WHO WE ARE
Meet the team behind Salus Terra
We are living through not only the greatest challenge humanity has ever faced, but also our greatest opportunity for change. At Salus Terra, we are bold change makers. We are proud generalists. We are tireless optimists hell bent on changing the way humanity relates to our environment, by focusing on the communities in which we live.
PAT MCHEFFEY
FOUNDER
I am a local politician-turned environmental leader, with experience in government, academic research, business, and finance, whose work focuses upon addressing the climate crisis from the grassroots level, by identifying opportunities for community-level change and inspiring local action to seize those opportunities.
EDUCATION
Master of Urban Affairs, Boston University
Bachelor of Science, Roger Williams University
MY STORY
I combine the lessons I've learned about community building, with the passion I have for environmentalism, to create a unique message: we can address the greatest challenge of our time - the climate crisis - while making vibrant, equitable, and sustainable communities in which to live. I was fortunate enough to learn community development from some of the most remarkable minds in the game. In Boston, I learned comprehensive community development from the leaders of Boston Community Capital (now BlueHub Capital), an industry-leading CDFI with over $2.6B invested across the country. In the iconic Village of Patchogue, I learned downtown revitalization and community leadership from the great Mayor Paul Pontieri, who took a disinvested town that others wrote off, and created what the American Planning Association recently deemed one of America's greatest places to live. After serving in local government for several years, I saw a need for an organization that could combine the vision, the hope, the ambition needed to tackle the climate crisis, with the practical realities of muncipal governance. I established Salus Terra to distill such a perspective into actionable items that would be valuable to leaders in local and state governments across the United States. It's my hope that you find Salus Terra to be, not only a source of information, but also a wealth of inspiration; that it leaves you charged up and ready to introduce change in your own community -- because I truly believe that small actions, on a broad scale, create transformative change.
OUR PURPOSE
We envision a world of vibrant, equitable, sustainable communities.
Cicero famously proclaimed that the health of The People ought to be the supreme law, Salus Populi Suprema Lex Esto. We believe that the health of the Earth should be the supreme law, Salus Terra Suprema Lex Esto. We work to make that a reality by focusing on community-level change.
CORE VALUES:
Learning
We continually engage with the leading organizations, researchers, and experts to understand the broad spectrum of climate activism, and how it plays out at the community level.
Strategy
We break complex topics down into actionable narratives, so that you can make the impact you're called to make.
Responsibility
At the core of it all, we believe that everyone of us has a duty to fulfill. Advancing sustainability at the community level is ours.