Our Team

  • A woman with blonde hair and blue eyes wearing a purple top, smiling at the camera against a light gray background.

    Ruth McElroy Amundsen

    Ruth received her bachelor’s in physics from Stanford, and has dual engineering masters degrees from University of Michigan. Ruth worked as an engineer at NASA for 35 years.

    Ruth led a group of parents in installing 700 kW of solar on their children’s school. She runs several LLCs for financing and installing solar on businesses and non-profits in low-income neighborhoods at no cost to the owners. These funds also trained and employed residents of those neighborhoods on the installation jobs. She is personally responsible for the deployment of $4.5 million of solar projects.

    She is on the boards of Virginia Distributed Solar Alliance, Solar United Neighbors and Solar Village Project.

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    Alden Cleanthes

    Alden received a bachelor's degree in Biology and Environmental Management from Old Dominion University. 

    She served as a publicly appointed official in the city of Chesapeake for over a decade. She has worked as an independent consultant on environmental policy and renewable energy at the state and federal levels. Directly advocating with and for multiple agencies, dozens of Senators, Congressmen, the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the White House Council of Economic Advisors, HUD, The Opportunity Project, and the GAO. 

    Alden also runs Epic Made, an award-winning design and animation studio with her husband. She is the Co-Founder of Norfolk Solar, LLC, and serves on the Virginia Distributed Solar Alliance.

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    Ivy Main

    Ivy Main received her J.D. from Boston College Law School.

    She is a writer, publisher, lawyer, and environmental advocate. Ivy volunteers extensively with the Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club. In addition to lobbying in the Virginia General Assembly for stronger clean energy policies and advising on legislation, she writes commentary for the Virginia Mercury and her blog, Power for the People VA.

    Ivy served in the Beyond Coal National Leadership Team from 2012-2020 for the Sierra Club. She is also the Sierra Club Virginia Renewable Energy Co-Chair and a founding member of the Virginia Distributed Solar Alliance.