Speakers

Ashley Allen

Sustainability Senior Advisor, Mars

Panelist, Agriculture

Ashley Allen is the Sustainability Senior Manager for Climate and Land at Mars, Incorporated. In this role she serves as Mars’ subject matter expert on global sustainability issues related to climate change and land use, and supports Mars’ Sustainable in a Generation Plan. Ashley oversees Mars’ goals to cut full value chain carbon emissions 27% by 2025 and 67% by 2050, and hold land use in the supply chain flat. Prior to her position at Mars, Ashley served for ten years at the U.S. State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development, leading low-emission development partnerships with developing countries around the world and helping to negotiate the international Paris Agreement on climate change. Ashley also served on the White House Council for Environmental Quality as the Deputy Associate Director for Public Engagement, supporting President Barack Obama’s U.S. Climate Action Plan.

David Babson

Program Director, Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy

Panelist, Agriculture

Dr. David Babson is currently the Program Director at the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). He formerly served as the Senior Advisor for Renewable Energy, Natural Resources, and the Environment in the Office of the Chief Scientist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. There he led R&D coordination efforts on carbon management, climate adaptation, sustainability, agricultural systems innovation, bioenergy, and biotechnology. Dr. Babson was a Technology Manager in the Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) where he oversaw several Conversion Program projects and worked to understand how to leverage new technologies to advance the emerging bioeconomy and address global energy and climate challenges. He previously worked as a Senior Fuels Engineer at the Union of Concerned Scientists and as a AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He completed post-docs at the University of Minnesota’s Biotechnology Institute and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. Dr. Babson has a PhD in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering from Rutgers University and a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Daniel Becerra

Congressional Fellow, IEEE-USA / AAAS STPF

Moderator, Transportation

Dr. Becerra works on energy and climate change policy, with a focus on clean transportation and energy efficiency in the Office of Senator Jeff Merkley. He earned his Ph.D. in Materials at UC Santa Barbara in 2016 where his work focused on developing energy efficient lighting technologies.

Brenda chew

Senior Manager, Smart Electric Power Alliance

Panelist, Buildings

Brenda Chew is a Senior Manager leading the Smart Electric Power Alliance's Research team and has focused much of her time at SEPA investigating the proliferation of flexible resources along the grid. She is the lead author of SEPA's Utility Demand Response Market Snapshot report. Prior to joining SEPA, Brenda supported Utility of the Future and grid modernization efforts.

kipp coddington

UW Director, Carbon Management Institute, Center for Advanced Energy Studies

Panelist, Carbon Dioxide Removal

Kipp Coddington is the Director, Energy Policy & Economics at the School of Energy Resources, University of Wyoming. A chemical engineer and lawyer, Mr. Coddington has more than two decades of experience in helping fossil and renewable energy companies address some of their most challenging energy, environmental, and climate change issues. He is an expert on low-carbon technologies such as carbon capture & storage, and is a co-principal investigator on the University of Wyoming’s DOE-funded CarbonSAFE project in Gillette, Wyoming. He has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University (1986; With Highest Distinction; Outstanding Senior Engineer) and a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University (1993; Magna Cum Laude; Order of the Coif).

james corbett

Associate Director and Professor of Marine Science and Policy, University of Delaware

Panelist, Transportation

Dr. Corbett is focused on technology policy innovation for 21st Century freight systems, with a focus on international shipping and coastal marine policy. He has more than 20 years’ experience providing engineering, technology, and policy studies to industry, government, and other organizations. Dr. Corbett has joint faculty appointments in Civil and Environmental Engineering in the College of Engineering and in the School of Public Policy and Administration in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Delaware. Dr. Corbett was a lead author of seminal studies evaluating international shipping’s role in use of technology to meet stewardship goals. Among more than 175 publications, Dr. Corbett coauthored the 2000 IMO Study on Greenhouse Gases from Ships, the Second IMO Greenhouse Gas Study 2009, and the IMO Greenhouse Gas Study 2014.

Genevieve croft

Policy Analyst, Food & Agriculture, Congressional Research Service

Moderator, Agriculture

Dr. Croft is an Agricultural Policy Analyst at the Congressional Research Service (CRS), covering agricultural research and biotechnology. She recently worked in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of the Chief Scientist, where her broad portfolio included managing U.S. Government participation in the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA). Dr. Croft has worked on science and agricultural policy at the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, U.S. Agency for International Development, Office of Science and Technology Policy, and National Academy of Sciences. She earned her Ph.D. in Biology from Washington University in St. Louis, and B.S. in Biology from Georgetown University.

colin cunliff

Senior Policy Analyst, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF)

Moderator, Carbon Dioxide Removal

Dr. Colin Cunliff is a senior policy analyst with the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF). His work focuses on policies to accelerate clean energy innovation and address climate change. He previously worked at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis (EPSA), with a portfolio focused on energy sector resilience and emissions mitigation. Prior to that, he was the American Institute of Physics/American Association for the Advancement of Science (AIP/AAAS) Congressional Fellow in the office of Senator Dianne Feinstein. He holds a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Davis.

rick duke

Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institute

Panelist, Industrial

Dr. Rick Duke is a consultant and Brookings senior fellow. He served as Special Assistant to President Obama, helping to craft and implement the Climate Action Plan, including defining the 2025 emissions reduction target for the Paris Agreement, negotiating the Kigali Amendment on HFCs to the Montreal Protocol, and authoring the U.S. Mid-Century Strategy for deep decarbonization. Previously, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary at DOE and worked at NRDC and McKinsey. He holds a Ph.D. from Princeton.

john dykema

Project Scientist, John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Harvard University

Panelist, Solar Radiation Management

Dr. Dykema is a Project Scientist at Harvard University’s John S. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He holds an A.B. in Physics from UC Berkeley, an M.Sc. in Experimental Condensed Matter Physics from Oxford University, and a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Harvard University. His specialty is atmospheric radiation and remote sensing instrumentation. He is an instrument PI for the recently selected NASA Earth Venture Suborbital mission, Dynamics and Chemistry of the Summer Stratosphere (DCOTSS). He is the Program Manager for the Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment (SCoPEx).

Carla Frisch

Principal, Rocky Mountain Institute; Transportation Panelist

Panelist, Transportation

America’s Pledge brings together private and public sector leaders to ensure the United States remains a global leader in reducing emissions and delivers the country’s ambitious climate goals of the Paris Agreement. Before joining RMI, Ms. Frisch worked at the US Department of Energy for ten years under three different administrations. She directed policy and analysis offices focused on climate and environment, energy efficiency, renewable energy, clean transportation, and electricity systems. She led large, collaborative teams and multi-million-dollar portfolios, resulting in better designed national energy and climate policies. Ms. Frisch worked extensively on climate vulnerabilities and solutions, including on the National Climate Assessment and US Midcentury Strategy.

Anne Gaffney

Chief Science Officer for Energy, Environment, Science & Technology Division, Idaho National Laboratory

Affiliate, Center for Advanced Energy Studies

Panelist, Industrial

Dr. Anne M. Gaffney is the Chief Science Officer of the Energy, Environment, Science and Technology Directorate of the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and a Distinguished Laboratory Fellow. She has a joint appointment with the University of South Carolina where she is the Technical Director of the National Science Foundation Center for Rational Catalyst Synthesis. Dr. Gaffney is affiliated with the Center for Advanced Energy Studies (CAES), a research, education, and innovation consortium bringing together INL with the four public research universities of Idaho and Wyoming. Dr. Gaffney joined INL after serving 34 years in advance manufacturing leadership roles at major chemical companies including DOW and Dupont. She is an inventor on over 200 patents and author on over 70 peer reviewed publications. Her recent awards include the ACS 2019 Energy & Fuels Distinguished Researcher Award in Petroleum Chemistry, the 2015 Eugene J. Houdry Award of the North American Catalysis Society, the 2014 Chemical Heritage Foundation - Women in Science Inductee, the 2014 University of Delaware Wall of Fame Inductee, and the ACS Industrial Chemistry Award, 2013. Dr. Gaffney co-authored in 2018 the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine Consensus Study Report on “Gaseous Carbon Waste Streams Utilization: Status and Research Needs.”

MELISSA GALLANT

Project Manager, US Department of State

Panelist, Natural Resources

Ms. Gallant helps manage US-funded climate projects related to sustainable landscapes and climate adaptation at the State Department. Previously, she worked at the DC-based nonprofit Forest Trends on environmental markets and finance mechanisms. She co-authored reports on the state of markets and finance for forest carbon, voluntary carbon markets, biodiversity mitigation, and mapping US environmental markets. She has a master’s in Sustainability Management from Columbia University and a BA in Environmental Studies and Chinese from Wellesley College.

kelly Gravuer

Fellow at EPA Office of Water, Office of Science & Technology, Standards & Health Protection Division, AAAS STPF

Moderator, Natural Resources

Dr. Kelly Gravuer is trained as a soil and plant ecologist, focusing on sustainable management of working lands. As a NatureNet fellow , she researched how rangelands can store more carbon while continuing to provide food, livelihoods, and environmental benefits. At EPA, her research contributes to efforts to balance economic, social, and environmental considerations in decisions about water treatment technologies.

Bronson griscom

Director of Forest Carbon Science, The Nature Conservancy

Panelist, Natural Resources

Dr. Griscom directs the Forest Carbon Science team at The Nature Conservancy (TNC). His team’s research characterizes large global opportunities for nature to mitigate climate change through improved land management. Prior to joining TNC, Dr. Griscom coordinated a successful effort at the U.S. Department of State to make climate change funding available for forest-climate initiatives through the Global Environmental Facility (GEF).

joseph hezir

Principal and Founding Member, Energy Futures Initiative

Keynote Speaker

Energy Futures Initiative (EFI) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to driving innovation in energy technology, policy and business models. Prof. Hezir serves as the Managing Director as well as manages a broad range of major policy studies, including the EFI reports on commercial nuclear energy and national security nexus, expansion of the Loan Guarantee program to support energy infrastructure and Carbon Dioxide Removal program design. Mr. Hezir also holds a part time appointment as Professor of the Practice at the Scott Institute for Energy Innovation at Carnegie Mellon University, advising on strategic directions and lecturing on energy policy.

kathleen hogan

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Efificiency and Renewable Energy (retired)

Panelist, Buildings

Kathleen Hogan is a distinguished national leader on energy efficiency with a more than twenty year career as a federal executive spanning the US EPA and DOE. Most recently, she served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency at the DOE, where she oversaw a more than $600 million annual energy efficiency research portfolio. At EPA Kathleen developed a suite of clean energy policies and programs including ENERGY STAR, which she led to national prominence. She has been honored with a Presidential Rank Award (2015), The Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals Career Achievement Award (2016), and a Secretary of Energy Exceptional Service Award (2018).

richard kohn

Professor of Animal and Avian Sciences, University of Maryland

Panelist, Agriculture

Dr. Richard Kohn grew up on a small farm in western New York State, and received his B.S. degree from Cornell, M.S. degree from the University of New Hampshire, and Ph.D. from Michigan State University, all in animal science with an emphasis on dairy nutrition. Rick joined the University of Maryland in 1996, and his appointment is 50% research, 25% teaching, and 25% extension. His extension work has focused on reducing nutrient losses from farms to air and water resources by improving and managing animal feeding. His research on rumen fermentation led to the discovery that profiles of fermentation products in the rumen can be explained using laws of thermodynamics. This discovery has also been applied to anaerobic digesters, biofuel production, and investigation of ways to decrease methane emissions.

anica landreneau

Director of Sustainable Design, HOK

Panelist, Buildings

Anica Landreneau, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP, WELL AP, BREEAM Assessor, is global Sustainable Design Director for HOK. She is a member of the firm’s board of directors and design board. Locally, Anica has served two terms on the DC Green and Energy Codes TAG, authoring high-performance building codes, and is in her third term on the Mayor’s Green Building Advisory Council. Nationally, Anica serves on the USGBC LEED Advisory Committee, AIA Codes and Standards Committee, AIA Blue Ribbon Panel on Codes, the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) Development Committee, and the Consultative Council for the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS).

kelly levin

Senior Associate, World Resources Institute

Panelist, Carbon Dioxide Removal

Dr. Kelly Levin is a senior associate with WRI’s global climate program. She focuses her work on supporting countries in the design and tracking of climate commitments, as well as planning for long-term transitions associated with decarbonization. Kelly closely follows the negotiations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and analyzes related emissions reduction commitments. Kelly also plays a leading role in WRI on communicating climate science developments.

Kelly holds a PhD and Master of Environmental Management from Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a B.A. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Yale College. She has been awarded the Google Climate Science Communication Fellowship and the Academic Council on the United Nations System Dissertation Award, and is a Switzer Fellow, Teresa Heinz Scholar, and Udall Scholar.

jane long

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (retired)

Panelist, Solar Radiation Management

Dr. Long holds a ScB in biomedical engineering from Brown University, an MS and PhD in hydrology from U.C. Berkeley. She formerly was Associate Director for Energy and Environment at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Dean of Mackay School of Mines at the University of Nevada, Reno; and a scientist and department chair in energy and environment for Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Dr. Long is a senior contributing scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund, on the board of directors for Clean Air Task Force and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District Scientific Advisory Board. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, an Associate of the National Academies of Science (NAS) and a Senior Fellow of the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST). She was Alum of the Year in 2012 for the Brown University School of Engineering and Woman of the Year for the California Science Center in 2017.

colin mccormick

Partner & Chief Technologist, Valence Strategic

Panelist, Carbon Dioxide Removal

Dr. Colin McCormick is a Partner and Chief Technologist at Valence Strategic, where he has consulted for the Innovation for a Cool Earth Forum on direct air capture and carbon dioxide utilization. Previously he served as the Senior Advisor for R&D in the Office of the Under Secretary at the Department of Energy. Prior to joining the Department of Energy he was a staff member with the House Science and Technology Committee and a AAAS Congressional Fellow on the staff of Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts. Dr. McCormick received his PhD in atomic and optical physics from the University of California, Berkeley, and did post-doctoral work in quantum optics at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

elsa olivetti

Atlantic Richfield Associate Professor of Energy Studies, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Panelist, Industrial

Prof. Olivetti's research focuses on improving the environmental and economic sustainability of materials using methods informed by materials economics, machine learning, and techno-economic analysis. She has received the NSF Career award for her experimental research focused on beneficial use of industrial waste materials. Dr. Olivetti received her B.S. degree in Engineering Science from the University of Virginia. Her Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from MIT was focused on development of cathode materials for lithium ion batteries.

jacqueline patterson

Senior Director of Environmental and Climate Justice, NAACP

Keynote Speaker

Jacqui Patterson, MSW, MPH, has worked on international and domestic issues including gender justice, racial justice,, economic justice, and environmental and climate justice, with organizations including Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, IMA World Health, United for a Fair Economy, ActionAid, Health GAP, and the organization she co-founded, Women of Color United. She also currently serves on the Boards of Directors for the Institute of the Black World, Center for Story Based Strategy, the National Black Workers’ Center, Greenprint Partners, the American Society of Adaptation Professionals and the Advisory Boards for the Center for Earth Ethics and the Climate Resilience and Urban Opportunity Initiative.

abigail regitsky

Congresstional Fellow, APS/AAAS STPF

Moderator, Industrial

Dr. Abigail Regitsky is a AAAS Congressional Science Fellow sponsored by the American Physical Society (APS). She works in the Office of Senator Tina Smith on energy and environment policy, where she has helped to craft legislation on a national clean energy standard. Abigail received her Ph.D. in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT, where she used hydrogels to mimic Nature’s ability to make strong, tough biominerals in hopes of advancing the sustainable production of industrially-relevant materials.

carlos rodriguez-franco

Senior Forester, US Forest Service

Panelist, Natural Resources

Dr. Rodríguez-Franco has served as Deputy Chief for Research and Development, Associate Deputy Chief for Research and Development, and Director for Forest Management Sciences staff at the US Forest Service. Previously, he worked for the National Institute of Forestry, Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Research (INIFAP) in Mexico for 25 years, including serving as Forestry Research General Director. He has written over 90 scientific articles on forest science subjects.

Mike Specian

Fellow at Department of Energy's Building Technologies Office, AAAS STPF

Moderator, Buildings

Dr. Mike Specian is a AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow hosted at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Office (BTO), where his work focuses on making buildings more energy efficient, resilient, and flexible to an evolving electrical grid. Prior to joining BTO he was a Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC; a scientific consultant for the U.S. Global Change Research Program; and a researcher for Baltimore City in the area of disaster preparedness.

Shuchi talati

Fellow on Solar Geoengineering Research Governance and Public Engagement, Union of Concerned Scientists

Moderator, Solar Radiation Management

Dr. Talati focuses on guiding sound governance and engagement for research into proposed solar geoengineering approaches to limit global warming. She was most recently the 2017-2018 AAAS/AIP-ASA Congressional Science Fellow in the offices of Senator Al Franken and Senator Tammy Duckworth working to advance climate and energy policies. Dr. Talati has additional experience as a postdoctoral fellow with the American Meteorological Society's Policy Program and has worked at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy during the Obama Administration. She received a Ph.D. in 2016 from Carnegie Mellon University in Engineering and Public Policy, a master’s in climate science and policy from Columbia University and a bachelor’s in environmental engineering from Northwestern University.

Robert wood

Professor of Atmospheric Sciences and Associate Dean for Research in the College of Environment, University of Washington

Panelist, Solar Radiation Management

Prof. Wood's research work focuses upon understanding processes controlling clouds in the Earth’s atmosphere and the roles that clouds play in determining climate variability and change, the formation of rain, and how tiny aerosol particles (both natural and anthropogenic) interact with them and affect their properties. Wood’s research uses a combination of observational data collected with aircraft, satellites and from ground-based remote sensing, together with numerical and theoretical models. Wood has published over 130 peer-reviewed journal articles on a wide range of topics involving clouds and climate, and served as editor for the Journal of Climate from 2009-2015. Wood is currently serving in leadership roles with a number of programs including the Department of Energy Atmospheric System Research and the iLeaps/IGAC Aerosol-Cloud-Precipitation-Climate Initiative. Wood currently sits on the International Commission on Clouds and Precipitation (ICCP), the AMS STAC Cloud Physics committee, and is a member of the NASA CloudSat and CALIPSO Science Team. Wood also serves as lead scientist for the Marine Cloud Brightening Project, which aims to better understand the feasibility of deliberately seeding marine low clouds as a potential means for cooling the Earth system.

Nancy young

Vice President, Environmental Affairs for Airlines for America

Panelist, Transportation

An environmental attorney, Ms. Young directs the A4A environmental sustainability programs, represents the A4A airlines in international negotiations regarding aircraft noise and emissions standards, and provides counsel on other environmental issues of significance. In 2015, Ms. Young was appointed by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to serve on his High-Level Advisory Group for Sustainable Transport. The Advisory Group concluded its work in late 2016 with the launch of its analysis and recommendations report, Mobilizing Sustainable Transport for Development. Prior to her current engagement with A4A, Young was a principal/partner at the law firm of Beveridge & Diamond, P.C., where she served as co-chair of the firm’s climate change and waste management and recycling practices. Young previously served as the A4A Associate General Counsel, Environment and International Programs, and as a Legislative Assistant to Congressman E. Thomas Coleman (MO).