Meet the Transition Exmouth
Core Group
Transition Exmouth is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO). Each year a Core Group of trustees is elected. It's role is to help direct the organisation and support it achieve it's aims. If you have skills, experience or ideas and enthusiasm to get involved , or want to be involved in an existing project then chatting to someone on the Core Group is a really good place to start.
Chair
Lou Doliczny
I have been active in the community all my life and have consciously worked for climate justice over the last few decades. Most of my career has been in education and had the challenge of leading an educational charity through the Covid years. I have also been active with the Green Party and have lived in a cohousing community where we worked together to build resilience and reduce our carbon footprint.
Having visited Exmouth to come sailing for many years, we finally moved here as a family in 2022. I am loving living by the sea as well as getting more involved in the local community. I am delighted to have my own allotment and to be involved in Transition Exmouth since October 2023. My intention is to enjoy my work with Transition Exmouth and support others to take positive actions.
Secretary
Sarah Kersey
Sarah started volunteering for the Citizens Advice Bureau when she was 23 which led her to discover an elaborate network of community groups in her home town of Harrow in West London. Fascinated and inspired by people giving their time for free, to create positive in society and for the planet, she spent the next 25 years in roles which have supported the voluntary and community sector to develop. In 2021, she was recognised in the antidote to The Time's Rich List, the Independent on Sunday's Happy List Top 100 for her work supporting voluntary sector organisations. She is a passionate advocate of young trusteeship, good governance and wellbeing of volunteers. Her first trustee role was for a volunteer-led environmental charity, Harrow Agenda 21, when she was 25 which helped her develop both professionally and personally. Her last trustee role for Scotland's largest grant making charity, which distributed £20 million of grants last year. 'Volunteering has given me such a variety of experiences. It's been a privilege to meet and work alongside some really exceptionally talented, kind and special people. I'm volunteering with Transition Exmouth to give back to the community sharing the skills and experience I have gained. I think this is the best way I can positively contribute to the movement addressing the climate crisis.' Sarah's environmentalism developed out of her involvement in campaigns with the Trade Justice Movement of the 1990s and she is still an active member if Global Justice Now.
Treasurer
Adrian Toole
I first lived in Exmouth in about 1990 and have stayed connected ever since. At that time, I was running a paper recycling business in Tiverton. I spent a lot of time working abroad, later settling into conventional employment in Hertfordshire where I was heavily involved in Friends of the Earth, the Green Party, and similar local activism. On returning to live permanently in Exmouth in about 2006, I became involved in Transition Town Exmouth as it was then, joining the Umbrella and eventually becoming Chair. These days I find myself occupied full-time with running the Joanna Toole Foundation, a charity set up to continue the work of my daughter who died in 2019.
Equality/Equity, Diversity, Inclusivity & Justice
Sarah Ward/Crossland (She/They)
I grew up in Cornwall surrounded by water and the natural environment - and a pioneering industry of renewables generation and climate-conscious educators; wind turbines and Rio's Agenda 21 were part of my childhood. These experiences shaped my life - I've studied and worked in the water & environment sector ever since, in various organisations across academia and the private and charitable sectors. I'm also a Chartered Water & Environmental Manager, Chartered Environmentalist and Fellow of CIWEM. When I first moved to Exmouth in 2007 I joined the Avocet Line Rail Users Group, as I'm also a passionate advocate of sustainable mobility. I then joined the original Transition Exmouth Umbrella Group with my RainShare initiative. After taking some time out from local volunteering from 2017-2023, I joined the Core Group in 2023 hoping to support Transition Exmouth's work with the many local environmental initiatives.
Trustee
Carol Jay
My previous environmental credentials include being Devon Local Agenda 21 Co-ordinator and a Friends of the Earth local Group Chair. I was Secretary of the Recycling in Ottery group when it was set up back in 1992. At that time the Council refused to believe that people would separate their waste! Community groups showed the way forward, and now we take kerbside collections for granted. I'm looking forward to the day when we take all the planet-friendly lifestyle choices on OurPlaceOurPlanet.org for granted!