Speaker Bios
Lauren Anderson
Lauren Anderson has a Masters of Public Administration from the University of Louisville and is a certified Project Management Professional. Lauren specializes in leading collaborative teams through multi-phase projects, process improvement, and creating public-facing communication for complex programs. Lauren has managed program and project portfolios for the Envirome Institute at the University of Louisville, environmental nonprofit organizations, and the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness.
Currently, Lauren represents the Center for Healthy Air Water and Soil and the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute at the University of Louisville’s School of Medicine. The Center for Healthy Air Water and Soil seeks to develop integrated knowledge of the relationships between human health and the environment through a model of multidimensional health. The Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute conducts environmental health research to better understand the connections between human health and environmental conditions. Together, the Center and the Institute incorporate community engagement and citizen science using Louisville as an urban laboratory to introduce new approaches to environmental health research and health-centric urban design and public policy.
Elena Crete
Elena Crete is a Manager for the SDSN, where she focuses on special initiatives for the Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP) and other climate and energy projects for SDSN. Elena serves as the central SDSN lead for the annual Low-Emissions Solutions Conference (LESC), launched at COP22 in Morocco. Part of Elena’s core portfolio is to help bring low-emission solutions to decision makers across networks and sectors to help implement the Paris Agreement. Elena also serves as the Secretariat point person for the Andean Network, Hong Kong Network, Japan Network, Indonesian Network, South Korea Network, and the Southeast Asia Network. Previously, Elena worked as the Operations Manager for SDSN leading the finance and administrative work for the SDSN New York Office. Prior to that she worked in a similar operations capacity for the Center on Globalization and Sustainable Development (CGSD) at Columbia University. Other experience included two years as the Special Assistant to the Executive Director at Connect To Learn, a secondary education initiative created in partnership with the Earth Institute, Ericsson and Millennium Promise. During that time, Elena ran a scholarship program for 732 high schools girls across 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa within the Millennium Villages Project, working closely with colleagues from Ericsson to install computers and broadband connectivity in the rural schools where the scholarships students were enrolled. Prior to these professional experiences, Elena completed a Masters of Arts in Climatology and a Masters of Science in Sustainability Management from Columbia University, and earned an Earth Science Bachelors Degree from the University of New Hampshire.
Aurali Dade
Aurali Dade is the Associate Vice President for Research and Innovation and Executive Director of the Institute for a Sustainable Earth (ISE) at George Mason University. As Associate Vice President, Dade is responsible for developing and implementing university strategy for fostering a dynamic, supportive and growing research ecosystem. Dade provides leadership for the Research and Innovation Initiatives (RII) team which includes programs, offices, centers and institutes that are focused on supporting, connecting, communicating about, and convening researchers internally and with external partners. Dade also serves as the inaugural Executive Director of ISE with the mission of connecting members of the Mason community with others across the Mason community-and with other communities, policy makers, businesses, and organizations-so that, together, we can more effectively address the world’s pressing sustainability and resilience challenges.
Dade has a PhD in Environmental Science, an MS in Biology, and a BS in Environmental Biology. She has taught university classes focused on data ethics, risk, environmental science, and biology. Dade serves as the PI for the Earth Commission subcontract to the Mason Institute for a Sustainable Earth, served as co-PI for the HHS funded grant: Promoting Research Integrity in Multidisciplinary and Multiteam Based Science Intiatives (2017) and PI for the HHS funded grant: Supporting Responsible Research Organizations: A Framework for Engaged Research Managers and Administrators (2016). She has published articles related to research administration and integrity, sustainability, and biology. She also served as the lead editor and author of two chapters for: Implementing a Comprehensive Research Compliance Program: A Handbook for Research Officers, a book published by Information Age Press in 2015.
David DuBois
David DuBois is an organizational psychologist who focuses on sustainability, strategy, and human resources. His work emphasizes a design approach to selecting and implementing social and behavioral strategies to help organizations deeply embed sustainable thinking and practices throughout their organization and stakeholder networks. He has taught Sustainability and Business in the College of Business at Kent State for the past decade. He co-founded a national consulting firm that provided Sustainability Circles to groups of organizations to accelerate their adoption of sustainability as a strategic imperative in their vision, mission, and business models. He worked for 15 years as an applied research psychologist, working with the US military on training and performance issues, with a focus on identifying expertise and accelerating its development. He has served as a principal investigator for a wide range of scientific, applied, and civic grants and projects. He publishes peer reviewed articles and book chapters on strategic human resources, motivation, sustainability, and social design. He serves on the Board of Advisors for the College of Applied Engineering and Aeronautics, and has been a Technical Advisor for AASHE. He received his PhD from the University of Minnesota in Organizational Psychology.
Dan Esty
Dan Esty is the Hillhouse Professor at Yale University with primary appointments in Yale’s Environment and Law Schools and a secondary appointment at the Yale School of Management. He serves as Director of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy (www.yale.edu/envirocenter) and on the Advisory Board of the Yale Center for Business and Environment (https://cbey.yale.edu/), which he founded in 2006. Professor Esty is the author or editor of twelve books and dozens of articles on environmental protection, energy, and sustainability – and their connections to policy, corporate strategy, competitiveness, trade, performance measurement, and economic success. His prizewinning volume, Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage, has recently been named the top-selling “green business” book of the past decade. From 2011 to 2014, Professor Esty served as Commissioner of Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection where he earned a reputation for bringing innovative thinking to both energy and environmental policymaking. He launched Connecticut’s first-in-the-nation Green Bank and undertook a “LEAN” restructuring of all of Connecticut’s environmental permitting programs to make the state’s regulatory framework lighter, faster, more efficient, and effective. Prior to taking up his Yale Professorship in 1994, he served in a variety of senior positions at the US Environmental Protection Agency (where he helped negotiate the 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change) and was a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, DC. He is a founding partner of Constellation Research and Technology, a fintech company that is working to develop better environmental/social/governance (ESG) metrics to enable a broader base of investors to bring sustainability factors into their portfolio choices.
Mayor Greg Fischer
Greg Fischer was elected Louisville’s 50th mayor in 2010 -- and was sworn in for a third four-year term on January 5, 2019.
During Mayor Fischer’s tenure, Louisville has experienced a renaissance, adding 80,000 jobs and 2,700 new businesses, with unprecedented investments in affordable housing. In addition, 20,000 Louisvillians have worked themselves out of poverty or into the middle class. More than $13 billion dollars in capital construction is planned or underway, including 25 new hotels built to support the city’s thriving bourbon and local food tourism, also known as Bourbonism.
Louisville has been named an International Model City of Compassion four times and was a 2018 Top 15 city for attracting millennials.
Governing Magazine named Mayor Fischer Public Official of the Year in 2013. A 2016 Politico survey named him as the most innovative mayor in America, and in 2017, Politico named him among its list of the nation’s most interesting mayors. Mayor Fischer has been elected by the mayors of America to be president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in 2020.
Mayor Fischer is a national award-winning entrepreneur who started and invested in dozens of businesses, including SerVend International and Iceberg Ventures, a private investment firm. He also co-founded bCatalyst, the first business accelerator in Louisville.
Mayor Fischer is a graduate of Trinity High School and Vanderbilt University. He is married to Dr. Alexandra Gerassimides, the daughter of Greek immigrants who were uprooted during the Greek Civil War. The couple have four adult children.
Caroline Fox
Caroline has led the SDSN USA network since its launch in December 2018. Previously, she directed SDG USA, a close partner of SDSN, to develop a program of research and outreach on the SDGs in the United States, including the launch of America’s Goals for 2030, the America’s Goals Report Card, and the first US SDGs State Index. Prior to that, Caroline worked on the Millennium Villages Project and the Nigeria Scale-up Initiative based at Columbia University and Millennium Promise managing projects and overseeing operations focused on scaling solutions to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Caroline holds a Master’s in Public Administration in Environmental Science and Policy from Columbia and a B.A. in Comparative Literature from Smith College.
Jennifer Hirsch
Dr. Jennifer Hirsch is an applied cultural anthropologist recognized internationally for fostering university and community engagement in sustainability and climate action. Since August 2015, she has served as the inaugural Director of the Center for Serve-Learn-Sustain at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Serve-Learn-Sustain (SLS) is the Institute’s Quality Enhancement Plan - a campus-wide academic initiative preparing students to use their disciplinary expertise to “create sustainable communities” in partnership with community, nonprofit, business, and academic stakeholders.
Dr. Hirsch’s research and teaching interests focus on: 1) equity in the sustainable built environment; 2) grassroots sustainability innovation; and 3) sustainability in cross-cultural perspective. At Georgia Tech, she leads the equity petal work for the GT Living Building – the Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design – and runs the SLS Innovating for Social Impact Program.
Dr. Hirsch is also a founding leader of RCE Greater Atlanta – a Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development - officially acknowledged in 2017 by the United Nations University. She is also Adjunct Associate Professor at Georgia Tech’s School of City and Regional Planning. She serves on the faculty of The Asset-Based Community Development Institute hosted by DePaul University and on the Board of Directors of AASHE (Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education).
Before coming to Georgia Tech, Dr. Hirsch worked in Chicago as Associate Director of Study Abroad at Northwestern University; as Urban Anthropology Director at The Field Museum of Natural History; and as an independent consultant with clients such as the City of Cleveland, Enterprise Community Partners, the U.S. Green Building Council, The Institute of Cultural Affairs, University of Illinois at Chicago, and Joliet Junior College. Dr. Hirsch received a Bachelor’s degree in American Culture from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.
Thomas Lovejoy
Thomas E. Lovejoy is an innovative and accomplished conservation biologist who coined the term “biological diversity.” He serves as Senior Fellow at the United Nations Foundation. In 2010 he was elected University Professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy at George Mason University. He served as President of the Heinz Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment from 2002-2008 and was the Biodiversity Chair of the Center from 2008-2013. Before assuming this position, Lovejoy was the World Bank’s Chief Biodiversity Advisor and Lead Specialist for Environment for Latin America and the Caribbean as well as Senior Advisor to the President of the United Nations Foundation. Spanning the political spectrum, Lovejoy has served on science and environmental councils under the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton administrations. At the core of these many influential positions are Lovejoy’s seminal ideas, which have formed and strengthened the field of conservation biology. He was the first to use the term “biological diversity” in 1980. In the 1980s, he brought international attention to the world’s tropical rainforests, and in particular, the Brazilian Amazon, where he has worked since 1965. In 1980 he produced the first projection of global extinctions for the Global 2000 Report to the President. Lovejoy also developed the now ubiquitous “debt-for-nature” swap programs and led the Minimum Critical Size of Ecosystems project. With three co-edited books (1992, 2018), he is credited with founding the field of climate change biology. He also founded the series Nature, the popular long-term series on public television. In 2001, Lovejoy was awarded the prestigious Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement. In 2009 he was the winner of BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Ecology and Conservation Biology Category. In 2009 he was appointed Conservation Fellow by the National Geographic. In 2012 he was recognized by the Blue Planet Prize. From 2008-2013 he chaired the Scientific and Technical Panel (STAP) for the Global Environment Facility (GEF) which provides funding to developing countries to meet their obligations related to the international environmental conventions. From 2013 he has served as Senior Advisor to the Chair of STAP. He served as Science Envoy for the Department of State (2017/2018). In 2019 he was appointed Explorer at Large by the National Geographic Society. Lovejoy holds B.S. and Ph.D (biology) degrees from Yale University.
Alainna Lynch
Alainna is the Research Manager at SDSN USA, where she manages US-focused research, including the US Cities Sustainable Development Goals Index, and the Sustainable Development Goals of the US state-level report. She focuses on what it will take to achieve the SDGs in the US, with a particular focus on the Leave No One Behind Agenda. Prior to her work with SDSN, Alainna worked with the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) on the post-2015 and Leave No One Behind Agenda. She has also worked with World Health Organization, UnLtd and other organizations on original research and building evidence-based practice. Alainna began her career with Teach for America in New York City. Alainna holds an MSc in Evidence-Based Social Intervention from Oxford University, and a BA in Sociology from the University of Chicago.
Gordon McCord
Gordon C. McCord is an Associate Teaching Professor of economics at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at UC San Diego and a Senior Advisor to the Sustainable Development Solutions Network. He has an extensive background in sustainable development and works at the intersection of development economics, public health and the environment. His research often employs spatial data and spatial analysis to explore topics such as the evolving role of geography in economic development, the burden of infectious diseases such as malaria and hookworm in a changing climate, the impact of agricultural technology diffusion, and the spatial patterns of violent conflict.
Sarah Mendelson
Ambassador Sarah E. Mendelson is Distinguished Service Professor of Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University and Head of Carnegie Mellon’s Heinz College in Washington DC. She served as the US Representative to the Economic and Social Council at the United Nations until January 20, 2017. Confirmed by the Senate in October 2015, she was the USUN lead on international development, human rights, and humanitarian affairs. There she oversaw campaigns to get country-specific resolutions passed in the General Assembly and to get NGOs, including the Committee to Protect Journalists, accredited to the UN. She led efforts to elevate the issue of combating human trafficking and was senior lead for the President's Summit on Refugees. Prior to her appointment as Ambassador, she served as a Deputy Assistant Administrator at USAID from 2010-2014 where she was the Agency lead on democracy, human rights, and governance.
A long time policy entrepreneur, she has spent twenty-five years working on development and human rights as a scholar and a practitioner. She worked in Moscow with the National Democratic Institute, served on the faculty of the Fletcher School at Tufts University, and spent over a decade as a senior adviser and the inaugural director of the Human Rights Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. While at the Washington-based think tank, she also worked as a senior fellow in the Russia and Eurasia Program overseeing focus groups, public opinion surveys, and social marketing campaigns in Russia on a range of issues. Her current work, funded by The Rockefeller Foundation, in collaboration with the International Youth Foundation, centers on growing and supporting the generation that will demand and deliver the Sustainable Development Goals—Cohort 2030—with a focus on building peaceful, just, and inclusive societies. At Carnegie Mellon, she co-chairs the University’s Sustainability Initiative announced by the Provost at UNGA 74.
She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the editorial board of International Security. The author of over 70 scholarly and public policy publications, Ambassador Mendelson received her BA in History from Yale University and her PhD in political science (international relations) from Columbia University.
Gene Morse
Gene D. Morse, PharmD, is a SUNY Distinguished Professor, Director of the Center for Integrated Global Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo and Co-Director of the SUNY Global Health Institute. Dr. Morse has had continuous NIH funding for drug development and therapeutics research since the introduction of antiretrovirals for the HIV epidemic in 1987. Dr. Morse is the Project Director for two NIH Fogarty International Center supported research training grants. One with the University of Zimbabwe (HIV Research Training Program) and the other with the University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona Campus (Global Infectious Diseases Research Training Program) in collaboration with SUNY Upstate Medical University. Dr. Morse is a member of the SUNY-UWI Center for Leadership and Sustainable Development as well as co-chair of the SUNY-UWI Health Research Consortium.
Mayor Bill Peduto
William Peduto was elected to the office of Mayor of the City of Pittsburgh in the General Election on November 5, 2013, and took office as Pittsburgh’s 60th Mayor in January of 2014. Prior to taking office, he worked for 19 years on Pittsburgh City Council - seven years as a staffer then twelve years as a Member of Council. As a Councilman, Bill Peduto wrote the most comprehensive package of government reform legislation in Pittsburgh’s history. He strengthened the Ethics Code, created the city’s first Campaign Finance Limits, established Lobbyist Disclosure and Lobbyist Registration and ended No-Bid Contracts. As Mayor, Peduto continues to champion the protection and enhancement of Pittsburgh’s new reputation - maintaining fiscal responsibility, establishing community based development plans, embracing innovative solutions and becoming a leader in green initiatives.
Jeffrey Sachs
Jeffrey D. Sachs is a University Professor and Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, where he directed the Earth Institute from 2002 until 2016. He is also Director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and a commissioner of the UN Broadband Commission for Development. He has been advisor to three United Nations Secretaries-General, and currently serves as an SDG Advocate under Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. He spent over twenty years as a professor at Harvard University, where he received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees. He has authored numerous bestseller books. His most recent book is A New Foreign Policy: Beyond American Exceptionalism (2018). Sachs was twice named as Time magazine’s 100 most influential world leaders, and was ranked by The Economist among the top three most influential living economists.
Jolynn Shoemaker
Jolynn Shoemaker is the Director of Global Engagements in Global Affairs at UC Davis. In this role, she coordinates UC Davis engagement on the UN SDGs, ileads the Global Centers Initiative and works on a variety of other international initiatives. She is also a consultant and writer on gender equality in international peace and security. Currently, she is a Fellow at the Our Secure Future: Women Make the Difference, a program of the One Earth Future, where she focuses on research and advocacy on the Women, Peace, and Security agenda. She has also taught national security as an adjunct professor in Political Science at California State University Sacramento. Jolynn spent almost 20 years in Washington DC working on foreign policy and national security issues. She has worked with a variety of non-profit organizations engaged in policy-relevant research, advocacy, and training. Prior to her work in the non-governmental sector, Ms. Shoemaker served in the U.S. Department of Defense, Office of the Secretary of Defense in both legal and policy positions, and in the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. She holds a J.D. (focus on international human rights) and an M.A. (Security Studies) from Georgetown University and a B.A. from University of California, San Diego.
Tony Pipa
Tony Pipa is a senior fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program at the Brookings Institution, where he studies place-based policies to improve social progress in the United States and globally, including through use of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the local level. He is also considering the future of U.S. multilateral aid and the applicability of lessons from international development to improving rural development in the U.S.
Tony has over 25 years of executive experience in the philanthropic and public sectors addressing poverty and advancing inclusive economic development. During the Obama administration, he served as chief strategy officer at the U.S. Agency for International Development and held multiple senior policy positions at the Agency. He served as U.S. special coordinator for the Post-2015 Agenda at the Department of State, leading the U.S. delegation at the U.N. to negotiate and adopt the SDGs. Prior to his government service, he directed the NGO Leaders Forum at Harvard University and was the founding CEO of the Warner Foundation, a family foundation in North Carolina focused on improving economic opportunity and race relations. He helped launch Foundation for Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and has played a principal role in the start-up of several philanthropic ventures focused on addressing poverty and improving distressed communities.
He serves on the board of directors of StriveTogether and the Advisory Council of the Center for Disaster Philanthropy. He has published articles, book chapters, and opinion pieces on local implementation of the SDGs, the effectiveness of place-based policies, multilateral aid, philanthropic effectiveness, financial innovations, and policies to strengthen resilience and prosperity. He attended Stanford University, was graduated from Duke University, and earned a Master of Public Administration at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Alicia Powers
Dr. Alicia Powers serves as the Managing Director for the Hunger Solutions Institute at Auburn University. Dr. Powers holds a PhD in Nutrition and Food Systems from The University of Southern Mississippi as well as a MS and BS in Nutrition and Food Sciences from Auburn University.
Prior to joining HSI, Powers worked as the Community Health Coordinator with the Alabama Extension. In this role, Powers developed, implemented and evaluated policy, systems and environmental strategies to increase access to healthy foods and physical activity opportunities for limited resource populations throughout Alabama. From 2007-2016, Powers served as an associate professor of Health Sciences at Furman University. During this time, Powers co-founded Live Well Greenville, a coalition of more than 50 organizations partnering to ensure access to healthy eating and active living opportunities for every Greenville County, South Carolina resident. She also engaged students and fellow faculty in implementing and evaluating these community-based initiatives.
Dano Weisbord
Dano Weisbord is the Executive Director of Sustainability and Campus Planning at Smith College. In this capacity, he also serves as the Administrative Director of the Center for the Environment, Ecological Design and Sustainability (CEEDS). CEEDS fosters learning through connecting real-world problems to research, curriculum, internships, and campus life. Dano is responsible for strategic physical planning projects at Smith which currently include a teaching and learning space master plan, a campus landscape master plan and a zero-carbon energy infrastructure plan.
Dano was the Senior Advisor for Organizational Sustainability for anti-poverty NGO ActionAid Intentional in London UK, and a Senior Project Manager for CLF Ventures in Boston, MA. He was a director of the Global Association of Corporate Sustainability Officers in London, and lead author on Sustainable Endowments Institute’s Greening the Bottom Line. He holds a BFA in Industrial Design from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MA in Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning from Tufts University.
Vana Zervanos
Vana Zervanos is the Associate Dean of Continuing and Graduate Studies and External Affairs at the Haub School of Business at Saint Joseph's University. She earned a B.A. degree in psychology from Dickinson College; a Master’s degree in counseling psychology from the University of Connecticut; an MBA in international marketing from Saint Joseph’s University and earned an Ed.D. in Higher Education Management from the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Zervanos serves on the board of Middle Atlantic Associate of Colleges of Business Administration and is a member of the RME Affinity Group for AACSB, the international accreditation body for business schools. Zervanos oversees the The Pedro Arrupe Center for Business Ethics and is the Co-Director and co-founder of The Dean’s Leadership Program, an intercollegiate leadership program which is values-based, reflective, and biased toward serving others. Zervanos is a consultant with other business schools who are in the process of becoming accredited by AACSB.