Meet Our Speakers
Keynote presentation
Andrew Winston
Green Recovery: Get Lean, Get Smart, and Emerge from the Downturn on Top
A sustainable community needs a strong economic base. Green business expert Andrew Winston, author of the soon-to-be-published "Green Recovery: Get Lean, Get Smart, and Emerge from the Downturn on Top," will speak on how it can be done, and every attendee will receive a copy.
All conference attendees will receive Andrew Winston's newest book, Green Recovery, as a take away.
Learn more about Andrew Winston and his keynote presentation.
Opening speaker
Ron Burke
Ron Burke, Midwest director of the Union of Concerned Scientists and energy policy specialist, will open the conference presenting on: Climate Change in Illinois: Local Impacts, Local Solutions.
Final general session
Finding Funds, Tools and Advice
At the end of the day, join our panel of experts who can offer the help you need to implement green initiatives. Panelists manage programs that offer funding, including federal stimulus funds and grants, as well as technical assistance, design reviews, guidelines and training.
Workshop Speakers
Amy Ando, PhD
Water Conservation in Every Yard
Amy Whritenour Ando is an associate professor of environmental economics in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She received her PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1996 and her BA in economics from Williams College in 1990. Ando works primarily on problems of species and land conservation, including optimal reserve design and understanding the relationship between private and public conservation activity. She also studies other topics related to environmental economics and policy such as: the determinants of household recycling and rain-barrel adoption; the welfare effects of ethanol policy; and policy to control invasive ornamental plant species. Ando serves on the editorial boards of two journals and has served on review panels for grant competitions at the National Science Foundation. She is working with the City of Chicago to form its stormwater management policies, sits on the Environment Programs' Habitat Advisory Committee for the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and works on the program committee for the Wildlife Habitat Policy Research Program run by the National Council for Science and the Environment.
Jean Ascoli
Roofs that Carry Their Weight: Reflective, Solar, Insulated, and Vegetated Roofs
Jean Ascoli, LEED(r) AP, NCARB Certified Architect, is currently engaged full time in building energy analysis and auditing of commercial and public buildings with the University of Illinois Smart Energy Design Assistance Center. She also has her own independent green building consulting firm. Ms. Ascoli has more than twenty-five years of professional experience encompassing all aspects of architecture as well as restoration expertise and fine furniture making. Jean is a co-founder and active member of the U.S. Green Building Council, Central Illinois Branch. She has also successfully completed the Passive House Institute US' requirements to become a Certified Passive House Consultant. In 2008 Ascoli taught a course at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign entitled "Sustainable Redevelopment: Exploring possibilities for green development of existing and new public schools." From 2004 to 2006 Jean was the owner's project manager for the University of Illinois' first LEED project, the College of Business Instructional Facility. The building, completed in 2008, incorporated most of the green roof strategies she'll be discussing. The project is expected to achieve LEED Gold certification.
Susan Ask
Beyond the Basics: How to Handle Compost, Pharmaceutical Waste and Electronic Waste
Susan Ask works with University of Illinois Extension as a community liaison, connecting the scholarship of the University with environmental programs in the Chicago area. She focuses on energy efficiency, ecology, green building, and water issues. For more than 20 years, Ask has been exploring the relationship between the built environment and the natural environment. Ask has a master’s degree in Ecosystem Science and Management from the Yale University School of Forestry—her master’s work provided an ecological critique of five decades of green architecture in the United States—and a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Kansas. She has done field research on soils, rare mammals and ecosystem processes in urban, suburban and wild places from coastal Maine to the Texas Gulf Coast to Washington’s Olympic Peninsula.
Michael Berkshire
Roofs that Carry Their Weight: Reflective, Solar, Insulated, and Vegetated Roofs
Michael Berkshire began his career as a stockbroker. After five years of managing portfolios, he decided to study environmental planning. Upon receiving a master's degree in urban and regional planning, Berkshire held several positions in Iowa. In 2001, he moved to Chicago where he initially worked for the Chicago Park District as a project manager in capital construction. Berkshire is now with the City of Chicago Department of Zoning and Land Use Planning, developing and implementing public policy and incentives to encourage the use of green roofs and sustainable urban and building design in the private sector. Michael led an interdepartmental team that developed the Chicago Sustainable Development Policy, which requires public and private developers to include sustainable strategies in projects that are receiving financial or zoning assistance from the city. This policy has required the design of more than 500 green roofs totaling over 6 million square feet of vegetative cover. Berkshire has also been involved with the development of several innovative green roof incentive programs and is coordinating the creation and implementation of the City’s urban design plan, Adding Green to Urban Design. He serves on the board of directors for the Chicago Chapter of the United States Green Building Council and the task force for the Chicago Climate Action Plan.
Laurel Berman, PhD
Better Students and Revitalized Neighborhoods: The Surprising Economic, Social and Health Benefits of Greening the Landscape
Laurel Berman is an Environmental Health Scientist with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, where she serves as the National Brownfields Coordinator. Dr. Berman has a background in Civil/Environmental Engineering and Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences and has integrated community organizing into her career working as an environmental scientist. Berman holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences from University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health. She obtained her B.S. in Civil Engineering from J.B. Speed Scientific School at University of Louisville.
Ron Burke
Opening speaker
Ron Burke, director of the Union of Concerned Scientists Midwest office in Chicago and the organization's Midwest climate campaign director, is an expert on climate, vehicles and energy policy. He works with lawmakers, state officials, business leaders, activists, and the general public to create and implement climate, fuel economy, and renewable energy policies. Before joining UCS in 2008, Burke was the associate director of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, where he helped manage the state's global warming initiatives and its association with the Midwestern Regional Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord. He previously worked at the nonprofit Environmental Law and Policy Center and served as deputy executive director of the American Lung Association of Metropolitan Chicago. Burke earned a B.S. in life sciences with a concentration in genetics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He also has a master's degree in technology and human affairs from Washington University in St. Louis.
Chris Choi
Encouraging Green: Incentives and Policies to Encourage Green Building in the Private Sector
Christopher Choi works on land revitalization, green building, and sustainable development issues within US EPA Region V office in Chicago. His recent work includes managing Region 5’s “Removing Market Barriers to Green Development” project, which examines market-based solutions to green development barriers. Prior to his current position at EPA, Choi worked on strategic planning and process design for financial services and manufacturing companies. Chris Choi holds a Masters of Urban Planning from the University of Illinois at Chicago, a MBA at Indiana University in Bloomington, and a BA in Economics from Columbia University.
Brian Deal, PhD
Energy Conservation: Energy Audits and Energy Cost Reduction Measures
Brian Deal is an assistant professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research interests include the study of sustainability and urban land use transformation. He is director of the Smart Energy Design Assistance Center (SEDAC) and director of research at Allerton Park and Retreat Center near Monticello, Ill. He is director of the Land Use Evolution and Impact Assessment Modeling Laboratory (LEAM) in the university's Department of Urban & Regional Planning, an interdisciplinary laboratory dedicated to the study of the spatio-temporal dynamics of land-use change and their social, economic and environmental consequences. Deal's work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, the states of Illinois and Missouri and the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, among other agencies. He received the Project of the Year award for 2006 from the Department of Defense Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program for a project on military installations and nearby urban areas.
Donald Fournier
Encouraging Green: Incentives and Policies to Encourage Green Building in the Private Sector
Donald Fournier is the chair of the School of Architecture’s Building Research Council at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is also the program manager of the Smart Energy Design Assistance Center (SEDAC). He performs research and consults in the areas of sustainable design and development, green building, strategic sustainability assessments, strategic energy planning and energy security, tribal energy, energy efficiency, and energy management. Fournier has undergraduate and graduate engineering degrees from the University of Massachusetts and 35 years of experience in the energy and environmental areas. Fournier was a member of the United States Green Building Council’s LEED Steering Committee for two years. He chaired the USGBC’s Multiple Buildings Product Committee, which developed the Application Guide for Multiple Buildings and On-Campus Building Projects. He was also a four-year member of the USGBC’s Energy and Atmosphere Technical Advisory Group and chaired the Combined Heat and Power and District Energy Subcommittees. Fournier was the U.S. delegate to the International Energy Agency’s Annex 31 project on the environmental impact of buildings and the American Planning Association’s Energy Policy Task Force.
Richard Hentschel
Working Together for Healthy Lawns and a Healthy Environment: Is Your Community on Board?
Richard Hentschel is an extension specialist, green industry programming with the University of Illinois Extension, based in Lemont, Ill. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a bachelor’s degree in ornamental horticulture and a master’s degree in horticulture focusing on plant pathology and plant physiology. He joined Extension as an educator in horticulture in Rock Island County, moving on to Kane County. From there Hentschel managed a not-for-profit trade association for pickled vegetables before returning to Extension in his current position. Hentschel currently serves the northeast region of Illinois while working with green industry associations throughout the state. He serves as a liaison between those groups and the University of Illinois. Other projects include the promotion of the University of Illinois at Chicago bachelor of science in horticulture degree completion program; the Illinois Tree Specification review committee through the Illinois Green Industry Association; and efforts supporting management strategies for the emerald ash borer in northern Illinois.
Martin Jaffe, JD
Forecast Your Community’s Future: A GIS-based Support Tool for Watershed Planning
Martin Jaffe is associate professor and head of the Department of Urban Planning and Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he teaches land use and environmental planning and law. He also holds an appointment with the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant College Program, a cooperative program between the University of Illinois and Purdue University.
Philip Krein, PhD
Energy Sources: Alternative and Renewable Energy
Philip Krein is professor and Director of the Grainger Center for Electric Machinery and Electromechanics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research encompasses a wide range of topics in advanced energy, including electric and hybrid vehicle systems, solar energy, implementation of wind turbines, energy management of batteries and fuel cells, and intelligent grid applications.
Erin Lavin Cabonargi
Leading by Example: Building and Renovating Green Municipal Buildings
Paula Levin
What is Waste? Understanding the Waste Stream and the Terminology of Recycled Products
Paula Levin is an Associate at the Delta Institute, where she is involved in a variety of programs with a focus on environmentally preferable purchasing, building green purchasing consortiums, and providing technical assistance for LEED projects. Levin joined the Delta Institute in 2008 and has been administering the West Michigan Sustainable Purchasing Consortium (www.wmspc.org), which consists of public and private purchasers. She is also assisting with the creation of similar purchasing consortiums in Chicago and Southeast Wisconsin. Ms. Levin has worked on Materials and Resources and Water Efficiency LEED credits at multiple buildings. In addition, Levin is on the Steering Committee of the Green Chicago Restaurant Cooperative which will provide tools and expertise to restaurants striving to achieve certification from Green Seal or the Green Restaurant Association. As a Chicago Conservation Corp Leader, Paula helps members of her community learn about environmental issues and take actions in their daily lives - such as composting and recycling - that reduce toxics and waste.
Rodney H. Matsuoka, PhD
Better Students and Revitalized Neighborhoods: The Surprising Economic, Social and Health Benefits of Greening the Landscape
Rodney H. Matsuoka is a postdoctoral research scientist in the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He obtained his doctoral degree in landscape architecture from the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. His research explores the human needs and preferences that underlie successful landscape designs. His current efforts focus on the psychological, social and health benefits provided by contact with nature.
Chris Martel
What is Waste? Understanding the Waste Stream and the Terminology of Recycled Products
Mr. Martel is an environmental engineer with 15 years experience specializing in solid waste and hazardous waste management. His expertise includes solid waste management planning, recycling and waste composition studies; household hazardous waste management; landfill design and operation; and solid waste facility audits. Mr. Martel is licensed professional engineer in Illinois and Kansas. He has worked on solid waste planning and design projects throughout the Midwest. He is a Past President of the SWANA Illinois Land of Lincoln Chapter and has served in various positions on the Chapter Board for the past 9 years.
Stephen McCracken
Working Together for Healthy Lawns and a Healthy Environment: Is Your Community on Board?
Stephen McCracken is program manager for the DuPage River Salt Creek Workgroup (DRSCW) and coordinates the organizations extensive surface water monitoring program. A graduate of Queens University Belfast and the University of London he holds Masters Degrees in both environmental science and environmental economics specializing in water resources. He has fourteen years experience in project management and environmental program and development gained working in North America, Europe, and Africa. He lives in Willow Springs, Illinois with his wife and two children.
Brook McDonald
Water Conservation in Every Yard
Since 1996, Brook McDonald has been the president and chief executive officer for The Conservation Foundation, a private not-for-profit land and watershed conservation group based in Naperville, Ill. The Conservation Foundation has focused since 1972 on land preservation and watershed protection in northeastern Illinois. In 1997, The Conservation Foundation launched a series of regional campaigns to promote the public acquisition of open space. These campaigns helped raise public funds for open space preservation through the passage of bond referenda. To date, McDonald has organized 11 successful referendum campaigns that have raised $700 million, helping to preserve 25,000 acres of land. McDonald has also been involved in protecting the DuPage River since 1989. He chaired the DuPage River Coalition from 1989 to 1995 and is the past chairman of the DuPage River Watershed Ecosystem Partnership. McDonald is the principal author of Illinois’ first citizen stream monitoring manual published in 1990. This program has evolved and is now known as the Illinois RiverWatch program. In 2007, McDonald was named as one of the top ten most influential environmentalists in DuPage County by the Daily Herald.
Mike Mitchell
What is Waste? Understanding the Waste Stream and the Terminology of Recycled Products
Mike Mitchell is executive director of the Illinois Recycling Association, based in Oak Park, IL. Mitchell has led the Illinois Recycling Association (IRA) since 2001. Prior to that, he has worked with Chicago area non-profit environmental advocacy organizations such as Citizens for a Better Environment and Greenpeace. The Illinois Recycling Association, founded in 1980, is a statewide professional association representing the recycling community in Illinois. Its mission is to promote best programs and practices regarding waste reduction, reuse and recycling.
Amy Mysz
Working Together for Healthy Lawns and a Healthy Environment: Is Your Community on Board?
Amy Mysz is an environmental health scientist with the Pesticides Section of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Chicago. She provides information and technical support on a wide range of pesticide topics including exposure and risk, regulatory and policy decisions, and pesticide safety. Her work also includes promoting pest management practices that limit the use of pesticides both indoors and out. As a former Master Gardener, Mysz takes special interest in lawn and garden management practices. She has worked in other capacities at EPA on ecological and human health risk assessment and ecosystem protection. Prior to joining EPA in 1997, Mysz worked as an environmental health and safety consultant, a federal investigator and a private investigator.
Otis Omenazu
Solid Waste Construction and Demolition Debris
Otis T. Omenazu is the Chief Air Engineer for the City of Chicago Department of Environment, directing the activities of the Pollution Prevention Unit, which is made up of the engineering, air permitting, asbestos and C&D recycling groups. He is a graduate of Michigan Technological University, with degrees in Chemical Engineering and Engineering Administration. He also holds an MBA from Roosevelt University. He joined the City of Chicago Department of Consumer Services in 1990 as an Environmental Engineer in the Air Quality Division and was transferred to the newly created Department of Environment in 1992. Omenazu is has been instrumental in streamlining the department’s permitting process, developing and managing pollution prevention programs for the city, including the construction and demolition debris recycling program. In an attempt to encourage recycling and reduce the amount of waste going into landfills, the City of Chicago passed an ordinance in 2006 requiring general contractors involved in major construction or demolition projects to recycle at least 50% of the debris generated during the execution of their projects or pay a hefty fine.
Brita Pagels
Energy Sources: Alternative and Renewable Energy
James Patchett
Design for Sustainable Stormwater Systems
James Patchett, ASLA, LEED AP, is founder and president of Conservation Design Forum Inc. in Elmhurst, Ill. He is widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading pioneers in the design and promotion of sustainable site planning methodologies that integrate innovative water resource management and ecological restoration measures into built environments. Trained both as a landscape architect and hydrologist, Patchett has served on a variety of national technical advisory committees including the ASLA Sustainable Sites initiative and is highly sought as a speaker and educator on the subject. He is the co-founder of Conservation Research Institute. Patchett received an undergraduate degree in landscape architecture and master’s degrees in both landscape architecture and civil engineering (water resources) from Iowa State University and has completed course work for a PhD in landscape architecture from the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources.
Karen Rozmus
Fleet Operations: Smart Strategies to Reduce Pollution
Karen Rozmus, LEED AP, has worked for the Village of Oak Park, Ill., for 14 years as the waste reduction manager and served as the staff liaison to the Environmental & Energy Commission. She is a LEED AP (Accredited Professional) and was the project administrator for the Oak Park Public Works Center (Certified LEED Silver level building). As a volunteer, Karen is currently serving as the LEED Project Administrator for the West Cook YMCA, which is being designed as a green building. She also manages Keep Oak Park Beautiful programs and works closely with schools to help reduce waste, increase recycling and promote the anti-idling campaign.
Joe Shacter
Beyond the Basics: How to Handle Compost, Pharmaceutical Waste and Electronic Waste
During his four years as a senior policy advocate at the Chicago-based Environmental Law & Policy Center, Joe Shacter co-drafted the Electronic Products Recycling and Reuse Act and worked with numerous constituencies and elected officials to enact the bill. Joe also worked on global warming and transportation issues there, particularly the advancement of high-speed rail. Prior to his tenure at ELPC, Joe served as president/CEO of the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago following an 8-year career at the Museum of Science and Industry. Joe earned an MBA and Master’s in Journalism from Northwestern, and his Bachelor’s in Business Administration from the University of Michigan.
Ben Sliwinski, PE, LEED, AP
Energy Conservation: Energy Audits and Energy Cost Reduction Measures
Ben J. Sliwinski is technical director of the Smart Energy Design Assistance Center (SEDAC) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has 30 years' experience as a project manager and principal investigator on interdisciplinary research projects involving energy systems simulation and analysis, design optimization of energy systems, software development, data collection, statistical data analysis and utility program evaluation. He has provided consulting services to utilities, government agencies and private research organizations in the areas of building energy efficiency, energy system modeling and energy data analysis. Sliwinski has a master of science degree in nuclear engineering from the University of Illinois, specializing in heat transfer and fluid mechanics, and has completed three advanced courses in systems simulation and optimization in the university's Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering. He has a bachelor of science degree in general engineering from the University of Illinois, specializing in mathematics and computer science.
Rusty Stachlewitz
Working Together for Healthy Lawns and a Healthy Environment: Is Your Community on Board?
Stachlewitz is program director at The Lawn Institute in East Dundee, Ill. He gained experience as a golf course superintendent and director of operations in the Chicago area after receiving a bachelor's degree in turfgrass management from Michigan State University. Stachlewitz has served as an Instructor of the turfgrass management programs at Kishwaukee College in Malta, Ill., and Southeast Technical Institute in Sioux Falls, S.D. He focuses on utilizing the natural instincts of the grass plant to achieve healthy turf that can benefit the environment.
Jill Tenebrini
Forecast Your Community’s Future: A GIS-based Support Tool for Watershed Planning
Jillian Tenebrini is a graduate student of Urban Planning and Policy at the University of Illinois, Chicago. She currently holds a graduate assistantship with the Great Cities Institute where she works under Dr. Martin Jaffe to assist with the dissemination of the Land Use Evaluation and Impact Assessment Model (LEAM). She is also a research assistant with the Urban Transportation Center where she helps coordinate seminars, webinars and conferences. When she’s not planning conferences and crafting PowerPoint presentations, Ms. Tenebrini enjoys working with Geographic Information Systems and data visualization. Before beginning her studies at UIC, Jillian graduated cum laude from Wheaton College with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Urban Studies. She worked for a private developer for four years with the creation of mixed-income developments.
Vuk Vujovic, Associate AIA, LEED, AP
Leading by Example: Building and Renovating Green Municipal Buildings
Vuk Vujovic pilots Legat Architects' sustainable design efforts. He helps clients of the Chicago-area sustainable design and architecture firm integrate high-performance technologies and achieve LEED™ certification. He also directs in-house educational initiatives and sustainable community involvement. Vujovic, chair of the American Institute of Architects' Chicago Committee on the Environment (COTE), has published more than 20 articles on sustainability and traveled as far as Japan and Australia to speak about the topic. He has a master of science degree in management from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., and a bachelor of architecture from Belgrade University in Serbia.
Jennifer Walling
Beyond the Basics: How to Handle Compost, Pharmaceutical Waste and Electronic Waste
Jennifer Walling has served as chief of staff for State Senator Heather Steans since February of 2008. Walling previously worked at the Environmental Law and Policy Center as a Policy Advocate, focusing on encouraging municipal electric utilities to purchase clean renewable energy and invest in energy efficiency. During law school, she interned for Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn, working on renewable energy and natural resource issues. Walling obtained her law degree and master’s degree in environmental science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2006, after gaining her undergraduate degree at the University of Illinois, as well.
John Walton
Fleet Operations: Smart Strategies to Reduce Pollution
After obtaining a college degree in radio, TV and film, John Walton was audiovisual director for a school district. He went to Saudi Arabia to start up media facilities as well as produce and direct TV for the Saudi Navy. Back in the United States, he started his own computer company, ran a non-profit media company and then his own media production company. Walton then worked for the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County as manager of physical plant and fleet. In 2001 he worked with the Chicago Area Clean Cities Coalition to formulate a plan for the fleet to go to 100 percent alternative fuels and technology, a plan that was approved by the Forest Preserve Commission in 2001. Walton left the Forest Preserve District in September 2009 and joined Advance Fuel Systems Corp. as vice president. He is vice chair of the Chicago Area Clean Cities Coalition and is on the steering committee of Partners for Clean Air; the State of Illinois Biofuels Investment and Infrastructure work group; and the Biofuels Utilization Subcommittee.
Lynne M. Westphal, PhD
Guiding Sustainable Landscape Planning
Lynne M. Westphal is project leader and research social scientist with the U.S. Forest Service's Northern Research Station in Chicago. She manages the People and Their Environments research work unit. Recent research investigated the simultaneous ecological and economic revitalization of a rust-belt landscape; farming community ideas for future farm landscapes that effectively incorporate ecosystem services; and assessments of empowerment outcomes from urban greening projects. Westphal served on the Human Health and Well Being subcommittee of the Sustainable Sites Initiative.
Elise Zelechowski
Solid Waste Construction and Demolition Debris
Elise Zelechowski is deputy executive director of the Delta Institute, a Chicago-based nonprofit that works with individuals, organizations and communities to demonstrate that building better economies and reforming our relationship with the environment go hand in hand. She specializes in community and economic development projects with a focus on environmental sustainability. She worked on the recent opening of the ReBuilding Exchange in Chicago, which collects donated used building materials from deconstruction projects, renovations and other sources for resale to the public.
Conference Details
When
Where
The Hyatt Lodge at McDonald's Campus
2815 Jorie Boulevard
Oak Brook, IL
(630) 990-5800
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