Our Steering Committee

Green Caucus Conveners

The Rev. Stephanie Johnson

Diocese of Connecticut

For 20 years before I was ordained, I was an environmental planner and educator.  I have a Master of Sacred Theology in environmental ministries from Yale. My first call upon ordination was working for Province 1 doing environmental work, focused on energy efficiency (partially in response to the GG resolution the Genesis Covenant for a 50% reduction in energy use across the church) Under PB Schori,  I organized an international program with TEC, ECLA and the Church of Sweden on the climate crisis. I participated in the Connecticut diocesan working group that developed the additional baptismal covenant language about the integrity of creation, which is being used around the church and in Canada.

At GC in 2018, I was honored to address the joint House of Bishops and Deputies in a “TED like” talk about “How to Care for Creation.” I subsequently was asked to write a short book based on my talk for Church Publishing entitled  appropriately enough “How Can I Care for Creation.” For 8 years I served as Chair/Co-Chair of the Episcopal Church’s Task Force on the Care of Creation and Environmental Racism. In those years, the TF, among other things, oversaw the awarding of $1 million in grants, started the monthly Creation Care Compline and initiated a young adult ecojustice fellows project.  For more than 9 years I have served  the Advisory Board for the Center for Earth Ethics and the Leadership Circle for Blessed Tomorrow/EcoAmerica.

My current effort is with a newly formed collaborative “Hope Justice Climate” (with Dr. Delia Heck, Rev. Melanie Mullen and Phoebe Chatfield)  offering workshops and training including launching a new Certificate in Climate Justice and Spiritual Resilience at Bexley Seabury. I currently serve as the co-convenor of the Green Caucus. I am rector at St. Paul’s Church in Riverside, CT

The Rev. Jerry Cappel

Diocese of Kentucky

I am a retired Episcopal Priest in the Diocese of Kentucky. I have an M.Div. from Harding Graduate School of Religion in Memphis and a Ph.D. from Southern Seminary in Louisville, KY. In retirement I serve as Environmental Network Coordinator of Province IV and as President of the Center for Deep Green Faith. That Center’s work focuses upon Nature Contemplation, Eco-Theology, and Faith leadership in Creation Care. I currently serve as the co-convenor of the caucus.

Committee Members

Canon Barbie Okamoto Bach

Diocese of New Jersey

Barbie Okamoto Bach is a lay Canon in the Diocese of New Jersey where she has been appointed by several bishops to lead racial justice (anti-racism and reparations) and environmental ministries for 30 years.  She has received an Outstanding Service Award from the UBE and Black Clergy Caucus and a Distinguished Service Award from Dioc NJ ECW.  Canon Barbie has been a deputy to 79th, 80th, and 81st General Conventions, has served on three Legislative Committees and interim body Task Force for Care of Creation and Environmental Racism, was a founding member of the Green Deputies Caucus (now Green Caucus) at GC in 2024, and is co-chair of Asian Caucus of Deputies of Color.  She has been elected as deputy to the 82nd General Convention in Phoenix in 2027.  Barbie was selected to represent PB Michael Curry as a delegate to the United Nations global climate Conference of the Parties (COP26 and COP28) in Glasgow and Dubai.  As a geologist and environmental scientist, she taught Earth Sciences at NE Illinois Univ, worked as a petroleum geologist for Amoco, at the US Geological Survey, and at the US Environmental Protection Agency headquarters. She has served on the Conservation Council of The Nature Conservancy-NJ for ten years.  Barbie worships at St Paul’s Episcopal Church in Westfield NJ where she is a Eucharistic Minister, usher, gardener, and joyful handbell player.

The Rev. Daniel Tamm

Diocese of Los Angeles

Deacon Tamm serves Holy Nativity Parish in Los Angeles. Daniel works among coalitions for housing justice, climate action, and economic justice, including the countywide Faith Collaborative to End Homelessness, Our Future Los Angeles, Los Angeles Faith & Ecology Network, the Episcopal Diocese of LA’s Bishop's Commission on Climate Change, which he co-chairs, and the Green Caucus of the Episcopal Church, on the steering committee and advocacy working group, and the Creation Care Compline working group. Daniel engages immigrant and workers’ rights with CLUE Justice. For his collaborative work with environmentalists and faith leaders Daniel received the 2025 Climate Advocacy Award from California Interfaith Power & Light.

Daniel came to the diaconate from political organizing. He had served several terms on the Executive Committee of the CA Democratic Party. He has facilitated spiritual practice, and spiritual care at Holy Nativity, All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Beverly Hills, and St. Michael’s Ministry Center, Riverside, CA. He is President of Stillpoint, the Center for Christian Spirituality. https://stillpointca.org/ 

Warren Wong

Diocese of California

A lay leader in DioCal, which covers the six counties in the San Francisco Bay Area, I have been elected to nine General Conventions as lay alternate (2X) and deputy (7X), serving on GC legislative committees (6X). My interim bodies experience includes: chair, GC Joint  Standing Committee on Nominations; chair, Economic Justice Loan Committee (2X); Corporate Social Responsibility Committee (3X); Creation Care & Environmental Racism Task Force; DFMS Executive Council (2015-22); and past president, Province VIII (18 dioceses).  In addition to my role on the Green Caucus, I have serve on The Consultation steering committee (9X); past convenor, Deputies of Color (3X) coordinating training for first-time GC deputies & alternates from the four caucuses (African Descent, AAPI, Indigenious, and Latino) including late night strategy sessions during GC; and as the GCO training liaison to the  Diocese of Taiwan (2X).

To date, I have personally crafted about 60 resolutions/canons for interim bodies, Blue Book Reports, General Convention, DFMS Executive Council, Provincial Synods, and diocesan conventions. I have offered testimony during the legislative committee hearing and whipped voting blocs on the House of Deputies floor strategy. I've found that good legislation starts with working with stakeholders in developing action items with concise resolution language.

Deborah White

Diocese of Nevada

Now a layperson member of The Episcopal Church, I served both as ordained elder and deacon for the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) in the late 1980s/1990s. My “first career” was as a CPA/MBA for several decades, mainly for Arthur Andersen & Co. in downtown Los Angeles, culminating at the Manager level. My “second career” was as Editor/Writer for the New York Times digital for a decade, covering a wide range of political issues including environmental matters. For 3 two-year terms, I was publicly elected to be regional delegate to the California Democratic Party.  I am currently a Digital Creator for Facebook, focusing on environmental and political issues, and have deep, long-term experience with blogs and website development. 

I graduated from UCLA with a BA in news/nonfiction writing from its Film School, and from Cal State Long Beach with an MBA. I’ve served as instructor of business courses at University of California Irvine and at two Cal State campuses. I’ve been an instructor of writing and literacy for the Placentia (California) Public Library system. 

In May 2022, I completed a one-year post-graduate program in “Faith and Climate Justice” at Pacific Lutheran Seminary (at UC Berkeley). Among my 29 cohorts from around the world was Phoebe Chatfield, who recommended my name to Emily Hopkins for the fledgling Green Caucus, then in process of formation. I hail from a multi-generation family tradition of hands-on caring for our beautiful world. Some of my fondest early memories are of visiting my grandfather when he worked as a U.S. Forest Ranger (and firespotter) in Big Sur, California. I am a dues-paying member of the Sierra Club and the Mono Lake Committee, and express my commitment to Creation Care through use of my skills to strengthen the Green Caucus of The Episcopal Church, and as part of the 3-person Creation Care ministry team in the Diocese of Nevada.

The Rev. Pamela Dolan  

Diocese of Northern California

For almost nine years I've been the rector of the Episcopal Church of St. Martin in Davis, California. We've been a net zero-carbon parish since 2021; our path to becoming carbon-neutral has been featured in articles by ENS and a short film by Fossil Free Zones that was shown at COP28 . I'm the author of the book Contemplative Gardening (Church Publishing, 2022) and have been involved in creation care efforts in the Episcopal Church for most of the 15 years I've been a priest. I co-chair the Commission on the Environment for the Diocese of Northern California, and have had legislative success at both the diocesan and General Convention levels, helping write and pass resolutions committing the church to working to become carbon neutral by 2030. I have led retreats on church gardens and creation care throughout the church and even in rural Tanzania. I have been trained as a labyrinth facilitator, a Spirituality in Nature leader, and worked in Christian Formation and academia before being ordained. My family recently moved to a farmhouse in the country where we are in the very beginning stages of learning to homestead. 

General Convention 81 in Louisville was my first experience as a deputy, and I found it invaluable to work with the Green Caucus to help sharpen my focus and organize my time and energy on the issues that matter most to me. I'm part of the deputation for Northern California again

The Rev. Payton Hoegh

Diocese of Los Angeles

A priest in the Diocese of Los Angeles, I serve our diocesan community as the Chaplain for Disaster Resilience & Recovery and co-chair of the Bishop’s Commission on Climate Change. Alongside this local and regional work, I am Program Director of the Center for Spirituality in Nature. Much of my work with the Center finds me designing and leading contemplative programming and resources that invite deepened spiritual experiences that are creation-attuned. This work involves teaching, spiritual formation, practice facilitation, and community building. I have worked closely with the Episcopal Church as a member of the writing team on the Love God, Love God’s World  Creation Care curriculum and in denominational leadership development programs funded by VTS’s Try Tank program and Trinity Wall Street.