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Leadership
Here are the current members of the Central Florida Group’s Executive Committee.
Click on each to expand or collapse their bios and contact information.
Julie loves the outdoors, especially when it is cold outside! Her hobbies include traveling, photography and eating. She loves visiting the amazing sites around the world and also eating to learn about different cultures and places . She has been Treasurer, Chair and is now Secretary and Vice Chair. She handles updating our website and our social media accounts. She loves meeting Sierra Club members who share in her passion for the environment!
Marge Holt has been a Sierra Club member since 1999. She has been in a leadership role for many years and is currently the Conservation Chair and past Chair of the Central Florida Group. She believes the Group’s outreach to Sierra Club members and volunteers can make a big difference to help tackle many local and regional environmental challenges. Marge enjoys cycling, running and gardening with Florida native plants.
Jim Desmartin has been a member of the Sierra Club since 1980 in four different states and participated in local as well as National Sierra Club outings. From June 2010 to October 2015, he was the Treasurer of the Central Florida Group’s Inner City Outings/Inspiring Connections Outdoors (ICO) youth outings program. He became the Treasurer of the Central Florida Group in March 2016.
My most enjoyable contribution to Sierra Club has been leading ICO (Inspiring Connections Outdoors) trips in North Carolina. My most memorable Sierra trip was a service trip in the Superstition Wilderness. We were carrying big rocks and spiny cactus, days on end, to make a badly abused horse campsite unusable. The woman who brought tweezers was voted best-liked trip member! Trudging out, after a while, my new friend said “That was terrible.” I said “Yep.” After a while he said, “After two weeks, wish I was back here again.” I said “Yep.” Two weeks later he emailed me: “Wish I was back there again.” I wrote him back, “Me too.”
I have taken the Sierra ten-day leadership training backpacking trip but sadly have not found the time to follow through on that. I enjoy helping out the local Tarflower Chapter of the Florida Native Plant society. My favorite job was my first, teaching college composition. My B.A. is from University of Pennsylvania, M.A. from UNC Chapel Hill, both in English. I retired six years ago from 30 years of database administration work – how else can you make a living with a degree in English?
My family moved to Florida when I was 1 over near Clearwater. My parents were adventurous and Florida was a different, even exotic, place then, I have vivid memories of very wild places in the area from the Panhandle to the Glades, but mostly north of there – Withlacoochee, Sewanee, Croom and other wonderful places. I am concerned about sprawl and unfettered growth.
After A short time at UCF, I went to Purdue University and received an engineering degree and followed that with a MBA from Vanderbilt University. While at Purdue, I was assistant director at Camp Lanoche up near the Ocala NF. So, I have seen the wonders of FL and the encroachment of growth here that troubles me and motivates me to do something. I was in NC after that before living in N. Virginia for 30 years working for Nortel and CISCO. While in DC I was interested in Environment Issues and New Energy potential. I worked on the Sierra Club DC area Beyond Coal campaign about 10 years ago, an interesting and successful effort, closing a large Coal plant near National Airport there. I look forward to working with the Central FL Group!
Leadership
Here are the current members of the Central Florida Group’s Executive Committee.
Click on each to expand or collapse their bios and contact information.
Julie Levine - Chair & Secretary
Julie loves the outdoors, especially when it is cold outside! Her hobbies include traveling, photography and eating. She loves visiting the amazing sites around the world and also eating to learn about different cultures and places . She has been Treasurer, Chair and is now Secretary and Vice Chair. She handles updating our website and our social media accounts. She loves meeting Sierra Club members who share in her passion for the environment!
Marjorie Holt - VIce Chair & Conservation Chair
Marge Holt has been a Sierra Club member since 1999. She has been in a leadership role for many years and is currently the Conservation Chair and past Chair of the Central Florida Group. She believes the Group’s outreach to Sierra Club members and volunteers can make a big difference to help tackle many local and regional environmental challenges. Marge enjoys cycling, running and gardening with Florida native plants.
Jim Desmartin - Treasurer
Jim Desmartin has been a member of the Sierra Club since 1980 in four different states and participated in local as well as National Sierra Club outings. From June 2010 to October 2015, he was the Treasurer of the Central Florida Group’s Inner City Outings/Inspiring Connections Outdoors (ICO) youth outings program. He became the Treasurer of the Central Florida Group in March 2016.
Jim Erwin - Member at Large
My most enjoyable contribution to Sierra Club has been leading ICO (Inspiring Connections Outdoors) trips in North Carolina. My most memorable Sierra trip was a service trip in the Superstition Wilderness. We were carrying big rocks and spiny cactus, days on end, to make a badly abused horse campsite unusable. The woman who brought tweezers was voted best-liked trip member! Trudging out, after a while, my new friend said “That was terrible.” I said “Yep.” After a while he said, “After two weeks, wish I was back here again.” I said “Yep.” Two weeks later he emailed me: “Wish I was back there again.” I wrote him back, “Me too.”
I have taken the Sierra ten-day leadership training backpacking trip but sadly have not found the time to follow through on that. I enjoy helping out the local Tarflower Chapter of the Florida Native Plant society. My favorite job was my first, teaching college composition. My B.A. is from University of Pennsylvania, M.A. from UNC Chapel Hill, both in English. I retired six years ago from 30 years of database administration work – how else can you make a living with a degree in English?
Jim Denison - Member at Large
Frank Gummey - Membeship Chair
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