JoAnn Gemenden is in her fourth year as Executive Director of the New Jersey Clean Communities Council where she was tasked with implementing NJ’s statewide outreach and education program for the single use plastics law and supplying 500,000 reusable bags to the state’s seven food banks. Prior to be named to this post, JoAnn served … Read more
Katie Fitzhugh leads our deconstruction team in the field. Her passion for architectural history drew her to a career in material preservation through deconstruction with Re:Purpose Savannah. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Architectural History from the Savannah College of Art and Design, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Cultural Anthropology … Read more
Kansas City native and serial entrepreneur Steve has built four successful companies and invented two products that enjoy widespread use. A love of the wild took him to Colorado where he could pursue his personal interests in skiing and climbing, sports that saw him soon become a mountain rescue mission coordinator in Eagle County, Colorado. … Read more
MaryEllen Etienne is the creator of “Women in Circularity.” MaryEllen works on the Market Transformation and Development team for the U.S. Green Building Council. She has over 20 years of experience in sustainability, specializes in circular economy initiatives and is an expert in reuse. Organization:U.S. Green Building CouncilTitle:Associate DirectorWebhttps://www.usgbc.org/people/maryellen-etienne/0010719761LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/maryellen-etienne/
Rick is an innovator with a deep passion for developing solutions that address environmental and social challenges. As President of Emerge Knowledge Design Inc, Rick has spent the last 20 years successfully guiding the transformation of Re-TRAC Connect™ from a great idea to a one of the most widely used material management reporting platforms in … Read more
Teresa is the President and CEO of Race to Zero Waste and is the strategic vision of the organization. She has worked with the organization’s staff, board, volunteers, and contractors to develop new concepts and make zero waste more accessible in public spaces. At the height of the pandemic, she worked on discovering new zero … Read more
CJ has focused on the plastic pollution crisis for most of her career. Her research on microplastic has been published in peer-reviewed scientific journals and she’s worked on numerous campaigns at the local, state, federal, and institutional levels that tackle plastic pollution at the source. CJ has a master’s degree in Development Practice from Emory … Read more
Emin Israfil is the founder and CEO of Rubbish, a San Francisco-based tech company transforming waste management and recycling using data, AI, and delightful user experiences. The company’s unique approach to fostering clean and sustainable communities has gained recognition from organizations like NASA, Google, Apple, and Accenture. Having started programming at the age of 10, … Read more
Breathe Free Detroit’s campaign organizer KT Morelli is a seasoned activist in Detroit, Michigan who has lived in the shadow of Detroit’s incinerator for over a decade. Her dedication and expertise in community organizing has helped harness collective energy for this grassroots, community-powered campaign which was successful in shutting down the incinerator in March of … Read more
Annette Poliwka is a Zero Waste Consultant and Board Member of The League To Save Lake Tahoe, with the infamous bumper stickers to “Keep Tahoe Blue.” She spent years as a Zero Waste Commissioner in Berkeley, appointed by the Mayor, where they passed historic legislation on single use disposables. Her work at the City of … Read more