In addition to serving on the Smart Yards Education board, Debbie currently chairs Peninsula Interfaith Climate Action (PICA), a group with members from 18 local congregations working on solutions to the climate crisis. She also co-chairs the outreach Committee of Fossil Free Buildings for Silicon Valley, working to promote electrification with “clean, green” electricity that will reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that are disrupting Earth’s climate.

Trained through Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project, Debbie offers talks about climate change to community groups. She also serves of the legislative committee of 350 Silicon Valley, and volunteers as an Outdoor Activities Docent with the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District.

Debbie earned a B.A. with honors in Social Psychology at UC Berkeley and studied journalism at Stanford. In her free time, she grows fruits and vegetables in her organic garden, sings in the choir of the Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship of Redwood City, and when she’s not bicycling, feels good about driving her electric vehicle. She lives in Palo Alto, with her husband Thomas Atwood and has three grown children and five grandchildren — and they are why she is so concerned about reducing the threat of climate change.