Charlie Brown, Professor of Architecture and Director of the Energy Studies in Buildings Laboratory, University of Oregon

G. Z. Brown, Professor of Architecture and Director of the Energy Studies in Buildings Laboratory, has been a faculty member of the University of Oregon since 1977, teaching Architectural Design, Environmental Control Systems, and Climate Analysis. In the last ten years Brown has provided daylighting and other energy design assistance for architects, engineers, and building owners for 10 million square feet of buildings and has completed over $14 million in externally funded research. He has co-authored two books, InsideOut: Design Procedures for Passive Environmental Technologies (2nd edition,1992), and Sun, Wind and Light: Architectural Design Strategies (2nd edition, 2001), as well as Energy Scheming 3.0, software for energy analysis at the schematic stage of the design process.

Ray Cole, Professor, School of Architecture, University of British Columbia

Ray Cole is a Professor at the University of British Columbia. He has been teaching environmental issues in building design at UBC School of Architecture for the past twenty-eight years. Dr Cole heads the Environmental Research Group (ERG) at the School of Architecture - the focus of environmentally related research within the School. He was co-founder of the Green Building Challenge – an international collaborative effort to benchmark progress in green building performance and environmental assessment – and has served on numerous national and international committees related to buildings and the environment. Dr Cole was selected as a North American Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Distinguished Professor for "sustained commitment to building environmental research and teaching" in 2001. In 2003 he received the Architectural Institute of British Columbia Barbara Dalrymple Memorial Award for Community Service and the US Green Building Council’s Green Public Service Leadership Award. He was recently elected as a UBC Distinguished Professor and is a Director of the Canadian Green Building Council.

Deb Guenther, Principal, MITHUN

Deb Guenther is a landscape architect and senior associate with Mithun. She brings an interest in creating sustainable and visually engaging places to her projects.  These have included Nordheim Court, LEED™ certified student housing for the University of Washington; Teton Science School in Jackson, Wyoming; South Lake Union Sustainable Resource Guide for the Urban Environmental Institute; System-Wide Urban Design and Landscape Study and West Seattle station designs for the Seattle Monorail Project; and the parks and infrastructure strategies for Seattle's IMPLEMENT, a sustainable program tool.  Prior to joining Mithun, Deb worked with HOK/DC on the headquarters for the National Wildlife Federation (a 2001 AIA COTE Top Ten Green award winner), the Nature Conservancy (one of the original LEED™ pilot projects) and the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam that achieved the GSA sustainable benchmarks.

John Jennings, Manager, BetterBricks New Construction
John Jennings is Manager for the BetterBricks Commercial Building Design and Construction program at the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance and the creator and former Editor of BetterBricks.com, the Alliance’s comprehensive website for efficiency in commercial buildings. He is an advocate of integrated design, commissioning, and passive strategies such as daylighting and natural ventilation. He has been a project manager on programs in the commercial, residential and industrial sectors at NEEA since 1997.  Over the past 30 years, he has been involved in all aspects of development, implementation and evaluation of residential, commercial, and industrial energy efficiency programs including nationally recognized programs such as Super Good Cents Homes, Motor Decisions Matter, ENERGY STAR Windows. He has a BA from Dartmouth College where he studied under Donella Meadows and a Masters in Architecture from the University of Oregon where we was a Graduate Teaching Fellow in Environmental Control Systems for John Reynolds and GZ (Charlie) Brown. While at the University of Oregon he served as Director of the Solar Energy Center and in 1981 he helped found the Solar Energy Association of Oregon and served on the Board for many years. He has served on numerous Boards and committees over the years including the Building Commissioning Association, Portland AIA COTE, Portland AIA Energy Committee (a predecessor to COTE), and the Oregon League of Conservation Voters.

Thomas Mueller, President, Canada Green Building Council

Thomas has 20 years experience in sustainable resource management and planning for urban sustainability in local government, consulting and non-profit environment.  He is President of the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) since July 2005. The CaGBC is a national coalition of leaders in the building industry, with the mission to advance and mainstream green building design, construction and operation, and sustainable community development in Canada.  Over the past 12 years, Thomas has held various positions in the Policy & Planning Department of the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) focusing on advancing demand side management strategies in the business sector. In his last position with the District he was Division Manager, Business & Community Services.  Thomas has been a Director of the Canada Green Building Council since its inception in 2002. He chaired the LEED BC Steering Committee responsible for the first adaptation of LEED building rating system outside the U.S. Thomas chaired the Vancouver Chapter of the CaGBC from 2002-2005 and is a past Board member of Cascadia.

Kathleen O'Brien, President O'Brien & Co., Inc

Kathleen O'Brien is president of O'Brien & Company, a sustainability consulting firm. A nationally recognized expert in the field of sustainable design, construction, and development, Kathleen brings over 25 years of writing, research, and analytical experience to her role. She organized the first regional conference in the Northwest for the green building industry and has worked with local chapters of the National Association of Home Builders to develop award-winning green building programs.  As a result there are over 20,000 green homes certified in Washington, Hawaii, and California.  She worked on several early green building demonstration projects around the region and has continued to consult on leading-edge initiatives, such as the Washington Sustainable Schools Protocol, a green building standard for public schools in Washington State.  Kathleen received her bachelor's degree in political science and secondary education at University of Buffalo (summa cum laude); her master's degree in environment and the community at Antioch University; and is both a Certified Sustainable Building Advisor and a LEED Accredited Professional. She and her husband built a home that achieved the highest rating from the non-profit Built Green, won the Parade of Homes Environmental Achievement Award, and that has been featured on Home and Garden TV for its sustainable features.