The 2025 Hoosier Resilience Heroes include professionals, students, and volunteers dedicated to climate policy, renewable energy, sustainable practices, and more. Read about the heroes and their contributions to Indiana communities and the state.
2025 Hoosier Resilience Heroes
Morgan Bronson
Manager of Sustainability and Resiliency, Indianapolis Airport Authority
INDIANAPOLIS—Since arriving in Indianapolis in 2019, Morgan Bronson has applied her knowledge and expertise to drive progress toward long-term sustainability goals in the Circle City. In her former role as director of the city’s Office of Sustainability, Bronson implemented Indianapolis’ first sustainability and resilience plan. Because roughly two-thirds of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions come from the built environment, Bronson authored an energy benchmarking ordinance that requires large building owners to track and report their utility usage. To encourage current and aspiring sustainability professionals, Bronson started the “Indy Womxn in Sustainability Breakfast,” a bi-monthly gathering for individuals interested in a sustainability-related industry. Bronson also serves as a founding board member of the Indiana Energy Independence Fund, the state’s first and only green bank. In 2024, she became the sustainability and resiliency manager for the Indianapolis Airport Authority, implementing strategies to help the airport achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
Jim Conklin
Co-founder and executive director, Cultivate Food Rescue
SOUTH BEND—Over the past decade, Jim Conklin has served as co-founder and executive director of Cultivate Food Rescue, a nonprofit that both rescues food waste and redistributes it to food-insecure residents in Elkhart, Marshall, and St. Joseph counties. Cultivate is unique in tackling the logistical challenge of collecting, processing, and redistributing perishable food to avoid waste, operating with less than 2% food waste. Under Conklin's leadership, over 10 million pounds of food have been rescued from landfills since 2016. This has resulted in eight million meals being distributed to food-insecure community members and prevented roughly 10 metric tons of carbon dioxide and two metric tons of methane from entering the atmosphere. Conklin’s vision and passion inspire thousands to contribute to Cultivate’s mission each year. In 2024, Cultivate opened a new cold storage facility in South Bend, a second volunteer and meal packaging site in Elkhart, and expanded its backpack program that provides frozen meals to schoolchildren on the weekends.
Eve Loftman Cusack
Educator, Kent Farm Research Station
BLOOMINGTON—For eight years, Eve Loftman Cusack has been applying her talents as an educator and citizen scientist to monitor the health of local bird populations, share the beauty of Indiana wildlife, and inform research and policy to protect migrant and resident birds. At Kent Farm Research Station in Monroe County, Cusack spends her summer weekend mornings capturing, banding, assessing, and releasing birds. Data from the project contributes to an international effort to estimate bird populations, breeding success, and population health as well as the effects of humans and climate change on bird communities. Her efforts have resulted in the banding of 1,600 unique birds representing over 60 species. During each banding session, Cusack hosts visitors of all ages, giving people an up-close encounter with wildlife and research. She also leads a summer bird camp in collaboration with WonderLab where elementary and middle school students participate in the bird banding process.
Maithilee Das Lappin
Associate, TYLin
INDIANAPOLIS—An environmental and ecological engineer by training, Maithilee Das Lappin has spent the past decade advancing climate action in Indiana as an advocate and leader. Her advocacy first took root as she encouraged her global engineering firm TYLin to share its resources with the Greater Lafayette Climate Action Plan, a project she managed in collaboration with Lafayette, West Lafayette, and Tippecanoe County. Since then, Das Lappin has led several other communities through similar climate planning initiatives. She spends her free time leading climate work across the state, organizing forestry efforts and more, but perhaps most notably serving as board vice chair of Keep Indianapolis Beautiful and vice president of the Indiana Water Environment Association, in addition to creating, engaging, and inspiring a growing network of young professionals who are similarly interested in resilience. Although not a native Hoosier, she considers Indianapolis home and treasures the opportunity to manage water and energy infrastructure projects across the state.
Will Ditzler
Founder, Riverbirch Executive Advisors
WESTFIELD—While studying business at Indiana University, Will Ditzler discovered his passion for ecology. In 1992 he joined environmental consulting and engineering company JFNew and Associates and spent 22 years establishing Indiana's largest native plant nursery and serving as CEO. Later, he served as The Nature Conservancy in Indiana’s board and campaign chair, helping raise $50 million for conservation. Ditzler also served on the Indiana Natural Resources Foundation and was appointed by Governor Holcomb to chair Indiana’s Wetland Task force in 2021. He has restored 275 acres of wetlands, prairies, and forests, planting 100,000 trees. As founder of RiverBirch Executive Advisors, Ditzler helps organizations like Patagonia-founded 1% for the Planet and Eco Logic, a leading restoration firm based in Bloomington. His company is carbon neutral using solar power at his office and carbon credits from Mamoni Valley Preserve, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting a 9,000-acre rainforest in Panama and where Ditzler serves as a board member.
Mary Hess
Founder, Southwestern Indiana Citizens for Quality of Life
DALE—When Mary Hess heard about a proposed $2.5 billion coal-to-diesel plant to be constructed a mile from her home in southwest Indiana, she organized her community to oppose the plant and its likely negative impact on public health and quality of life. In 2018, she formed Southwestern Indiana Citizens for Quality of Life and served as the organization’s president, making numerous trips to the Indiana State House and Washington DC to share local concerns with decision makers. Over the next five years, Hess attended more than 300 meetings with stakeholders, town and county councils, and even the White House Council for Environmental Quality. Her persistence contributed to the state’s decision to revoke the plant’s permit in 2023. Hess continues to advocate for the health of southwestern Indiana residents, notably by addressing the American Public Health Association’s annual conference and by pursuing water-air monitoring and cancer research funding in the pollution-burdened region.
Raina Maiga
Senior, Purdue Polytechnic High School
INDIANAPOLIS—A native of Burkina Faso, Raina Maiga is especially passionate about empowering others to be engaged on environmental issues. Throughout her high school career at Purdue Polytechnic High School, she has assumed several leadership roles. She is both the executive director and director of legislative affairs for Confront the Climate Crisis, the director of the Youth Environmental Press Team, and an involved member of the Indiana Legislative Youth Advisory Council. Under her leadership, youth-led environmental organization Confront the Climate Crisis has continued to advocate for state-level climate policy, while the Youth Environmental Press Team has secured $20,000 in yearly grant funding to support student-driven climate journalism and education initiatives. Furthermore, her support for climate action, policy, and education has already made waves beyond her adopted home city and state. She has shared her story as an invited speaker at the 2024 Midwest Climate Summit and the Exchange 24 conference in Washington, DC.
Janet McCabe
former Deputy Administrator, US Environmental Protection Agency
INDIANAPOLIS—Throughout her career, Janet McCabe has worked to ensure US residents and Hoosiers have access to clean air, water, and land and resources to address environmental threats, such as climate change. She served two stints with the US Environmental Protection Agency, most recently as EPA deputy administrator in the Biden administration. At EPA, McCabe helped roll out programs to assist states and communities reduce their planet-warming emissions and build resilience to climate risks. Before the Biden administration, McCabe spent decades implementing the Clean Air Act and addressing air quality issues at both the state and federal levels. She also led the Indianapolis-based nonprofit Improving Kids’ Environment to reduce lead poisoning and other threats to Hoosier children’s health. An innovator and bridge builder, McCabe worked from 2017-2021 at the IU Environmental Resilience Institute, including as executive director, where she launched tools and programs to support Indiana local governments’ understanding of local climate risks and climate action planning.
Lauren Norvell
Director, Evansville Climate Collaborative
As the City of Evansville’s first climate action director, Lauren Norvell has rallied her community around climate action and community resilience. In less than two years, Norvell has reinvented a city agency to proactively plan and implement sustainability initiatives, championed Evansville’s first climate action plan to be adopted by the city council, and activated a network of local leaders that collaborate in a “roundtable” to drive progress on the plan’s execution. Norvell pursues local, state, and federal funding for climate action and was awarded a $20 million EPA Community Change grant for clean transportation projects that will expand public transit, shared rides, and physically active modes of travel. Other noteworthy projects include a revised municipal ordinance regarding burning and other air emission activities, the first community-wide greenhouse gas study, a new website and climate action dashboard, and local education and outreach to area schools, businesses, and residents.
Jim Poyser
Director of Advancement, Earth Charter Indiana
INDIANAPOLIS—Jim Poyser, Earth Charter Indiana’s (ECI’s) director of advancement is a dedicated environmentalist who has used his skills and talents as an author, playwright, mentor, and community organizer to support climate action. Through his mentorship, hundreds of Indiana youth have realized the power of their voice and their capacity to advocate for a better future. In 2017, Poyser was instrumental in organizing K-12 youth in Indianapolis to lobby the city council and mayor to pass a resolution that acknowledges the threat of climate change. The adopted resolution spurred the city to commit to carbon neutrality by 2050 and develop a climate action plan. Youth in nine other Indiana communities have successfully advocated for climate resolutions of their own with ECI’s support. An advocate for the arts, Poyser has led several theater projects and produced a documentary that humanizes the climate crisis and explores themes of climate anxiety and resilience.
Theresa Sailor
Grant writer and educator, City of Goshen
GOSHEN—Since joining the City of Goshen in 2020, Theresa Sailor has written successful grants, launched initiatives, and grown relationships that have helped Goshen become more equitable and sustainable. Sailor has secured more than $1.6 million for city projects, ranging from invasive species removal, historic building preservation, accessible trails, and more. In 2024, Goshen was awarded a $1 million urban forestry grant to transform the quality and size of the city’s urban forest thanks to Sailor’s efforts. Other projects that she has spearheaded include the purchase and use of e-bikes for city employees and the implementation of Goshen’s first curbside residential recycling program, which has contributed to a 26% reduction in the city’s trash tonnage over two years. Sailor also supervises a cohort of AmeriCorps young professionals each year who help implement Goshen’s climate action plan. Under her leadership, AmeriCorps team members have created backyard habitat programs, installed a 50-acre prairie, and conducted public outreach.
Zach Schalk
Senior Indiana Program Director, Solar United Neighbors
INDIANAPOLIS—Zach Schalk is the Senior Indiana Program Director for Solar United Neighbors (SUN), whose work helps Hoosiers pursue their energy freedom through the installation of solar panels to power their homes, businesses, and communities. In 2024, his contributions to two multi-organizational Solar for All grants helped bring more than $100 million in federal funds to support solar projects for income-qualified Hoosiers. Each year, Schalk helps SUN and its partners organize dozens of solar educational and advocacy events, such as the annual Renewable Energy Day at the Indiana Statehouse, in efforts to mobilize Indiana's solar movement and educate people about solar's economic and environmental benefits. Under Schalk's leadership, SUN has also helped over 300 homes, businesses, and nonprofits go solar in Indiana, resulting in 2.5 megawatts of installed solar capacity and estimated savings of more than $11 million. He lives in Indianapolis with his wife and two girls, who keep him motivated every day.
