2021 CONFERENCE SPEAKERS

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Peggy Shepard | Co-Founder and Executive Director, WE ACT for Environmental Justice
@weact4ej
Peggy Shepard is Co-Founder and Executive Director of WE ACT for Environmental Justice. She has a long history of organizing and engaging Northern Manhattan residents in community-based planning and campaigns to address environmental protection and environmental health policy locally and nationally. She has successfully combined grassroots organizing, environmental advocacy and community-based participatory research to become a national leader in advancing environmental policy and the perspective of environmental justice in urban communities. She serves on the Executive Committee of the National Black Environmental Justice Network and the Board of Advisors of the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, and was the first female chair of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Her work has received broad recognition: the Jane Jacobs Medal from the Rockefeller Foundation for Lifetime Achievement, the 10th Annual Heinz Award For the Environment, the Dean’s Distinguished Service Award from the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health and Honorary Doctorates from Smith College and Lawrence University.

Dr. Joseph Allen | Associate Professor of Exposure Assessment Science, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
@j_g_allen | @HarvardChanSPH
Dr. Joseph G. Allen is an associate professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and co-author of Healthy Buildings: How Indoor Spaces Drive Performance and Productivity, with John Macomber. He began his career conducting forensic health investigations of sick buildings. At Harvard, Dr. Allen directs the Healthy Buildings program, where he created the “9 Foundations of a Healthy Building.” He works with Fortune 500 companies on implementing healthy building strategies in their global portfolios and presents internationally on the topic of healthy buildings. His work has been featured widely in the popular press, including the Wall Street Journal, National Geographic, Financial Times, USA Today, NPR, The Washington Post, Fortune, New York Times and Harvard Business Review. Dr. Allen is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology and Indoor Air.

SESSION 1: PRIORITIZING HEALTH AND EQUITY IN CLIMATE POLICY

Moderator: Janet Joseph | Senior Vice President for Strategy and Market Development, NYSERDA
@NYSERDA
Janet Joseph leads NYSERDA’s work in building decarbonization, advancing programs and policies to deliver a carbon-neutral building stock. She has held technical, policy and leadership positions there, where she spearheaded initiatives in green buildings, solar and renewable power, cleantech incubators, energy storage and greenhouse gas reduction strategies that provide benefits for all New Yorkers. Joseph serves on the boards of the Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships, Urban Green Council, New York State Center for Future Energy Systems and the Urban Futures Lab. Joseph received the 2015 Public Service Excellence Award from the State Academy for Public Administration and was voted one of the top ten Clean Tech leaders in New York.

Christopher Coll | Director of Energy Affordability and Equity Program, NYSERDA
@NYSERDA
Chris Coll is the Director of the Energy Affordability and Equity Program at the NYSERDA. Chris and his team are responsible for policy, strategy and initiative development, stakeholder engagement, testing and demonstrating new approaches for delivering clean energy services and their co-benefits to disadvantaged communities and coordinating with state agencies and utilities to align policy and resources to advance New York State’s energy affordability and equity goals. Chris also represents NYSERDA on the New York State Climate Justice Working Group and works on implementing the climate justice provisions of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act CLCPA. Chris has a Bachelor's degree in Political Science from SUNY New Paltz and holds a Master's degree in Public Affairs and Policy from the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy at SUNY Albany.

Adriana Espinoza | Senior Advisor for Environmental Justice, NYC Mayor’s Office of Climate and Sustainability
@adriana_olivia | @NYClimate
Adriana Espinoza is New York City’s first Senior Advisor for Environmental Justice. She is currently leading the execution of the city’s first comprehensive report on the state of environmental justice and is spearheading plans for incorporating environmental justice values into the fabric of city decision-making processes. Espinoza formerly served as the New York City Program Director at the New York League of Conservation Voters, where she advocated for climate action at the city level. She has worked on the Asthma-Free Housing Act, the Lead Free NYC plan and has been an advocate for electrifying NYC’s school buses.

Raya Salter | Energy and Environmental Law and Policy Consultant and Educator, Member of NY State Climate Action Council
@RayaSalter
Raya Salter is an attorney, consultant, educator and clean energy law and policy expert with a focus on energy and climate justice. Raya is a member of the New York State Climate Action Council, the body that is developing the plan to implement the nation's leading climate law. She is also the Lead Policy Organizer for the NY Renews Climate Justice Coalition. Salter is an adjunct professor of law at Fordham University School of Law, and serves on the boards of the Environmental and Energy Study Institute and Evergreen Action. Salter is also a member of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law and co-chair of the Climate Change Energy Transitions Subgroup.

Maritza Silva-Farrell | Executive Director, ALIGN
@MaritzaSF | ALIGNny
Maritza Silva-Farrell is a long-time organizer, political strategist and movement leader with a track record of winning campaigns in the progressive movement. Her vision is of a just and sustainable New York achieved by workers and the community coming together to tackle inequality and climate change while holding corporations accountable. Silva-Farrell has spearheaded coalition building, strategic organizing and policy interventions at ALIGN for over a decade, and played a key role in winning transformational local and state climate policies including Local Law 97, the Commercial Waste Zone System and the Climate Leadership Community Protection Act by forging powerful alliances that benefit workers, immigrants, women, low-income communities of color, and the environment.

SESSION 2: BUILDING HEALTH AND EQUITY INTO ELECTRIFICATION

Moderator: Bomee Jung | Principal, Topsight Advisors
@bomee
Bomee Jung has contributed to New York City’s climate leadership through policy and programmatic innovations for over 17 years. At the New York City Housing Authority, she led the development and implementation of anambitious 10-year strategic sustainability plan. Highlights include a $700 million program of energy performance contracts, a $300 million heat and hot water electrification program, a 25-megawatt community solar program and the city’s first new pneumatic waste collection system in 47 years. Prior to NYCHA, she designed and led the climate mitigation and adaptation programs of the New York office of Enterprise Community Partners, Inc., a national leader in green affordable housing. Jung holds a Master in City Planning degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and serves on the boards of New York Passive House and the Institute for Market Transformation.

Donnel Baird | Founder, BlocPower
@DBaird13 | @BlocPower
Donnel Baird is the founder of BlocPower, a clean tech startup based in New York City. BlocPower develops portfolios of clean energy retrofit opportunities in underserved communities and connects those opportunities to investors seeking social, environmental and financial returns. BlocPower creates jobs for qualified local low-income workers, produces energy savings for community institutions, reduces carbon emissions and provides returns to investors. Baird is a graduate of Duke University and Columbia Business School, where he was a recipient of the Board of Overseers Fellowship and a recipient of investment from the Lang Fund for Entrepreneurial Initiatives. He spent four years as a political and community organizer, and more than two years managing a national initiative to leverage American Reinvestment and Recovery Act energy efficiency investments in underserved communities.

Ryan Cassidy | Director of Sustainability and Construction, RiseBoro Community Partnership
@RiseboroNYC
Ryan Cassidy manages the design and construction of a robust affordable housing pipeline at RiseBoro Community Partnership. Ryan has developed and monitored the construction of over 100 projects, ranging from two-family homeownership programs to large, multifamily complexes with retail and community facility components. He supervised the construction of the first multifamily affordable Passive Houses in NYC and is currently renovating existing buildings to the Passive House standard. Ryan is a PHIUS Certified Passive House Consultant.

Rory Christian | Principal, Concentric Consulting Group, LLC
@RoryChristianNY
Rory Christian has over 15 years of experience in public, private and non-profit organizations. He has helped design, implement and execute various renewable energy and energy efficiency projects and policies throughout his career. At Concentric Consulting Group, Christian develops and implements solutions to reduce energy use and environmental impacts in commercial and residential settings. He also teaches energy efficiency at Columbia University.

Carolyn Olson | Assistant Commissioner, NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
@nycHealthy
At DOMH, Carolyn Olson focuses on the effective use of health data to inform environmental health practices. She directs the Bureau of Environmental Surveillance and Policy’s multi-disciplinary team in innovative health research, legislative and regulatory actions, informatics and communications across environmental health topics, including climate change and air quality. She leads multifaceted efforts to combat the health impacts of extreme heat via investment in the healthcare system, community resiliency, and equitable access to air conditioning, as well as efforts to address energy insecurity.