January 27th and 28th 2022, 10am-5pm (PST)
Co-Director at Midwest Building Decarbonization Coalition
Marnese Jackson is an Environmental and Climate Justice activist, advocate, trainer and educator from Pontiac, Michigan where she is a mother of two children London and Dawson. Marnese was previously with the Mothers Out Front in December 2018 as the Frontline Organizing Program Manager where she focused on building the base of Mothers in Frontline communities. During this time, Marnese was the staff liaison to US Climate Action Network, staff Equity Team and BIPOC Affinity Team member. Marnese also managed the Youth Global Climate Strike (2019) and Earth Day Live (2020). She is the former Midwest and Great Plain States Regional Organizer for the NAACP’s Environmental and Climate Justice Program. She was the Weatherization Coordinator for Oakland Livingston Human Services Agency and Energy Outreach Specialist for the Southeast Michigan Regional Energy Office. Marnese is the membership chairperson of the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition and a Environmental and Climate Justice chairperson of the NAACP Northern Oakland County Branch. Marnese was appointed in 2021 to the Governor Whitmer’s Michigan Council on Climate Solutions.
Forward Dining Solutions LLC.
Chef, Entrepreneur, author, public speaker, podcaster, Chris Galarza is renowned for his work in kitchen electrification and is the Founder and Culinary Sustainability Consultant for Forward Dining Solutions LLC. As the country’s foremost expert in commercial electric-kitchens chef works with manufacturers, brands, designers, and chefs to create lasting sustainable kitchens and culinary ecosystems.
Program and Alumni Services Manager at Rising Sun
Roxana Rojas has been working at Rising Sun Center for Opportunity's for the past 6.5 years as the Program and Alumni Relations Manager. Rising Sun works to build career pathways for economic equity and climate resilience by educating the community about sustainable behaviors and technologies, offering free residential audits and services and by providing workforce development training for youth and adults with barriers to employment. "I work primarily with the youth program that Rising Sun offers; Climate Careers. I am also a full time graduate student and enjoy watching baseball in my spare time."
Berkeley City Councilmember
Councilmember Harrison was elected to the Berkeley City Council in March 2017 after a decades-long career in the public sector. In office, she has been a champion for the climate, transitioning the City to 100% renewable electricity, transit and mobility, building out fast charging EV stations, establishing and seeding a climate equity fund to assist low-income residents with transitioning to a zero-carbon future, launching an existing building electrification incentive and just transition program using minimum labor standards, and authoring the first in the nation ordinance phasing out natural gas in new buildings.
Gradient
Kipp Bradford is the Chief Technology Officer at Gradient, Inc. He is an engineering researcher working at the boundaries of emerging technology and industries. He was a senior Research Scientist at the MIT Media Lab, hired as a result of the “Professor of Other” faculty search for an interdisciplinary scientist. His work merges biology, ecology, and thermodynamics to develop new ways to manage climates at every scale—from personal thermal comfort up to global weather systems.
East Bay Community Energy
Beckie Menten designs and implements energy efficiency and building electrification programs for the EBCE community. She focuses on programs that conserve energy, maximize the efficient use of renewable energy resources and provide important co-benefits to the community. Beckie has more than 15 years experience working on energy conservation and climate change mitigation strategies.
Lion Electric
Louie Dias is an Energy Accounts Manager with The Lion Electric, helping school districts and others with charging infrastructure projects for their heavy-duty EV fleets. He manages customer relationships, technical planning, contractors, utility and grant-funding engagement, and participates in trade and regulatory affairs in the Western US. He lives in Sacramento with his two children.
Architect
Avideh Haghighi is a Registered Architect with a passion for transforming the built environment towards a net positive impact. She has a decade of experience and a diverse portfolio of work spanning public and private sectors, such as public schools, large mixed-use developments and institutional projects, including the State’s largest Net Zero Carbon building currently under construction. Recently she has turned her attention to the single family housing market, recognizing the need for resources and innovation to decarbonize the existing housing stock. She is applying her knowledge from designing and constructing zero energy commercial buildings to the all-electric deep green retrofit of a 99 year old house dubbed 'Zerohouz'.
Van Meter Williams Pollack LLP
Elaine Uang is an Architect with VMWP, currently working on four all electric buildings in the Bay Area. She is also an affordable housing advocate and serves on the board of Housing Leadership Council San Mateo County.
Van Meter Williams Pollack LLP
Laura Shagalov is a Partner and Architect at VMWP, and leads the Minneapolis office which opened in 2019. She is leading several all-electric affordable housing projects in California and is a Certified Passive House Consultant.
Van Meter Williams Pollack LLP
Pam Goode is an Associate and serves as a Project Architect at VMWP working on affordable housing developments. Over the last 25 years she has focused her attention on sustainable building practices starting with natural building and strawbale construction in the mid 90's. She co-leads the sustainability committee at VMWP with Michael Kloefkorn.
Mutual housing
Bryan Dove is the Director of Asset Management with Mutual Housing California He oversees the physical and financial side of the Mutual Housing multifamily housing portfolio, a responsibility that ensures that our properties are technologically up to date, green, financially sustainable and in compliance. Before joining the staff of Mutual Housing in 2013, Mr. Dove gained more than 10 years of experience developing affordable housing throughout California and Massachusetts.
Office of Climate Action, Sustainability, and Resiliency City and County of Denver
Katrina Managan is the Director of the High Performance Buildings and Homes Team for the Denver Office of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resiliency. The team is working to make all new and all existing buildings and homes in Denver net zero energy, more sustainable, and more resilient. Katrina led the work to develop the Benchmarking Ordinance for existing buildings, the Green Buildings Ordinance, 2019 Denver IECC, the first ever Denver Green Code, and the Energize Denver Building Performance Policy.
RMI: Carbon-Free Buildings
Mark Kresowik manages federal and international policy for the Carbon-Free Buildings program at RMI. The Carbon-Free Buildings program is ending reliance on fossil fuels to power and construct our built environment. In that role, Mark centers the leadership of those who most struggle to afford energy and housing in our communities, and advocates for quality, family-supporting labor for workers.
Menio Spark
Diane Bailey is Executive Director of Menlo Spark, a community nonprofit aiming to help the City of Menlo Park and the region become carbon neutral. She also leads the Campaign for Fossil Free Buildings in Silicon Valley. Previously, Diane worked at the Natural Resources Defense Council, Citizens for a Better Environment in Chicago, and a local transportation planning agency in Houston. She is a certified Climate Change Professional (CC-P), and holds a bachelors degree in chemical engineering from Washington University and a masters degree in environmental engineering from Rice University.
California Energy Commission
Payam Bozorgchami; Project Manager of the 2019 and 2022 Title 24, Part 6 Energy Codes. Senior Civil Engineer, with the California Energy Commission, Building Standards Office since 2005.
SmithGroup
An award-winning designer with a background in both engineering and architecture, Stet Sanborn serves as the Engineering Discipline Leader in SmithGroup’s San Francisco office. He specializes in Net Zero Energy and Net Zero Carbon design. Stet is a leading voice in statewide decarbonization efforts and building electrification; recently supporting the City of Berkeley, San Francisco, and San Jose on their electrification ordinance development. He also currently sits on the San Francisco Mayors Building Decarbonization Taskforce for New Construction.
National Core
Tim Kohut, AIA, is Director of Sustainable Design with National Community Renaissance, a regional Developer/Builder of affordable housing. Tim works with design teams, construction teams and subcontractors implementing strategies aimed at high performance and energy efficiency, with an increasing focus on Zero Net Energy and Carbon Neutrality.
Menlo Park Environmental Quality Commissioners
Josie Gaillard is working with Menlo Park’s city staff and city council to address climate change, preserve our urban forest and build a sustainable future for all residents. She strives to see possibilities and connections where others don’t and inspire people to tackle hard problems, even when others say they can’t be solved. Her current passion is working to solve climate change.
Solar Rights Alliance
Dave Rosenfeld is the Executive Director for Solar Rights Alliance, a nonprofit association of California solar users where they believe in the right to make energy from the sun without unreasonable interference from utilities. He has over two decades of experience in organizing, campaigning, policy making, fundraising and management experience aimed at empowering people to better determine the direction of their lives and of our country.
Climate Imperative
Bruce Nilles is Executive Director of Climate Imperative, an Energy Innovation project to cut carbon emissions at the speed and scale needed to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. For the two years prior to joining Climate Imperative, Bruce was Managing Director at Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) where he designed and launched the Building Electrification Campaign, which aims to eliminate fossil fuels from 70 million buildings.
Research Director for Redwood Energy
Emily Higbee has led research in domestic hot water use and modeling, resilient home design for extreme weather events, and facilitates Redwood Energy’s ongoing Zero Emissions Construction Guide Series. Emily is also the project manager of Redwood Energy’s CEC funded EPIC grant on Central Heat Pump Water Heater Load Flexibility and manages staff researcher projects that cover a wide range of topics on building electrification.
Building Decarbonization Coalition
Panama Bartholomy is the Executive Director of the Building Decarbonization Coalition. He previously was the European Director of the Investor Confidence Project on behalf of the Environmental Defense Fund and has worked for the California Legislature, the California Energy Commission, the California State Architect and California Conservation Corps. He has worked on climate solutions in over 30 countries, and presented at and collaborated on products from the United Nations, the International Energy Agency and the European Commission.
Steven Winter Associates
Dylan Martello is part of the Passive House Team at Steven Winter Associates. SWA takes targeted approach to serve the individual needs of each client and project. They work across teams to create holistic solutions to the challenges facing our buildings and communities. They pride ourselves on having a shared value of fostering comradery and the desire to improve the built environment.
Managing Principal at Redwood Energy
Sean Armstrong is the Managing Principal of Redwood Energy and has worked for 28 years in building electrification, designed the retrofit and new construction of more than 25,000 all-electric residences for disadvantaged populations, co-authored 7 "pocket guides" to building electrification, provided legal and technical support to building gas bans nationwide, and has received Grand Prize awards from the United Nations and the California Building Industry Association. Sean was inducted into California's Clean Energy Hall of Fame in 2022, and in 2023-2024 is working with other nations on their Net Zero goals on behalf of the U.S. State Department.
