Technical Advisory Council

Jon Crozier is the National Business Development Manager for all Cannabis Projects at Hansen-Rice, Inc. Jon also manages all Food & Beverage business development for Hansen-Rice, Inc. in the western US. Hansen-Rice, Inc. is a 36 year old nationally licensed design build firm based in Nampa, ID. Currently an NCIA, and RII member, HANSEN-RICE INC. leverages an integrated design-build approach by providing value to construction projects through a full range of Program Management, Design & Engineering, Pre-Construction and Construction solutions. Jon has over 10 years of business development experience and specializes in large scale capital projects. Jon and HRI’s expertise on upfront project planning and experience in setting proper expectations early in the process provide clients and owners extreme value and limit risk in understanding the scope, schedule, and cost of a construction project.

Former Plant Growth Facilities Manager at Purdue University for 20 years, Eddy was responsible for hundreds of controlled environment agriculture studies involving flowering, food and medicinal species in both greenhouses and indoor grow rooms. His greenhouse optimization protocols have been downloaded over 60,000 times in 52 countries. He served on design teams for Purdue’s automated plant imaging center; an underground growth room in a limestone mine; a tiered grow room, and multiple campus greenhouses. As founder of CEA Consultancy LLC, he has consulted for Dow AgroSciences, Novozymes, BrightFarms, AeroFarms and other hydroponic and cannabis operations. He has written sustainable, science-based cultivation plans for cannabis licenses awarded in Missouri and West Virginia and serves as national Director of Agriculture for Rookwood Holdings, LLC.

Alex is the President & Greenhouse Consultant for Alex Turkewitsch, P.Eng.Ltd., dba “Greenhouse Engineering” since March 1999, where he plans, specifies, designs and implements commercial, institutional and research greenhouse facilities.

He is a member of the team at Greenhouse Design LLC since 2009, where he is active as a consulting greenhouse engineer. He designs greenhouse facilities ranging from plant production ranges, garden centers, shade houses and lath houses to compartmentalized research greenhouses, conservatories, rooftop farms, and custom structures. Alex also performs inspections, commissioning services, project management and engineering evaluations.

His international client list includes architects, greenhouse operators, manufacturers, institutions, governments, research organizations, universities, and bio-technology companies. Alex has consulted on, provided designs and implemented and commissioned greenhouse projects in all 10 Canadian provinces, Nunavut, 25 States in the USA, Mexico, Uruguay, Philippines, Australia, Kenya, and Malaysia.

Dr. Lefsrud, an Associate Professor at McGill University leads the Biomass Production Laboratory. His upbringing on a farm and work in the oil fields of Alberta, Canada combined with his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Agricultural and Bioresource Engineering and a Ph.D. in Plant Physiology gives him a very strong background in the fields of agriculture, biology, and engineering. His research program focuses on the plant growth environment and how to improve plant and microbial yield. The Biomass Production Laboratory focus is developing methods and technologies to improve environmental control, energy efficiency, harvesting and post harvest handling and bioprocesses of living organisms. This laboratory’s primary goal is the improvement of plants for human consumption (food security), human health (medical cannabis), environmental protection (green building materials) and energy (biofuels).

Leora Radetsky is a Senior Lighting Scientist at the DesignLights Consortium (DLC) where she focuses on developing lighting solutions that promote energy optimization, quality, human factors, and
performance in the areas of horticultural and architectural lighting. She has over 20 years of experience in the lighting industry as a research scientist with the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Director of Customer Education at Lighting Analysts, Inc. She has extensive
research and engineering experience in horticultural lighting, lighting software, product testing, lighting controls, photometry, daylighting, outdoor lighting and circadian rhythms. In 2014, she was awarded an
IES Regional Technical Award from the Northeast region for her significant scientific contributions to the field of illumination. Leora has a B.S. in Architectural Engineering with an Emphasis in Illumination from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and an M.S. in Lighting from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She is Lighting Certified by the NCQLP.

Casey Rivero is an all around cannabis business professional. Casey has created many efficient cultivation business models with well-established companies in multiple states. Spending more than 20 years in the cannabis community with various enterprises, Casey understands what drives businesses and how to design and build facilities as well as implement efficient operating procedures. He utilizes a commercial design approach when creating a custom solution for any need. Casey is an influential leader in the industry, working hands on to develop new methods and scientific understanding to ensure successful business planning.

Casey maintains a high level of botanical and horticultural understanding. He has designed studies for many leading product manufacturers including lighting, nutrients, soil, software, and HVAC equipment. Casey also lives to educate. Throughout the year you can find him teaching various workshops or giving presentations at conferences around the world.

Founder and President of TSRgrow, Mikhail Sagal is a veteran of the cannabis industry. With over 11 years of experience in LED lighting solutions and over 29 issued patents, Mikhail is a pioneer in LED lighting and has a proven track record of product innovation and commercialization, as demonstrated by TSRgrow’s TOTALgrow Solution.

Prior to founding TSRgrow in 2009, Mikhail worked for 13 years developing and commercializing thermally conductive plastics and product solutions with companies worldwide. His technical experience includes thermal management, LED system and product design, manufacturing systems, design for manufacturing, wireless control system and applications in solid state lighting. It was his early understanding of the power of LEDs that led Mikhail to founding TSRgrow, quickly expanding the company beyond lighting to deliver a full horticultural growing solution.

Mike grew up in the agricultural community of the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts. There he developed a deep respect for both conventional and small scale organic production methods. He attended Northeastern University earning a BS and MS in Electrical Engineering, and spent the first part of his career designing speaker systems and audio electronics for performing musicians. The switch to precision agriculture came naturally, and he has worked on a wide variety of projects in both cannabis and vegetable production, focusing on LED systems, sensors, power systems and facility design. Mike is the principal of Zartarian Engineering in Boston, MA.

Kyle Booth is a Senior Engineer and licensed professional mechanical engineer at Energy Solutions. As the lead CASE author for the 2022 CA Title 24, Part 6 Controlled Environment Horticulture CASE Report, he led the research into minimum efficiency requirements for horticultural lighting, dehumidification, and greenhouse envelope measures. He is on the ASABE / ASHRAE X653 Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) for Indoor Plant Environments without Sunlight standards development committee. In addition to controlled environment horticulture codes development, Kyle is the lead engineer for several commercial midstream energy efficiency programs across the country. Before coming to Energy Solutions, Kyle performed agricultural energy efficiency audits on farms across the US for seven years with EnSave, Inc. Kyle comes from an agricultural background, growing up around his family’s dairy processing facility in Vermont, Booth Brothers Dairy.

Catherine Drumheller is Principal of Oak Services LLC, which provides environmental consulting services for domestic and international environmental and water resources projects. Her expertise includes quantitative analysis of performance metrics and sustainable project program design related to sustainable water resources development, environmental engineering and environmental chemistry. Her interests include water resources science and management, climate science, sustainable development, environmental physics, energy technology, food and agriculture, gender equity and feminism, and the democratization of education and learning. She has a keen understanding of water and power demands are inextricably linked with climate and justice impacts. As a member of the Cannabis Sustainability Workgroup established by the City of Denver Dept. of Environmental Health, Ms. Drumheller was lead author of the Best Practice Guide.

Neal Elliott directed ACEEE’s research for many years prior to transitioning to emeritus status the fall of 2020. He continues to contribute to ACEEE’s research and policy efforts as an internationally recognized expert and author on energy efficiency programs and policies, industrial energy efficiency and decarbonization, rural and agricultural energy policies, electric motor systems, combined heat and power (CHP) and clean distributed energy. Neal is a frequent speaker at domestic and international conferences. He joined ACEEE in 1993.
Prior to joining ACEEE, Neal was an adjunct associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Duke University and senior engineering project manager at the N.C. Alternative Energy Corp. (now Advanced Energy) where he was founding director of the Industrial Energy Laboratory and lead the agricultural energy efficiency efforts. Prior to AEC he worked as N.C. Wood Assistance team leader for the Industrial Extension Service and Department of Wood and Paper Science at North Carolina State University.
Neal earned a bachelor of science and a master of science in mechanical engineering from North Carolina State University, and was a dean’s fellow and received a PhD from Duke University. He is a registered professional engineer in North Carolina and has six patents in the area of thermal storage and produce processing. Elliott served for many years on the board of the Industrial Energy Technology Conference and is the past Treasurer of the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance.

Wil Mannes is a Program Manager with the Colorado Energy Office. Wil utilizes a background in energy management and greenhouse gas accounting to examine sector-specific energy challenges and develop programmatic approaches to address them.

Lauren Morlino is an Emerging Technologies and Services Manager at Efficiency Vermont, the statewide energy efficiency utility. Lauren researches and prototypes exciting, innovative, and efficient technologies and services for Vermont ratepayers. During her last seven years at Efficiency Vermont, Lauren has researched and designed initiatives for lighting, controls, refrigeration, consumer electronics, and controlled environment agriculture (CEA). She is an external advisor for VEIC on customer-centric program design and controlled environment agriculture, and has published papers on several emerging technologies. Lauren has presented at national conferences including ACEEE, AESP, DesignLights Consortium, DOE Better Buildings Summit, HortiCann Light + Tech, Indoor Agriculture Energy Solutions, and Esource.

Lauren holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science with minors in Environmental Studies and Spanish from the University of Vermont.

Kyle Booth is a Senior Engineer and licensed professional mechanical engineer at Energy Solutions. As the lead CASE author for the 2022 CA Title 24, Part 6 Controlled Environment Horticulture CASE Report, he led the research into minimum efficiency requirements for horticultural lighting, dehumidification, and greenhouse envelope measures. He is on the ASABE / ASHRAE X653 Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) for Indoor Plant Environments without Sunlight standards development committee. In addition to controlled environment horticulture codes development, Kyle is the lead engineer for several commercial midstream energy efficiency programs across the country. Before coming to Energy Solutions, Kyle performed agricultural energy efficiency audits on farms across the US for seven years with EnSave, Inc. Kyle comes from an agricultural background, growing up around his family’s dairy processing facility in Vermont, Booth Brothers Dairy.

Fran Boucher, CEM, LEED AP works as an Energy Program Specialist with National Grid and has over 25 years of energy engineering and facilities experience.

He has led the program design and engineering effort for the Cannabis production market in MA and RI since its inception in 2017. This includes involvement in 80 plus customer projects ranging from 1,500 to 100,000 Sf of canopy area. The bulk of these projects include efficient HVAC systems with an increasing number of applications that involve; fuel cells, combined heat and power and gas engine driven chillers.

As an early adopter for utilities involved in this market, he has experienced challenges of all kinds including; evolution of the State lighting power standards, changes in market design practices, reworking of failed HVAC designs and multiple cases of energy savings falling well short of expectations.
Expertise in data center and laboratory energy efficiency.

As Program Manager, Lindsay is responsible for managing two pilot programs on behalf of DTE Energy. Together with her team, they launched both a Controlled Environmental Agriculture and Small to Medium Business pilots for under served communities throughout Michigan. She brings to Evergreen years of utility funded energy efficiency program experience.

Prior to beginning at Evergreen, Lindsay worked as a consultant to McDonald’s Corporation where she managed energy efficiency programs and efforts across their 15,000 restaurant U.S. portfolio. In addition to energy efficiency, she worked with the larger sustainability team to a draft water conservation plan for the corporation. She is most proud of working on the first Net Zero quick service restaurant in the U.S. that McDonald’s opened in Orlando, FL. Before her work with McDonald’s, Lindsay held various roles surrounding New Construction, Multifamily Retrofit, and Single-Family Income Eligible energy efficiency programs.
Lindsay has a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from Marietta College and an M.B.A. in Sustainability from Antioch University. She is an active member of Illinois Green Alliance and serves on their Auxiliary Board. Through Illinois Green, Lindsay as enjoyed tutoring local Chicago high school students on carbon drawdown efforts and sustainability career paths.
In her free time Lindsay enjoys creating different types of charcuterie boards and riding her Peloton.

Nick Collins, PE, is the Associate Director of ERS’s Maine office. He is a professional engineer and a nationally recognized expert on energy use and facility performance in cannabis and indoor agriculture. His areas of expertise include the monitoring and verification of energy efficiency projects and the analysis of energy efficiency and demand-limiting measures in residential, commercial, and industrial facilities. Nick has been on the delivery team implementing Efficiency Maine programs for the past 10 years. He has led numerous impact evaluations of utility and program administrator incentive programs in the residential, commercial, and industrial sectors including the last three consecutive NYSERDA Industrial Process and Efficiency (IPE) gross impact evaluations. For the past three years, Nick has applied his expertise to the indoor cannabis cultivation industry where he has toured dozens of facilities, performed scoping audits, detailed technical reviews, and ground-breaking measurement and verification activities on indoor facilities throughout the Northeast and Colorado. Nick has been presenting these findings and training other professionals on the topic of energy use and efficiency in indoor cannabis cultivation at conferences across the country. He has published papers and presented with ACEEE, IEPEC, IEC, KEEA, NESEA, and EUCI. He is a member of the National Cannabis Industry Association Facility Design Committee. Before joining ERS, Nick was a project manager in construction management on projects including Gillette Stadium, Terminal A at Logan Airport, and the Walker Art Building renovation and expansion at Bowdoin College. He received his BS in mechanical engineering from the University of Maine.

Molly Graham is the Programs Director, where she oversees all of MEEA’s programmatic activities in 13 Midwest states. Molly’s team is responsible for commercial education and training programs, residential education programs, research initiatives, real estate education programs, outreach service roles, several stakeholder collaboratives and strategic initiatives for the organization. Molly’s areas of expertise include program design, proposal development, market transformation and indoor agriculture. She is responsible for new business development for MEEA through research projects, pilot programs and grant proposals.
Molly has been with MEEA since 2014 and most recently was the Senior Program Manager overseeing commercial programs. Molly was a Clean Energy Leadership Institute Fellow in 2020 with their first Chicago cohort and she holds a B.S. in Earth, Society, and the Environment from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Thomas is a professional engineer who has spent the last eight years specializing in energy efficiency initiatives within Southern California Edison’s (SCE) Business Customer Division. He works closely with SCE’s commercial customers and their technical representatives (i.e., architects, designers, engineers) to educate them about strategic solutions, available resources, and incentive programs that promote energy efficiency. Over the last year, he has focused exclusively on customers within the controlled environment agriculture (CEA) space and understands the unique market characteristics and circumstances their businesses face. Thomas also engages regularly with the California Public Utilities Commission and other utilities across California to help shape policy & programs around energy efficiency and is a strong advocate for utility partnership with customers to achieve mutually beneficial goals.

Lauren Morlino is an Emerging Technologies and Services Manager at Efficiency Vermont, the statewide energy efficiency utility. Lauren researches and prototypes exciting, innovative, and efficient technologies and services for Vermont ratepayers. During her last seven years at Efficiency Vermont, Lauren has researched and designed initiatives for lighting, controls, refrigeration, consumer electronics, and controlled environment agriculture (CEA). She is an external advisor for VEIC on customer-centric program design and controlled environment agriculture, and has published papers on several emerging technologies. Lauren has presented at national conferences including ACEEE, AESP, DesignLights Consortium, DOE Better Buildings Summit, HortiCann Light + Tech, Indoor Agriculture Energy Solutions, and Esource.

Lauren holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science with minors in Environmental Studies and Spanish from the University of Vermont.

Chris Pilek is a Manager with Resource Innovations, leading its work within the agricultural markets. Chris is a 20+ year energy professional with a background in energy efficiency and energy engineering. His career began working with St Vincent’s Medical Center and Harvard School of Public Health, where he helped test the use of ultraviolet energy to curb the spread of tuberculosis. He then held several roles with the Electric Power Research Institute, including those focused on utility engagement and product research. Chris has spent 10 years designing and implementing energy efficiency programs for some of the largest investor-owned utilities in California, including those serving niche, specialized subsectors of agriculture. From there, he went on to Pacific Gas and Electric where he managed agricultural and water programs within their Industrial, Agriculture and Water division. Chris holds a BS in Environmental Engineering and an Energy Resource Management certification from U.C. Davis.

Peter is Founder and CEO of Orion Partners.ai providing Gro iQ, the Artificial Intelligence driven platform for Controlled Environment Agriculture. Gro iQ is deployed at leading multi-state and large single site indoor and greenhouse facilities to standardize cannabis cultivation operations and optimize crop yield. Peter previously founded, financed, built and transacted tech companies in the machine learning and infrastructure virtualization markets by attracting extraordinary executive teams. Several of the executives he started with in 1996 are working together today. Peter is Vice Chairman of the NCIA Facilities Design Committee, whose mission is to provide NCIA members and regulators with resources for facilities design options through which legal producers can plan for sustainable cultivation as the cannabis market transitions from a state to a federally regulated industry. Peter is the father of 3 college students, now, currently living back at home. He is also the Captain of S/V Peningo a custom Dubois ’49 sailboat that he and his family run for charter in Boston and around New England waters.

Tim Guiterman is the CEO of InfiSense, a no-code software and API platform that enables businesses to easily deploy low cost, long range, long-life wireless sensors and integrate the data into their analytics tools, with no custom development or behavior change required. Tim previously was a Director of Client Solutions and Measurement at EnergySavvy where he advocated and educated around all things M&V 2.0 – from embedded M&V to continuous measurement and optimization. Prior to that Tim served as an Associate Director at Navigant managing several large portfolio evaluations, commercial and residential baseline studies, and Vermont state energy code updates and trainings. Tim earned both an MS in Building Systems Engineering and a BA in Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Rosemary is a Project Manager at D+R International, overseeing D+R’s controlled environmental agriculture program and data management work. She currently provides project management and data collection and analysis support to NEEA’s Hot Water Solutions Program., DesignLights Consortium® (DLC) Horticultural Lighting Program, ENERGY STAR®, and the Indoor Agricultural Energy Solutions Conference teams. Rose has led the development of several data management initiatives, including designing database schemas, mapping out process work flows, and managing the database mechanics and analytics. Rose received her B.S. in Environmental Engineering and is currently pursuing a M.S. in Sustainable Engineering. She currently holds LEED Green Associate, Fitwel Ambassador, and WELL AP certifications and is a member of IESNA’s Horticultural Lighting Recommended Practices Committee. She is a contributing author of Resource Innovation Institute’s Best Practices for Cultivating with LED Lighting and has spoken at conferences such as IAES 2020.

Damien Markiewicz is a Manager with Resource Innovations, leading its work within the CEA market. Damien has been working in the energy management industry for nearly a decade working with technologies and sectors that range from LEDs to solar and supporting the fast-growing market of indoor agriculture with innovative energy management and outreach strategies. He co-founded an indoor agriculture energy efficiency firm that established foundational best practices in the indoor ag space. Damien brings a unique blend of leadership, organizational structure, and entrepreneurial skillset that will drive Resource Innovations’ effective C&I program design and delivery.

Carl is the Founder and CEO of Advanced Energy Intelligence, LLC of Carlisle MA specializing in advanced data analytics and methods for analyzing facility energy performance in the C&I, MUSH and private portfolio markets. In a partnership with Secure Energy of East Longmeadow, AEI is building out a no/low-cost data analytics platform that integrates automated utility bill and interval data retrieval into a concise portal for delivering immediate insight into energy savings opportunities. Planned and ongoing modular integrations with platforms such as PowerScore will deliver industry-specific solutions that support the non-core energy data reporting requirements in many regulated markets.

Neda Vaseghi is the CEO and Co-Founder at Microclimates, a software company in controlled environment agriculture (CEO) supporting indoor farming practices. Prior to Microclimates, Neda was the Director of Mergers & Acquisition at Merieux NutriSciences, a food safety company with global operations. Her passion for food and sustainability started early on at the University of Washington. Neda holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Health & Safety and an MBA. Neda was born in Iran, speaks two languages, is a mother and wife.

Laura Breit is the founder and owner of Oregon-based firms Root Engineers and ColeBreit Engineering. She is a professional mechanical engineer specializing in the design of HVAC, plumbing, and process systems for the cannabis industry. Using her experience in traditional engineering methods through Root Engineers parent company, ColeBreit Engineering, she applies her team’s depth of knowledge to create efficient and economically sound solutions for cultivation and processing facilities. Taking a custom approach to each project, Laura has experience working in the traditional design-bid-build method, as well as in the design-build arena. She enjoys the dynamic nature of the cannabis industry, and since legalization in her home state of Oregon in 2014, Laura has led her team of mechanical and electrical engineers on more than 80 cannabis-related projects across the country. She thrives on building relationships with building owners, growers, architects, contractors and investors. Laura received her Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from UC Santa Barbara and a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and is a LEED Accredited Professional.

Nick Collins, PE, is the Associate Director of ERS’s Maine office. He is a professional engineer and a nationally recognized expert on energy use and facility performance in cannabis and indoor agriculture. His areas of expertise include the monitoring and verification of energy efficiency projects and the analysis of energy efficiency and demand-limiting measures in residential, commercial, and industrial facilities. Nick has been on the delivery team implementing Efficiency Maine programs for the past 10 years. He has led numerous impact evaluations of utility and program administrator incentive programs in the residential, commercial, and industrial sectors including the last three consecutive NYSERDA Industrial Process and Efficiency (IPE) gross impact evaluations. For the past three years, Nick has applied his expertise to the indoor cannabis cultivation industry where he has toured dozens of facilities, performed scoping audits, detailed technical reviews, and ground-breaking measurement and verification activities on indoor facilities throughout the Northeast and Colorado. Nick has been presenting these findings and training other professionals on the topic of energy use and efficiency in indoor cannabis cultivation at conferences across the country. He has published papers and presented with ACEEE, IEPEC, IEC, KEEA, NESEA, and EUCI. He is a member of the National Cannabis Industry Association Facility Design Committee. Before joining ERS, Nick was a project manager in construction management on projects including Gillette Stadium, Terminal A at Logan Airport, and the Walker Art Building renovation and expansion at Bowdoin College. He received his BS in mechanical engineering from the University of Maine.

Keith Coursin is the president of Desert Aire LLC, a Milwaukee-based manufacturer of integrated environmental control systems including GrowAire™ Systems for the cannabis cultivation industry. In addition to his duties at Desert Aire, Mr. Coursin served in 2009 as chairman of the board of directors of the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI). He has also served on numerous AHRI committees. Mr. Coursin is also a member of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). Keith Coursin’s efforts to drive market-based solutions that promote resource efficiency include development of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Model Aquatic Health Code as well as ANSI/ACCA standards detailed in the CDC’s HVAC Design for Swimming Pools & Spas (Manual SPS).

James Donahue is Manager of Special Projects for Navitas System Integration, a leading independent building automation contractor located in Massachusetts. James’ primary focus is leveraging data to optimize facility performance, energy efficiency and productivity. With knowledge in building controls and data analytics, James is strongly positioned to identify opportunities in buildings and drive actionable results for facility owners. James is a Certified Energy Manager (CEM) and member of the Association of Energy Engineers (AEE), as well as an active member of ASHRAE.

Former Plant Growth Facilities Manager at Purdue University for 20 years, Eddy was responsible for hundreds of controlled environment agriculture studies involving flowering, food and medicinal species in both greenhouses and indoor grow rooms. His greenhouse optimization protocols have been downloaded over 60,000 times in 52 countries. He served on design teams for Purdue’s automated plant imaging center; an underground growth room in a limestone mine; a tiered grow room, and multiple campus greenhouses. As founder of CEA Consultancy LLC, he has consulted for Dow AgroSciences, Novozymes, BrightFarms, AeroFarms and other hydroponic and cannabis operations. He has written sustainable, science-based cultivation plans for cannabis licenses awarded in Missouri and West Virginia and serves as national Director of Agriculture for Rookwood Holdings, LLC.

Adrian Giovenco is a passionate engineer with over a decade of experience designing, selling and commissioning HVAC and process systems throughout North America. Recognizing that there is a knowledge gap around fully understanding plant transpiration rates and how they impact controlled environments, he founded InSpire to focus on Advanced Transpiration Solutions. InSpire’s purpose-built systems for horticulture allow for precise environmental control throughout the growing cycle and into dry/cure and process manufacturing. The benefits derived from InSpire’s systems expertise include maximizing biomass, optimizing terpenes and cannabinoids, reducing operating costs, extending equipment life, and providing a significant reduction in risk correlated to crop failures. You can find InSpire online at www.InSpire.ag or on Instagram at @inspire_transpiration. Adrian is an active member and past president of ASHRAE in Northern California, he sits on the Cal Poly SLO Mechanical Engineering HVAC&R Technical Advisory Council, and he currently serves on the NCIA Facilities Design Committee and the Resource Innovation Institute Technical Advisory Committee HVAC Working Group.

As a former automation engineer with Siemens, a long-time craft cultivator and current operator of an efficiently-designed facility, Jesce is uniquely suited to advise on HVAC best practices.

See his full bio here

Ihor is largely credited with developing several fundamental technologies that render LEDs useful for illumination applications. Having helped propel the widespread cross‐market adoption of LEDs as an illumination source, Ihor helps set the direction for the companyAgnetix’s technology advancement and implementation. Ihor co‐founded Color Kinetics in 1997. Upon the company’s acquisition by Philips, Ihor served as its Chief Scientist until 2009. For more than a decade at Color Kinetics, Ihor oversaw the development of new lighting, power and control products and helped formulate corporate strategy and product vision. A prolific inventor, Ihor holds more than 75 issued patents and numerous patent filings. In addition to being honored as Inventor of the Year by the Intellectual Property Owners Education Foundation in 2008, he has been named to several prestigious industry lists, including the Technology Review TR100, Mass High Tech All‐Stars, and Entertainment Design magazine’s 50 Most Powerful People in Entertainment Technology. A frequent speaker at industry conferences and events, Ihor received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University (1987‐1998).

Jake Mitchell is a Senior Outreach Consultant with Resource Innovations. Jake has been involved in the sustainability field for the last eight years. Before joining Resource Innovations, he founded and operated his own consulting business focused on sustainability in the cannabis industry after working for years as a sustainability, economic, and climate expert advising cities, states, and private corporations and seeing the need for addressing environmental issues in the cannabis sector.  Jake has also executed demand side management and energy research programs for utility and municipal client. He is an expert in engaging with strategic stakeholders, clients, partners, and customers. Working in multiple industries with varying mindsets has allowed Jake to create communication skills that strategically build trust and rapport while approaching people from their worldview.

Lauren Morlino is an Emerging Technologies and Services Manager at Efficiency Vermont, the statewide energy efficiency utility. Lauren researches and prototypes exciting, innovative, and efficient technologies and services for Vermont ratepayers. During her last seven years at Efficiency Vermont, Lauren has researched and designed initiatives for lighting, controls, refrigeration, consumer electronics, and controlled environment agriculture (CEA). She is an external advisor for VEIC on customer-centric program design and controlled environment agriculture, and has published papers on several emerging technologies. Lauren has presented at national conferences including ACEEE, AESP, DesignLights Consortium, DOE Better Buildings Summit, HortiCann Light + Tech, Indoor Agriculture Energy Solutions, and Esource.

Lauren holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science with minors in Environmental Studies and Spanish from the University of Vermont.

Leora Radetsky is a Senior Lighting Scientist at the DesignLights Consortium (DLC) where she focuses on developing lighting solutions that promote energy optimization, quality, human factors, and
performance in the areas of horticultural and architectural lighting. She has over 20 years of experience in the lighting industry as a research scientist with the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Director of Customer Education at Lighting Analysts, Inc. She has extensive
research and engineering experience in horticultural lighting, lighting software, product testing, lighting controls, photometry, daylighting, outdoor lighting and circadian rhythms. In 2014, she was awarded an
IES Regional Technical Award from the Northeast region for her significant scientific contributions to the field of illumination. Leora has a B.S. in Architectural Engineering with an Emphasis in Illumination from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and an M.S. in Lighting from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She is Lighting Certified by the NCQLP.

Christopher Perry conducts research to support energy-efficiency building codes and equipment standards, as well as smart and grid-interactive buildings. He joined ACEEE in 2015.

Prior to joining ACEEE, Chris worked at URS Corporation in Ohio as an energy management engineer, and most recently in Virginia as a sustainability consultant at JDM Associates.

Chris is a registered professional engineer in Washington DC, LEED Accredited Professional (building design + construction), and Certified Energy Manager. He earned a masters in engineering management from George Washington University and a bachelor of science in industrial engineering from Pennsylvania State University.

Chris Rawlings is the Founder and Chief Energy Officer of Veteran LED, a lighting and energy consulting firm based in Richmond, VA. After 10 years in aviation, Chris made the jump to energy in 2014 after researching utility costs while incorporating lean+/six sigma methods into aviation maintenance operations. He is a Certified Energy Manager with the Association of Energy Engineers, a LEED Green Associate with the U.S Green Building Council, and currently serves on numerous EH&S / ESG Advisory Boards. To date, Veteran LED has served over 250 clients nationwide to include the USDA, NATO, and Colliers Int., saving businesses hundreds of thousands of dollars in energy costs and capturing over $2M in utility rebates and incentives. Veteran LED is a Certified Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Founder and President of TSRgrow, Mikhail Sagal is a veteran of the cannabis industry. With over 11 years of experience in LED lighting solutions and over 29 issued patents, Mikhail is a pioneer in LED lighting and has a proven track record of product innovation and commercialization, as demonstrated by TSRgrow’s TOTALgrow Solution.

Prior to founding TSRgrow in 2009, Mikhail worked for 13 years developing and commercializing thermally conductive plastics and product solutions with companies worldwide. His technical experience includes thermal management, LED system and product design, manufacturing systems, design for manufacturing, wireless control system and applications in solid state lighting. It was his early understanding of the power of LEDs that led Mikhail to founding TSRgrow, quickly expanding the company beyond lighting to deliver a full horticultural growing solution.

Shane Schmitt is the General Manager and Founder of Wy’east Oregon Gardens (WE OG). Shane built out his company with a simple mission to produce high quality cannabis as energy efficiently as possible. WE OG was recognized by the RII as runner up for the 2019 Energy Innovation Award. As a native Oregonian, he has been part of the cannabis industry since the early medical days. He sold his pet door manufacturing business in 2015 and jumped with both feet into the recreational cannabis industry bringing together his 20 years of experience in finance, construction, and manufacturing.

Chip holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Grinnell college and an MBA from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. For the last 10 years he has worked with dehumidifiers and air filtration equipment across several different industries including restoration, whole house dehumidification, crawlspace encapsulation/ pest control, and marine moisture control. Chip has extensive experience with new product development having overseen the development of desiccant and refrigerant dehumidifiers ranging from 4,000 pints per day to 70, HEPA air scrubbers, air movement equipment and basement/ crawlspace dehumidifiers. Chip now leads the Anden team working to develop world class climate control equipment for the indoor agriculture space. In his free time you can find chip working on home improvement projects, skiing, playing soccer, or hanging out on the water with his wife and two dogs.

Neda Vaseghi is the CEO and Co-Founder at Microclimates, a software company in Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) supporting indoor farming practices. Prior to Microclimates, Neda was the Director of Mergers & Acquisition at Merieux NutriSciences, a food safety company with global operations. Her passion for food and sustainability started early on at the University of Washington. Neda holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Health & Safety and an MBA.

After working in engineering, sales, and marketing roles for some of the world’s largest industrial automation manufacturers, Cale Winters co-founded Rhythm Cultivation Solutions & Services in 2015. Today, Cale serves as President of Rhythm CSS – a horticulture technology company focused on bringing innovative automation solutions, process management and analytics tools, and exceptional service to the cannabis industry.

Mike grew up in the agricultural community of the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts. There he developed a deep respect for both conventional and small scale organic production methods. He attended Northeastern University earning a BS and MS in Electrical Engineering, and spent the first part of his career designing speaker systems and audio electronics for performing musicians. The switch to precision agriculture came naturally, and he has worked on a wide variety of projects in both cannabis and vegetable production, focusing on LED systems, sensors, power systems and facility design. Mike is the principal of Zartarian Engineering in Boston, MA.

Andrew Alfred is the Chief Scientist at LivWell Enlightened Health, a vertically integrated national cannabis company headquartered in Denver, CO. His primary responsibility is managing a Research & Development team that focuses on integrating best cultivation practices in indoor cannabis. Some highlights of his work include scaling micropropagation to meet commercial demands, working closely with top LED manufacturers to innovate horticultural solutions in lighting, and implementing state of the art fertigation equipment that both automates nutrient delivery and recaptures leachate and condensate to be recycled back to the plants. He is also very involved in community relations, sitting on several public-private stakeholdering committees such as Denver’s Cannabis Sustainability Work Group where they engage all sides of the industry as well as the consumer to promote sustainable best practices. Andrew received a B.S. in Biology from Indiana University and in his free time plays bass in a local symphony orchestra and loves to play soccer when he’s not recovering from one of his many injuries (all soccer related).

Jennifer Amann is Buildings Program Director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), a non-profit organization founded 40 years ago on the principle that efficient energy use was critical to our nation’s well-being and security. ACEEE’s vision is to aggressively mobilize and scale up energy efficiency to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and combat climate change, and to do so at substantial economic savings. Jennifer serves on the Board of Directors of the Attachments Energy Rating Council and the Resource Innovation Institute.

Kyle Booth is a Senior Engineer and licensed professional mechanical engineer at Energy Solutions. As the lead CASE author for the 2022 CA Title 24, Part 6 Controlled Environment Horticulture CASE Report, he led the research into minimum efficiency requirements for horticultural lighting, dehumidification, and greenhouse envelope measures. He is on the ASABE / ASHRAE X653 Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) for Indoor Plant Environments without Sunlight standards development committee. In addition to controlled environment horticulture codes development, Kyle is the lead engineer for several commercial midstream energy efficiency programs across the country. Before coming to Energy Solutions, Kyle performed agricultural energy efficiency audits on farms across the US for seven years with EnSave, Inc. Kyle comes from an agricultural background, growing up around his family’s dairy processing facility in Vermont, Booth Brothers Dairy.

Keith Coursin is the president of Desert Aire LLC, a Milwaukee-based manufacturer of integrated environmental control systems including GrowAire™ Systems for the cannabis cultivation industry. In addition to his duties at Desert Aire, Mr. Coursin served in 2009 as chairman of the board of directors of the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI). He has also served on numerous AHRI committees. Mr. Coursin is also a member of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). Keith Coursin’s efforts to drive market-based solutions that promote resource efficiency include development of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Model Aquatic Health Code as well as ANSI/ACCA standards detailed in the CDC’s HVAC Design for Swimming Pools & Spas (Manual SPS).

Molly Graham is the Programs Director, where she oversees all of MEEA’s programmatic activities in 13 Midwest states. Molly’s team is responsible for commercial education and training programs, residential education programs, research initiatives, real estate education programs, outreach service roles, several stakeholder collaboratives and strategic initiatives for the organization. Molly’s areas of expertise include program design, proposal development, market transformation and indoor agriculture. She is responsible for new business development for MEEA through research projects, pilot programs and grant proposals.
Molly has been with MEEA since 2014 and most recently was the Senior Program Manager overseeing commercial programs. Molly was a Clean Energy Leadership Institute Fellow in 2020 with their first Chicago cohort and she holds a B.S. in Earth, Society, and the Environment from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Bridget Hill-Zayat, an attorney at Hoban Law Group, is licensed in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland. She is also a Cannabis Policy professor at Stockton University in New Jersey. Her practice focuses on regulated commodities with a focus on the energy and cannabis industries. Specifically, she takes cannabis companies from cradle to grave, starting from incorporation and license applications to compliance practices through to sale. Bridget advises successful applicants on how to improve their energy efficiency, apply for state tax credit programs, liaises with regulators, and handles the ongoing regulatory issues relevant to a cannabis business.

Jason been in the cannabis industry for 5 years. Before entering the cannabis industry, he was involved with multiple business ventures over an almost 25 year business career. During his time in the cannabis industry he has been running 420WholesalePack.com, a local packaging manufacturer & distributor. They have provided a variety of cannabis packaging solutions to the industry including their new joint tube packaging made from 100% recycled plastic. In addition to working with Resource Innovation Institute, Jason is also a member of National Stewardship Action Council. Locally, in Washington, he serves as the VP of the Cannabis Alliance & also chair the Sustainable Cannabis Committee.

Alexi Miller is a Associate Technical Director at NBI and is NBI’s lead engineer. He brings insight and analysis about cutting-edge technologies and strategies to diverse stakeholders as part of a wide-ranging effort to improve the energy performance of the built environment. Alexi leads several programs and initiatives at NBI including the GridOptimal Initiative, the Public Buildings Portfolio Management Initiative, the Getting to Zero Buildings Database, and FirstView. Alexi has expertise in a range of topics including zero energy and zero carbon buildings, code and policy, building controls, deep energy savings retrofits, and emerging technologies. Prior to joining NBI in 2013, he spent six years at The Cadmus Group. Alexi is a registered Professional Engineer in Mechanical Engineering in Oregon and is a LEED accredited professional.

Leora Radetsky is a Senior Lighting Scientist at the DesignLights Consortium (DLC) where she focuses on developing lighting solutions that promote energy optimization, quality, human factors, and
performance in the areas of horticultural and architectural lighting. She has over 20 years of experience in the lighting industry as a research scientist with the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Director of Customer Education at Lighting Analysts, Inc. She has extensive
research and engineering experience in horticultural lighting, lighting software, product testing, lighting controls, photometry, daylighting, outdoor lighting and circadian rhythms. In 2014, she was awarded an
IES Regional Technical Award from the Northeast region for her significant scientific contributions to the field of illumination. Leora has a B.S. in Architectural Engineering with an Emphasis in Illumination from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and an M.S. in Lighting from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She is Lighting Certified by the NCQLP.

Madison Walker leads Grodan North America’s public and government affairs efforts, focusing on issues like sustainability and life cycle management. Prior to Grodan, Madison was a Vice President at Levick Strategic Communications, leading advocacy and crisis communications campaigns for companies in highly regulated environments including SpaceX, CarMax, blu, and Syngenta. Madison also worked at the DCI Group where she focused on third-party advocacy and building strategic alliances, mainly in the technology and telecommunications spaces. Notably, Madison was involved in the day-to-day operations of AT&T’s “It Can Wait” campaign, which aimed to curtail texting and driving. Madison has also worked on a number of political campaigns, and staffed Congressman Bill Foster (IL-D) in his DC office. Madison currently resides in Denver, CO with her husband Eric, her dog Lucy, and her cat Fiona.

My interests lie in environmental protection and sustainability – whether that has to do with energy efficiency, eco-responsible business practices, researching new govt legislations, or simply doing a community trash clean-up, count me in. I get deeply engaged in program management, analytics and business development activities, as I like to dig into detail in order to determine trends and potential gaps, but also have the bandwidth to initiate and drive new processes internally and externally. I’m looking to continue to grow in this exciting field through through new business ventures and initiatives.

Kaitlin Urso is an environmental consultant with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment that specializes in helping small businesses, specifically breweries and cannabis businesses, reduce their environmental impacts. Kaitlin’s work has been featured in Wall Street Journal, Forbes, CNN, NPR, Science Magazine, and countless industry publications. She has 10 years of technical environmental experience, a mechanical engineering degree, and a German Shepherd named Arnold (who regularly joins virtual meetings).

Mike grew up in the agricultural community of the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts. There he developed a deep respect for both conventional and small scale organic production methods. He attended Northeastern University earning a BS and MS in Electrical Engineering, and spent the first part of his career designing speaker systems and audio electronics for performing musicians. The switch to precision agriculture came naturally, and he has worked on a wide variety of projects in both cannabis and vegetable production, focusing on LED systems, sensors, power systems and facility design. Mike is the principal of Zartarian Engineering in Boston, MA.

James Donahue is Manager of Special Projects for Navitas System Integration, a leading independent building automation contractor located in Massachusetts. James’ primary focus is leveraging data to optimize facility performance, energy efficiency and productivity. With knowledge in building controls and data analytics, James is strongly positioned to identify opportunities in buildings and drive actionable results for facility owners. James is a Certified Energy Manager (CEM) and member of the Association of Energy Engineers (AEE), as well as an active member of ASHRAE.

Adrian Giovenco is a passionate engineer with over a decade of experience designing, selling and commissioning HVAC and process systems throughout North America. Recognizing that there is a knowledge gap around fully understanding plant transpiration rates and how they impact controlled environments, he founded InSpire to focus on Advanced Transpiration Solutions. InSpire’s purpose-built systems for horticulture allow for precise environmental control throughout the growing cycle and into dry/cure and process manufacturing. The benefits derived from InSpire’s systems expertise include maximizing biomass, optimizing terpenes and cannabinoids, reducing operating costs, extending equipment life, and providing a significant reduction in risk correlated to crop failures. You can find InSpire online at www.InSpire.ag or on Instagram at @inspire_transpiration. Adrian is an active member and past president of ASHRAE in Northern California, he sits on the Cal Poly SLO Mechanical Engineering HVAC&R Technical Advisory Council, and he currently serves on the NCIA Facilities Design Committee and the Resource Innovation Institute Technical Advisory Committee HVAC Working Group.

As a former automation engineer with Siemens, a long-time craft cultivator and current operator of an efficiently-designed facility, Jesce is uniquely suited to advise on HVAC best practices.

See his full bio here

Christopher Perry conducts research to support energy-efficiency building codes and equipment standards, as well as smart and grid-interactive buildings. He joined ACEEE in 2015.

Prior to joining ACEEE, Chris worked at URS Corporation in Ohio as an energy management engineer, and most recently in Virginia as a sustainability consultant at JDM Associates.

Chris is a registered professional engineer in Washington DC, LEED Accredited Professional (building design + construction), and Certified Energy Manager. He earned a masters in engineering management from George Washington University and a bachelor of science in industrial engineering from Pennsylvania State University.

Shane Schmitt is the General Manager and Founder of Wy’east Oregon Gardens (WE OG). Shane built out his company with a simple mission to produce high quality cannabis as energy efficiently as possible. WE OG was recognized by the RII as runner up for the 2019 Energy Innovation Award. As a native Oregonian, he has been part of the cannabis industry since the early medical days. He sold his pet door manufacturing business in 2015 and jumped with both feet into the recreational cannabis industry bringing together his 20 years of experience in finance, construction, and manufacturing.

Chip holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Grinnell college and an MBA from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. For the last 10 years he has worked with dehumidifiers and air filtration equipment across several different industries including restoration, whole house dehumidification, crawlspace encapsulation/ pest control, and marine moisture control. Chip has extensive experience with new product development having overseen the development of desiccant and refrigerant dehumidifiers ranging from 4,000 pints per day to 70, HEPA air scrubbers, air movement equipment and basement/ crawlspace dehumidifiers. Chip now leads the Anden team working to develop world class climate control equipment for the indoor agriculture space. In his free time you can find chip working on home improvement projects, skiing, playing soccer, or hanging out on the water with his wife and two dogs.

Barbara Anderson is a management analyst in the Water Resources Program, and works on strategic planning and Lean process improvement. Barb is currently facilitating a team of technical staff in a significant revision of various water right applications and application guidance. She strives to make government processes easier for the public to understand. Barb enjoys traveling abroad, quilting and hand-sewing, and gardening.

Rob Eddy has three decades experience in plant growth facility management, plant research and commercial production. As Plant Growth Facility Manager at Purdue University for 20 years, he brought online and managed a 40,000 square foot, 26-room research greenhouse, as well as a plant growth chamber center of over 60 chambers and grow rooms. He performed daily management of dozens of simultaneous experiments and over 100 species, including cultivation, growth optimization, regulatory compliance, inventory, supervision, training and crop diagnosis. He served on design teams for three greenhouse projects, a DEA-licensed cannabis room, an underground plant facility, a multi-tiered research grow room and one of the first automated machine vision phenotyping centers in the country. He programmed environments for both growth optimization and controlled stress induction, installing specialty sensors such as soil moisture and infra-red canopy temperature. His automation using drip irrigation and advanced light accumulation programming reduced water use by 40% annually across the facility while improving crop quality and reducing labor. During 4 years at Dow AgroSciences as Horticulturist, he managed greenhouse team members and conducted crop optimization and greenhouse studies that simulated field conditions. In his consulting role, he supported major hydroponic produce growers AeroFarms and Bright Farms, Big Ag companies such as Dow AgroSciences, Novozymes and Indigo Ag, as well as several cannabis operations including Clade9 in Los Angeles. His decades in the research community and commercial horticulture have created a vast network of industry and academic colleagues. He is a columnist at Cannabis Business Times and a conference speaker.

Matthew Gaboury is a managing partner of Calyx King, one of the country’s preeminent cannabis-centric design/build firms with over 50 combined years of experience in cultivating, processing, and dispensing marijuana. In addition, he is an owner of the medicinal and recreational cannabis production/processing company Re-Up Industries. Mr. Gaboury’s cannabis cultivation practice has provided intense hands-on experience with a range of genetics, methodologies, and facility-types, and has resulted in his development of specific technologies and proprietary protocols to maximize both the quality and yield of the cannabis cultivars under his care. This methodological expertise includes deep water culture, ebb & flood, nutrient film technique, living soil organic mediums, coco coir, soma beds, hydroponic containers, and aeroponics.

Hollie Hall, Ph.D., is a soil and water scientist with expertise in the Adaptive Management of Watersheds. She applies her expertise in ecological systems, environmental regulations, and agriculture while providing Cannabis farmers the support needed to transition farms into environmentally compliant, water-secure, regenerative agricultural systems. With over 20 years’ experience, Hollie works with government agencies, non-profits, and the private sector to integrate the needs of society, government, and environment to support the establishment of watershed intelligent
communities. Her professional goals are to redefine the dominant societal and political perspectives of acceptable land-use practices and their impacts on ecological and economic systems. Hollie views regenerative farming practices as the solution for a much-needed transition to sustainable agricultural land and water use. In addition to
participating as Co-Chair of the Resource Innovation Institute’s Water Working Group, Hollie owns and operates two natural resources consulting firms, serves as a Board Member for the International Cannabis Farmers Association, is a Humboldt County Fish & Game Advisory Commissioner, and lead researcher for the Humboldt County Cannabis Appellations of Origin Baseline Study.

John Kagia is one of the pioneering thought leaders in the cannabis industry. He has developed market leading forecasts for the growth of the industry, uncovered groundbreaking research into the cannabis consumer, and led the first-of-its-kind analysis of global cannabis demand. Kagia is a sought-after speaker and his presentations have been regarded as some of the most thought-provoking and rich updates on key trends shaping the industry. He is widely quoted in countless publications (NYT, WaPo, CNN, Fortune, BBC, ABC) and has played an active role in advising lawmakers and regulators looking to establish and regulate cannabis industries.
Leveraging his years of experience managing research studies for industry-leading clients including Accenture, Microsoft, The George Washington University, and the U.S. Department of State, Kagia brings a keen understanding of how market insights enable organizations to plan, grow, compete, and measure performance more effectively.
Kagia received his MSc. in Marketing with a Market Research focus from Johns Hopkins University’s Carey Business School. He concurrently studied Japanese at the university’s School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He received an MA in Management from the University of Durham in the United Kingdom, and his B.A., Joint Honors, in Japanese and Management from the University of Leeds also in the UK.

Kyle Lisabeth has focused his career on developing strategies and programs that enhance water use and reuse efforts. He has been involved with several domestic and international ventures focused on industrial, municipal, and agricultural applications. His personal time equally supports conservation and environmental sustainability efforts related to river and watershed management. Kyle joined Silver Bullet Water Treatment in 2016 as a member of the company’s research and develop team. As Silver Bullet expanded, Kyle established Silver Bullet’s Horticulture Division. Upon being appointed to the position of Silver Bullet’s Director of Operations and Business Development for the Horticulture industry, Kyle has exponentially grown the business unit’s install base, product portfolio and service offerings, as well as cultivated a nationally known water treatment brand for many controlled environment agriculture applications. His extensive knowledge and field experience in treated water for agriculture applications has led to Kyle becoming a leading voice in the industry, spurred research partnerships with Colorado State University, established collaboration with state regulatory bodies and industry organizations to establish regional Best Management Practices, and solidified relationships with several national and regional-based cannabis and leafy greens
companies.

Robert McDonald has served as General Manager since July 1, 2016. Mr. McDonald served CVWD as District Engineer for 16 years. A 1992 graduate of Cal Poly Pomona with a BS in Civil Engineering , he is a California registered civil engineer and also holds a masters degree in Public Administration from Cal State Northridge (2013). Mr. McDonald is responsible for implementation of policies established by the Board of Directors and for planning, organizing, staffing, coordinating, budgeting and directing all activities of the District.

For the past four years with HydroLogic Purification Systems, Sara has focused on developing specialized water treatment and management plans for cannabis cultivation operations. Two years prior to working with HydroLogic, she worked in the controlled environment agriculture industry with a focus on indoor cannabis cultivation.

Elizabeth is an Environmental Engineer with a Master’s Degree from University of Colorado Boulder and 3 years of experience designing drinking water treatment plants and working on technology validation. Currently, Elizabeth is a Project Manager with Ceres Greenhouse Solutions LLC. and has spent the last year consulting clients on their water treatment options specifically for cannabis grow spaces. Elizabeth is passionate about developing sustainable practices to reduce the energy consumption and overall environmental impact of the agricultural industry.

Madison Walker leads Grodan North America’s public and government affairs efforts, focusing on issues like sustainability and life cycle management. Prior to Grodan, Madison was a Vice President at Levick Strategic Communications, leading advocacy and crisis communications campaigns for companies in highly regulated environments including SpaceX, CarMax, blu, and Syngenta. Madison also worked at the DCI Group where she focused on third-party advocacy and building strategic alliances, mainly in the technology and telecommunications spaces. Notably, Madison was involved in the day-to-day operations of AT&T’s “It Can Wait” campaign, which aimed to curtail texting and driving. Madison has also worked on a number of political campaigns, and staffed Congressman Bill Foster (IL-D) in his DC office. Madison currently resides in Denver, CO with her husband Eric, her dog Lucy, and her cat Fiona.

Dr. Jan Westra works at Priva as Strategic Business Developer, mainly for research and development projects at the cutting edge of horticulture and building technology. He is a specialist in the field of urban agriculture or vertical farming, where the horticulture and building worlds come together. On behalf of Priva he is involved in many initiatives in this field worldwide.
Last few years his focus is on Europe, USA and Canada, also connecting to research institutes and universities. In order to walk the talk, Jan is a member of the board of the Netherlands Canada Chamber of Commerce as well as the board of the PIP program by FFAR in the US. He also is an external examiner at the Haagse Hogeschool, Climate & Energy Department.

After working in engineering, sales, and marketing roles for some of the world’s largest industrial automation manufacturers, Cale Winters co-founded Rhythm Cultivation Solutions & Services in 2015. Today, Cale serves as President of Rhythm CSS – a horticulture technology company focused on bringing innovative automation solutions, process management and analytics tools, and exceptional service to the cannabis industry.

Al manages the DRAMMwater Division of the Dramm Corporation. He is responsible for managing the development, design, delivery and support of the company’s water management & treatment and solutions. Al grew up in the agriculture industry and has been designing and integrating commercial greenhouse, nursery and indoor growing facility mechanical, water management and treatment, and control systems for 30 years.

David Berlin is the Commercial Technology Manager for Hydrologic Purification Systems. At Hydrologic, he focuses on designing sustainable water treatment plans utilizing reverse osmosis technology; these systems are currently utilized by various cannabis producers throughout country. All water treatment plans focus on minimizing water usage while producing high purity water to meet the established standards for each project. Mr. Berlin covers all aspects of specifying reverse osmosis systems into new facilities as well as traveling throughout the country to provide training and technical services. Prior to working with Hydrologic systems, he intensively studied at the University of Rhode Island and received a BS in Aquaculture Technology. For the past 9 years, he has worked on agriculture facilities to maintain water quality and water filtration systems.

Theresa Haskins is Business Market Manager for Portland General Electric. She brings 23 years of electric utility experience in construction operations and marketing. With an agricultural background as a farm owner, Ms. Haskins has a unique perspective on how to connect cannabis producers, processors and retailers with the information and resources needed to build the industry and support electrical construction and energy efficiency.

Bryan Jungers conducts research on emerging, energy-efficient and distributed-energy resource technologies at E Source, a firm that helps utilities and large energy users with critical problems involving energy efficiency, utility customer satisfaction, program design, marketing, customer management, and sustainability. His main areas of expertise lie in resource-efficient cannabis cultivation, plug-in hybrid electric vehicle development, battery and energy storage cost-effectiveness, distributed generation integration and renewable energy power systems. Mr. Jungers has 10 years of experience as an energy engineer and analyst, including for the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), California Energy Commission (CEC) and University of California at Davis (UC Davis). He worked as a research manager and product manager at E Source before entering his current role as Lead Analyst. He holds a BS in environmental resource engineering from Humboldt State University, where he studied cannabis resource use and environmental impact, and an MS in civil and environmental engineering from the University of California at Davis. He was also involved in various capacities in the Humboldt cultivation industry for more than a decade. Since 2013, he has consulted on the appropriate use of efficient technologies in indoor cultivation facilities.

Alexi Miller is Senior Project Manager with the New Buildings Institute (NBI), a nonprofit organization working to improve the energy performance of commercial buildings. NBI works collaboratively with commercial building market players—governments, utilities, energy efficiency advocates and building professionals—to remove barriers to energy efficiency, including promoting advanced design practices, improved technologies, public policies and programs that improve energy efficiency. NBI created and administers the Advanced Buildings Program, a voluntary program for deep prescriptive above-code commercial building energy performance. Mr. Miller drafted and advocated for the first effort to establish lighting energy efficiency code minimum level for indoor agriculture in the 2018 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC).

Amanda Potter leads the Industry and Agriculture program at Energy Trust of Oregon. She has 20 years of experience designing, developing and implementing energy efficiency programs. Amanda started her career at Portland Energy Conservation, Inc. (PECI) managing retrocommissioning projects, and over time grew her portfolio to include all commercial programs at PECI. Before joining Energy Trust, she was Vice President of Northwest Operations at CLEAResult. She has extensive experience developing strategies for overcoming market barriers to energy efficiency and increasing program uptake year over year. Amanda received her Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University and Master of Engineering from L’Ecole Centrale de Lyon, France.

Jeremy Del Real is Senior Energy Engineer at Center for Sustainable Energy, where he helps commercial and industrial clients determine how best to conserve energy and pursue alternative cleaner forms of energy generation. He is currently part of a team working on a US Dept. of Energy (DOE) program that provides technical assistance for combined heat and power (CHP) projects, including a large commercial greenhouse using CHP to generate heat and power while also capturing CO2, reducing their need to purchase CO2 while lowering overall carbon emissions. Mr. Del Real holds a professional engineering license in California, Hawaii, Massachusetts and Oregon, and is a certified energy manager (CEM). He has a mechanical engineering degree focused on HVAC design from Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo.
Expertise in data center and laboratory energy efficiency.

Tommy Young founded E3 California, Inc. in 2007 to be a one-stop-shop for Title 24 HERS testing and compliance documentation. Realizing a need in the industry for HERS Raters and Special Inspectors who were fluent in both building science and the nuances and politics of the energy code he’s gone on to hire and develop and mentor an elite team of HERS Raters and Certified Energy Analysts. E3 is proud to have always had an Advocacy Division. Tommy served for three years on the Board of Directors of CAEBC’ The California Association of Building Energy Consultants, as well as being a member of the California Energy Efficiency Industry Council (CEEIC) and the California Public Utilites Commissions: The California Compliance Industry Advisory Group (CA-CIAG). He frequently speaks at affordable housing and transit oriented development conferences as an advocate for common sense energy policy and regulations that grow the market and do no harm. When not pursuing his love of analyzing parametric modeling runs, Mr. Young can be found enjoying the company of vintage guitars, hoppy IPA’s, his lovely and strong wife and their two above-average furry children.

Massoud Jourabchi is Manager of Economic Analysis for Northwest Power & Conservation Council, which balances the environment and energy needs across Oregon, Washington, Montana and Idaho. Mr. Jourabchi is responsible for regional economic forecasts, electricity demand forecasts, forecasts of energy prices and analysis of the economic structure of power markets. He has been working in the field of energy policy analysis for over 25 years, including at PacifiCorp, PECI, State of Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy Resources and Center for Energy and Environmental Studies at Boston University. Mr. Jourabchi was a doctoral candidate in economics, and has two master degrees in economics and political economics. Recently, he has been working on developing demand forecasts for cannabis cultivation, working with a team of growers, regulatory and energy efficiency bodies in Oregon.