Environmental Stewardship Leadership & Awards
Our leadership and caregivers work closely to plan and act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help build more resilient communities. Together, with our more than 120,000 caregivers across seven states, we can transform our practices, purchases and behaviors to ensure we are caring for our common home.
Environmental stewardship reports directly to leadership at the most senior level of the organization. Each leader holds accountability and ownership in contributing to our bold goal.
Caregiver Green Teams
Our environmental stewardship progress would not be possible without the engagement of caregivers across the system. All our hospitals are represented by a Green Team or environmentally focused affinity group. Green Teams in Providence focus on education and engagement of caregivers related to our environmental stewardship goals and progress. They can help drive change in hospital operations through their familiarity with the sites – their input is invaluable for what we call “the secret sauce” - caregiver engagement.
Environmental Stewardship Core Team
- Ali Santore, Chief Communication and External Affairs Officer
- Beth Schenk, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, chief environmental stewardship officer
- Brian Chesebro, M.D., medical director, environmental stewardship
- Oriana Turley, RN, Program Manager, Environmental Stewardship
- Kristy Pelletier, RN, Clinical Program Coordinator, Environmental Stewardship
- Sister Sara Tarango, environmental stewardship liaison to Southern California; Sister of St. Joseph of Orange
- David Thomsen, Director Real Estate, Infrastructure and Environmental Stewardship
- Geoff Glass, Consultant, Energy and Environmental Stewardship
- Darcy Moxon, Program Manager, Environmental Stewardship, Alaska
- Frank Papp, Senior Program Manager, Environmental Stewardship, Puget Sound
- Mike Geller, Senior Program Manager, Environmental Stewardship, Oregon
- Sarah Johnson, RN, Clinical Program Manager, Environmental Stewardship, Montana
Key Partners
- Alex Sokoll, Senior Communication Specialist, Environmental Stewardship Liaison
- Jocelyn Jazwiec, Manager Service Engineering, Environmental Stewardship Liaison
- Sarah Wilkerson, Executive Director Infectious Disease Management and Prevention
- Nathan Becker, Senior Manager Supply Chain, Environmental Stewardship Liaison
- Dinah Tomas, Supply Chain Program Manager, Environmental Stewardship Liaison
- Emily Ford, Government Relations Director, Environmental Stewardship Liaison
- Cylix Shane, Facilities Planner, Environmental Stewardship Liaison
- Liz Tuttle, Manager Surgical Services RN, Green Team Lead, Environmental Stewardship Liaison
- Providence Global Center, WE ACT Scorecard Team
National and Global Leadership
- Awarded The Joint Commission Sustainable Healthcare Certification for all 51 hospitals in the Providence network in 2024 and successfully re-certified in 2026
- Received Scope 1 and 2 GHG inventory verification by SCS Global for emission year 2025 for all clinical services
- Partner of the American Society for Health Care Engineering and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers to work to advance codes and standards for environmental sustainability in health care. This includes partnering on a decarbonization study of Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia, Washington, to describe how to convert a fossil fuel-heating plant to electric sources.
- Member of the Health Care Climate Council through Healthcare Without Harm
- Early signatory to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Sector Climate Pledge, and now Health Care Without Harm’s Health Sector CARES pledge
- Member of the National Academy of Medicine Action Collaborative on Decarbonization of the U.S. Health Sector
- Participant and speaker at the United Nations Council of Parties 27 and 28
- Commitment to America Is All In
- Commitment to Race to Zero
What Our Caregivers Are Saying
"As a mechanical engineer, I love to understand how we can improve upon those systems without impacting, or even improving, patient care. Many of our hospitals were built decades ago and it will take significant effort to improve their efficiency but for each location we are establishing energy use targets." - David Thomsen, director, infrastructure and environmental stewardship
“As the medical director of environmental stewardship, I recognize the crossroads upon which we sit of taking responsibility for our footprint and the downstream impacts of public health. Environmental stewardship and health are intractably linked to our approach in health care and medicine. Our vision is health for a better world, and in the inverse, we need a better world for health.” - Brian Chesebro, M.D., chief medical officer, environmental stewardship, Oregon
“The health of our world, the health of our environment and human health are interconnected. Caring for creation is part of how we care for one another." - Sister Sara Tarango, Environmental Stewardship Liaison to Southern California; Sister of St. Joseph of Orange
Have questions?
Please send us an email at environmental.stewardship@providence.org.