Who We Are

Left to right: CDC Core Team members Marla, Nastasia, and Leif

We are a collective of activists, community organizers and educators who bring unique backgrounds and skills to climate and solidarity work. We live and work in different regions throughout the country and frequently come together to work in New England resisting fossil fuel infrastructure.

Our Core Team

Tim DeChristopher (he/him)

Tim is a Co-Founder of the Climate Disobedience Center, and after graduating from Harvard Divinity School, continues the work to defend a livable future. Read more about Tim.

Nastasia Lawton-Sticklor (she/they)

Nastasia is an educator, activist, nonviolent direct action practitioner and trainer. She became involved with Climate Disobedience Center as a member of a praxis group and began organizing with the No Coal No Gas campaign in 2019. Read more about Nastasia.

Marla Marcum (she/her)

Marla is a seminary-trained United Methodist committed to supporting people of all faiths and no particular faith to act boldly for justice. An experienced campaigner, trainer, pastor and lay leader, she brings two decades of social justice organizing experience with faith-based, youth, and grassroots groups. Read more about Marla.

Leif Taranta (they/them)

Leif is an organizer, de-escalation/NVDA trainer, and rock climbing instructor. When they aren’t scheming with the No Coal No Gas campaign, they can be found rock climbing, gardening, and participating in local mutual aid, eviction resistance, queer rebellion, Palestine solidarity, police abolition, and anti-fascist work. Read more about Leif.

Fellows

Fellows join the Center to pursue their own projects that further our shared Principles, using the resources of the Center to strengthen their work.

Jay O’Hara (he/him)

Jay is a Quaker from Cape Cod and a co-founder of the Climate Disobedience Center. In 2009, he founded Climate Summer, a transformational program for student climate activists. Read more about Jay.

Rabbi Shoshana Friedman (she/her)

Rabbi Shoshana is the Assistant Rabbi of Temple Sinai of Brookline, MA, a vibrant and progressive Reform congregation. Read more about Rabbi Shoshana.

Praxis Fellows

Praxis Fellows are educators, writers, artists, and academics who partner with the Center to incorporate our shared Principles into their practice including art, teaching, research, and writing.

Nathan Phillips (he/they)

Nathan is a physiological ecologist at Boston University who studies land-climate interactions in terrestrial ecosystems and human-dominated environments, including exchanges of energy, water, and greenhouse gases including methane and carbon dioxide exchanged between the air and leaves, soil, buildings, humans, and pipelines.

Siobhan Senier (she/her)

Siobhan teaches Native American Literature and Women’s Studies at the University of New Hampshire and has additional research interests in Sustainability/Environmental Studies, Disability Studies, and Digital Humanities. With the help of students, Native American authors, and local colleagues, Siobhan edits the website dawnlandvoices.org, a digital literary magazine and archive of Native American literature from New England.