Bradford C. Grant, Professor of Architecture, Department of Architecture of the College of Engineering and Architecture at Howard University, Washington DC, has been in leadership roles at Hampton and Howard Universities as Chairperson, Director, Associate Dean and Interim Dean. As an architect and a distinguished educator he has extensive experience in community design, universal design, contemplative practices in design education, and social and cultural factors in architecture. His community design work, research on the role of African American architects and his teachings on “Drawing as Meditation” have earned him multiple awards, including the Universal Design Education Award and the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Education Honor Award. Grant is past president of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), the national organization representing Schools of Architecture, a former board member of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA) and a member of the Fetzer Institute’s Advisory Council on the Design Professions.

Murali Selvaraj, Chief Information Officer of Perkins+Will, is responsible for all facets of the firm’s information and knowledge management architecture. He is directly involved in establishing the vision for the firm’s information systems and services – one that creates a high-performance culture through agile, innovative use of tools and technologies. Trained as an architect, Murali worked with some of the firm’s high profile corporate clients on strategic planning and consulting engagements. He led complex projects that required an integrated, systems-driven emphasis – projects related to portfolio planning, real estate information management, and scenario-driven strategic planning. His clients included Hewitt Associates, AT&T, Nuveen Investments, and Schneider Electric. At Perkins+Will, Murali helped launch the the new generation of Transparency Website in 2017, creating a much smarter data-architecture and a more refined navigation and user experience.  He also works across the spectrum of the firm’s Green team leaders, orchestrating a data-driven process to implement their vision and operational goals. Murali serves on advisory boards of some of the top AEC technology firms such as Bluebeam. He is also a charter member of the Built Environment Innovation Network.

Monica Nakielski, Director, Sustainability & Environmental Health, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, and her team are responsible for providing vision and leadership in the design and development of BCBSMA’s sustainability and environmental health strategy. Her team works with BCBSMA’s senior business leaders, vendors and manufacturers, and community partners to align and implement the environmental health strategy and to create business, environmental, and societal value. Previously, Monica managed the sustainability program at Partners HealthCare, a Boston-based health system founded by Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. There Monica led and managed sustainability efforts across 16 facilities: 13 hospitals, two long-term care facilities, and one mixed-use administration building. Prior to Partners HealthCare, Monica consulted to a wide variety of companies, non-profit organizations, government agencies, and more within strategy and management and/or corporate social responsibility with a focus on environmental sustainability. Monica serves as a member of the steering committees for Farm to Institution New England and The Chemical Footprint project, as well as a member of the City of Boston’s Zero Waste Advisory Committee. Monica has a bachelor’s degree in Medical Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a master’s in business administration from Simmons College, and has completed executive education in sustainability leadership from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Bill Walsh is the Founder, and a Board Member, of Healthy Building Network (HBN). He now serves as Strategic Advisor to the organization. Since 2000 HBN has been defining the leading edge of healthy building practices that increase transparency in the building products industry, reduce human exposures to chemicals in building materials, and create market incentives for healthier innovations in manufacturing. He has been Visiting Professor at Parsons The New School for Design, is a Fellow of the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production at the University of Massachusetts, and a founding board member of the Health Product Declaration (HPD) Collaborative. Bill and HBN have been awarded the Design for Humanity Award by the American Society of Interior Designers (2019); WEACT for Environmental Justice Leadership Award (2018); Healthy Schools Network Hero (2013); US Green Building Council’s Leadership In Advocacy Award (2012). Previously he served as a national campaign director at Greenpeace USA, and held staff attorney positions with the US Public Interest Research Group and the Institute for Public Representation at Georgetown University Law Center. He holds a J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law and LLM in Public Interest Advocacy from Georgetown University.

David Rapaport, Global Social Mission Officer at Ben & Jerry's, has been a sustainability thought leader for over 30 years, spanning the business, non-profit and government sectors. Previously Vice President of Earth and Community Care for Aveda, he helped drive the company’s mission to care for the world and strive for environmental leadership and responsibility. Prior to Aveda, Dave worked with the Governor of Vermont to help oversee Tropical Storm Irene recovery efforts. He held multiple leadership roles with green household care products pioneer Seventh Generation, and has experience in the renewable energy field. Dave spent two decades in public policy, as Executive Director of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group and in various leadership roles with the environmental organization Greenpeace, including directing national work on toxic chemicals and pollution prevention. He was adjunct professor at the University of Oregon and consultant for UNICEF and other international agencies on sustainable development, waste management, sanitation, and marine pollution.

Carolyn Fine Friedman is chair of the Fine Fund and a longtime friend and supporter of HBN. As a philanthropist and advocate for environmental health and justice, her deepest conviction is that we all deserve to live in a world where we are not unwittingly poisoned by our food, water, transportation, buildings and the products used in our daily lives. With a Master’s degree in education from Harvard University, Carolyn initially entered the workforce powered by curiosity about what people actually do at work and committed to helping them find fulfillment in their careers. After an interim parenting period, Carolyn became a champion for environmental health and justice. Today she fulfills her mission of advocating for untainted good health for all by working with nonprofits, holding events, and speaking in public, in print and online about the subject.

Brophy Christensen, partner at O'Melveny's San Francisco office and co-chair of the Capital Markets Practice, has extensive experience representing issuers, underwriters, and investors in a wide range of public and private equity and debt offerings and exchange offers, including initial public offerings, high-yield debt financings, and convertible offerings. These transactions have involved companies in a variety of businesses, including financial services and banking, life sciences, REITs, semiconductors, computers, electronics, software, entertainment, and telecommunications. Brophy regularly advises investment banking clients on securities law-related matters and corporate clients on general corporate matters, including corporate governance, securities, and Sarbanes-Oxley matters. Brophy also represents buyers, sellers and financial advisors in connection with public and private strategic transactions, including mergers, stock and asset acquisitions, joint ventures, spin-offs, and recapitalizations.

Gina Ciganik, Chief Executive Officer, has been growing and scaling HBN’s vision since assuming the CEO role in 2016. Previously she served as Senior Advisor for Housing Innovation, establishing and leading the HomeFree initiative, an expansion of HBN’s healthy materials work into the affordable housing sector. Recognized as a national leader in transforming human and environmental health through strategic partnerships, innovative business practices, education, and leading-edge research, Ciganik has a proven track record of creating healthier spaces where we live, work, and play. Prior to HBN, she was Vice President of Housing Development at a Minneapolis-St. Paul area affordable housing development organization, where she spent two decades creating thousands of healthy, affordable homes. Her efforts culminated in the construction of The Rose, a 90-unit apartment building in Minneapolis that set a new national standard for healthy materials.

George Salah, Chairman & CEO of Apparent, Inc. -- a technology energy company, providing products and services to maximize the performance of renewable energy assets and the creation of the smart grid. Previously George had served as the Director of Real Estate and Workplace Services at Google Inc. responsible for real estate and facilities worldwide. Joining the company in 1999, he and co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin created the company's famous culture as their employee base grew from 35 to over 50,000, from a small 4,000 square foot office in Palo Alto to 20 million square feet of office space in 125 cities in 55 countries. Prior to Google, Salah was an Executive of Oracle's Real Estate group and has 32 years of corporate real estate and construction management experience. He has demonstrated expertise in managing the hyper growth of large-scale organizations. Throughout his career, Salah has been focused on energy efficient design and developing spaces optimized to support the health and well-being of people and the environment. Salah also served on the Board of the International Living Future Institute (ILFI).

Mike is Lead for Circular Economy at Google where he leads a cross-functional team focused on achieving their circular economy vision across their operations, products, and supply chains and efforts to enable others to do the same. Previously at Google, Mike also led the product sustainability, biocompatibility, and environmental compliance team for Google’s consumer hardware division.

Before joining Google in 2017, Mike led safer chemistry and biocompatibility initiatives at Apple and product sustainability for Haworth Inc, a global contract office furniture manufacturer. Mike has worked in the green building and product design space for 15 years including with renowned green architect Bill McDonough.

Mike holds a BS in Chemistry from Villanova University. In addition to serving on the board of directors for the Healthy Building Network, he also serves on advisory boards for several organizations including the Green Science Policy Institute, ChemForward, and Materiom.org. Mike previously served as a sustainability advisor to the Department of Homeland Security and National Institute of Building Sciences.

MyDzung T. Chu, PhD, MSPH, is an environmental epidemiologist and postdoctoral scientist at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. She is invested in public health research and practice centered on housing and environmental justice. Her current research investigates the impact of federal housing assistance on residential environmental exposures for low-income communities. She is also co-investigator of a gut microbiome study looking at the association of acculturation and environmental risk factors for foreign-born women. Her dissertation research examined socio-contextual drivers of disparities in indoor and ambient air pollution and poor housing quality for low-income, immigrant, and Black and Brown households. Prior to her PhD, MyDzung worked as an epidemiologist at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, and she also serves on the board of the Asian American Resource Workshop. MyDzung has a PhD in Population Health Sciences from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, a MSPH in Environmental-Occupational Health and Epidemiology from Emory University, and a BA in Neuroscience from Smith College.
 

Dr. Ami Zota is an Associate Professor at the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. Her work seeks to secure environmental justice and improve health equity through advancements in science, policy, and clinical practice. Her research identifies novel pathways linking social disparities, environmental exposures, and reproductive and children’s health, and has been featured in high-impact national and international media publications including the Washington Post, LA Times, USA Today, Huffington Post, and the Atlantic Monthly. Ami recently developed and launched the Agents of Change initiative to amplify underrepresented voices in environmental health - specifically, early career people of color. She received her masters and doctorate in environmental health at the Harvard School of Public Health and then completed postdoctoral fellowships at Silent Spring Institute and University of California, San Francisco Program on Reproductive Health.