2020 Sustainability Symposium Series Speakers

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Business as a Force for Good – July 13, 2020

Holly Braun

Energy Efficiency & Innovation Manager, NW Natural

Holly is a systems thinker and dedicated to helping industries operate in greater harmony with nature. Her current work is to activate Holly Braun portrait the natural gas industry to see and embrace its ability to supply clean energy while enhancing the prosperity and resilience of local communities. Holly believes a decarbonized pipeline can be achieved through optimization of waste resources into renewable natural gas, driving aggressive energy efficiency into every home and businesses and deploying district heating solutions. Her primary focus is developing a clear and unifying vision of the industry’s “north star,” identifying wise policies that remove obstacles, and advancing robust programs & technologies to accelerate and transform the natural gas industry. Holly’s strengths are in facilitating and fostering the necessary collaboration to enable shared industry success for the well-being of humankind in light of the climate emergency upon us. Her work is in alignment with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal’s 7: Affordable and Clean Energy; 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure and 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities.

Jami Haaning

Corporate Social Responsibility Manager, Lam Research

Jami is a management professional who designs and delivers complex programs. She has built successful and strategic corporate responsibility initiatives within organizations and is at her best when she can balance big picture thinking with tactical action. She excels at creating trusted relationships with internal and external stakeholders to achieve common goals and shared value. Her work cuts across departments and requires engagement at all levels of the business, with specialties in corporate responsibility principles and practices, GRI, CDP reporting, team leadership, community engagement, employee engagement, leadership development, integrated strategy development, resource audits and stakeholder engagement.

Mike Mercer

Principal, B Corp community; Climate policy community

Since 1985, Mike has held leadership roles within Portland’s non-profit community working in the sectors of health, social impact, Mike Mercer Portrait housing, early childhood development and sustainability to develop and deliver on a broad systems view. Mike is principal for MMercer Consulting with a focus on supporting B Corps, aspiring B Corps and engaging business leaders in state climate policy. Local B Corp companies, Brew Dr. Kombucha, Stoller Family Estates, Brooks Wines, Evergreen Consulting and Brink Communications have worked with Mike in support of their B Corp Certification and sustainability efforts. Prior to launching his consulting practice, as Executive Director of the NW Earth Institute, Mike and team inspired more than 170,000 citizens to act for a positive, sustainable future. Mike is a board member for B Local PDX. He and his fiancé, Laura, also love the simplicity and adventure of living in their 168 sq. ft. tiny home (they don’t think everyone should) with Mike being bike commuter and racer over the last 30 years.

Kymm Nelsen, MS

Co-Founder & Co-Chair CCPortland; Executive Coach & Consultant at Being First, Inc.

Kymm Nelsen, MS is the Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the Portland Chapter of Conscious Capitalism Kymm Nelsen Portrait International, the local arm of the international organization with chapters in most major US cities and affiliates in seven countries. CCPortland educates and inspires sustainable and conscious business practices via conferences, monthly public educational and networking events, and in-house education programs. Kymm’s life purpose and work is to help uplift humanity through business. She is a doctoral student researching leader consciousness and has been an entrepreneur for over 20 years at Great Life Training. She now coaches executives and consults at Being First, strategic advisers to the C-Suite for over 40 years.

Forest Resener

Communications and Operations Director, StoveTeam International

Forest Resener is grateful to be able to use a background in business development to affect change he believes in with StoveTeam International. As an environmentalist and musician, he is dedicated to catalyzing change and making the world a better place. With a strong background in business, Forest has transitioned into the nonprofit world to use his business acumen to further the mission of the nonprofit StoveTeam International. StoveTeam International promotes the local production, distribution, and proper use of safe, affordable, fuel-efficient cookstoves to replace indoor open-fire cooking in Latin America. StoveTeam’s innovative model for assisting entrepreneurs in Latin America has been awarded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Partnership for Clean Indoor Air Award for Developing Local Markets for creating local employment while improving health and reducing air pollution. To date, local factories started by StoveTeam have produced more than 76,300 stoves, improving the lives of more than half a million people and preventing nearly one million tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere.

Tabatha Rood

Executive Director/ Founder, BamCashea

Tabatha was born in El Cajon, CA. She graduated from the UO in 2012 with a bi-focal BS in anthropology and has a MFR from the UW in Natural Resource Management, where she conducted research on agro-forestry practices and the relative socio-ecologic-economic impacts of native and cash crops. She recently began an organization working to provide capital and sustainable equipment to locally sprouting industries, with skills to add value to threatened natural resources in Ghana, West Africa.

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Arts and Activism – May 29, 2020

David Lichtenstein

Performer, Leapin’ Louie Comedy Shows; Volunteer Coordinator, Clowns Without Borders

David Lichtenstein has made a living performing his “new vaudeville” Leapin’ Louie shows for 30 years and has performed in 34 different countries. His performances feature physical comedy, spoken comedy and lots of juggling and cowboy tricks (lasso and whip). http://comedytricks.com

On the volunteer side David has performed, organized and fund-raised projects for 20 years with Clowns Without Borders, entertaining communities hit hard by war and natural disasters in Mexico, Guatemala, and Haiti, Palestine and other places. Clowns Without Borders (CWB – USA) offers joy and laughter to relieve the suffering of all persons, especially children, who live in areas of crisis including refugee camps, conflict zones and territories in situations of emergency. http://clownswithoutborders.org

Amy Livingstone

Interdisciplinary Visionary Artist, Founder of Sacred Art Studio

Amy Livingstone, MA, is an award-winning visual artist and environmental activist. Her paintings and sculptures reside in many private collections, at Providence St. Vincent Hospital, and have been exhibited throughout the United States. She has presented at conferences including PCC, the American Academy of Religion and Parliament of the World’s Religions around her art, spirituality, and the ecological crisis. She received a Master’s in Interdisciplinary Studies in Spiritual Traditions & Ethics from Marylhurst University. Since founding Sacred Art Studio in 2003, she has devoted her work to shifting the cultural narrative of separation to one of interconnectedness and to inspiring the reclamation of ancestral wisdom that honors the earth as sacred.

After 25 years in Portland, Oregon, Amy relocated back to the East coast where she grew up and
is now based in Raleigh, North Carolina. www.sacredartstudio.net

Emily Miller

Emily Miller Fine Art

Emily Miller has spent her life on the coast, and all her artwork has its roots in her love of the sea. Emily often incorporates natural and reclaimed materials into a wide range of her work, from painting to sculpture and interactive installations. Her art centers on uplifting our human relationship with ocean life and ecosystems. Presented in the context of playful curiosity, abundance, and appreciation, her work creates an environment for positive, solution-focused transformation. Emily is based near Portland, Oregon, drawing direct inspiration from the Pacific Northwest coast as well as her background in California, Kauai, and Down East Maine.

Emily’s current practice is centered on the Ghost Net Landscape, an interactive traveling installation that involves local communities in transforming thousands of pounds of fishing gear debris into art. She isnow inviting proposals for exhibiting the Ghost Net Landscape in new communities worldwide. Learn more at www.ghostnetart.com.

Shelby Silver

Ecological Artist, Salt of Earth and Sea Studio

My name is Shelby Silver and I am an ecological artist, educator, and steward. My work is centralized around marine conservation through the removal of Plastic Marine Debris (PMD) where I initiate ecological rehabilitation through the artistic process. I have come to learn more deeply through my passionate and heart-centered work that in order to best address this massive, overwhelming global crisis, we will need to shift our individualistic approach of bearing the weight of it all and come together in collaboration. Together, we will rescue our oceans from the unfortunate yet very real negative impact of PMD. Together, we will learn how to best support vulnerable and fragile ecosystems in the restorative quest for optimum oceanic health. And it will only be together, that we will discover how to best safeguard marine habitats through the removal of such all-encompassing life-threatening debris.

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A Call for Action: Permaculture and Power – April 29, 2020

Marisha Auerbach

Permaculture Designer & Educator, Oregon State University, Portland Community College, Permaculture Rising

Marisha Auerbach is an internationally recognized permaculture educator, designer, speaker, gardener, and nursery steward based in Portland, OR. Since she took her first Permaculture Design Course in 1998, Marisha has lived and practiced permaculture in both urban and rural environments. Marisha started teaching Permaculture at the college level in 2011, and has been an instructor at OSU in the Horticulture Department since that time. Marisha offers Permaculture Design Courses and an Advanced Course in Permaculture Skills for Climate Resilience online through OSU. She has recently developed a new online course on Permaculture Food Forests, through PACE, which went live spring 2020. Marisha teaches during the summers at PCC Rock Creek.

Joe Culhane

Outreach & Communications, GPSEN

Joe Culhane graduated from Portland Community College in 2019. While at PCC,he was the Sustainability Communications Officer and a staff writer for The Bridge newspaper, and created the PCC, Sustain Me! podcast. Joe has presented about the podcast and advocated for other Higher Education Institutions to create their own podcasts at a variety of national and international conferences, including the 11th Global RCE Conference: Education for the Sustainable Development Goals in Cebu, Philippines where the podcast received an RCE Recognition Award, as a flagship project, by the Global RCE’s and United Nations University.

Jolie Donohue

Cascade Learning Garden Coordinator, Portland Community College

Jolie Donohue is the Cascade Learning Garden Coordinator at Portland Community College where she enjoys growing year-round food for students, advancing student leadership opportunities, and engaging the community in social justice through gardening. For 15 years she has worked as a gardening educator, consultant, designer and writer. Jolie teaches gardening at PCC, Mt Hood Community College, and local nurseries and gardening clubs. She is a therapeutic gardening specialist, has designed healing gardens, and provided therapeutic horticulture in hospitals, rehabilitation, assisted living, and behavioral health. Jolie holds a BA in Child Development and certificates in horticulture, organic farming, and horticultural therapy. She is a Qualified Mental Health Associate-Certified.

Serena Dressel

Community Engagement Manager, Axiom Event Productions & Vice President, Greater Portland Sustainability Education Network

Serena participated in the Earth Charter Young Leaders cohort from 2019-2020. As the Vice President of GPSEN and a leader from the College Network, Serena helps to facilitate relationships between sustainability youth leaders in the region and their connections to international sustainability movements and initiatives. Formerly working with Portland State University’s Student Sustainability Center, Serena works at Axiom Event Productions supporting volunteer programs for Sunday Parkways and other community events.

Neeraja Havaligi

Executive Director, GPSEN

Neeraja is a practicing agriculturist, educator, scientist and a life-long learner of the power of growing, cooking and sharing food. Neeraja has a doctorate in environmental science with a research focus on urban water and food resilience and urban agrobiodiversity. She has two masters degrees, one in agronomy, another in plant physiology, and a bachelors in agriculture science. Her work experience includes consulting with United Nations Development Program-Global Environment Facility and Food and Agriculture Organization.

Kim Smith

Sociology Instructor, Portland Community College, and Co-Founder, GPSEN

Kim Smith received her Ph.D. in sociology from Indiana University, specializing in environmental sociology and social movements, and has taught sociology at Portland Community College (PCC) since 1996. She is a co-founder of GPSEN and helps run the Programs & Events and Outreach & Communications committees. She has represented the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) and the US Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) at multiple international conferences, including Rio+20 and the UNESCO World Summit on ESD. She is committed to offering hope for a sustainable future through education, professional development, and civic engagement.

Sherrie Villmark

Program Director, Community Energy Project

Sherrie Villmark is a Program Director for Community Energy Project (CEP), who has provided energy and safety services to low-income households and frontline communities for over 40 years. Sherrie oversees the Community Education department, which delivers workshops on energy conservation and lead poisoning prevention to over 1,000 households annually. She has been the lead on CEP’s involvement with Community Solar since the passing of SB 1547 in 2016, acting as a stakeholder and advisor to the Public Utility Commission around program design with low-income communities in mind. She is now part of the Program Administration team responsible for delivering Community Solar to low-income participants.

Nicki Youngsma

Writer, Artist & Editor, Home Orchard Society

Nicki graduated in 2008 from Lewis & Clark College with a B.A. in Liberal Arts Studies, focusing on Environmental History and Spanish. She worked as a paralegal for 10 years, co-owned a food business, and currently manages the member publication of the Home Orchard Society, an educational nonprofit that promotes growing fruit at home. As a freelance writer and editor at the Home Orchard Society, she uses the power of narrative storytelling to bring people closer to issues concerning food cultivation, the environment, and decolonization.

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2020 Sustainability Symposium Speakers

Tahira Abbas

Greater Portland Sustainability Education Network (GPSEN) Research & Curriculum Committee and Fellow, SAGE

Tahira holds a MA in International Relations and is currently pursuing a diploma to become certified as an Earth Charter educator on ESD. As a GPSEN Research and Curriculum member, Tahira is involved in designing think tank/ multi-stakeholder engagement meetings framed through the SDGs. She is also a fellow with SAGE, where she is involved in a project to develop ESD trainings for teachers K-12. Tahira has a passion for international development and education and volunteers with local and international organizations in the field.

Marisha Auerbach

Permaculture Designer & Educator, Oregon State University, Portland Community College, Permaculture Rising

Marisha Auerbach is an internationally recognized permaculture educator, designer, speaker, gardener, and nursery steward based in Portland, OR. Since she took her first Permaculture Design Course in 1998, Marisha has lived and practiced permaculture in both urban and rural environments. Marisha started teaching Permaculture at the college level in 2011, and has been an instructor at OSU in the Horticulture Department since that time. Marisha offers Permaculture Design Courses and an Advanced Course in Permaculture Skills for Climate Resilience online through Oregon State University. She is currently developing a new online course on Permaculture Food Forests, expected to go live through PACE in spring 2020. Marisha teaches during the summers at Portland Community College Rock Creek Campus.

Sam Baraso

Clean Energy Fund Program Manager, City of Portland

Sam Baraso is the program manager for the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund, overseeing an estimated $50 to $70 million fund approved by voters last fall to support clean energy projects. Previously, Baraso has worked as a senior policy analyst for the Multnomah County Office of Sustainability. Prior to that he worked as the ecosystem services manager for Willamette Partnership. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Washington University and a master’s degree in environmental management from Duke University. He’s also served on the executive committee and the environmental justice committee for the Portland African American Leadership Forum.

Michelle Bates

PSU Environmental Club- Co Chair

Michelle Bates is working on her last few classes of her Bachelors of Science in Urban and Public Affairs with a double minor in Civic leadership in Community Development. She has been co-chairing the Environmental Club for the last three years at Portland State University, working on a wide range of topics. Previously she went to Portland Community College Cascade campus which she co-chaired the Environmental Sustainability Club where she worked on a multitude of various different projects from getting paper straws district wide and compost in the cafeteria of Cascade to the annual Kelley Point Park stewardship event which will be coming up on the fifth anniversary, taking place in April. She also has been an active member of the GPSEN College Network for the last 5+ years.

Monica Bourgeau

Author and Strategist, Author of The Change Code

At a time when change is happening at every level of our world, Monica Bourgeau is passionate about shining a light into the future and helping visionary leaders spark transformation and step powerfully into the new paradigm of business and society. A healthcare exec with two decades leading change and innovation, both in the C-Suite and at the helm of nonprofits, Monica sees possibility where others shrink away. She’s an energetic and sought-after speaker and author of The Change Code, modeling for leaders nationwide how to catalyze, connect, and stay curious.

She led the nation’s first Rural Medicine Hackathon and Hacking Medicaid events with teams from MIT’s Hacking Medicine Program. Monica holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Colorado State University and a Master’s degree in Management with an emphasis on Organizational Leadership from Warner Pacific University. As a consultant and coach, she teaches her clients to build resilience, become more self-aware, and communicate the magic of their highest vision, all with a focus on real results. Monica’s work has been featured in Huffington Post, Elephant Journal, Startup Nation, medium, and Along These Lines, a college writing textbook.

When she’s not writing, speaking, or out changing the world, you’ll find Monica practicing yoga, snuggling her rescue dogs, and spending time with her family. Monica believes we each have a duty to leave the world a little better than we found it.

Sean Brosnihan

Community Engagement Specialist, Forth/Americorps

Originally from small town rural Nebraska and receiving a service-focused Catholic education, I have been seeking ways to bring clean, affordable transportation to low-income and underserved communities in the Portland Metro. Transportation is something that affects everyone but most especially people who are on government relief programs. My mission is to help bring the new technology, specifically rideshare, scooters and clean public transportation to all who need it in order to build personal equity to those most in need.

Eric Butler

Freelance ecologist, Portland State University

Eric Butler is a recent M.Sc. graduate in Environmental Science and Management. His professional interests range from ecological restoration to GIS to collaborative problem-solving in landscape sustainability. When not practicing ecology, he can usually be found reading books or trying to write them.

Greg Cermak

Science Communications and Data Analytics, impartica.net

Greg Cermak is a specialist in science communications and data analytics. He is a NASA Solar System Ambassador and software engineer/technical trainer with more than thirty years’ experience developing high-performance engineering, scientific, and analytical software applications. His interests include eScience, technology, history, reading, hiking, bicycling rails to trails and exploring America’s byways. He is a frequent speaker at school programs, public, and industry events.

Elaine Cole, PhD

Sustainability Coordinator, Portland Community College-Rock Creek

Elaine Cole, PhD, is the Sustainability Coordinator at Portland Community College’s Rock Creek Campus and is responsible for the overall coordination of sustainability practices and programs. Some of these include energy conservation, campus-wide composting, and helping to integrate community-based learning into the campus Learning Garden. Elaine has taught environmental education from the shores of Jekyll Island, Georgia, to Lake Tanganyika in Burundi. She has always had a deep commitment to population education and her 2017 TEDX talk was titled “Creating Eco-Friendly Families”.

Jolie Donohue

Cascade Learning Garden Coordinator, Portland Community College

Jolie Donohue is the Cascade Learning Garden Coordinator at Portland Community College where she enjoys growing year-round food for students, advancing student leadership opportunities, and engaging the community in social justice through gardening. For 15 years she has worked as a gardening educator, consultant, designer and writer. Jolie teaches gardening at Portland Community College, Mt Hood Community College, and local nurseries and gardening clubs. She is a therapeutic gardening specialist, has designed healing gardens, and provided therapeutic horticulture in hospitals, rehabilitation, assisted living, and behavioral health. Jolie holds a BA in Child Development and certificates in horticulture, organic farming, and horticultural therapy. She is a Qualified Mental Health Associate-Certified.

Serena Dressel

Community Engagement Manager, Axiom Event Productions & Vice President, Greater Portland Sustainability Education Network

Billy Fish

Student Body Senator, Reed College, and GPSEN College Network Member

Billy is a junior physics major at Reed College who also serves as a student body senator and a member of the GSPEN College Network. In student government, he prioritizes student health/well-being and sustainability efforts – serving on the sustainability committee and as the liaison to the Reed health and counseling center. He has been involved in the Reed divestment effort, helped organize Reed students at the 2019 climate strike, edited the student body handbook and has helped numerous sustainability projects in his capacity as a senator. He is currently working with a trustee to help Reed become a member of a sustainable investor network, implementing the recommendations of the Reed climate action plan, leading a Reed Democrats club, and launching a peer counselor program. He is also a housing advisor and telescope operator.

Frank Granshaw

Instructor and Senior Adviser, PSU Geology and University Studies and GPSEN

Frank is a retired community college geoscience instructor now engaged in climate and sustainability education through PSU and GPSEN. He is also engaged climate advocacy with Union of Concerned Scientists – Oregon Science Network and Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon’s Creation Justice Program.

Gregg Hayward

Education Chair / Green Business Coordinator, Association of Oregon Recyclers / City of Gresham

Gregg is the Education Chair of the Association of Oregon Recyclers, where he coordinates Recycling 101. He is also the Commercial Recycling Coordinator for the City of Gresham where he coordinates the Gresham Green Business program.

Kelsey Hill

Assistant Solid Waste Planner, Metro

With 6+ years in the sustainability space, Kelsey is a budding sustainable development professional and a recent M.P.A., M.P.P., and G.C.S. graduate. Through his work as a GPSEN board member and elsewhere, Kelsey works to strengthen ideas-sharing networks to advance inclusive community development.

Mike Mercer

Principal, B Corp community; Climate policy community

Since 1985, Mike has held leadership roles within Portland’s non-profit community working in the sectors of health, social impact, housing, early childhood development and sustainability to develop and deliver on a broad systems view. Mike is principal for MMercer Consulting with a focus on supporting B Corps, aspiring B Corps and engaging business leaders in state climate policy. Local B Corp companies, Brew Dr. Kombucha, Stoller Family Estates, Brooks Wines, Evergreen Consulting and Brink Communications have worked with Mike in support of their B Corp Certification and sustainability efforts. Prior to launching his consulting practice, as Executive Director of the NW Earth Institute, Mike and team inspired more than 170,000 citizens to act for a positive, sustainable future.

Mike is a board member for B Local PDX. He and his fiancé, Laura, also love the simplicity and adventure of living in their 168 sq. ft. tiny home (they don’t think everyone should) with Mike being bike commuter and racer over the last 30 years.

Laihha Moss-Novak

Garden Coordinator, PSU Student Sustainability Center

I’m Laihha! I’m in my last year of undergrad pursuing a degree in Geography. I have been apart of the PSU Student Sustainability Center for 4 years. For three years I have been on staff as the Garden Coordinator. I’ve been attending leadership fellows classes with my colleagues and working on land-based sustainability education initiatives around campus.

Kymm Nelsen, MS

Co-Founder & Co-Chair CCPortland; Executive Coach & Consultant at Being First, Inc.

Kymm Nelsen, MS is the Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the Portland Chapter of Conscious Capitalism International, the local arm of the international organization with chapters in most major US cities and affiliates in seven countries. CCPortland educates and inspires sustainable and conscious business practices via conferences, monthly public educational and networking events, and in-house education programs. Kymm’s life purpose and work is to help uplift humanity through business. She is a doctoral student researching leader consciousness and has been an entrepreneur for over 20 years at Great Life Training. She now coaches executives and consults at Being First, strategic advisers to the C-Suite for over 40 years.

Makerusa “Mak” Porotesano, M.Ed

Multicultural Center Coordinator, Portland Community College – Sylvania Campus

Makerusa is a native of Portland, OR by way of St. Johns North Portland. He is a 2nd generation American Samoan from the village of Fogagogo. Mak, as he is commonly known, received his Masters in Education from Chaminade University of Honolulu where he also served as the Director of Student Activities and Leadership Development. Before leaving for Hawaii, Mak worked at Portland Community College (PCC) Sylvania Campus as the Coordinator of the Men of Color Leadership Program (MOCLP) in its initial pilot years from 2008-2010. The MOCLP program became a fully funded program after his two years with the program. Mak has since returned to PCC to coordinate the same program he helped develop.

Makerusa started his climate justice work in 2007 when he founded the Pacific Islander Student Alliance & Conference, sharing and providing resources with fellow students on the impacts of rising sea levels and climate change are having on Island nations. He has since worked on grant projects for the EU Global Climate Change Alliance (GCCA), United Nations Development Fund through the University of The South Pacific to help with fresh water resilience, coral restoration and sea to table projects. In 2016, Mak joined the Pacific Climate Warriors (PCW) and 350 Pacific as an Organizer and in 2017 became an elder council member for PCW as the US diaspora rep.

Makerusa is the son of Litia Porotesano of Aoloau and Taua Taua Jr of Aoa in American Samoa. He enjoys playing the guitar and is a huge Trail Blazer fan. He has a 6 year old daughter Matafele with Co-Parent Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner. Mak is currently the Chair for the Samoan Community Development Corporation (501c3) and coordinator for the Multicultural Center at PCC Sylvania.

Forest Resener

Communications Director, StoveTeam International

Forest Resener is an environmentalist and musician dedicated to catalyzing change and making the world a better place. With a strong background in business, Forest has transitioned into the nonprofit world to use his business acumen to further the mission of the nonprofit StoveTeam International and organization that places clean cookstoves in the homes of families in Latin America who would otherwise be cooking over open fires.

Tabatha Rood

Executive Director/ Founder, BamCashea

Megan Schneider

Adjunct Faculty, Portland State University

Megan Schneider was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. She returned home in 2016 after studying at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC and living in Montana. She recently finished her master’s degree in Leadership for Sustainability Education at Portland State University, during which she conducted research on student sustainability leaders at PSU. She is currently co-teaching courses at PSU as an adjunct faculty member. She has years of experience with hands-on, place-based, reflective learning in higher education settings and is passionate about the intersection of justice and sustainability.

Briar Schoon

Sustainability Manager, Portland Community College

Briar is the college’s Sustainability Manager, with the focus of mainstreaming sustainability throughout all college practices district-wide. She has taught sustainability courses at PCC and sits on the Board of Directors for the Greater Portland Sustainability Education Network. She holds a Master’s Degree in Sustainability from Arizona State University, as well as a B.A. in Sustainability and a B.S. in Justice Studies. She is a LEED Green Associate and received her Master Gardener certification in 2016. Briar has represented the college at the local, national and international-level, most recently at the UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany! Prior to her role as the Sustainability Manager, she worked as the Sustainability Analyst for PCC, completing the college’s greenhouse gas inventories and STARS reports. She likes to spend her free time crafting, gardening, and playing with her kitty.

Heather Schrock

Environmental Products Representative

Heather comes to us with a diverse background in sustainability, outreach, marketing and sales. Heather was previously the Portland Regional Manager of the ReDirect Guide, a local green directory, and has served on the boards of Green Drinks PDX and VOIS (Voice for Oregon Innovation and Sustainability). She has also been a professional singer, nutritionist and speaker. As a Portland native, Heather enjoys the Pacific NW for its many outdoor offerings and as such she has a passion for protecting it and its communities.

Shelby Silver

Artist & PCC student, Salt of Earth & Sea Studio

Sherrie Villmark

Program Director, Community Energy Project

I have been working as an activist / in the nonprofit world for 15 years. Currently my professional work focuses on community education and empowerment for low-income households in safety, energy conservation, and renewable power. In my personal life I work on pollinator conservation.

Dave Weaver

Founder, Webaissance.com

Dave Weaver is a web developer based in Portland, OR who became a local activist in 2016 after being disillusioned with politics at the national level as the solution to our problems. Dave believes that ultimately all issues of our society and species can be solved at the local level – and envisions a world-wide network of neighborhoods uniting to solve all the issues of our time – without waiting for politicians to solve our problems for us. Starting in 2016 Dave founded experimental organizations Rock for America and The Love Brigades in an effort to find solutions at a grass roots level. From there he got involved with his local neighborhood association and SOLVE Oregon and has been branching out from there to try to build local coalitions to synergize their actions.