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Arthur Abal
Co-Team Lead, Energy Use Track
Arthur (Artie) Abal (he/him) (Harvard MPP 2019) started his career as an energy and infrastructure lawyer, before working for several years as a sustainability and social impact consultant, ultimately serving as the head of the Corporate Sustainability Practice for a large North American firm. Artie’s work has taken him all around the world: from Sub-Saharan Africa, where he developed policy structures to attract private investment in off-grid renewables, to Timor-Leste, where he served as a Legal and Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister on energy and infrastructure projects.
Artie has a passion for harnessing digital technology to drive sustainable change and social impact. Artie is currently the Chief Operating Officer of Corsali Intelligence, an ethical Artificial Intelligence (AI) company that makes machine learning accessible and sustainable across the entire value chain. Artie also serves as the Manager of Impact Sourcing at Appen, one of the world’s largest providers of data for AI, and as an advisor to several impact-focused tech startups.
Artie is a proud Australian of colour, indigenous to the Southern Philippines. He recognises, honours, and respects the sovereign rights of all indigenous and colonised peoples of the world.
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Muneeb Ahmed
Transportation Track
Muneeb Ahmed serves as a transportation sector advisor for HACE. He is passionate about investigating and solving issues in global supply chains and operations. Professionally, he is a trader with expertise in the petroleum, ocean shipping, and trucking industries. He currently leads trading and logistics at an aviation fuels supply company where he is also responsible for sustainability projects that include carbon credits, sustainable aviation fuel, and the first-ever "unleaded" aviation gasoline. He works closely with aviation trade organizations and other industry partners on key sustainability initiatives. Previously, as a freight trader, he gained deep exposure to sustainability projects in the maritime sector when he helped to transition his company's fleet of ocean-going tankers to comply with International Maritime Organization's 2020 Regulations. He hopes to continue to drive initiatives and get involved in projects that will help to make the transportation sector and global supply chains more sustainable. Muneeb received his AB in Physics from Harvard College and currently lives in Ann Arbor, MI.
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Brittany Baum
Speaker Management
Brittany Baum is a data and analytics management consultant. She graduated from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities in 2013 with a degree in Economics and Business Management. Baum leads the Sustainability Interest Group for her consulting firm.
Brittany Baum trained to become a Climate Reality Leader in 2020 and shortly thereafter joined the Dallas Climate Reality Chapter. Baum serves on the Executive Committee for the Chapter as Publicity and Secretary Co-Chair. She is also Co-Chair for the Plastics Working Group and a member of the Business Working Group.
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Naz Bekyan
Speaker Management
Speaker Management Naz Beykan works as a consultant with international organizations, private sector and municipalities on climate change adaptation, urban resilience, and green buildings. She is also Harvard Alumni for Climate and the Environment’s Community Development Co-Director as well as a board member of Climate Research Association, a Turkey-based civil society organization.
She is currently supporting the development of the Building Resilience Index program at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and UNDP Turkey’s Climate Change and Environment Portfolio. Her previous work includes the development of a local climate change adaptation guideline for Turkey’s municipalities under the "Enhancing Adaptation Action in Turkey" project, the development of the Istanbul Climate Change Action Plan for Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, and local coordination of IFC’s EDGE Green Buildings Market Transition Program.
She holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree (2011) from Istanbul Technical University, and completed the Master in Design Studies: Energy and Environments (2013) at Harvard University Graduate School of Design with a Fulbright Scholarship.
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Daniel Bicknell
Engagement Management Lead
Daniel Bicknell is a South Florida native and is passionate about building community—locally and remotely—to protect and sustain our socioecological systems. He currently works on Arctic policy and has previously worked on COVID-19 response, disaster risk reduction, climate resilience, energy policy, and national security. Daniel holds an MPP in International and Global Affairs from the Harvard Kennedy School and an AB in Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College.
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David Chan
Food & Ecosystems Track
David has over 5 years of experience in finance and technology across agribusiness. He is the Chief Operating Officer and a Founding Team Member of FarmTogether – a tech-enabled sustainable farmland investment manager. Prior to joining FarmTogether, David was a Senior Private Equity Associate at AMERRA Capital Management, an asset manager that specializes in ag investments. He previously worked at Prudential Agriculture Investments, Gro Intelligence, & Barclays Investment Bank.
David holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in Atmospheric Sciences from Cornell. He serves on both the advisory council of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund New York Chapter and is part of LEAD NY’s 19th Class.
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Sarah Cove
Team Lead, Transportation Track
Sarah Cove is a Managing Director of The Taligens Group, a management consulting company specializing in strategy mobilization and cultural alignment. With a passion for the clean energy transition, sustainability, and creating purpose-driven environments, Sarah has implemented large-scale strategic change programs across the globe in a variety of industries including utilities, O&G, agriculture, logistics, manufacturing, and technology.
Holding an AB in Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard, Sarah lives in Houston, TX. There, she serves on the boards of CleanTX and Capital IDEA Houston, enjoys training for triathlons, and tinkers around on her bassoon in her spare time.
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Santiago Creuheras
HAA Board Liaison
Santiago Creuheras is the deputy minister for the Environment and Sustainable Energy (SMADSOT) and senior consultant on sustainable infrastructure and energy at the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB). Recently, he was a senior consultant for energy policy at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and a member of the Group of Expert Advisers on Sustainability and the Environment of the Chamber of Deputies of Mexico (Mexican Congress). He also serves as Vice-President for Strategy and board member at Interceramic Puebla-Tlaxcala.
Santiago was recently elected as an “Elected Director” for the Board of Directors of the Harvard Alumni Association promoting social justice, climate change, and sustainability and “One Harvard” with endorsements from the Coalition for a Diverse Harvard, Harvard Forward, and more than 20 other Harvard organizations. He is a founding member of Harvard Alumni for Climate and the Environment and a supporter of the Climate Bootcamp with The Climate Reality Project. He is also a member of the Mexican Council for Foreign Affairs, the Academy of Political Science, the Public Administration Institute, Harvard Latino Alumni Alliance, Harvard Alumni for Global Development, Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs, the Leading Change Network, Implementing Public Policy Community of Practice, and the Cambridge Sustainability Network, among others.
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Mark R Dambro, MD
Co-Founder & Project Production Manager
Mark Dambro is an engineer and physician with broad interests in clinical medicine, medical informatics, and philanthropy. Dr. Dambro edited “The 5 Minute Clinical Consult”, gathering input from many clinicians into a compendium of medical topics, and oversaw its printed and electronic publication for over ten years. The 5 Minute Clinical Consult appeared on hand-held devices as the first comprehensive medical text available in that format. After retirement from an active clinical practice, he was trained in 2020 as a Climate Reality Project Leader and has mentored in a subsequent Leadership training session. He is an active member of the DFW Climate Reality chapter.
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Scott Deatherage
Session 2 Team
For over 30 years of his career, Scott has focused his practice on energy and the environment. As a partner in nationally known large law firms, he has worked with clients to solve regulatory challenges and to capitalize on emerging technologies such as renewable energy, energy efficiency, and energy storage. Five years ago, Scott formed his own law firm to focus on representing renewable energy developers while maintaining his environmental law practice.
Scott has worked with clients on electricity generation projects totaling more than $5 billion, including over 50 solar projects, wind projects, anaerobic digestion projects, and landfill gas to energy projects. He has negotiated over 60 ground leases for solar farms and wind farms for developers and landowners. He has assisted clients in selling over 20 solar projects. He is experienced in negotiating power purchase agreements, distributed solar leases, energy efficiency and storage contracts, EPC contracts, membership interest purchase agreements, and other contracts related to the renewable energy business. Scott is a co-founder of an electric vehicle charging company.
Scott graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School and was the Articles Editor of the Harvard Environmental Law Review. He taught Climate Change Law at the University of Texas Law School for four years and published a book entitled Carbon Trading Law and Practice.
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Wendy Ferry
Co-manager, Content Editor
Wendy Ferry is a recently retired engineer and Engineering Program Manager. Passionately concerned about our Mother Earth, she is a Climate Reality Leader and co-chair of the Washington State Climate Business Working Group. Wendy is also a LEED Green Associate and Certified Sustainable Building Advisor.
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AJ Fleridas
Mythouse Platform Team
AJ Fleuridas is a nonprofit entrepreneur, filmmaker, and VP of technology at Mythouse.org. AJ is a polymath, having sold television scripts, started companies, and developed software. His primary focus is in education. He's taught courses in technology, filmmaking, and creative problem solving at schools around the globe, primarily with nonprofits and in underserved communities.
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Scott Graham
Water Systems Track Team Lead
Scott is currently the principal owner of Graham Leadership Growth LLC where he provides Leadership Coaching to a diverse set of clients to empower them to realize their professional goals.
Scott served in the Mid and Central Atlantic Divisions, of the American Red Cross as the Division Disaster Executive. His area of responsibility included Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. He led and managed the division disaster team that supports the regional chapters responsible for the implementation of disaster cycle services (Prepare, Respond and Recover) throughout the division, ensuring services are delivered in a rapid and accessible manner. He is also responsible for alignment with FEMA Region III and State Government partners for the disaster cycle services. During these assignments he responded to numerous Hurricanes including Harvey, Matthew, and Florence. He also responded to Wildfires in Northern California and Oregon.
Scott also served as the East Area Director responding to Hurricanes Irene, Isaac, and Super Storm Sandy, as a part of the Senior Operations Management Team. In addition, he served for five years as the Chief Response Officer for the American Red Cross in Greater New York, the largest and busiest Chapter of the American Red Cross. There, he led a corps of 5,000 volunteers and a staff charged with responding to emergencies including the emergency landing of US Air Flight 1549 on the Hudson River and disasters of all scales, ranging from single family fires to hurricanes.
Scott joined the American Red Cross after twenty-three years with the United States Marine Corps (USMC). He retired as a Lieutenant Colonel, last serving as the Executive Officer of the USMC, Chemical Biological Incident Response Force (CBIRF). His military career furnished him with diverse leadership and operational experiences within the national security arena, including vulnerability assessments and CBRNE consequence management operations.
Scott is a graduate of University of Kansas. Scott also holds Executive Leadership Coaching Certificates from Georgetown University and the University of Georgia in partnership with Sherpa Coaching. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and daughter.
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Darshana Gupte
International Coordinator
Darshana Gupte is an environmental activist who believes Climate Change is the defining crisis of our time. After a life-long career as a microbiologist in various scientific settings -Darshana has dedicated her time to leading the fight against planetary warming, to leave a better Earth for future generations.
Darshana’s interest in conservation began as a part of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) at her past company-Chanel Inc at NJ. There, she led a green team along with her peers, affected change in creating awareness, recycling practices, water conservation, energy efficiency and managing supply chain – all with the goal of cost savings and more importantly, preserving valuable resources.
Ms. Gupte is a trained, Climate Reality Project (CRP) Leader– a global, non-profit organization founded by U.S. Vice President Al Gore to catalyze a global solution to the Climate Crisis. As a trained climate leader, Darshana has given numerous presentation ns on the climate crisis and its solution, mentored national and international Climate Reality trainings. She founded the Climate Reality San Antonio Chapter, which now has over hundred members. As a strong advocate of reforestation, Darshana has collaborated with the city to plant over 3000 trees. She has created a Pollinator Garden at temple and her backyard to support bees and butterflies who helps our food system. She enjoys teaching children to love the environment through spending time outdoors, grow things we eat, collecting waste from the parks etc. Darshana believes creating awareness about environmental issues is vital – particularly at a young age. She was instrumental to starting Green School Campus program GCP) in Maharashtra, India to name few. Recently, City of San Antonio awarded her to help translate English-Hindi to support senior citizens for emergency services
Darshana is a big advocate of H.R. 6363 commonly known as the 2018 Farm Bill which designed to benefit beginning, veteran, or socially disadvantaged farmers & ranchers practice including Regenerative Agriculture. The farm bill sets national policies for nutrition, agriculture, conservation, and forestry. It provides nutrition assistance to millions of Americans through programs such as SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).
She is also certified En-Roads Climate Ambassador (Energy-Rapid Overview and Decision-Support) organization run by MIT Sloan and Climate interactive. En-ROADS is a powerful simulation model for exploring users how to address global energy and climate challenges through large-scale policy, technological, and societal shifts.
As a member of The United Nations Association of the USA (UNA-USA), she advocates the significance 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which aim to transfer our world. She advocates, “Let us fight together and solve this crisis, so one day we can proudly say that our generation faced a unique challenge, acted on it to avoid a truly catastrophic unraveling and saved our beautiful planet Earth for future generations. You can reach her d.gupte81@gmail.com for any questions.
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Daniel Katzenberger
Session 2 Team
Dan Katzenberger is a leader in ESG strategy, stakeholder engagement, sustainable finance, and C-Suite engagement. He is Global Sustainability & ESG Leader at Best Buy. Dan specializes in climate goals that are inclusive of all direct and indirect impacts of business operations, including upstream and downstream impacts. He has a deep understanding of organizational transformation processes, including aligning the needs of all stakeholder groups towards a common purpose. Dan has both broad and deep experience with project finance, from small single-building energy efficiency projects, to portfolios of thousands of buildings, to nine-figure utility scale clean energy projects. Dan received his BS in mechanical energy from Washington University in St. Louis, and an MBA from Boston University’s Questrom School of Business.
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Paul Kirsch
Team Lead, Industry Track
Paul was the initial investor in 4THBIN, a New York-based electronics recycling enterprise, and has been an active board member since the company’s inception in 2008. Paul took over as CEO in November of 2019 to lead the company through its next phase of growth and national expansion. Prior to joining 4THBIN he was the president of Chemours’s $2.9B Fluoroproducts division. He also previously held positions as vice president at XM Satellite Radio, president of Henkel’s global automotive division, and a founding partner of the start-up Hughes Telematics. Kirsch holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh, an MBA from the University of Michigan, and attended Harvard University’s Advanced Management Program. He is a licensed pilot and an accomplished triathlete.
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Michael Linn
Co-Founder, Climate Boot Camp
Michael Linn is a Renaissance man; an inventor, entrepreneur, scientist, writer, businessman, and philanthropist. He is currently working on creating a tipping point among organizations for sustainability action working with the Climate Reality Project and the Harvard Alumni for Climate and the Environment to create a boot camp for Climate Heroes. Most recently he was Chairman of Inua Partners in Hope (www.inuapartners.org) and CEO of Greensleeves (winner of the ASHRAE Global First Place Tech Award for Ed buildings in 2014). He was a Board Member and EVP of Sales and Marketing for Solomon Software that sold to Microsoft. He is a Harvard AB and MBA, as well as a Climate Reality Leader.
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Will Linn
Mythouse Platform Team
Will Linn, PhD, is the founder of Mythouse.org and the General Education Department at Hussian College. He has appeared in documentaries and series, including Myths: The Greatest Mysteries of Humanity (2020), Memory: The Origins of Alien (2019) and The Taking (2021). Between 2018 and 2019, Will served as the Executive Director of the Joseph Campbell Writers' Room at Los Angeles Center Studios. His courses and collaborations with student and professional storytellers are grounded in transformational narrative.
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Clare Loughlin
Co-manager, Content Editor
Clare (she/her) is an environmental health researcher with a focus on PFAS contamination and climate change. Prior to joining the Climate Boot Camp, Clare was an Analyst at Blue Access LLC where she oversaw content creation and partnership relations. Clare is a Fulbright grantee to Malaysia and received a Certificate in Sustainability from the Goodwin-Niering Center for the Environment. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Connecticut College with a BA in Environmental Science.
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Marianne Mensah
Work Session Team
Marianne is a Lecturer on climate change and sustainability in higher education and the Founder of the Climate Innovation Education Lab (CIEL). Marianne teaches a course on climate change, sustainability and innovation at the Sustainable Design School. She is the program coordinator of the module "smart and sustainable cities" at Université Côte d’Azur.
Prior to joining UCA, Marianne worked for international development agencies. At the French Development Agency, she served the group as a Regional Coordinator where she worked on environment, energy, and education projects in Africa. She developed courses on energy efficiency, climate change, project management for AFD Campus of Development. Prior to AFD, she worked for UN organizations on project coordination and performance reviews in South America, Africa, Asia and Europe. She started her career working for the private sector in Europe, India, and South East Asia.
Marianne is the President of CANIE Europe, the Climate Action Network for International Educators and a founding member of Alive! Art Creativity & Climate Change. She contributed to publications on innovations in education for sustainable development and on innovative finance. She holds a MPA from Harvard Kennedy School of Government, a Master in Economics from Sciences-Po Paris and a Certificate of INSEAD Executive Program on Innovation in the Age of Disruption.
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Erik Meilke
Co-Team Lead, Energy Use Track
Erik Mielke has over 25 years’ experience in the energy sector across industry, finance and consulting. He is global head of Corporate Research at Wood Mackenzie, a consulting firm specialising in the energy and natural resources sectors. He has dual Danish and UK citizenship and is based in London.
Erik has a mid-career MPA from Harvard Kennedy School. He was also a research fellow in the Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group at Harvard’s Belfer Center. Erik has a BSc in Economics from the London School of Economics.
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Mai Mislang
Transportation Track
Mai Mislang is a writer, consultant, musician, and entrepreneur. She
was Philippine President Benigno S. Aquino III’s speechwriter during his stint in the Senate from 2007-2010, throughout his presidential campaign, and was then appointed as Assistant Secretary/Chief of Staff of the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office (PCDSPO) from 2010-2013. Since 2006, she has been performing with Manila-based blues band, The Blue Rats. as its lead singer. In 2020, she launched a planet-conscious sourdough micro-bakery (IG @riseartisanal) to serve communities in quarantine and support the local economy. She now runs the business full-time. She has an MCMPA from the Harvard Kennedy School.
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Ashley Monismith
Marketing Lead
Ashley Monismith, the Co-Marketing Manager for The Climate Boot Camp, is a digital marketing strategist and Climate Reality member in Dallas, Texas. In her free time, you can find Ashley hiking on nearby trails with her dog, helping produce Climate Reality DFW's youth climate podcast, working on her plastic pollution awareness program, and transforming scrap fabrics into new creations.
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Christopher Nagle
Team Lead, Food & Ecosystems Track
Christopher Nagle is an early career ecologist & sustainability expert. He specializes in questions and topics which lie at the intersection of ecology, contemporary society, and the designation of policy frameworks which guide sustainable management and usage of natural resources, with a particular interest in the ocean domain, human stressors, and the effective stewardship of transboundary marine resources.
He has previously held positions at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the UNFCCC Secretariat, the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, and most recently the Seattle Aquarium—where he led a project researching the design and implementation of sustainability rating schemes for consumer seafood products. Christopher received his Bachelor’s degree in Evolutionary Biology & Ecology from the University of Pennsylvania (BA ’14) and a Master’s degree in Environmental Management from Harvard University Extension School (ALM’ 18). He is a native of Atlanta, Georgia and currently resides in Seattle, WA.
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Jim Notman
Co-Team Lead, Circular Value Chain Track
Jim is a building efficiency and sustainability professional. He has over 30 years of experience as a professional engineer designing high-efficiency heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems (HVAC) for college campuses, hospitals and school districts. Jim has been employed at Johnson Controls for the past 11 years in their Performance Infrastructure group.
He holds a master’s degree in mechanical engineering specializing in energy management from Texas A&M University. Jim received his LEED AP certification in 2002. He also holds an MBA in sustainable business from Green Mountain College. Most recently, Jim became a trained Climate Reality Leader in 2020 through the Climate Reality Project. He is an active member of the DFW Climate Reality chapter and has also mentored subsequent Climate Reality Leader training sessions.
Jim was most recently selected to be the VP North America for Johnson Controls’ Global Sustainability Network (GSN). The GSN is an employee engagement team whose mission is to engage employees to serve as catalysts for advancing sustainable business practices across Johnson Controls. As part of this role, Jim is also a Global Sustainability Ambassador to advocate sustainability issues inside and outside the organization.
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Ushma Pandya
Co-Team Lead, Circular Value Chain Track
Ushma has had a lifelong interest in waste reduction. Before the term ""zero waste"" was coined, she was raising awareness about consumption and waste with her schoolmates and work colleagues. She co-founded Think Zero LLC, a waste reduction and diversion firm that works with companies on meeting their sustainability goals as it relates to waste. Prior to co-founding Think Zero LLC, Ushma held senior management roles with American Express, Booz & Co., and Katzenbach Partners. She has worked on environmental issues with organizations such as the Environmental Defense Fund, the Department of Environment of the City of Chicago, and Acumen.
Ushma is on the Board of the Manhattan Solid Waste Advisory Board (MSWAB) and the NYC chapter of New York League of Conservation Voters and was on the Board of Sustainable South Bronx (including overseeing the for-profit subsidiary Cool Roofs that worked on cooling and greening roofs throughout NYC).
Ushma holds degrees from Georgetown University, Columbia University and Harvard University. She is certified as a TRUE Zero Waste Business Associate and LEED Green Associate by GBCI.
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Timothy Parent
Marketing Lead
Timothy Parent is an intersectionalist and systems designer. He is interested in the intersection of environmentalism, material culture, and social justice. Timothy graduated with a degree in East Asian Studies and worked in China for 10 years, promoting global diversity and sustainability within the fashion industry. After repatriating to the US in 2019, Timothy founded Harvard Alumni for Fashion, Luxury, and Retail, and co-founded Harvard Alumni for Climate and the Environment, where he currently serves as Director of Communications. For his day job, Timothy works as the Marketing Manager for Meaningful Gigs, a marketplace that connects African designers with large enterprises looking for digital design solutions. The company is on a mission to create 100,000 skilled jobs in Africa by 2028.
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Eleanor Powers
Co-Chair, Climate Boot Camp
Eleanor Powers is a media executive specializing in accelerating transformation in complex industries undergoing rapid change. In 2020, Eleanor co-founded Harvard Alumni for Climate and the Environment (HACE) and currently serves as its Programming Director. She runs her own consulting business and she has held executive positions at L2 (Gartner), The Online Publishers Association, United Media (Scripps Howard), and Fairchild Publications (CapCities/ABC - Disney). She has an MBA from The Stanford Graduate School of Business and graduated summa cum laude from Harvard Radcliffe College. She has an MA in Food Policy and Agricultural Economics from The Food Research Institute at Stanford University. She is a trained Climate Reality Leader.
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Tanima Quazi
Co-Team Lead, Circular Value Chain Track
Tani Quazi’s expertise spans the course of 20 years, building the strategy and vision of sustainability and environmental organizations. She’s developed and implemented robust management systems, partnering with Operations, Facilities, Engineering, and Research, to promote a proactive culture inclusive of all personnel and focused on continuous improvement.
Tani’s current role at Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc. focuses on global operations, including the integration of sustainability initiatives. She supports ESG strategy to create business value and improve stakeholder engagement.
Tani holds an MA in Management and Finance from Harvard University and a BS in Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Riverside.
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Jules Qui
Session 2 Analyst
Jules graduated from Harvard in 2019 with a degree in History and Mathematics, where she was inspired to study climate and environmental history by one of her thesis advisors, Sunil Amrith, who is known for his work on the history of water and climate. After college, she spent two years at BCG, where she worked on sustainable finance, energy transition, and ESG strategy. She is now an investor at Permira based in Menlo Park, California. She is very excited about climate and innovation, and in her free time, she runs a Chinese newsletter on sustainability.
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Kalyani Rao
International Coordinator, India
Ms.Kalyani Rao, Vice President - Global Partnerships at Bharat Ekam, is a South Indian global Sustainability Educator, Environmentalist, a Climate Reality Leadership COP, Blue Consultant, IAYP Mentor Awardee, an International Speaker an expert planner and executor of global Student engagement programmes, hosting Exchange Programs, Ocean conferences, etc. Ms. Rao's commitment to lowering her carbon footprint is demonstrated by her participation in designing sustainable development projects and activities, by involving young minds and their mentors, globally. She holds Post Graduation in Industrial Relations & Personnel Management and a Master's degree in HR Management & Development. She has worked in the IT, electronics, and non-profit industries for more than 18 years.
Her leadership participation in organising beach clean-ups, crowd funding, plastic waste drives, girl child education, sanitation, and building homes for the underprivileged, among other events, further demonstrates her love towards education, SDGs, nature, oceans, and community service. She is a committed motivator, using her upbeat attitude and conscientious demeanour to encourage young people to act as Planet Savers and Global Citizens. She represents T4 Education & Global School Alliances, U.K, as Country Ambassador and as a President of IELTA India. She demonstrated her commitment to advancing the value of education, exchange of art and culture, livelihood internships, English Language and Green skills development programs by promoting SDGs. She strikes a healthy balance between her advocacy work and mindful hobbies like cooking, travelling, frequent meditation, and Reiki and healing therapies Ms Kalyani Rao believes in “bring more greens for healthy blues”.
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David Raper
Work Session Team
David Raper is the Principal of DARe Social Impact, an NYC-based global strategy and operations consultancy with a mission to build a just world, where people and nature thrive together. DARe designs fresh strategies, aligns teams for high performance, and builds powerful ecosystems so social impact leaders can change their world. David has led turnarounds and transformations for global technology leader IBM, New York City not-for-profit Housing Works, and critical public services in Sydney, Australia.
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Martin Royal
Work Session Team
Martin Royal is a Partner at Propulo Consulting and a human performance consultant, coach and facilitator who helps clients create a committed and mobilized workforce to achieve their operational excellence, safety and well-being outcomes. He joined the Climate Reality Project in 2020 as a way to bridge his enthusiasm to address climate change issues and support organizations on their journey toward building cultures of sustainability. Originally from Quebec, Martin lives in Dallas with his wife and seeks to enjoy the outdoors whenever possible.
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Charles Schilke
Built Environment Track
Chuck Schilke is a real estate and environmental lawyer, real estate developer and financier, and architectural historian. He is also a real estate educator who has taught at Harvard, Georgetown University, Johns Hopkins University, and George Washington University. He teaches courses in the Environmental Aspects of Real Estate Transactions, among many other subjects, and thus has a special interest in climate change. Schilke is very active in the Urban Land Institute, and chairs its Public Development and Infrastructure Council. He has developed real estate projects ranging up to $1 billion, and also financed real estate projects ranging up to $1 billion. He is the author of the CMBS E-Primer (2nd edition), one of the standard works on Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities. He is based in Washington DC, and was educated at Harvard, the University of Chicago, and Cornell Law School.
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Beth Sopka
Marketing
Beth has an IT background in operating system and database management design and implementation, in addition to high school mathematics education. Her two careers were separated by an extended stint as a 'stay-at-home' mother during which she engaged in a wide variety of school, civic and sports-related volunteer activities. Beth is a certified court official in badminton for which she has traveled extensively nationally and internationally. She currently serves on the Boards of USA Badminton as well as the Northeast Badminton Association and Massachusetts Badminton Association. She enjoys her continuing engagement with Harvard as an active member of the HR 1970 Reunion Committee and most recently HACE. Beth graduated from Harvard University in 1970 with an AB in Psychology and in 1994 with an MEd, Secondary Mathematics, from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
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Brooke Suter
Session 2 Manager
Brooke Suter is Principal of Sustainable Leadership to Thrive. Supporting psychological & energetic ease in concert with action empowerment to holistically address the climate crisis: As a state or national director for 20 years, Ms. Suter worked in 50 states and federally to build diverse coalitions, empower activists, and lead the adoption of nationally precedent-setting environment and public health legislation, regulation and incentive-based programs in the United States. Focusing on the role of our internal condition in supporting transformative social change, currently, she is: (1) Integrating MIT’s Theory U: Awareness-based Systems Change into sustainability approaches, (2) Developing Sustainable Leadership to Thrive to support personal and planetary sustainability equally, (3) Supporting sustainability systems thinking across coursework, culture and alumni at the Harvard Kennedy School, and, (4) Collaborating internationally on tools for informed public action on the UN’s interrelated Sustainable Development Goals (gender, poverty, climate, and more) via Sulitest.org. Ms. Suter has received NGO, city and state awards, and is a Guinness Book of World Records record holder.
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Trevor Thompson
EJ Consultant
Trevor Thompson helps coordinate environmental justice speakers and input for HACE events. Outside of HACE, Trevor works at the NorthLight Foundation, with an emphasis on Just Transition and support for frontline communities and under-resourced environmental justice organizations. He also coordinated the development of the NorthLight Foundation’s Investment Policy Statement (IPS), which includes objectives on climate change, environmental justice, racial justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion. Previously, Trevor was a foresight professional (professional futurist) at the Institute for Alternative Futures (IAF). At IAF, Trevor conducted long-term (e.g., 20 year) holistic scenario development and forecasting for government agencies--including the US Forest Service--and nonprofit organizations. His strategic foresight work focused on climate change, health, and emerging technologies. Trevor is a graduate of Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (Master of Environmental Management), Yale School of Management (MBA), and Harvard College. Across his work and studies, Trevor has focused on climate justice, climate and health, and accounting for planetary boundaries within business operations.
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Jayson Toweh
Food & Ecosystems Track
Jayson Toweh is currently a Stanford PhD student focusing on identifying the health, environmental, and social impacts of climate change and creating co-benefits from developing sustainable energy transition.
He holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan’s Program in the Environment and a master’s degree in Environmental Health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. His thesis focused on evaluating and mapping emission changes after installing scrubbers to coal power plants.
Prior to Stanford, Jayson worked as a Management and Program Analyst at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the Office of Inspector General, where he evaluated EPA's water programs and made recommendations for improvement. Jayson was elected and serves on the Harvard Board of Overseers, the university's governing board.
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Alejandra Viloria
Marketing
Alejandra is a consultant and advocate for Sustainability, Natural Based-Solutions, and for the Protection of Nature, with a holistic view of its interconnectivity.
She holds a Master in Public Administration degree from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a Master of Sciences in Management from Hult International (former Arthur D. Little School of Management).
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Vanessa Wu
Speaker Management
Vanessa is a management consultant working with Fortune 500 energy companies sectors to solve critical business challenges and transform the industry. Passionate about expanding renewable energy to enable the world’s transition to an affordable, zero-carbon future, Vanessa has developed experience across strategy, public/regulatory policy, and project development through her experience at Boston Consulting Group and NextEra Energy. Vanessa is also a climate leader at Climate Reality, co-leading the Youth and Young Professionals Working Group for the DFW Chapter. Outside of work, she has also started The Green Paths podcast, interviewing professionals pursuing sustainability-related careers across industries and functions to inspire the younger generation.