Welcome to Travis and Rayna

Things have been quiet on the NESEA blog lately. That’s not an indication that we haven’t been busy (yes, mom, I know that’s a double negative!) To the contrary, I have felt so swamped that it’s been hard to catch my breath and update the community. I’m going to try my best to do so with a series of short blog posts over the next few weeks about what the staff and I have been up to.

At the top of my list is to introduce you to two new members of our staff, Rayna Heldt, our membership services coordinator, and Travis Niles, our communications and development coordinator. We have brought them both on board as part of our 2011 strategic plan to help us increase NESEA’s reach into new communities and to help us serve our current membership better.

Rayna has (officially) joined NESEA staff after working for us on an informal basis for about a year. After volunteering at BE10, she arrived at NESEA central to assist planning the 2010 Junior Solar Sprint. Since then, she helped edit last years’ Sustainable Green Pages, and was also BE11′s Registration Coordinator. She has an MSc in Anthropology and Development, a Certificate in Baking Arts, and a BA in Liberal Arts with a concentration in anthropology, poetry and philosophy. She currently lives in Charlemont, MA where she keeps a tremendously over-ambitious vegetable garden and spends most of her free time cooking and listening to public lecture podcasts. She is interested in the connection between people, culture and the environment, and at NESEA, sees the relationship between people and their built environment as a key to securing environmental and economic sustainability. She is thrilled to be the point of contact for membership and will be reaching out to the membership soon for any and all feedback you are willing to share! You can reach Rayna at rheldt@nesea.org or at 413.774.6051, ext. 20.

Travis comes to us from the ACT Volunteer Center. A native of upstate New York, he received his BA in History from Wells College in 2009 and came to Massachusetts to serve as an AmeriCorps VISTA member. He discovered a passion for outreach and networking while directing the volunteer center’s operations and promotional campaigns. Always desiring to be on the cutting edge, he worked to bring ACT and its non-profit partners up to speed by using web tools, social networking platforms and the booming mobile market to supplement under-performing traditional marketing efforts. He firmly believes in applying these same principles for us to “build energy” for all of NESEA’s programs. When he’s not singing with the Pioneer Valley Symphony Choir or searching for the next great local wine, you can find him on our Facebook page or on Twitter @NESEA_org. You can also reach him using more conventional media, at tniles@nesea.org or at 413.774.6051, ext. 21!

You can expect to hear a lot from Travis and Rayna within the next few week, as they start to survey NESEA members and potential members about how we can help you advance the adoption of sustainable energy practices in the built environment. Please join the conversation and provide them with your candid feedback so that we can build an organization that serves your networking and professional development needs.