2022 NESEA Board of Directors Candidates
Voting is open to all NESEA Members and closes on November 3. Members will be emailed a link to their ballot to record their votes. If you have questions about membership, or if you did not receive your link, please contact Katie Schendel, Membership Manager, kschendel@nesea.org.
If you have questions about the election, please contact Florence MacGregor, Interim Executive Director, and fmacgregor@nesea.org.
Sara Bayer
CPHC
AP & Dir. of Sustianability
Magnusson Architecture and Planning
Magnusson Architecture and Planning
Ms. Bayer leads MAP’s sustainable development efforts, offering expertise to help all projects achieve higher energy efficiency goals and lower embodied carbon levels. She was the driving force behind the firm’s recent NYSERDA Buildings of Excellence submissions, resulting in seven winning projects; and she directed MAP’s RetrofitNY project with NYSERDA which explored renovation strategies to achieve near net zero energy use in occupied multifamily buildings. Ms. Bayer has also managed several of the firm’s significant senior and specialized housing projects. She has been practicing architecture in NYC for over 15 years and presented on sustainability topics at many venues including at NESEA conferences.
Registered Architect: State of New York; NCARB Certified; LEED Accredited Professional; Certified Passive House Consultant
University of Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning, Master of Architecture; Connecticut College, Bachelor of Architectural Studies
What talents do you want to share with the board and the community?
This moment in time is critical to our future and I'm yearning to contribute more deeply, bringing my expertise as an architect building healthy and sustainable affordable housing. I believe a sustainable and even regenerative built environment is achievable and will bring this positive stance to all board work. For many years I've been rooting out barriers to healthy and sustainable building practices and have seen how norms can change quickly, particularly if all stakeholders’ concerns are understood. Therefore, I can creatively and attentively seek to enhance our growth and ability to share knowledge, which has given confidence to many to employ new strategies.
How long have you been engaged with the NESEA community and how?
Since 2015 I've been an active member of NESEA. I was co-chair of the Building Energy NYC conference in 2020, a curator and presenter in 2021, and also for this year a curator and presenter. I've also participated in many of the amazing tours!
What drives you to want to serve as a NESEA Board Member?
I've seen firsthand its impactful benefits to our industry. An organization of this caliber is absolutely essential to advance construction in a positive direction, toward sustainable energy practices for all. The candid, rigorous and honest solutions, advice, and approaches shared at NESEA have literally changed construction. Being a part of this Board and enhancing it's success would be an extremely effective undertaking, to help strengthen NESEA and accelerate advancements in the built environment.
What part of NESEA's mission are you the most passionate about and how can you support it as a Board Member?
The cross disciplinary nature of our collaboration is key to our success, as well as our focus on equity, rigor, and honesty of that collaboration. I will seek to support this by doing everything I can to exhibit these qualities and encourage others to have safe space to do so.
Nick Jones
CEM, LEED-GA
Senior Energy Efficiency Consultant
Eversource - CT
Eversource - CT
Nick Jones serves as the Residential New Construction – Energy Efficiency Program Lead for Eversource Energy. He also serves as the Residential Demand Response Program Lead for the energy efficiency group. Nick has spent the bulk of his career working with builders, developers, design teams, efficiency programs, industry associations, and state and federal organizations to advance high performance building practices and technologies.
In 2016, Nick served as a presenter for the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE), and published a white paper entitled Zero Energy Homes: Available and Scalable. In 2017, Nick served as a presenter for the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA)’s Building Energy conference in New York City. Nick has also served multiple terms as a judge for the Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Housing Innovation Awards. Nick holds credentials as a Certified Energy Manager (CEM), a LEED – Green Associate, and a Green Professional (G-PRO) Operations & Maintenance (O&M).
He currently serves on the board of directors for the Connecticut Green Building Council (CTGBC), and serves as co-chair of the Professional Development/Credentialing committee and co-chair for the Emerging Professional (EP). He also serves on the board of directors for the Northeast Home Energy Rating Systems (NE-HERS) Alliance, and is a member of the Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET) Emerging Leadership Council. He holds a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree from Eastern Connecticut State University in Sustainable Energy Studies, and a Master of Science (MS) Degree in Global Sustainability from Central Connecticut State University.
What talents do you want to share with the board and the community?
The most unique talents that I can bring to the board and the community are leadership skills, and interpersonal/communication skills. My career has allotted me the opportunity to become a subject matter expert in the field of high-performance building design and construction. As such, this experience has led me to serve on various board of directors including the CT Green Building Council, CT Passive House Alliance, Northeast HERS Alliance, and a RESNET Advisory Council position. I’ve also had the opportunity to present at both local, state, regional, and national conferences with various groups including AIA, NESEA, ACEEE, NBI and several others. Throughout my career, I’ve also taken on challenges head-on, and have led strategic initiatives throughout the region centered around creating a more diverse, efficient, and equitable built environment.
How long have you been engaged with the NESEA community and how?
I have been engaged with the NESEA community since my senior year of college in 2012. Since that time, I have spearheaded the development of strategic partnerships between EnergizeCT and the NESEA community, including, but not limited to, advocating for sponsorship opportunities for NESEA through EnergizeCT, assisting in the logistical coordination of several NESEA pro tours by connecting NESEA staff with local builders in CT, participating in NESEA webinars and conferences, and also presenting at BuildingEnergy NYC in 2017 on a panel entitled "ZE, LBC, in NYC?".
What drives you to want to serve as a NESEA Board Member?
The most significant driving force for my desire to serve on the NESEA board is an overarching eagerness to drive regional change. NESEA is a critical, regional organization that can drive such change, and I am personally dedicated to helping to drive that change by engaging members, allies, and key stakeholders, to think holistically about the ways in which our region views critical issues such as beneficial electrification, climate change, resiliency and adaptation. I am passionate about continuing to transform our region’s views on energy efficiency and sustainability at large, and it’s for this reason that the NESEA vision is one that aligns with my values.
What part of NESEA's mission are you the most passionate about and how can you support it as a Board Member?
NESEA’s mission is to “advance sustainability practices in the built environment by cultivating a cross-disciplinary community where practitioners are encouraged to share, collaborate and learn”. As someone who enthusiastically believes that a cross-disciplinary approach to sustainability is the only way to drive transformational change, this mission statement speaks directly to my own personal values. I plan to support this mission by utilizing both my unique skillset, as well as, my professional network, to help advance the mission by supporting key NESEA initiatives which provide for the betterment of the built environment at large.
Parlin Meyer
Managing Principal
BrightBuilt Home
BrightBuilt Home
After a first career as a 500-ton Ocean Master licensed captain and deck officer, Parlin Meyer switched tacks to pursue a second career in Architecture and Development. She joined Kaplan Thompson Architects early in 2013, to help develop a unique concept that would marry off-site construction with high-performance assemblies and design. This concept, first born out of the success of Kaplan Thompson’s BrightBuilt Barn in 2009, would officially become BrightBuilt Home in the summer of 2013.
Under her guidance as Director, BrightBuilt Home has facilitated the completion of nearly 200 homes across New England and the Eastern Seaboard. Parlin leads development of new designs, optimization of processes in offsite building, and identification of best practices and materials for creating healthy homes. Regardless of where she directs her focus, the wind in her sails remains the same: fostering a collaborative and creative spirit among designers, builders, and homeowners in order to forge better solutions for the built environment.
What talents do you want to share with the board and the community?
In my work, I lean into a systems-based approach for developing internal and client-facing processes, frequently jumping between macro and micro scales throughout. I hope to bring this analysis, perspective, and creative problem solving to NESEA's programs and new initiatives. Also, due to my varied professional background and my current role at BrightBuilt Home, I can speak fluently across the many languages of the built environment, from architecture, to construction, to manufacturing, and real estate development. This insight lends well to serving all members of the NESEA community. I lead with empathy, gather data through community, and carry opinions mindfully. ...I also know how to handle a sextant.
How long have you been engaged with the NESEA community and how?
I have been attending and participating in NESEA events for the last 9+ years. I've presented at the Building Energy Conference multiple times, hosted a booth at the exhibitors' hall, hosted two pro-tours, and have been an active member of the Building Energy Bottom Lines group since 2014.
What drives you to want to serve as a NESEA Board Member?
NESEA plays a vital role in the advancement of sustainable, social, and economic best practices in the built environment. I am driven by the opportunity to better deploy NESEA as a vehicle for advancing our shared missions to a wider audience and on an expedited timeline. I would like to create opportunities that extend NESEA's reach beyond the current membership and invite those more traditionally operating outside the realm of sustainability to feel welcomed and interested in the programs NESEA offers. This outreach, inclusion, and programs specifically geared towards non-traditional NESEA membership, offers potency in building community and ramping up our fight on behalf of the climate. As a female representative of the Maine constituency, I also feel that I would be uniquely positioned to serve on behalf of the architects, builders, and manufacturers that make up the Maine-NH-VT region - both NESEA members and beyond.
What part of NESEA's mission are you the most passionate about and how can you support it as a Board Member?
In keeping with my interest in the outreach potential of NESEA, I'm most passionate about programs that support workforce development, JEDI initiatives, education and advancement of building science, and creative solutions to economic constraints of current construction costs. I would be interested in spearheading the development of new events and programs geared toward individuals NESEA traditionally struggles to reach, and establish professional partnerships between NESEA and representatives from other sectors of the industry - such as lenders and large scale vendors - to explore financial solutions for all who deliver on the built environment.
Renwick Paige
Chief Executive Officer
Energy Infrastructure Partners LLC
Energy Infrastructure Partners LLC
Renwick Paige, who founded EIP in 2011, has broad planning, development and financial structuring experience. EIP focuses on clean and renewable energy programs and projects, provides strategic and financial advisory and develops environmental justice solutions.
Mr. Paige also has substantial experience with the municipal and governmental sector client base, the MUSH market, and can deliver substantial insights concerning the delivery of goods and services to that constituency. He has executed over $10B of financial transactions. He led airport and energy financings at Lehman Brothers and launched the project finance and air cargo product lines for the GE Capital/FGIC. He led Acquisitions and Development at U.S. Water (Bechtel and Kiewit) and helped to build the alternative assets fundraising banking business at JP Morgan/Chase. He received a J.D. from University of Pennsylvania Law School, attended Wharton Graduate School and received a B.A. from Amherst College.
What talents do you want to share with the board and the community?
My career includes 30+ years in financial services working with with large global organizations -- JPMorgan, Lehman Brothers, GE Capital. I came to the energy efficiency space in 2011 when I joined the Board of NYC Energy Efficiency Corp -- America's first municipal Greenbank. That's also when I started my business. I can bring a financing perspective on Energy Efficiency and Clean Energy. My MBE also brings insights on Environmental Justice and Economic Justice that can be important to policy making in the Northeastern States.
How long have you been engaged with the NESEA community and how?
I have attended Building Energy New York three times. I have also encouraged my team members to participate in the New York and Boston events. My role as a Board Member should also result in my New York (four) and Massachusetts (three) colleagues becoming more involved in NESEA along with me.
What drives you to want to serve as a NESEA Board Member?
It's an exciting time in the clean energy world. The policies of the Northeastern States will stimulate electrification and decarbonization across the rest of America. I think that I can make a substantial contribution as a Board Member. It's also good business for me to give back by participating with NESEA.
What part of NESEA's mission are you the most passionate about and how can you support it as a Board Member?
I am a big believer in multidisciplinary solutions. My academic career reflects that approach. My professional career does as well. Many problems are complex and the challenges of the built environment reflect that complexity. While NESEA's constituency is focused on sustainability, the organization's events and programs are increasingly addressing other aspects of the building efficiency and sustainability landscape -- diversity and equity, utility programs, the finance gap. These are all issues on which I am passionate.
Matt Root
Incumbent
Associate Principal
Integrated Eco Strategy
Integrated Eco Strategy
Matt Root works with owners and design/construction teams to implement strategies for improving building performance and leveraging projects to drive the healthier materials marketplace. Matt works closely with projects pursuing Living Building Challenge certification, and others inspired by the program’s intent. He also supports the development of IES’ proprietary software, Red2Green, which helps project teams identify, track, communicate, and report-out on all building products in the project. Previously, Matt worked at Conservation Services Group/CLEAResult, where he led a team of mechanical engineers, enclosure experts and building scientists. His wide-ranging experience encompasses mechanical systems, enclosure detailing and performance testing.
An active NESEA member, Matt has written articles on healthier materials for BuildingEnergy Magazine and presided as Co-Vice Chair and Conference Chair for BuildingEnergy Boston conferences (‘14 and ’15). He was recently appointed as an inaugural member of the Massachusetts Stretch Energy Codes Technical Advisory committee, helping provide expert review and guidance on MA building energy code language.
What talents do you want to share with the board and the community?
I hope to share my passion for learning and my commitment to the importance of community. I believe that we as the construction/energy industry will make major strides in the next 5 years in widely adopting many of the strategies long discussed in the NESEA community. NESEA will hopefully play a major role in supporting this adoption and I hope to support NESEA in succeeding in that role.
How long have you been engaged with the NESEA community and how?
I starting attending the Boston NESEA conference in 2003 and was instantly hooked by the opportunity to learn from experienced practitioner who were willing to share both successes and, more importantly, failures. I served as the BE Boston Co-Vice Chair and then Conference Chair in 2014 and 2015, have written two articles for the BE Magazine. Most recently as a member of the Board, I chaired the development of NESEA's 5 year strategic plan, released in 2022.
What drives you to want to serve as a NESEA Board Member?
I hope to help this community in supporting educational opportunities and providing space for us to meet each other and form lasting relationships.
What part of NESEA's mission are you the most passionate about and how can you support it as a Board Member?
The most important word to me in our NESEA mission statement is "community". I want to focus on making sure that NESEA has the tools in place to successfully continue to strengthen and build our community. To me that means NESEA has strong leadership, is financially stable, and has the ability to support those members of our community who want to step forward and make something happen.
Jodi Smits Anderson
Incumbent
FAIA, LEED-AP BD+C, Well-AP
Associate Director Codes and Policy
New Buildings Institute
FAIA, LEED-AP BD+C, Well-AP
New Buildings Institute
Jodi Smits Anderson is focusing on code and policy support, research, creation, and delivery with New Buildings Institute. Jodi is a FAIA, LEED AP BD+C, WELL-AP, regenerative practitioner, NESEA Board member, past regional and national U.S. Green Building Council committee member, wife, mom, hiker, kayaker, knitter, and storyteller. She recently led the Albany office of a large, national A/E firm and prior to that spent 15 years as Director of Sustainability for a NYS Authority.
She has spoken at the Living Future conference in Seattle and in Washington, DC, at the NACUBO conference in Austin, TX, at the first Wellness in Design conference in San Diego, CA, and several times each at Greenbuild, NESEA’s Building Energy Boston, and the NYS Green Building Conference, and has been a guest teacher at SUNY ESF, RPI, Ithaca College, NYU, Cornell, and SUNY Albany. She is a NY Energy Code trainer, the 2018 recipient of the Green Building Advocate award, and has assisted in research and writing for Project Drawdown, which cites the 100 market-proven ways we already have in our toolkit to reduce CO2 in our atmosphere.
She had a featured article that appeared in the Journal of Green Building's V14 N3 in July of 2019, on “Excellence in Building Envelopes”, and has co-written a thought leadership paper on ResHalls of the Near Future, learning from COVID, economics, equity, shifts in education styles, and health in buildings. Jodi’s goal is to understand and incorporate informed sustainable practices into design, construction, and living, and to share whatever she has learned and learn still more from whomever will talk with her.
What talents do you want to share with the board and the community?
My abilities to instigate, to multi-solve, and to find and celebrate joy. As far as instigation, I am very aware of the limits of the world and our organization's goals and abilities, but I never hesitate to ask what the potential is in doing things differently or in exploring an emergent opportunity or capability. Multi-solving is truly a super-power we should all cultivate. It helps us to build community by connecting across the false silos created in the business, building, government, and NFP arenas. It joins people and ideas for great traction and power. Finally, my ability to find joy and celebrate is valuable. The work we do is hard. It is easier with others and with a view to celebration the process and intent and even to celebrate what some may think of as "failures", because these failures give us the information we need to then succeed.
How long have you been engaged with the NESEA community and how?
Quite some time, though the shared knowledge continues to make me feel like a newbie! I attended my first conference in the early 2000's, I think, and was sparked by a few of the presenters. "What a great community of learning and experience!" I first presented in 2004, and have presented often since, engaged in content committee work, joined working groups, been a co-Chair of the NYC conference, and been a committed lover/partner of NESEA all the way.
What drives you to want to serve as a NESEA Board Member?
Connections and process. I feel that NESEA is one of the few communities I have ever engaged with that strikes the balance between structure and evolution well. This allows for real connections between humans for exemplary growth and joy. My focus is process, and being on the board puts me in the middle of building and refining and radically changing that process as needed. And I get to do this with giving, collaborative, curious humans that never let me rest on my achievements. And I work to do the same for them.
What part of NESEA's mission are you the most passionate about and how can you support it as a Board Member?
"Cultivating a cross-disciplinary community where practitioners are encouraged to share, collaborate and learn." This is the mojo we need to become, once again, in harmony with the system of Nature, with each other, and with our future. This makes me all-in through collaboration, curiosity, and real exploration of what is possible for us to reach for, together.
Mark Tajima
BPA Analyst
Owner / Partner
B. Alpha Construction LLC
B. Alpha Construction LLC
Employment Experience
9/2022- Present
B.Alpha Construction LLC
Partner
High performance insulation products and services
New construction, Multi-family & Commercial
9/2009 - 8/2022
Energia LLC - Worker Co-op
Chief Operations Officer
Weatherization & Insulation services
Prior Employers
-Amherst Public Schools
- Cambridge Public Schools
- Brown Brothers Harriman
- Bank of New York
- Citibank / Citicorp
- Merrill Lynch International
- United Nations Geneva Switzerland
Board Affiliations
- Building Performance Association BPA (current)
-Western MA Green Consortium WMGC (current)
- Energia LLC (past)
- Northeast Biodiesel (past)
- Co-op Power (past)
Education
- Lesley University MA
- Connecticut College BA
- Northfield Mt.Hermon School HS
- International School Geneva MS
What talents do you want to share with the board and the community?
I look to bring all of the skills, knowledge and experience from my 15 years of experience in building performance, 10 years as an educator and 16 years in banking,finance and global securities processing to the board and community of NESEA. As a veteran In building performance I have held positions from Crew Leader and Project Manager in the field to Operations Manager and Chief Operations Officer in the office. All of these positions would inform my actions as a board member and community member of NESEA. I am well-versed in all levels of board activities having served in positions from board secretary to board chairperson for several organizations. I bring experience in subcommittee management, fundraising and governance for both local and national organizations.
How long have you been engaged with the NESEA community and how?
I have been engaged as a supporter and member of the NESEA community for the last 14 years. In my early years in building performance I have volunteered at the tradeshow for Building Energy Boston, was an exhibitor at the BE tradeshow, as well as a panelist presenter. Locally I have attended NESEA Pro tours and in my previous role as Chief Operations Officer of Energia I participated in the Building Energy Bottom Lines BEBL group “Mighty Five” for the last several years. As a company member of NESEA I have supported and promoted its vision and mission.
What drives you to want to serve as a NESEA Board Member?
I would like to continue to support and promote the mission of NESEA in New England. I believe that there are still too many businesses in our region doing weatherization work without truly understanding sustainability practices and building science principles. I feel very strongly that the NESEA vision for green building and the resilient built environment is one that needs to be more widely adopted for us to have a greater impact on climate change. Throughout many of my activities I have sought to promote diversity, climate justice and equity in the building trades. With the rapid greying of our skilled workforce I believe that the answer to our industry’s workforce challenges lies in solving this diversity issue. This is the passion that drives and informs my work at B.Alpha construction. It also fuels my volunteerism for local, state, regional and national green building and building performance organizations.
What part of NESEA's mission are you the most passionate about and how can you support it as a Board Member?
It has been my experience serving on multiple boards over these last 15 years that in one way or another they have all been challenged with meeting their diversity, equity and inclusion goals both as organizations, memberships and boards. I am most passionate about furthering this aspect of the NESEA mission. I believe that the intersection of climate justice and equity starts at the top of an organization and that the vision to “share – collaborate – learn” is the means to achieve these ends. The silver tsunami of retirements present an opportunity to reinvent the world with greater climate justice. In this regard I would like to work to broaden NESEA’s impact in and across all communities of our region.
Our Mission
NESEA advances sustainability practices in the built environment by cultivating a cross-disciplinary community where practitioners are encouraged to share, collaborate and learn.