April Monthly Meeting 2016

Our speaker this month, in honor of Earth Day, is Zack Pistora with the Sierra Club. He lobbies in Topeka for environmental causes, and has a good knowledge and passion for Kansas. He is going to speak to the top environmental problems that Kansas needs to address (water, climate change, and fracking/ earthquakes) and will tie that into the importance of good local leadership &/or political change in Topeka.

More About Zack:

Zack Pistora grew up on a family pig farm outside of Lawrence, KS.  After graduating Tonganoxie HS, he attended Kansas State University to study Political Science, Nonprofit Leadership, and Women’s Studies.  During college, Zack became very active in campus leadership, particularly toward environmental advocacy. 

After school, Zack accepted a position as contract lobbyist for the Kansas Chapter of Sierra Club.  He is now in his 5^th year of lobbying the Kansas legislature in Topeka, offering perspectives on a host of environmental issues affecting water, energy, agriculture, pollution, land, wildlife, and more.  Zack is also working on a new project he created called Millennial Pact or MPACT, which aims to get more young people involved and represented in American democracy.

Zack feels pretty lucky to live fairly sustainably and peacefully on his family’s farm out in rural, northeastern Kansas.  When he is not working, you can find him gardening, fishing, going to music events, camping, and travelling across the country.  Currently, Zack is very interested in transforming his conventional family farm into a modern, large-scale permaculture operation and getting his generation more involved politically.