SPEAKERS
COMMONGROUND CHICAGO | MAY 6-8, 2020
LEITH SHARP
DIRECTOR AND LEAD FACULTY OF EXECUTIVE EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABILITY LEADERSHIP AT HARVARD T.H. CHAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH | PREVIOUSLY THE FOUNDING DIRECTOR OF HARVARD’S OFFICE FOR SUSTAINABILITY
Leith is the Director and Lead Faculty, Executive Education for Sustainability Leadership, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She has spent 20 years driving sustainability into the core business of higher education. Leith established one of world’s first campus sustainability programs in 1995 at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia. For 9 years Leith was the founding director of Harvard’s Office for Sustainability leading Harvard to become a global leader in campus sustainability. Leith was the founding executive director for the Illinois Green Economy Network, a partnership of 48 community college presidents targeting green economic growth. Leith was the founding Chair of the Sustainability Futures Leadership Academy, an international collaboration driving executive leadership development for sustainability. Leith has consulted with over 100 universities and other organizations around the world including the U.S. House of Representatives House Chief Administrative Office, The USA Association of Governing Boards, The Ministry for Science, Denmark, and the World Student Environment Summit. Leith has taught change leadership for sustainability at Harvard University for the last 12 years, earning numerous commendations for distinguished teaching performance. Leith is currently directing a new collaborative program in Executive Education for Leadership in Sustainability through the Harvard School of Public Health Center for Health and the Global Environment. For her work Leith has received numerous awards internationally including Young Australian of the Year, NSW Environment Category and a Churchill Fellowship. Leith has an engineering degree (UNSW) and a master of education (Harvard). Leith’s talk will be on Change Management in Sustainability.
MIKE STOPKA, AIA, LEED BD+C
FOUNDER OF MIST ENVIRONMENT CONSULTING | SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS LEADERSHIP FACULTY AT NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
In 2016 Mike founded MIST, a Chicago-based sustainable strategy and education advisory working with universities, cities, nonprofits, and corporations. MIST helps clients audit their organization-wide sustainability performance, quantify the business value of improving and chart a roadmap to their desired future. Trained as an architect, Mike’s work evolved to change management, teaching, human-centered design, and business intelligence. Diverse experience within organizations and as a consultant provides a balanced perspective to reach many types of people. Mike is faculty at Northwestern University, designing curricula and teaching sustainability leadership in business. He serves on the Illinois Green Alliance Board of Directors and the AASHE Advisory Council. His favorite pastime is fishing with his wife and three daughters. Previously, as Director of Sustainability at the University of Chicago, Mike led the team that published the institution’s first sustainability plan. Prior, he founded the sustainability department at the design firm, SCB. Mike’s education includes architecture, planning (University of Illinois and Clemson University) and business (University of Chicago – Booth School of Business).
CRAIG SCHILLER
MANAGER FOR ROCKY MOUNTAIN INSTITUTE
Craig is a Manager for Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) who has worked on diverse number of projects focused on decarbonizing the aviation industry including the scalable implementation of sustainable aviation fuels and carbon offsets. In addition, Mr. Schiller has over 6 years of experience in energy efficiency, project management, energy efficiency, and net zero energy buildings.
Since joining RMI in 2012, Mr. Schiller has had a unique cross-sectorial experience in managing and delivering innovative projects and the net-zero-energy buildings, higher education, transportation electrification, and aviation sectors. Mr. Schiller is currently working with sub-national actors on developing impactful and scalable programs that accelerate the decarbonization of the transportation industry. He has managed a Superefficient Affordable Housing Design Challenge for university students, cohosted deep energy retrofit conferences with the General Service Administration, and helped formulate a new sustainable campus initiative. Mr. Schiller has also been a core design team member for RMI’s new net-zero-energy headquarters where he managed the implementation of an industry-leading renewable energy and energy storage system, including developing an innovative funding solution for the system.
Since joining the RMI’s Sustainable Aviation program in 2016, Mr. Schiller has helped support the advancement of sustainable energy solutions for both domestic and international airports. In 2017, Mr. Schiller has been the Chief Operating Officer of the start-up and airport-based carbon offset program, The Good Traveler, which RMI manages. Lastly, Mr. Schiller is a Manager for America’s Pledge where he manages the creation of philanthropic campaigns to accelerate non-federal actors to take climate action within the U.S.