Vincent Barnes

Senior Vice President of Policy and Research, Alliance to Save Energy

Vincent Barnes is Senior Vice President of Policy and Research (SVP) for the Alliance to Save Energy, and he is the organization’s primary policy lead, responsible for working with the President, Board of Directors and staff to ensure that the Alliance to Save Energy is the leading voice on energy efficiency policy in Washington, D.C. As a respected government affairs professional with over 20 years of policy and executive leadership experience, Vincent has an extensive track record engaging members of Congress, participating in regulatory rulemaking, legislative development, and stakeholder engagement. His leadership record also includes developing and executing policy campaigns, and building consensus through multiple stakeholder and organization interests.

Prior to joining the Alliance to Save Energy Vincent served as Senior Advisor with Gray Global Advisors, where he developed and executed policy objectives for the investor-owned utility, natural gas, and nuclear energy industries, and helped lead the firm’s energy and power, telecommunications, financial services, and healthcare portfolios. Vincent is also former Legislative Counsel to Congressman Bobby Rush, Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Energy. Vincent also served as Senior Federal Legislative Counsel with the American Bankers Association.

Vincent holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from Brigham Young University, and received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law.

Carolyn Berndt

Legislative Director, Sustainability Federal Advocacy, National League of Cities

Carolyn Berndt is the Legislative Director for Sustainability in the federal advocacy department at the National League of Cities, the nation’s oldest and largest national organization representing municipal governments. As a member of the federal advocacy team, Carolyn leads NLC’s advocacy, regulatory, and policy efforts on energy and environmental issues, including water infrastructure and financing, water and air quality, climate change, energy efficiency, brownfields, solid and hazardous waste and more.

Carolyn serves on the Board of Directors for PACENation, a national nonprofit whose mission is to promote Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing. She is also a member of the Cary Institute Forest Pest Advisory Committee, helping to inform policy to reduce the importation of insect pests and diseases into the U.S. through international trade. 

Prior to joining NLC, Carolyn served as associate director of government and public affairs at the American Society for Interior Designers, working with coalitions throughout the country to secure interior design registration and licensure laws. Formerly, Carolyn worked for Burns and Roe, a private engineering and construction company, in their government affairs office in Washington, DC.

Carolyn received her master’s degree in public administration from American University in Washington, DC and her bachelor of arts in political science from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.

Phoebe Bierele

USGBC Center for Green Schools

George Buchanan

Founder and CEO, 2KB Energy Services

George has been working in the energy efficiency field for over 20 years and has been directly involved with over $200M of energy and environmental solutions projects in the built environment. As the Founder and CEO of 2KB Energy Services, an energy management and sustainability consulting firm, he has had direct responsibility for coordinating and supporting diverse teams to ensure project results at all levels. He is active in the energy services community, serving on the Board of Directors for Southface and as the private sector co-chair for the Energy Services Coalition-Georgia Chapter. George holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Florida A&M University and an MBA from Georgia State University.

Ed Carley

NASEO

David Dunn

Facilities Management Division Manager, City of Orlando

David Dunn is a US Navy Veteran with an Associate of Science degree in Business Administration, a Bachelor of Divinity degree in Ministry, an International Facility Management Association Certified Facility Manager, an Adjunct Professor at Valencia College, an Adjunct Chaplain for the State of Florida, and a Pastor & Advocate for people diagnosed with mental illness.

In 2006 David left the Aerospace Program after twenty-three years to join the City of Orlando Facilities Management Division. The City of Orlando combined the Fleet & Facilities Management Divisions in 2011 and promoted David to manage the newly combined Fleet & Facilities Management Division.

Due to the dramatic growth of Facilities and Fleet Operations over the past ten years and in preparation of David’s planned 2023 retirement; on June 13, 2021 Jonathan Ford was appointed Fleet Division Manager and David became the Facilities Division Manager again.

Wayne Garrett

Managing Director North America Applied Systems, Carrier

Troy Geanopulus

CEO, The Efficiency Network, Inc.

Troy has led a series of successful energy efficiency companies over the past 20 years and has spent the entirety of his nearly 25-year career in the energy services industry. Today, Troy leads TEN with a concentration on business strategy and maintaining a customer-dedicated company culture. In addition to providing senior executive oversite to all financial and operation aspects of the business, Troy is focused on the rapidly changing needs of TEN’s customers and the application of technologies and solutions to address these needs. Troy is an alumnus of Dickinson College where he earned his B.A

Jeff Genzer

Attorney, Duncan, Weinberg, Genzer & Pembroke, P.C.

Jeff Genzer is an attorney in Washington, D.C., and Shareholder of the law firm of Duncan, Weinberg, Genzer & Pembroke, P.C., where he practices energy, utility and environmental law.  Jeff has been with the firm since 1985.  He has an active energy and environmental regulatory practice and also has an advocacy practice.  He has served as counsel to the National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO), since the organization began in 1986.  He also serves as counsel to a number of other national associations, including the National Association of Energy Service Companies (“NAESCO”), the National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association and the Energy Programs Consortium.  That work involves support for federal appropriations, legislation and policy.  He worked on statutory provisions included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.  In 2013, the Energy Bar Association presented Mr. Genzer with their State Regulatory Practitioner of the Year award.  In 2010, the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy presented Jeff with their “Champion of Energy Efficiency in Buildings” award.

Prior to joining the law firm, Jeff served as staff counsel and energy lobbyist for the National Governors Association.  He began his work in energy and the environment as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Micronesia in the 1970s.  He is an honors graduate of Haverford College and received his law degree from the Washington College of Law of the American University.

Sapna Gheewala

Senior Manager of Energy Markets and Energy Efficiency Manager, American Gas Association

Sapna Gheewala is the Senior Manager of Energy Markets and Energy Efficiency Manager for the American Gas Association. Sapna works in the Energy Markets group providing analytical and policy direction and support to AGA staff and members on energy efficiency and low carbon resources to strengthen the role of natural gas in a sustainable energy future. Gheewala provides subject matter expertise in gas utility energy efficiency programs, low carbon gas resources, advanced gas technologies, and other solution sets available to reduce gas utility emissions. She also leads the Gas Energy Efficiency Roundtable series, a vehicle to provide program administrators with the opportunity to engage with natural gas utilities over the next year to fast-track information exchange around innovative and dynamic topics relating to energy efficiency across the country. 

Prior to joining the AGA team, Sapna worked at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable for 5 years as a Science, Technology, and Policy Fellow. Gheewala worked with cities, wastewater facilities, and K-12 school districts to support their energy efficiency and resilience goals through DOE initiatives that included the Better Communities Alliance, the Better Buildings Challenge, and the Sustainable Wastewater Infrastructure of the Future (SWIFt) Accelerator. She was the Director for the Emerging Professionals Group at DOE, fostering connections between professionals, while supporting professional and personal growth opportunities for our emerging leaders.

Sapna holds a M.S. in Energy Policy and Climate at Johns Hopkins University and a B.S. in Environmental Science and Technology from the University of Maryland.

Nichole Liebov

Program Manager, Department of Energy, Federal Energy Management Program

Nichole Liebov is a program manager at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Federal Energy Management Program (DOE FEMP) focused on Energy and Project Procurement Development Services for federal agencies. She leads the Distributed Energy and Energy Procurement program and the Performance Contracting National Resource Center (PCNRC). The Distributed Energy program supports federal agencies in identifying and implementing on-site projects and off-site procurement options by providing technical assistance and trainings and developing tools and resources. The PCNRC provides technical and financial expertise, conducts training and workforce development, and shares a library of resources with federal agencies, as well as state, local, and other public entities. She also leads the interagency Renewable Energy Working Group, a forum for information sharing among agencies regarding resources, best practices, and case studies related to on-site project development, implementation, and operations & maintenance as well as off-site clean electricity procurement.

Prior to her current role, Nichole joined DOE FEMP as an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science & Technology Policy Fellow, where she supported federal agencies’ resilience and distributed energy needs. As a fellow, she developed and published trainings, tools, and resources for federal agency stakeholders and supported intra- and interagency partnerships. Nichole worked in the chemical industry prior to her fellowship.

Nichole holds a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Georgia and a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Virginia.

Clay Nesler

Founder and CEO, The Nesler Group

Clay Nesler is the Founder and CEO of The Nesler Group, which provides strategic advisory services related to building decarbonization, smart building technologies, operational best practices, and sustainability reporting for both public and private-sector clients.  He is also a Senior Advisor for Buildings and Energy at the World Resources Institute, where he helped establish WRI’s Buildings Initiative, the Sustainable Energy for All Building Efficiency Accelerator and the Three Percent Club for Energy Efficiency.  Clay served as the Interim President of the Alliance to Save Energy in 2020.

Clay worked more than 38 years at Johnson Controls in a variety of senior leadership positions in research, product development, marketing, innovation, strategy, manufacturing, corporate sustainability, and regulatory affairs in both the United States and Europe.  For the past 15 years, he served as Vice President, Global Energy and Sustainability, leading the company’s Global Sustainability Council.

Clay currently serves as co-chair of the GSA Green Building Advisory Committee Federal Building Decarbonization Task Group and serves on the Executive Committee of ASHRAE’s Task Force on Building Decarbonization.  Clay has served on the board of the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy; the executive group of the U.S. DOE/EPA SEE Action network; Industrial Advisory Board Chair of the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center’s Building Energy Efficiency consortium; a member of the International Energy Agency Energy Efficiency Industry Advisory Board; and on the steering committee for the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction.

Clay received BS and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign and is co-inventor on 15 patents. He is a winner of the 2005
Corenet Global Innovator’s Award, a 2012 VERGE 25 award, a 2015 Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a 2017 leadership award from the U.S. Green Building Council, the 2019 Wisconsin Sustainable Business Council Leadership Forward Award and a 2020 R&D100 award.

Michael Perna

Vice President, Strategic Initiatives, Con Edison Clean Energy Businesses

Michael Perna is responsible for managing the growth strategy and business expansion initiatives for the Con Edison Clean Energy Businesses, which include Con Edison Solutions, Con Edison Energy, and Con Edison Development. His responsibilities include corporate and market strategy acquisitions, new initiatives, and innovation in support of the energy services and renewables businesses.

Prior to joining Con Edison, Mr. Perna was a principal at Energized Strategies II, LLC, a management consulting firm providing market strategy, product/service launch, and project management consulting for clients. Earlier in his career, Mr. Perna spent nearly 15 years at Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG), a Fortune 250 energy company. There, he held positions of increasing responsibility in a variety of functional areas including engineering and construction, sales, marketing, and customer operations.

In 1993, Mr. Perna was awarded an Industrial Program Fellowship in Customer Systems at the Electric Power Research Institute in Washington, DC. Other professional recognition includes the PSEG Corporate Excellence Award, which he received in 1994 and 1997. Mr. Perna holds a Master of Business Administration from the Silberman College of Business at Fairleigh Dickinson University and a Bachelor of Engineering with Honors from the Stevens Institute of Technology.

Jennifer Schafer

Executive Director, Cascade Associates

Cascade Associates is a governmental affairs consulting firm located in Washington, DC that primarily represents the energy efficiency community, companies and organizations.  The firm advocates policies that advance the position of energy efficiency and clean energy technology in an environmentally-friendly manner, and works to ensure adequate research, development, and demonstration funding for such technologies.

Ms. Schafer has more than 25 years of public policy experience in energy and environmental issues.  She began her work in governmental affairs for private clients in 1992 and has worked extensively with several Congressional Committees and Offices.  Ms. Schafer began her Washington tenure at the office of Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, later serving as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Energy. 

In her capacity as President of Cascade Associates, Ms. Schafer is serving her 24th year as the Executive Director of the Federal Performance Contracting Coalition (FPCC) representing companies involved in Energy Savings Performance Contracting with the Federal government.  She also coordinates both energy efficiency businesses and advocacy organizations around Federal policy, working regularly with representatives of the Executive and Legislative branches of government to advance policy.

Ruth Taylor

Program Manager, Advanced Lighting Team, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Ruth Taylor currently serves as a program manager on the Advanced Lighting Team at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory where she contributes to several projects focused on the application and development of solid-state lighting.  She began her career at PNNL in 1984 and has managed a number of projects for the Department of Energy including the outreach and deployment activities for the Building Energy Codes Program, the Commercial Lighting Solutions web tool development and implementation activities, as well as the management of the Commercially Available LED Product Evaluation and Reporting (CALiPER) program.

Currently, Ms. Taylor manages the Next Generation Lighting Systems (NGLS) Program. NGLS uses “Living Labs” to conduct observational research in real-world settings—indoors at Parsons School of Design in New York City and outdoors at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute in Blacksburg, Virginia. NGLS is gathering valuable information on how systems are installed and configured, how well they perform, and how users operate them with the goal of identifying approaches that work, revealing needed improvements, and publishing findings for the benefit of the lighting and energy efficiency communities.

Timothy Unruh

Executive Director, NAESCO

Dr. Timothy D. Unruh joins NAESCO after over 26 years in energy efficiency and clean energy development.  Most recently, he served in two senior roles at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) – Director of the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Renewable Power.  As FEMP Director, Dr. Unruh helped launch the President’s Performance Contracting Challenge pushing for growth in performance contracting with the Federal Government, as well as eProject Builder targeting a common national platform for ESCO industry data. As DAS for Renewable Power, Dr. Unruh helped develop the Beyond Batteries initiative to explore innovative ways to provide grid services, including using building energy efficiency technologies to improve grid integration with renewable technologies.

Prior to his work at DOE, Dr. Unruh spend many years working for ESCOs. During his time at Custom Energy and ConEdison Solutions, he fulfilled performance contracting work in all markets (MUSH, industrial, commercial and federal), gaining expertise in business development, engineering, measurement and verification, legal and financial aspects of the industry, often through first-hand experience in fulfilling the work.  Early in his career, Dr. Unruh worked for CMS Energy, finding efficiency and power quality solutions for commercial and industrial energy users, where he developed his energy engineering foundation.

Dr. Unruh holds a Bachelors, Masters, and Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical Engineering from Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas.  He also holds professional engineering licenses in 13 States and the District of Columbia.

Brian Walker

DOE

Melanie West

Regional Director of Sales, Atlantic Energy Concepts

Mrs. West is the Regional Director of Sales for Atlantic Energy Concepts.  In this role she manages relationships with ESCO customers in the MUSH and Federal markets and ensures the success of their energy savings projects through the delivery of energy efficient turnkey lighting solutions.  Her background includes over 25 years in the energy efficient lighting industry.  In addition to participating in the Affiliate member program with NAESCO, Mrs. West is an active member of multiple Energy Services Coalition chapters.  She is a graduate of Bethany College (WV) and resides in McHenry, MD.

Elleka Yost

Director of Advocacy, ASBO International

Elleka Yost is the Director of Advocacy for the Association of School Business Officials International (ASBO) and first joined ASBO in 2013. She is responsible for managing the association's federal advocacy and media relations programs, while supporting her team on various research, communications, and leadership projects. During the pandemic, she was appointed as her organization’s “go-to” expert on COVID-19 issues and published multiple resources about the public health crisis’ impact on K-12 school finance and operations. Before working at ASBO International, Elleka served as an editorial assistant and author for an international news magazine, The Diplomat, and as a faculty research assistant for George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. Elleka graduated from George Mason with a double major B.A. in Global Affairs and Classical Languages, and a master’s degree in Public Policy and Governance. In February 2022, she recently completed Georgetown University’s Certificate in Education Finance program, in Washington, D.C. Elleka Yost is the Director of Advocacy for the Association of School Business Officials International (ASBO) and first joined ASBO in 2013. She is responsible for managing the association's federal advocacy and media relations programs, while supporting her team on various research, communications, and leadership projects. During the pandemic, she was appointed as her organization’s “go-to” expert on COVID-19 issues and published multiple resources about the public health crisis’ impact on K-12 school finance and operations. Before working at ASBO International, Elleka served as an editorial assistant and author for an international news magazine, The Diplomat, and as a faculty research assistant for George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. Elleka graduated from George Mason with a double major B.A. in Global Affairs and Classical Languages, and a master’s degree in Public Policy and Governance. In February 2022, she recently completed Georgetown University’s Certificate in Education Finance program, in Washington, D.C.

Sarah Zeleski

Program Manager, Undersecretary of Infrastructure, Department of Energy

Sarah currently leads the U.S. Department of Energy’s Schools and Non-Profits Program where she manages a $550M+ portfolio to improve schools and non-profit buildings around the country through energy improvements, staff capacity building, and innovative partnerships. She has been working at the intersection of climate, sustainability, and the built environment for nearly 20 years. In previous roles at DOE, Sarah served as a Senior Advisor in the Building Technology Office where she led building efficiency, renewable, and DER integration initiatives and led local government clean energy innovation programs. Before joining the DOE in 2010, Sarah established their Office of Sustainability for the City of Baltimore where she launched a range of equity-centered initiatives including the Baltimore Sustainability Plan, the City's original green building requirements, and the Baltimore Neighborhood Energy Challenge. She received a BS in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University and both a Masters of Environmental Management and a Masters of Public Policy from Duke University.

Charlie Zitnick

Senior Vice President, Public Finance, DA Davidson & Co.

Charles Zitnik is a Senior Vice President of Public Finance for D.A. Davidson & Co. and is a 35+ year industry veteran.  Zitnik has been with Davidson and its predecessor firm for over 25 years.  An advocate of early stage life cycle development finance and transition finance, Zitnik is a proven catalyst in the establishment of innovative finance structures in the energy savings finance field. Zitnik holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Kansas and a Masters of Business Administration from Rockhurst University with additional coursework at Columbia University.  Zitnik lives in Kansas City, Missouri.