front Range Community College (FRCC) from 1988 to 1991. Since 2009, he has taught a course in environmental economics at FRCC, and continues to improve that course. Rick has also taught several courses at the Osher Institute, including “Decarbonizing the Economy” and “The Great Turning and You.” He enjoys the Colorado outdoors through hiking, climbing, biking and skiing; and has been known to play the guitar occasionally for fun.
Kevin Cross
Kevin is a founding member of the FCSG, and has been a member of the Steering Committee since 2005. He also represents FCSG on the board of the Northern Colorado Alliance for a Livable Future (NCALF). Kevin got his start as an activist opposing U.S. support for the Contras in Nicaragua in the 1980s. He has a B.S. degree in Physics from the University of California – Davis and an M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Kevin currently works as a Senior Engineer for a small energy consulting firm, and is registered as a professional engineer in the State of Colorado. He has also taught high school and college classes in math and science in California and Wisconsin.
Emily Gallichotte
Emily has been a member of the FCSG Steering Committee since 2021. She moved to Fort Collins in 2019 and got involved with the FCSG and local environmental issues in 2020. She is active with the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, the Larimer Democratic party, and local city politics. She grew up in Seattle, attended school in Southern California, and completed her PhD at the University of North Carolina in Microbiology and Immunology. She is a research scientist at CSU, and primarily interested in local issues as they affect the working class, BIPOC and historically under-represented groups.
Elizabeth Hudetz
Elizabeth joined the FCSG Steering Committee in 2018. She moved to Ft. Collins in 1988, and immediately got involved in the fight against burning hazardous waste at a cement plant in LaPorte. She has been an activist focused primarily on air quality and the environment ever since. Elizabeth has served on the Fort Collins Transportation Board and the Natural Resources Advisory Board, and is a member of 350.org, the Sierra Club, and Save the Poudre. Elizabeth was a leader in getting the Fort Collins fracking moratorium passed in 2013, and ran for mayor in 2017. She is a musician, with degrees from Colorado State University and the University of Northern Colorado. Elizabeth recently retired from teaching music in the public schools, although she still writes and performs. She focuses most of her attention on political themes these days.
Rose Lew
Rose joined the Steering Committee of the FCSG in 2012. Professionally, Rose had worked as an environmental scientist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a research hydrologist for Everglades National Park, and a researcher at the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory. Rose was first a nurse, working in New York City hospitals, and for the CO Migrant Health Program. She moved permanently to Fort Collins in 1997, when her river ecologist husband joined CSU’s faculty.
Rose continued to pursue her environmental and public health concerns as an activist while raising kids and caring for her aging mother. Before joining FCSG, she helped start the Northern Colorado Chapter of Health Care for All Colorado (HCAC), chaired its Steering Committee, organized a Citizens Health Care Forum (2006), served on HCAC’s Board of Directors, and started a Health Care Action Group in her Church. After the Citizens United Supreme Court decision in 2008, she joined Occupy Fort Collins, appalled at the flood of corporate money choking democracy. When fracking sky-rocketed in CO, she helped start Frack-Free Fort Collins, alarmed at fracking’s climate and health impacts. Rose’s academic background includes masters degrees in public health and environmental science, and a B.S. in Nursing.
FCSG Science Advisor
The Fort Collins Sustainability Group strives to base its policy recommendations and advocacy work on the best available science. We have had two science advisors since our inception: Dr. Todd Ringler of Los Alamos National Laboratory (September 2006 – January 2010) and Dr. Scott Denning of Colorado State University’s Atmospheric Sciences Department (January 2010 – present). The role of the FCSG Science Advisor is to provide the latest scientific information concerning the atmosphere and global climate change to the Steering Committee. The Science Advisor does not play an advocacy role.
Scott Denning
Scott Denning is Monfort Professor of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University and Director of Education and Diversity for the Center for Multiscale Modeling of Atmospheric Processes (CMMAP), a major climate modeling center. His undergraduate degree was in Geology and he worked in the oil industry in the 1980s before earning his PhD in Atmospheric Science in 1994. His research on the global carbon cycle has been published in nearly 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals. He’s a past Editor of the Journal of Climate and served as founding Science Chair for the North American Carbon Program. Scott first moved to Fort Collins in 1979 and lives here with his spouse, two sons, a dog, and two cats. He spends as many clear nights as possible photographing the cosmos from a mountain cabin.