Staff, Consultants and Fellows

Melissa Everett, Ph.D., is an outreach and communications strategist working at the intersection of climate action, green industry and community development. Since 2004, she has helped to build a movement of local innovators who are reducing their communities’ carbon footprints and building the market for clean energy industries. Her accomplishments with SHV include convening eight influential regional summits and conferences and bringing the Solarize model for community education and solar group purchasing to the Hudson Valley on a three-year funding award from NYSERDA.

Trained in counseling and group facilitation through the Concord Institute in Massachusetts, Melissa has taught innovative courses in leadership and community service at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and in sustainability at SUNY Dutchess. She received her Ph.D. in 2006 from the International, Off-Campus Program of Erasmus University’s Centre for Environmental Management and Sustainable Development in the Netherlands, a pioneering program for mid-career professionals worldwide. Her thesis research focuses on the dynamics of community turnarounds and the role of social networks. She was one of the original 1,000 prominent citizens trained by The Climate Project.

The author of three books and many articles, Melissa has given lectures and workshops on three continents. Her Making a Living While Making a Difference was honored with the Bronze medal for Best Book in Foreword Magazine’s annual rankings. She was named one of nine “People to Watch in 2012” by Hudson Valley Magazine and received the “Outstanding Practitioner” award in 2021 from the Hudson River Environmental Society.

Barbara Todd had a productive career in software quality assurance and management before joining SHV in June 2021 as Program Coordinator (aka “Chaos Reducer”). She hit the ground running, organizing SHV’s inner workings.

She is a Hyde Park native with a B.A. in Psychology and a Certificate in Systems Analysis from Marist College. At Hudson Valley Credit Union she evolved from IRA specialist to IT Analyst/Project Manager. In New York City in the Software Quality Assurance field, she progressed from Senior QA Analyst to Manager at Columbia House, to Manager of QA for Ad Sales Systems at Viacom, to Director of QA at Scholastic Corp. More recently she consulted as IT Project Manager at HDtracks.

Barbara is an accomplished photographer and Vice President of Artists’ Collective of Hyde Park as well as Marketing Committee Chair on the Board of Arts Mid-Hudson.

Suzie Fromer is the coordinator for Repair Cafe Hudson Valley. The daughter of antique dealers who specialized in the restoration of vintage furniture and woodworking tools, Suzie grew up frequenting flea markets and antique shows and helping out in her father’s workshop. While still in high school, she joined the family business selling vintage jewelry at Fromers’ Antiques. A lifelong gem and mineral collector, she learned metalsmithing and jewelry making first as a camper at Buck’s Rock Creative Work Camp and later as a teaching assistant at Dartmouth College’s Clafin Jewelry Studio.

Suzie has spent the last 16 years in Westchester, NY, where she has run a food allergy support group, chaired the board of her local farmers market and run a jewelry making and repair business. She started volunteering as a jewelry repair coach for the Hastings Repair Cafe and fell in love with the repair cafe idea. Her experiences in community organizing, social media, public relations together with her commitment to repair made her the ideal candidate to support our large network of Cafes. Suzie lives in Irvington, NY with her husband and two teenage boys and can be found at a Repair Cafe almost every weekend.

Jessica is a 2025 graduate of Bard College’s Center for Environmental Policy, holding a Master of Science in Climate Science and Policy. She also holds a degree in Environmental Science from Siena College, with a concentration in conservation biology. On behalf of SHV, Jessica consulted on a refrigerant policy and education project for the City of Kingston.

With over 11 years of experience in sustainability leadership, Jessica has led stakeholder engagement and project development at both grassroots and organizational levels. Her work spans community climate action grants, building decarbonization, refrigerant management policy, wetland biodiversity and invasive species research, environmental communication and education. Her notable projects include establishing a $65,000 Green Revolving Fund at Siena College.

Her master’s thesis examined policy incentives for recreational hunters to address forest health and chronic deer overabundance in New York. This research received the Bard CEP Rachel Carson Award for policy-relevant excellence and has been presented at multiple conservation conferences.

Kiara Carman is our communications associate. She graduated from College of the Atlantic with her Bachelors in Human Ecology where she focused on environmental law and policy and climate justice. While at SHV she is also working towards her Masters in Environmental Policy, graduating in the spring of 2026. 

Kiara is from eastern Dutchess County and is passionate about creating a better future for everyone while tackling the climate crisis. She has a particular interest in clean energy, building decarbonization, and bringing communities along for the ride. She is also the youngest and most social-media-savvy member of SHV, a skill which is utilized to better spread SHV’s message across online platforms. 

Kiara lives in the mid-Hudson Valley and can be found working on fiber arts or photography projects in her free time.

Jessie Cai is a Vassar College sophomore majoring in Environmental Studies and Data Analytics.  She has been supporting SHV’s Circular Economy Strategic Plan with research assistance and GIS analysis.  Previously, Jessie was a research assistant for the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in China.