Staff
David Hughes is founder and president of Citizen Power. He served as the organization’s first executive director from 1998 through 2010. He has been an advocate for safe, clean and affordable energy since the late 1970s. Over the years he has spearheaded many important legal proceedings as a consumer and environmental advocate related to utility cases. David has overseen Citizen Power’s promotion of the use of renewable energy and energy-efficiency technologies. He created and implemented the Citizen Power Energy Education Project which includes the teacher-training component. He also envisioned what is now Citizen Power’s Green Energy Collaborative, bringing a 100% Wind electricity option to the region. He was nominated as “Consumer Advocate of the Year” in 1986 by the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel and in 2011 received the “Epstein Lifetime Achievement Award” from the Pennsylvania Sustainable Energy Fund. As part of Citizen Power’s mission to advocate for universal healthcare, David convened the first meeting of the group Save Our Community Hospitals in an effort to keep UPMC’s Braddock hospital open. He was also instrumental in securing funding for the Braddock Free Clinic. In addition, he serves on the Steering Committee of the Western Pennsylvania Coalition for Single Payer Healthcare. Mr. Hughes has a M.Ed. and three years of post Masters study in Political and Media Communications. [email protected]
Theodore (Ted) Robinson is Staff Attorney for Citizen Power, where he works in support of clean and affordable energy through various filings at federal and state agencies. Specifically, he focuses on promoting sensible energy efficiency and demand management programs, encouraging the development of renewable energy, and challenging proposed electric rate increases. Theodore has received a JD from the University of Pittsburgh, a MCP in city planning from the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in finance from Miami University. [email protected]
Janice Serra serves as the Program Manager for Citizen Power. Facilitating change for healthier lifestyles and quality environments has been a passion throughout her life. Janice’s involvement with local community planning, business management, and green building fostered a natural progression to achieve a Master of Public Management from Carnegie Mellon University with a concentration on Sustainable Community Development. The opportunity to reach people, and especially youth, with hopeful, intelligent solutions to pressing societal and environmental problems inspires her work with Citizen Power. [email protected]
Adele Vamos has served as the Business Manager of Citizen Power since 1999. With a career spanning over 43 years in providing administrative assistance to various non-profit agencies and educational institutions, she has a keen sense of the challenges that non-profit organizations face in their daily operations. While she continues her fight for equality, justice and improving the environment, her personal interest includes history, particularly in the Mon Valley area of Pittsburgh. She worked in a collaborative effort as Food Editor and Contributing Writer in the publication of the highly successful book, Out of This Kitchen, A History of the Ethnic Groups and Their Foods in the Steel Valley published in 1992 to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the Homestead Steel Strike of 1892. Adele has been and continues to be instrumental in the implementation and management of Citizen Power programs. [email protected]
Paul Conway serves as an Energy Trainer and joined the Citizen Power staff shortly before his retirement as a teacher of Earth and Space Science, Astronomy, and Environmental Science for 36 years. Paul earned his BS in Education at Penn State, his M.Ed. from Saint Francis, and additional graduate credits from The University of California, Berkeley, Harvard, University of Toledo, Penn State, West Virginia and IUP. While receiving these later credits, he became a certified presenter of GEMS and PASS (Berkeley), ESTEEM (Harvard), SPICA (Toledo), and is an approved Starlab Portable Planetarium Ambassador. In addition to the above Astronomy programs, he has conducted Environmental Science teacher workshops for Global Systems Science (Berkeley) and the Global Warming Institute (PSU/WVU) at regional and national conventions.
Walt Jennings joined Citizen Power as an Energy Trainer after retiring from 35 years of teaching high school chemistry, math and environmental science. Walt was named as the recipient of the Kevin Burns Award for Outstanding High School Teaching for 2010 by the Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh. He was selected by the American Chemical Society as a teacher trainer for summer workshops. Walt’s interest in environmental issues goes all the way back to the original Earth Day, for which he was a campus and community organizer. Since then, he has worked with his students on an array of environmental projects, including monitoring water sheds, monitoring air quality, conducting energy audits, and surveying the availability of wind energy. His students were involved in the original development of what is now the Arrowhead Trail, the Peters Township portion of the Montour Bicycle Trail. He has a BS in Chemistry, as well as a PA Masters Equivalency certification. When not doing Citizen Power workshops, Walt is heavily involved as a volunteer with the American Red Cross. He enjoys canoeing, biking, wood working and reading.
Pete Palumbo joined Citizen Power as an Energy Trainer after 35 years of teaching high school chemistry and physics. He also served as an Adjunct Chemistry Professor at St. Bonaventure University after retirement from secondary education. Pete has been involved in energy education since the days of the OPEC oil embargo subsequent gas rationing during the 1970’s. In his secondary classes, he focused mainly on energy conservation in the home and in transportation. Pete also has an interest in water chemistry, and holds a Pennsylvania license for small community drinking water operations. He has attended summer energy institutes at Penn State University, University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, and Oak Ridge National Laboratories. During retirement, Pete has spent considerable time on do-it-yourself energy conservation projects on his own home. He has a BS Degree in Chemistry from Clarion University and a Masters Equivalency from Penn State in education.
Board
David Hughes, President
Mark A. Scott, Vice-President
William H. Carlson, Ph.D., Secretary/Treasurer
Curtis Williams
Connie Kline
Ronald Shissler
Ronald O’Connell