Max Steitz
Treasurer

Max Steitz is the Co-Founder and Co-Director of Glass Half Full. Max was born and raised in New York City before he moved to New Orleans to attend Tulane University. Before starting Glass Half Full, Max Co-Founded Serengetee, a global fabric company that supports artisans, their families, and ancient fabric-making traditions as a freshman in high school.

While at Tulane, Max Co-Founded Give Back 2020, a student-led movement to drive giving in local communities nationwide -- raising more than $65,000 for New Orleans small-businesses, musicians, and The Second Harvest Food Bank. As a Sophomore at Tulane, Max Co-Founded Plant the Peace, an environmental non-profit that has worked to plant more than 100,000 trees around the world which sequester millions of pounds of carbon from the atmosphere annually.

Jodie Kimball
Secretary

Jodie Kimball graduated in 2000 with a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the College of Staten Island, NY. She has been with the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality since 2002 working as an Environmental Scientist in various programs including Regulation Development, State Implementation Plan, Emissions Inventory, Solid Waste Permits, and the Environmental Scientist Manager over Waste Permits. Jodie is currently a Senior Staff Scientist in the Waste Tire Section of Waste Permits.

Franziska Trautmann
Board Member / Marketing Committee

Franziska Trautmann, a Louisiana native, graduated with honors from Tulane University with her degree in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. She combined her love for the environment and science in order to found and grow Glass Half Full alongside Max Steitz in the spring of 2020. Within the company, she manages communications, recycling operations, and research on expanding their impact, such as using recycled glass sand in coastal restoration. She also prides herself on keeping up with Glass Half Full’s social media network of over 250,000 people from around the world. Franziska and Max also founded Nola Alchemy, which creates jewelry and Mardi Gras Beads from recycled glass, and Glassroots, a nonprofit dedicated to expanding accessibility to recycling.

Ivy Mathieu
Board Member

Ivy Mathieu is currently a retiree who is enjoying volunteering opportunities that drive two of her passions, nurturing and developing People and the Environment. Those passions drove her to get involved with the Human Services subcommittee for the St. John Road to Recovery after Hurricane Isaac. Following this, Ivy became involved with LA SAFE community meetings that led to becoming a table host through the Foundation for Louisiana and found an opportunity to continue her passions. Her involvement led to Ivy’s appointment to St. John Parish Coastal Advisory Committee in October 2017.

During her 35 plus year career as a Human Resources Leader including Training & Development, and Risk Management professional experiences in the telecommunications and health care industries, she still made time to give back into the communities she lives in (Gainesville, FL and Tucson, AZ). She sat on the boards of Big Brothers/Big Sisters (and became a Big Sister), United Way Allocation, and on the subcommittee of Dress for Success. In the 80s she initiated efforts at her telecommunication company to do away with the use of Styrofoam cups and the recycling of white paper.

As a person who was reared in Edgard (Lucy) and schooled in Louisiana (proud graduate of Xavier University), and who enjoys fishing, gardening, and recycling, she returned home from Gainesville and Tucson to continue giving back to her community.

Don Bates
Board Member

Don Bates is the owner/founder of Osprey Initiative, LLC and the inventor of the Litter Gitter. A graduate of Millsaps College (B.S. Geology 1992), he has over 25 years of experience in the environmental consulting business. Prior to starting Osprey Initiative, LLC, he was an Executive Vice President for a Southeast Regional Civil Engineering firm where he managed operations for 250 people in 12 offices in 7 states.  

Born in Hammond, Louisiana, he grew up in the swamps around Manchac, Louisiana and still gets back to the Galva Club fish camp whenever he can. He has spent most of his life in and around waterways and has a passion for maintaining and improving our natural resources.  Married with 4 children, he feels that the best legacy he can leave to future generations is access to wild places un-marred by human impacts.  When not removing litter from our waterways, he can usually be found working on an old boat.

Greg Guidroz

Board Member

Greg is a native of Breaux Bridge currently serving as Recycling Supervisor for Lafayette Consolidated Government and is responsible for overseeing the city’s curbside recycling program, household hazardous waste collection program, and Lafayette’s municipally owned and operated yard waste composting facility. He holds a B.S. in Environmental and Sustainable Resources from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and has 20+ years’ experience as an environmental educator, with a focus in water quality and aquatic litter abatement.

He is an Eagle Scout, former US Marine, and longtime community activist who helped improve Lafayette’s festival recycling program with the assistance of grant funds from Keep Louisiana Beautiful, Keep America Beautiful, and the Stuller Family Foundation. Greg was selected by his peers as the Bayou Vermilion Preservation Association’s 2014 Visionary of the Year, and received the Keep Louisiana Beautiful 2015 Golden Can Award for his volunteer service with festival recycling.