Create Plenty’s mission is moving forward. Here’s why:
Su-Wen Chen has always had a strong interest in the environment growing up. After receiving her B.S. and M.S. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University, she worked for several years designing consumer products for mass production. But throughout the years, she realized that she wanted to use her experience to do something meaningful, which for her meant finding ways to save our environment from the waste produced in this industrial world. She hopes to use her design and manufacturing experience to find a solution to waste instead of contributing to it. In her spare time, she likes to travel, cook, work on house projects, do yoga, and play ultimate frisbee.
Amy Chovnick has been an adjunct faculty at Las Positas Community College since 2004 where she teaches an ecology course called Humans and The Environment as well as Human Biology. She holds a Master of Science in Applied Molecular Biology and worked in the Biotech industry for over 18 years, first in research and later in business development. She is also a volunteer project leader for a local 4H club where youth under her direction are raising awareness (not animals) though a service learning environmental stewardship project. She likes to challenge people to think and then inspire them to take action. In her spare time she likes to discover new creative ways to repurpose the materials that enter her life, knit, foster kittens and dabble in making fun educational videos. She wants to open up a store that sells locally made goods and has many ideas for stories she wants to write, and inventions to make the world more sustainable.
Morgan Lange: No one quite understood why, in college, I double-majored in Ecology and Spanish. At the time it wasn’t immediately obvious how I would find a future utilizing both. Now living most of the year in Merida, Yucatan, I am Create Plenty’s International Plastic Quilt Project coordinator in Mexico. I have found the Quilt Project to be ideal in many ways to achieve the goals of educating the public, involving them directly in taking action, blending the importance of each person’s individual voice with the power of the collective, and inspiring real and enduring change with regards to the consumption of goods and the subsequent production of waste. It has been a pleasure to take this project, combine it with classes on the basic principles of ecology, and spread the word in Mexico, where education and projects like this one are in short supply. I can be reached at spanish[at]createplenty.org
Cheryl Lohrmann was convinced she had to do something about the environment after planting a tree in 5th grade, having parents who gardened and did what they could to recycle, planning an herb garden in high school, noticing plastic bags flying through the winds of Chicago, wondering where her recycling went, and reading Garbageland by Elizabeth Royte and Gone Tomorrow by Heather Rogers. She started Leave No Plastic Behind in 2007 to help others to recognize the alternatives to this forever material. In 2009 LNPB became Create Plenty and the International Plastic Quilt Project. She comes to Create Plenty after 5 years experience in the non-profit environmental and art worlds. She enjoys filmmaking, snacks, tending her garden for new ideas, and jogging around her neighborhood.
