About Us

About Us

MEET THE LOCALYST TEAM, WHERE EVERYTHING FROM SOLAR-POWERED GAMING TO GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICHES AND SUSTAINABLE FASHION INSPIRES OUR WORK.

Eli Andrews

Eli, Localyst CEO, has a love for renewable energy that goes back to childhood, when his dad used to cook grilled cheese sandwiches in a homemade solar oven. When he’s not working with the Localyst team to bring you stories about a possible future full of clean air, clean water, and healthy forests for our kids, you can find him teaching a sustainability class in the business school at Penn State.

Dana Schultz

Dana is the partnerships director for Localyst. She's an organizer and mom of two who used to see environmentalism as something important but more of a side issue for people who could. It shifted front and center for her since she realized that the pollution blanket (carbon in the air) is suffocating humans out of their livelihoods, impacting her life and her kids’ futures.

Mariia Vysochina

Mariia is Localyst's data and tech director. Her passion for sustainability was born when she realized that her closet full of brand new fast fashion clothes would be in the dump soon while the quality jeans that she had [stolen!] from her mom still looked like new after 10 years of use. Now she thinks twice before buying anything, and her first stop is always her local second-hand and vintage shops.

Earl Balisi-Smith

Earl is Localyst's product designer. "Captain Planet and the Planeteers" inspired him as a kid and he is now motivated by the passion of young people in the climate movement. He developed appreciation for new kinds of diversity when he recently moved from San Francisco to rural America.

Alanna Smith

Alanna, Localyst's project manager, was inspired by nature documentaries to protect our planet. A native New Yorker and a self-proclaimed “city girl,” she visited Yellowstone National Park last month for the first time recently. Seeing bison in the road and the pristine wilderness first hand inspired her to move out west.

Devonte Gibson

Devonte, Localyst's digital media associate, kickstarted his renewable energy journey using a solar panel to recharge his Xbox controller batteries, now enjoys exploring our beautiful planet. Growing up in Florida, he has witnessed regular flooding and destruction and believes that now more than ever we need to take action to make sure the state he loves will remain above water into the future.