Panama Bartholomy

Panama Bartholomy is the Director of the Building Decarbonization Coalition, a cross-sectoral initiative to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from the built environment. Previously he directed the Investor Confidence Project where he worked to unlock capital markets for energy efficiency project development.

Panama was the Advisor on Energy and Natural Resources to California Assembly Speaker John A. Perez. He has served as Deputy Director of the California Energy Commission’s Efficiency and Renewables Division and advisor for Chairwomen Douglas and Pfannenstiel.  He has worked for the California Conservation Corps on vocational environmental education, and ran the Sustainable Schools program for the Division of the State Architect. Panama served on the City of Sacramento Planning Commission and the County of Sacramento Environmental Commission, and is a former board member on the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and past president of the Northern California Chapter of the USGBC.

Bill Burke

Bill Burke is an architect with a long background in energy-efficient building design and environmental issues related to buildings. He has been on the staff of the PG&E Pacific Energy Center (PEC) for many years. He oversees architectural educational programs, with a focus on building enclosure, daylighting, Title 24 Part 6 Energy Standards, zero net energy/zero net carbon design, and decarbonization. Bill promotes high performance building design with the goal of protecting Earth’s atmosphere, improving the quality of the indoor environment and occupant comfort, and significantly reducing the need for mechanical heating, cooling, and electric lighting.

Prior to his work at PG&E, Bill managed the Vital Signs Curriculum Project for the University of California, Berkeley. Vital Signs assisted educators to incorporate building performance topics into architectural curricula at schools throughout North America. Bill has worked at HOK San Francisco and MBT Architecture.

Bill has served on the Board of Directors of AIA/San Francisco and on the AIA/California Council Committee on the Environment (AIA/CC COTE).

Carl Elefante

Carl Elefante, FAIA, FAPT is Principal Emeritus with Quinn Evans Architects where he served as design principal on architecture, preservation, and community revitalization projects. Known for coining the phrase: “The greenest building is one that is already built”, Mr. Elefante writes and lectures nationally on historic preservation and sustainable design topics.

In 2018, Mr. Elefante served as the 94th President of the American Institute of Architects. Mr. Elefante is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and Association for Preservation Technology (APT). Mr. Elefante attended the Pratt Institute School of Architecture and University of Maryland School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. Mr. Elefante is an Adjunct Professor at The Catholic University of America and University of Maryland.

Charles Eley

Charles Eley, P.E., AIA, BEMP, CEM, Member ASHRAE, LEED® AP is an architect, mechanical engineer and author with 40 years’ experience in energy efficient and sustainable design. As a Senior Fellow, Charles worked with Architecture 2030 in creating the ZERO Code, the first national and international zero net carbon building code standard.

His latest book is Design Professionals Guide to Zero Net Energy Buildings (Island Press 2016). During his career, Mr. Eley has made significant contributions to the California energy standards, ASHRAE Standard 90.1, and energy codes in Hong Kong, Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa and Australia. He has also developed a number of important technical manuals and publications; served as the founding executive director of the Collaborative for High Performance Schools; developed a number of energy analysis software applications; and has served as energy consultant for a number of landmark green buildings. Mr. Eley currently writes, serves on non-profit boards, provides specialized consulting, and teaches classes on building energy efficiency and green technologies.

Kira Gould

Kira Gould, Allied AIA, LEED AP, is a writer, strategist, and convener dedicated to advancing design leadership, climate action, and climate justice. Through Kira Gould CONNECT, she advises building sector clients about storytelling and knowledge leadership. Previously, she directed communications for William McDonough + Partners and Gould Evans and served as Managing Editor at Metropolis magazine.

She co-authored Women in Green: Voices of Sustainable Design (2007) with Lance Hosey, and is co-host of the Design the Future podcast with Lindsay Baker for the Acuity Brands Women in Sustainability platform. Kira serves on the AIA Committee on the Environment national Advisory Group and was its chair in 2007. Kira believes that the best chance for our species to preserve the habitability of Earth is to listen to and learn from the wisdom of nature and indigenous people. She lives on land of the Ohlone and the Chochenyo with her husband and son.

Quinnie Li

Quinnie Li is the General Manager of BRE (Building Research Establishment) China, responsible for leading BRE’s business growth in China, working with multiple stakeholders from government, industry and academia to facilitate knowledge exchange, collaborations and partnerships. Quinnie was previously the Vice President and one of the youngest female partners of leading global engineering company. She was the first to assist the company in establishing its Asia practice and has successfully managed many complex, high-profile sustainability projects. Quinnie has a BA in architecture and urban planning with a concentration in Business Administration from UC Berkeley. She is also pursuing an EMBA from London Business School/Columbia University/Hong Kong University. She is a qualified professional of various green building standards from China, US and UK.

Brett Phillips

Brett Phillips is an award-winning sustainability leader and advocate, whose private and public work on decarbonization is shaping how the built environment is addressing climate change. He is Vice President of Sustainable and Responsible Investments at Unico Properties, a subsidiary of Unico Investment Group, where he manages high-performance green building and renewable energy projects for Unico’s national real estate portfolio. He is also co-founder and Vice President of Unico Solar Investors, a Unico subsidiary that develops, operates, and supplies solar energy for commercial real estate and business portfolios across the United States.

Since 2008, Brett has overseen sustainable development and operations projects for over 25 million square feet of LEED-certified real estate. Notable projects include the Bullitt Center (the world’s largest commercial “Living Building”), LEED Platinum Stone34 in Seattle, and the award-winning LEED Platinum development of Circa Building in Denver. In a personal venture, he is developing Inspire, Seattle’s first zero-carbon multifamily building which is drawing the blueprint for net-positive residential developments in the region.

Brett is a co-founder and the current board chair of the 2030 Districts Network, a nonprofit organization devoted to creating a global network of low-carbon cities. He authored the update to Seattle’s Living Building Challenge Pilot and the creation of the 2030 Challenge Pilot which provide critical land-use incentives for new and existing buildings in exchange for delivering low-carbon buildings. He is also an Architecture 2030 Senior Fellow, where he is promoting the adoption of the 2030 Challenge to rapidly decarbonize the built environment as a central solution to stemming the climate crisis.

Leon (Lihong) Qiu

Leon (Lihong) Qiu is the general manager of DLR Group’s Shanghai office and a Chinese Class I registered architect and a fellow of the China Architecture Association. Leon was instrumental in the development and signing of the Architecture 2030 China Accord.

After graduating with an architecture bachelor degree from Tongji University, Leon developed his skills and passion for design through various architectural and executive positions with Xian Dai Architecture Design (Group) Co., Ltd. Since beginning his career in 1988, he has grown rich, strong professional and social relationships with people at companies, government and trade organizations throughout China.

Rick Schwolsky

Rick Schwolsky has been professionally involved in environmental building for more than 40 years — as a pioneering solar contractor, innovative high-performance home builder, and award-winning construction journalist with Hanley Wood in Washington, D.C.  

Rick’s innovative work, starting in the 1970’s as a custom homebuilder in Vermont, contributed directly to today’s understanding of residential building performance, energy efficiency, and building science. In 1979 his company was selected to install the solar system on The White House in Washington, D.C. And in 1982 he co-authored The Builder’s Guide To Solar Construction published by McGraw Hill.

At Hanley Wood Rick served as construction editor for BUILDER magazine, founded EcoHome magazine, and built a series of national demonstration homes. He also helped create and lead the Vision 2020 Sustainability Research Program and The Hanley Award for Vision and Leadership in Sustainability. As an Architecture 2030 Senior Fellow based in Boulder, CO, Rick’s focus is on the organization’s embodied carbon initiatives including the CarbonPositive’19 SUMMIT and annual CarbonPositive Conferences launching in 2020.

Harmon Lisnow

Harmon Lisnow has extensive experience in business, non-profit work, crisis and campaign management and is an excellent resource for strategic thinking and planning. Mr. Lisnow served in the Peace Corps in Liberia and has maintained an interest in this West African nation. Working with the ALF-CIO and the United Steelworkers (USW) he has trained Liberian labor leadership. In addition to this he has worked to establish both for-profit and a non-profit corporations in Liberia to create models of successful small business and a trained workforce of entrepreneurs.

These Liberian models were based on Mr. Lisnow’s work with the Mexican American community in Texas. As Executive Director of the Mexican American Council for Economic Progress (MACEP) and the Mexican American Development Corporation (MADCO) he was tasked with providing educational, training and business opportunities for Mexican Americans. While in Texas, Mr. Lisnow also served as the Chief Administrator for two major state agencies: the State Comptroller and the State Attorney General, and was the Executive Director of Texas Veteran’s Land Board.

For 10 years Mr. Lisnow served as the Executive Director of the Institute for Career Development (ICD), a non-profit education, training and research corporation serving the Steelworkers (USW) and the steel, tire and rubber industries. ICD worked with 13 corporations and the USW, with approximately 70 training centers throughout the United States.

Mr. Lisnow has also served on several local boards, including a local zoo, hospital, and the Family Health West clinic.

Ben Cardinale

Ben Cardinale’s wealth of business experience makes him a valuable addition to our board. He graduated from Brooklyn College in 1965 majoring in accounting. He went on to become a Certified Public Accountant and established his own accounting practice specializing in the home construction field. He became so enamored with the building industry that he sold his CPA practice and started his own general contracting firm, building spec homes at first which later grew into remodeling for the general public. After a successful career in the building industry he received an offer he couldn’t refuse. He put down his hammer to become a TV writer. Now that is a career change! He had a wonderful 20 year writing career working for Paramount Studios and Dreamworks on such acclaimed shows as Family Ties, Brooklyn Bridge, and Champs. Currently Ben is still writing focusing on movies and commercials that deal with the serious subject of cleaning up the environment.

Leonor Missrie

Lynette Montoya

Lynette Montoya, CEO of the Latino Hotel Association since 2015, has been actively involved in the hotel industry for 20 years, working as a broker for properties throughout the United States. Ms. Montoya is the founder of the Santa Fe, New Mexico, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and served as its founding executive director. She is also a board member of Architecture 2030, a non-profit think tank tackling climate change through the design of the built environment. As director of economic development for the City of Santa Fe, Ms. Montoya was instrumental in the development and construction of a new convention center.

Lynette serves on the Advisory Council of the California State University Hospitality and Tourism Management Education Alliance and volunteers extensively in her community, where she has been a key member of charities serving homeless use, battered women, and other vulnerable populations. She is currently a member of the Big Brothers Big Sisters gala committee.