About Us
Gray Is Green is an online gathering of older adult Americans aspiring to create a green legacy for the future.
Our Values
As environmentally conscious elders, we respond to a generational call: to co-create a future of economic justice, ecological sustainability, and social justice.
We hold the next generations of humans in mind and consider the future of ecosystems and other species. We are alert to the historic challenges facing our planet. We embrace our eldership, living beyond consumerism and ageism.
Our Mission
We offer a monthly newsletter, an ebook, and a Facebook page for relevant updates. We continue to create new educational content to help you learn how to take individual and community action and connect with groups working on responsible stewardship and a sustainable future.
In partnership with other environmental organizations, we serve as a central clearinghouse of ideas and communications for older adults interested in greening their lives, learning about sustainability, advocating for sound public policy, being creative stewards or grandparents, emerging as elders, and mentoring young people.
Our Team
Robert Lane (1917-2018)
Founder
Bob Lane’s academic career at Harvard led him away from “the arid, math-centered study of economics” and toward “the ways psychologists went about their work.” After describing his intellectual journey as a series of focal questions culminating in his books, he quips, “At age 96, I am studying the theory and practice of immortality.” Bob Lane is an activist, beginning his political memoir with: “This is a set of anecdotes from the life of a youth and man who was never at home in this world, always challenging authority while desperately wanting to be liked by that authority. In his privileged and sheltered life (private schools, educated at Harvard University and teaching all his professional life at Yale) this protected Timid Rebel tilted at both real and imaginary windmills…” These anecdotes track decades of highlights from a courageously outspoken man who is also discerning about a time and place for below-the-radar action. His focus was: What matters now?
Rick Moody
President
Harry (Rick) Moody, Ph.D., recently retired as Vice President and Director of Academic Affairs for AARP in Washington, DC. He is currently Visiting Professor at Tohoku University in Japan, and Distinguished Visiting Professor at Fielding Graduate University. Dr. Moody previously served as Executive Director of the Brookdale Center on Aging at Hunter College and Chairman of the Board of Elderhostel (now Road Scholar).
Kathleen Schomaker
Executive Director
Kathleen Schomaker joined Gray Is Green in 2010 as her encore career. Having worked in environmental education and advocacy for over 30 years, she now focuses that expertise as Executive Director of the premiere non-profit organization serving older Americans.
Former Board Members
Neva Goodwin
Neva Goodwin is active in a variety of attempts to systematize and institutionalize an economic theory – “contextual economics” – that will have more relevance to contemporary real world concerns than does the dominant economic paradigm. She has edited more than a dozen books, and is the lead author of two introductory textbooks: Microeconomics in Context and Macroeconomics in Context. The micro text is available in Italian; a Transitional Economies Edition was translated into Russian and Vietnamese.
William B. Ellis
Bill Ellis is Lecturer and Resident Fellow at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies where he is on the faculty for the Industrial Environmental Management Program. He joined the School in 1995 just after retiring from Northeast Utilities, New England’s largest electric and gas utility. He had served that company as its chief financial officer beginning in 1976 and was the company’s chief executive officer for ten years before retiring.
Marlene Varner
Currently Chairman of the Residents Council and a member of the Board of Directors at Deerfield Episcopal Retirement Community in Asheville, NC, Marleen has been involved with Gray is Green since its early days. As Editor of the National Continuing Care Residents Association LifeLine, she keeps a focus on environmental issues for residents of CCRCs in this bimonthly national publication.
Support Team
Linda Sorrells-Smith
With experience in a variety of professional contexts—including retail, education, technology and scientific industries—Linda has taken on the development of advertising campaigns for web, multimedia, radio and print. Having received the Impact Community Development Award for Business Entrepreneurs, the Consolidated Paper Award for Excellence in Graphic Design, as well as other awards and recognitions throughout her career for her work, as well as her volunteer efforts, she is devoted to investing in our youth. Her passion includes giving back in a manner that helps others set forth to achieve their goals and dreams.
Augustin Kendall
Augustin works as a content consultant and editor, specializing in environment and social justice. He writes the Gray Is Green newsletter and created the content for the Gray Is Green website. Over his ten-year career, he has developed content for many websites and edited nonfiction books on a wide range of topics, from psychology to sustainable urban development.