2016 Conference Bios

Keynote Speaker

Jordan Figueiredo

Jordan Figueiredo | @UglyFruitAndVeg Campaign

Jordan is an Anti-Food Waste Activist from Northern California. Through social media, writing, talks, and events, he connects and ignites the movement to end food waste and hunger. Most notably he has accomplished this through the @UglyFruitAndVeg social media campaign, which uses funny and beautiful images of produce in order to highlight the 20-40 percent of all produce that goes to waste due to grocer cosmetic standards. The campaign has been featured on the TODAY Show, NPR, Huffington Post, Upworthy, The Los Angeles Times, Food and Wine, and many others.


Session Speakers & Moderators

Manar Alattar

Manar Alattar | PSU Sustainability Office

Manar is the food diversion coordinator in the Campus Sustainability Office and a PhD student in the School of the Environment at Portland State University (PSU). Both her work and research focus on student engagement in composting and food diversion. She has lead efforts to develop a new food diversion cafeteria intervention program on campus in partnership with PSU Dining and the SHAC (Student Health and Counseling). She has also volunteered with the Intel NW Science Expo since 2008, where she works to promote student engagement in science and environmental projects. Manar has experience teaching science to students from middle school to college level as well.

David Allaway

David Allaway | Oregon DEQ

David is a senior policy analyst at the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality's Materials Management Program. He has 26 years of experience in materials management including sustainable production and consumption, waste prevention, recycling, and disposal.

Dorothy Fisher Atwood

Dorothy Fisher Atwood | ResourceFULL Use PDX

Dorothy has over 30 years of experience in management systems and sustainability consulting based in Portland, Oregon. She is co-founder of the International Society of Sustainability Professionals (ISSP), where she is part of the online faculty and actively involved in developing ISSP’s sustainability certification. She has also instructed for Georgia Tech and the University of Oregon Sustainability Leadership program. She co-manages the ResourceFull Use program that explores innovative methods for resource sharing and by-product synergies. She assists organizations in identifying resource efficiencies and exchange opportunities.

Dave Bachman

Dave Bachman | Multifamily Housing Northwest

Dave serves as President and CEO of Cascade Management, Inc., and has worked in the multifamily housing management, consulting, and development business since 1993. Since his employment, the company's portfolio has grown to more than 17 times its original size while maintaining Cascade's high level of commitment to service and quality. Dave is currently also serving as President of Multifamily Housing Northwest and is a founding member of Northwest Housing Alternatives Opportunity Fund.

Karen Bandhauer

Karen Bandhauer | The Recycling Partnership

Karen is Project Director at The Recycling Partnership, a national nonprofit committed to improving recycling programs nationwide. Formally, Karen served as a Senior Consultant for Resource Recycling Systems, and as an Environmental Scientist at the U.S. EPA offices in Chicago, Atlanta, and Washington, DC. She has worked in the resource conservation and materials management field for over a decade. Karen's current duties focus on optimizing city-based project work. She has a B.S. in environmental science and a masters of international public affairs. Karen now calls Fort Collins, CO home with her husband and three children.

Denise Barnes

Denise Barnes | Rogue Disposal

Denise grew up in a rural town on the Big Island of Hawaii where conservation, waste prevention, and reuse were a way of life. Denise has been the recycling and community outreach coordinator for Rogue Disposal for 31 years. Denise also coordinates the Master Recycler Training Program for Jackson County.

Laurel Bates

Laurel Bates | Clackamas County

Laurel has served as Chair of Oregon Green Schools for the past three years. She has an extensive background in K-12 education and has been working in the recycling industry since 2007. Laurel works for Clackamas County Resource Conservation & Solid Waste and the Clackamas County Refuse and Recycling Association to provide waste reduction assistance and education to K-12 schools in Clackamas County. Laurel will present on youth engagement in K-12 schools through the Oregon Green Schools program. There are over 200 certified schools throughout the state, and each school has an active green team of students who are working daily to reduce the environmental impacts of their school.

Bill Beamer

Bill Beamer | City of Portland

Bill is the Sustainability Outreach Coordinator at the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability. He leads the Portland Fix-It Fairs, Bright Spot events, and the City’s Climate Action Now! (CAN!) program to help residents make sustainable choices. Portland CAN! encourages residents to reduce their carbon impact in five areas: Getting Around, Your Home, Your Stuff, Your Food, and Your Community. Your Food focuses on helping people reduce food waste by meal planning, food storage, and eating the food they buy.

Sam Becker

Sam Becker | Claremont McKenna

Sam is a first year student at Claremont McKenna (CMC) dual majoring in EEP (Environment, Economics, Politics) and Legal Studies. He’s passionate about environmental sustainability because he wants to provide future generations with an earth that has economic viability and natural beauty. Sam is involved in many activities at CMC, including Model United Nations, Director of CMC's Climate Leadership Summit, co-founder of CCL Claremont Colleges, co-lead of Food Recovery Network, Chair of the Senate's Environmental Concerns Committee, and employee at the Department of Annual Giving.

Chris Bell

Chris Bell, CPA | Bell & Associates

Chris is a Certified Public Accountant practicing in the field of integrated solid waste management with an emphasis in the financial analysis and operational evaluation of solid waste and recycling collection systems and facilities. He has assisted numerous public and private entities with setting collection rates, service procurement, program implementation, financial and performance audits, planning, and facility and systems analysis. Prior to solid waste consulting, Chris served as Assistant Divisional Controller for Waste Management of Oregon. 

Graham Bergh

Graham Bergh | Resource Revival

Graham got a flat tire bike commuting to his recycling job in Portland in 1991. That inner tube became a hanger for his stereo speakers, and subsequent tinkering lead to the founding of Resource Revival in 1994. Today Resource Revival collects used parts from hundreds of bike shops nationwide, and upcycles them into dozens of products from custom laser-engraved keychains to decorative wall clocks to medals for bike rides and races.

Dan Blue

Dan Blue | Metro

Dan has spent 18 years literally up to his knees in the region’s solid waste. Currently a Senior Solid Waste Planner working in the Solid Waste Compliance and Cleanup Division at Metro, Mr. Blue has worked across the industry and has developed, implemented, evaluated, or regulated nearly all facets of the industry. Between 2008 and 2016 Mr. Blue was the Recycling and Solid Waste Program Manager for the City of Gresham, and for the decade before that managed Community Environmental Services at Portland State University. Topical interests include sustainable practices generally, disaster debris and emergency response, and celebrating diversity while promoting equity in our community.

Pete Chism

Pete Chism-Winfield | City of Portland

Pete has been an AOR Board Member since 2011 and has been attending AOR events since 1998. His collection of tie-dyes, Birkenstocks, and jobs in recycling began at U of O Campus Recycling providing outreach, processing, and collection services to the campus community. Nineteen years later, he has coordinated programs at Lane County and advised businesses in sustainable practices at the City of Portland. Currently, he works on commercial food scraps and clean fleet policy development at the City of Portland.

Elizabeth Cole | City of Beaverton

Elizabeth is a Recycling Specialist with the City of Beaverton currently working on the development and implementation of the food waste reduction campaign - Eat Smart, Waste Less. Her interest in food ethics started when she was about six and refused to go to Burger King because she had heard they were cutting down the rainforest to make space for cattle. Elizabeth holds a B.S. in Wildlife Science from Oregon State University and an M.B.A. from DeVry University.

Matthew Cotton

Matthew Cotton | Integrated Waste Management Consulting

Matthew has worked in organics since 1986. He has served as a consultant, educator, researcher, and advocate for new and expanded organics recycling and composting programs in California and beyond. Matthew has completed hundreds of significant organics projects, including permitting and assisting in the development of some of the major composting facilities in California. Matthew serves on the Board of the US Composting Council and Californians Against Waste. He has published research on compost odors, compost use, climate impacts, compostable plastics, and compost facility infrastructure. He was a founder of and the first Executive Director of the California Compost Quality Council, a precursor to the USCC’s Seal of Testing Assurance Program.

Dennis Denton

Dennis Denton | Denton Plastics

Dennis is the Chairman of Denton Plastics, a company he started as a one man brokerage firm for plastics. He started the recycling of plastic material because of the need to be responsible for products being sold. He built the manufacturing plant in 1986, moved to the current location in 2004, and began expanding back into distribution of virgin plastic resin with the first new private rail siding in the Portland metro area in many years. He founded Denton Plastics Inc. in 1983 and founded Orpet, a PET recycler, in 2010. Dennis has served the Society of Plastics Engineers in various capacities, helping start the Plastic Recycling Division in 1993. That division is now known as the Sustainability Division. He has twice served as Chair of the Global Plastics Recycling Conference, GPEC. His commitment to the Division remains and he will continue to offer strong ties for sustainable solutions for plastic.

Moonrose Doherty

Moonrose Doherty, Sustainability Professional

Moonrose has over 10 years of experience in project management focused on solid waste, materials management, waste prevention, reuse systems and opportunities, recycling, composting, food systems, food waste prevention, toxics reduction, education and outreach, analysis and evaluation of sustainability programs, and environmental education. She also has a background in community organizing and public health, and in her spare time practices xeriscape landscaping, organic gardening, raising chickens, and creative reuse as a volunteer at SCRAP PDX. Moonrose has served on the AOR Conference Planning Committee for three years.

Joanna Dyer

Joanna Dyer

Joanna has worked in materials management since 2001. Her experience spans both the nonprofit and government sectors, spending seven years with SCRAP in Portland and five years coordinating the Recycle at Work program for the City of Beaverton. Joanna has an undergraduate degree in Biology from Villanova University and an MBA in sustainable business from Bainbridge Graduate Institute. She currently sits on the steering committee for Reuse Oregon (formerly Reuse Alliance Oregon) and is working to identify opportunities to support and promote the reuse industry in Oregon. 

Darwin Eustaquio | Metro

Darwin has worked for Metro’s Resource Conservation and Recycling School Programs as the lead Education Specialist for grades K-5 since February 2015. He oversees the development and implementation of classroom presentations, educational theatre assemblies, and puppet shows. He is also the project manager for the Zoo Quest summer program in collaboration with the Oregon Zoo. Prior to Metro, Darwin worked for the County of San Mateo’s library system in California for 10 years, where he developed and oversaw academic and youth development programs.

Justin Gast

Justin Gast | The Recycling Partnership

Justin is a Technical Assistance member with The Recycling Partnership, a national recycling nonprofit focused on improving recycling in the U.S. Before joining The Partnership, Justin spent six years with the Washington County Solid Waste & Recycling Program providing materials management assistance to the county’s commercial sector. Additionally, Justin was a managing editor with Resource Recycling, Inc. and is currently serving as AOR’s Legislative Chair.

Jim Goddard

Jim Goddard | Nike

Jim is the Director of Advanced Sustainability Analytics at Nike. He leads the team responsible for creating insights from data to provide a sustainability perspective to Nike’s business decisions. In his almost 20 years at Nike, Jim has directed the creation and launch of the Nike materials and product sustainability indices; led Nike’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gases; and developed strategies for Nike’s packaging reduction, retail sustainability, and corporate waste reduction programs. He started at Nike designing the shoe recycling system for Nike’s Reuse-A-Shoe program. He has also served as the Board Chair of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition for the past 2.5 years. Jim is a licensed professional engineer and earned his M.S. in Engineering Management from Portland State University. Prior to Nike he was a consulting engineer and managed of Waste Reduction for Metro in Portland, OR.

Wing Grabowski

Wing Grabowski | City of Portland

Wing began his green-collar career in 2004 at the City of Portland's Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, first managing portfolios for energy efficient building upgrades before moving to event and outreach logistics with a focus on community engagement. Programs and projects include the Master Recycler Program, Sustainability at Work business assistance program, residential recycling education, thoughtful consumption practices, climate action, and green home and solar energy tours. He is also a main coordinator of the Portland’s healthy home and family resource events, the Fix-It Fairs. In his free time he can be found playing guitar for no one to hear and beginning books he’ll never finish reading.

Rosalyn Greene

Rosalynn Greene | Metro

Rosalynn has a Master’s of Public Administration from Portland State University and has been working in the field of Materials Management for 11 years. Her career began as a temporary employee at DEQ where she administered the statewide 2004 Recycling Composition Study. After completing the project, Rosalynn was hired by Clackamas County’s Office of Sustainability to coordinate and track education and outreach programs. In September 2013 she was hired by Metro as a Policy Analyst & Program Evaluator and since then has completed two milestone projects including the Regional Material Collection Database and the Single Family Recycling and Waste Composition Study. 

Sarah Grimm

Sarah Grimm | Lane County

Sarah is a Portland native. After taking the 1992 Master Recycler class and being so inspired by the common sense of compost and recycling, Sarah took to the pulpit and was soon working as a recycling educator. Sarah served nearly a decade as education coordinator for BRING Recycling (in Eugene) and as Lane County’s Waste Reduction Specialist for another decade. Sarah’s 20+years’ experience includes among other things, zero waste event recycling for the Oregon Country Fair, the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Track Trials at Hayward Field, and an event recycling loan program that includes durable dishware.

Tony Hair

Tony Hair | PSU Sustainability Office

Tony is the Waste Management Coordinator at Portland State University (PSU), where he works to transform the campus community’s perceptions of trash from waste into a resource. Tony’s previous positions have included account manager for Waste Management, Inc. and project lead at Community Environmental Services. The focus of Tony’s current work includes performing waste audits with freshman students, expanding the university’s food diversion program, and analyzing PSU’s embodied emissions in support of PSU’s goal of carbon neutrality by 2040.

Jason Hale

Jason Hale | The Recycling Partnership

Jason brings two decades of recycling experience to the table, having worked across the industry in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors at the local, state, and national levels. He also served a notable stint as communications director for the fisheries on the Yukon River in Alaska. Currently he’s part of the skilled communications team at The Recycling Partnership, forwarding the cutting edge of carts, communications, and quality. 

Mark Haley

Mark Haley | Habitat ReStore

​Mark is the Business Relations Director for the Portland Metro ReStores. He has worked in the nonprofit home building industry for over 20 years, 15 with Habitat for Humanity. Mark was a site supervisor for the Portland affiliate, opened and managed the Clark County Habitat Store, and started the salvage service material gleaning program. He is now leading the product procurement team for the three Portland-area ReStores, helping develop a quality residual donation stream with businesses, municipalities, and distributors. Mark's hobbies include woodworking, model railroading, watching baseball, and fishing. He has traveled to over 30 countries doing short term construction projects.

Lisa Heigh

Lisa Heigh | Metro

Lisa hails from the birthplace of the American Navy. She is a senior solid waste planner in toxics reduction for Metro; she also has a BA in English and journalism and an MS in oceanography (aquatic pollution). Ms. Heigh has a passion for the environment and community health and is especially interested in chemicals policy, government sustainable operations, and program evaluation. For fun she likes to muck stalls, bird, horseback ride, play in the snow and in the water, dance, torture others with her violin playing, walk her dog, and backpack.

Rick Hodges

Rick Hodges | Oregon Convention Center

Rick is currently overseeing the sustainability programs at the Oregon Convention Center (OCC). As the first LEED certified convention center in the U.S. and now holding LEED:EB Platinum status, OCC strives to be an industry leader. Relying on 12+ years of consulting, finance,, and sustainability experience, Rick continues to implement and improve OCC’s energy, water, and material recovery efforts while engaging and supporting hundreds of different shows and their thousands of attendees each year. Rick is a LEED AP and Certified Energy Manager.

Mike Ingalls

Mike Ingalls | Far West Recycling

Michael has worked in the scrap metal recycling industry for 23 years. He began his career in California with Markovitz & Fox after graduating from Santa Clara University with a B.S. degree in Economics. He holds an Executive Management Certificate from Ohio State University focused on scrap metal management. He specializes in the procurement and sales of nonferrous metals to consumers all over the world. Since moving to Oregon in 1994 he has worked most recently for Schnitzer Steel managing nonferrous operations at nine facilities in the Pacific Northwest. He currently works for Far West Recycling, which he joined in 2015.

Nick Isbister

Nick Isbister | City of Gresham

Nick moved from the East Coast five years ago to work as many jobs in recycling as he possibly could. He has held many positions in that time trying to learn every detail about the industry: Organics Outreach Specialist, Recycling Information Assistant, Event Waste Manager, and many more. He is on a never-ending quest to help increase diversion throughout the state in an economical way.

Sego Jackson

​Sego Jackson | Seattle Public Utilities

Sego has served as Seattle Public Utilities’ Strategic Advisor for Waste Prevention and Product Stewardship since April 2015. Prior to this position, he worked for 25 years for Snohomish County Solid Waste managing a variety of projects including organics curbside collection and coordinating with compost facilities. His position at Seattle Public Utilities includes, in part, programmatic and policy work to improve the diversion of food scraps and compostable paper and compostable packaging. He is also actively involved with the Compost Contamination Reduction Work Group in Washington.

Sara Kirby

Sara Kirby | Metro

Sara has been coordinating education and outreach programs for 15 years. In 2009 Sara was hired by Metro to work on school based youth education programs. Most recently in her work at Metro, Sara serves as project manager for the regional multifamily project and works with the Recycle at Work program.

Bob Kovich

Bob Kovich | Jordan Trading

Bob works as a buyer and trader of paper for Jordan Trading. Bob buys from suppliers primarily from the Mississippi River West and sells into mills in Mexico, the Western U.S., Asia, and China. Jordan Trading primarily handles the bulk grades but also do a fair amount of grades and some pulp subs. Jordan Trading corporate offices are in Kingston, NY, and there are satellite offices in Houston, TX; Diamond Bar, CA; Lakewood, WA; Maidstone, United Kingdom; and Santiago, Chile.

Kristin Leichner

Kristin Leichner | Pride Disposal

Kristin has worked for Pride Disposal Company, in Sherwood, Oregon since 2004 and is the fourth generation of her family to work in the solid waste and recycling industry. She is Pride Disposal’s Office Manager and also handles community outreach for the company. Kristin is the Secretary for the Association of Oregon Recyclers. Kristin also works with the Oregon Refuse & Recycling Association (ORRA) as the Governmental Affairs Committee Chair.

Shannon Martin

Shannon Martin | City of Gresham

Shannon is the Program Manager for the City of Gresham’s Recycling & Solid Waste program. Shannon performs their annual review of solid waste collection rates and manages a new Rate Stabilization Fund passed by Council in 2015.  In addition to rate review, he manages the waste reduction and recycling programs for the City. Before joining Gresham, Shannon worked for Clackamas County as a Senior Sustainability Analyst coordinating their commercial technical assistance program for eight years. He was also the lead project manager for developing the County’s Disaster Debris Management Plan and is now supporting that role for the City. Before working for Clackamas County, Shannon worked for the City of Beaverton for two years as a Program Coordinator and Metro for nine years as a Hazardous Waste Technician.

Therese McLain

Therese McLain | Republic Services

Therese is the Municipal Contracts Administrator for Republic Services where her roles are contract compliance and relationship management with agency customers and community organizations. She is also a partner at MultiCultural Collaborative (MCC), a team of Portland professionals helping to build capacity in institutions, empowering communities by having a voice in policy and decision-making. Her expertise in multi-cultural engagement and facilitation brings focus on equity and culturally competent approaches in the workplace and the community. In 2015, MCC worked with Metro, Gresham and the City of Portland on the Powell Division Transit project, which received the International Award for Public Participation (IAP2). This year, MCC is the recipient of the WTS – Women in Transportation Rosa Parks Leadership Award. Therese earned her Communications degree from Maryknoll College in Manila, Philippines. She is a board member of Ride Connection, providing free door-to-door transportation services to elders and people with disabilities in the Portland Metro tri-counties.

Rich McConaghy

Rich McConaghy | City of Vancouver

Rich is the Environmental Resources Manager for the City of Vancouver, Washington (Public Works Department). He has coordinated the solid waste and recycling programs in Vancouver for the last 18 years. Previous to this, he was a recycling consultant for 10 years and an Ecologist/Solid Waste Analyst focused on projects in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science (Western Washington University) and a master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction (University of Oregon). Rich is active in and has been a board member of both the Association of Oregon Recyclers and the Washington State Recycling Association. 

Terry McDonald

Terry McDonald | St. Vincent de Paul

Terry has been executive director of the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County for three decades and in that time the Eugene-based nonprofit has gone from 27 to 600 employees, most of whose jobs involve recycling. Last year, St. Vinnie’s diverted 25 million pounds of waste from landfills. SVdP has long been a pioneer in upcycling. Its Aurora Glass factory creates architectural accents, gifts, and awards from recycled glass. Other lines include Dogma Pet Beds, made from recycled mattresses, and EcoFire, a fire starter made of cotton mattress remnants and recycled wax. One of SVdP’s fastest growing upcycling initiatives involves fashion, and St. Vinnie’s has a full-time designer, Mitra DeMirza Chester, whose works are sold online and in St. Vinnie’s 15 retail thrift stores.

McKenna Morrigan

McKenna Morrigan | Cascadia Consulting

McKenna provides Cascadia’s clients with in-depth research, analysis, program design, and evaluation services. Passionate about improving recycling and compost collection in apartment buildings, McKenna has led Cascadia’s work designing and implementing innovative multifamily programs on behalf of clients throughout the Puget Sound region and San Francisco Bay Area. A native of the Northwest, McKenna returned from a decade of East Coast living to complete a master’s degree in environmental policy at the University of Washington’s Evans School of Public Affairs. She also holds a B.A. in cultural anthropology from Brown University.

Emily Murkland

Emily Murkland | PSU Community Environmental Services

Emily is the Projects Manager at CES and oversees daily operations, project work, and staff. Emily currently manages the Port of Portland Technical Assistance Project, the City of Portland Events Recycling Project, and various private Solid Waste Assessment contracts. Emily has worked on the Fairview Recycle at Work project, the EPA Pollution Prevention and Outreach project, and the Portland Multifamily Recycling project, in addition to Solid Waste Assessments. She holds a Bachelors of Science in Community Development from Portland State University. Emily has also worked as an intern with ROSE CDC, SPI Industries, and SOLVE. In her free time she enjoys backpacking throughout the NW, spending time with her dog and husband, and working on various crafting projects. 

Deveron Musgrave

Deveron Musgrave | City of Eugene

Deveron is a Program Coordinator for the Waste Prevention and Green Building program at the City of Eugene. She has worked at the City since 2015, and coordinates a variety of City programs including Internal Zero Waste and the Sustainable Sport Event Pilot. Her previous work has been as a business owner and more recently in the nonprofit reuse and recycling sector.

Gary Nelson

Gary Nelson | Waste Management 

Gary has been with Waste Management of Portland for nearly eight years, and is currently the District Operations Manager for Portland Hauling Operations. Waste Management has partnered with communities in bringing a CNG fleet to their Portland facility. Their first CNG truck hit the road on May 17, 2012 and they currently have 100 CNG vehicles in the Portland fleet. This transformation to CNG is in line with their customers, partners in the municipalities they work and live in, and Waste Management’s own vision for providing not only the best customer service, but also a clean fleet in doing so.

Babe O’Sullivan | Urban Sustainability Directors Network

Babe is a consultant currently leading a project for the Urban Sustainability Directors Network exploring the role of cities in advancing sustainable consumption. Previously, she was the Sustainability Liaison for the City of Eugene and worked as a Portland Recycles! Coordinator for the City of Portland. Babe is a member of the leadership team for the EPA West Coast Forum on Climate and Materials Management. She holds an M.B.A. from UC Berkeley and a B.S. in Environmental Policy from the UC Davis.

Jordan Palmeri

Jordan Palmeri | Oregon DEQ

Jordan is a Science and Policy Analyst in the Materials Management Program at the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. He’s worked for the past 11 years on green building, materials management, forestry, water quality, and site cleanup topics. His current efforts focus on reducing the lifecycle environmental impacts of building material consumption. Jordan is currently working with concrete producers to measure and disclose the impacts of their concrete mixes and works more broadly on lifecycle measurement metrics for materials.

Veronica Pardo

Veronica Pardo | California Refuse Recycling Council

Veronica has served the California Refuse Recycling Council’s (CRRC) regulatory program since 2014 and was recently promoted to Regulatory Affairs Director for the north. Her primary duty is to monitor the various regulatory agencies that impact the waste and recycling industry; in particular, CalRecycle, the California Air Resources Board, the State Water Resources Control Board, and the California Energy Commission. She represents CRRC at both private and public meetings with regulatory staff, board members, and occasionally legislative representatives, ensuring that industry needs are communicated and addressed as new regulations are promulgated or old regulations modified. Currently she is working closely with CalRecycle as the Mandatory Commercial Organics Recycling program rolls out in California.

Chris Parta

Chris Parta | Parta Oregon, Inc.

Chris is the founder and Principal of Parta Oregon, Inc., a government relations firm in Beaverton, Oregon. As a government relations consultant, Chris represents a variety of clients including multiple environmental/natural resource organizations, higher education faculty associations, and human service providers by advocating for them in the state legislature and administrative agencies. He has also worked with legal associations and on land use issues during his career in government. Chris began his government relations career working with C and E Systems and Kristen Leonard before opening his own firm. During his tenure at C and E Systems Chris worked with a variety of clients, including the Association of Oregon Recyclers, building lasting relationships with legislators and key policymakers in Oregon.

Alicia Polacok

Alicia Polacok | City of Portland

Alicia has worked at the City of Portland for 13 years, where she is part of the residential outreach team, engaging Portland residents on three programs that have to do with waste reduction and behavior change at their core. One program, Resourceful PDX, gives Portlanders tools and ideas to take action and find resources for everyday choices. This involves building partnerships with the sharing community that exists around the city and showing residents where and how to be thoughtful consumers by connecting and promoting the resources online and at events. She is part of the Reuse Oregon steering committee, SoMa EcoDistrict Materials Management working group, and organizes repair café events with Repair PDX.

Griselda Puga

Griselda Puga | Marion County

Griselda is a Waste Reduction Coordinator for Marion County. She spends her time working on a number of programs including commercial composting, multifamily recycling, and the SAVE the FOOD Campaign. She has helped develop and implement a food waste collection program in school cafeterias within the Salem-Keizer School District. Griselda is also the Hispanic community liaison for the Environmental Services division and assists with marketing campaigns targeted towards native Spanish speakers. She holds a B.A. in Sociology from Western Oregon University.

Wayne Rifer

Wayne Rifer | Green Electronics Council

Wayne built his career developing recycling solutions. In 2003 Mr. Rifer participated in a stakeholder negotiation to develop a national electronics recycling system. Then in 2005 he founded EPEAT (the Electronics Product Environmental Assessment Tool), which is a marketplace incentive for sustainable design of electronics. In recent years he has focused on standard development and on research into the toughest environmental challenges facing the electronics industry. Mr. Rifer serves on the Board of the National Center for Electronics Recycling (NCER).

Heather Robinson

Heather Robinson | Washington County

Heather has ten years of experience as the Recycling Project Specialist in the Washington County Solid Waste & Recycling Program.  She has worked on projects covering a broad range of topics including curbside collection, clean-up events, business outreach, and food scraps and developed the County’s multifamily outreach and assistance program. She spends her free time focused on community-driven solutions as a founding Board member of the Hillsboro Food Co-op, coordinator of Repair Fair, and member of Hillsboro’s Sustainability Task Force.  

Jeremy Sievert

​Jeremy Sievert | Looptworks

Jeremy joined Looptworks in 2013 and oversees operations. Looptworks rescues high-quality excess materials and transforms them into beautiful, useful products. A certified B Corp, Looptworks is committed to reducing pollution, conserving water, and supporting fair labor practices. Looptworks also works with brands to develop innovative practices for the closed-loop future. Jeremy also volunteers his time as a Commissioner for Multnomah County and he is also a master recycler, and committed conservationist. Jeremy spends his off hours working on his small hobby farm with his wife, Amy, in Corbett, OR.

Vinod Singh

​Vinod Singh | Far West Recycling

Vinod  has been in the recycling industry and working at Far West Recycling (FWR) for 20+ years. His primary focus over the years has been on the operational side. This includes understanding and adapting to changing feedstocks and end markets for materials, as well as the regular personnel and equipment engagements that come with operations. Currently, he is serving on the AOR board as the Markets Chair.      

Brian Stafki

Brian Stafki | Washington County

Brian coordinates single-family outreach for Washington County including residential food waste prevention outreach. He led the development of the Eat Smart, Waste Less Challenge. He was a stakeholder contributing to the development of the Food: Too Good to Waste toolkit with Thurston County. He has a master’s of education degree from Western Washington University, a graduate certificate in leadership and nonprofit administration from North Cascades Institute and a bachelor’s of science degree in biology from New Mexico State University.

Stephanie Stano

Stephanie Stano | Sustainability Consultant

Stephanie is a sustainability consultant specializing in corporate sustainability initiatives. For nearly 10 years she has worked with outdoor/athletic lifestyle and other consumer product goods companies to facilitate sustainable product and materials management solutions. Her innovative work supports CSR measures while diversifying product lines, bolstering brand image, and increasing revenue. She has a Master of Sustainability and Environmental Management - Corporate Sustainability & Innovation concentration from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Katz School of Business.

Debra Taevs

Debra Taevs | ResourceFULL Use PDX

Debra has co-facilitated ResourceFULL Use for more than eight years. She’s worked in government, nonprofit, and for profit business with work in pollution prevention, project management, and high tech sales. As Vice President of Business Development for Exceed Enterprises, a nonprofit with the mission to put people with disabilities to work, she is especially jazzed when she can find employment opportunities that have a sustainability focus, truly achieving “triple bottom line” environmental, social, and financial benefits.

Tom Timbario

Tom Timbario | Emissions Advantage

Tom is a co-founder and Vice President of Emissions Advantage, and has over 35 years of international experience in the field of vehicle emission control technologies, advanced vehicle technologies, and alternative fuels and their operational deployment. Over the years, much of his work has involved assisting vehicle and equipment fleet operators of all types to implement clean fuel, low emission vehicle programs. Tom received an M.S. in Mechanical and Automotive Engineering from Wayne State University, Detroit, MI. He is a Registered Professional Engineer in Michigan and Maryland, and the author or co-author of over 100 technical reports and papers on the subjects of advanced transportation technologies, vehicle emissions, and conventional and alternative fuels.

Matt Tracy

​Matt Tracy | Metro

Matt is a Principal Planner in Metro’s Properties and Environmental Services Department where his work is focused on sustainable solid waste operations, renewable fuels, energy, and diesel particulate mitigation. Matt holds a certificate in Sustainability Leadership from the University of Oregon, a master’s degree in Public Administration, with an emphasis on environmental management and solid waste, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Portland State University.

Charles White

Chuck White | Chuck White Consulting

Charles has extensive professional experience in environmental engineering, waste management, and pollution control in the Western U.S., principally California. He has been actively engaged in a variety of public policy, environmental, and engineering issues in the Western U.S. including solid waste and recycling regulations, standards and permitting. He retired from Waste Management in September 2014 and currently represents clients on California state environmental and government relations matters in Sacramento.

Desiree Williams-Rajee

Desirée Williams-Rajee | City of Portland

Desirée is currently the Equity Specialist for the City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability. In her role she addresses both internal culture change toward diversity and inclusion, while also providing technical assistance on applying an equity lens to the Bureau’s programs, policy development, and services.  She has played an integral role in the development in local government Equity Initiatives, including the creation of the Office of Equity and serving on the Metro Equity Strategy Advisory Committee. She was a founding board member of the Center for Diversity and Environment, and is currently working with the Urban Sustainable Director’s Network (USDN) to support a national equity capacity building initiative.

Cory-Ann Wind

Cory-Ann Wind | Oregon DEQ

Cory-Ann works for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), Environmental Solutions Division, Air Quality Planning Section. For the last six years, Cory has led the design and implementation the Clean Fuels Program. Cory has worked for DEQ for 23 years and prior to this assignment, she managed DEQ’s Portland-area office overseeing permit writers and inspectors implementing both federal and state air operating permit programs and working with local governments to maintain attainment with the federal ambient air quality standards. Cory holds a B.S. in BioResources Engineering from Oregon State University.

Hays Witt

Hays Witt | Partnership for Working Families

Hays is the Deputy Director of the Partnership for Working Families. He has a 15 year background connecting municipal public policy with innovative community efforts to create good jobs and racial justice in specific industry sectors. For the last five years he’s lead the Partnership’s Transforming Trash project, a national effort to improve jobs and environmental outcomes in the waste and recycling industry.

Karen Reddick Yirka

Karen Reddick Yurka | CARTM Recycling

Karen is the Executive Director of CARTM Recycling on Oregon’s north coast since 2014. She served on the CARTM Board of Directors for seven years, four years as its Chair. Karen imagines her real job title as ‘Evangelist in Chief,’ extolling waste reduction, reuse, and recycling throughout rural Tillamook County. Karen has a B.A. from Lewis & Clark College. She is the vice-chair of the Manzanita Planning Commission. A lifelong environmentalist, Karen was a high school student when she coordinated a river clean-up in Denver on the first Earth Day. When she is not traveling the world, Karen lives in Manzanita.

Ashley Zanolli

Ashley Zanolli | Oregon DEQ

Ashley is considered a national expert and “thought leader” on consumer food waste prevention. Ashley is currently on assignment from the U.S. EPA to Oregon DEQ as a policy and program advisor for DEQ’s Materials Management Program. Her main focus is to help a team at DEQ to develop a statewide strategy to prevent the wasting of food and to engage stakeholders. For over the past five years, Ashley co-led the West Coast Climate & Materials Management Forum and led development, implementation, and evaluation of EPA’s Food: Too Good to Waste toolkit. This community food waste prevention toolkit has been tested throughout the U.S. and helps households save money while cutting their wasted food by up to 50 percent. She holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and a graduate certificate in Decision Making for Climate Change and serves on various advisory councils to help industries and the ad council address wasted food.