Our Story

At the epicenter for electric vehicle adoption, California has more electric cars on the road than any other region in the U.S, and is home to some of the greenest cities in the nation and the world. Unfortunately California has some of the least healthy air quality in the country, including the San Joaquin Valley basin, the Bay Area, and the inland empire metropolitan area in Southern California. When we factor in the “new normal” annual wildfire season, California air quality can sometimes be the worst in the world, as we saw in 2018.

The good news is California’s commitment to strong environmental standards. In 2016, California released the ZEV Emission Vehicle Plan and expanded it in 2018, with a target to put 5 million electric cars on California roads by 2030. In order for the State of California to reduce transportation greenhouse gas emissions by 20% from 1990 levels, it needs to promote electric transportation and cutting edge programs and technologies. With EV sales in California over 700,000, California has a long way to go to reach its ZEV goals. This is where Charge Across Town comes in – we have helped move the dial towards a 25% adoption rate at our statewide events.

Our Work

Over the past seven years, Charge Across Town (CAT) has been working across the state directly with consumers, community organizers, local government and the automotive industry to get people excited about driving and purchasing electric vehicles, and educating them about charging. Our approach has been to produce fun, user-friendly events, in a non-sales environment, for people to ask questions, talk to EV owners, learn about incentives, and of course take the cars out for a test-drive. Since 2012, we have conducted over 10,000 test-drives of all types of electric cars, surveyed over 20,000 consumers on EV attitudes and buying trends, worked with every major automotive company and local dealerships, and partnered with energy and infrastructure players to demonstrate charging solutions. Our data shows that when people can get behind the wheel of an electric car, and take it out for a spin, they are more likely to purchase an EV. As a matter of fact, over the past seven years, Charge Across Town has seen a 25% adoption rate of new and used EVs due to its educational test-drive events.

Some of the seminal work Charge Across Town has done include our annual EV Week(s), Driving on Sunshine, MTC’s Experience Electric #thebetterride, Veloz’ Best.Drive.EVer!, SMUD’s Drive Electric, The Governor’s Global Climate Action Summit Zero Emission Vehicle Showcase, and the Electrify America ZEV Awareness and Education Program for Disadvantaged and Low-Income Communities, where CAT is working with ValleyCAN Tune In and Tune Up on their ride and drive events across the central valley.

Our Team

Maureen Blanc

Executive Director

Maureen brings business and marketing acumen, and non-profit expertise to Charge Across Town, leading the charge in EV adoption.

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Maureen is a successful high-tech businesswoman and environmental entrepreneur. She spent 25 years in the private sector as a leader in high tech marketing and communications. Most recently, Maureen was director of Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2) Northern California from 2007-2010.

Maureen built one of the largest high tech PR firms, Blanc and Otus Public Relations, and sold the firm in 2000 to WPP, a world leader in marketing communications services. Blanc and Otus launched over 200 companies into emerging markets from enterprise computing, salesforce automation software, mobility, web-based broadcasting to Web 2.0, and clean technology companies. Maureen has spent the past 10 years in the non-profit sector working on domestic and international issues, and is an advisor and board member to world affairs, philanthropic, educational, and environmental organizations.

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Meg Ruxton

Partnerships Manager

Meg has established valuable alliances and partnerships with the EV sector and brings her strategic thinking to Charge Across Town.

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She is the principal of MNR Consultants, applies more than 20 years of experience in law, public affairs, city government, and sustainability to help clients develop strategic business opportunities, create contractual relationships and promote products and services.
Her focus is on sustainable transportation. She provides her clients with thorough research while developing creative business proposals. Meg is particularly passionate about initiatives which encourage electric vehicle adoption and establish the infrastructure to support clean cars and fleets in the Bay Area and throughout California. An active member of the State Bar of California since 1986, Meg practiced at San Francisco law firms for a decade and has served for three terms as a Commissioner for the Assessment Appeals Board.

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Karen Weber

Operations & Finance Director

Karen oversees all data collection and reporting metrics to track and measure Charge Across Town’s impact on EV adoption across California.

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Karen worked in the securities and management consulting industries before completing a Master of Nonprofit Administration degree at the University of San Francisco. Karen has been involved with many facets of nonprofit organizations including strategic planning, marketing, program evaluation, operational analyses, and fundraising. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of two local nonprofit organizations.

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Jenny Matchell

Northern California Event Manager

Jenny manages Charge Across Town’s EV educational and outreach events in Northern California.

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Jenny has over 15 years experience in the event management industry. As a graduate of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo with a degree Environmental Sciences she works mainly with nonprofit organizations, focusing her time on public health and sustainable event management. Through the years she has worked in all aspects of the industry including special events, youth programs, bike rides, and running events. She believes in the collaborative approach to event management and works closely with community partners, organizations, volunteers, and vendors to produce exemplary events.

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Bill Bright

EV Consumer Marketing and Ride and Drive Team Leader

Bill coordinates and executes our electric vehicle test drive efforts with partners, dealers, and educational organizations across the state.

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Bill is a seasoned event marketing project manager, with extensive consumer event marketing experience in the areas of EVs and alternative fuel vehicles. As a founding and principle member of the AAA Greenlight Initiative from 2005-2012, Bill designed and delivered a wide range of public and internal educational event campaigns including sales personnel training on the Greenlight Initiative. Since 2012 Bill has been a valuable member of the CAT team as a leader in managing EV test drive event components of CAT-led campaigns.

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Michelle Pierce

EV Ride and Drive Manager, SoCal

Michelle is a recognized electric vehicle enthusiast and advocate in the Inland Empire in Southern California. 

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She founded EV Nirvana, a company dedicated to the promotion, education, advocacy and sales of plug-in Electric Vehicles.  Michelle has deep expertise in EV education and outreach, strategic planning, EVSE site design and analysis, project management and EV charging best practices.  Michelle has delivered specialized presentations on Electric Vehicles and Charging Infrastructure, developing and executing outreach strategies with local utilities, community organizations, and faith-based organizations and advocating for federal and state policies for lower income residence to receive incentives that help them with buying or leasing Electric Vehicles.

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Board Members

Maureen Blanc

Board President

John Kalb

Board Secretary

John Kalb has more than 30 years of managerial, operational, and technical experience developing business opportunities from emerging trends.

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EV Charging Pros helps commercial property owners, workplaces, and multifamily HOAs across the country develop EV-specific business models and organizational plans; perform equipment vendor assessment; and manage site selection, RFP’s, bids, awards, and installations.

Before launching EV Charging Pros, John served as VP of EV Market Development for Evolvelectric, a company focused on electrical innovation with an emphasis on putting customers on the path to sustainability. Evolvelectric has installed more than 200 EV charging station in Northern California.

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Pam Wellner

Board Member

Communications Director, Clean Energy, Clean Air at ClimateWorks Foundation

Pamela has been working passionately for a sustainable planet for over 20 years. She is currently the director of program marketing and communications at ClimateWorks Foundation.

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She has directed communications campaigns for nonprofits, government and businesses focused on increasing energy efficiency, clean energy and electric vehicle adoption on behalf of California agencies such as the Air Resources Board, Energy Commission and Public Utilities Commission. She was senior manager for Energy Upgrade California, which won the 2017 Energy Star Excellence in Promotion Award, managed marketing for the Clean Vehicle Rebate Project, developed its brand strategy, as well as that of the California Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Project. Pamela also managed the 2016 CoolCalifornia City Challenge, a 22-city competition that engaged over 3,000 households to reduce their carbon footprint.

While at the California Public Utilities Commission, she focused on utility customer energy efficiency marketing and behavior change, helped create the Behavior Energy and Climate Change Conference and has frequently presented on behavior change approaches.

Before getting ensconced in California energy issues, Pamela directed cutting edge campaigns to protect old growth forests and human rights from unsustainable timber practices for products ranging from musical instruments to tissue paper and helped establish the Forest Stewardship Council.

She has a master’s in public administration from New York University and bachelor’s in human ecology from the small, but mighty, College of the Atlantic.

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Karen Weber

Board Treasurer

Francesca Wahl

Board Member, Business Development and Policy, Tesla

As part of the business development and policy team at Tesla, Francesca focuses on managing regulatory policy engagement on transportation electrification in California and electric vehicle charging infrastructure issues with key agencies, utilities, and cities across the country.

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Previously, she was the Senior Associate for Energy and Environmental Policy at the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, a public policy trade association representing more than 390 companies in Silicon Valley. Francesca has also worked on federal energy efficiency policy at the Alliance to Save Energy in DC, analyzed state recycling regulation and legislation, assisted governments and small businesses with implementing sustainability principles in their management plans, and served in the White House Liaison Office at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Francesca has a B.A. in Economics and Foreign Affairs with Distinction from the University of Virginia.

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Shawn Dillon

Board Member

Shawn is passionate about biking, urban mobility, equitable access to transportation, street design, and getting people to their destination safely with zero emissions.

Our Advisory Council

Get Involved!

Charge Across Town engages with community-based organizations, educational organizations, student interns, EV owners and volunteers to help bring our electric vehicle educational events to communities across California.

If your organization is interested in partnering with us, or if you’re interested in volunteering for one of our upcoming events, please contact us.

Our work is financed by local and state grants and programs, corporate sponsorships, and donations from individuals and philanthropic organizations.

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