Title	Member	Term
President	Ted Auch, Ph. D.	term ending Sep. 30, 2026
Vice President	Pastor Margaret Mills	term ending Sep. 30, 2025
Treasurer	Kathryn Almquist	term ending Sep. 30, 2026
Secretary	Robert Maher	term ending Sep. 30, 2025
Director	Linda New	term ending Sep. 30, 2025
Director	Annette McCoy	term ending Sep. 30, 2026
Director	Kathleen Webb	term ending Sep. 30, 2025
Director	Lucas Pompey	term ending Sep. 30, 2026
Director	Justin Thompson	term ending Sep. 30, 2025
Director	Mimi Plevin-Foust	term ending Sep. 30, 2026
Ron Prosek	Director	term ending Sep. 30, 2025
Development Consultant	Judy Comeau-Hart

The Program Committee arranges for presenters in FaCT’s Distinguished Speaker Series which is presented via Zoom ten to twelve times per year. The Committee also provides a keynote speaker for the Annual Meeting. Register for the Series!
The Newsletter Committee produces the FaCT Newsletter every month of the year, which is presented on our web. Printed copies of the Newsletter will be mailed to those who request them. Read our newsletter!
The Brine/Injection Wells Education Committee conducts educational presentations to faith communities, university classes, and other community groups on the challenge of radioactive brine produced by fracking and the adverse health effects of exposure to these toxins. The Committee, funded by several grants, has made presentations throughout Ohio. New grant funding has allowed us to continue this powerful program until the end of 2024. Take Action!
The Climate Change Education Committee is currently developing education materials for presentations to faith communities and other community groups throughout Ohio. The goal of this committee is to teach climate literacy. This program is expected to continue into 2025.
The Finance and Fund Raising Committee helps to design the Annual Budget for FaCT each fiscal year (October 1 through September 30). This Committee also helps the Treasurer to oversee FaCT’s finances and it also serves to design and carry out fundraising campaigns.
The Marketing Committee is in charge of FaCT’s brand and of promotional outreach of all kinds, including via our publications, our web presence, brochures, and advertising.
The Leadership Development Committee helps FaCT develop leadership within the organization. Part of their work involves serving as the Nominating Committee to identify candidates for the Board of Directors. Half of the directorships are elected each year at the Annual Meeting, which is usually the last Saturday in September.

In addition to our general membership which is drawn from more than 45 faith communities, FaCT has a formally chartered chapter called West Shore FaCT, which meets regularly at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church. FaCT also has an affiliate- FaCT-Athens in Athens, OH.

West Shore Chapter West Shore FaCT meets regularly at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church. West Shore FaCT Facebook West Shore FaCT.org
FaCT Athens Affiliate FaCT -Athens - Catholic Peace and Justice Committee of Athens, OH. A number of members of FaCT-Athens have been working on the Athens County Community Bill of Rights Project. Recently ballot petitions were turned in to the Athens County Board of Elections. The campaign will now be under way to make sure the issue is approved by voters.

Beginning

In 2011, anti-fracking activists (aka fracktivists) had a meeting of N.E. Ohio folks in Canton. At one point during the meeting, Rev. Jim Deming rose to speak and talked of raising the issue of fracking in his denomination – the United Church of Christ, which has its headquarters in Cleveland. At the time, Rev. Jim was the Environmental Justice Minister for the UCC denomination. I knew Ted Voneida of the Kent Unitarian Universalist Church was at this Canton meeting, and so I sought him out during a break and talked to him about raising this issue among folks in our denomination, Unitarian Universalist (UU). Then Ted and I got together with Rev. Deming and planned an initial meeting for folks interested in approaching fracking from a moral point of view, inspired by each of our respective faith traditions.

Ted and I rounded up UUs from N.E. Ohio involving five UU churches, and Jim got folks from three UCC churches. Rev. Joan Van Becelaere, Executive Director of the Unitarian Universalist Ohio Meadville District, also attended our formation meeting in June of 2011 at East Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, my church home in Kirtland, Ohio. We had more than 50 participants at the first meeting. The meeting room got so crowded we had to move the meeting to the sanctuary.

From that initial meeting involving eight church congregations, we have grown to include participants from 45 faith communities, from 16 Ohio counties plus some individuals from West Virginia. We now include Catholics, Protestants, and Jews, with a variety of faith traditions within these main groupings.

Growth and Activities

From 2011 to 2015 FaCT participants met at members’ churches about once every two months. In 2011, FaCT participated in a large demonstration in Youngstown, Ohio opposing fracking, which was causing earthquakes in the region from frack waste injection wells. In 2013, FaCT, working with other organizations, including 350.org, participated in a rally in Warren, Ohio and a large prayer vigil at an injection well site in Portage County that including blocking access to about a dozen frack waste trucks trying to enter the site. FaCT organized a prayer vigil at the site with prayers led by Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish clergymen.

Also in 2013 FaCT launched a successful campaign to persuade WCPN public radio in Cleveland to reform the way it was covering the fracking issue in Ohio, and we persuaded them to discontinue sponsorship of the industry’s shale conferences in Cleveland.

In 2014 we added West Shore FaCT, based in Rocky River, OH, as a chapter. We also began promoting Professor Mark Jacobson’s (et. al.) plan for conversion of all energy resources in the U.S. to wind, water, and sun sources by 2050.

In 2015, FaCT drafted bylaws, incorporated in Ohio and received a 501c3 designation by the IRS as a public charity. FaCT participants continued meeting at churches around the state until 2019 when the Covid pandemic began. FaCT’s general membership meetings, FaCT Board meetings, and FaCT’s Distinguished Speaker series have all continued as online events.

Also, in 2015, FaCT launched its Ohio Health Project (OHP). OHP designed and populated a health registry of persons living in proximity to oil/gas fracking operations in the eastern part of Ohio.

In 2016, FaCT helped to organize and participated in the National Day of Action against frack waste. In our region, this included street art in the form of dramas acted out on in public spaces about the dangers of fracking and frack waste..

In 2021, FaCT launched its Brine Spreading Education Program to inform members of faith communities in Ohio about the dangers of spreading toxic and radioactive gas well waste brine on Ohio roads and the dangers of commodifying brine products for commercial sale. This program has been carried out via in-person and online presentations around the state of Ohio..

In 2022, FaCT launched its popular Distinguished Speaker Series, which featured online presentations by distinguished scientists, researchers, and authors. .

Currently, FaCT is constructing a Climate Change Education Program to educate members of faith communities on this existential threat to civilization. This program will be launched in early 2024..

FaCT has several congregations in its Anchor Program, which began in 2023. These anchor congregations serve as representatives of FaCT in various regions of Ohio and West Virginia. They facilitate organizing and coordinating creation care activities and programs with neighboring faith communities in their respective regions.

About FaCT

FaCT Vision

Empowered communities working to actively protect the air, water, and soil; and working to mitigate and remediate climate change.

FaCT Mission

We educate, inspire, advocate, and organize for a just transition to renewable energy sources, sustainable practices, and policies that address climate change.

FaCT Values

We believe in the moral imperative of climate change - engaging faith communities and people of conscience in the interconnectedness and sacredness of the natural world and one another.

We believe in justice, equity, and inclusion, working together with vulnerable and marginalized communities.

We believe in hope - that our vision becomes a reality.

We believe in courage - real change demands action.

We believe in solidarity - caring for one another and our planet.

FaCT Strategies

We oppose extreme fossil fuel extraction processes that harm the environment, damage communities, stress local economies, and threaten human health. We recognize that unsustainable practices contribute to economic inequality and impose a disproportionate burden on underrepresented, low income and minority communities. We work to create clean, renewable energy generation with fair representation and local control for safe, healthy communities.

We develop programs and presentations as well as informational materials that are used by FaCT participants to educate their own faith communities and the larger communities in which they are located.

Calling on conversation as an effective means of educating, we seek to grow the number of FaCT participants and faith communities, providing opportunities to reach individuals with whom they have relationships.

We recognize that clean, renewable energy can be safely produced using current technology. Fossil fuels should be used only in a limited way as part of a quick transition to a system where all energy is supplied by safe, sustainable sources. Any extraction, processing, transport or transmission of hydrocarbons must be done with informed local consent in the safest possible manner under the guidelines of thorough and appropriate regulations that are rigorously enforced to honor and respect the rights of workers, landowners, and communities.

We publish our positions on our website, Facebook, Twitter, via media releases, at community events, and by contacting elected officials, asserting our roles as advocates for changes in government regulations and laws that bear on these issues.

We assist concerned citizens and communities seeking to protect their air, water, and soil and the health and safety of their residents against the devastation of predatory practices. We do this through the use of local and state initiatives organized by groups throughout Ohio, and through movements created nationally and internationally.

We cooperate with other environmental organizations in public demonstrations against destructive activities such as fracking, storage of toxic and radioactive fracking waste, and the Ohio Valley petrochemical build-out. We call for replacing fossil fuels with energy conservation, community and personal lifestyle changes, and safe, renewable energy sources.We believe the sustainability for which we advocate is possible by 2050. We support actions that move us towards local, healthy food sources; reduced use of plastics; clean, public transportation; preservation of natural areas, and a just transition to safe, sustainable jobs.

We draw on the ethical principles of our various moral traditions to preserve and protect the earth’s interconnected web of life. Faith communities represent strong and caring individuals with the power to effect change.

Our Leadership Team

Our leadership comes from all walks of life. Each one is committed to FaCT's mission and brings to the team unique skills and their own perspective.

Ted Auch, PhD

President

Pastor Margaret Mills

Vice-President & Co-Founder

Bob Maher

Board Secretary

Kathryn Almquist

Treasurer

Linda New

Board Member and Head of West Shore FaCT

More about FaCT

Board of Directors

FaCT Committees

Chapters and Affiliates

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Frequently Asked Questions

We believe that people of faith represent morally strong and caring individuals who have the power to effect change.

We educate, inspire, advocate, and organize for a just transition to renewable energy sources, sustainable practices, and policies that address climate change.

The process creates vast amounts of wastewater, emits greenhouse gases such as methane, releases toxic air pollutants and generates noise. Studies have shown these gas and oil operations can lead to loss of animal and plant habitats, species decline, migratory disruptions and land degradation.

Historically Appalachia has borne the brunt of resource exploitation and hazardous manufacturing and processing, whether it be coal mines, oil/gas wells, petrochemical development, single-use plastic manufacturing, etc., with all of the attendant fallout that has impacted the health and safety of its people. That is why FaCT is focusing many of its educational efforts on these threats to faith communities in Ohio’s Appalachian counties and among other institutions in the state that can help promote environmental justice in these counties.

No! While FaCT began in Ohio, we are expanding our organization into the greater Ohio region (W. Virginia, Pennsylvannia). And, we are of course concerned with climate change, a global challenge.

Please contact Ron Prosek, one of FaCT's founders. Ron can be reached at (440) 749-7117 and rprosek.factohio@gmail.com

We have only one planet

FaCT

A non-profit dedicated to highlighting the impact of climate change and other environmental issues in the Ohio region and beyond.

About FaCT

FaCT Vision

FaCT Mission

FaCT Values

FaCT Strategies

Our Leadership Team

Ted Auch, PhD

Pastor Margaret Mills

Bob Maher

Kathryn Almquist

Linda New

More about FaCT

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do we work through faith communities?

What is FaCT's mission?

Why is FaCT opposed to fracking?

Why so much emphasis on Appalachia?

Is FaCT focused only on Ohio?

I'd like to get involved. Who do I contact?

We have only one planet

FaCT

About FaCT

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