The Environmental Collaboratory's Advisory Council

Dr. Jamile Tellez Lieberman graduated from her Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) program at Drexel University's Dornsife School of Public Health in the Department of Community Health & Prevention in June 2022. Her dissertation comprised a mixed-methods study of the mental health impacts of parental deportation or the anticipation of parental deportation among U.S.-citizen, children of Mexican immigrants and the role that anti-immigrant/anti-Latino discrimination/racism may play on that pathway. She examined quantitative survey data and qualitative interviews with children as part of a larger, ambidirectional pilot study funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development called Between the Lines, for which she was the project coordinator. During her time at Drexel University, Jamile's work has focused on Latino health and Latino immigrant health, community-based participatory research, maternal/child health and arts and health. Jamile was selected as a Global Alliance for Training in Health Equity Research (GATHER) Fellow (Doctoral Trainee, 21-22); she worked with the National Institute for Public Health of Mexico on initiatives related to COVID-19 orphanhood.

Thoai Nguyen grew up in South Philadelphia and is Chief Executive Officer of Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Association Coalition (SEAMAAC), an organization based in South Philadelphia that serves and advocates for hundreds of immigrant and refugee families each year. SEAMAAC’s partnerships include over 40 local and regional entities, encompassing government, healthcare providers, and non-profit agencies. Since 2015, SEAMAAC has increased its community development activities, including convening the Mifflin Coalition of neighborhood organizations collaborating on critical issues of mutual aid, housing, local business, and parks.

 

Fernando Treviño is the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's Special Deputy Secretary for Environmental Justice. His work focuses on ensuring the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people with the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental policies, regulation, and laws; as well as with respect to the identification of environmental issues that affect the most vulnerable communities.

Abby Sullivan is the Acting Chief Resilience Officer in the Philadelphia Office of Sustainability. In this role, she supports municipal climate adaptation by translating climate science into actionable tools and information and leads Philadelphia’s citywide climate resilience planning. Previously, she served as an Environmental Scientist at the Philadelphia Water Department (PWD) with the Climate Change Adaptation Program where she led the Department’s coastal flood resilience efforts. Prior to working on the climate adaptation, she worked on public engagement and planning for PWD’s green stormwater infrastructure program, Green City Clean Waters. Abby is a Certified Floodplain Manager and serves on NASA’s Sea Level Change Practitioner Consultation Board. She has a Master of Resource Management degree with a focus on coastal systems from the University Centre of the Westfjords, University of Akureyri in Iceland.

Michelle J. DePass is the immediate past president of Meyer Memorial Trust and a nationally recognized leader at the intersection of social, economic and environmental justice. Michelle’s journey to the helm of Oregon’s second largest private foundation began in her hometown of New York City, where she worked as a community organizer and civil rights lawyer. In the succeeding three decades, she has developed a rich interdisciplinary background and distinguished herself as a thought leader at the intersections of academia, political strategy and progressive philanthropy and social and economic justice.

Stacey Sublett Halliday is a principal in the Washington, DC office of Beveridge & Diamond PC and serves as a leader of the firm’s Environmental Justice practice. She works with clients to develop comprehensive, company-wide environmental justice policies, programs, and implementation frameworks. Ms. Halliday also advises clients in the utilities, energy, and electronics sector on issues including environmental compliance due diligence, environmental enforcement, corporate social responsibility, non-financial reporting, and project-specific environmental justice strategy and risk mitigation. Ms. Halliday previously served as Special Counsel to the EPA General Counsel, through which she coordinated EPA’s response to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights investigation into EPA’s Title VI program, coordinated with the Office of Environmental Justice to effectively utilize EJ 2020 and EJ Legal Tools within the Office of General Counsel, and supported agency efforts to advance international and domestic climate and sustainability initiatives.

Mark Hays is a Managing Director and Director of Sustainable & Impact Investing at Glenmede. In this role, he provides strategic leadership of Glenmede’s sustainable and impact investing efforts. Mark and his team are responsible for the development of new investment capabilities, the creation and delivery of innovative thought leadership, and the deepening of relationships with clients and industry partners.

Tim Hanlon, current MD/PhD candidate at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine, graduated magna cum laude from Drexel in 2021 with an Honors BS in Biological Sciences, minor in neuroscience, and certificate in writing and publishing. Tim subsequently studied the role of DNA repair pathway alterations in tumor biology with the Mouw lab at Harvard Medical School/Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Much of his work aimed to discover novel DNA repair-directed therapies and identify biomarkers that can guide the use of existing DNA damaging agents. Through this, Tim led the world’s first pre-clinical trial combining immune and targeted therapies in bladder cancer models. Additionally, he developed a new cancer therapeutic panel to determine the pharmacodynamics of new drugs and eventual patient specific treatment plans. Tim plans to continue cancer biology research for his PhD with the goal of becoming a Surgeon-Scientist.

Skelly serves as Executive Director for the Water Resources Association of the Delaware River Basin (WRADRB), promoting the sustainable and resilient management of water resources within the Delaware River basin, which spans four states and provides drinking water for 15 million people. She is also Vice President of Ultimate Risk Services, a startup providing critical cyber security tools for small businesses. She is Treasurer for the Chester County Solid Waste Authority Board, and on the Board of Directors for the Smart Energy Initiative of Southeastern Pennsylvania.

Ebony H. Griffin is a staff attorney with the Public Interest Law Center focusing on Environmental and Food Justice. Ebony focuses on projects that support low-income, historically disinvested communities and communities of color in advocating effectively for sustainable and equitable neighborhoods. She is also the Director of the Garden Justice Legal Initiative, a project providing pro bono legal support, policy research and advocacy, and community education and organizing to community gardeners and market farmers in the Philadelphia region. Ebony has extensive experience in the field of environmental law. In law school, she worked as a summer law clerk for the White House Council on Environmental Quality and also spent five months clerking for the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance at the Environmental Protection Agency. After law school, Ebony clerked for the Honorable Judge Zoe Bush of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia for one year. After clerking for Judge Bush, Ebony spent several years working as an environmental and safety regulatory associate at Enhesa Inc. in Washington DC.

Patrick brings over 20 years of experience on climate, clean energy and environmental issues to his role as president and CEO of PennFuture. Prior to joining PennFuture, he spent six years as Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, leading key initiatives like passage of the state’s first carbon trading regulation, acceleration of the Commonwealth’s cleanup of waterways, and a new focus on environmental justice issues. He also served as President of the Environmental Council of the States, the voice of state environmental agencies nationally. Prior to being named Secretary, Patrick served in roles at the DEP and the Public Utility Commission, heading up the state’s energy office, managing the agency’s budget and human resources, and overseeing the development of regulations and guidance documents. Some of his most notable accomplishments in government include development of the state’s first wind farms, the Award-winning Ehrenfeld reclaimed mines project, and entry into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).

Joseph Otis Minott, Esq. has been the Executive Director and Chief Counsel for Clean Air Council for more than three decades and supervises all Council projects. Mr. Minott has developed statewide recognition for his work on transportation, urban air pollution, and environmental justice issues. Mr. Minott started the Council’s Indoor Air Pollution Information Center over 20 years ago and is an expert on the Clean Air Act and regulatory policies in Pennsylvania. He has taught courses as an adjunct professor in environmental law and policy at the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University. He holds an M.A. in political science from the University of Pennsylvania and a J.D. from Villanova University School of Law.

Marc is a recently retired founding partner of Manko, Gold, Katcher & Fox, LLP, an environmental, land use and energy law firm headquartered in suburban Philadelphia. After a stint at the Environmental Protection Agency Region 3, Marc’s practice focused on site remediation, environmental due diligence and permitting, water quality regulation and the full array of environmental issues impacting business and industry in the region and across the county. Marc remains actively engaged in the field as a Trustee of the Academy of Natural Sciences, and a Board member of the Pocono Environmental Education Center and the Water Resources Association of the Delaware River Basin. Marc enjoys traveling and spending time with his 11 grandchildren.

Michael Sklaroff is a retired partner at Ballard Spahr LLP, where he holds the title Special Counsel. He chaired Ballard's Real Estate Department from its inception in 1988 through 2012. Mr. Sklaroff planned, chaired and moderated Pennsylvania Bar Institute Programs "The Law of Historic Preservation" and "The Science of Land Use." He was part of the course planning team for the PBI Program "The Supreme Court's Decision in Robinson Township and the Future of Zoning in the Commonwealth," together with colleague Harry Weiss and (now Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Bucks County) Jordan Yeager. He is founder and executive director of the Pennsylvania Bipartisan Climate Initiative, Inc., a newly formed 501 (c)(3) public charity dedicated to the implementation of Pennsylvania's Environmental Rights Amendment across the Commonwealth, especially to protect historically underserved communities from the burdens of climate change.

Justin DeAngelis is a Partner at Denham Capital and co-leads the firm’s Sustainable Infrastructure investment efforts. Justin brings over 20 years of experience to the firm and is a member of the Investment and Valuation Committees. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Endeavor Energy, Ceiba Energy, Greenleaf Power, subsidiaries of Rio Energy and is a member of the Advisory Committee of Themis Energy. Justin is a member of Drexel University’s Alumni Board of Governors, the Advancement Committee for Mount Saint Mary Academy and is taking part in Columbia University’s World Projects Initiative. He is a member of the Millennium Challenge Corporation Advisory Council and a member of the Advisory Council for NASP-USAID Investment Partnership for “Mobilizing Institutional Investors to Develop Africa’s Infrastructure.

María José (Majo) Garcia is a senior pursuing a Bachelor's and Master's in Biomedical Engineering with a concentration in Tissue and Pediatric Engineering and an Honors Distinction at Drexel University. During her first co-op, she worked at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia as a Neuroscience Researcher where she created an algorithm to analyze eye-tracking data to understand cognitive brain function and driving performance in healthy and clinical populations. In her journey to making research and science more equitable, she joined the University of Pennsylvania for her second co-op as a Bilingual Research Assistant. In her role, she coordinated and oversaw research participants across 30 hospitals nationally with the aim to study the impact of pediatric critical illness to guide future intervention research to optimize child and family outcomes. During her last co-op she joined Century Therapeutics as a Immuno-Oncology Researcher where she designs and performs experiments that help progress allogeneic iNK and iT cell therapy product candidates across solid tumor and hematologic malignancies. Majo plans to continue immuno-oncology research with the aim of creating and implementing solutions that are sustainable for low-income areas.

Michael is the CEO of O3 World, a solutions consultancy delivering leading edge technologies including AI and ChatGPT, UX and CX solutions, elegant design and research applications, and innovative and strategic product design addressing complex issues impacting today and tomorrow’s businesses. Prior, he spent 20 years with Comcast/NBC Universal Corporation where, as the Vice President of Strategy and Planning, he delivered and executed mid- and long-term strategic plans of new products, verticals, adjacencies, partnerships, and strategic synergies leveraging the Comcast companies including Sky U.K., NBC, Universal, Comcast Technology Solutions and Comcast Ventures. Michael was on the global speaker circuit speaking on innovation and the value of connectivity as an accelerator for economic, cultural, and community impact.

As Executive Vice Provost for Research & Innovation, Aleister Saunders has overseen the University’s research enterprise since 2014 and its innovation enterprise since 2019. Reporting directly to President Fry and Provost Jensen he oversees seven functional teams that support Drexel’s research and innovation ecosystem. These areas of responsibility include research strategy, sponsored programs, research and regulatory compliance, research systems, core facilities, research centers/institutes, and technology commercialization. Dr. Saunders partners widely to support the physical and administrative infrastructure, the human capital related to research and innovation, and economic development opportunities of research activities.

Sharon L. Walker, PhD, is Dean of Drexel’s College of Engineering and Distinguished Professor in the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering. She also holds courtesy faculty appointments as professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, as well as Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biodiversity, Earth and Environmental Science in the College of Arts and Sciences. A Yale University-trained water quality systems expert focusing on the fate and transport of bacteria and nanoparticles in water, Walker is Fellow of the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). She is also the Director of the national leadership development program, ELATES at Drexel, aimed to advance senior women faculty in academic engineering, computer science and other STEM fields.

Scott Cooper, PhD, is the president and CEO of the Academy of Natural Sciences. An international museum professional, Cooper has spent more than two decades protecting, transforming and promoting cultural institutions around the world. Cooper studied engineering at the University of Manchester and architectural conservation at Edinburgh College of Art. He was awarded a UNESCO scholarship to study stone conservation in Venice and later returned to Edinburgh to complete his doctorate in architecture.

David Brown currently serves as Dean of Drexel's College of Arts and Sciences. He was previously Divisional Dean of the Social Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder and was a professor in the Political Science Department, where he served as Chair for 6 years. He also served as Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee for the College of Arts & Sciences. His scholarship explores the economic impact of political institutions as well as the relationship between globalization and democracy.

Dr. Amy Carroll-Scott is an Associate Professor and the Chair of the Department of Community Health and Prevention at the Drexel Dornsife School of Public Health. Her research focuses on understanding and addressing urban health inequities and underlying social inequities. This research consists of social epidemiological and mixed methods studies applied to the lived experience of urban neighborhoods and schools, and driven by community-based participatory research approaches.

David L. Unruh began his tenure as Senior Vice President of Drexel University’s Office of Institutional Advancement on November 1, 2014. With over two decades of executive experience in higher education, David brings a collaborative, transparent and inclusive approach to engaging alumni and donors in the life of the institution. Prior to his time at Drexel University, David served as senior vice president with Grenzebach Glier and Associates, an international full-service philanthropic management consulting firm serving non-profits. There, he served as co-lead of GG+A’s education practice area and led the training practice.

Alison Kenner is Associate Professor of Politics and a faculty member in the Center for Science, Technology, and Society at Drexel University. Her first book, Breathtaking: Asthma Care in a Time of Climate Change (University of Minnesota Press, 2018), documents how care is materialized at different scales to address the U.S. asthma epidemic. From 2014-2020, Kenner led the Philadelphia Health and Environment Ethnography Lab (PHEEL), which facilitated collaborative projects between Drexel students, government and nongovernmental partners, and community organizations. During this period she co-led Climate Ready Philly, a climate education workshop series hosted in neighborhoods across the city. Her latest research, The Energy Rights Project, is a National Science Foundation funded study that looks at how organizations address energy vulnerability in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic region. She is an editorial collective member of Engaging Science Technology, and Society, the open access journal of the Society for Social Studies of Science.

Patty Elkis, PP, AICP, is Deputy Executive Director at the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission. She oversees all planning work at the agency, including capital programming; long-range planning; transit, bicycle and pedestrian planning; community and economic development; and smart growth, environmental, climate change, energy, and healthy communities planning. Patty received her BA in Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania, and her Master of City Planning, with a Certificate in Appropriate Technology for Developing Countries, also from Penn.