SPOTLIGHT ON SYNERGY WINNERS HUPP AND WHITWORTH
Each year, through its Synergy Awards, the CEC honors individuals and groups who are working to make a difference in the Houston area.
Steve Hupp, assistant technical manager of the Pollution Control Division of the Harris County Public Health and Environmental Services Department, is one of two winners of the Government award. He has worked for the agency for 25 years.
Hupp has been instrumental in the county’s workplace recycling program and massive clean-up work along the bayous. He chairs the Solid Waste Management Committee of the Houston-Galveston Area Council, serves on the Harris County Natural Resource Management Committee, and is a member of the advisory board to the Environmental Institute of Houston. He earned a BS degree in Environmental and Applied Sciences from Stephen F. Austin State University and an MS in Environmental Management from the University of Houston – Clear Lake. He nurtures a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department certified Wildscape and is an avid recycler and outdoorsman. He was an Eagle Scout.
The Founders award will be presented to Mary Ellen Whitworth, executive director of the Bayou Preservation Association. Whitworth has an MS in Environmental Engineering from the University of Houston and an MS and BS from Louisiana State University. Whitworth served as mayor Bob Lanier’s director of environmental policy for five years. She represents BPA on numerous boards and committees that affect water quality in the Houston area, including the Stormwater Joint Task Force technical advisory committee. She is also an interim member of the Citizen’s Advisory Committee of the Gulf of Mexico Program.
The awards ceremony will take place on Tuesday, Oct 10, at the downtown Crowne Plaza Hotel. Tickets to the event are $75, and sponsorship and table packages are available. For tickets, please call (713) 524-4232. Donations of unique, environmentally themed items for the silent auction will be appreciated. If you have a product, work of art, excursion, or service you would like to contribute, please contact Alesha Herrera at (713) 269-4881.