Semester team

Mary Sweeters is the Grassroots Training Director at Greenpeace and oversees the Greenpeace Semester. She first spoke out for the environment in the second grade, when she wrote to President George H.W. Bush, asking him to call up the leaders of countries that allowed whaling to ask them to ban the practice. She has been organizing professionally since 2004. Mary mobilized and trained student activists on college campuses in California for a few years and directed door-to-door environmental canvass offices. She started organizing in the Midwest with Greenpeace in 2007 and moved into her current role in 2010. She is based in San Francisco.

Shalyn Pugh is the Greenpeace Semester recruitment coordinator, originally hailing from the Pacific Northwest.  She previously worked for a social services non-profit as a volunteer coordinator and recruiter, but came to Greenpeace so that she could share her passion for the environment with the next generation of activists and bring them to Greenpeace through the Greenpeace Semester. Shalyn enjoys hiking, baking cookies, and spending quality time at the beach with her greyhound/lab mix, Lulu. She is based in San Francisco. 

Justin D’Angona (Coordinator, Washington DC) came to work for Greenpeace in 2009 as part of the Frontline program, recruiting over 1,000 new members to support Greenpeace. During that time, he worked as a Campaign Coordinator to organize volunteers in Orange County before directing the Greenpeace fundraising office in Los Angeles, leading the nation in member recruitment. He has filmed for 13 internationally released skate DVD's. In his free time, he likes to rollerblade, read and bike around listening to music.

Christina-Alexa Liakos (Coordinator, Washington DC) After finishing the Greenpeace Semester in the fall of 2006, Christina continued to work with the Greenpeace Student Network as a campus organizer and then as the Trainings Coordinator on the Greenpeace Student Board. Christina organized students on her campus to help shut down the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, transition her campus away from dirty energy, and was heavily involved in the local anti-war movement.  After college, Christina organized for the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign at Ohio University and the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. She also worked to prevent mine development in Alaska and helped promote the local food movement with the Alaska Center for the Environment. Originally from New Hampshire, Christina enjoys hiking mountains, swimming in the ocean, playing and seeing live music, and Greek dancing! She is inspired by grassroots power and the youth movement.