ACC Transition Board
With the new organizational structure of ACC, we are transitioning from our old structure of an internal and an external board, to a new single board structure. We welcome the following passionate and qualified individuals who have committed to guiding us through the transition process for the first year of our new structure. Watch for an expanded, permanent board next year, once all of our transitions are fully in place.
Join us in expressing our heartfelt thanks for the members of the former Oversight Board (from EMU, GC, and MCC), and the former Board of Reference (our external advisors) for their years of skilled guidance for CSCS.
The people listed below constitute our board for the process of transitioning into our new organizational form.
Lyubov Slashcheva
Lyubov was raised in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia after her family emigrated from Kazakhstan. After completing undergraduate training at Eastern Mennonite University and dental training at Virginia Commonwealth University, she pursued residency training in Dental Public Health and a fellowship in Geriatric & Special Needs Dentistry at the University of Iowa. As a National Health Service Corps Scholar, she has served the oral health needs of underserved communities in safety net clinical settings in Iowa, Minnesota and Virginia. She is also Clinical Consultant to the Virginia Health Catalyst and Research Director for Apple Tree Dental. For about a decade, she served on the Board of the Mennonite Healthcare Fellowship, which engaged as a Strategic Partner with the Center for Sustainable Climate Solutions, for which Lyubov served as Board of Reference Chairperson. Lyubov, her husband and their three children live in Fergus Falls, MN on an urban homestead. They enjoy family cycling trips, tending to their small flock of hens, growing and preserving food, and sharing seasonal bounty through their market garden.
Luke Gascho
Luke Gascho served as executive director of Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center of Goshen College, Wolf Lake, IN for twenty-two years until his retirement in 2019. During his tenure, he led the implementation of field-based undergraduate programs, a master of arts in environmental education program and the Institute for Ecological Regeneration. He was the chair of the sustainability and environmental education department at Goshen College. Luke’s graduate degrees are in educational leadership and administration.
Luke provided leadership for the establishment of several creation care and social justice organizations. Luke regularly speaks on the concepts of creation care, leadership, regenerative food systems and repairing relationships with Indigenous people. He is married to Becky. They have three children and four grandchildren. Luke enjoys visiting family, camping and tending his 2.5-acre urban farm in his retirement.
Lorraine Stoltzfus
Lorraine Stoltzfus grew up on a Mennonite farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, surrounded by and appreciative of the natural world. After attending Eastern Mennonite College and Messiah College, and working for several years against nuclear proliferation with Mobilization for Survival, she moved to Wisconsin and graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School. She then served for 33 years as an Assistant Attorney General in the Environmental Protection Unit, Wisconsin Department of Justice, handling a broad range of cases that covered almost all aspects of environmental law from air pollution and conservation easements through the alphabet to wetland preservation and floodplain zoning. She sings in various musical groups as an enjoyable balance to the stress of the attorney world. Lorraine is a member of Madison Mennonite Church. She looks forward to drawing on both her Mennonite values and lessons learned as an environmental lawyer, while serving on the board of Anabaptist Climate Collaborative.
Harrison Horst
Harrison is an urban planner and data analyst with degrees in sociology (EMU ’18) and sustainable urban development (DePaul ’22), where he researched the relationship between urban food systems, gentrification, and equity. In 2018, Harrison worked for CSCS as part of a Climate Futures Fellow team co-producing a podcast on climate change and Anabaptist faith called Shifting Climates. Harrison is also a founding member of the Sustainability Alumni Network, which connects recent graduates from Mennonite colleges and universities interested in sustainability and leverages its collective resources to make positive change related to climate change and environmental issues. In his free time, Harrison enjoys doing crossword puzzles, practicing Mandarin, and biking around Chicago.
Dierdre Longacher Smeltzer
A mathematician by training, Deirdre worked for 20 years at Eastern Mennonite University as a faculty member, department chair, and academic dean. In 2019, Deirdre spent six months as a visiting faculty member at the Oregon Extension in southern Oregon before beginning her current Senior Director position with the Mathematical Association of America in 2020. During her tenure as EMU’s Undergraduate Dean, Deirdre participated in the establishment of the Center for Sustainable Climate Solutions and served on the CSCS Oversight Board for three years. Currently, Deirdre serves as Vice Chair of Harrisonburg’s Environmental Performance Standards Advisory Committee, is a member of the Bridge of Hope – Harrisonburg/Rockingham Board, and holds several roles within her church congregation. Deirdre loves hiking, cooking, and spending quality time with family and friends.
Eric Kurtz
Eric Kurtz is executive director of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Great Lakes. He has an MS in Land Resources from the Institute for Environmental Studies at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prior to working for MCC, he was stormwater manager with the Elkhart County (Indiana) Soil and Water Conservation District. He has also worked with rural indigenous communities in Northern Argentina, documenting land use in support of a land rights claim. Eric lives in Goshen, Indiana, with his wife, Carmen Horst, and daughters Elisa and Nayli. His family attends Walnut Hill Mennonite Church, where Carmen is co-pastor.
