Green Hands USA: America Volunteers
About Us
We created Green Hands USA to make volunteering to help clean up and green up our local communities easy and fun. Research shows that volunteering to help others makes people feel great and do better in life.
Green Hands USA is a national volunteer movement devoted to helping local communities succeed in their green projects.
We offer free step-by-step guides and how-to videos on how to organize and run volunteer clean up and green up events for individuals, schools, corporations, and not-for-profits.
We established two National Green Volunteer Days, on the first Saturday in May and October, for spring and fall clean ups.
We offer free tools to help organize events or bring volunteers to an existing event through our zip code matching software and our opt-in network of volunteers.
We also offer green tips to inspire everyday citizens to lead greener lives. All of our content and services is free, thanks to our sponsors
We believe that if we roll up our sleeves and act together, we can make a difference in cleaning up and greening up our neighborhoods, towns, our country and, ultimately, our planet.
GREEN HANDS USA TEAM
CATHERINE BILLON, Founder and CEO
Catherine Billon has spent 20 years devising and launching new businesses in media and entertainment companies such as Time Warner, Discovery Channel, Columbia Tri-Star, National Geographic Television and two Internet start-ups. In January 2006, she founded Green Hands USA out of the desire to connect people, ideas, and information around a movement of positive social and environmental change. Although lately she's been focused on building Green Hands USA into the leading eco-friendly media company, she hopes to get back to skiing in the mountains of Colorado some time in the distant future. She graduated from Brown University and Columbia Business School.
THOMAS "RUSTY" CORISTINE, Founder and President
Rusty Coristine is an accomplished industry leader with nearly 30 years experience in media, digital, mobile and entertainment. Rusty specializes in new product development for multi-media properties and brand advertising sales management. His experience includes serving in senior executive positions at Time Warner, Six Flags Theme Parks, People Magazine and Niven-Coristine Entertainment, a partnership with film and television producer David Niven, Jr. NCE specialized in national fund-raising and public relations events for non-profit organizations, including UNICEF. His efforts helped produce the 50th Anniversary Show for UNICEF at the United Nations General Assembly.Rusty has been involved in environmental issues for several years with "Save the Bay" in his native state, Rhode Island and was responsible for writing and passing the Narragansett Bay Oyster Restoration Act, legislation which helps restore the shellfish population and produce a cleaner saltwater ecosystem for Narragansett Bay.
Rusty began his career in the media department at Grey Advertising before joining Playboy Magazine, Rolling Stone Magazine and Billboard Entertainment in promotion and advertising sales positions. He is a graduate of Bryant College.
WILL NICKLIN, Technical Advisor
Will Nicklin has 20 years experience helping companies grow by leveraging technology. Having started as a developer, Will moved on to bridge IT with business in the commerce, publishing and health industries, most recently as VP Technology at Matria Healthcare (through acquisition of Miavita, Inc - where he was a member of the founding management team). A desire to return to the adventures of startups and a keen interest in the environment led him to join Green Hands USA. To keep balance outside work, Will likes to keep up his karate practice and explore ways to put sustainable living into practice back at his family home in rural Virginia.
SUSAN SELIGER, SVP, Editorial Advisor
Susan Seliger is an award-winning writer and editor who has helped launch and re-launch four web sites before her favorite: Green Hands USA. Working as a top-level executive at a number of national magazines and organizations including Time Inc, Hearst, Dow Jones and Working Mother Magazine, she has honed a blend of editorial expertise and business savvy. She is the author of a health book, STOP KILLING YOURSELF: Make Stress Work for You (Putnam’s) and the ghostwriter of WONDERFUL MARRIAGE: What You Can Do To Make Love Last a Lifetime (to be published Spring 2008).Her work has been published in New York Magazine, The Economist, Travel & Leisure, Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel, Redbook, Self, McCall's, Ladies Home Journal, The Washington Post, WebMD.com, to name a few.By night, she is an occasional storyteller who has performed original material in Manhattan theater clubs. (Don’t tell her mother.) She is a Clarion Award winner and holds an M.A. and a B.A. from the University of Chicago. (Her mother knows that.)
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