Who We Are

Office: Architecture Hall 130K
Phone: (206) 685-7282
ksimonen@uw.edu

Kathrina Simonen (Kate), AIA, SE is the executive director of the Carbon Leadership Forum and Professor and Chair of the Department of Architecture at the University of Washington. Connecting significant professional experience in high performance building design and technical expertise in environmental life cycle assessment she works to spur collective action to bring net embodied carbon to zero through cutting-edge research, cross-sector collaboration, and the incubation of new approaches.

Kate directs the research of the Carbon Leadership Forum and convenes collaborative initiatives such as the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (the EC3 tool) and the Structural Engineers 2050 Challenge.

ahimes1@uw.edu

Andrew Himes is director of collective impact at the Carbon Leadership Forum at the University of Washington, leading industry-wide initiatives to reduce embodied carbon emissions from built environments. In the late 80s, Himes was the founding editor of MacTech, still the leading Apple technology journal, then co-founded the Microsoft Developer Network, led the first web development project at Microsoft, and led company-wide efforts throughout the 1990s to meet new Internet-based opportunities. In the 2000s, Himes was founding director for the Charter for Compassion International, and then was a partner in Carbon Innovations LLC, a social impact consultancy focused on business-based solutions to climate change. In 2018, he was coordinator of Carbon Smart Building Day, a conference affiliated with the Global Climate Action Summit focused on transforming the global building industry to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. He was executive producer for the acclaimed documentary Voices in Wartime, and authored the best-selling history, The Sword of the Lord: The Roots of Fundamentalism in an American Family.

ashtiani@uw.edu

Milad Ashtiani is a civil engineer and PhD candidate at the University of Washington, responsible for the execution of research and analysis, development of guidance documents and educational resources, and outreach across the design community to improve the quality, accuracy, and effectiveness of building performance tools, methods and data that address embodied carbon. As a building and materials researcher, he works collaboratively with CLF’s internal research team as well as with architecture and engineering firms and research consortiums across North America with a focus on building performance, computation, embodied carbon assessments, and life cycle assessment (LCA).

hickling@uw.edu

Anthony Hickling joins CLF with experience in environmental and social sustainability as well as nonprofit management and fundraising. His foundations in sustainable building are informed by experience at Presidio Graduate School where he received an MBA in Sustainable Solutions, as well as his work on the sustainability team at Webcor Builders in San Francisco. Through academic and professional experience he has learned to navigate the priorities of traditional business stakeholders while incorporating social and environmental externalities. From executing successful marketing plans to determining research priorities, Anthony believes that wide impact considerations and diversity of thought should be embedded into all decision-making.

meghancl@uw.edu

Meghan Lewis is a Senior Researcher at the Carbon Leadership Forum, where she leads research on procurement of low carbon materials and how public and private embodied carbon policy can support the rapid decarbonization of building materials and construction. Previous to joining the CLF, Meghan was the Head of Global Energy & Sustainability at WeWork, where she also launched the Supply Chain Sustainability program in 2018. Meghan gained her architecture license while practicing at Mithun, where she worked on a range of project types and spearheaded internal efforts to integrate LCA and low carbon material selection into the design process.

mbyrne1@uw.edu

Meghan Byrne works to support collaboration and communication across the CLF Community and CLF Regional Hubs.

scc33@uw.edu

Stephanie’s work investigates the interaction between the natural and constructed environment, including embodied carbon, life cycle assessment (LCA), urban ecology, landscape performance and supply chains and toxicity of building materials. Combining a background in environmental science and architectural design, she builds bridges between research and practice, bringing data-driven analysis and topical research to complex design problems. This experience is applied towards improving the EC3 tool as well as other carbon data initiatives at the Carbon Leadership Forum. She most recently was a Principal at KieranTimberlake Architects where she was an environmental researcher in the firm’s interdisciplinary research group. She is also a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design and a Co-Editor-In-Chief of Scenario Journal. 

Brad Benke, AIA, is a Research Engineer at the Carbon Leadership Forum focused on developing data-driven resources to help practitioners and policymakers adopt and scale decarbonization strategies in the built environment. With a background in deep-green architecture and consulting, Brad works to synthesize and improve life cycle assessment practices and tools within the AEC industry and deliver practical solutions for low-carbon building design and construction. His recent work includes leading the CLF WBLCA Benchmark Study and developing the background data and methodologies for the CLF Embodied Carbon Policy Reduction Calculator. Brad is a former co-chair of AIA Seattle’s Committee on the Environment, and a former Senior Architect at McLennan Design, where he led diverse teams and stakeholders toward achieving decarbonization goals for buildings and organizations across the country.

mkalsman@uw.edu

Megan Kalsman is a Policy Researcher with the Carbon Leadership Forum at the University of Washington. She specializes in advancing the procurement of low-carbon materials and informs the development and implementation of cross-sectoral climate policies targeting embodied carbon.

Before joining the CLF, Megan completed her Master of Science degree at Lund University in Sweden in Environmental Management and Policy with the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics. She published her thesis project in 2021, on the intersection of gender equality with different environmental issues like climate change, biodiversity, and chemicals on an international policy scale.

Prior to studying in Sweden, Megan coordinated environmental policies and programs for local government agencies in California with a focus on toxic chemical reduction and pollution prevention. She helped in developing the first in the nation ban on toxic flame retardant chemicals in San Francisco. This served as a model policy for the State of California and other states in the U.S. passing similar policies. Her undergraduate degree was in Environmental Studies at San Francisco State University with a minor in Urban Planning and the Built Environment.

Megan’s work at the CLF combines her environmental research experience and policy design background. She strives to frame her work with an intersectional lens each day – protecting the health of people and the environment in an equitable way. At the CLF, Megan enjoys interacting with a variety of stakeholders around embodied carbon policies and ultimately working together towards a more sustainable and just future.

bwaldman@uw.edu

Brook is a research engineer at the Carbon Leadership Forum, where he investigates the life cycle of building materials — their manufacture, use, and end-of-life  — and the environmental impacts that accompany those processes.  He also studies and aims to improve the methodologies and data behind the measurement and communication of those environmental impacts. At the CLF, he has been particularly involved in supporting the EC3 tool and developing the CLF Material Baselines.

Previously, Brook studied architecture at the University of Oregon, where he focused on lifecycle assessment (LCA) research of high-performance buildings and construction materials, and worked in architectural practice in Seattle. He was also an educator: he taught high school math (how can we follow the numbers?) and environmental studies (what is our human relationship to the Earth’s material and energy flows?) and led youth wilderness trips. 

Besides working at the CLF, Brook volunteers as a math tutor for his local alternative high school and as a sorter at his community’s foam and plastics recycling events. He has a life-long fascination with making new useful stuff from old landfill-bound stuff (like furniture-making with salvaged wood and welding for a biodiesel cooperative). And he maintains a small building-LCA-focused consulting company.

aihyatt@uw.edu

Allison Hyatt is a Researcher with the Carbon Leadership Forum at the University of Washington. Prior to joining the CLF, Allison oversaw the design development of various high performance buildings for public sector projects at Siegel & Strain Architects. With years of experience as an architect, she prioritizes forging links between architectural practice and research. As a graduate student, her research assessed metrics to compare among operational carbon savings, embodied carbon expenditures, and monetary costs of different decarbonization strategies over time. In the spring of 2022, she received her Masters degree in Design Studies with a concentration in Energy and Environment from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

CourtneyB@mckinstry.com

Courtney is a Market Strategy Director at McKinstry, a built environment company that is leading the way in innovating waste out of buildings, and the Founder of Yield Positive, a platform for retail investors to learn more about sustainable investing. www.yieldpositive.com. Courtney is a Board Member of OikoCredit US, a Crisis Textline Counselor, and an avid rock climber and hiker. She is a motivated and passionate entrepreneur who works in sustainable investing, clean energy, microgrids, and energy efficiency. She is adept at rapid learning, strategy development, implementation, leading cross-cultural teams, and problem solving. Visit her website.

scott.henson@carboninnovations.org

Scott Henson is a people, change management, and product leader with the urgent need to address climate change. I have held many product leadership roles from incubation and product design, to running and optimizing businesses at scale. He has also led many strategic partnership teams focused on building healthy, thriving, and innovative application ecosystems. This work was on large-scale, commercially successful platforms including Windows, Xbox, and Fire TV.

Recently, after a great deal of research and learning, Scott re-oriented his life and professional focus to address the social, environmental, and business challenges posed by the climate crisis. What do consumer products and the climate crisis have in common? Both are powered by people – our attitudes, behaviors, motivations, and values. Through this insight, he believes we can tap into the unlimited potential of humans to address these huge challenges with a sense of possibility, creating a better world for every person and every life on our planet.

He is currently focused on promoting and accelerating scientifically proven solutions to reversing the climate crisis with the goal of achieving a net negative “Drawdown” of greenhouse gas emissions as quickly and equitably as possible. Specialties include business opportunity and financial analysis, change-management, international leadership, people, partner, and relationship management, platform and product vision and development, product strategy, incubation, hardware and software design, and user experience.

kaushal@ibi.baug.ethz.ch 

Deepshi is a practicing architect, urban designer and a sustainability consultant. With over a decade of experience in India, Singapore and south-east Asia she has worked on several noteworthy projects both in the public and private sector. Her extensive experience research-led design projects range from the micro-scale of zero carbon homes, proof-of-concept commercial research projects and further to the macro-scale of sustainable communities. Many of these projects have
been recognised and awarded for their integrated sustainable design thinking and evidence based approach. Her recent achievements include the Kallang River rejuvenation masterplan in Singapore and Godisfabriken, a public housing in the cultural precinct of Läkerol Candy Factory in Gävle, Sweden.

sking@kilroyrealty.com

Sarah King has 20+ years of experience advancing sustainability progress in both corporate and NGO settings. I am currently the SVP, Sustainability at Kilroy Realty, working to accelerate progress toward ambitious sustainability goals for new and existing buildings. Prior to joining Kilroy she was the Sustainability Director for Skanska USA Commercial Development where she worked with project teams in all US markets to integrate sustainable building technology & innovation into all stages of the commercial development process. For 10 years she was a key member of the DuPont sustainability team, working with each of the businesses and functions to embed sustainability in the corporate strategy to enhance business value and positive societal impact.

eden.brukman@sfgov.org

Eden Brukman is the Senior Green Building Coordinator at San Francisco Department of the Environment. Since 1996, Eden has focused on establishing socially and environmentally responsible solutions for human habitat: she coauthored Living Building Challenge and directed its evolution and global deployment from 2007-2012; served as the first Technical Director of the Health Product Declaration Collaborative; and contributed to the early development of other programs such as Declare, the Pharos Project, and EcoDistricts. Also licensed architect, Eden’s advocacy efforts have led to policy reform, decentralized building and community developments, and the creation of a network of local action groups in cities all over the world.

dkestner@walterpmoore.com

As Director of Sustainable Design at Walter P. Moore, Dirk Kestner provides overall guidance and resourcing to the entire firm, ensuring that all designs incorporate industry-leading expertise in sustainable strategies. His project work, teaching, and coaching throughout the firm and broad-reaching influence in the industry help maintain Walter P Moore’s status as a national leader in sustainable approaches and outcomes.

Trained and experienced as a structural engineer, Dirk applies his immense passion for environmental accountability in design to elevate the knowledge and expertise of all those around him, creating better results for clients and projects. Dirk guides each team through a client inquiry process that produces bespoke sustainability goals for each project and then leads the team to achieve those goals.

He was the founding chair of the Sustainability Committee of the ASCE’s Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) and is widely acknowledged as a national thought leader in the advancement of sustainable structural solutions. Dirk publishes and lectures frequently on topics that range from durability and deconstructability to salvaged structural steel and life cycle analysis. As a member of the LEED Materials and Resources Technical Advisory Group of the US Green Building Council, he helps guide the important technical criteria of the LEED rating system.

Dirk is a professional engineer in Texas and Georgia and is a LEED Accredited Professional/Building Design + Construction. He holds a Master of Science in Structural Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin and graduated Cum Laude from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering.

reshmasingh@lbl.gov  

Reshma Singh serves as Program Director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s tech-to-market IMPEL program (IMPEL.lbl.gov), manages the California Energy Commission’s R2M2 microgrid program, and previously the Presidential U.S.-India bilateral Center for Building Energy Research and Development (www.CBERD.org) at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

She brings over 10 years of experience advancing urban sustainability, cleantech buildings innovation, and working with complex international ecosystems in United States, India, and Singapore. Reshma’s work lies at the intersection of design and technology of smart buildings and cities, with a focus on energy, data analytics, UX, and IoT sensors and controls.

Reshma holds two cleantech patents. She is author of the “Building Innovation Guide for High-Performance Energy Efficient Buildings in India” (www.BuildingInnovationGuide.com), and contributor to the book “Mutations: Harvard Project on the City”. She serves on the Telecommunications Industry Association’s (TIA) Smart Buildings and Power and Energy group, on the Advisory Council for the U.S. Department’s of State’s international TechWomen program, and is recipient of the American Association of University Women award and Harvard’s Community Service fellowship.

william@wapsustainability.com

William Paddock is the founder & managing director of WAP Sustainability, a leading provider of sustainability services that include carbon accounting, lifecycle assessments, toxicological assessments, product transparency programs, and supply chain sustainability services. Paddock is a graduate of the University of Alabama with a B.S. in Environmental Science and holds a MBA from The Institute for Sustainable Practice at Lipscomb University where he is now an Adjunct Professor. He is a certified professional in GHG Management by the Greenhouse Gas Management Institute and EcoCanada (EP(ghg)), a trained service provider for The Sustainability Consortium and is certified in the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) reporting protocol. Paddock serves as an EcoSystem Partner for the International Living Future Institute (ILFI), is vice-chair of the LEED Materials and Resource Technical Advisory Committee (MR TAG), a member of the IWBI WELL Materials Advisory Committee and supports the Health Product Declaration Collaborative (HPDC) as a member of its Technical Committee.