Federal Policy Briefing 2013

Meet the Speakers

Secretary Shaun Donovan (Keynote) U.S. Secretary, Housing and Urban Development

His tenure as HUD Secretary has reflected his commitment to making quality housing possible for every American. Under Secretary Donovan’s leadership HUD has helped stabilize the housing market and worked to keep responsible families in their homes. The agency has instituted reforms that have solidified the Federal Housing Administration’s financial position and protected the taxpayer against risk, while still preserving FHA’s mission of providing responsible access to homeownership. Secretary Donovan has reaffirmed HUD’s commitment to building strong, sustainable, inclusive neighborhoods that are connected to education and jobs and provide access to opportunity for all Americans.

In December 2012, President Obama signed an Executive Order creating the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force and appointed Secretary Donovan as Chair. The Task Force is charged with creating a comprehensive regional plan, based on local vision for redevelopment, to guide long term disaster recovery efforts.

Secretary Donovan previously served as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). He created and implemented HPD's plan to build and preserve 165,000 affordable homes.

Before his service as HPD Commissioner, Donovan worked in the private sector on financing affordable housing, and was a visiting scholar at New York University. He was also a consultant to the Millennial Housing Commission.

Donovan rejoined HUD after his previous service in the Clinton administration as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Multifamily Housing. He also served as acting FHA Commissioner during the Clinton/Bush presidential transition.

Prior to his first service at HUD, he worked at the Community Preservation Corporation in New York City, a non-profit developer of affordable housing. Donovan holds a B.A. and Masters degrees in Public Administration and Architecture from Harvard.

Margie Alt Executive Director, Environment America

As director Margie helped grow Environment America to include 29 state groups, nearly 100 professional staff, and over 1 million members, activists and allies in all 50 states. Environment America is a leading ‘outside game’ player in the U.S. environmental movement working for clean air, clean water and open spaces.

Marco Cocito-monoc Director for Regional Initiatives, Greater New Orleans Foundation

GNOF’s regional initiatives are overseen by Dr. Marco Cocito-Monoc, who has been working in this capacity since the summer of 2007. Marco has extensive experience in community revitalization and economic development, having been executive director of Baltimore’s Southeast Community Development Corporation for four years and, prior to that, having led economic development initiatives at the municipal and regional levels. During his tenure at GNOF, Marco has restructured the Environmental Fund (the foundation's second largest pool of resources) and created the Coastal 5+1 Initiative to assist SE Louisiana's coastal communities in their efforts to adapt to wetland loss.

Lee Crockett Director, U.S. Fisheries Campaigns, Pew Charitable Trusts

Lee is the director of U.S. Fisheries Campaigns for the Pew Charitable Trusts. In this capacity, he oversees the development and implementation of campaigns to end overfishing, improve the management of forage fish, and transition the U.S. to ecosystem-based fisheries management on the Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf coasts. He joined Pew in June 2007 as its director of Federal Fisheries Policy and oversaw three projects: 1) ending overfishing under the authority of Magnuson- Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA); 2) transitioning Gulf of Mexico surface longline fishing to more selective gear to protect spawning Bluefin tuna and other ocean wildlife; and 3) improving the management of Atlantic Bluefin tuna in the U.S. and internationally. Prior to joining Pew he was the executive director of the Marine Fish Conservation Network, a position he held since November 1998. The Network is the largest U.S. coalition of fishing and environmental interests solely dedicated to promoting the sustainable management of ocean fish. The Network completed a successful campaign in December 2006 to renew and strengthen the MSA. Lee was also a fishery biologist with the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for four years where he led agency efforts to protect essential fish habitat. Before joining NMFS, he was a professional staff member of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries for eight years. Lee has a BS in Biology and a MS in Biological Oceanography from the University of Connecticut. Prior to attending college, he served in the U.S. Coast Guard for nearly four years.

Heather Cronk Managing Director, GetEQUAL

Managing Director, Heather Cronk joined GetEQUAL in May 2010. Prior to her work with GetEQUAL, Heather was the Chief Operating Officer at the New Organizing Institute, overseeing operations and expanding programs. Heather has also worked with organizations such as mySociety in the U.K. and with Idealist.org in the U.S., always focused on building community and pushing for tangible social change. A native of Lexington, KY, Heather holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in religion/philosophy from Berry College in Rome, GA, and a Master of Divinity degree from Wake Forest University Divinity School in Winston-Salem, NC. You can reach Heather by emailing her at heather at getequal dot org.

Danielle Deane Director of Energy and Environment Program, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies

Danielle Deane is the first Director of the Joint Center’s Energy and Environment Program. Formerly, Ms. Deane completed the full eight-year term as an Environment Program Officer at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation in California. Earlier in her career, Ms. Deane was a financial analyst and broker at Guy Carpenter and Company, the international reinsurance brokerage arm of Marsh and McLennan Companies. She also conducted research at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

Ms. Deane was selected to be a Fellow of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and was a 2007-2008 Connecting Leaders Fellow of the Association of Black Foundation Executives (ABFE). She also served on the board of the Environmental Grantmakers Association.

Projjal Dutta Director of Sustainability Initiatives, Metropolitan Transit Authority

Projjal K. Dutta is New York State Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s first ever Director of Sustainability. He has two primary responsibilities: 1) To reduce the environmental footprint of the MTA and 2) to verifiably measure the carbon benefits that accrue to the region, due to the MTA’s operations. Projjal was instrumental in the MTA’s carbon footprint being measured, verified and registered with the Climate Registry. He has also played a leadership role in the transit industry’s effort to quantify its carbon benefits through his work on the Climate Change Working Group of the American Public Transportation Association. He has lectured and written extensively on the subject of ‘carbon avoidance’; including at Harvard, Yale and Columbia Universities. Projjal has more than twenty years of experience in projects ranging in scale from urban to residential, with a particular emphasis on sustainable design. Before joining the MTA, he worked as a sustainable architecture consultant for a large range of projects and clients, in both private and public sectors. He combined the practice of architecture and urban design with cutting-edge sustainable design strategies that result in energy, material, and other resource conservation. He believes that sustainability is imperative for all development and should be an essential part of the tool-kit of any designer of the built environment.

Juliet Eilperin Environmental Reporter, The Washington Post

Juliet Eilperin joined The Washington Post as the House of Representatives reporter, where she covered the impeachment of , lobbying, legislation, and four national congressional campaigns. Since April of 2004 she has covered the environment for the national desk, reporting on science, policy and politics in areas including climate change, oceans, and air quality. In pursuit of these stories she has gone scuba diving with sharks in the Bahamas, trekking on the Arctic tundra with Selma Hayek and Jake Gyllenhaal, and searching on her hands and knees for rare insects in the caves of Tennessee.

A native Washingtonian, Juliet graduated in 1992 magna cum laude from Princeton University, where she received a bachelor's in politics.

Dominic Frongillo Councilmember, Caroline, NY

Dominic Frongillo is the Deputy Town Supervisor and Councilor of Caroline, New York. Frongillo founded Elected Officials to Protect New York, a bipartisan initiative of over 575 elected officials from all 62 counties in the state calling on Governor Cuomo to continue the moratorium on fracking until the drilling method is proven safe for all New Yorkers. Internationally-recognized for his work in climate change and clean energy, Frongillo is a finalist for the national 2012 Barbara Jordan Leadership Award from the Young Elected Officials Network.

Kevin Hassett John G. Searle Senior Fellow and Director of Economic Policy Studies, American Enterprise Institute

Before joining AEI, he was a senior economist at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and an associate professor of economics and finance at the Graduate School of Business of Columbia University, as well as a policy consultant to the Treasury Department during the George H. W. Bush and Clinton administrations. He served as an economic adviser to the George W. Bush 2004 presidential campaign, chief economic adviser to Senator John McCain during the 2000 presidential primaries, senior economic adviser to the McCain 2008 presidential campaign, and economic adviser to the Mitt Romney 2012 presidential campaign. Mr. Hassett is a columnist for National Review.

Mary Anne Hitt Director, Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign Director

Mary Anne Hitt is director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, which is working to eliminate the pollution caused by coal throughout its life cycle, and repower the nation with clean energy. In 2012, Mother Jones described the campaign as “a grassroots rebellion [that] is winning the biggest victory yet on climate change.” Mary Anne previously served as executive director of Appalachian Voices (where she was one of the creators of the award-winning campaign iLoveMountains.org), the Ecology Center, and the Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project.

Mary Anne was listed in 2013 by the Washingtonian as part of “The New Guard: People Who are Shaping Washington” in Obama’s second term. She is a senior fellow of the Environmental Leadership Program. She received her Master’s of Science from the University of , where she received the Len and Sandy Sargent Environmental Advocacy Award, and her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Tennessee, where she was a Whittle Scholar and the founder of the campus group Students Promoting Environmental Action in Knoxville (SPEAK), and where she later received the 2008 Notable UT Woman Award. She grew up in the mountains of east Tennessee and now lives in West Virginia with her family.

Peter M. Iwanowicz Assistant Vice President, American Lung Association

Peter M. Iwanowicz is Assistant Vice President with the American Lung Association. Since 2011 he has directed the Association’s Healthy Air Campaign; a national effort to protect the Clean Air Act. Until the end of 2010, Peter was an appointee in the Spitzer and Paterson administrations: serving as the Acting Commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and as Governor Paterson’s Deputy Secretary for the Environment.

Richard Kirsch Senior Fellow, Roosevelt Institute

Richard Kirsch is a Senior Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and the author of Fighting for Our Health: The Epic Battle to Make Health Care a Right in the United States, published in February 2012 by the Rockefeller Institute Press. He is also Senior Adviser to USAction and an Institute Fellow at the Rockefeller institute. Prior to joining the Institute, Mr. Kirsch was the National Campaign Manager of Health Care for America Now from the Campaign’s founding to its successful conclusion in April 2010. As HCAN’s chief spokesperson, Mr. Kirsch appeared on PBS’s The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, CNN, ABC’s World News Tonight and Good Morning America, Fox, CSPAN, and the Colbert Report and was frequently quoted in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and other national newspapers, as well as NPR’s Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Marketplace. Mr. Kirsch now serves as a Senior Advisor to HCAN. Mr. Kirsch has also led successful campaigns to provide affordable, comprehensive health coverage to more than one-million working families in New York and Mr. Kirsch is the author of several studies on health care reform including: the Managed Care Bill of Rights: A Health Care Policy Guide for Consumer Advocates; the financing of universal health care; health and health system global budgeting; and risk management. He has published oped pieces on health care, tax policy, telecommunications, energy policy and election reform. Mr. Kirsch is also the author of several reports on the financing of election campaigns in New York.

Ray Kopp Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Climate and Electricity Policy, Resources for the Future

Ray Kopp has been a member of the RFF research staff since 1977. He is an expert in techniques of assigning value to environmental and natural resources that do not have market prices, which is fundamental to benefit– cost analysis and the assessment of damages to natural resources. Kopp's current research interests focus on the design of domestic and international polices to combat climate change

Celinda Lake President, Lake Research Partners

Celinda Lake is a prominent pollster and political strategist for Democrats and progressives. She currently serves as President of Lake Research Partners. Lake’s polling and strategic advice helped candidates such as , , and Governor Bob Wise defeat incumbent Republicans and her expertise guided Senator Mark Begich to victory, making him the first Senate candidate in Alaska to oust the incumbent in 50 years. She has focused on women candidates and women's concerns, having worked for Speaker Pelosi, Governor , and Senator . Celinda worked for the largest independent expenditure to take back the House and has been a key player in campaigns launched by progressive groups such as the AFL-CIO, SEIU, Sierra Club, Planned Parenthood, HRC, EMILY'S List and more. Additionally, she recently helped elect Annise Parker as the first openly gay mayor of a major US city. Lake co-authored the book What Women Really Want with Republican pollster which examines the way women are changing the political landscape in America, and she also served as pollster for Senator Joe Biden's presidential bid.

For more information: http://www.lakeresearch.com/people/president.asp

Anthony Leiserowitz Ph.D. is Director of the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication and a Research Scientist at the School of Forestry

Anthony Leiserowitz, Ph.D. is a research scientist at the Yale University School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and Director of the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication. He is an expert on public opinion about climate change and the environment. His research investigates the psychological, cultural, and political factors that influence environmental attitudes, policy support, and behavior. He conducts research at the global, national, and local scales, including many surveys of the American public. He also conducted the first study of worldwide public values, attitudes, and behaviors regarding sustainability, including environmental protection, economic prosperity, and human development. He has served as a consultant to the John F. Kennedy School of Government (Harvard University), the United Nations Development Program, the Gallup World Poll, and the World Economic Forum.

Deron Lovaas Director, Federal Transportation Policy, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)

Deron Lovaas is NRDC's director of federal transportation policy. His main focus is on policies about transportation and energy, and their effects on public health, the environment, and the economy. He is an expert on a variety of issues, having testified multiple times before Congress on topics including dependence on oil, energy efficiency, fuel economy, transportation infrastructure, roads and bridges, public works, gas taxes, aviation, buses, railroads and bicycle and pedestrian projects. Prior to his decade at NRDC, Deron spent ten years working at several conservation groups including the National Wildlife Federation, Zero Population Growth and the Sierra Club, where he directed a national campaign to reduce suburban sprawl. He was also an environmental specialist with Maryland's Environment Department from 1993 to 1995. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Virginia in 1992.

Christine Matthews President, Bellwether Research

Christine Matthews is President and founder of Bellwether Research, a center-right public opinion research firm based in Alexandria, Virginia. Christine works with many top corporate and public affairs clients on a range of issues with a special focus on education reform, energy and the environment. She has conducted research on behalf of numerous environmental clients on a range of issues, including: mountaintop removal coal mining for Earth Justice, restoration of the Gulf Coast for a coalition of environmental groups, and drilling in ANWR for the Wilderness Society. Personally, she has been involved with Ocean Champions and this year her company is donating 10% of its profits to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. She served as former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels’ pollster and, in the 2012 election cycle, conducted political polling on behalf of DePauw University and the Howey political newsletter which ranked at the very top of Nate Silver’s end of year polling accuracy list. In addition to traditional research online and via telephone, Christine is engaged in using social media platforms to understand the public’s attitudes and opinions on politics and issues. In the 2012 election cycle, Bellwether conducted social media listening research that caught the viral reaction and impact of Indiana U.S. Senate candidate Richard Mourdock’s infamous rape comment even before it was measured in a traditional survey. She is a graduate of Indiana University (BA) and Georgetown University (MA) and lives in Alexandria, Virginia with her husband, daughter, dog, guinea pig and about 20 minutes away from their horse, Coda.

Steven Mufson Staff Writer, The Washington Post

Steven Mufson is the Washington Post's energy correspondent. He has worked at the Post for 19 years, including as deputy editor of the Post's Outlook section for three years. He has also been the Post's chief economics correspondent, its Beijing bureau chief and diplomatic correspondent. Earlier he worked for The Wall Street Journal in New York, London and Johannesburg. He has contributed to a variety of publications including The New Republic, The Washington Monthly, Foreign Affairs and the Village Voice. He is the author of "Fighting Years; Black Politics and the Struggle for a New South Africa."

Mateo Nube Co-Director, Movement Generation

Mateo was born and grew up in La Paz, Bolivia. Since moving to the San Francisco Bay Area, he has worked in the labor, environmental justice and international solidarity movements. He is the co-founder and Co-Director of Movement Generation. Mateo is also a member of the musical band Los Nadies.

Jacqueline Patterson Director, Environmental and Climate Justice Program, NAACP

Jacqueline Patterson is the Director of the NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program. Since 2007 Patterson has served as coordinator and co-founder of Women of Color United. Previously a global women’s rights consultant, Jacqui Patterson has worked as a researcher, program manager, coordinator, advocate and activist working on women‘s rights, violence against women, HIV&AIDS, racial justice, economic justice, and environmental and climate justice. Patterson served as a Senior Women’s Rights Policy Analyst for ActionAid where she integrated a women’s rights lens for the issues of food rights, macroeconomics, and climate change as well as the intersection of violence against women and HIV&AIDS. Previously, she served as Assistant Vice-President of HIV/AIDS Programs for IMA World Health providing management and technical assistance to medical facilities and programs in 23 countries in Africa and the Caribbean. Patterson served as the Outreach Project Associate for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and Research Coordinator for Johns Hopkins University. A returned U.S. Peace Corps Jamaica volunteer, Patterson holds a master’s degree in social work from the University of Maryland and a master’s degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University. She currently serves on the Executive Committee for the Congressional Black Caucus Fellows Alumni Network, The Coordination Team of the Gender Justice Working Group of the US Social Forum, the Advisory Committee for The Grandmothers’ Project, the Steering Committee of ATHENA Network, as well as serves on the Board of Directors for the Institute of the Black World and US Climate Action Network.

Jonathan Pawlow Staff Director and Senior Counsel (R), House of Representatives Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee

Jonathon Pawlow is Majority Counsel for the Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. He is responsible for matters within the Subcommittee’s jurisdiction relating to water quality, water pollution control and water infrastructure; wetlands; watersheds; hazardous waste cleanup; and water resources management, conservation, and development. Jon is an attorney and scientist/engineer with expertise in the environmental and intellectual property fields. He has over 15 years of private law practice experience, and substantial public sector legislative, regulatory, law, policy, and technical experience, originally with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, more recently as Assistant Chief Counsel with the Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration, and now with the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Jon earned his law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center, and MS and BS degrees in water resources engineering and environmental science, both from Rutgers University. Jon is a member of the District of Columbia and Virginia Bars, and is also registered as a patent attorney to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Erich Pica President, Friends of the Earth

Friends of the Earth President Erich Pica is a nationally recognized expert on energy subsidies who for more than a decade has worked to reform U.S. tax and budget policy in ways that reduce pollution and spark a transition to clean energy. In 2012, Huffington Post named Erich as one of “50 Young Progressive Activists Who Are Changing America.”

John Podesta Chair, Center for American Progress

John Podesta is Chair of the Center for American Progress and the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Under his leadership American Progress has become a notable leader in the development of and advocacy for progressive policy. Prior to founding the Center in 2003, Podesta served as White House chief of staff to President William J. Clinton. He served in the president’s cabinet and as a principal on the National Security Council. While in the White House, he also served as both an assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff, as well as staff secretary. Podesta served as co-chair of President Barack Obama’s transition, where he coordinated the priorities of the incoming administration’s agenda, oversaw the development of its policies, and spearheaded its appointments of major cabinet secretaries and political appointees. Additionally, Podesta has held numerous positions on Capitol Hill, including counselor to Democratic Leader Sen. Thomas A. Daschle (1995-1996). He is currently serving on the U.N. Secretary General’s High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda. A Chicago native, Podesta is a graduate of Knox College and the Georgetown University Law Center, where he is currently a visiting professor of law. He also authored The Power of Progress: How America’s Progressives Can (Once Again) Save Our Economy, Our Climate and Our Country.

Graham Richard CEO, Advanced Energy Economy

Graham Richard served as mayor of Fort Wayne, Indiana, from 2000 to 2008, following a 20-year career in business, as principle of Graham Richard & Associates and partner in Ruffolo Richard LLC. As mayor, Graham put his knowledge of best business practices to work, turning Fort Wayne city government into a lean, customer-focused organization and saving taxpayers more than $31 million while improving city services. An expert in the application of Lean Six Sigma management principles to eliminate waste in production and process, Graham launched a number of initiatives to save energy and create jobs, and received national awards for technology leadership for promoting high-speed broadband deployment and applications. In 2007, he was named “Government Leader of the Year” by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce. A Brookings Institution Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Graham received an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Indiana University and earned a B.A. from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Graham was a founding board member of the Clean Economy Network, which merged with AEE. AEE is a national association of businesses and business leaders who are making the global energy system more secure, clean, and affordable. Advanced energy encompasses a broad range of products and services that constitute the best available commercial technologies for meeting energy needs today and tomorrow. AEE’s mission is to influence public policy, foster advanced energy innovation and business growth, and provide a unified voice for a strong U.S. advanced energy industry.

Patricia Sinicropi, J.D. Director of Legislative Affairs, National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA)

Patricia Sinicropi is Director of Legislative Affairs for the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) where she is responsible for overseeing NACWA’s legislative agenda, including legislation on Clean Water Act controls, integrated planning, infrastructure funding, energy and climate, and agricultural non-point issues. Ms. Sinicropi joined NACWA in 2008 after serving four years as Legislative Counsel to the Water Environment Federation (WEF) where her focus included the above mentioned issues plus other issues critical to the clean water community, including biosolids management. Prior to joining WEF, Ms. Sinicropi represented the Rural Community Assistance Partnership (RCAP), an organization that provides technical assistance and training to small, rural communities to help them meet their drinking water and wastewater infrastructure needs. During the Clinton Administration, Ms. Sinicropi served as Deputy Director at the President’s Council on Sustainable Development for the National Town Meeting on Sustainable America and as Special Advisor on Livable Communities to the U.S.D.A’s Deputy Secretary. Ms. Sinicropi holds a J.D. from the University of Maine Law School and a B.A. from Trinity College in Hartford, CT.

Meighen Speiser Chief Engagement Officer, eco America

Meighen is ecoAmerica's Chief Engagement Officer, overseeing the strategy and management of marketing, programs, and research for ecoAmerica and ecoAmerica initiatives. Before joining ecoAmerica, Meighen was the Brand Director for (RED). She was integral to the conception, launch and continued growth of the (RED) brand, and led collaboration with partners (Gap, Hallmark, Windows and more) on all consumer-facing expressions of their (PRODUCT) RED partnership. Meighen also worked at Mattel, Inc. where she held roles in brand and marketing for their consumer products division with over 1,000 worldwide licensees of the Barbie other Mattel brands. Previously, Meighen achieved success in financial services as VP Marketing for Robertson Stephens Investment Bank. As Chief Engagement Officer at ecoAmerica, Meighen fulfills her long-time goal of a career in sustainability and to lead marketing for an eco-progressive organization. Meighen lives in San Francisco with her husband and two young children.

Ruy Teixeira Fellow, Center for American Progress

Mr. Teixeira is a Senior Fellow at both The Century Foundation and American Progress. He is also a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution, where he has directed projects on political demography and geography and co-authored a series of papers with William Frey on the shifting demographics of battleground states. He is the author or co-author of seven books, including America’s New Swing Region: Changing Politics and Demographics in the Mountain West; Red, Blue and Purple America: The Future of Election Demographics; The Emerging Democratic Majority; America’s Forgotten Majority: Why the White Working Class Still Matters; and The Disappearing American Voter, as well as hundreds of articles, both scholarly and popular. He writes Public Opinion Snapshot, a weekly feature featured on the CAP and TCF websites, as well as an online column for The New Republic. Teixeira’s recent writings include “The Path to 270: Demographics Versus Economics in the 2012 Presidential Election” (with John Halpin), “From Welfare State to Opportunity State: How Progressives Should Respond to Demographic Change” and “The European Paradox” (with Matt Browne and John Halpin). Teixeira holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

For more information: http://www.americanprogress.org/about/staff/teixeira-ruy/bio/

Lynn Thorp National Campaigns Director, Clean Water Action

Lynn Thorp is the National Programs Director for Clean Water Fund. Clean Water Fund’s public education and policy projects are coordinated with Clean Water Action, a nationwide membership organization with offices in 15 states and over one million members. Lynn coordinates the organization’s national campaigns around water, climate change and energy and chemical policy. Lynn plays a lead role in Clean Water Fund’s drinking water work. She has served two terms on the National Drinking Water Advisory Council (NDWAC), which advises the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on drinking water policy issues. Lynn has also served on NDWAC Work Groups (Contaminant Candidate List, Lead Public Education) and Federal Advisory Committees (Stage 2 Disinfectants and Disinfection Byproducts and Revised Total Coliform) around specific Safe Drinking Water Act regulatory issues. Lynn also serves on the Public Council of the Water Research Foundation. Prior to joining Clean Water Fund in 1999, Lynn held several positions at Greenpeace including Toxics Campaign Director and U.S. Campaigns Director. Lynn is a Washington DC native and received a B.A. in History and English and an M.A. in American History from Georgetown University.

Sue Tierney Managing Principal, Analysis Group

Sue Tierney is a Managing Principal at Analysis Group, where she consults to companies, governments and NGOs on economic, strategic, regulatory and policy issues affecting the electric and gas industries. She was previously Asst Secretary for Policy at DOE, Secretary of Env'l Affairs in MA, and PUC commissioner in MA. She previously chaired the Board of the Energy Foundation, and serves as a director of WRI, Alliance to Save Energy, CATF, and CA-CP. She has a PhD in planning from Cornell, and lives in Boston.

Antha Williams Senior Vice President, Corridor Partners

Antha Williams is Senior Vice President at Corridor Partners, a donor advising firm that since 2011 has invested substantial resources in advocacy and electoral strategies to support climate action. Antha has deep experience with public policy campaigns and the individual and institutional donors that support them. Antha worked as Advocacy Executive at Atlantic Philanthropies in New York, where she managed the largest- ever advocacy grant to support Health Care for America Now, as well as funding to build the power of advocates for comprehensive immigration reform, and election-related funding. As Program Officer at Beldon Fund, Antha built support for environmental issues by policymakers through grassroots organizing at the state level. Outside of philanthropy, Antha has worked as a campaigner and organizer, directing large-scale voter protection efforts and working as an organizer and Assistant Organizing Director with Green Corps, a training program for aspiring environmental advocates. Antha serves on the Boards of Rock the Vote Action Fund and Greenpeace. She graduated from Dartmouth College and lives in New York.

Emily Woglom Director of Government Relations, Ocean Conservancy

In her role as Director of Government Relations, Emily Woglom oversees Ocean Conservancy's engagement with Congress and the Administration. She gained deep expertise in ocean policy and governance through her work at the Office of Management and Budget, where she oversaw budget and policy issues related to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. More recently she continued her work for the oceans as Senior Policy Advisor to The Nature Conservancy’s marine program. She is a graduate of Yale and has a Masters Degree from the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke.

Miya Yoshitani Associate Director, APEN

Miya joined APEN in 1996 and has a long history of organizing in the environmental justice movement. APEN has been fighting – and winning – environmental justice struggles for the past 20 years and remains one of the most unique organizations in the country explicitly developing the leadership and power of low-income Asian American immigrant and refugee communities.