board & staff

executive director - central texas

Robin Schneider started her activist career in high school as a 17-year-old canvasser for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) raising funds door-to-door to assist pro-ERA candidates. During college she led a campaign that stopped a plan to drill for oil on the UCLA campus, which would have displaced the university's childcare center. She also led a delegation of 18 California college students that traveled to Florida in early 1982 to work for passage of the ERA.

Robin began working with TCE Fund and its sister organization Texas Campaign for the Environment in 1997. Under Robin's direction, TCE Fund and TCE took leading roles in the campaign to close the Grandfather Loophole in the Texas Clean Air Act, for which she was dubbed the "Best Advocate for Breathers" by The Austin Chronicle.

She is a Vice Chair of the Electronics TakeBack Coalition and played a key role in successfully pressured Dell, the campaign's first corporate target, to take back its obsolete products and support producer takeback policies.

Under Robin's direction, TCE Fund has been working with landfill neighbors to impact local trash issues and statewide rules and legislation since late 2002. Robin was appointed to the City of Austin's Long-Range Solid Waste Planning Task Force in 2005 which laid the groundwork for the adoption of a city Zero Waste Strategic Plan in January 2009, the first in Texas.

Robin also serves on the Board of Earth Share of Texas for TCE Fund. Her spouse works on land restoration projects at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Research Center. She has been active with AFS Intercultural Programs as a high school exchange student to Kenya in 1977 and a host parent for exchange students from Ghana, Indonesia and Afghanistan.

deputy director - greater houston

Zac Trahan was home schooled as a child in the Hill Country outside Austin. He studied Biology and Ecology at the University of Texas and joined TCE Fund and TCE in the fall of 2002. Zac directed a Clean Water Action canvassing office in South Florida in 2005. He currently serves as Deputy Director for TCE Fund and is a Program Director for TCE. He heads TCE and TCE Fund website design and maintenance and assists in large donor and membership development. Zac believes our common problems call for collaborative solutions and that protecting our humanity means protecting our shared surroundings.

central texas program

Stacy Guidry grew up in the Beaumont area and started organizing with TCE Fund and TCE in August 2003. Stacy was TCE’s Central Texas Austin Canvass Director from 2005-2008. She currently coordinates TCE Fund’s Central Texas program activities and is a Program Assistant for TCE. She has taken a leading role in organizing local government support for Producer TakeBack Recycling. Stacy strives for positive social, political, and environmental justice and concrete changes in people's everyday lives.

north texas program

Jeffrey Jacoby has been working with TCE Fund and TCE in our North Texas office since the fall of 2004, and was TCE’s North Texas Canvass Director from 2005-2008. After obtaining a Master of Arts from the University of Maryland, Jeff returned to the Metroplex and began organizing with TCE Fund and TCE. He currently coordinates TCE Fund’s North Texas program activities and is a TCE Program Director. He assists in developing campaign strategies and educational material and has taken a leading role in TCE’s legislative organizing work. As a native Texan and long-time Dallasite, Jeff’s commitment to grassroots democracy and environmental advocacy stems from a strong desire to transform the mindset of a culture bent on harming the very source of its sustenance.

board members

Todd Main is a seasoned political organizer with two decades of experience in public interest work. He has worked on a range of consumer issues such as electric utility and health care reform and environmental issues. He is currently working on health policy. Todd founded TCE Fund. For three years, Todd served as the Executive Director of Texas Campaign for the Environment, TCE Fund's sister organization. He is currently on assignment in Chicago with his wife Theresa Amato and their daughters Isabella and Vittoria.

Mary Elizabeth Cofer currently works in the health insurance field. She has worked in the health care field for many years as a licensed physical therapy assistant. She is a certified personal trainer. Mary Elizabeth is on the Board of Adjustments for the City of Rollingwood, and is involved in working with Rollingwood to gain status as a "Green City." She is a long distance runner. She and her spouse George raised a daughter Hanna, who recently graduated from UT majoring in geography and environment.

Michael Zeleke is a disaster relief specialist who has worked for the US Agency for International Development in Nairobi, the Red Cross (in Albania, Bosnia, and Azerbaijan), Doctors of the World in Kosovo, the International Medical Corps in Rwanda and Angola and the United Nations in South Africa. He was named the American Refugee Committee Humanitarian Aid Worker of the Year 1994 for his work in Somalia. He is a former marine, firefighter and canvasser. He and his spouse Angie Mills split their time between Bangladesh, Austin, South Africa and other countries needing Michael's disaster relief skills.