National Leadership Summit:
Natural Resources & Climate Change
Participants' Biographies
Nov. 3, 2006
| Peter Alexander Executive Director, Biodiversity Project |
Ray C. Anderson Chairman of Interface, Inc. |
| William Becker Senior Advisor to the Global Energy Center for Community Sustainability |
Willaim J. Bertera Executive Director, Water Resources Federation |
| Rosina Bierbaum Dean and Professor of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy at the School of Natural Resources and Environment, The University of Michigan |
William D. Browning Partner, Browning + Bannon, LLC |
| David Crockett Associate, CitiStates Group |
John R. Ehrmann Founder and Senior Partner of the Meridian Institute |
| Jane Elder Senior Advisor, Biodiversity Project |
Ira Feldman President and Senior Counsel, Greentrack strategies |
| Susan Fletcher Head of the Environmental Policy Section of the Congressional Research Service at the Congressional Research Service (CRS) |
Barry Gold Director, Marine Conservation Program, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation |
| Elisabeth Graffy Coordinator for Natural Resource and Environmental Indicators for the U.S. Department of the Interior |
Charles "Chip" G. Groat Director of the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy, Director of the Energy and Earth Resources Graduate Program |
| Allison Hannon Researcher, The Climate Group |
Maureen Hart President of Sustainable Measures |
| Jim Hartzfeld Managing Director, InterfaceRAISE |
Susan Joy Hassol Climate Analyst and Author |
| William Hohenstein Director, Global Change Program Office, U.S. Department of Agriculture |
John P. Holdren Director of the Woods Hole Research Center |
| Douglas Inkley Senior Science Advisor, National Wildlife Federation |
Chris Laszlo Partner and co-founder of Sustainable Value Partners, Inc. |
| Jonathan Lindeen Lead Researcher Presidential Climate Action Plan |
David Orr Paul Sears distinguished professor of environmental studies and politics at Oberlin College |
| Eric S. Palola Executive Director for Wildlife Restoration, National Wildlife Federation |
James Morgan Pitts Co-chair and Founder of the Oberlin Environmental Policy Implementation Group (EPIG) |
| Janet Ranganathan Director of the People and Ecosystems Program at the World Resources Institute |
Matt Ries Managing Director of Technical and Educational Services at the Water Environment Federation |
| Nancy Saracino Chief Deputy Director of California's Department of Water Resources (DWR) |
Mark Schaefer CEO of the Global Environment and Technology Foundation |
| Dr. Ann Sorensen Assistant Vice President for Research for American Farmland Trust |
Deborah Spalding Chief Investment Officer, Chaplin Global LLC |
| Jeremy Symons Director of the Global Warming Campaign at the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) |
Heidi VanGenderen Senior Associate to the Wirth Chair in Environmental and Community Development Policy at the University of Colorado |
| Michael J. Walsh Senior Vice President of Chicago Climate Exchange, Inc. |
Carol Werner Executive Director of the Environmental and Energy Study Institute |
| John Williams Senior Vice President, HDR |
Larry Winter Deputy Director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Hydrology and Water Resources at the University of Arizona |
| David Yarnold Executive Vice President, Environmental Defense |
Peter Alexander, is Executive Director of Biodiversity Project, a position he took in September 2005. "I inherited some outstanding staff, and a solid, 10-year record of achievements, including some of the best available research, publications, and handbooks on environmental communications." Building on that foundation, Peter has been working for the past year to expand the reach and effectiveness of the organization. His focus has been to strengthen existing programs and to design new ones that can help environmental organizations throughout North America communicate more effectively about their issues.
Previously, Peter served as executive director of New England Coalition, the northeast's leading safe-energy advocacy organization, where he worked closely with the Vermont and New Hampshire State Legislatures addressing policy issues related to both nuclear power and renewable energy.
Peter also served as the executive director of the Center for Energy Efficiency, where he designed and ran award winning energy efficiency programs for the State Energy Office of New Mexico and the US Department of Energy.
Peter holds an MS in Environmental Studies from Antioch University New England in Keene, New Hampshire. His undergraduate studies were at St. Johns College in Annapolis and at Eastern Oregon University. He is an accomplished musician and expert sailor, and has a special love for the coast of Maine.
Ray C. Anderson is the Chairman of Interface, Inc. In 1997, Ray described his vision for his company - then nearly a quarter-century old - this way:
"If we're successful, we'll spend the rest of our days harvesting yester year's carpets and other petrochemically derived products, and recycling them into new materials; and converting sunlight into energy; with zero scrap going to the landfill and zero emissions into the ecosystem. And we'll be doing well ... very well ... by doing good. That's the vision."
The entrepreneurial drive and competitive spirit that in 1973 drove Ray to found Interface - a company that would revolutionize the modern office environment with its modular carpet tile products - was the same catalyst for an environmental awakening that has once again transformed an industry. Today, Interface stands at the forefront of a new industrial revolution. The company has reduced its environmental footprint by one third, redesigning processes and products, pioneering new technologies and reducing or eliminating waste and harmful emissions while increasing the use of renewable materials and sources of energy.
Because the commitment Interface has made is so unique, the community has embraced the company and lauded its efforts. Today, Ray is recognized as one of the world's most environmentally progressive chief executives, having served as co-chairman of the President's Council on Sustainable Development during the Clinton administration; being recognized by Mikhail Gorbechev with a Millennium Award from Global Green in September 1996; receiving in 1996 the Ernest & Young Entrepreneur of Year for the Southeast Region and in 1997 as the Georgia Conservancy's Conservationist of the Year, and being honored by Southface Energy Institute with its Argon Award in 2000.
Ray's honors also include the prestigious George and Cynthia Mitchell International Prize for Sustainable Development, presented in 2001; the SAM-SPG Sustainability Leadership Awardof 2001; the U.S. Green Building Council's Inaugural Leadership Award, 2002; and the National Wildlife Federation Conservation Achievement Award for Corporate Leadership, 2002. Ray was in 2003 named a Senior Fellow and Leading Voice for Green and Sustainable Designby the Design Futures Council. The International Interior Design Associationpresented Ray withits Star Awardin 2004, and the Southern Institute for Business and Professional Ethics presented him with its National Ethics Advocate Awardthat year. In 2005, he received the Ally Award at the Possible Womanconference, as well as the Harvard Business School Atlanta Alumni's 2005 Community Leadership Award .
The World Business Academy honored Ray with its Global MindChange Business Responsibility Awardin 2005, and the International Furnishings & Design Association's New York Chapter presented him with the Enlightened Manufacturer Award. The Children's Health and Environmental Coalition honored Ray with a Corporate Stewardship Awardat its "One World, One Child" event in 2005.
An honors graduate of Georgia Institute of Technology, Ray learned the carpet trade through 14-plus years at various positions at Deering-Milliken and Callaway Mills, and in 1973, set about founding a company to produce the first free-lay carpet tiles in America . He developed a partnership with Britain's Carpets International Plc. that year, set up operations in LaGrange, Georgia, took over Carpets International 10 years later, and today commands the world's largest producer of commercial floor coverings and one of the "100 Best Companies to Work For" in America, according to FORTUNE magazine, December 1997.
From corporate offices in Atlanta , Ray oversees a globally positioned company whose core business is still modular soft-surfaced floor coverings. Interface has diversified and globalized its businesses, with sales in 110 countries and manufacturing facilities on four continents. In addition to carpet tiles and broadloom carpet marketed under several brands, Interface also manufactures and markets specialty fabrics, architectural products such as raised access flooring, and a variety of chemicals used in commercial office installations.
Ray serves on the boards of The Georgia Conservancy; Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper; Ida Cason Callaway Foundation; Rocky Mountain Institute; the University of Texas Center for Sustainable Development, Melaver, Inc. and is an honorary advisor to the President of Peking University. He holds honorary doctorates from Northland College (public service), LaGrange College (business), N.C. State University (humane letters), University of Southern Maine (humane letters), and The University of the South (doctor of civil law).
William Becker , 59, is senior advisor to the Global Energy Center for Community Sustainability and an adjunct faculty member in the Colorado Energy Research Institute at the Colorado School of Mines. He is on loan to both organizations from the U.S. Department of Energy, where he specialized in energy efficiency, renewable energy technologies and sustainable community development for 15 years.
Becker is regarded as one of DOE's principal experts on sustainable communities. After the Great Flood along the Mississippi River in 1993, he led a team of sustainable development experts that assisted two communities in relocating from the floodplain and rebuilding on higher ground with sustainable designs and technologies. In 1996, he founded and directed DOE's Center of Excellence for Sustainable Development and its Smart Communities Network web site, the "granddaddy" of sustainable community resources on the internet.
More recently, he co-led a team of US experts to Beijing to consult with Chinese officials on the "greening" of the Olympic Village for the 2008 Games; participated on an expert team that traveled to Thailand to provide advice on tsunami reconstruction; and served as an advisor for the "sustainable reconstruction" of a neighborhood in New Orleans damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
Becker is the former director of DOE's Central Regional Office, where he and his staff of 30 promoted the use of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies in a 12-state area. In his diverse career, he has served as a war correspondent in South Vietnam, where he won a Bronze Star medal; writer/photographer for the Associated Press; publisher of his own weekly newspaper in rural Wisconsin; editorial writer and columnist for the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison, WI.; associate director of the Wisconsin Energy Extension Service; research director for the Wisconsin State Senate; executive assistant to the Wisconsin Attorney General; Counselor to the Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration in Washington, DC; and communications director for the Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
Becker's specialization in sustainable development began in the 1970s when he proposed and helped implement a pioneering project in which a Wisconsin community relocated from a floodplain and built the nation's first "solar village". The project has been featured in the television documentary " River Town ", as well as in several books, including two authored by Becker: Come Rain, Come Shine, and The Making of a Solar Village.
William J. Bertera, is the 2005-2006 Secretary of the Water Environment Federation (WEF), an international organization of water quality professionals headquartered in Alexandria, Va. He is a career association executive with extensive experience in not-for-profit management of both public and private sector organizations, especially those with environmental infrastructure interests.
Bill has served as Executive Director of both the American Public Works Association and the Rebuild America Coalition, the latter a national organization of engineering, construction and government organizations dedicated to rebuilding America's public infrastructure. He has also served as the Executive Director of the Society of Nuclear Medicine.
He has been Managing Director of the National Solid Wastes Management Association; and he has filled executive and management positions with both the International City Management Association and the National Association of Counties.
Bill has a B.S. degree in business administration and a M.S. of Public Administration degree in urban affairs.
Rosina Bierbaum is The Dean and Professor of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy at the School of Natural Resources and Environment, The University of Michigan. Her scholarship and professional activities focus on bridging the gap between policy and science, and on translating science into usable information for society's decision makers.
Before coming to the University of Michigan in 2001, Rosina served both the U.S. Congress and the U.S. President through twenty years of science policy leadership in Washington , D.C. As Acting Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), she was the Administration's senior scientific advisor on environmental research and development, with responsibilities for scientific input and guidance on a wide range of national and international environmental issues. She currently serves on the boards of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR); the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS); the National Research Council's Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate; the Federation of American Scientists; the Environmental and Energy Study Institute; the Energy Foundation; the Design Committee for The Heinz Center's The State of the Nation's Ecosystems project; and the Executive Committee for the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement. Rosina received her B.S. in Biology and B.A. in English from Boston College , and earned her Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution at the State University of New York, Stony Brook.
William D. Browning, received a bachelor's in environmental design from the University of Colorado, specializing in energy-conscious architecture and resource management. He has a masters of science in real estate development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was awarded the MIT Center for Real Estate's 1991 Public-Sector Fellowship, and, in 1995, the Charles H. Spaulding Award. He has been involved in the design of a number of projects, including advanced multi-story solar greenhouses using Buckminster Fuller's last structural system, and a joint Soviet/American team for an award-winning youth exchange camp in the Republic of Georgia.
In 1991, Bill founded Rocky Mountain Institute's Green Development Services; a program that researches and provides consulting on environmentally responsive real estate development. His consulting projects include new towns, resorts, building renovations, a bug zoo, Wal-Mart's Eco-mart, the Grand Canyon National Park, Lucasfilm's Letterman Digital Center, the Pentagon Renovation, and the Sydney 2000 Olympic Village. Browning has given numerous lectures and workshops for such organizations as the American Institute of Architects, CERES, the Councilors of Real Estate, the Urban Land Institute, the International Facilities Managers Association, MIT, Harvard's Graduate School of Design, Peking University, and Yestermorrow Design Build School.
Bill is a co-author of Green Development: Integrating Ecology and Real Estate, published by John Wiley & Sons, and a companion CD ROM, Green Developments. Browning has also co-authored A Primer on Sustainable Building, a textbook; and Greening the Building and the Bottom Line, a study of increased worker productivity in energy-efficient buildings. He has published articles in Architectural Record, Progressive Architecture, Building Operating Management, Urban Land, and AIA's Environmental Resource Guide.
He has appeared on CNN, NPR, PBS's Future Quest, and AIA's Building Connections teleconference series. He was interviewed for articles in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, House Beautiful, Popular Science, and Elle, among others.
In 1998 he was featured in the cover story for the October issue of Interiors & Sources, and was named one of five people "Making a Difference" by Buildings magazine. Green Development Services was awarded the 1999 President's Council for Sustainable Development/Renew America Prize.
In 2001 Bill was selected as an Honorary member of the AIA, and in 2002 he served on the national steering group for the AIA Committee on the Environment. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education, RealEnergy, and the Roaring Fork Conservancy, as science advisor on the environment for the American Institute of Architects, as the vice-chair of ASTM's Green Building Rating Committee. He is an editorial advisor for Environmental Building News, Environmental Design & Construction Magazine, and Green @ work.
He has been a National Real Estate Advisor to The Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land. Browning served as a founding member on the Board of Directors of the U.S. Green Building Council, and Greening America. In 2004 he was chosen for the U. S. Green Building Council's Leadership Award. He was the public liaison to the Greening of the White House, a comprehensive energy and environmental retrofit of the White House. Browning has been a member of the Interface Eco-Dream Team and was the Director of Design and Environment for the development of Haymount, a new town in Virginia. He is the co-founder of Browning + Bannon LLC.
David Crockett, is an associate of the CitiStates Group the leading national consulting group for regional approaches to addressing issues in a holistic, sustainable way. The group of associates includes former elected leaders, economists, sociologists, journalists, transportation officials and other disciplines who have been innovators and pioneers in regional approaches. David has spoken and consulted in cities and regions in nearly every American state, Canadian province and internationally on Sustainable Development.
His speaking themes of "Strategies of Imagination and Connections" and "Places of Imagination and Connections" reflect his innovative approaches to problem solving and are based on his life's work in business, civic, grassroots and elected public leadership roles. David's approach and his work have evoked quotes like:
- "One of the most creative, strategic thinkers…" IBM Advanced Business Institute
- "One of the most visionary local elected officials in America…" Neal Peirce, syndicated columnist, Washington Post Writers Group
David has served his city of Chattanooga as a businessman, a civic activist a grass roots leader, a Planning Commissioner, three terms in elected office as Chairman of the Chattanooga City Council and President of the Chattanooga Institute.
During that time Chattanooga went from being known as one of the most polluted and dilapidated cities in the nation to an international icon of public involvement and renewal of the urban, environmental, social and economic base of a city.
He has been the architect and leading advocate for linking social, environmental, economic and equity issues together in a single strategy for Chattanooga to be a national and international leader in building sustainable regions. Chattanooga's story has been documented in hundreds of newspaper, magazine book references as well as dozens of film documentaries in different languages.
The world's largest freshwater aquarium, a world class Riverwalk, a greenway network, one of the largest private land conservation efforts, cleaning the air, a downtown renaissance, a national model for affordable home ownership, hybrid and electric shuttles, maglev links to Atlanta are elements of the Chattanooga story that have brought nearly 1000 visiting delegations from around the world to study Chattanooga. But, the thinking and partnerships that brought these things to fruition is what has captured the world's attention. Chattanooga has a trophy case crammed with awards and accolades that include the award for cities from the President's Council for Sustainable Development and the Best Practice City in the World from the United Nations Summit of Cities (Habitat II) in Istanbul.
David has carried that message around the world speaking, consulting and serving on prominent advisory boards and task forces of groups including the President's Council on Sustainable Development, The Climate Institute, The President's Economic Roundtable, The Asian Pacific Economic Collaborative, National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology, "Challenger" Center for Space Education and many others.
His business career included a 20-plus year career as an IBM marketing executive and then as CEO of a start-up software company. Before joining IBM, Mr. Crockett served as an officer in the U.S. Army after earning a B.S. degree in Business from the University of Alabama. David is an avid outdoorsman, fisherman and hunter. He served as the host chairman for the Outdoor Writers of America Association convention.
John R. Ehrmann is a founder and Senior Partner of the Meridian Institute. He has pioneered the use of collaborative processes for over two decades at the local, national and international level. He has led projects in national and international forums; in public policy arenas involving legislation, negotiated regulations and Federal Advisory Committees; in organizational management settings; in communities and site-specific disputes; and with stakeholder groups advising individual companies. For the most part, his work has focused on the environment, natural resources issues, health and the economic and social challenges associated with developing sustainable practices for communities and industries.
In addition to his extensive involvement in facilitating collaborative processes, John also works to promote the use of collaborative decision-making. He lectures and has published numerous articles on collaborative decisions in public policy issues. He also serves as an adjunct faculty member for the University of Wyoming and provides advice to the Ruckelshaus Institute and School of Environment and Natural Resources on the use of collaborative problem solving in natural resource decision-making.
John received his undergraduate degree from Macalester College and his Ph.D. in Natural Resource Policy and Environmental Dispute Resolution from the University of Michigan , School of Natural Resources . His doctoral dissertation involved developing a practice-based model of the policy dialogue, which can be applied to both practice and research. Between 1983 and 1997, John was executive vice president at the Keystone Center , Keystone, Colorado . In September 1997, he became one of the founders of the Meridian Institute.
Jane Elder, Senior Advisor, Biodiversity Project
Between 1995 and 2005, Jane served as the founding director of Biodiversity Project – a nonprofit communications organization dedicated to raising public awareness about the diversity of life on Earth, its value to human well-being, and the need for public action to stem the tide of loss. Jane led projects to incorporate insights from public opinion research, education theory, social marketing, frameworks analysis and other approaches into public communications about biodiversity. This work served as a catalyst for new communications and education projects at leading zoos and aquariums, and across a diverse community of advocacy groups working on issues from sprawl to endangered species protection. In 2002 she received a Bay Foundation Biodiversity Leadership Award, which recognizes "individuals with proven capacity to help stem the loss of biological diversity."
Previously, Jane worked for the Sierra Club's Midwest office, serving as a field organizer, Congressional lobbyist and policy specialist. She founded the Sierra Club's Great Lakes program and helped lead the successful ten-year effort to protect 100,000 acres of Michigan Wilderness. Jane also served as director of Ecoregion Programs – a national program to develop conservation strategies for the major ecologically defined regions of the U.S. She received the Michael McCloskey award in 1994, for "a distinguished record of achievement in national or international conservation causes."
Jane loves quilting, gardening, watercolor, and Shakespeare performed live and uncut. She is married to Bill Davis, who serves as executive director of the State Environmental Leadership Program. They have an 11-year-old son, Colin, who hates global warming. They live in Madison, Wisconsin.
Ira Feldman, president and senior counsel of greentrack strategies, has cut an interdisciplinary swath across three usually distinct spheres: "big picture" environmental policy; environmental law and regulation; and environmental management. He originated the “greentrack” (or dual track/alternate path) approach to environmental regulation and management; championed the implementation of a new generation of environmental management tools; created voluntary environmental excellence initiatives; and advanced the state of the art in environmental auditing and disclosure. Today, he is widely recognized as a leader in linking the regulatory and non-regulatory trends that form the basis of strategic environmental management and sustainable business practices.
Ira’s projects, presentations, research and writings reflect his focus on the interrelated concepts of regulatory innovation, environmental performance metrics, environmental management systems, stakeholder engagement, and ecosystem services. These diverse professional interests and a unique interdisciplinary academic background inform his articulation of environmental issues within the broader constructs of sustainable development and corporate social responsibility (CSR) and within the environmental, social and governance (ESG) framework becoming increasingly relevant to the financial sector. As Professor Feldman, he has taught these topics at the University of Pennsylvania in both the Wharton School’s Environmental Management Program and Penn’s Masters of Environmental Studies Program. He is also an adjunct professor at American University’s Washington College of Law.
In the US , Ira has played a leading role in defining future domestic policy directions through his participation as a member of the Environmental Management Task Force of the President’s Council on Sustainable Development (PCSD); the Multi-state Working Group on Environmental Performance (MSWG); and the advisory board of the National Environmental Policy Institute (NEPI). He was elected to the board of MSWG in August 2006. He currently serves on the board of Sustainability Now! and on the Council of Partners of the Environmental Law Institute (ELI).
At the international level, Ira participates in the alumni network of the Prince of Wales’ Business and Environment Programme and the International Network for Environmental Management (INEM). Mr. Feldman attended the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) representing the Environmental Law Institute and the American Bar Association; his paper presented at this event in Johannesburg offered the business perspective on stakeholder engagement in environmental decision-making. Around the world -- in Latin America , Eastern Europe , the Middle East and Southeast Asia -- Ira has worked with governmental entities, multilateral organizations, NGO’s, and industry organizations (from large multinationals to SME’s) on a wide range of implementation, policy development, and training activities.
Ira has served as a peer reviewer on sustainability issues for organizations as diverse as DuPont, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and the Resource Renewal Institute and he has planned and delivered numerous conferences, panels and multi-stakeholder dialogues on strategic environmental management and sustainability issues.
Ira was Special Counsel in the Office of Enforcement & Compliance Assurance (OECA) at US EPA Headquarters in Washington , DC . At EPA, he developed and directed the Environmental Leadership Program, EPA's first program on corporate environmental excellence; he pioneered the inclusion of EMS as injunctive relief in the enforcement context; and he led the revision of EPA's policies on environmental auditing and self-disclosure. Ira began his EPA tenure as Senior Attorney for hazardous waste enforcement (serving as the EPA lead on path-breaking RCRA settlements such as US v. Kodak and US v. United Technologies) and then as Special Assistant to the Director of Civil Enforcement. Among other responsibilities, Ira was EPA's liaison to the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC). Before joining EPA, Ira practiced environmental law in the private sector in New York and Washington , with particular emphasis on the environmental aspects of large-scale merger, acquisition, and real estate transactions.
Ira is perhaps best known for his leadership role in the development of the ISO 14000 series of standards in the US and at the international level, and for his early recognition of the policy and regulatory implications of voluntary environmental management standards. Ira attended eight international rounds of ISO/TC 207 as an “Expert” on the US/ANSI delegation. In the US Technical Advisory Group (USTAG), he served for six years as the vice chairman of the ST4 on “environmental performance evaluation” (EPE) relating to performance metrics. He founded and co-chaired the ISO 14000 Legal Issues Forum (LIF) to consider legal, policy, and implementation issues related to environmental management systems, and, more recently, he was selected to participate in the ABA - US EPA bilateral discussions with the Canadian Bar Association and Environment Canada on the relationship of EMS to environmental regulation.
Currently, Ira serves as an “Expert” on the US/ANSI delegation to the international working group convened by ISO to draft ISO 26000, a voluntary guidance on corporate social responsibility. In that ISO/SR process, he represents the US legal, consulting and academic communities in the “SSRO” (services, support, research) seat on the multi-stakeholder delegation. He served as head of the US delegation to the Lisbon round in 2006, and, at the international level, his SSRO peers selected him as their representative to the Chairman’s Advisory Group (CAG) for 2006-2008.
Ira has also played a prominent role in the development of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and in raising awareness of the importance of GRI in outreach to various stakeholder groups and competing standards organizations. He served as a member of its initial metrics work group which produced the GRI exposure draft, and more recently as a member of the metrics task group which developed the current version of the GRI protocol for sustainability reporting. He participated in the UNCTAD expert group which developed an international standard for accounting and reporting of environmental liabilities (ISAR) and previously served on the North American steering committee for the UNEP Financial Initiatives, which focuses on the interface between the financial sector and the environmental management world. He currently advises EPA on the current use and potential role of environmental information in the financial sector.
An active member of the American Bar Association’s Section on Environment, Energy and Resources (SEER), Ira chaired SEER’S “Sustainable Development, Ecosystems & Climate Change” Committee and he led the Section-wide Sustainable Development Initiative, a multi-Committee awareness-raising effort intended to weave sustainability concepts into the activities of the ABA. He has also served as Vice Chair of the Section’s “Second Generation/Innovations” and “International Environmental Law” Committees as well as the Section’s “Environmental Values and Ethics” Taskgroup. He is a leading participant in the ongoing consideration of multidisciplinary practice (MDP) issues in environmental law. Ira is also actively engaged in programmatic, publications and development activities at the Environmental Law Institute.
Susan Fletcher is Head of the Environmental Policy Section of the Congressional Research Service, at the Congressional Research Service (CRS), the research arm of the U.S. Congress; she also holds the title, Senior Analyst in International Environmental Policy. She advises and supervises the work of analysts carrying out research and assistance to Congress on the full spectrum of pollution control issues. She advises Congress, writing reports and organizing research efforts and assisting with hearings and legislation, on a wide variety of issues related to international environment and sustainable development.
Susan is currently Division Coordinator for Climate Change issues; she has written CRS materials on the Kyoto Protocol and other treaty-related issues concerning climate change, and supervises the work of CRS on scientific aspects, state and local action, federal laws and programs, and funding for climate change issues.
Susan also oversaw the preparation of an electronic briefing book on these issues. Among other issues on which she has written and done research are sustainable development, trade and environment, biological diversity, global forest issues, and bilateral and multilateral foreign assistance related to the environment. She has been a member of the U.S. delegation, as a congressional observer, attending conferences of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and to the preparatory negotiating meetings for the Rio conference, as well as to three annual follow-up meetings of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) which was charged with overseeing implementation of Earth Summit decisions. Susan also served for five years as head of the section doing research on domestic natural resources policy, including forest issues, public lands, parks, and water resources.
She holds a B.A. in political science and international relations from the University of Minnesota , and a Master's in International Public Policy from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies ( SAIS ).
Barry Gold, is the Lead for the Marine Conservation Initiative at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. He is responsible for planning and implementation of the initiative.
Before joining the Foundation, Barry managed the David and Lucile Packard Foundation's efforts to develop a scientifically credible framework for ecosystem-based management of coastal-marine systems. He also directed their work to more effectively link science with policy and decision-making. Prior to that, Barry was Chief of the Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center where he led an effort to understand and restore the Colorado River ecosystem throughout the Grand Canyon.
Barry has extensive experience working at the interface of environmental science and policy. He has held senior positions at the Department of the Interior, the US House of Representatives, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Barry has a DSc from Washington University, an MA from George Washington University, an MS from the University of Connecticut, and a BS from the University of Miami.
Barry grew up in Connecticut. His passion for the environment grew out of time spent on his grandmother's farm and vacations at the beach. His interest in science was inspired by a 7th grade science teacher and two high school biology teachers. Barry is a member of AAAS, the Ecological Society of America, the Society for Conservation Biology, and Sigma Xi.
Elisabeth Graffy is the Coordinator for Natural Resource and Environmental Indicators for the U.S. Department of the Interior. In this capacity, she provides leadership on policy and program matters related to the development and use of indicators and serves as the departmental representative in a partnership of governmental and non-governmental entities working to establish a comprehensive national system of indicators. She pursues both practice and scholarship on the challenges of science-based, civic-centered policy development; organizational strategy and change; and bridging public and private approaches to sustainability.
Elisabeth served as the first national policy advisor to the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program, spearheading successful and innovative efforts to link science and policy-making. With the USGS Center for Science Policy, she focused on ways of assessing environmental conditions to enhance the social relevance and usefulness of information for public and private decision-making. Before joining USGS, she served the U.S. Congress in the Office of Technology Assessment, co-authoring major assessments of the policy options for managing agriculture, environment, and globalization.
Prior to working in national policy, Elisabeth held numerous local, state, and international development roles, gaining perspective on the interconnections between environmental concerns and a host of other issues -- such as urbanization, education, food and agriculture, economic and legal trends, public health, poverty, conflict, and human rights – within the umbrella of sustainable development. Elisabeth holds an A.B. in Politics from Princeton University , an M.S. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Ph.D. in Policy from the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Charles "Chip" G. Groat is Director of the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy, Director of the Energy and Earth Resources Graduate Program, and holds the John A. and Katherine G. Jackson Chair in Energy and Mineral Resources in the Department of Geological Sciences, Jackson School of Geosciences, at the University of Texas at Austin. He assumed these positions in June 2005 after serving 6 ½ years as Director of the U.S. Geological Survey, having been appointed by President Clinton and retained by President Bush.
Prior to his position with the U.S. Geological Survey, Chip was Associate Vice President for Research and Sponsored Projects at The University of Texas at El Paso following a term as Director of the Center for Environmental Resource Management and Professor of Geological Sciences there. His previous experience includes Associate Director and Acting Director of the Bureau of Economic Geology and Associate Professor of Geological Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin; Chairman of the Department of Geological Sciences at The University of Texas at El Paso; State Geologist and Director of the Louisiana Geological Survey; Assistant to the Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources administering the Coastal Zone Management and Coastal Protection programs; Professor of Geology and Geophysics and Director of the Center for Coastal, Energy and Environmental Resources at Louisiana State University; and Executive Director of the American Geological Institute.
Chip has been a member of the National Research Council Board on Earth Sciences and Resources and the Outer Continental Shelf Policy Board. He is a past President of the Association of American State Geologists and of the Energy Minerals Division of American Association of Petroleum Geologists.
His degrees in geology are from the University of Rochester (A.B.), University of Massachusetts (M.S.), and The University of Texas at Austin (Ph.D.)
His current interests focus on advancing the role of science and engineering in shaping policy and informing decisions, and on ways to increase the integration of the science disciplines as a means of improving the understanding of complex resource and environmental systems.
Allison Hannon is a researcher for The Climate Group in New York City. Allison earned her MA from Columbia University's Climate and Society program and her BA (with honors) in Environmental Studies from the University of Chicago. While at Columbia, she researched environmental conservation in Papua New Guinea and at the University of Chicago studied the economic and environmental impact of the steel industry in Northwest Indiana. Her previous work experience includes research for the US Department of Energy at Argonne National Laboratory's Environmental Research Division and environmental engineering for URS Corporation. She joined The Climate Group as an intern while completing her MA at Columbia University.
Maureen Hart is president of Sustainable Measures, a private consulting firm based in West Hartford, CT. She is serving as a member of the Summit Continuity Team. Her firm is dedicated to promoting sustainable communities, primarily through the development, understanding and use of effective indicators and systems for measuring progress. Its clients include communities, non-profit organizations, federal, state, regional, and local governments, foundations and private sector businesses.
Maureen is an internationally known expert on sustainability indicators and the author of the Guide to Sustainable Community Indicators, which is being used by many communities and organizations working on understanding and measuring progress toward sustainability.
She has developed and presented training courses and workshops on sustainability and indicators both nationally and internationally. She has provided technical assistance to community indicator projects, evaluated indicators and indicator sets, conducted research on measuring sustainability, consulted with businesses and business-related nonprofits on sustainable production indicators, and has helped foundations and other grant-making organizations define strategies and evaluate funding decisions for projects related to sustainable development.
Jim Hartzfeld, is Managing Director of InterfaceRAISE. An environmentalist at heart, Jim holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Missouri and an MBA from the Goizueta Business School of Emory University. Known as "EcoJim" at Interface, he shares the vision of Ray Anderson, Chairman and CEO of Interface, Inc., that business and industry can save the Earth and serve its shareholders.
Keeping pace with leading edge concepts, policies, and practices in sustainable development, Jim has served as a clearinghouse for ideas and concepts that continue to guide individuals and organizations ever higher in the quest to become more sustainable. Jim oversaw the development of the EcoSense programs, designed to set and keep Interface on its course of greater sustainability, and continues to facilitate global communication on environmental topics through involvement with all Interface businesses.
Jim is a former Chairman of the Board of the U.S. Green Building Council and has worked with such organizations as the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, and the President's Council on Sustainable Development (PCSD) where he served as Ray Anderson's liaison. Working closely with PCSD, he helped organize the "National Town Meeting" held in Detroit, Michigan on May 2-5, 1999 where he appeared with Ed Begley, Jr. (Actor) in the opening ceremonies. He continues working closely with the US Green Building Council after having served two terms as Chairman of the Board. He resides with his wife and two children in Marietta, Ga.
Susan Joy Hassol is a climate change communicator known for her ability to translate science into English, making complex issues accessible to policymakers and the public. She is the author of Impacts of A Warming Arctic, the synthesis report of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, on which she worked for four years with 300 scientists from the Arctic and beyond. She testified about the impacts of Arctic warming before the U.S. Senate, and served as a spokesperson for the assessment's findings.
In Sept. 2006, Susan was honored by the Climate Institute with its first ever award for excellence in Climate Science Communication.
Susan wrote HBO's global warming documentary, Too Hot Not To Handle, which premiered in April 2006. She was a lead author of Climate Change Impacts on the United States, the synthesis report of the U.S. National Assessment of the Consequences of Climate Change, published in 2000. She co-authored a chapter on Arctic climate impacts for a book titled Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change, published by Cambridge University Press in 2006. Susan served as Associate Editor of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program's report Temperature Trends in the Lower Atmosphere, published in 2006.
Susan is also very interested in solutions to global warming. She authored a chapter on energy efficiency in a book titled Innovative Energy Strategies for CO 2 Stabilization, published by Cambridge University Press in 2002. She wrote a feature article titled "A Change of Climate" in Issues in Science and Technology (Journal of the National Academy of Sciences) (Spring 2003) focusing on the actions of U.S. states, localities, and corporations in mitigating climate change.
Susan has also written and edited numerous articles, papers, and books for organizations including the United Nations Environment Programme, Scientific Committee On Problems of the Environment, and the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research. She has served as Environment Fellow for the Aspen Institute, and as Research Associate and Director of Communications for the Aspen Global Change Institute, and has been affiliated with Carnegie Mellon's Center for the Integrated Study of the Human Dimensions of Global Change.
William Hohenstein, is the Director of USDA's Global Change Program Office, within the Office of the Chief Economist. The Global Change Program Office provides coordination and policy development support for the Department's global change program. It serves as the focal point for all support to the Secretary of Agriculture on the causes and consequences of global change, as well as strategies for addressing them.
Before becoming the Director of USDA's Global Change Program Office, Bill served as a Division Director in EPA's National Center for Environmental Economics. Bill serves on United States delegations to international negotiations on climate change. He has also serves as a United States representative to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
John P. Holdren is the Director of the Woods Hole Research Center, as well as Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy and Director of the Program on Science, Technology, and Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He is also Professor of Environmental Science and Policy in Harvard's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and the President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
John was educated at MIT and Stanford in aeronautics/astronautics (fluid dynamics) and theoretical plasma physics, receiving his PhD in 1970. After brief stints at the Livermore Lab and Caltech, he co-founded in 1973 and co-led until 1996 the campus-wide, interdisciplinary, graduate-degree program in energy and resources at UC Berkeley – the Energy and Resources Group (ERG). His work has focused on causes and consequences of global environmental change, fusion science and technology, comparative analysis of energy options, ways to reduce the dangers from nuclear weapons and materials, and the interaction of content and process in science and technology policy.
John is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Council on Foreign Relations. From 2002 until the present he has also been Co-Chair of the foundation-funded, bipartisan National Commission on Energy Policy. He served as a member of President Clinton's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology from 1994 to 2001 and in that capacity led studies requested by the President on protection of nuclear-explosive materials, the U.S. fusion energy program, U.S. energy R&D strategy for the challenges of the 21st century, and international cooperation on energy.
He has been the recipient of a MacArthur Prize Fellowship (1981-86), the Tyler Prize for Environment (2000), and the John Heinz Prize for Public Policy (2001), among many other awards. In 1995 he gave the acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs (which he served as Chair of the Executive Committee from 1987 to 1997).
Douglas Inkley is Senior Science Advisor at the National Wildlife Federation. With NWF for 20 years, he provides scientific, political and strategic advice on wildlife and fish conservation issues, especially on global warming.
A "Certified Wildlife Biologist," Doug has testified at numerous Congressional hearings on diverse conservation issues including conservation funding, wetlands protection and reform of the National Wildlife Refuge System. Doug served as the Chairperson of the Wetlands Working Group of the Clean Water Network, a coalition of more than 400 conservation organizations working for a strengthened Clean Water Act. He also served on the Steering Committee of the Teaming with Wildlife coalition which successfully secured federal appropriations of more than $50m annually for state wildlife agency conservation programs. Doug served as chair of The Wildlife Society committee which released in December, 2004 a national assessment of the impacts of global warming on wildlife entitled "Global Climate Change and Wildlife in North America."
Chris Laszlo is a partner and co-founder of Sustainable Value Partners, Inc., a strategy consulting firm working with senior leaders in some of the world's largest companies to transform societal opportunities and risks into sources of competitive advantage. He has led over 50 executive seminars and spoken widely on "Sustainability for business advantage" inside companies and at leading business schools including Case Weatherhead, Darden, Kenan-Flagler, and the European business school INSEAD in the Advanced Management Seminar and CEDEP Executive Education program.
For nearly 10 years, he was an executive at Lafarge S.A. , a world leader in building materials, holding positions as head of strategy, general manager of a manufacturing subsidiary, and vice president of business development.
Prior to that he spent five years with Deloitte & Touche, where he consulted on strategy to global industry leaders.
Educated at Swarthmore College , Columbia University , and the University of Paris , Chris earned a Ph.D. in Economics and Management Science. His latest book is The Sustainable Company: How to Create Lasting Value through Social and Environmental Performance, Island Press, October 2003. (Paperback July 2005)
Jonathan Lindeen is the lead researcher exploring current Federal policy and program proposals for the Presidential Climate Action Plan being written by the University of Colorado Graduate School of Public Policy as a result of the first National Leadership Summit at Wingspread last June.
Jonathan received his Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Carleton College in 2003. He received his Juris Doctor from the University of Iowa College of Law in 2006, where he served as Articles Editor for the Journal of Gender, Race & Justice. He has been admitted to practice law in the state of Colorado, and is currently working with the Energy and Environmental Security Initiative at the University of Colorado School of Law, where he is performing research work on Federal climate change legislation.
David Orr is the Paul Sears distinguished professor of environmental studies and politics at Oberlin College and director of the college's Environmental Studies Program.
Oberlin profiles David this way: "Every year, three or four dozen colleges and universities invite him to lecture, often as keynote speaker for conferences and symposia. Reporters covering global warming flip through their Rolodexes for his name. Several dozen journals have published his articles about biophilia, sustainability, and, as he described it to Jay Parini in the New York Times, ‘environmentalism [as] a question of ethical design.'
"Two of Orr's books, Earth in Mind and Ecological Literacy, have sold more than 10,000 copies each--bestsellers, by the accounting of academic publishing. Meanwhile...Orr chairs the Environmental Studies Program, teaches and advises students, and oversees the Adam Joseph Lewis Environmental Studies Center's evolution from charrette to groundbreaking. He raised most of the funds for the project, too." (The Environmental Studies Center is a cutting-edge ecological building spearheaded by Orr as a centerpiece in his environmental curriculum.)
In an essay published in the 1998, David wrote:
"The planning question is how we might institutionalize the capacity to think and act across discipline boundaries as if evolution, ecology, thermodynamics, and the long-term future really mattered. Our goal as educators is to present a sense of hopefulness to students, and the competence to act on that hope. That's different from wishful thinking--ignoring problems or assuming that somehow technology or some mythical ‘they' is going to figure it out. We will have to figure it out."
David is t he recipient of the Bioneers Award and the Lyndhurst Prize. His latest book is The Last Refuge: Patriotism, Politics and the Environment in an Age of Terror.
Eric S. Palola, is Executive Director for Wildlife Restoration at the National Wildlife Federation where he is responsible for strategic planning, program implementation and development. For ten years, Eric directed NWF's northeast regional office based in Vermont where he supervised staff and programs in water, forest, wildlife conservation, and environmental education. Eric currently sits on the international Board of Directors of the Forest Stewardship Council, and is Chair of the Northern Forest Alliance, a broad-based forest conservation coalition. He worked previously at a private renewable energy consulting firm, at US EPA, and as Associate Director for the Vermont Natural Resources Council. Eric is a resource economist with degrees from the University of Vermont and JFK School of Government at Harvard University. He lives on a small farm in northern Vermont with his family.
James Morgan Pitts is a senior at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio but is originally from Chevy Chase, Maryland. He is majoring in Environmental Studies with a minor in Politics.
As a co-chair and founder of the Oberlin Environmental Policy Implementation Group (EPIG) for the past three years, Morgan has worked with the college’s administration to adopt new building standards for campus buildings, complying with a minimum of LEED Silver or equivalent. Most recently, he worked with college President Nancy Dye to commit Oberlin to becoming one of the first colleges in the country to sign on to the American Colleges and Universities Climate Change Agreement. This agreement states that the college will act to develop a comprehensive emissions inventory and a plan with interim goals for achieving climate neutrality.
Currently, Morgan is finishing work on a campus-wide light bulb exchange, replacing incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents. He started the semester with 3,000 CFLs in his basement, and estimates that the reduced energy use after the exchange will prevent over 14,000 pounds of carbon emissions this year. He is a member of the research team for the Presidential Climate Action Plan project.
Janet Ranganathan is director of the People and Ecosystems Program at the World Resources Institute. Prior to that assignment, she was senior associate with WRI's Management Institute for Environment and Business where she worked on the development and implementation of corporate accountability tools for measuring and driving progress toward more sustainable business activities. She has been co-manager of a major collaborative effort to develop an international standard for measuring & reporting business greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, she has worked extensively with business and other stakeholder groups on the development of business sustainability metrics. Janet has also worked on corporate environmental accounting and the role of emerging environmental monitoring technologies for better management and accountability.
Previously she was with WRI's Technology and the Environment Program where she worked on corporate environmental accounting, business environmental performance measurement, and the role of emerging environmental monitoring technologies for better management and accountability. She is co-author and editor of a WRI publication, Green Ledgers: Case Studies in Corporate Environmental Accounting (with Daryl Ditz and Darryl Banks), and co-author of Measuring Up: Toward a Common Framework for Tracking Corporate Environmental Performance (with Daryl Ditz). Her most recent publications include "Sustainability Rulers: Measuring Corporate Environmental and Social Performance" and The Global Reporting Initiative: An Emerging Tool for Corporate Accountability.
Before joining WRI, she worked on business and environmental issues in the U.K. both as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire and in a regulatory capacity with the Department of Environment and Hertfordshire Waste Regulatory Authority. Ms. Ranganathan received a BSc. (Hons) from Imperial College of Science, Technology & Medicine, London in 1983, and an MSc. with distinction in Environmental Technology from Imperial College in 1990.
Matt Ries is the Managing Director of Technical and Educational Services at the Water Environment Federation. In this capacity, he oversees WEF's Technical Programs Group that develops the technical program for WEFTEC, the largest water quality event in North America, and WEF's specialty conferences, workshops, and webcasts. He also manages WEF's training and educational programs designed for water quality professionals.
Before joining WEF, Matt spent over 10 years in consulting working on large-scale infrastructure planning, design, and construction projects in the water and wastewater sector. During this time, Matt worked on the first two wastewater treatment plant projects to register for LEED certification.
Matt has a BS in Civil Engineering from Valparaiso University and a MS in Environmental Engineering from the University of Notre Dame. His undergraduate and graduate research focused on the application of appropriate water and wastewater technologies for use in rural areas and developing nations. He is a licensed professional engineer in Virginia and Maryland.
Nancy Saracino was appointed Chief Deputy Director of California's Department of Water Resources (DWR) by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on June 14, 2006. As Chief Deputy, Nancy is responsible for assisting the Director in overseeing the supervision and management of the Department and for developing and implementing policy for the protection, conservation and management of the state's water supply. Nancy previously served as DWR's Chief Counsel from August 2004 until 2006.
Prior to joining DWR, Nancy worked at the Attorney General's Office as a Supervising Deputy Attorney General on the Energy Task Force, representing the State of California, DWR and the Governor's Office in litigation relating to the 2000-2001 energy crisis. In December 2003, she began working as the lead negotiator for the Governor's Office in efforts to restructure DWR's long-term energy contracts.
She was a partner at Mennemeier, Glassman & Stroud before she joined the AG's Office, representing public and private clients in a range of areas from water law to employment litigation. She started her legal career as an associate at Kronick, Moskovitz, Tiedemann & Girard. Nancy earned her law degree from King Hall School of Law at U.C. Davis, and has a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics, also from U.C. Davis
Mark Schaefer is CEO of the Global Environment and Technology Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the application of technologies to advance environmental protection and sustainable development. From 2000 to 2006 he was President and CEO of NatureServe, an international nonprofit scientific organization dedicated to providing information and analytical tools to inform conservation decision-making. From 1996 to 2000 he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary, and later Acting Assistant Secretary, of the Interior for Water and Science. In this position he provided policy guidance to the U.S. Geological Survey and the Bureau of Reclamation.
He is presently a member of the Board on Earth Sciences and Resources of the U.S. National Research Council, and is a member of the Commission on Education and Communication of the World Conservation Union (IUCN). He previously served as a member of the National Commission on Science for Sustainable Forestry, and the National Environmental Conflict Resolution Advisory Committee. He was a trustee of the Morris K. Udall Foundation from 1996 to 2000.
Mark was Acting Director of the U.S. Geological Survey from October of 1997 to February of 1998. He previously served for three years as Assistant Director for Environment in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), where he was responsible for a variety of environmental science, technology, and education issues, including a major initiative to advance the development and diffusion of environmental technologies.
From 1989 to 1993, he served as senior staff associate and director of the Washington Office of the Carnegie Commission on Science, Technology, and Government, an activity of the Carnegie Corporation of New York. While with Carnegie he contributed to a number of studies related to U.S. environmental and science policy. He was a staff member at the congressional Office of Technology Assessment from 1987 to 1989, initially as a congressional science fellow. For five years beginning in 1988, he taught an environmental policy seminar for Stanford University's Stanford in Washington program. A biologist by training, he received a B.A. from the University of Washington, and Ph.D. from Stanford University. After completing his undergraduate degree in 1977, he worked for five years in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Research and Development.
Dr. Ann Sorensen is Assistant Vice President for Research for American Farmland Trust. She also directs AFT's Center for Agriculture in the Environment. The Center, operated jointly with Northern Illinois University's Social Science Research Institute in DeKalb, Illinois, serves as the focal point for AFT's public policy research efforts.
Before joining AFT in November 1992, Ann spent six years as assistant director of the Natural and Environmental Resources Division for the American Farm Bureau Federation in Park Ridge, Illinois. From 1984 to 1986, she was an integrated pest management specialist for the Texas Department of Agriculture. She was also a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Georgia and Texas A & M University. Sorensen has a Ph.D. in Entomology from the University of California at Berkeley. Her areas of research include applied insect pathology, integrated pest management, social insect behavior and recombinant DNA work with insect viruses.
Ann has published 70 refereed research articles, three book chapters and one book, served on over 30 national, state and university advisory committees, is a past Chair of the National Foundation for IPM Education, and has spoken frequently on agricultural and environmental issues. She is a board certified entomologist.
Deborah Spalding, is a co-founder and Chief Investment Officer of Chaplin Global, LLC, an asset management firm in New York specializing in alternative investments. Prior to this, she was an Executive Director and Head of International Investments for Schroder Investment Management, where she led teams in London and New York, and oversaw the management of $6 billion in assets for US and Canadian corporate pension plans, foundations, endowments, and public funds. She previously worked at Scudder Kemper Investments as Managing Director and Head of International Institutional Investments, directing $10 billion in assets for large US institutions. She began her career as a portfolio manager and equity analyst at SKB & Associates in San Francisco, CA, where she specialized in the US electric utility industry and wrote extensively on the potential impacts of industry deregulation. She has spoken at numerous conferences across the globe on the opportunities and risks in valuing investments in inefficient and emerging markets and economies.
Deborah has been active in conservation and serves on several boards, including the National Wildlife Federation, the Guilford Land Conservation Trust, the Guilford Water Pollution Control Authority, and the International Center in New York, where she serves as Secretary and Treasurer.
Deborah holds an undergraduate degree from Tufts University, a Master's degree from Harvard University, and an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley. She is currently completing a Master of Forestry at Yale University where she is focused on assessing the market opportunity for carbon credits in the United States and, in particular, the structural challenges of forestry based credits. She is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).
Jeremy Symons is Director of the Global Warming Campaign at the National Wildlife Federation (NWF). He is responsible for managing a grassroots outreach and education strategy that mobilizes effective public demand for action on global warming. Jeremy has served as a spokesperson on environmental and energy issues, appearing on NBC Nightly News, CBS Evening News, CNN, ABC World News Tonight, Fox News, National Public Radio and other media outlets. Jeremy has twice been recognized as one of the nation's top nonprofit lobbyists by The Hill newspaper.
Jeremy serves as co-chair of the U.S. Climate Action Network, a coalition of more than sixty organizations collaborating to advance global warming solutions at the state, regional, federal and international levels.
Before joining NWF in 2001, Jeremy served as Climate Policy Advisor at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). During his six years at EPA, he helped formulate national and international policy options, conducted outreach and education on global warming to Congress and the public, and helped develop public-private partnerships with industry to reduce global warming pollution. In 2001, Jeremy represented EPA as a member of Vice President Cheney's Energy Task Force working group.
Jeremy also worked in the United States Senate in 1999, where he developed legislation to encourage forestry activities that improve wildlife habitats and biodiversity while also reducing the buildup of global warming pollution in the atmosphere.
Jeremy holds a Masters degree in Public Policy from Georgetown University and a BA in Environmental Studies from Brown University.
Heidi VanGenderen serves as Senior Associate to the Wirth Chair in Environmental and Community Development Policy at the University of Colorado where she organizes, researches and writes about issues relating to sustainable development. The Chair's mission is to bridge the gap between the theory and practice of public policy as it relates to sustainability. The Chair conducts forums, seminars and workshops, as well as collaborative projects with a broad array of community partners.
As primary staff to the Energy Program of the Chair, Heidi has focused on energy and carbon policy and in that capacity has expanded particular knowledge about the policy and politics of energy and greenhouse gas emissions. She has an over twenty year work history on natural resource issues and in politics with work experience ranging from service to the United Nations Environment Programme to serving as Congressional staff. She is a graduate of Carleton College and is a third-generation Colorado native.
Michael J. Walsh is a Senior Vice President of Chicago Climate Exchange, Inc., a self-regulatory exchange that administers a voluntary greenhouse reduction and trading program for North America .
Previously, Mike arranged several international carbon credit transactions and served as lead writer for five technical papers on international emissions trading prepared for the Government of Canada.
Mike also was a Senior Economist with the Chicago Board of Trade where he directed annual auctions of sulfur dioxide emission allowances conducted on behalf of the U.S. EPA. Walsh holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Michigan State University.
Carol Werner serves as executive director of the Environmental and Energy Study Institute. Ms. Werner came to EESI in late 1987 and was the director of EESI's Energy & Climate Change Program through January 1998. Ms. Werner has more than 20 years of public policy experience on energy and environmental issues.
Carol serves on the steering committees of the Sustainable Energy Coalition, the Surface Transportation Policy Project, the U.S. Climate Action Network; and the Environmental Advisory Committee of the Business Council for Sustainable Energy. She also currently serves on the Department of Energy's (DOE) State Energy Advisory Board, the board of the New Uses Council, the World Council of Churches Task Force on Climate Change, the National Center for Appropriate Technology, the editorial board of Biocycle, and is one of the stakeholders in the DOE/USDA Bioenergy Initiative. Carol was previously a member of DOE's Federal Advisory Committee on the Commercialization of Renewable Energy Technologies.
Before joining EESI in late 1987, Ms. Werner developed an energy efficiency/oil security project for Environmental Action. From 1985-1987, she served as the legislative director of the Northeast-Midwest Congressional Coalition.
John Williams, is a Senior Vice President and Business Group Leader at HDR Engineering in White Plains, New York. Mr. Williams began his career in 1979 as a community liaison representing the State of New York on the expansion of the Long Island Expressway through Queens. That project marked the beginning of a career built around a dedication to community service. Nearly 20-years ago he became involved in guiding communities through the development of public/private ventures (some would call them privatizations) of a broad array of public service functions and facilities. In 1994 Mr. Williams was asked to serve as Chief Operating Officer for a new joint venture company involving one of the nation's largest engineering firms in partnership with one of the world's largest water privatization companies. It was via that experience that Williams concluded that there must be another choice when it comes to helping communities do "more with less" with regard to water treatment and distribution. In 1996 he formed a new consulting wing within HDR staffed with specialists that help public utilities to improve service and performance efficiency. Mr. Williams' work has been tested via direct competition with some of the world's largest private companies. His teams have saved communities nearly $1 billion over the past ten years.
More recently, Mr. Williams has focused on the use of private capital to develop new public facilities and infrastructure. His projects include the $1.6 Billion Moynihan Station which is under construction in New York City. He is helping Broward County rethink the development of key assets in the center of Ft. Lauderdale and is engaged in a number of economic development efforts on Long Island.
Mr. Williams also heads a group of professionals within HDR who are focused on the development of renewable energy facilities including wind, solar, hydro, biomass, ethanol and waste-to-energy plants. He leads HDR's carbon reduction efforts that include planning for low carbon solid waste systems and low carbon community development. He is the firm's representative with The Climate Group and on the Columbia Earth Institute's Global Roundtable on Climate Change.
Mr. Williams earned his degree from West Virginia University. He is on faculty at Columbia University's International School of Public Affairs where he offers a workshop in public policy analysis entitled, "The Other Side of Privatization." He has also served on the faculty at Columbia's Graduate School of Architecture, Urban Planning and Preservation where he taught a class entitled, "Planners as Advisors to Government." His projects are the recipient of nearly a dozen major awards including ICMA's Innovation in Government Award and Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government recognized another as a finalist for its 2003 Innovation in Government Award. Mr. Williams is the author of more than 80 published articles and coauthor of a book.
Larry Winter is the Deputy Director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Hydrology and Water Resources at the University of Arizona. His Deputy Director responsibilities include assisting with scientific leadership, providing administrative oversight, and helping formulate strategic goals, budgets, and programmatic priorities for the institution.
His research interests include the stochastic theory of subsurface flow and transport and the applications of parallel and distributed computing in scientific research. He has also applied Lagrangian simulations (which focus on the difference between kinetic and potential energy) to modeling traffic flow for the Department of Transportation and to predicting locations in random terrain of military vehicles for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Larry has authored or co-authored over 26 journal articles and book chapters since receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Arizona in 1982. He has organized over 10 workshops and sessions.
Larry, who came to NCAR from Los Alamos National Laboratory in April 2003, has extensive scientific and administrative experience. Since arriving at Los Alamos in 1990, his assignments have included leading two of the lab's groups (each roughly comparable in size to an NCAR division): the Geoanalysis Group and the Computer Research and Applications Group.
Larry's many appointments include a 1999-2002 term as science advisor to the New Mexico governor's office. Among his honors are a Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) Publication Prize in Mathematics, Computer Science, and Operations Research and a Los Alamos Distinguished Performance Award.
Before Los Alamos, he worked as chief scientist in the SAIC Advanced Computing Division in his hometown of Tucson, Arizona, and he also taught at Idaho State University and the University of Arizona. He has two master's degrees from Arizona (in applied mathematics and geoscience), in addition to a bachelor's in philosophy, and he is an adjunct professor in the university's Department of Hydrology and Water Resources.
Larry has balanced his active research interests with unusually strong community service and leadership. Larry was the Governor of New Mexico's Science Advisor from 1999-2002 during which time he took on several highly visible tasks in the area of environmental remediation and analysis. He has served on numerous boards and panels, including the Executive Committee, and later the Advisory Board, of the NSF Science and Technology Center for Sustainable semi-Arid Hydrology and Riparian Areas (SAHRA); the New Mexico Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) Committee; and the Center for Non-Linear Studies at Los Alamos.
David Yarnold, is Executive Vice President of Environmental Defense. He is responsible for all operations, programs and fundraising at Environmental Defense, which he joined in April, 2005.
He is a boundary-crosser, a NGO leader from the for-profit ranks -- with a media background. He authored Environmental Defense's California strategy and was a key leader in the passage of the nation's most sweeping climate change legislation. In May, he announced that Environmental Defense would be the first environmental advocacy group to open an office in Bentonville, Arkansas, to work with Wal-Mart.
David spent nearly 27 years at the San Jose Mercury News where, as editor, he shared a Pulitzer Prize and helped the paper become one of the one of the nation's most acclaimed publications. He managed a complex, global newsroom of more than 400 people while chronicling the rise of Silicon Valley.
He is on the board of directors of American Leadership Forum Silicon Valley, EcoAmerica and the Stanford University Graduate School of Businesses' Center for Social Innovation publication.