Northeast Recycling Council elects leadership

The board of directors for the Northeast Recycling Council (NERC), Brattleboro, Vermont, has elected the association’s leadership team, whose terms were effective July 1. NERC is a nonprofit organization that conducts research, projects, training and outreach on issues associated with source reduction, reuse, recycling, composting and environmentally preferable purchasing.

Kaley Laleker of the Maryland Department of the Environment has been re-elected to a second term as president, Robert Isner of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has been elected as vice president and Rick Watson of the Delaware Solid Waste Authority has been re-elected as treasurer for a third term. 

Laleker is director of the Land and Materials Administration at the Maryland Department of the Environment. The Land and Materials Administration includes the solid waste, resource management, oil control, lead poisoning prevention, mining, technical services and operations and land restoration programs. She formerly served as the deputy director of the department and has a law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law.

Isner is the director of the Waste Engineering and Enforcement Division at the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CT DEEP). His responsibilities include managing enforcement, permitting and compliance assistance activities for the recycling, pesticide, solid waste and hazardous waste programs. Prior to joining CT DEEP, Isner worked for more than eight years as a municipal land use planner for two municipalities in Connecticut. He holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Connecticut and a Master of Science from Central Connecticut State University.

Watson is the chief executive officer of the Delaware Solid Waste Authority (DSWA). He leads the organization, which is responsible for managing all municipal solid waste, recycling, household hazardous waste, electronic waste and other special waste programs for the entire state of Delaware. He joined DSWA in 1981 as a project engineer for the state’s first double-lined sanitary landfill. Through the next 37 years, he oversaw design, construction and operation of solid waste projects, including landfills, transfer stations, landfill gas control systems and various recycling projects. He has a Bachelor of Science in civil and environmental engineering from Clarkson University and a Master of Science in civil engineering from the University of Delaware.