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Speakers

(partial listing)

Cynthia Barber
City of Tallahassee
Cynthia S. Barber, CPM, is the Director of the Environmental Policy and Energy Resources Department (EPER) for the City of Tallahassee.  Ms. Barber has more than 22 years of public sector experience and nearly 20 years of progressively responsible experience with the City of Tallahassee.  Barber holds a Bachelor of Science in Business – Marketing and a Master of Public Administration from Florida State University.  Barber also achieved the designation of Certified Public Manager from the Florida Center of Public Management.   Under Ms. Barber’s leadership the City has achieved several awards and recognition for its green initiatives, including its designation as a Green City by the Florida Green Building Coalition (FGBC).  The City of Tallahassee was the first city to be designated at the Gold level by FGBC.

As the Director of EPER, Barber is responsible for establishing organizational policies that place the City in the forefront of leadership in the area of sustainability.  She pursues the creation of demand side management programs and other energy conservation efforts.  The department is responsible for monitoring and verifying organizational progress of the city’s “green” and environmental objectives.  Ms. Barber is also responsible for the organization’s compliance with federal and state environmental regulations

Judy Benson
Clear Water PSI
Judy Benson is president of Clear Water PSI and recipient of the 2010 WaterSense Partner of the Year from the U.S. EPA. She is a Florida Water StarSM certifier and serves on the Technical Advisory Committee for the program. She worked on the 2011 Green Builder Vision home for the International Builders Show in Orlando to design an irrigation system that maximizes efficiency and in turn performs to sustain an attractive landscape. This home achieved Florida Water StarSM Gold certification.

Steven L. Beumer
Green Ride Transportation Benefit
Maitland, FL

Steve Beumer is President of Green Ride Transportation Benefit that provides administrative services for Section 132 qualified plans. These plans allow tax-free withdrawals to be held for mass transit, parking and van pooling expenses. Mr. Beumer has been in the employee benefits area for nearly 30 years. He has been active in many of the insurance industry associations including the National Association of Health Underwriters (NAHU) and National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA). He was inducted into the Leading Producers Round Table with a Lifetime Award that recognizes consistent and outstanding service to customers.

Catherine Byrd
Innovative Restorations Inc.
Catherine Byrd is a State of Florida licensed certified general contractor.  Ms. Byrd is the qualifying agent for Innovative Restorations Inc., a contracting firm specializing in commercial and residential rehabilitations with a special emphasis on properties with a historic designation and properties located within local and national historic districts. Innovative Restorations Inc. is currently involved in owner-occupied single family residential rehabilitations funded through the SHIP program for the City of Tampa.  Work includes rehabilitating homes to current building codes including energy efficiency requirements.  More recently completed residential rehabilitation funded through the HOME program for a faith-based non-profit organization.

Innovative Restorations Inc. has been selected as a qualified general contractor for the rehabilitation of abandoned and/or foreclosed properties as part of the national Neighborhood Stabilization Program for the City of St. Petersburg, Pinellas County and Hillsborough County.  As a corporate policy, we have adopted best green building practices in all work efforts.

Randy Conn
ES Green Consulting
Randy Conn has been a state certified contractor for 27 years, with experience in commercial and custom residential construction.  He is a principal in ES Green & Company, LLC, specializing in energy analysis and green certification. He received the 2002 Residential Rehabilitation Award from the Tallahassee Leon County Historical Preservation Society, the only residential award given in the last 10 years.

Randy has certified over 100 homes to the Florida Green Building Coalition (FGBC) standard. In 2010 he received FGBC’s Certifying Agent of the Year award for the highest number of homes certified statewide.

Randy has been involved in ENERGY STAR® qualification of homes, gathering data for HERS Index computation and in performance testing.  He also serves as a LEED® for Homes Field agent, National Association of Home Builders verifier, and a certifier for Florida WaterStar and the US Dept of Environmental Protections WaterSense programs.

Randy has extensive knowledge of building science, building practices, and green building methods. He communicates well with active building professionals, speaking the same language and having accumulated many of the same experiences.

Randy holds a BA in English from Florida State University.

Jane Bixler Conn
ES Green Consulting
Jane Bixler Conn is a principal in ES Green & Company LLC in Tallahassee, which provides consulting, certification and educational services in the field of green building for business owners, homeowners, builders associations, neighborhood associations, architects, contractors, utility companies, product manufacturers, and other organizations interested in creating business advantages through sustainability.
Jane is a certified Florida and RESNET (National) HERS Energy rater and a partner with ENERGY STAR®, ENERGY STAR IAQ, and RESNET.  She holds a Bachelors and Masters in Education from the University of North Florida and was a teacher for over 30 years.

Jane also is a licensed real estate broker, member of the Tallahassee Board of REALTORS®, Florida Association of REALTORS®, National Association of RELATORS®, and Women’s Council of REALTORS®.  She holds four REALTOR® designations:  Certified Residential Specialist (CRS), Graduate REALTOR® Institute (GRI), e-Pro, and NAR green.

Jane was named REALTOR® of the Year by the Tallahassee Board of REALTORS® in 2002 and 2008, is a past director, treasurer and president, and currently sits on the Professional Standards, Finance and Governmental Affairs committees.

Steve Easley
Easley & Associates
Steve Easley is an internationally recognized construction consultant specializing in solving building science related problems and educating building industry professionals and their trade partners. His work focuses on increasing the quality of construction, sustainability, energy efficiency and reducing costly mistakes that lead to construction defects and call backs.

Steve is known for his cost effective, practical approaches to building and retrofitting structures for high performance and quality assurance. Steve’s firm was selected by the Department of Energy as a Build America Team member for the Build America Retro-fit Alliance team. Steve authors a monthly column in Green Building Magazine with topics on energy efficiency, durability and reducing construction defects.

He is a frequently requested speaker because of his practical approach to building science, his dynamic and energetic speaking style and his unique ability to explain complex concepts in simple terms that can be easily integrated into practice.

Steve has a series of videos online that he did for the Green Building Initiative, which can be found at: http://gbi.buildingmedia.com/

Kurt Easton
Urban Networks, LLC
Kurt Easton is the founding Principal of Urban Networks, LLC. The premise of Urban Networks is based on the multiple facets of networking on several technical and philosophical levels with the notion that teaming with experts provides the most effective system for the delivery of professional urban planning and design services. Mr. Easton has extensive experience in assisting communities with the revitalization of their urban environments at varying scales – from economically declining urban regions and downtown core areas to aging commercial corridors, neighborhood centers and underutilized waterfronts. He is currently president of the Florida Redevelopment Association.

Phillip Hisey
On Top of the World Communities
Phillip has served two consecutive terms on the Florida Water StarSM Technical Advisory Committee due in part to his broad knowledge of proven landscape and indoor water efficiency. Phillip allowed homes at On Top of the World to be used for testing the Florida Water StarSM criteria during its development. His six years as landscape superintendent for this large residential community, which is required to meet stringent consumptive use permit conditions, have allowed him to become proficient in documenting the most cost-effective approach to water efficient design and implementation. Phillip will share how he balanced Florida Water StarSM criteria with economy as well as meeting the needs of an aging resident population. He will also share the results of onsite research conducted on soil moisture sensors compared with ET controllers.

Billy Kniffen
Billy Kniffen is the education coordinator for the American Rainwater Catchment Systems Association (ARCSA). He is also
a Water Resource Specialist in the Biological and Agriculture Engineer Department with the Texas AgriLife Extension Service, which is part of the Texas A&M University System. He has served as a national director for ARCSA, conducted workshops
in 14 different states, and spoken or conducted trainings or installed systems in most of the 254 counties in Texas, plus he has spoken at numerous regional and national conferences.

He co-authored the Rainwater Harvesting: System Planning manual used in the Accredited Professional course for ARCSA, organized the Texas Rainwater Catchment Association, and served as their first president.

He and his wife Mary live in Menard in a home solely dependent on rainwater.

Dr. Jennifer Languell
Trifecta Construction Solutions
For more than 15 years, Dr. Jennifer Languell has championed the integration of green building principles and sustainable design within the construction industry.  Today, as Founder and President of Trifecta Construction Solutions, she remains an outspoken advocate and valued consultant to a wide range of industries that are incorporating sustainable business practices into their daily operations. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Materials Science and Engineering, a Master’s in Civil Engineering and Construction Management, and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering and Sustainable Construction.

As environmental policy and growing consumer demand raise expectations for energy efficiency, resource conservation and healthier building environments, Dr. Languell continues to help her clients integrate innovative and intelligent business solutions into their operations.  She utilizes a systems approach to creating high performance, healthy, sustainable projects that balance investment with financial return.

As one of this country’s preeminent sustainability consultants, she is called upon by leading builders and developers to help them develop strategies to create healthier, more efficient and sustainable projects.  Her work has included the creation of award-winning single-family and multi-family residential homes, commercial projects, and some of the largest and most sustainable land developments in the world.  She has also become a trusted consultant to governments and municipalities that are rapidly moving toward more sustainable and fiscally prudent operating and management practices.  

 For her work, Dr. Languell and Trifecta have received numerous awards from government and industry organizations such as the Urban Land Institute, National Association of Home Builders, Center for Sustainable Florida, and the Florida Green Building Coalition.  Her knowledge and leadership in the area of sustainability have made her a sought after subject matter expert for the media in outlets such as BusinessWeek, CNN Headline News, HGTV and CNBC.  An award-winning author, Dr. Languell was also selected as a technical advisor and star for the Discovery Channel’s environmental series Discovery Project Earth.

Bill Lazar
St. Johns Housing Partnership, Inc.
Bill is the Executive Director of St. Johns Housing Partnership, and a state certified residential contractor.  Bill has been involved in affordable housing and weatherization programs in Duval and St. Johns County since 1988. The S.J.H.P. began in 1998 providing emergency home repairs to low income homeowners in St. Johns County. Since that time the company has expanded into providing homebuyer education and foreclosure prevention counseling, in addition to repairing over 200 homes annually. The S.J.H.P. is finishing their first single family development of 36 workforce housing homes, meeting both Energy Star and Green Certified homes through the Florida Green Building Coalition. In 2009, the S.J.H.P. purchased Southern Villas, a 60 unit elderly complex with USDA financing. They are currently completing their weatherization of the Villas and will begin a USDA funded MPR rehab in late spring that should meet FGBC Green standards when complete.

Danny M. Orlando
Region 4 Energy Star Program Manager
US Environmental Protection Agency
Atlanta, GA

Danny Orlando has served as the Regional Program Manager
for Energy Star and a technical contact for Climate Change for the US EPA in the Atlanta Regional Office 18 years. He attended the Georgia Institute of Technology and graduated as an Industrial and Systems Engineer, cum laude. Danny has been featured in many news programs, radio and television spots, and publications over the years. The most distributed piece was the movie Kilowatt Ours, seen by 65 million viewers. Danny has also appeared in segments with Clark Howard on WSBTV in Atlanta and Trinity Broadcasting Network in Nashville. He is part of the “energy team” that qualified the Atlanta Federal Center as an Energy Star building, the ninth largest federal building in the country at 2.4 million square feet.

Listening to him, you’ll soon discover Danny is passionate about energy efficiency and the planet we all share. His business cards are not only made from 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper, but also contain 10 percent coffee agricultural waste. So make sure you get one and if times get rough, you can make a weak cup of coffee. He takes the bus to work each day, composts food waste at home, drives a really small car, and, well you get the point. He is also the contemporary service worship leader at Kennesaw United Methodist Church. He leads a 5-piece top-40 Christian band (Crossroads) as the lead acoustic rhythm guitarist and lead singer. He has held this position for the past eight years.

John Porter
Distributed Energy Solutions
John Porter is a partner in Distributed Energy Solutions in Cape Canaveral, FL. He specializes as a serial entrepreneur in import-export, tourism, timber, and biomass businesses. John is working on multiple start-up companies in the energy field, and is determined to launch a clean energy future for Brevard and Central Florida. He serves as chair of Keep Brevard Beautiful and Keep Florida Beautiful, co-chair of the Space Coast Energy Consortium and previously served as Mayor for the City of Cape Canaveral. He holds a BS from the University of Central Florida, and studied at the American University School of Government and Government Policy.

Christina- Regante
Christina- Regante is an ecopreneur and new mother. The birth of her son propelled her down a path of raising awareness of the toxic chemicals in our household products and promoting stricter regulations on their use. Toxic chemicals have infiltrated almost every component of everyday life. Indoor air quality is more than 10 times worst than the air outside and considering the average American spends 90% of their time inside, that’s cause for alarm. Christina is also one of the founding members of Eco-nomic Solutions, a green design build firm that is working to change building practices in the Florida Keys. As the event coordinator for EcoWeek she is involved planning a series of events that seeks to create collaborative solutions for higher efficiency standards, elimination of environmental pollution and the preservation of ecosystems. Christina is also the Vice President of the Board of Directors for the Key West Botanical Garden and Tropical Forest, the last remaining piece tropical forest in Key West. She is working with the Board and dedicated volunteers to make the Garden a beacon of sustainability and to create an educational program for children, which instills a sense of environmental stewardship.

Jedde Regante
Jedde Regante  is an attorney and lobbyist whose firm lobbied in Tallahassee, FL and Washington, DC.  In 2004, Mr. Regante left lobbying and the full time practice of law to pursue a career in green building and now co-owns Eco-Nomic Solutions, LLC, a full service “green” consulting firm with in house design and build capabilities, with his wife Christina.  Using skills honed over the past 13 years, Mr. Regante assists clients with all aspects of green building and design projects, including especially representing clients before local boards and committees and advocating or lobbying on their behalf.  Most recently Mr. Regante, on behalf of a client, successfully sought to have the prohibition of solar panel installations, found in the local Historic Architecture Guidelines, changed to permit installations of solar panels on privately owned historic properties without having to resort to litigation.  Mr. Regante is an honors graduate of the University of Florida College of Law.

Stephanie Thomas-Rees
Florida Solar Energy Center
Stephanie Thomas-Rees is a Research Architect in the Buildings Research Division at the Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC), where she has been involved with high performance buildings research since 2001.  She currently is a member of the Building America Industrialized Housing Partnership, sponsored by the
US Department of Energy, where she conducts research and provides technical assistance to the manufactured home building industry to improve the environmental performance.  She is a board member of the Florida Green Building Coalition and Green Home Certifying Agent.

Her past project involved the development and monitoring of an energy performance enhanced relocatable classroom which demonstrated energy savings of 30-50% in side by side comparisons.   Mrs. Rees is the co-author of Eco-House: A Design Strategy, which is in its 3rd Edition of printing. 

Before joining FSEC, Mrs. Rees worked for Columbia County, GA securing land for permanent preservation which included a landmark acquisition that protected one of the largest granite outcrops in the Eastern United States.  Mrs. Rees has also taught building science and environmental subjects at the University and has worked for private architectural firms as a project architect. 

Eddie Van Giesen
BRAE Rainwater Technologies
Oakboro, NC
Eddie Van Giesen is the policy Coordinator for BRAE Rainwater Technologies in Oakboro, NC. He received his Masters in Landscape Architecture from the University of Georgia in 1995 and became involved in Rainwater Harvesting in 2007 through the BRAE training program.

Eddie has been involved in the design and construction of numerous Rainwater Harvesting projects throughout the Southeastern U.S., including Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Florida. He speaks regularly on the subject to architects, engineers, planners, policymakers, and students at the university level.

He has served on plumbing code committees for North Carolina and Georgia,. and was the principal author for the Georgia Rainwater Harvesting Guidelines, an industry neutral document published by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs in 2009. He is part of a stakeholder group working on rainwater legislation for California and serves as an ARCSA regional representative.

Rob Vieira
Florida Solar Energy Center
Rob Vieira is the Building Research Director for the Florida
Solar Energy Center. He has over 20 years of experience in hot, humid climate research. He has been the principal investigator for over 2 million dollars of contracts and grants from industry, foundations and state and federal agencies. He has led research efforts in residential auditing and field evaluation work, survey and statistical work, and computer simulation
and analysis work.

Rob has presented over 40 workshops and seminars on sustainable development and energy-efficient construction to developers, builders, designers and others in the energy & environmental & development fields. He has written papers for diverse audiences, e.g., Transportation Quarterly, Florida Planning, and ASHRAE Transactions, and was the primary author of one book, Energy-Efficient Florida Home Buildings.

Rob leads FSEC's involvement in providing technical support to Southeastern builders for EPA's Energy Star Homes Program and has directed the work on the cost-benefit optimization, improvement analysis and system sizing features of the State of Florida's residential code and rating software. He was chair of the organizing committee of the Florida Green Building Coalition. Mr. Vieira has a B.A. in Physics, an M.S. in Applied Solar Energy and an MBA.

Miriam Zimms
Kessler Consulting, Inc.
Miriam Zimms, LEED® AP, is a Senior Consultant for Kessler Consulting, Inc. (KCI).  Ms. Zimms has eighteen years in the waste reduction, recycling, and composting industry and specializes in program development, planning, management and execution.  Prior to joining KCI, Miriam was the recycling and waste minimization coordinator for Florida Power & Light Corporation (FPL).  Prior to joining FPL, Miriam was the recycling program development coordinator for the Solid Waste Authority of Palm Beach County. 

Miriam has a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing from Stetson University in DeLand, Florida.  She is USGBC LEED® Accredited, a certified Recycling Manager with SWANA and Florida DEP, and a certified Organics Manager through the U.S. Composting Council and is the former Vice Director and Certification Coordinator for SWANA’s Waste Reduction Technical Division.  Miriam continues to make frequent presentations, sharing knowledge and practical experience at industry conferences throughout the U.S.  Miriam lives, works, and plays “Green.”  In 2008, Miriam was named “Recycler of the Year” by Recycle Florida Today, Inc.