Professionals who make a difference

Doug Foy — BS, Princeton University; JD, Harvard University — As a super-secretary in Governor Mitt Romney's cabinet, Doug oversaw transportation, housing, environment, and energy agencies, with combined annual capital budgets of $5 billion, and a total workforce exceeding 11,000. This unique position enabled him to put into practice many of the policies he developed over twenty-five years as head of the Conservation Law Foundation, New England’s premier environmental advocacy organization. Widely acknowledged as a leading environmentalist, Doug received the President’s Environmental and Conservation Challenge Award, the country’s highest conservation award, the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service and an honorary "Officer of the Order of the British Empire". An avid outdoorsman since his 1968 U.S. Olympic rowing team days, Doug enjoys the environment he's working to conserve.

Steve Burrington — MA, University of Edinburgh; JD, University of Michigan Law School — In key public and private sector roles, Steve has won national recognition for leadership in tackling energy, transportation and sustainable development challenges. He works with diverse clients to carry out innovative large-scale energy efficiency and clean energy strategies, green urban redevelopment projects, and state land-use and transportation policy initiatives. Burrington previously served as commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, where he led the formation of the nation’s sixth-largest and most diverse state parks, infrastructure and natural resources agency, and as undersecretary in the Massachusetts Office for Commonwealth Development, a "super-secretariat" that linked state transportation, housing, environmental and energy agencies to support sustainable growth in cities and town centers. Before entering state government, he was vice president and general counsel for the Conservation Law Foundation, New England's leading environmental protection organization.

Alice Denison— BA, Mount Holyoke College; MFA, Massachusetts College of Art and Design — Alice served as chief of staff in the Massachusetts Office for Commonwealth Development from 2003 to 2006. Before that, she was a vice president at the Conservation Law Foundation, in charge of development and administration, for nearly a decade. After leaving CLF, she helped its entrepreneurial arm, CLF Ventures, create an environmentally oriented automobile insurance agency. She is currently working with a team of consultants to implement energy efficiency measures in independently owned affordable housing.

Astrid Glynn — BA, Bennington College, JD Albany Law School. — Astrid has been a transportation leader and policy maker for more than a decade. From 2007 to 2009 she served as Commissioner at the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) with charge of a workforce of over 9500 employees, some $1.7 billion in new construction projects begun annually, and a range of multimodal programs receiving state and federal support. While in NY she created the first state standards for sustainable road and bridge designs and for highway construction and maintenance practices. She implemented new criteria for project selection and encouraged the development of projects that included transit and offered more than traditional highway solutions. While serving with NYSDOT Astrid chaired the Standing Committee on Rail Transportation at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and was active with both AASHTO's Committee on Climate Change and its Task Force on Federal Reauthorization. Before going to New York Astrid was Deputy Secretary at the Massachusetts Office of Commonwealth Development, a state innovation that combined oversight of Transportation, Environment, and Housing. Her work at Commonwealth Development was built upon her many years at the Massachusetts Executive Office of Transportation (now Mass DOT). Her experience there included leading the Office of Transportation Planning (which produced the state's first multimodal long range plan), managing the capital plan (which balanced a range of state and federal funding streams to support the state wide capital program), developing multimodal programs (rail, transit centers, and ferries), and providing state oversight and support for regional transit authorities and paratransit providers across Massachusetts. As an attorney, she practiced in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, representing shipping companies and their underwriters. She also helped develop the state and local regulatory frameworks that govern waterfront projects in Massachusetts. She is a member of the Transportation Research Board, the Boston Chapter of the Urban Land Institute, and the Women's Transportation Seminar (WTS). She also serves on the WTS Advisory Board for the Boston Chapter.

Andrew Gottlieb— BA, Harvard University; MBA, Boston University — With 20+ years of environmental protection experience in government and elected terms in municipal office, Andrew knows his way around private-public partnerships. As chief of Commonwealth Development, he coordinated Massachusetts energy, housing, environmental, and transportation policies. Earlier, Andrew conceived the successful estuaries preservation program, and built an innovative revolving fund into the nationally recognized model for watershed protection funding. Service oriented by nature, Andrew is a trustee of Cape Cod Community College and volunteers as a youth hockey and baseball coach.

Mike Jesanis — BS, MS Clarkson University; MBA Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania — During a twenty-three year career in the energy industry, Mike led a transformation of a small regional integrated utility into the country's second largest energy delivery company and the growth engine for a multi-national energy company. During his career, he has been a champion of competitive energy markets and of increasing the ability of customers to manage energy efficiently. In addition to his business career, Mike has been active in higher education, as a past chair of the Board of Trustees of Becker College where he was awarded an honorary doctorate and currently as a Trustee of Clarkson University.

Eric Kriss— BA, Amherst College; MBA, University of Chicago — Recognized as a leading advocate for open source software, Eric is bringing the concept of grass roots, peer group development to electric vehicles as president of Kriss Motors. In the 1980s, Eric helped launch Bain Capital, now one of the world's largest private equity firms.

Virginia McGee Richards— BA, Davidson College; JD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — For fifteen years, Virginia worked as environmental lawyer for the U.S. EPA and for the private law firms Jones Day and Kilpatrick Stockton LLP. Her clients included municipal governments, Ports Authority, brownfields developers and international manufacturers. Her practice included regulatory work as well as advising international manufacturers on sustainability practices required by the E.U. She serves on the Board of Visitors of UNC's Institute of the Environment and as a Trustee of the Southern Environmental Law Center.

Amy Stitely— BS, University of Maryland; MCP, Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Amy is the U.S. Green Hub Program Director at the MIT Community Innovators Lab (CoLab) and a part-time consultant for Serrafix, Inc. At MIT CoLab, Amy directs program and research activities related to urban sustainability and economic development, overseeing a partner network that spans over twenty cities and covers all regions of the United States. At Serrafix, Amy provides strategic planning and technical assistance to cities and non-governmental organizations on how to implement community-based energy efficiency programs.

Anne Tate— AB, Princeton University; MA, Harvard Graduate School of Design — Anne has been a pioneer in sustainable planning and the Smart Growth movement for almost twenty years, consulting on planning and public process with communities from Maine to Florida. In 2003-2004, she joined Douglas Foy to serve as his Special Advisor on Sustainable Development and spearheaded two of the signature efforts of the Office for Commonwealth Development, writing the Sustainable Development Principles and creating the Transit Oriented Development Initiative in partnership with the MBTA. A Professor of Architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design, Anne is the Founder and Director of City-State, the Urban Design Lab at RISD, dedicated to linking imagination to capacity by bringing the creative design and research innovations of RISD and Brown University to the realms of public policy and private development partnerships.