Executive Committee

The Executive Committee is charged to handle the affairs of the society between meetings and consists of five officers.

President: Beth Karlin

Beth Karlin believes the role of a researcher is not only to better understand the world but also to improve it — she devotes time equally amongst both goals. She works as a research psychologist, social change strategist, and program evaluator. Beth is the Research Director at U. Southern California as at the Norman Lear Center, studying and shaping the impact of entertainment and media on society. She founded the SEE Change Institute, bringing together academics and practitioners on program strategy, implementation, research and evaluation of behavioral programs for social and environmental change.

President-elect: John Fraser

John Fraser, PhD, AIA, is president and CEO of the New York City-based interdisciplinary nonprofit social science think tank NewKnowledge Organization Ltd., where as a conservation psychologist, architect and educator, he focuses on how people's experience with media and community influences their learning, attitudes and motivations for engagement with solving the problems that face society.

Past President: Mary Gregerson

Mary Gregerson is president of Heartlandia Psychology with offices in Kansas City, Leavenworth, and Alexandria. Mary helped found the field of environmental health psychology conducting talks, research, and authoring books. Her second book is “Technology Innovations for Behavioral Education.” She collaborates with academic colleagues to bring psychological evidence to business, government and education.

Secretary: Reuven Sussman

Reuven Sussman manages human dimensions of energy efficiency programs at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) in Washington, D.C. He is co-chair of the annual Behavior, Energy and Climate Change conference (BECC). Reuven was a behavior change consultant, university instructor, and researcher at the U. Victoria in Canada. Currently, he studies energy efficient behavior and programs that encourage energy efficiency through behavior change.

Treasurer: Daniel Benkendorf

Daniel Benkendorf is a professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC. His research interests concern the psychological antecedents and consequences of sustainable and unsustainable consumer behavior. I am exploring the ways in which consumers approach "fast fashion," and how clothing purchase decisions can be distinguished from many other purchase decisions. In addition, I have studied the effects of emotional certainty on stereotyping, motivated decision-making processes in small groups, and interpersonal rejection.

Membership Chair: Nancy Piotrowski

Nancy Piotrowski works as a professor, researcher, consultant, advocate and psychological services provider. Trained as a clinical psychologist, she has 25-plus years of professional experience working at the local, state, federal, and international levels. She is interested in the transtheoretical model of change, expectancies, and how models of addiction may help influence science in the area of environmental, population and conservation psychology.

Chair of the Awards Committee: Cameron Brick

Cameron Brick is a postdoc at the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication at the University of Cambridge. He has a PhD in social psychology at University of California Santa Barbara, and taught as an assistant professor at Hamilton College, NY. Cameron researches the psychology of responses to society-level problems such as climate change. Cameron builds quantitative lab, survey and field studies on communications and behaviors in social contexts.

Chair of the Communications Committee: Vincent Schutt

Vince Schutt is a U.S. Navy submarines veteran and ex-nuclear reactor operator. Serving on subs gave him a keen understanding of sustainability. Vince has a BS in nuclear engineering technology and an MBA focused on consulting, HR and entrepreneurship. Vince believes a lot of what we need to solve climate change is readily available in the psychology literature. Vince co-founded Enviromentum - an NGO translating evidence-based behaviour change approaches into environmental programming for municipalities, NGOs and other stakeholders.

APA Council Representative: Ezra Markowitz

Ezra Markowitz is an assistant professor of environmental decision-making at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He studies the intersection of decision-making, persuasive communication, public engagement with science and environmental sustainability. He is an author of "Connecting on Climate: A Guide to Effective Climate Change Communication." Ezra teaches courses on environmental decision-making, conservation social science, and public engagement for scientists. He holds a PhD in environmental science, studies and policy from the University of Oregon.

Student Committee Chair: Katrina Richard

Katrina Richard is currently pursuing her PhD in human science, an interdisciplinary field that combines anthropology, sociology and psychology. Katrina lives in the Pacific Northwest of the USA, not far from Washington's Olympic National Park and Mount Tahoma. Katrina views many commonly accepted practices that address global social problems as superficial or misguided, and based on archaic, oversimplified theories of human behavior.

2018 Program Chair: Patricia Winter

Patricia Winter is a research social scientist at the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Research Station, and is stationed in Riverside, California. Her research focuses on diversity and equity in natural resource management including managing natural resource recreation opportunities, perceptions of and responses to environmental risks, and social trust. Recent work examines current conditions in vulnerable and affluent communities in the city of Los Angeles exploring urban parks as a probable buffer to climate change effects.

Fellows Chair: Cindy McPherson Frantz

Cindy McPherson Frantz is a social and environmental psychologist whose research focuses on using feedback technology and systems thinking to promote more sustainable behavior. She is the Norman D. Henderson Professor of Psychology at Oberlin College.