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No Fracking Way-SCPA 1st Thursday Topic April 6th

SCPA  hosts a panel of well-informed and motivated citizens who are trying to defend our planet, our nation, and our community.

Speakers:

Matt Culver

Matt Culver is the Boating and Waterways Program Coordinator for Brevard County’s Department of Natural Resources Management. He has a master’s degree in Coastal Management from Florida Tech, and two bachelor’s degrees in Environmental Science from the University of Washington at Seattle. He’s been a happy resident of Brevard County for 15 years, and currently lives in Indialantic.

David Kearns

Graduate Florida Tech BS Geological Oceanography '87

U.S. Peace Corps service, fisheries management Honduras CA 88-90

Former newspaper reporter Indian River Press Journal, and Florida Today; Former teacher, Brevard County Schools.

Authored works include Where Hell Freezes Over, a story of naval survival Antarctica; and a work of commentary Rick Scott: Enemy of the State

Currently Realtor C21

Worked with local and statewide environmentalists to 1. defeat SB 318, 2. help institute a fracking ban in Brevard. 3. helped institute a fracking ban in Indian River. 4. Fought back against easing water restrictions for toxins such as benzene.

Has appeared and spoken three times in Tallahassee senate committee hearings, Brevard County Commission, and Indian River County Commission

Candidate for Florida House 2016

Mel Martin

Mel Martin was born and raised in Orlando, Florida with a childhood full of fresh springs, warm days on the beach, and fishing and crabbing on the Indian River Lagoon. She attended the US Naval Academy and commissioned as an officer in the Marine Corps. Through a law education program, she earned her Juris Doctorate from Barry University School of Law and served as a judge advocate for the remainder of her career with the Marines. She retired as a Staff Judge Advocate and returned to central Florida, settling in Cocoa with her husband and three boys. Mel has been active in community service opportunities and grassroots organization, to include anti-corruption efforts with Represent.Us, environmental pursuits with the Brevard Indian River Lagoon Coalition, legislative advocacy with Floridians Against Fracking, and currently legal networking and advocacy for water protectors and nature conservation statewide.

Stacey Patel

Stacey is the Chair of the Brevard County Democratic Executive Committee and was an elected Bernie Sanders delegate to the 2016 Democratic National Convention. In 2016, she crowdfunded a bus to bring 50 of Florida's Democrats to knock doors before the Iowa caucus, opened a grassroots Bernie Sanders campaign office in Melbourne, and spent nearly a month in North Dakota organizing against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

After receiving her graduate degree from Carnegie Mellon's Heinz School of Public Policy & Management, Stacey built her career as an organizational transformation consultant and an innovator in the use of social media for social good. She has spoken at many conferences for changemakers including TEDx and South by Southwest (SXSW), and Mashable once named her one of "10 Essential Entrepreneurs to Follow on Twitter." Her work using technology to create social change has raised nearly half a million dollars in small donations for various projects in Tanzania, Afghanistan, Kenya, Nepal and the US and has been profiled in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, the Chronicle of Philanthropy and the Huffington Post among others. In her career as a technology and change management consultant, she has worked on strategic initiatives with state and county government agencies in California, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Fortune 500 biotechnology firm, Genentech. 

Terri Wright held the position of General Manager at WFIT from 1998-2023.