The Environmental Action Committee of West Marin promoted from within to fill its executive director position: Morgan Patton, the former membership and development director, will now lead the nonprofit. “She works here, she lives here and her roots are here,” said the group’s board president, Bridger Mitchell, of the choice. “Looking forward, we thought we wanted to deepen the commitment with local constituents.”
Ms. Patton is taking the helm from Amy Trainer, who stepped down after five years and moved to Seattle last month. Where Ms. Trainer had a background in law and policy issues, particularly regarding the environment and natural resources, Ms. Patton’s work with the E.A.C., and formerly in the corporate world, has focused on membership and program coordination.
“I’m excited to take it on,” Ms. Patton, whose roots in Marin go back four generations, said of her new responsibilities. Ms. Trainer, who remains employed as a policy advisor to the nonprofit, has been helping her transition to the new role.
“I have a great board with institutional knowledge,” Ms. Patton added.
Ms. Patton has lived in Forest Knolls for five years with her husband and children. She grew up in the town of Sonoma, and has family in West Marin. As a child she spent time in Dogtown with her great-aunt, riding horses, hiking park trails and being enlisted in family efforts on local environmental issues.
“As a child and young adult, I remember sitting at my great-aunt’s kitchen table helping to stuff envelopes to send to residents in Bolinas and Stinson concerning public access on Stinson Beach,” she said.
She has a bachelor’s degree in Environment, Culture and Sustainability from Dominican University.
In 2011 Ms. Patton started volunteering for the E.A.C. while working for a health and fitness outfit called Club One. She helped monitor membership and coordinate some events. She took a break from the group as she tried to figure out what direction she wanted to take her life, but in 2014, the nonprofit offered her a staff position, and she took it.
“It was a major job change,” she said on Friday at the group’s office in Point Reyes Station. “I had to make a decision to change the course of my career. I had to center myself and decide what really mattered.”
She took charge of the group’s MPA Watch program, part of a network of eight or so groups along the coast that train volunteers to collect data on marine protected areas. “It’s an opportunity to create awareness around marine debris,” said Ms. Patton, whose desk displays an assemblage of plastic litter from the beaches. She expanded the program to involve local high schools and colleges, and helped organize an art show with works made from the debris. She also organized last year’s birding festival, which drew about 450 people.
The nonprofit remains active in major planning initiatives like the Local Coastal Program and the Point Reyes National Seashore’s ranch management plan.
The E.A.C. got its start in the 1970s as a coalition of agriculturalists and environmentalists, although in recent years it drew criticism over its opposition to the operation of Drakes Bay Oyster Company in the seashore and issues being hashed out in the coastal program. It has long had an agriculturalist on its board, but has gone with one since Mimi Luebbermann, who raises sheep for wool in Chileno Valley, left the board last year.