About the Speakers
Matthew Arsenault received a bachelors degree in Political Science from Florida State University in 2010 and began working as a legislative aide in the Florida House of Representatives. Matthew then worked at Florida’s Office of Energy, the state’s energy policy office. During his four years at the Office of Energy, Matthew created and administered the Florida Natural Gas Fuel Fleet Vehicle Rebate program. Matt received a masters of Public Policy Degree from Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy in 2017. After completing his graduate degree, Matthew took his current position as Program Manager of the Duke Carbon Offsets Initiative.
Fahmida Ahmed Bangert directs Stanford University’s Office of Sustainability and the Sustainable Stanford campus program. Leading one of the largest sustainability offices with diverse portfolio, she architects programs for sustainability, operations, and practices. She directs the assessment and metrics design, outreach and engagement, business digitization, and academic integration to aid ‘university as a living lab’. During her service, the university has earned a Platinum rating, ranking 1 out of 940 institutions, through the national Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). As a lecturer with Earth Systems at Stanford University, she regularly teaches and mentors students.
Chris Benson is the Associate Director of Sustainability and Energy at University of Utah. manages the University of Utah’s Facilities Sustainability & Energy division. His team is responsible for benchmarking performance across 282 buildings, managing utility procurement, and leading strategy of operational initiatives to help the University achieve its commitment to carbon neutrality. In 2020, the University achieved its Better Buildings Challenge goal, successfully reducing energy per square foot by 25%. Over the past couple years, the University has become a national leader as it moved to supply 71% of its electricity from renewable energy. The EPA currently ranks the university’s geothermal power purchase agreement as the largest, long-term renewables contract of any college/university.
Jess Berry is the Director of the Office of Sustainability and provides leadership and management across the University to enhance sustainability at Brown. She works closely with the Assistant Provost of Sustainability, and key stakeholders, to identify opportunities for integrating sustainability principles into University operations, including the development of a long-term Strategic Sustainability Plan and net-zero carbon goal . Jess has worked in the environmental field for over 18 years and holds a B.S. and M.S. in Environmental Studies and Natural Resources.
Mark Byron is the Executive Director for Renewable Energy Programs at the University of California Office of the President in Oakland, CA. His group manages supply arrangement that address UC’s Scope 1 and Scope 2 carbon footprint. Mr. Byron lead the effort that resulted in the University of California entering into 3 long-term physical renewable power supply arrangements as well as 5 biomethane agreements. Mr. Byron has more than 20 years of experience in the power sector in construction, financial analysis, asset management and origination. He has a Mechanical Engineering degree from Boston University and an MBA from University of California, Irvine.
Tim Carter is the president of Second Nature, a national non-profit with a mission to accelerate climate action in, and through, higher education. As president, Dr. Carter provides strategic leadership for the organization, including a focus on decarbonization activity and climate leadership of the 400+ schools in Second Nature’s Climate Leadership Network and University Climate Change Coalition. Prior to Second Nature, Dr. Carter was the founding director of Butler University’s Center for Urban Ecology (CUE). Dr. Carter received his Ph.D. in Ecology with distinction from the Odum School of Ecology at the University of Georgia (UGA) and completed his B.S. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He lives in Cambridge, MA with his wife Katy and three children and is an avid coffee home-roaster.
Bruce Chamberlain has over 30 years of experience in managing, supervising and coordinating activities and operations of diverse stakeholders within the energy efficiency industry in California. He has managed research and implementation of innovative technologies, such as LED lighting, integrated building controls, and commissioning. As Campus Energy Manager at UC Berkeley, Bruce helps guide multi-department strategic planning and policy efforts and manages development, funding, and implementation of energy and water efficiency projects. Mr. Chamberlain also manages monitoring and communication of campus-wide energy use to improve operational efficiency while providing a safe and comfortable environment for teaching, research, and public service.
Mick Dalrymple and the team at University Sustainability Practices help the Arizona State University community reach its ambitious operational sustainability goals. Dalrymple builds bridges among stakeholders and technical experts to create positive impact. His 33-year career includes achievements spanning higher education policy, film and television, IT, green building, sustainability consulting and operations across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. He earned his Masters of International Management from Thunderbird, an MBA from ASU, and a Bachelor of Arts with High Distinction in Electrical Engineering, Engineering Math, and International Relations from the University of Arizona. Aim high and implement.
Carol Dollard is an Energy Engineer in Facilities Management and co-chair of the Presidents Sustainability Commission at Colorado State University. In her 21+ years at CSU, she has helped make university operations more sustainable. These efforts include: 18 PV installations totaling nearly 6,800 kW, 3 LEED Platinum and 20 LEED Gold buildings, and over $15 million of energy and water efficiency projects. In addition, she leads a team that conducts the University’s annual greenhouse gas inventory and produces biannual updates to the CSU Climate Action Plan.
Ben Fish is the Director of Utility Operations at the University of Iowa. He has spent the past 16 years with the UI utility department in various roles, but never out of contact with the department’s efforts to replace coal with renewable fuels. Ben was recently part of a University of Iowa team that executed a $1.165 billion utility Public-Private-Partnership. Ben is also a member of the UI Presidential Sustainability Charter Committee, a group charged with integration of sustainability with existing campus programs in education, research, operations, and community outreach.
Tess Gauthier is a third year undergraduate student at UC Berkeley majoring in Conservation and Resource Studies with a focus on environmental justice. She works at Cal’s Student Environmental Resource Center serving as the campus’ Carbon Neutrality Engagement Fellow. Tess has been working with sustainability administrators and her fellow student organizers to increase awareness and student input on the campus energy system and sustainability plan. She is a former member of the Fossil Free UC movement and is currently involved in the UC Green New Deal campaign. Tess believes that environmentalism falls short if it is not rooted in environmental justice.
Eric Giddens is a program manager at the Center for Energy and Environmental Education (CEEE) at the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) where he leads the center’s Community Energy and Climate Action Planning Program. Eric has led energy programs at UNI since 2014, first at the Tallgrass Prairie Center and now at the CEEE. He has degrees and professional experience in Civil & Environmental Engineering, Community & Economic Development, and Math Education. Eric is also a member of the Iowa Senate where he represents the cities of Cedar Falls, Waterloo, and Hudson in Black Hawk County.
Bryan Herrmann serves as Vice Chancellor for Finance and Facilities at the University of Minnesota Morris. A diverse renewable energy platform is a key part of the campus community’s plan to achieve carbon neutrality. Nearly 70 percent of its electrical needs are met by onsite renewable energy sources. The collaboration with the Morris Model and the Climate Smart Municipalities program creates the opportunities to learn about the future of energy through the climate protection agreement with Saerbeck, Germany. Herrmann holds a bachelor of arts in economics and management from the University of Minnesota, Morris and a master of business administration (MBA) from the University of Minnesota, Duluth.
Ian Johnson is Director of Sustainability at Colorado College. He holds an M.S. in Sustainable Community Development and a B.S. in Construction Management. Ian is a Certified Sustainability Professional, a Greenhouse Gas Inventory Quantifier, he holds a Permaculture Design certificate, has held fellowships with the National Wildlife Federation and the St. Croix Institute for Sustainable Community Development, and is a former Marine. He has met with President Obama and senior White House staff to advise on sustainability issues.
Tonie Miyamoto serves as the Director of Communications and Sustainability for the Division of Student Affairs at Colorado State University. Passionate about sustainability and social justice, Tonie founded the Eco Leaders Peer Education Program to help engage and encourage residential students, particularly students from underrepresented groups, to take an active role in sustainability leadership among their peers. Tonie serves as co-chair of the President’s Sustainability Commission and helped lead Colorado State to the first-ever STARS (Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System) Platinum rating. Tonie holds a B.S. in Journalism from the University of Wyoming with a certificate in Women’s Studies and an M.S. in Technical Communications as well as a graduate certificate in Women’s Studies from Colorado State University.
Missy Nergard is the Director of Sustainability for the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In this enterprise level role, she integrates sustainability as a cross-sector, transdisciplinary platform in research and academics, public-private partnerships, and the built environment. Her research is on organizational system hierarchies that compartmentalize knowledge and inhibit connections to larger system interactions. She has an extensive history of community service, including training and handling operational K9s for emergency first-responder agencies. She has over twenty-five years of experience in higher education administration and sustainability, and twenty years of experience in search and rescue, and disaster response.
Stephen Porder is the Assistant Provost for Sustainability, and Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Environment and Society at Brown University. His research is focused on the interdisciplinary investigation of terrestrial ecosystems, combining ecology, biogeochemistry, and geology to ask how our living planet works, what humans are doing to alter those functions, and what the consequences will be for us, and for the ecosystems upon which we depend. As Assistant Provost for Sustainability, Porder is involved in Brown’s efforts to reduce carbon and nutrient pollution, and other sustainability initiatives on campus. In February 2019, Brown pledged to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040, with a 75% reduction by 2025. This plan includes using recycled bio-oil as a bridging fuel as we ready our buildings to be heated by renewably generated electricity.
Mike Shelton joined Ohio State’s Sustainability Institute in May 2017. In this capacity, Mike helps coordinate on-campus activities to achieve the university’s seven sustainability goals. Prior to joining the university, Mike served in a variety of private and public sector sustainability roles. This included managing corporate social responsibility efforts for The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company for six years, leading the Office of External Affairs for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources with an overlapping role as environmental policy advisor to Governor Ted Strickland, and spending nearly ten years as the Assistant Director of Government Relations at The Nature Conservancy’s Ohio Chapter. Mike graduated with a B.A. in sociology from Kenyon College.
Morgan White is the Associate Director for Sustainability at Facilities and Services at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and liaison to the Institute for Sustainability, Energy and Environment, as well as students, faculty, administrators, and community members. Every day, Morgan advocates for meeting our Climate Leadership Commitments to be carbon neutral by 2050 and to build resilience in the local community. As co-chair of the Illinois Climate Action Plan Working Group, Morgan helps facilitate projects, report on progress, overcome obstacles, answer questions, prioritize projects, and address process issues. She has a civil engineering degree and a masters in urban planning from Illinois.