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.

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.

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. 

bbenke@uw.edu

Brad Benke, AIA, is a Research Scientist at the Carbon Leadership Forum focused on creating and improving LCA data, tools, and policies to rapidly scale and advance carbon drawdown strategies for the built environment.  With experience in regenerative design consulting and deep-green architecture, he builds resources and agency for designers, builders, and organizations to take immediate action on climate change issues. Brad is a former Senior Architect at McLennan Design, where he led diverse teams and stakeholders towards achieving carbon neutrality goals for buildings and organizations across the country. Brad is also a LEED accredited professional and a former Co-chair of AIA Seattle’s Committee on the Environment.

brook@waldmanlca.com

It started with teaching 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 a fascination with making new useful stuff from old landfill-bound stuff. Next were architecture school and practice, and lifecycle assessment (LCA) research of high performance buildings and construction materials. Now Brook supports the CLF’s mission through research and analysis of building materials — their manufacture and use, their environmental impacts, and the methodologies behind measuring and communicating those impacts.   

info@carbonleadershipforum.org

Keep an eye on this space. We’ll provide official job postings when they become available.

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.

cgamble@carboncure.com

Christie Gamble is Director of Sustainability at CarbonCure Technologies. CarbonCure is leading a movement to reduce the carbon footprint of the concrete industry, and thereby help reduce embodied carbon in the built environment. Christie acts as a liaison between the sustainable design community and the concrete industry in order to promote the manufacturing and subsequent usage of lower carbon concrete. Christie lives in Saskatchewan with her husband and 2 young children and loves to compete in the quintessentially Canadian sport of curling in her spare time.

Frances.Yang@arup.com

Frances Yang specializes in how environmentally preferable and healthier materials contribute to whole-life sustainability performance of our built environment. She is active on the Carbon Leadership Forum, AIA Materials Knowledge Working Group, and Health Product Declaration Technical Committee. She also recently vice-chaired the USGBC LEED Materials and Resources TAG and led authorship of two recently published texts: the SEI Whole Building LCA Guide: Reference Building Structure and Strategies, and the AIA Prescription for Healthier Building Materials: A Design and Implementation Protocol. In leading Arup’s Americas Sustainable Materials Consulting practice, Frances has brought healthy and low-carbon aims into the day-to-day consideration of materials alongside selection for their technical performance on a variety of buildings and infrastructure projects.

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.

volgyay@rmi.org

Victor Olgyay, AIA is a bioclimatic architect living in Boulder, Colorado. In 1978 he designed his first passive solar house, and has since worked as an architect, writer, professor, researcher, daylighting designer, and environmental consultant. Since 2005, he has been a principal with Rocky Mountain Institute leading the Institute’s Buildings Practice to encourage widespread adoption of deeply efficient building design and comprehensive building energy retrofits.

From 1993 to 2000 Victor was an Associate Professor and Director of Research at the University of Hawaii School of Architecture. He was appointed Chairman of the AIA Honolulu Energy and Environment Committee 1995–2000, and in 1998 he was named a Dana Fellow of the Joslyn Castle Institute for Sustainable Communities. He has served on the Board of Directors for the American Solar Energy Society, and is currently on the University of Colorado Design Review Board, and the GSA Green Building Advisory Committee.

Buildings must support human and ecological needs. Victor’s research on ecosystem services as criteria for green building assessment resulted in the “Green Footstep” building tool, demonstrating a lifecycle approach to the reduction of carbon, water, and ecological footprints. His recent work demonstrates how restorative buildings and communities (that generate more resources than they consume) can be profitable investments and act as positive assets, enhancing electrical and utility system infrastructures.

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.