Meet the Board
President
Doug Crimin is a Landscape Design and Maintenance Professional at Pacific Landscape Maintenance. He serves as the Environmental Resource Committee Chair to the Oregon Landscape Contractors Association, is the OLCA Liaison on the GRiT board, and volunteers for East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District, Solve, and We Love Clean Rivers. He is especially interested in maintenance, plants utilized, and is always tinkering with ways to increase green roof efficiency and success. In his spare time he can be found snowboarding on Mt Hood in the winter or Kayaking local rivers in the Summer.
Past President
Dr. Olyssa Starry is an assistant professor at Portland State University where she teaches urban ecology in the Honors College. She studies and models the effects of green roof design and maintenance on stormwater management and biodiversity. She enjoys exploring Portland's local greenways with friends and family, knitting, and yoga.
Board Member
Elizabeth Hart Morris is a co-founder and Past President of the Green Roof Think-tank (GRiT) and serves as the Green Roof Professional (GRP) Education Chair on the Green Roofs for Healthy Cities Board of Directors, and is on the Board of Directors of the Portland Chapter of the International Institute of Building Enclosure Consultants (IIBEC). She is the President of GreenUp LLC, a woman-owned small business. For 15 years Elizabeth has been changing the “nature” of roofing, through green roof project management, design support, municipal advocacy and program development. She thrives on bringing together diverse teams in this highly interdisciplinary field, collaborating to further the implementation and quality of green roofing across North America.
Find Elizabeth on Linkedin.
Secretary
Amy Chomowicz has worked with green roofs since 1997. She is most interested in promoting green roofs to improve and protect the environment and human health. She has given several green roof presentations at European conferences, and was lucky enough to tour green roofs in Germany, Copenhagen, and London. She has been a GRiT volunteer for 14 years, and she is the past GRiT treasurer. Amy currently serves as the GRiT board secretary. Amy’s other interests include bicycling, knitting, hiking, and eating chocolate.
Board Member
Alan Proffitt finished his over 30 year career with Multnomah County as the Capital Improvement Program Manager. He has completed over 60 successful roofing projects and has always looked for long term solutions for many different types of buildings. Alan helped design and manage the Counties first green roof in 2003 on their headquarters building, other green roof projects include the first green roof on an historic library and combination green/solar roof on a new County Courthouse. Alan is a certified Green Roof Professional (GRP) and co-chair of Green Roof for Healthy Cities GRP committee. Since semi retiring in 2018 Alan works on call as director of field operations with Green Up Roofing and enjoying home improvement, gardening and several outdoor sports with a passion for white water rafting.
Board Member
Andrea Melnychenko is a Plant Biologist who has been working with green roofs since her graduate work in 2009. Throughout her professional career, she has been interested in the ways that green roofs can be enhanced by new technologies to improve their performance and ecosystem value.
Andrea currently works as a Garden Designer and Account Manager for Dennis’ 7 Dees Landscaping in Portland, OR, and also serves on the board of the Mt. Hood Chapter of the Oregon Association of Nurseries. She enjoys working in her NE Portland garden, and taking walks to admire plants and gardens in Portland and beyond.
Treasurer
Jason Schmidt
For the past 15 years, Jason has worked in various positions and organizations to improve water quality and riparian habitat in Oregon and California. His experience ranges from rural to urban; from the riparian zone to the rooftop; and with both non-profits and governments. Currently, Jason is the lead inspector and Environmental Specialist for the City of Portland’s Stormwater Maintenance Inspection Program. He is passionate about green infrastructure, native plants, and the ecology and watersheds of the Pacific Northwest. An avid traveler, backpacker, cyclist, and musician, Jason rarely finds a time or a place where water is not on his mind.
Board Member
Sherry Manning brings a background in program development and grants management to the GRiT board. She's the co-owner of Ecoroofs Oregon, and oversees the maintenance and care of more than 100,000 square feet of vegetated roof in the Portland Metro area. She loves working on ecoroofs, rain or shine, with the goal of ensuring they're diverse in species and support a wide array of birds, bees and invertebrates.