Leadership

Since 1997, as Vice Chair of the Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE), Mr. Blum has participated in numerous UN climate negotiations, demonstrating business support for the Conferences of the Parties process. From 1990 to 2016, Jared Blum acted as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Polyisocyanurate Insulation Manufacturers Association (PIMA). Previously, Mr. Blum was the Vice President for Legislative Affairs at Albers and Company from 1988-1990, and the Vice President and Legal Counsel of the Direct Selling Association from 1978-1988. Mr. Blum was Staff Counsel from 1976-1978 for the Office of the General Counsel at the Federal Trade Commission, and counsel to the Honorable Hamilton Fish, Jr. (R-NY, 21st District) from 1973-1976.

Mr. Blum's past and present professional affiliations include: Chairman, Council of Manufacturing Associations, National Association of Manufacturers; Member, Federal Energy Management Advisory Committee, U.S. Department of Energy; Chairman, Federal Energy Productivity Task Force, Alliance to Save Energy; Past President, State Governmental Affairs Council; Past Chairman, Small Business Legislative Council; White House Conference on Small Business Delegate; Member, Board of Directors, Business Council for Sustainable Energy; Steering Committee and Founding Member, Building Codes Assistance Project; Member, Fire Board, Bethesda, MD. Mr. Blum received his B.A. from Boston University and his J.D. from George Washington University.

Read EESI's profile of Jared Blum here.

Shelley Fidler is currently in charge of governmental affairs, energy and environmental policy at Van Ness Feldman, LLC. Prior to joining Van Ness Feldman, Ms. Fidler served as Principal Deputy for the White House Climate Change Task Force and served concurrently as a Senior Advisor for the U.S. Department of Energy. From 1995 to 1998, Ms. Fidler served as the Chief of Staff to the President’s Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). Ms. Fidler served as the Staff Director for the Subcommittee on Energy and Power of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and as Assistant to the Chairman Philip Sharp (D-IN) for the House Subcommittees on Fossil and Synthetic Fuels and Energy and Power.

In addition to her board position with EESI, Ms. Fidler currently serves on the board for Keystone Center, the Center for Inspired Teaching, the Women's Leadership Council (WLC) at Brown University, and the Women's Council on Energy and Environment (WCEE). She has a B.A from Brown University.

Richard L. Ottinger is Dean Emeritus and Professor of Law at Pace Law School in White Plains, NY, where he founded and taught an environmental law program and was Dean from 1994-1999. He was a member of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) and Chair of its Climate and Energy Working Group. Mr. Ottinger served for 16 years in the U.S. Congress, representing Westchester County, New York. He chaired the House Subcommittee on Energy, Conservation and Power, and retired from Congress in 1984. He was a founding staff member of the U.S. Peace Corps, serving in the Peace Corps from 1961 to 1964, and was an Associate in the New York law firm of Clearly, Gottlieb, Friendly & Hamilton. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Cornell University. Dick Ottinger was a founder of the Environmental and Energy Study Institute.

Read EESI's profile of Richard Ottinger here.

Dr. Rosina Bierbaum has served as the Dean of the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and Environment since 2001. In April 2009, President Obama named her to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Previously, she’d worked closely with the President’s National Science and Technology Council and co-chaired its Committee on Environmental and Natural Resources. Dr. Bierbaum led the U.S. government reviews of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s second and third assessment reports in 1995 and 2000. She also led the U.S. delegations to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change plenaries in Shanghai (2001), Montreal (1999), and Costa Rica (1998). Dr. Bierbaum is an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Science and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

In addition to serving on EESI’s board, Dr. Bierbaum currently serves as a board member for the Federation of American Scientists, The Energy Foundation, and the Gordon E. and Betty I. Moore Foundation. She is also a member of the International Advisory Board for the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment and a member of the Executive Committee for the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement.

In 2010, Dr. Bierbaum received a Distinguished Service Citation from the Ecological Society of America for her "long and distinguished service" to the scientific community and for her ecological work in the public interest. She was awarded the Waldo E Smith medal of the American Geophysical Union for ‘extraordinary service to geophysics’ in 2000, and in 1999 she was awarded the Environmental Protection Agency’s “Climate Protection Award.”

Read EESI's profile of Rosina Bierbaum here.

Linda Church-Ciocci was the Executive Director of the National Hydropower Association (NHA). Ms. Church Ciocci also has served on numerous task forces and boards to advise other organizations, including the American Council on Renewable Energy. She is a member of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Federal Advisory Committee on Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency. Ms. Church Ciocci was named one of the 100 all-time most influential people in the international hydropower industry by a major trade publication. Before joining NHA, Ms. Church Ciocci served as an advocate and official at the American Public Power Association (APPA) and as a legislative representative for the National Association of Counties.

Read EESI's profile of Linda Church-Ciocci here.

Harmon L. (Monty) Cooper is a partner for Crowell & Moring, working in their Mass Tort, Product, and Consumer Litigation and Environment & Natural Resources groups. He focuses on environmental and product liability litigation.

He is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and South Carolina and before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Previously, Mr. Cooper was an attorney for Sedgwick LLP. He served as a judicial clerk to the Hon. Patrick Michael Duffy of the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina. Mr. Cooper is a member of the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources, the National Bar Association’s (NBA) Commercial Law Section, and the DC Bar’s Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources Section. Mr. Cooper serves as Chairman of the Redevelopment Authority for Prince George's County (MD).

Mr. Cooper received his J.D. from William and Mary School of Law in 2004. While in law school, Mr. Cooper served as an editor on the William and Mary Law Review and was named a Benjamin Rush Scholar. He also obtained his M.P.P. from the William and Mary Program in Public Policy in 2004 and his B.A. in American Studies from Georgetown University in 2000.

Read EESI's interview of Monty Cooper here.

Laura Kalick has over 45 years of experience as a leader providing advice to nonprofit clients through her work in government and private practice. She has worked at the IRS National Tax Office, the US Senate, as Tax Legislative Counsel to a senator on the Finance Committee, as the National Nonprofit and Healthcare Tax Consulting Director of BDO and Coopers & Lybrand (PwC) and as Of Counsel to a prominent DC law firm, Arent Fox. She advises charities, private foundations and trade associations on a broad range of tax issues. Ms. Kalick is the co-author of two books on nonprofit taxation and numerous articles.  She is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the Pennsylvania bar, is on the editorial board of the Exempt Organization Tax Review (Tax Analysts) and serves on the finance committee of Friedreich’s Ataxia Research Alliance.

Ms. Kalick holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan, a J.D. from George Washington University and an LLM in Taxation from Georgetown University.

Martinez is a conservation biologist who firmly believes that innovation and science can help reverse and prevent our planet’s greatest problems.

Barbara Martinez is the Director of Science (Land) for the National Geographic Society’s Science & Innovation team. She supports National Geographic Explorers who are striving to understand, explore, and conserve terrestrial and freshwater systems around the world. Prior to joining the National Geographic Society, Martinez was the Open Innovation Director at Conservation X Labs (CXL) for over six years. While at CXL, she designed and implemented four global grand challenges and two hackathons; researched conservation problems and solutions in topic areas related to water and biodiversity conservation, including small-scale mining, microplastic pollution, invasive species, and aquaculture; and advised several other open innovation initiatives. Prior to joining CXL, she was an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and Technology Policy Fellow hosted by the Office of Research and Development at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and then an Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) Post-doctoral Fellow hosted by EPA’s Office of the Science Advisor.

Martinez has spent time studying endocrine disruption in prairie voles, as well as many years in remote field sites studying songbird behavior and seed dispersal by lemurs, hornbills, and monkeys. She has a PhD in Conservation Biology from the University of Minnesota with a minor in Development Studies and Social Change, and a BS in Wildlife Ecology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

Francis J. Murray, Jr. served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) from January 2009 through September 2013. Prior to his appointment, Mr. Murray served as Senior Advisor at the international environmental consulting firm Ecology and Environment, Inc. From 1996 to 1997, Mr. Murray was policy advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Energy, assisting in the development of the Clinton Administration’s national energy policy. Mr. Murray served from 1992 to 1994 as the New York State Commissioner of Energy and Chairman of the NYSERDA Board of Directors. At that time, he also served as Chairman of the State Energy Planning Board.

In 1985, Mr. Murray was appointed Deputy Secretary to the Governor for Energy and the Environment, a position he held until 1992. He served from 1983 to 1985 as Assistant Secretary for Energy and the Environment in the administration of New York State Governor Mario M. Cuomo. Mr. Murray began his work on New York State energy issues as legislative counsel and then as an energy and environmental policy advisor to Governor Hugh Carey from 1977 to 1982. He began his career in public service as a legislative assistant to Congressman James V. Stanton (D-Ohio).

Mr. Murray serves on the board of numerous not-for-profit organizations, including the Alliance to Save Energy, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), the National Association of State Energy Officials, the Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnership, the New York State Smart Grid Consortium (Vice Chair), and the New York Battery and Energy Storage (NY-BEST) Consortium.

Mr. Murray received his Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service cum laude from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, and his Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Center.

Christopher Schepis served on the House Homeland Security Committee as senior professional staff member. Previously, he represented the National Farmers Union in Washington D.C. and was also a resource to the National Commission on Energy Policy on renewable energy. From 1987 to 1992, Mr. Schepis was special projects director for former U.S. Senator Wyche Fowler, Jr. (D-GA), who was then chairman of the Senate Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation and Forestry. During the 1996 Farm Bill negotiations, he was a senior legislative aide to U.S. House of Representatives Congressman Sanford Bishop (GA-2), a member of the House Agriculture Committee.

Mr. Schepis has taught on the faculty of Georgia College and State University.

David Terry is the President of the National Association of State Energy Officials and has worked with NASEO in a variety of capacities since 1996. Mr. Terry also serves as the Executive Director of the Association of State Energy Research Institutions. Prior to serving as President of NASEO, Mr. Terry founded Stateline Energy, LLC. He has 25 years of experience working on a range of energy issues for such organizations as the Governors’ Biofuels Coalition, Governors’ Wind Energy Coalition, Energy Services Coalition, the Energy Foundation, and various consulting firms. Prior to working in the energy area, Mr. Terry was a statistical analyst for a market research firm, and researcher with the National Academy of Sciences.

Mr. Terry received a B.A. degree from Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH, and he has completed graduate coursework in statistics and marketing at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA.

Raya Salter is the Policy Director for NY Renews, a coalition of more than 200 climate justice organizations. She is also an adjunct Professor at Fordham University's School of Law, and an appointed member of the New York State Climate Action Council, which is tasked with planning the state's just transition to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Salter, who received a Climate Hero Award in April 2020 from the Human Impacts Institute, is the author of Energy Justice, a pioneering analysis of energy law and policy through the framework of energy justice. She earned a law degree at the Fordham University School of Law.

Kurt is the founder of KS Advisory, a consulting practice providing insights to cities, companies, and civil society organizations as they approach the challenge of extreme heat and climate resilience. Prior to launching KS Advisory, Kurt was the director of extreme heat initiatives at the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center. There, Kurt led the center’s mission to protect people and livelihoods from the risks and impacts of extreme heat by building global partnerships, connecting communities, developing policies and programs, and supporting implementation.

In 2011, Kurt launched the Global Cool Cities Alliance and built it into a global network of over 70 cities focused on implementing passive cooling solutions to combat rising urban heat. He was the lead author of the World Bank’s Primer for Cool Cities: Reducing Excessive Urban Heat and has led projects for the Department of Energy, Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, the United Nations, and the Clean Energy Ministerial. Kurt is also on the board of directors of the Cool Roof Rating Council and is a member of the Advisory Board for the American Public Health Association’s Center for Climate, Health, and Equity.

Shickman holds an MA on Energy Policy and Economics from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a BA from Wake Forest University.

Daniel Bresette serves as President of the Environmental and Energy Study Institute in Washington, D.C.—a non-profit education and policy organization. Before joining EESI, Daniel served as the Vice President of Policy at the Alliance to Save Energy, which also involved leading the Energy-Efficient Codes Coalition as its Executive Director. Previously, Daniel was the Maryland Energy Administration’s Senior Energy Policy Manager and oversaw a diverse portfolio of state energy efficiency financing initiatives. He has provided expert testimony to Congress, the Maryland General Assembly, and other regulatory agencies on energy efficiency topics, presented at national conferences, and served on a range of national committees and work groups. Previously, he worked in the strategy practice at Booz Allen Hamilton. He began his career with U.S. Sen. Jim Jeffords (I-VT).

Philip R. Sharp was the president of Resources for the Future, an independent and nonpartisan research institution that analyzes energy, environmental, and natural resource policies, from 2005 to 2016. In 2016, Sharp was awarded the James Schlesinger Energy Security Medal by then Secretary of Energy Ernie Moniz.

From 1975 to 1995, Sharp was a member of Congress representing Indiana. He played a prominent role in the development of landmark energy legislation, including the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments and the 1992 Energy Policy Act. Following his service in Congress, Sharp joined the Harvard Kennedy School faculty from 1995 to 2002 and served as director of its Institute of Politics for several of those years.

In addition to being a member of the MIT Energy Initiative’s External Advisory Board, Sharp also serves on the advisory board to Columbia’s Center for Global Energy Policy and as a senior advisor to Resources for the Future. He is chairman of the board of EcoAmerica, a non-profit climate advocacy organization. Previously, he served on the National Commission on Energy Policy, the Blue Ribbon Commission on the Future of Nuclear Power, and the National Academies study panel on America’s Climate Choices. Sharp holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and a PhD in government from Georgetown.

Robert Jackson is the executive director of the Retired Engineers, Scientists, Technicians, Administrators, Researchers, and Teachers (RESTART) Program at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, Michigan, and the president of the RESTART Institute, a nonprofit that helps the private and public sectors decarbonize.

Before RESTART, Jackson directed the Michigan Energy Office, managing the State Energy Program, Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Programs, and the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Revolving Loan Fund. Jackson also served as the Energy Ombudsman for Michigan, responsible for resolving public and private sector energy disputes and monitoring utility compliance with the Michigan Public Service Commission’s code of conduct.

Jackson sits on the board of directors for the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), is the past chair of the National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO) and the National Pollution Prevention Roundtable, and former vice-chair of the Department of Energy’s State Energy Advisory Board. Jackson holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering from Wayne State University.