Meet the 2024 Climate Action Ambassadors
The City of South Bend is equipping and empowering local leaders to address the climate emergency.
Climate Action Ambassador Program Objectives:
- Connect with the diverse talents, influence, and knowledge of the South Bend community.
- Equip & empower Climate Action Ambassadors with knowledge and confidence to effectively communicate the City’s climate action goals and inspire others.
- Include community input into the 2024 Climate Action Plan.
Clara Ross
Clara Ross is a native of South Bend, Indiana. She graduated class of 1979 from Riley High School. Ms. Ross continued her education at Indiana State University, Davenport Business College and Ivy Tech Community College. A former teacher, Ms. Ross taught Interpersonal Skills for 3 years at Mishawaka High School. Ms. Ross works with the homeless population, primarily women and children, with her own 501c(3): Homes for Tracy.
“It goes with our sayings the importance of environmental changes that have a impact on the most vulnerable population who are unsheltered. Attention + Direction + Planning = Solution in all areas from homelessness to being a Climate Action Ambassador. I feel honored to be able to make a difference.”
Nemo Miller
Nemo Miller was born and raised in Salt Lake City Utah where they learned the magnitude of the climate crisis, experiencing severe droughts in the summer and increasingly worse inversions in the winters. In 2018, they received their BFA in Fine Arts with an emphasis in Ceramics. They moved to South Bend in 2021 so their fiancé could study poetry at Notre Dame. Since moving to South Bend, Nemo has worked at Fire Arts, Inc. as an artist, Artist Liaison, and Ceramics Studio Technician. While at Fire Arts, they learned about how the City of South Bend is working towards a better future with the Office of Sustainability.
Velshonna Luckey
Velshonna Luckey is the Executive Director for Self-Healing Communities Michiana, a community well-being movement. She finds great joy in helping people, of all ages, become the very best versions of themselves. She is a columnist for the South Bend Tribune where she shares how readers can better care for themselves and one another prioritizing the nervous system. Velshonna became a Climate Ambassador to help share the efforts of the City of South Bend’s Office of Sustainability efforts. She believes the more learn about climate change the better we can support the development of our city’s Climate Action Plan.
Heather Smith
Heather Smith is a local farmer with Golden Hour Flowers.
I have worked in the local food network of Michiana for over 12 years, and am still currently engaged with this community. In addition to sharing my expertise on cultivating and growing food, I take great care to find ways for myself and others to reduce food waste, compost, and source locally from markets and farmers. I believe that in neighborhoods like my own (Southeast Neighborhood/Indiana Ave.), the trash that accumulates along the roads and especially along the Bowman Creek signify a much greater problem than just littering or carelessness or being “uneducated” about waste: it represents our food desert and accessibility to clean food with less packaging.
Joe Goepfrich
Joe Goepfrich is the Facilities Manager for the St. Joseph County Public Library. With over a decade of facilities management experience and credentials, he’s worked on climate change initiatives including installing solar panels, electric vehicle charging stations, recycling programs, utility conservation projects, HVAC setback programs, and native landscaping projects. Joe is proud to lend his expertise to the 2024 Climate Action Ambassador program and is looking forward to the positive and lasting impacts it will have for the community he and his wife Kristine call home.
Colletta Rhoads
Colletta Rhoads is currently an English Language Immersion teacher at Wilson Elementary School. She is passionate about positively impacting the communities she lives in and is a part of. She has done this in multiple capacities both stateside and overseas by serving in higher education as a diversity specialist, in ministry through racial reconciliation and community engagement, and in politics, sitting on the tribal council of the Juaneno Band of Mission Indians — Acjachemen. Her interest in climate change began when she was a liaison with the Cleveland National Forest protecting plant life species threatened by development. Colletta is most passionate about helping communities communicate about climate change, its impact on different communities, and fostering mindsets around our care for the earth that consider how our actions today impact 7 generations from now.
Christina Camp
Christina Camp is now a senior at IUSB. She is a member of the Sustainability Club and the Center for a Sustainable Future. Christina is also a student representative on IUSB’s Climate Action Plan Implementation Committee. She has minors in Sustainability Studies and Environmental Studies. Christina is interested in helping her community adapt and work to mitigate climate change. She hopes to create a more sustainable future that benefits all people.
Sinéad McSweeney-Göransson
Sinéad McSweeney-Göransson is a student at John Adams High School, co-captain of the soccer team and member of the National Honor Society, Science Olympiad, and Bowling. Her main interests are industrial and agricultural water pollution and on climate change as it impacts community health and water quality.
The City of South Bend’s Office of Sustainability is hosting a Climate Action Planning Open House on July 11th at the IU Civil Rights Heritage Center (1040 W Washington St) from 4:30–6:30pm.
You may park your bike (and maybe get some light maintenance or cleaning!) with the South Bend Bike Garage, then come inside to comment on draft strategies for the update to South Bend’s Climate Action Plan.
South Bend’s 2024 Climate Action Ambassadors will host a panel discussion from 5:30–6pm.
See you there!
