(Photo: Joan Cousins)
On March 3, 2007, Jane Winn, BEAT’s Executive Director, received the Environmentalist of the Year award from the Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissions. The association’s director, Ken Pruitt, hands Jane her award at the commission’s Annual Environmental Conference.
BEAT’s Executive Director: Jane Winn
Jane Winn was selected to serve as BEAT’s first Executive Director in 2006. Jane grew up in Pittsfield, playing on the banks of the Housatonic River about two miles downstream of the General Electric plant.
Jane has her Bachelors Degree in biology and her Masters Degree in Zoology. Her science background and passion for the environment brought her together with a small band of outraged environmentalists who saw environmental destruction continuing with regulators allowing the illegal destruction. This group believed that the law was supposed to prevent this sort of destruction and took action to make that happen. That is how the Berkshire Environmental Action Team started back in 2002.
In 2007, Jane received awards from the Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissions, Pittsfield Community Television, and the Housatonic Valley Association for her tireless efforts to protect the environment.
“Long an environmental advocate and mobilizer of community interest and involvement in wetlands permitting deliberations and open space preservation in the Berkshires, Jane Winn is fierce in her determination and seldom willing to take “no” for a final answer. She has demonstrated many times over that perseverance is a powerful advocacy skill. With the creation, fundraising, nurturing and day-to-day management of the Berkshire Environmental Action Team (BEAT) and the weekly e-publication of The BEAT News, Jane has become a leading spokesperson on environmental issues. Her courage, dedication, and boundless energy have already produced stunning successes – and are creating a broad constituency of knowledgeable, caring activists and stewards to carry the work forward.” Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissions