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Speakers The Honorable Mayor Dan Coody First elected in November 2000, Dan Coody is serving his second term as Mayor of the City of Fayetteville. After earning a B.S. in Industrial Technology at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, he completed post-graduate studies in Drilling Fluid Technology with Dow Chemical. Mayor Coody is currently Co-Chair of the United States Conference of Mayors Water Council, District Vice President of the Arkansas Municipal League and an active member of the International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives. Under his leadership, Fayetteville has become the first city in Arkansas to hire a Sustainability Coordinator in an effort to foster environmental accountability and implement sustainable policies and practices within city government. Mayor Coody is very interested in seeing that the widespread growth that has been occurring in Northwest Arkansas for the last two decades actually enhances the livability of our community. With a focus on smart growth and new urbanism, he believes Fayetteville can grow while continuing to experience the quality of life citizens have come to expect in Fayetteville. Mayor Coody places value on quality sustainable development that promotes walkability, reduces urban sprawl and has a minimal impact on the environment. Other projects that Mayor Coody is pursuing include cleaning up our watersheds that provide the region's drinking water, developing a technology-based facet of our economy, and becoming a model for environmental and business interests working together. The Honorable Mayor Kevin Foy Kevin Foy was sworn in for his fourth term as Mayor of Chapel Hill on December 3, 2007. During his first term, Mayor Foy spent much of his time working on issues that included making Chapel Hill Transit fare-free, the Schools Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance, a new Land Use Management Ordinance, and a new Parks and Recreation Master Plan. In his second and third terms, Mayor Foy focused much of his attention on Chapel Hill’s downtown area. The formation of the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership has been one positive step. The pending Downtown Development Initiative should be a large boost for the economy, aesthetics and vitality of the downtown area. Stephen Luoni Stephen Luoni's designs and research have won more than fifty awards, including Progressive Architecture Awards, American Institute of Architects Honors Awards, a Charter Award from the Congress for the New Urbanism, and American Society of Landscape Architecture Awards, all for planning and urban design. Luoni is Director of the University of Arkansas Community Design Center (UACDC), where he is the Steven L. Anderson Chair in Architecture and Urban Studies. His work at UACDC specializes in interdisciplinary public works projects combining landscape, urban, and architectural design. Current projects include design and planning for municipal infrastructure, Low Impact Development in residential development, campuses, parks, and big box retail. His work has been published in Oz, Architectural Record, Landscape Architecture, Progressive Architecture, Architect, Places, L’Architecture d’Aujourd’ hui, Progressive Planning, and Public Art Review. He previously taught at the University of Florida and was the 2000 Cass Gilbert Visiting Professor of Architecture at the University of Minnesota. In Fall 2006 he was the Ruth and Norman Moore Visiting Professor in Architecture at Washington University in St. Louis, and The Bruce Goff Chair for Creative Architecture at the University of Oklahoma in Spring 2008. Luoni has a BS in Architecture from Ohio State University and a Master of Architecture from Yale University. Karen McSpadden Karen McSpadden is the Program Officer for Environmental and Social Sustainability at Winrock International, a nonprofit corporation that works with people in the United States and around the world to increase economic opportunity, sustain natural resources and protect the environment. Her work at Winrock focuses on assisting private enterprises in developing and implementing sustainability strategies; advancing sustainable agriculture and local food initiatives throughout the United States; and mentoring Arkansas-based start-up “green” businesses through Winrock’s Innovate Arkansas program. Prior to joining Winrock, Ms. McSpadden held positions as an air pollution engineer for the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality and in private consulting. Ms. McSpadden also has experience working with sustainable agriculture systems, business development, renewable energy and corporate strategy. Ms. McSpadden holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Arkansas and an M.B.A. from the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas. Ms. McSpadden serves on the Board of Directors for the Illinois River Watershed Partnership and the Washington County League of Women Voters. Elise S. Mitchell, APR, Fellow PRSA Ms. Mitchell is President and CEO of Mitchell Communications Group, Inc. She has more than 20 years of experience in the field of public relations, working on both the corporate and agency side. She is also co-owner of Executive Communications Consultants, a full-service presentation, facilitation and coaching services company offering a full range of management skills workshops, media training, facilitation of corporate retreats, and private coaching for business and non-profit executives. She was named the 2002 “Northwest Arkansas Business Executive of the Year” by the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal. Ms. Mitchell also was selected as a finalist in the statewide competition for 2002 “Arkansas Business Executive of the Year,” sponsored by Arkansas Business. She received the 2003 “Athena” award winner for leadership and community service by the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce. She is a member of the executive committee of the Northwest Arkansas Council, and she is a member of the Arkansas Women’s Forum. Ms. Mitchell serves on the boards of the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce, Washington Regional Medical Foundation, Jones Center for Families, Genesis Technology Incubator, Arvest Bank, LifeSource International and Accelerate Arkansas. Read Elise Mitchell’s article, “Finding the Balance: Communicating Effectively about Environmental Issues.” John W. Mogge, Jr., Ph.D., A.I.A. Dr. Mogge is senior vice president and business development and planning director for CH2M HILL’s environmental services business. He has unique experience in large program sustainability planning and startup operations. His doctoral work was driven by his belief that the industries of the built environment must transform and become orders of magnitude more resource efficient. His dissertation examined the economics of sustainable planning, design, and construction. His recent assignments include the London 2012 Olympics Sustainability Program Plan, where he developed the overarching sustainability plan and key performance indicators to make it the world’s first sustainable games, and the MASDAR City Sustainable Transportation Technical Integration Program Plan, where he currently leads the execution of $1 billion of high-technology transport solutions including the world’s first large-scale personal rapid transit system. He holds a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, where his research area was sustainable planning, design and construction. He also holds B.A. and M.S. degrees in architecture from the University of Florida. He’s a registered architect and a registered environmental manager. Senator Mark Pryor Arkansas Senator Mark Pryor is one of the few Senators to serve on six committees. As a member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee he is working to prepare Arkansas to meet the transportation, technology and communications challenges we will face in the 21st century. As part of this role, Pryor was selected to serve as Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Consumer Affairs, Product Safety and Insurance. This leadership position allows him to continue the work he started as Arkansas Attorney General – protecting consumers and businesses from the dishonest and corrupt. As a member of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, Senator Pryor proudly promotes the interests of those enterprises he calls “Arkansas’ economic backbone.” He has worked to bolster minority business ownership, increase investment in rural areas and ensure that those who live on Main Street share in the financial successes of Wall Street. Dan Sanker Dan Sanker is the co-founder of Green Valley Network, a non-profit organization dedicated to promote and advance the sustainability technology agenda for Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri's "Green Valley". He has been accredited by the UCLA Director Certification Program, and he serves as a Board Member at the Center for Retailing Excellence at the Sam Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas. Sanker has been published, quoted, or recognized in numerous industry journals and has been a guest speaker at the USC Marshall School of Business, the Anderson School at UCLA, the Association for Corporate Growth, and the Council of Supply Chain Management. Sanker was recognized in 2007 and 2008 as a "Pros to Know: Green Supply Chain" from Supply & Demand Chain Executive magazine and was a finalist in 2006 for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Sanker is a decisive executive with a 24-year track record of increasing sales, market share and profitability in intensely competitive industries, including consumer packaged goods, business services and technology. His company, CaseStack, was recognized as #1 in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50, #1 as the fastest-growing private company by the Los Angeles Business Journal, and it was also acknowledged for rapid growth by others, including Inc. magazine, Entrepreneur magazine and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Jim Twiggs After 25 years as a third-generation grocer, Jim Twiggs joined McKee Foods in 1998 as manager of the company store and product donation programs. In 2007, Jim was appointed project leader for green initiatives at the Gentry, Ark., plant. Jim Wimberly Jim Wimberly is a specialist in biomass energy systems and technologies, agricultural enterprises, financial analyses and project management. He has thirty-two years experience in agricultural development, project management and bioenergy in 25 countries worldwide (in the United States, Asia, Middle East, Africa, Central America and Oceania). Mr. Wimberly works with a wide range of projects and technologies—from farm-scale furnaces to utility-scale biopower systems—and works with the full spectrum of biomass resources, with a particular focus on dedicated lignocellulosic energy crops. He is president of BioEnergy Systems LLC, a consulting firm and project development company based in Fayetteville, Ark., and has a Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Engineering and a Master’s degree in Business Administration and Engineering. The Honorable Mayor Will Wynn As Austin Mayor, Will Wynn serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors for Austin Energy, the 9th largest public power utility in the United States. As such, Mayor Wynn presides over the nation's most successful utility-sponsored green power program (for the fourth consecutive year according to the U.S. Dept. of Energy), an award-winning energy efficiency program that has eliminated the need for a 500-megawatt, coal-burning power plant near Austin, and a greenbuilding program that was the first of its kind in the world and served as the genesis for the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and the national greenbuilding movement. Austin Energy generates up to 3,000 megawatts of electricity and its fuel mix is 35% natural gas, 29% coal, 23% nuclear and 11% renewables (mostly wind). In addition to his local responsibilities, Will Wynn has risen to a position of national leadership on energy and climate issues. Since 2004 he has chaired the Energy Committee of the 1,200-member U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) and is a key member of the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Task Force. He authored or co-authored several high-profile resolutions that were adopted by the full body of the USCM, including measures relating to the International Energy Conservation Code, federal legislation to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, federal tax credits for renewable energy, and energy efficiency block grants for local communities. In February 2007 Mayor Wynn unveiled an aggressive plan that sets the standard among cities nationwide in the growing campaign to address global warming. The Austin Climate Protection Plan will eliminate GHG emissions from virtually all municipal activities by the year 2020; dramatically enhance the use of renewable power and demand reduction measures at Austin Energy; implement the most energy efficient building codes in the nation; and develop targets and reduction plans for GHG emissions community-wide. Wynn received training from Al Gore at The Climate Project in Nashville in January and has since been presenting his Austin version of the slideshow that inspired the Academy Award-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, to community groups, businesses leaders and policy makers in the Austin metro area calling for a dramatic expansion of energy efficiency policies. Charles R. Zimmerman, P.E. Charles R. Zimmerman is currently the vice president of Prototype and New Format Development for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Mr. Zimmerman also is leading the "Sustainable Buildings Network" at Wal-Mart. This network, among other things, is charged with increasing the overall energy efficiency of new and existing buildings by 20 to 30 percent. Prior to his current role, Mr. Zimmerman worked in the International Division for Wal-Mart Stores as Director of Design and Construction. Mr. Zimmerman has worked for Wal-Mart since 1997. Previously, he worked in both the consulting industry as well as for the Texas State Department of Highways. In 2007, Mr. Zimmerman testified before the United States Congress on two separate occasions regarding energy efficiency matters. Mr. Zimmerman is a graduate of the University of Arkansas, a registered professional engineer, member of the Arkansas Academy of Civil Engineers and was recently appointed to the advisory board for the California Energy Efficiency Center at UC - Davis.