Alan Palm, Executive Director, [email protected]

Alan joined Better Future Project in 2017 as the Director of Organizing for 350 Mass and took on the Executive Director role for BFP in 2022. Alan began educating and advocating for just solutions to the global ecological crisis 2007 when he co-founded a sustainability education organization that traveled to 46 states aboard vegetable oil and solar powered school buses, presenting at schools and supporting the youth climate movement. Alan later joined ACE: Alliance for Climate Education where he led a team that presented to nearly half a million high school students throughout New England, and trained dozens of youth to lead campaigns for issues like Fossil Fuel Divestment and 100% Renewable Energy. After completing Marshall Ganz’s course, “Organizing: People, Power, Change,” Alan joined the BFP team as the Director of Organizing for 350 Mass where he supported municipal, statewide, and national campaigns and coalition efforts. Alan was born and raised in Massachusetts with roots in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Stud Green, Director of Finance & Administration, [email protected] 

Originally from Virginia with deep roots in New England, Stud has worked for the past 15 years collaborating with nonprofits and small businesses. With a background spanning finance, operations, and fundraising, Stud is passionate about supporting mission-based organizations and looks forward to contributing to  Better Future Project and helping to chart a course for the future.

Evan Bell, Director of Organizing, [email protected]

Originally from Connecticut, Evan cut his teeth in organizing in the fossil fuel divestment movement as an undergraduate at Tufts University. Evan joined Students for a Just and Stable Future, devising retreats and direct actions. As an intern for Better Future Project, he staffed the Climate Summer Program and supported renewable energy campaigns. After moving away from the Boston area, Evan led trainings with the Sierra Club and the Powershift Network, organized with SEIU 32BJ on the airports campaign, and mentored student leaders from New York City at the Posse Foundation. Evan is dedicated to building stronger communities founded in justice. Outside of organizing, he enjoys reading, basketball, and bad horror movies.

Dan Zackin, Legislative Manager, [email protected] 

Dan was born and raised in Connecticut before moving to Somerville for college. As an undergraduate at Tufts University Dan joined the Sunrise Movement and Tufts Climate Action, fighting for fossil fuel divestment on campus and climate justice statewide. During his time with the Sunrise Movement, he supported and led a broad range of organizing work from direct action to legislative advocacy. Dan went on to work on several progressive campaigns, including Ed Markey’s 2020 reelection campaign and Yvonne Spicer’s mayoral campaign in Framingham. Once we build a just and habitable world, Dan plans on retiring from political work to focus on hiking, cross country skiing, and baking.

Rachael Boyce, Climate Justice and Resilience Manager, [email protected] 

A queer feminist and Maryland transplant, Rachael relocated to Massachusetts to work as a pastry chef. Working in the hospitality industry for 12 years gave her the opportunity to work alongside and learn from the vibrant immigrant community that now call the Northeast home. It was specifically working with undocumented communities navigating exclusionary immigration policies that she was inspired to pursue graduate work focused on grassroots organizing and proactive policy solutions that prioritize community resilience. Her research and activism has focused on the intersectional impact of the housing and climate crises on Massachusetts communities. In 2023, she joined the Better Future Project to support their CREW resilience hub program and to co-lead the Make Polluters Pay campaign. A systems-focused thinker, Rachael believes in the power of collaboration to address the intersectional impact of mounting crises including but not limited to housing insecurity, climate change, and energy burden.

Leigh has been with Communities Responding to Extreme Weather (CREW), as a volunteer since 2018, both as an organizer for their annual Climate Interfaith Summit and member of a local CREW chapter in Somerville, MA, and she now serves on the staff as the Project Manager. She’s had the honor of serving her community in many capacities – public education, songwriting and performance, community organizing, grants management, and even ecological landscaping. She feels most joyful and in flow when she gets to be creative, curious, and connected to nature, and when she can support others in accessing these as well. With her stellar teams at CREW, Leigh will be coordinating community engagement work for a Charles River Flood Model project, as well as a community participatory research study in downtown Boston, always with her eye and heart on ways to engage people authentically, equitably, and through mutual learning.

Lexi Lafferty, Coastal Resilience Coordinator, [email protected]

Lexi is originally from Delaware and recently moved to Medford. She is currently pursuing a master’s in urban and environmental policy and planning at Tufts University. Lexi has worked on environmental justice movements, floodplain management and policy research, and urban farming and food insecurity in the Mid-Atlantic region before joining CREW. In her free time, Lexi likes to read, bake, and hike.

Nurah Abdulhaqq , Communications Associate, [email protected]

Nurah Abdulhaqq (She/Her/Hers) is originally from Atlanta, Georgia and recently moved to Massachusetts following her graduation from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY. As a teenager Nurah worked for March For Our Lives (MFOL), leading statewide program initiatives in Georgia. She later ended up joining MFOL as a national youth organizer serving on the inaugural iteration of the organization's Youth Congress.  Beyond MFOL Nurah has worked as a surrogate on Senator Sanders 2020 Presidential Campaign, with Giffords as CVI Program Intern, and at Common Cause NY as an Election Protection organizer. Nurah has had the pleasure of translating her organizing skills into communications work. From public affairs and crisis comms to arts communication; Nurah is well versed in copy editing, traditional and digital communications and media and the convergence between social justice and communications. Outside of organizing, Nurah likes to read, play music, and hike.  

Interns

Elizabeth Hollman, Organizing Intern, [email protected]

Elizabeth is an Arizonan desert-rat turned Boston devotee, who is passionate about community power and helping to grow it in the service of environmental justice. Currently a rising junior studying Political Science and Environmental Studies at Wellesley College, she first came to 350 Massachusetts and the Better Future Project through cross-campus environmental and decarbonization work at her college and in the greater Boston area. She'll be working this summer as an organizing intern for 350 Mass, continuing to organize across colleges and communities as well as supporting legal research and actions through the Make Polluters Pay Campaign! 

Katherine Placido, CREW Community Engagement Intern, [email protected]

Katherine grew up in Rhode Island and recently graduated from Clark University in Worcester, MA with a degree in Political Science and Spanish. Throughout her time in Worcester she has been able to work with the community in a variety of ways serving as an ESL instructor and interning with nonprofit organizations fighting food insecurity through holistic approaches. Her work on food insecurity has informed her understanding and passion in the service of social and environmental justice. She'll work this summer as a community engagement intern for CREW and in the fall she will continue to work on her graduate work in public administration at Clark, specifically focusing on the unique abilities and power of local nonprofits and their relationships on the national and international scale.

Ashley Kim, Organizing Intern, [email protected]

Passionate about innovative and community-centered solutions, Ashley is a rising junior pursuing a double-major in Environmental Studies and Business with a minor in Psychology at Brandeis University. She became involved in environmental advocacy through campus organizing, and now serves as the Community Engagement Lead for Students for Environmental Action. Through this role, she has been able to connect students with sustainability initiatives and environmental advocacy opportunities across campus and the greater Boston area. This summer, Ashley will be working with 350Mass as an organizing intern, where she’ll be supporting clean energy campaigns, as well as legislative organizing and outreach initiatives.