I prefer to use this column for topics related to the broader environmental community. This month, however, I will share with you some news of a more personal nature. I am stepping down as board president of the Citizens’ Environmental Coalition and handing the reigns of leadership to David Gresham, this year’s president-elect of the board of trustees. David has an energetic board and the dedicated, secondary leadership in place to lead the CEC in the coming years. Not only has David served as a trustee and treasurer, but he also has the first-hand experience of having served as CEC’s executive director in the mid-1990’s.

I am stepping down because of a significant change in my professional career. In June of this year I will enter the seminary to study to become a rabbi. The program includes one year of study in Jerusalem and four additional years of study in New York City.

While I am very excited about this new career path, it will be very difficult to leave the community that I have worked in since 1996. I have learned much about myself during the last six years, and many of the lessons I have learned will be relevant as I enter the rabbinate. Of course, it will be the people I have worked with that I will miss the most. I have always felt that we environmentalists in Houston – who work on the “front lines” of environmental issues – are necessarily optimistic, courageous individuals. It certainly is not a popular role.

I am honored to have served in the small role that I have in recent years, and I am disappointed that I failed to meet some of the goals that I set along the way. Most importantly, I am proud that there are dedicated, talented individuals ready to provide new leadership to the CEC.

As a native Houstonian, I will watch with close interest the developments in our hometown from afar. I pray that in the years ahead our air and water will become cleaner, our energy sources greener, our transportation options greater, and our children healthier. And if any of these things do happen, it will be only because of the dedicated work of people like you.