Our Board

Erin Fay

Vice President

Erin has been actively living a low waste lifestyle for more than a decade. Raised in a middle class, environmentally forward family on the west side of Cincinnati, she learned how to recycle, compost, garden, and be thrifty from a very young age. Now, a mom, a realtor, and a resident of Pleasant Ridge,  she tries her best to practice what she preaches! Erin has led a Terracycle collection program at her son's school, Pleasant Ridge Montessori, for 5+ years and has started recycling programs at both her office and the school. She has taught classes on how to live low waste life here in Cincinnati and is actively involved in many different recycling and waste reduction programs. She won an award from the City of Cincinnati in 2018 for her efforts in sustainability around town. Erin has a passion for educating others about living plastic free and low waste in order to create a healthier environment for all of us. "We don't need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly, we need millions of people doing it imperfectly." -Anne Marie Bonneau

Jenny Brewer

Director

Jenny is a Business Process Consultant, who helps teams become efficient in their day-to-day processes. She has a background in engineering, project management, quality assurance and is a certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt with focus on business processes. She lives in the East Row Historic District of Newport Ky where her family has restored their historic home. Jenny developed her passion for repurposing in 2008 while decorating after-prom events with $0 budget. ZeroLandfill has been a favorite source for craft supplies over the years. Her adult children are sustainability advocates and have inspired her to apply her professional skills to the world of recycling. Jenny helps the Hub streamline processes.

Devon Beck-Monahan

Director

Devon is new to the world of recycling but comes with a lot of excitement and passion for “Being the Change”. A Greater Cincinnati native, Devon worked many years with Boys and Girls Clubs working directly with youth to help them grow and achieve. Currently, Devon is the Product Program Team Leader for Girl Scouts of Western Ohio, where she leads a small but mighty team to plan and implement one of the largest Girl Scout Cookie Programs in the country for over 23,000 entrepreneurial girls. She knows firsthand that if you give people, especially youth, the tools to make an impact they can do so much! She hopes that through CRRH more people will be empowered to live sustainably and find that it’s not as hard and overwhelming as many people may think. Devon lives in Pleasant Ridge with her husband, daughter, and 3 rescue cats.

Amy Burke

Director

Amy resides in College Hill with her two daughters. She is an active volunteer in the Parent and Student Organization at CCM’s Preparatory Department. In her professional role she is the Director of Visitor Experience at the Cincinnati Art Museum where she oversees the Visitor Services Department, Visitor Research, and Security, as well as the Visitor Service Aide Volunteer group. She has been with the museum since 1995 and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management from The Union Institute and University. In her role at the Cincinnati Art Museum, she helped form a Green Team to promote sustainable efforts within the museum. Through the Green Team, Amy has had an opportunity to network with many leaders who share a passion for sustainability. Additionally, as a result of the team’s efforts, the CAM was recognized as the Hamilton County Recycling & Solid Waste District 2019 Let’s Stop Waste at Work Program of the Year award winner. Amy is a member of Green Umbrella and loves to participate in the many sustainability programs in our region. She enjoys being in nature while kayaking, visiting parks, and gardening.

Mary Ann Mecher

Director

May Ann, now retired, taught 1st and 4th grades for almost 40 years. She was named one of 12 NCEA Distinguished Teachers of the Year in 2013. Introduced to sustainability by the first Earth Day in 1970, her focus on environmental education began after attending Sister Paula Gonzalez’s EarthConnections Series. This led Mary Ann to incorporate environmental issues and activities into her science classes well before it was officially part of the curriculum. She and two colleagues established their school’s Environmental Club, with annual Earth Day Celebrations where students participated in activities to better understand the 3 R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. The students then taught their families about what they learned, starting recycling and water and energy conservation programs in their homes. Mary Ann also served on a Hamilton County Waste Management education committee, which wrote an early childhood environmental curriculum that was adopted by Cincinnati Public Schools. She presented the program as well as another she developed called “Greening Children” at the College of Mt. St. Joseph and area teacher conventions. Mary Ann has been married to her best friend, Mike, for 49 years. They have 3 sons and 3 grandchildren.

Gwen Z Roth

Director

Gwen was born and raised in Cincinnati and currently lives in Pleasant Ridge with her husband and rescue dog. She graduated from Miami University with a MAT in Biological Sciences and works in the education field teaching school aged children about natural resources and sustainability. She is an avid volunteer in her community and believes that education is an important part of becoming a good environmental steward. As a child, her parents instilled in her a love of the natural world, which carried through into her adult life. Gwen understands the connection between loving our planet and conserving its natural resources. Her family does everything they can to use natural resources wisely, by not just recycling, but reducing and reusing as much as possible. She truly tries to live by these words attributed to Baba Dioum, “In the end we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught." In her spare time, Gwen enjoys traveling (when possible), gardening, quilting, watching college basketball and most recently, puzzling.

Braden Trauth

Director

Braden was born and raised in Pleasant Ridge and Hyde Park and currently lives in Westwood with his family. He first got into sustainability while studying Industrial Design at UC’s college of DAAP in 2001. He embarked on a journey around the world over the next 6 years trying to understand sustainability which included building homes in Taos, NM called Earthships and owning one. They are made from tires, cans and bottles, are fully off the grid, harvest rain water and recycle it 3 times. He eventually studied Permaculture Design, an ecological design philosophy, in the US, Australia, Asia & Europe before returning to Cincinnati and launching the Cincinnati Permaculture Institute with local colleagues in 2008. He earned his Master’s in Design Degree at UC in 2017, which his thesis focused on looking into Product Design through the lens of the net energy economy and is founded in reducing waste in all ways possible while ensuring recyclability at the end their life. In 2022 he was hired as an Assistant Professor of Industrial Design at the College of DAAP at UC after teaching part time there for a decade and at Xavier University for 6 years. His research at DAAP is focusing on creating sustainable products to eliminate waste while training the next generation of designers how to build a circular and/or mutualistic economy.