Trisha Tull

“I am very impressed with the energy and commitment of the members and staff of HEC, and their reaching out to create a network of environmental education, activism, and change throughout Indiana. Most of all, I am impressed, in an age of combativeness, with the spirit of hopeful cooperation with which HEC invites participation across the state and advocates for change.”

Rev. Patricia (Trisha) Tull grew up, attended college, and attended seminary in the South. She settled in Jeffersonville, Indiana, in the southeast part of our state, 17 years ago. Last year, she and her spouse Don Summerfield (also an HEC supporter….thank you, Don!) built a house outside Henryville, IN in which one of their sons and his family are living with them during the pandemic. Everyone is learning about frogs, chipmunks, and spiders. And Trisha’s and Don’s 4-year-old granddaughter can name about a dozen of the birds at their feeders!

Now that they are semi-retired, Trisha and Don have been using most of their newfound time to explore just how well they can translate their environmental commitments into daily life. They built a solar-powered, net zero energy home and have been expanding their vegetable and fruit growing. They’ve long looked forward to teaching their grandkids about the outdoors as well.

Trisha first came to know the Hoosier Environmental Council when she was working part-time for Hoosier Interfaith Power & Light. “I am very impressed with the energy and commitment of the members and staff of HEC, and their reaching out to create a network of environmental education, activism, and change throughout Indiana. Most of all, I am impressed, in an age of combativeness, with the spirit of hopeful cooperation with which HEC invites participation across the state and advocates for change.”

Trisha says her faith has always been deeply connected to her sense of ethics. “My father, both a Presbyterian elder and an astronomer, taught me that there is no necessary discrepancy between faith and science. I believe humans have no right to do harm, and ought instead to actively support the well being of all who share this planet. We have been given hearts to love the world and intelligence to figure out how to live well in it, if we will only pay attention.”

Trisha is most concerned about two visible symptoms of climate change: air & water pollution and species extinction. “It breaks my heart that my grandchildren will grow up in a world that will be, at best, less colorful and bountiful than what we take for granted today. I’ve spent the last fifteen years writing and teaching about the climate crisis from a faith perspective, and about what ordinary people can do to help mend the world. I pray that, with guidance from HEC and other brilliant organizations, we will find our way through.”