Colleen McSwiggin
Executive Director and Recycler-in-Chief
Colleen McSwiggin is the Managing Director and Recycler-in-Chief of the Hub. She graduated from Miami University with a B.A. in microbiology, but she most recently worked as the Chemistry Lab Manager at Mount St. Joseph University. In that role and as MSJ’s Chemical Hygiene Officer, she organized the disposal of both universal and hazardous wastes. As a member and chairperson of the Mount's Sustainability Committee, Colleen organized Community Electronics Recycling Days and Beyond the Bin Recycling, which led to the creation of the Hub. In 2019, Colleen was awarded both the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Award by the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati (the highest award given by the order to a lay person) and the Teacher Environmental Award by the Greater Cincinnati Earth Coalition for her sustainability efforts. She lives with her husband and two sons in Green Township.
Carrie Harms
Warehouse Director
Carrie graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a BA in Interior Design. Through her job, she uses lots of samples of various materials for client presentations. Eventually those samples become discontinued. She took it upon herself to find people and groups who wanted the samples because she hated throwing them away. In 2008, a friend started ZeroLandfill Cincinnati, which provided a way for the interior design and architecture community to allow others to reuse the samples. The following year she joined the committee and by 2010, the program was handed off to her. Over the years, ZeroLandfill Cincinnati has diverted 286,382 pounds of material from the landfill. The concept of throwing things away just because you are done with it is something Carrie has never understood and she sees it happen weekly in her neighborhood on trash day. She hopes that the Hub will provide a much needed place to make recycling and reuse accessible for everyone, so they will begin to think twice before throwing something away. Born in Cincinnati, Carrie now lives in Villa Hills, Kentucky with her husband and two sons.
Michael Berens
Warehouse Manager
Michael is the Hub’s Warehouse Manager. They have an extensive background and history working in the live entertainment business, having worked in the far flung corners of the globe. When covid hit in 2020 and shut down live entertainment, for the first time after a decade of constant travel and work they were able to slow down and realize what was important, before they decided that they wanted to use their skills to try and make the world a better place, first through working with local parks before eventually finding their way to the Hub.
Brittany Gray
Off-Site Collections & Neighborhood Ambassador Coordinator
Brittany Gray is the Hub's Off-Site Collections & Neighborhood Ambassador Coordinator. Brittany has a Bachelor's degree in Anthropology from Northern Kentucky University and has worked in the nonprofit sector since 2015. She is very excited to be a member of the Hub team and kick off the Off Site Collections program and the Neighborhood Ambassador program. Brittany lives in Northern Kentucky with her husband Jake and their dog Lucky. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, working in the garden, finding new podcasts and audiobooks to listen to, and traveling with Jake and Lucky.
Katrina Weiss
Marketing Manager
Katrina Weiss is the Marketing Manager at the Hub. She’ll likely have on a different pair of eyeglasses everytime you run into her, the result of working in the optical industry for nearly the last 20 years. At her core she is a writer, dabbling in everything from professional copywriting in the music industry to personal creative writing projects in fiction and poetry. She came to the Hub as a customer at a ZeroLandfill Take Away Day before volunteering and joining the marketing committee. Katrina grew up in Cincinnati and graduated from Mount St. Joseph University. She loves spending time visiting the library and small businesses in her community of Walnut Hills where she lives with her husband Tony.
McKenzie Dunlap
Warehouse Support Staff
McKenzie graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts with minors in political science and international human rights and a certificate in critical visions. She served two terms in AmeriCorps NCCC, traveling all over the country working with various non-profits. One of her favorite AmeriCorps projects was with Ecology Action, a non-profit recycling drop-off center in Austin, Texas, which sparked her interest in the behind-the-scenes work of sustainability and recycling. She worked on a bamboo farm in Washington state for two years, then received a certificate in Permaculture Design from the Cincinnati Permaculture Institute when she moved back home to Ohio. She joined the CRRH team in 2022 as a warehouse support staff member.
Peter Binger Bejnar
Electronics and Universal Waste Coordinator
Peter has always been interested in the responsible and creative use and re-use of resources, and has fond childhood memories of driving across town to the recycling center on Saturday mornings with his dad. Peter studied economics at Wheaton College and Marketplace Theology at Regent College in Vancouver, B.C. He moved to Cincinnati with his wife and daughter to join a community of friends in west Norwood who tend an urban garden and pay-as-you-can cafe combination. Through those experiences, he learned a lot about caring well for both land and people, and is still actively involved in his west Norwood community. He is excited to be a part of the Hub and its work to reimagine our relationship to stuff.
David Doepke
Operational Support Staff
David is very passionate about reducing waste, as well as recycling and reusing everything possible. He graduated from Denison University with a Geology degree and UC with an Electrical Engineering degree. After a career working as an Automation Engineer where he initiated office and warehouse recycling, he became a stay-at-home dad. As a parent volunteer at Sands Montessori, he coordinated school recycling, initiated Terracycling collection, and assisted with a food share program. When his daughters moved on to Walnut Hills High School, his alma mater, so did David’s volunteer activities. He co-founded the Sustainability Program where he was responsible for the education about, promotion of, recruitment for, and servicing and overseeing of recycling and Terracycling in the public spaces of WHHS (gymnasiums, athletic fields, cafeteria, outdoor spaces, etc.). He supervised a food share in the cafeteria, and collected and delivered excess food to local food pantries/soup kitchens. David collected and delivered unclaimed items from the lost & found and end of year locker cleanout as donations to local agencies. Even though his children graduated several years ago, he continued to recruit and coordinate student and parent volunteers for the Green Team for the Flying Pig/Queen Bee marathons, with the proceeds going to the WHHS Sustainability Club. David is a Master Gardener and enjoys hiking, skiing, and anything outdoors.
Susie Brown
Administrative Assistant
Susie Brown graduated from Ohio University with a Bachelor of Arts in Social Work where, through her internship, she was first introduced to the type of nonprofit organization that offered the community an alternative to a landfill and provided other services. After graduation, Susie moved back to Cincinnati and worked in various fields, but still maintained her enthusiasm for recycling, thrifting, and reuse. Susie lives with her husband, daughter, and their dog in Finneytown, and they have been avid supporters of the Hub ever since a friend introduced it to them. Susie especially loves to see her daughter’s crafty use of materials that she finds at the Hub and is always looking forward to seeing the next completed project! Susie is very excited to join the team at the Hub and be a part of an organization that helps the community and provides the area with a one-stop resource for recycling and reuse.
Mark Ireton
Warehouse Support Staff
Mark is a lifelong resident of Cincinnati and sometimes Northern Kentucky. He enjoys spending quality time with a book, coffee, and music. In his previous professional positions pertaining to the recycling and/or reuse of books, antiques, and organs, he was (unbeknownst to himself) preparing to work at the Hub.