Candace Vanderhoff

Candace Vanderhoff has a masters degree from the Souther California Institute of Architecture, is a permaculture designer, and has lived and worked in the central Pacific documenting indigenous architecture and fragile island cultures. Living in San Diego for ten years she has taken having 95% of the water imported, droughts and annual wildfires her own personal dilemma to over come. This month she launches a new business RainDance ~ Wise Water Systems to revive the natural hydrological cycle by installing greywater diverters, rain barrels and edible landscape to create lush, beautiful and edible landscapes.

Carmen Trudell

Carmen is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the GSAPP at Columbia University and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Architectural Technology at the New York City College of Technology where she specifically teaches a course in sustainability through architecture.  Carmen Trudell holds the Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design (MSAAD) from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Architecture (BArch) from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. Carmen is NCARB certified and a licensed architect in both California and New York. She is also a partner in fluxxlab—an experimental laboratory for innovative energy production, and a partner in Both Landscape & Architecture—a two-person design firm based in Brooklyn, NY.

Chelsea McDaniel

School: UC Santa Cruz
Graduation Date: 2010
Field of Study: Environmental Studies

Chelsea works as the Chancellor’s Undergraduate Intern for the Sustainability Office for 2009-2010.  As a Sustainability Intern she is involved in the development of UCSC’s first Campus Sustainability Plan. She plans to attend law school after finishing her B.A. in Environmental Studies. 

Christina Di Sano

School: San Francisco State University (SFSU)
Graduation Date: May 2010
Field of Study: Environmental Studies B.A. Environmental Sustainability and Social Justice (ESSJ)

Being aware of and sensitive to my environment and its natural and anthropogenic components is a part of Christina’s character. She is a motivated, sociable, level-headed person, who can work well alone, or with others to solve problems. She brings several years of public tabling to the job.

Christina Martin

School: San Francisco State University
Graduation Date: 2010
Field of Study: Environmental Studies

As an honor student currently working full-time for the City of San Jose’s Environmental Services Department, Christina plans on dedicating my life to environmentalism. She is also a cancer survivor overcoming financial hardships in order to finish college and follow those dreams.

Christine Jieun Kim

I am an international student from South Korea. I volunteered at West Coast Green last year and I was inspired by Al Gore’s speech on how we should take responsibility on dramatic climate change. After I studied Architecture, I realized that interdependent relationship between ecology and design was virtually absent in school curricula. I recently created my own major which covers academic multidisciplinary fields of ecology, design and society. I have been involved in campus sustainability movements like Building Sustainability at Cal, Sproul Student Center Sustainable Deign Workshop and Campus Climate Change Initiative Project as an undergraduate researcher. I had a great experience at West Coast Green last year. This year, I am volunteering again at West Coast Green with my architecture friends from American Institute of Architecture Students.

Christopher See Tiamzon

School: San Francisco State University
Graduation Date: Fall 2010
Field of Study: Environmental Studies

Christopher S. Tiamzon is a student at San Francisco State University.  He interns at San Joaquin County Environmental Health Department, he works with numerous programs:  food/recreational, housing, hazardous waste, vector control. His dedication and training has helped him become a stronger leader in the public health. Christopher has enhance strategic visioning and direction-setting skills through critical thinking and analysis, and organizational and team development. 

Claire Evans

School: University of California Berkeley
Graduation Date: 2011
Field of Study: Society & Environment, Urban Studies

Claire, a third year Society & Environment and Urban Studies double major from UC Berkeley, is the Intern Program Coordinator with Building Sustainability at Cal. She is also the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Sustainability Office of the Chancellor Representative. In these capacities Claire works to help create a culture of sustainability on campus. She is interested in green buildings, sustainable communities, and Third World development.

Daan Murray

Daan Murray is a senior student in the Masters of Architecture program at the University of Calgary, Canada. He is a VP of Sustainability on his faculty’s student association and is one of the designers on Team Alberta’s 2009 Solar Decathlon team. Daan is currently developing a low waste component-based construction system for his thesis project.

Eric Griffin

Eric Griffin is an educator, corporate trainer, and entrepreneur who helps individuals develop strength of character to reach their full potential. A father now, Eric seeks to expand his professional horizons within the renewable energy sector and introduce his family to a world of sustainable living.  Eric possesses a unique blend of management consulting experience (Ernst & Young, LLP) with high-school teaching skills and is honored to have received a scholarship to West Coast Green 2009.

Erinn Swett

Erinn has well over a decade working hands-on in the homebuilding industry in the Bay Area.  In that time, Erinn has seen a vast improvement in the implementation of green building techniques and products.  By attending this conference, Erinn hopes to improve her mantra of “reduce, re-use, recycle” both professionally and personally.

Janet Palma

Janet Palma is a Project Manager/Director and Planner with broad experience in the following areas: community development, land use, transportation, landfills, energy, ecology, wetlands, water quality, infrastructure, dredging, schools, airports, and general environmental planning. For over ten years, I have directed and participated in numerous CEQA/NEPA documents, environmental planning, regulatory permitting, and resource management studies all over the State of California. I have a Master of Science degree in Environmental Management from the University of San Francisco and a BA in Literature from UC Berkeley.

Jason Harp

As an engineer, Jason has experience in new product design, cost estimation and management for technologies and projects in industries including, robotics, HVAC, solar thermal, and thermal storage. Jason will call upon his experience from leading million dollar engineering projects and 50+ person organizations to organize an engineering team that will build a novel drill that will revolutionize the ground source heat pump market

Jennifer Helfrich

School: University of California Santa Cruz
Graduation Date: 2010
Field of Study: Environmental Studies

Jennifer Helfrich has a 3.9 GPA and plans on a career in environmental and public policy.  She has been volunteering, interning, and working with various environmental causes since the age of 16.  She has worked at local, national, and international levels to combat Climate Change and to achieve a more sustainable future and is currently the Chancellor’s Undergraduate Intern on Climate Action Planning at UC Santa Cruz.

Jonathan Mooney

I am currently the VP of Marketing for RenCon Energy Products. Rencon is a start up company specializing in renewable and energy efficient home and commercial products. I am also a 2nd year Green MBA student Dominican University.

Kelsey Gavin

I am fortunate to be serving in my hometown as a National AmeriCorps CapacityCorps member with Rebuilding Together Orange County.  I received my degree from UC Santa Cruz, however developed an interest in the green movement as I studied in Ghana and Sweden.  Rebuilding Together is a national non-profit network that primarily uses volunteers to assist low-income households by addressing home preservation and energy efficiency issues, and making critical safety repairs and home modifications.  Many Rebuilding Together green initiatives across the country are helping to sustain affordable futures for homeowners.  I will be attending the West Coast Green with fellow CapacityCorps members and promoting our new Green CapacityCorps positions and to learn more how we can help improve the lives of people in need (of green).

Kirin Ginn

School: SF State University, Bachelor’s of Science in Interior Design, 2007 & UC Berkeley Extension, Sustainable Design Program

While attending classes at UC Berkeley Extension for a certificate in Sustainable design, I was first introduced to the concept of Suntrain Company through one of my former professors, Dr. David Vasquez who had been working on a huge infrastructure project with Chris Swan, co-entrepreneur and creator of Suntrain Company. Suntrain’s vision is to develop a non-profit business that provides sustainable, solar and renewable modes of public transportation across the California State. I was chosen from a selected few of Dr. Vasquez’s top sustainable design students to assist in the development of this totally “green” start-up company and its goal towards building public transportation systems that are convenient, affordable & centralized with in the every day human experiences of today’s modern society. Currently, our multi-talented group is working on the development of an updated and highly informative website, including illustrated models of transportation interiors and specialized services, music videos, a gravity fueled train and much more to come...Further info can be explored at http://www.Suntrainusa.com or in Dr. Vasquez’s new book, Mr. Swan’s Big Idea.

Lauren Hauber

Lauren recently began an 11 month term of service through AmeriCorps. She is serving as the Energy Efficiency Coordinator for Rebuilding Together Peninsula, a non-profit that provides free home repairs for those in need of safety, warmth, and independence in their home. A graduate of the School of Architecture at Washington University in St. Louis, Lauren is passionate about learning new ways to make the built environment more green.

Meaghan McCormick

School: San Francisco State University
Graduation Date: 2013
Field of Study: Environmental Science

Meaghan recently moved to California from a small island in Washington where she learned to love and appreciate the natural world. She will be pursuing the development of an environmentally safe completely enclosed combination pneumatic/turbine tidal and wave energy generator that my brother and I are working on. With the help of this scholarship, it will benefit me, as well as ALL consumers of energy, which is everyone.

Megan Robbins

Megan Robbins is a recent graduate of Chapman University, with degrees in Psychology and Peace Studies. On her campus she founded a sustainability club, served as a student representative on a faculty/staff green committee for two years, and held an Associated Students position as Director of Environmental Awareness.  She is passionate about sustainability and is excited for when her collar turns green!

Michael Walsh

Raised around the world as an Air Force son, Michael lived in 18 different U.S. states, France, Switzerland, Austria, Tunisia and Guinea (Ivory Coast). Fluent in French and good ability in Spanish, Michael earned a BBA in International Business and a Master of Public Affairs from the University of Texas at Austin. Current research and development at UC Santa Barbara in advanced Social Networking to educate, mobilize and train Global Citizens using unique networking tools combined with bold new business models. The larger goal is to graphically track all Social Movements and develop improved Global Governance and global resource management.

Nelson Chick

Coming from a family of builders I developed a great passion for the built environment at an early age, which is why I became a carpenter and later studied architecture at the University of California, Berkeley. Being raised a rural boy in Ukiah, California I also developed a great love for nature. Unfortunately my two passions for architecture and nature were always in conflict with each other, because most of the time architecture displaces nature. I started Vertical Landscape as a response to that conflict. I want to create vertical landscapes so that nature and architecture can form a symbiosis for the benefit of urban inhabitants.

Peter Brumis

Peter Brumis is the co-founder of Ecomentum LLC, a consulting firm based in Lake Tahoe, CA with the mission of “preserving culture and environment through sustainable tourism.” Ecomentum’s current projects include the Lake Tahoe/El Dorado County Geotourism project with National Geographic, working with indigenous groups on cultural adventure tours in Central America, as well as Lake Tahoe area events such as Tahoe Paddle Fest (TahoePaddleFest.com) which promotes indigenous arts, culture and sustainable outdoor recreation.  Ecomentum is planning its first fund-raising round in the next 6 to 12 months, and hopes to make valuable connections at West Coast Green.  You can follow our exploits and upcoming research trip from Tahoe to Panama (and all points in between) at Ecomentum.com/blog.

Sara Stone

A native from Boston and more recently Los Angeles, Sara has a background in Architectural Engineering and a passion for responsible environmental design.  She is a committed advocate for sustainability in her field and enjoys promoting all and anything truly green. Currently she works for Synthesis, Inc. a design/build firm located in Santa Monica.

Shawn Orgel-Olson

School: UC Berkeley
Field of Study: Conservation and Resource Studies / Society + Environment

Originally from Santa Cruz California, Shawn Orgel-Olson is a fifth year at UC Berkeley. After finding that no major encompassed his interests in energy conservation and business, he created his own course of study through the College of Natural Resources. Since his sophomore year he has been involved in campus sustainability movements like the campaign for a fee referendum to fund sustainability projects, the Green Campus energy efficiency internship program, and Building Sustainability at Cal, a group working to help the campus improve building operations and maintenance.

Steffen Rochel

Dr. Steffen Rochel has been involved in the commercialization of technology within the semiconductor and electronic design automation industry.
He served in senior management positions at Cadence Design Systems and at Blaze DFM, providing contributions and leadership in the development of products enabling more efficient computer chips. He is the founder and architect of the online water auditing solution at www.WaterSaverGuide.com and currently enrolled in the Executive Certification Program for Sustainable Development at Presidio Graduate School, San Francisco.

Steven Trapasso

The photo attached is of me last March when in AmeriCorps NCCC.  We were rehabilitating a forest that had been decimated by ranchers who wanted to use the land for cattle grazing.  They just came in and burnt everything down.  That log I am carrying is the by-product.  I did NCCC for 10 months and it is my most proud achievement to date.
I am currently the Green & Energy Efficiency Coordinator for Rebuilding Together Oakland.  Which means I am working to bring sustainability and environmental responsibility to our programs.
I am a devout passionate chef/cook, making everything from scratch.  I believe food is the only true extra-sensory experience and it should not be taken for granted.
I plan to go to graduate school for sustainable design (my other passion) and play an integral role in the future of greening the built environment.

Tia Tyler

School: San Francisco State University
Graduation Date: 2012
Field of Study: Environmental Studies and International Relations

Tia chose her majors because she wants to learn how to create sustainable development solutions on national and international levels. She is currently involved with Eco Students and California Student Sustainability Coalition to promote environmental sustainability and justice on my campus.  She believes attending WCG will help further her goals by teaching her the current trends in the green development movement. 

Vincent Ferro

I am recent graduate of UC Berkeley’s College of Natural Resources specializing in merging environmental theory & practice with modern business models. I am currently interning with the City of El Cerrito’s Environmental Service Division, as well as finishing a professional certificate in GIS mapping. Currently, I am looking to start a career with a public or private firm who could utilize my diverse skill set in environmental science, policy, and management.