Dr. CB Bhattacharya, H.J. Zoffer Chair in Sustainability and Ethics at the Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh.
He is a world-renowned expert in business strategy innovation aimed at increasing both business and social value. His research and teaching focuses specifically on how companies can use underleveraged “intangible assets” such as corporate identity, reputation, corporate social responsibility and sustainability to strengthen stakeholder relationships and drive firm market value.
Prof. Bhattacharya has published over 100 articles and has over 31,000 citations per Google Scholar. He has just released a book called “Small Actions Big Difference.” As an expert in corporate responsibility and sustainability, he is often interviewed and quoted in publications such as Business Week, BBC, Forbes, Financial Times, Newsweek, The New York Times and The Economist and on TV stations such as Times Now, CBS and PBS.
Brian Ladd, The Ladd Group, Sotheby’s Real Estate
Brian Ladd is the #1 Sotheby’s agent in Oregon and a fourth generation builder and real estate agent with 20 years of selling experience. Brian supports the efforts of sustainable developments and homes and hopes to help with market adoption through marketing and education. He has become a market leader for high performance homes, with knowledge of their unique energy and efficiency aspects and benefits.
John Wasiutynski, Multnomah County Office of Sustainability Director.
The Office of Sustainability works with county departments and the community to promote programs and policies that lead to a more equitable, prosperous, and environmentally sound Multnomah County. Under John’s leadership, the Office of Sustainability has updated the joint City of Portland and Multnomah County Climate Action Plan, launched a clean energy finance program called PropertyFit Oregon, implemented air quality regulations in Multnomah County and successfully advocated for stronger regulations at the State, and worked with the Board of County Commissioners to set the ambitious goal of transitioning the County to 100% renewable energy by 2050.
Silvia Tanner, Senior Sustainability Analyst with Multnomah County. Silvia focuses on energy and climate policy and strives to bring to her work an environmental and climate justice lens. Silvia has a background in clean energy advocacy, including extensive experience in state and federal regulatory proceedings as well as in legislative policy development. Silvia calls the Pacific Northwest home and dedicates a lot of her time to this community. As a student, she assisted low-income clients in areas like landlord tenant and business law. She has also assisted asylum-seeker women and children in federal detention, and serves on the Oregon Women Lawyers’ Board and its Working Parents Committee, Transformation Committee, and on the Events Subcommittee of the Workplace Taskforce. Silvia also serves on the Executive Committee of the Energy, Telecom & Utility Law Section of the Oregon State Bar, and on the board of the Oregon Hispanic Bar Association.
Dennis Smith, Affordable Lending Manager, Single-Family Affordable Lending and Access to Credit Division at Freddie Mac
Dennis manages the affordable housing preservation and manufactured housing initiatives that support Freddie Mac’s underserved markets plan. A 20-year mortgage industry veteran, Mr. Smith has served the industry as an underwriter, underwriting and process manager, process improvement, product development and managed the CRA and Bond programs for a super-regional mortgage company.
Casey Bergh, Transportation and Sustainability Manager at OSU-Cascades
In the last four years, Casey has helped OSU-Cascades launch a transportation demand management program, including Bend’s bike share program. Casey recently served on the City of Bend’s Climate Action Steering Committee and promotes transportation options that will help achieve goals outlined in the City’s Climate Action Plan.
Sandra K Adomatis, SRA, LEED Green Associate, NAR GREEN
Sandra is a national speaker on valuing high-performance features. Her background as an active real estate appraiser, realtor, instructor, and course developer brings insightful dialogue to share with builders, retrofit contractors, lenders, and real estate professionals. You might even say she wrote the book because she did author, “Residential Green Valuation Tools.” She is powered by her desire to see people living in healthier buildings that cost them less.
Jeremy Keller, PE, Project Development Engineer, Ameresco
Jeremy has developed and built a variety of public and industrial energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. Before joining Ameresco, Jeremy was a mechanical engineer and project developer at Northwest Mechanical, Inc., where he specialized in the design and installation of hydronic, ground source heat pump, and solar thermal systems.
Joe “Mank” Mankiewicz, senior account executive, Ameresco Mank joined Ameresco after previously working in the energy services and building automation resource development and energy resiliency enhances our portfolio of energy optimization and infrastructure improvement. Previously, he was a U.S. Navy submarine officer.divisions of an international energy services company. His current focus on distributed energy.
Dr. Alan Journet, Southern Oregon Climate Action Now co-facilitator
Dr. Journet retired from Southeast Missouri State University in 2010 after teaching Biology and Environmental Science: mostly scientific method, ecology, and conservation biology. Alan relocated to Southern Oregon the same year and, with his wife Dr. Kathy Conway, built an energy-efficient passive/active solar home in the Applegate Valley where they have achieved zero net energy where they generate as much energy annually as they use. In 2012, Kathy and Alan — along with a few concerned area residents — formed what is now Southern Oregon Climate Action Now. The group is a science-based, grassroots, volunteer organization dedicated to promoting awareness and understanding about global warming and its climate change consequences and motivating residents to take action to address it.
Emma Geurts, head of the Responsibility Committee at The Gear Fix
The Gear Fix, an outdoor retailer in Bend, has modeled their business on the principals of “reduce and reuse” in the outdoor recreation industry by offering consignment and repair on top-line outdoor name brand clothing, accessories, and gear. Emma explores and executes initiatives that bring The Gear Fix closer to their goal of achieving complete sustainability and environmental responsibility.
David Heslam, Executive Director at Earth Advantage Institute
David Heslam has been a leader in the effort to develop and deploy energy labeling systems into the residential market. This work began in 2008 with the conduct of the 2008 Energy Performance Score Pilot with the Energy Trust of Oregon and has continued through the implementation of energy labels in 16 states. Currently, this work includes the 2018 rollout of the Portland Home Energy Score program and US.GreenBuildingRegistry.com
Heslam spent 15 years designing, building, and remodeling homes in Portland, Ore. His construction company, Coho Construction Services Inc., became known as a local and national leader on adopting new technologies and striving for high levels of sustainability.
Kim Curley, Community Engagement Coordinator for Commute Options
Kim promotes choices other than driving alone in a 17-county area of rural and frontier Oregon. 
Kim started the Commute Options Partner (COP) program in 2003, encouraging business owners to offer their employees rewards for using Transportation Options. For 15 years, she was a host and producer of radio talk-shows in Atlanta, Ga. and Bend, Ore. She is still heard on the airwaves in Central Oregon, touting the benefits of Commute Options programs for all community members.
Oriana Magnera, Climate and Energy Policy Coordinator at Verde
Oriana works at the local, state, and federal levels to forward community-owned, community-controlled, and community-benefiting energy and community-led, participatory policy dev
elopment. Her background includes a focus on deepening organizational commitment and engagement with environmental justice and issues for low-income and marginalized communities in the energy space. She sits on the Oregon Global Warming Commission and the Portland Planning and Sustainability Commission.
Bill Knight, retired scientist, physicist
Bill recently retired to Bend, Ore. following an eleven-year career as a physical scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Prior to that, he worked as a device physicist at the Hewlett-Packard Company while also serving as a volunteer K-8 science teacher. He is currently co-authoring a textbook on tsunami science and is a volunteer with 350Deschutes.org.
Jeff German is a solar and renewable energy professional. Jeff’s experience spans over three decades and includes new equipment, technology roll-outs, sales and marketing and citizen advocacy throughout the US and the world. Jeff has dedicated his career to working with traditional industries such 
as construction, banking, industrial and design industries to facilitate the practical application and smooth transition to renewables. Currently Jeff operates National CarCharging which provides electric vehicle charging systems to commercial facilities and energy storage solutions for grid-tied installations. The storage solution repurposes EV batteries to provide a lower-cost alternative to new batteries while keeping the batteries out of the landfill.
Leah Louis-Prescott, Associate at Rocky Mountain Institute
Leah supports city and state efforts to eliminate fossil fuel use in buildings. Her primary work is in the western U.S., and she also provides regulatory and policy support for building electrification across the country. Leah developed her expertise at Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) where she produced an industry-leading forecast of the impacts of building electrification. She also provided regulatory and strategy support related to DERs and Community Choice Aggregation on PG&E’s Energy Policy and Procurement team. Leah deepened her climate knowledge when she was selected as a Clean Energy Leadership Institute (CELI) fellow in 2019.
Yuning Liu, Associate, Rocky Mountain Institute
Yuning is on a team providing cutting-edge tools, resources, and technical assistance to help U.S. cities advance ambitious renewable energy goals. Prior to joining RMI, Yuning served as an Energy Analyst at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), drafting an industrial energy data book for the U.S. Department of Energy. She developed code using Python to automatically collect, calculate, and visualize county-level energy data in the U.S. industrial sector. During her previous internship at RMI, Yuning researched the deployment of electric logistics vehicles in Shenzhen, China and wrote a report about the optimal siting of urban charging infrastructure.
Sneha Ayyagari, Rocky Mountain Institute Associate, BuildingsSneha utilizes a background in civil and environmental engineering to help advocate for policies and technologies that contribute to more just and sustainable built environments. She primarily supports the Residential Energy+, Building Electrification, and Pathways to Zero initiatives. Previously, Sneha worked in the Climate and Clean Energy team at the Natural Resources Defense Council where she conducted research and analysis on federal and state-level renewable energy and energy efficiency policies. She helped advocate for energy efficiency policies in New York State, working with a variety of stakeholders in the public and private sectors. She has previously held fellowships at the Tomkat Center for Sustainable Energy in California and at Green Empowerment in Nicaragua.
Donald MacOdrum, Senior Project Manager (TRC)
Mr. MacOdrum has 9 years of experience serving Oregon’s residential Oregon’s energy efficiency sector. His project management experience includes developing and implementing marketing strategies, budgeting, policy development and implementation, and developing operating utility programs and projects. Mr. MacOdrum is in his element when engaging with diverse stakeholders and experts to build thoughtful business, programmatic and policy solutions that are in sync with current technology, industry services, programmatic trends, and policy opportunities. Currently, Mr. MacOdrum is an assistant program manager for the Northeast Energy Alliance’s Local Government Partnership program and the Energy Trust of Oregon’s Residential New Homes program, leading market transformation activity for both programs.