Staff and Board

Our Leadership Team

Meet our founders, board of directors, staff, and advisors — team players who spend every day working towards climate solutions. We empower, energize, and engage Ashland and work to protect future generations.

Board of Directors

Sharon Dohrmann

Board President

Sharon Dohrmann serves as Board President of the Ashland Climate Collaborative, where she has been active since 2023, starting as a volunteer with the Streets for Everyone team before joining the ACC board in 2024. She also serves as Vice Chair of the City of Ashland’s Climate and Environmental Policy Advisory Committee. Sharon holds a degree in Environmental Studies and served as a Peace Corps volunteer in agroforestry, work that first grounded her commitment to sustainable land use and community-based environmental stewardship.

Professionally, Sharon has spent 25 years as an IT consultant, including as co-owner of an IT consulting business in San Francisco, working primarily with small businesses, medical clinics, and nonprofits. She currently serves as the IS Coordinator at American Promise, drawing on extensive experience in project management, IT infrastructure, and budget oversight. Sharon brings that same operational rigor to her climate advocacy, working to advance practical, community-driven solutions that make Ashland more resilient and sustainable for the long term.

Lorrie Kaplan

Co-Founder, President Emeritus

Lorrie has 20+ years of nonprofit leadership experience in the Washington, D.C., area, including 10 years as CEO of the National Home Infusion Association and 8 years as CEO of the American College of Nurse-Midwives. Her expertise includes communications, organizational development, advocacy, and community organizing.

Since 2016, Lorrie has focused her energies and personal development on accelerating adoption of climate solutions at the local level. She’s delighted to be living in Ashland with her husband Bob Kaplan since 2019.

Chris Byrne

Treasurer

Chris is the Sustainability Manager at the Ashland Food Co-op. In 2005, Chris completed a GreenMBA and became a certified Permaculture Instructor in 2006. Since then, he has used these frameworks as a Green Business Development and Integrated Site and Systems Design Consultant.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, Chris left shortly after college and has lived in Vail, CO, San Francisco, Sonoma County, CA, and Tokyo Japan, among other places. He originally came to call Ashland home in 2005, developing a deep love for the Rogue Valley biome and its people.

Candace Turtle

Co-Founder, Board Member

Candace has a background in communications and development. She served as a reporter and an award-winning editor for The Miami Herald and San Jose Mercury News, as well as in management positions. She later managed communications and marketing for Trend Micro, Inc. in its start-up phase. Locally, Candace has served as executive director of Ballet Folklorico Ritmo Alegre and managed communications and development for the Ashland Independent Film Festival. She currently heads Rotary of Ashland’s Environment & Sustainability Committee and sits on the board of the J.F. Kapnek Trust.

Sara Dinari

Secretary

Sara is a strategist, writer, and advocate whose work sits at the intersection of marketing, movement-building, and community storytelling. She is a Project Manager with Workshop, where she supports campaigns advocating for workers’ rights and clean energy initiatives that advance sustainable jobs of the future. Sara has also held marketing, writing and project management roles at Google and Avid Technologies, and locally she serves as the writer for Ashland Living Magazine, where she has highlighted the impact of the Ashland Climate Collaborative. A member of the Ashland Rotary Club, Sara was introduced to ACC through fellow ACC members supporting community service projects and has since deepened her personal commitment to sustainability—gardening, composting, reducing waste and electrifying her home since moving to Ashland.

Rick Barth

Co-Founder, Emeritus Board Member

Rick is a 20+ year Ashland resident. Prior to moving to Ashland with his wife and young daughters, he spent 20+ years in Silicon Valley working in research, development, and leadership positions. While living in Ashland, Rick has served in leadership and advisory capacities with multiple local nonprofit and government organizations. He has served in a variety of advisory roles for the City of Ashland, including as chair of the Climate Policy Commission and member of the  Climate and Environment Policy Advisory Committee (CEPAC). Rick is an active member of our Electrify Ashland Now action team.

Our Staff

Collette Streight

Operations Manager

Collette has 30+ years of experience in environmental conservation, education, and community engagement. Rooted in a lifelong love of the more-than-human world, her career has included serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras, doing waste reduction, pollution prevention, and climate change mitigation work in Santa Cruz and Redding, CA, and locally acting as Executive Director of Friends of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument.

Through her private practice, Awakening Wild, she supports women in cultivating a deep, daily relationship with the natural world as a source of joy, peace, and well-being.

Collette is thrilled to support the Ashland Climate Collaborative and be part of a community taking meaningful action for future generations.

Peter Lagemann

Home Energy Navigator

Peter has 5+ years of experience volunteering and teaching at various non-profits, including natural history museums and aquariums, and is a firm believer in environmental education as a driver of local change. In his biology-focused undergraduate studies, he researched moss community ecology at various heights and positions on bigleaf maples in the Hoh Rainforest. Since then, he has begun volunteering with Ashland’s local Trout Unlimited chapter to support conservation efforts on the largely undammed Klamath River.

Now, he is excited to begin his journey at the Ashland Climate Collaborative as a Home Energy Navigator, with the hope of bridging the gap between everyday conservation and saving money on your home.

In his spare time, Peter is an avid backpacker and fly fisher, excited to learn more about and explore Southern Oregon.

Jonathan Strunin

Grant Compliance Manager

Jonathan Strunin is a nonprofit finance and program manager with two decades of experience running and supporting nonprofit and local government sustainability programs from every angle, filling the gaps and making sense out of the chaos. He is supporting implementation of the Federal Thriving Communities grant for ACC by ensuring compliance with funder requirements.

When not working, he loves converting unused spaces into thriving mini-ecosystems using native, low-water, and edible plants procured from volunteers and cuttings. His favorite bird (if you had to pin him down) is the Red-Breasted Nuthatch, but the American Dipper puts up a good fight.

Meet our Advisors