2009 Retrofit America's Cities Working Group Members

Amanda Eichel is the Climate Protection Advisor for the city of Seattle Mayor’s office.  The Seattle Mayor’s office has proposed a Green Building Capital Initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve the energy efficiency of Seattle’s homes and businesses. For more information, read our case study or visit Seattle's Green Building Task Force website.

Chinwe Onyeagoro is the CEO of O-H Community Partners (OHcp). Ms. Onyeagoro has assisted dozens of organizations in designing strategic growth and business plans. She has worked with many of these public and private organizations to successfully implement hundreds of community and economic development programs and initiatives. Over the last four years, OHcp has successfully raised a total of $115 million in grants, competitive loans, government subsidies for clients throughout the country. In her work with OHcp, she has worked with government agencies, foundations, community organizations across the country on  designing market-based development strategies for energy efficient businesses and green collar job training programs.

Andrew Butcher is the CEO of GTECH strategies, a Pittsburgh-based Social Enterprise working to revitalize urban neighborhoods in Pittsburgh through vacant land reclamation, cultivation of remediating biofuel crops, and facilitating green economy initiatives. GTECH is working with a widespread coalition to develop a regional green jobs strategy and initiate a targeted geographic strategy to connect community stakeholders with the growing opportunities in energy efficiency and weatherization. For more information, please read our case study or visit GTECH's website.

Byron Silva is an organizer with the Laborers International Union in New York. GANE and the Laborers United of North America (LIUNA) launched a partnership to offer union-trained green construction jobs for Newark residents, while weatherizing 30 homes of low-income seniors. Laborers earned accreditation while being paid union rates, with health benefits. Through the pilot program, local residents are hired and trained to weatherize homes of needy households, thus reducing energy consumption, cutting costs for those most in need, and creating good paying, career track jobs.  For more information, please read our case study or read about the partnership on GANE's website.

Derek Smith is a Policy Advisor in the City of Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability. In August 2009, Portland launched a 500-home pilot of its city-wide energy efficiency retrofit program, Clean Energy Works Portland. The initial phase of the program will focus on basic weatherization, space heat and hot water measures for single-family homes. Portland will expand to commercial and rental buildings and will offer solar financing in 2010. For more information, please read our case study, read the blog about the Community Workforce Agreement that Green For All helped craft for the program, or visit the Clean Energy Works Portland website.

Don Mathis is the President and CEO of Community Action Partnership (CAP).  CAP is the national association of community action agencies, which are nonprofit and public entities that provide services to low-income people at the local level, including assistance with home energy retrofitting. For more information, visit CAP's website.

Dorian Dale is the Energy Director for the Town of Babylon in Long Island, New York. The Town of Babylon has developed a unique home energy retrofit program called the The Long Island Green Homes Initiative. The program provides residential energy-efficiency home improvements at little or no upfront cost to homeowners. The upfront costs are paid through the city's solid waste fund by classifying carbon as a solid waste and are repaid through a benefit assessment on the property. For more information, please read our case study or visit the Green Homes Initiative website.

Sammy Chu is the Project Director of the Long Island Green Homes Initiative. The Town of Babylon has developed a unique home energy retrofit program called the The Long Island Green Homes Initiative. The program provides residential energy-efficiency home improvements at little or no upfront cost to homeowners. The upfront costs are paid through the city's solid waste fund by classifying carbon as a solid waste and are repaid through a benefit assessment on the property. For more information, please read our case study or visit the Green Homes Initiative website.

Elissa is a Skadden Fellow who has for the past two years worked at COWS on Milwaukee Energy Efficiency (Me2), a program that would allow property owners and renters to implement energy efficiency measures with immediate savings and no upfront costs.  For more information, read our case study or visit the Me2 website.

Forest Bradley-Wright is the Sustainable Rebuild Director at the Alliance for Affordable Energy and a leading driver in the creation of Energy Smart, a citywide energy efficiency program for New Orleans, now funded with over $10 million.  Additionally, he has created an educational facility for green building, energy efficiency, and solar called the BuildSmart Learning Center and implemented a project to install radiant barrier, weatherization, and other efficiency improvements in over 150 homes. This program has evolved into the Louisiana Green Corps, a full time job-training program for local youth 17-24 years old who learn to improve the energy efficiency of low-income households. For more information on the Alliance and the Energy Smart program, read our case study or visit their website.

Jailan Adly is a Program Director for the Rising Sun Energy Center in Berkeley, CA. California Youth Energy Services (CYES) is an employment program run by Rising Sun that hires local youth ages 15-22 to do free residential energy audits and basic water and energy efficiency work. This year, Rising Sun is developing the Green Energy Training Services program (GETS) as the next step of the career ladder for people who've decided they want to pursue a career in energy efficiency, targeting young adults 18-25. For more information on CYES and GETS, please read our case study or visit their website.

Jennifer Somers is a Green Connection Program Officer at the Bay Area Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC). The Green Connection program works to create green affordable housing and sustainable communities. For more information, visit the Green Connection website.

Joel Rogers is the Senior Policy Advisor to Green For All and Director of COWS. He’s also a Professor of Law, Political Science, Public Affairs, and Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Joel co-founded and was first chair of the Apollo Alliance and is currently active in the Emerald Cities Collaborative, a national effort to green our cities in economically sustainable ways that also generate better jobs and democracy within them. For more information, read our case study or visit the Me2 website.

Jonathan Kevles is the Senior Representative of the Sierra Club's Clean Energy Solutions Campaign. The Clean Energy Solutions Campaign is working to transition the United States to a clean energy economy.  For more information, visit the Clean Energy Solutions website.

Kate Atkins is the Executive Director of the Garden State Alliance for a New Economy (GANE), a partner organization of the Partnership for Working Families. GANE and the Laborers United of North America (LIUNA) launched a partnership to offer union-trained green construction jobs for Newark residents, while weatherizing 30 homes of low-income seniors. Laborers earned accreditation while being paid union rates, with health benefits. Through the pilot program, local residents are hired and trained to weatherize homes of needy households, thus reducing energy consumption, cutting costs for those most in need, and creating good paying, career track jobs. For more information, please read our case study or read about the partnership on GANE's website.

Khari Mosley is the National Political and Field Director for the League of Young Voters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He's currently working with the Pittsburgh Housing Authority, the United Steel Workers, GTECH, 1Hood, and the A. Philip Randolph Institute to develop a green job training program for residents of Pittsburgh public housing.  For more information on the League in Pittsburgh, visit their website.

Kate Houston is the Green Jobs Coordinator for the Sustainable Business Network Foundation (SBN) of Greater Philadelphia. SBN is designing a city-wide green jobs apprenticeship program.  The Philadelphia Green Jobs Corps will aim to match basic skills training with employers' needs and strive to ultimately connect local green employers to the region's workforce. The Green Economy Task Force is an alliance of 100 businesses, environmental groups, government, academic institutions, workforce development providers, and unions and is advising the development of the Green Job Corps.  SBN is also convening a green employer roundtable to match the design of the training program to the skills employers are looking for. For more information on SBN, read our case study or visit their website.

Merrian Fuller's research focuses on the financing and deployment of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies. She currently works with the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL) on local government financing programs for solar and efficiency, and also at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory on workforce development opportunities in the energy efficiency services sector.

Stacy Noland is the Founder and Chairman of the Moontown Foundation in Seattle, Washington. Moontown Foundation works to prepare low-income, historically disadvantaged teens and young adults for family wage careers in the clean and renewable energy industry sectors.  Moontown’s Switch program trains and hires young adults to provide home energy efficiency retrofit assistance to low-income residents.  For more information on the Moontown Foundation, visit their website.