Conference Speaker and Moderator Bios

2011 AOR Conference

Annual AOR Conference: Sustainable Oregon — June 7–9, 2012 — Bend, OR

AOR held its 34th annual conference and trade show at the Seventh Mountain Resort in Bend, OR, June 7–9, 2012.

Looking for a quick summary of the conference schedule? Check out the CONFERENCE AT A GLANCE.

Want more details? Check out the FULL AGENDA with session descriptions.

Speaker Bios

Heather Alexander, Tri-County Hazardous Waste & Recycling Program
Heather has been a Solid Waste Specialist with Tri-County Hazardous Waste & Recycling Program since 2011. Her career has focused on public relations and marketing for nonprofit and public agencies, both as a consultant and as an employee. Heather has taken the lead role in bringing multiple county government and public agencies together across several counties to tackle a region-wide drug takeback event.

David Allaway, Oregon DEQ
David is a policy analyst at the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). He’s worked in the recycling field since 1989. At DEQ he coordinates Oregon’s Waste Prevention Strategy, and also works on issues related to greenhouse gases and emissions inventories, energy, life cycle analysis, packaging, and policy development.

Elizabeth Bedard, Association of Postconsumer Plastics Recyclers
Elizabeth is the Director of the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers' (APR) Rigid Plastics Recycling Program. She has over 30 years experience in the solid waste management and recycling field and is one of the founders, as well as two-time executive director, of the Northeast Resource Recovery Association, the oldest and largest recycling cooperative in the U.S.

Monica Beemer, Sisters of the Road
Monica is the Executive Director of Sisters of the Road, a 32-year-old nonprofit cafe and cross-class community that works on the root causes of homelessness and poverty through community organizing in Portland. Sisters uses nonviolence, gentle personalism, anti-oppression, and economic human rights as guiding principles and philosophies in all of its organizational decision making, relationships, and organizing work. Beemer is also on the national Coordinating Councils of the National Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign, is the Co-Chair of the U.S. Assembly to End Poverty; and is a founding board member of the Western Regional Advocacy Project. In 2009 she won the Extraordinary Executive Director of the Year Light A Fire Award from Portland Magazine and Sisters was named one of the Top 100 nonprofits to work for based on employee input in 2009, 2010, and 2011.

Renée Bogin-Curtis, Community Environmental Services
As Food Systems and Multifamily Project Manager at PSU's Community Environmental Services, Renée examines sustainability programs for local, regional, and federal governments. Current projects include adoption and management of Fork it Over (Metro's food donation/ diversion program), an assessment of the food donation infrastructure, exploratory research for the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI)'s new sustainability exhibit, and evaluation of multifamily waste reduction programs.

Abby Boudouris, Oregon DEQ
Abby is a Solid Waste Senior Policy Analyst at the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). Over the past 19 years at DEQ, Abby has worked in the Environmental Cleanup Program, the Hazardous Waste Technical Assistance Program, and currently in the Solid Waste Program working on household hazardous waste, product stewardship, and waste prevention.

Beth Cohen, Oregon Food Bank
Beth is a public policy advocate in Oregon Food Bank’s advocacy department. Beth works with local governments in the Portland metro region on policies and projects that support a strong local food system and better connect local efforts with the emergency food system. Prior to working at the food bank, Beth worked at Metro as a policy analyst providing research and supporting a range of projects including an analysis of whether and how Metro could play a larger role in regional food systems work.

Vineet Dalal, Natur-Tec
Vineet heads the Natur-Tec business unit at Northern Technologies International Corp. (NTIC) and is responsible for global business development and commercialization of NTIC’s technology platforms in the area of bioplastics. For the past six years, Vineet has served on the Board of Directors of the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI), a U.S. based organization of government, industry, and academia that promotes the use and market adoption of compostable plastics.

Dylan de Thomas, Resource Recycling
Dylan is the managing editor of Resource Recycling and an editor of Plastics Recycling Update. Prior to joining Resource Recycling, Inc., he was a freelance writer and editor for more than a decade, covering environmental issues for local and regional publications.

Anne Donahue, City of Eugene
Anne is the City of Eugene’s Compost and Urban Agriculture Coordinator. Her work entails bringing varied composting opportunities to the community and shepherding urban agriculture projects through the maze of zoning and permits. Anne facilitates partnerships with local nonprofits to coordinate Eugene’s Oregon Green School program, and works with the School Garden Project to help install school gardens and compost sites. Anne also provides support to the new Love Food Not Waste commercial compost program. Her newest involvement includes implementing the City’s internal zero waste efforts, providing City Staff with the tools, education, training, and support needed to maximize their zero waste efforts.

Jeff Epstein, Carton Council
Jeff is Principal of Carton Recovery LLC, and became the West Coast Recycling Coordinator for the Carton Council at the beginning of 2011. Jeff is overseeing the improvement and further development of the West Coast recycling infrastructure, as well as end markets for aseptic and gable top cartons. Jeff’s background is in the beverage industry, having spent many years involved with improving the sustainability/environmental impact of beverage packaging.

Lew Feucht, Agilyx
Lew is the Business Development Manager for Agilyx, Inc. where he is responsible for driving Agilyx technology into new waste plastic market segments in the Americas, Europe, and elsewhere. Lew started his career as a microbiologist in the biotechnology field and in the past 24 years has held increasingly advanced positions in high-tech prior to moving into alternative energy.

Stacey Foreman, City of Portland
Stacey manages the City of Portland’s Sustainable Procurement Program and strives to find the best value for the City while reducing negative environmental and human health effects associated with procurement decisions. Over the past decade, she has presented to a variety of organizations on the topic of sustainability in public procurement, including the International Conference on Green Products in Taiwan. Stacey is also a LEED Green Associate.

Justin Gast, Washington County
Justin is a program educator with Washington County’s Recycle at Work program, and is currently involved in the planning and developing of the county’s commercial food scraps collection program. Before joining Washington County, Justin spent five years as a writer and editor for prominent trade journals Resource Recycling, Plastics Recycling Update and E-Scrap News. Justin is also an active member of AOR, participating on committees involved with addressing statewide education outreach and strengthening the statewide recycling infrastructure for used commercial plastic film.

Cheryl Grabham, Oregon DEQ
Cheryl has been a Senior Policy Analyst for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ) Solid Waste Program since fall 2011. Her current projects include implementing Oregon’s paint product stewardship law and participating on a team developing a 2050 Vision for Materials Management in Oregon. Previously at DEQ, Cheryl coordinated the implementation of Senate Bill 737, a project focused on reducing persistent pollutants in Oregon’s waters through pollution prevention. Before moving to DEQ in 2008, Cheryl spent more than 10 years managing applied science projects and coordinating collaborative conservation efforts in Southeast Alaska.

Mara Gross, Coalition for a Livable Future
Mara is the Policy Director for the Coalition for a Livable Future. She has practiced law in the nonprofit, government, and private sectors, and for the last eight years has been a political and social policy advocate. She has advocated on a wide range of issues, and presently much of her work focuses on promoting a sustainable and equitable transportation system

Alison Guzman, Beyond Toxics/Centro LatinoAmericano
Alison grew up overseas in Central and South America and Africa and speaks five languages including Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Guarani. Her past experiences include working and volunteering for international nonprofits and international institutions in Washington DC, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Alison joined Beyond Toxics and Centro LatinoAmericano staff as the Environmental Justice Outreach Coordinator for the West Eugene Industrial Corridor Environmental Health Project, a project funded in part by a U.S. EPA Environmental Justice grant.

Jim Hanna, Starbucks
Jim is Director of Environmental Impact for Starbucks. Since joining the company in November 2005, Jim has collaborated with partner corporations and nongovernmental organizations to help shape the company’s environmental strategy. He contributes to enterprise-wide initiatives that support green building, energy conservation, international procurement, recycling, and waste reduction efforts.

Craig Horrell, Deschutes Brewery
Craig recently joined Deschutes Brewery as the Utilities Manager after owning his own engineering and consulting company for the last 14 years. Craig’s diverse and in-depth background in development and project management is a culmination of over two decades of experience, beginning with street and utility design for municipalities and cutting his teeth on destination resort planning for projects such as Skamania Lodge in the Columbia Gorge. A decade of lead design consulting for Bend, Oregon’s community centrepiece, the 270-acre Old Mill District, was a key factor in his company’s award as partner recipient of the EPA’s 2002 Golden Phoenix Award for Brownfield Development.

Karl Hufnagel, SAIC
Karl is a senior project manager with SAIC Energy, Environment and Infrastructure, LLC. He has more than 40 years of experience in facility planning and design engineering for industrial and municipal clients. Karl is very active with SWANA, including serving as a long-time board member of the Evergreen Chapter of SWANA in Washington State.

Julie Jackson, Allied Waste/Republic Services
Julie has come full circle from high school teacher to director of a nonprofit to recycling education and outreach. She is the Community Relations Manager for Allied Waste/Republic Services, working in the Corvallis, Albany and Salem divisions and enjoys spreading information about the company’s sustainable practices to people of all ages. Much of her time is occupied currently with the company’s new food waste composting facility, Pacific Region Compost, located in north Benton County.

Lauren Johnson, Newport Market
Lauren was born and raised in Bend as a fifth generation Oregonian. She spent her teen years working at the store and 30 years later not much has changed. You can still see her running around the store working on various projects and adding those special touches that make the store so unique. Today she holds the title of Assistant Cheerleader to the Head Cheerleader as she learns the ropes to become the second generation Head Cheerleader of Newport Ave. Market.

Stan Jones, Port of Portland
Stan is an Environmental Manager for the Port of Portland. As part of his job, he oversees the Port’s Waste Minimization Program helping the Port and its tenants develop, expand, and realize waste minimization goals. Stan is a native of southern Oregon, studied and worked in Germany, and began his professional career as an environmental consultant.

Nuin-Tara Key, Metro
Nuin-Tara recently joined the Resource Conservation and Recycling Division at Metro, the regional government for the Portland metropolitan area. Previously, in the role of Regional Planner, she gained experience in a number of regional climate mitigation planning efforts, including the state mandate to reduce greenhouse gas emission from the transportation sector. Nuin-Tara was also a National Audubon Society and Toyota 2010 TogetherGreen Fellow, and previously worked at Coalition for a Livable Future as the Regional Equity Atlas Outreach Coordinator.

Scott Klag, Metro/AOR
Scott works as a Senior Planner for Metro and is the Legislative Chair for AOR developing and implementing a wide range of recycling and solid waste policies and programs. Over the past dozen years, Scott has been active in product stewardship, currently serving on both the Board of the Product Stewardship Institute and as Co-Chair of the Northwest Product Stewardship Council. He has participated in efforts that have resulted in extended producer responsibility (EPR) legislation in Oregon for e-waste and paint. His current efforts included working on EPR legislation for mercury-containing lighting. As Legislative Chair for AOR, Scott worked on the successful expansion of the Oregon Bottle Bill.

Tom Leaptrott, ORPET
Tom is one of the leading forces behind ORPET, Oregon's first PET recycling facility. ORPET opened in April 2012, and was honored by the White House for creating rural U.S. jobs. Tom has also been an entrepreneur and business owner in the following areas: steel forging industry, custom plastic food packaging, importing from Asia for barrier food packaging/exotic packaging structures, business consulting services, and business leasing and equipment lending. He also is involved in a new start-up business for the assembly and sale of LED lighting technology.

Laura Leebrick, Western Oregon Waste
Laura has been with Western Oregon Waste (WOW) for over 13 years, and was originally hired as a Recycling Education and Outreach Coordinator. She then spent seven years as Operations Manager for WOW’s coast division, overseeing collection, transfer station, and transport operations in Clatsop and Tillamook counties. Laura has spent the past five years working as WOW’s Government & Community Affairs Manager, and handles public sector and media relations in all of their service areas. She lives in Astoria, and is based out of Western Oregon Waste’s coast offices in Warrenton.

Tom Leland, Cascade Disposal
For over a year, Tom has been the Site Manager of Cascade Disposal in Bend and is proud to bring a new fresh perspective to Central Oregon. Cascade Disposal’s new commercial food compost program caters to customers who are ready to embrace change and can commit to sorting waste streams into recycle streams. Tom Leland began working in the waste industry 23 years ago as a route driver with Waste Management in Snohomish County and eventually was promoted to District Manager. Tom also ran a transfer station in King County along with a smaller hauling operation.

Kristen Leonard, C&E Systems
Kristen is a contract lobbyist and principal for C&E Systems, an Oregon-based government relations firm. Kristen represents a broad spectrum of clients ranging from labor interests, environmental projects, human service providers, and legal associations. She serves clients as an advocate, advisor, and strategist in working with the legislature and state administrative agencies.

Heidi Logosz, Mt. Hood Meadows Ski Resort
Heidi has been with Mt. Hood Meadows Ski Resort (MHM) for 15 years. In 2007 she took on the newly created role of Sustainability Manager. In this capacity, she directs corporate practices that integrate social, environmental, and economic considerations, including energy conservation and waste reduction initiatives to help produce environmental results while simultaneously creating business benefits. Heidi is a Master Recycler and has contributed many volunteer hours educating her coworkers and community about recycling.

Gina Lorubbio, Green Rising Marketing
Gina, a Brand Alchemist at Green Rising Marketing, is passionate about using the power of marketing to fuel the green movement. At Green Rising, she puts her design-thinking skills to work, honing in on people’s needs, developing creative solutions, and communicating ideas clearly.

Meg Lynch, Metro
Meg is the Recycling and Waste Prevention Manager at Metro, the regional government in Portland, Oregon, where she has worked for 15 years. Previously, she worked at Resource Recycling as an editor, writer, and researcher. She is a past Board Chair and past Conference Chair of AOR.

Kevin McCarthy, RethinkWaste
Kevin is the Executive Director of RethinkWaste, where he provides overall financial and operational management for solid waste and recycling services for their 12 member agencies. Kevin was previously the Business Development Manager for two privately owned recycling companies in Southern California, and he also served as Vice President of Government Affairs for Waste Management, Inc.’s Recycle America subsidiary.

Terry McDonald, St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County
Terry has been Executive Director of the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County since 1984. Under Terry’s leadership, St. Vinnie’s has grown into the largest nonprofit humanitarian agency in Lane County, with 435 employees, 1000 units of affordable housing, five emergency service programs, 11 retail thrift stores, a vocational services department, and 10 distinct recycling and reuse programs.

Kristan Mitchell, ORRA
Kristan is the Executive Director of Oregon Refuse and Recycling Association (ORRA), the statewide trade association representing solid waste management companies in Oregon. During the course of her career with ORRA, she has served on numerous task forces, work groups, and advisory and rulemaking committees with Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality, Oregon OSHA, and the Oregon Department of Transportation. She is a past Special Projects Chair of AOR, a past President of the Oregon Highway Users’ Alliance, and a past President of the Salem Optimist Club. She currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Oregon State Bar’s Antitrust and Trade Regulation Section.

Patty Moore, Moore Recycling Associates
Patty is president of Moore Recycling Associates and an internationally recognized authority on postconsumer plastic collection and recycling. She is also the Executive Director of the Plastics Recycling Corporation of California and, in that role, helps broker more than 140 million pounds per year of PET.

Jeff Murray, Independent Contractor
Jeff began his refuse and recycling career in 1977 collecting bundled newspapers from the tops of garbage cans for Millers’ Sanitary Service in SW Portland. In 1993 Jeff went to work for Far West Fibers as a Projects Manager. After 15+ years in the collection industry, Jeff quickly learned the different needs of the paper processors and the NW paper mills relative to the collectors. In 2003, Jeff was promoted to Vice-President of Business Development and was responsible for sourcing Far West facilities, working with trade associations, government relations, and government regulations. Jeff left Far West in March of this year and is now working as an independent contractor in the refuse/recycling industry.

Steve Murray, NeighborImpact
Steve is the Food Bank and Winter Energy Programs Manager of NeighborImpact in Redmond. Founded in 1985, NeighborImpact is a private nonprofit organization established to serve and speak out for economically disadvantaged people in Central Oregon. Their mission is to break the cycle of poverty by helping remove the barriers that prevent people from achieving economic self-sufficiency. NeighborImpact receives and distributes food to a network of over 40 local agencies that include emergency food box sites, congregate meal sites, brown bag programs, and shelters. Local agencies redistribute food received from the NeighborImpact Food Bank directly to people seeking emergency food assistance.

Beth Myers-Shenai, Marion County
Beth has been a Waste Reduction Coordinator for Marion County for three years with a focus on marketing, outreach, and backyard composting, and a Marion County Master Recycler for 13 years. She also has a background in invasive plant control working for the Oregon Department of Agriculture. Her favorite waste reduction strategy is bringing reusable containers to restaurants to take home leftovers!

Garry Penning, Rogue Disposal & Recycling
Garry has worked in the solid waste industry for 21 years, employed by both publicly-owned and privately-held companies. His career has covered three states and he is experienced at establishing relationships with local governments and community leaders. He is employed by Rogue Waste Systems in Medford. Garry currently serves on the Oregon Refuse & Recycling Association’s Board of Directors and chairs its Governmental Affairs Committee.

Anna Plaster, Society of St. Vincent de Paul
Anna is a San Diego, California, transfer that has been working in Portland’s social services sector for over a year and a half as the Executive Director for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Anna has over 25 years of experience working in social services, addressing the effects of poverty and homelessness in urban and rural communities. With an educational background in psychology and nonprofit leadership and management, Anna has been received as a great asset to the Portland community.

Charles Porta, eCullet Inc.
Charles has over 45 years in operations, sales, and finance with major corporations. He has worked in the glass processing industry for over 20 years and served as President of Container Recycling Alliance (CRA) where he managed the development and growth of the company to become the second largest glass processor in the U.S. Nine of the facilities utilized automated glass sorting technology to process three color mixed glass from curbside collection programs. CRA was the first glass processor in the United States to use this technology. His experience encompasses all phases of glass processing from developing facilities, acquiring incoming supply of postconsumer recycled glass, pre-processing, color sorting, and ensuring the quality of furnace ready cullet is delivered to the end user.

Jerry Powell, Resource Recycling
Jerry is the owner of three magazines (Resource Recycling, Plastics Recycling Update, and E-Scrap News). He edits Resource Recycling. In addition, he aids in the management of three annual conferences, the E-Scrap Conference and Exhibition, the Plastics Recycling Conference and Exhibition, and the Resource Recycling Conference and Exhibition, several of which are the world’s largest in their fields. Previously Jerry founded and managed a recycling consulting firm for a decade and founded and managed a recycling business in Portland for more than eight years. He is a past three-time Chair of the board of the National Recycling Coalition and the three-time chair of the board of a state recycling association. He has spoken on waste management and recycling issues in 48 states and five Canadian provinces.

Christopher Quaka, NeighborImpact
Chris is the Volunteer and Communication Administrator at NeighborImpact, Central Oregon’s Community Action Agency. For over 26 years NeighborImpact has delivered programs targeted to help the working poor in Central Oregon. Last year alone, NeighborImpact served more than 60,000 Central Oregon Residents. Before Chris was hired at NeighborImpact in 2011, he was employed by the Corporation for National and Community Service. For over five years, Chris provided leadership and project support to thousands of young adults who completed service in communities and disaster areas throughout the U.S.

Mark Quinlan, Bend Area Habitat for Humanity
Mark serves as the Executive Director for the Bend Area Habitat for Humanity whose mission is to work in partnership with community and families in need to build quality, affordable homes in Bend and Crook County. Quinlan was initially hired as the Development Director and in 2010 took over leadership of the organization. He previously worked as a Program Administrator at the High Desert Education Service District for 12 years.

Jim Quinn, Metro
Jim has worked in the hazardous waste management field since 1984, beginning in the private sector as chemist and regulatory compliance officer for a small hazardous waste recycling company in Northern California. Since 1991 he has been with Metro, a metropolitan area-wide agency that oversees solid waste disposal in the Portland region. He manages Metro’s Hazardous Waste Program, which includes two permanent hazardous waste facilities, a series of HHW collection events around the region, a small business hazardous waste collection program, and a state-of-the-art latex paint recycling facility. Jim is also a board member and policy committee chair the North American Hazardous Materials Management Association.

Wayne Rifer, EPEAT
Wayne is the EPEAT Director of Standards and Training for the Green Electronics Council and teaches a graduate-level class on Product Design and Stewardship in the Portland State University School of Business. He participated as a negotiator in the NEPSI dialogue to design a funding system to recycle e-waste and managed the stakeholder process to develop EPEAT, a procurement tool for environmentally preferable electronics.

James Senecal, Cellmark Recycling
James is the Purchasing Manager for Sunset Trading and Cellmark Recycling. James has spent the last 30+ years in the recycling industry. He started working part-time with his brother sorting paper at a Weyerhauser plant in Portland, not knowing that this would end up being his career path. James has worked for many recycling companies in his career and spent most of his years working with paper rolls and developing markets for waste grades that had no recycling use. James has also worked for years directly with paper mills and other waste generators and converters. His current duties are purchasing joblotrolls and paper waste for export and domestic mills.

Laurie Hansen Sheets, Strategic Partners Group
Laurie is an independent consultant specializing in the development and execution of advocacy strategies on behalf of companies exploring environmental opportunities at the state and local government levels. Laurie’s expertise includes plastic recycling infrastructure development, compost and anaerobic digestion supply chains, and relationships with key support personnel to gain endorsement of client endeavors at the appropriate municipal agency level. Laurie is also the Executive Director of the Western Plastics Association and was formerly the Western Region State and Local Public Affairs Director for the American Plastics Council (APC) and Council for Solid Waste Solutions.

Jay Simmons, NORPAC
Jay has worked for Weyerhaeuser/North Pacific Paper Corporation (NORPAC) for over 35 years, where he now serves as a Process Engineer and Raw Material Purchasing Manager. He started in the research & development department working on recycling technology and new products. During the late 80s he contributed as a key resource as part of a team that designed and started up NORPAC Deink Facility. Jay's current responsibilities include leading raw material procurement quality, volume, and strategic direction; product technical support; mill process capability; cost reduction; quality improvement; and new product development projects.

Vinod Singh, Far West Fibers
Vinod is a native Oregonian, whose first experience with recycling and Far West Fibers was as a boy scout doing paper drives. It must have been a good fit, because in 1990 he was hired on as a part-time warehouse employee at the Far West Fibers Beaverton facility. Over the last 20+ years, he has worked at and managed each of the Far West Fibers locations, learning the company and recycling from various perspectives. He is currently the Operations Manager for the Beaverton facility.

David Skakel, Tri-County Hazardous Waste Recycling Program
David is Program Coordinator for the Tri-County Hazardous Waste & Recycling Program. As founding board member and director of Columbia Gorge Earth Center, David has worked in the field of sustainability for more than a decade. He started the Hood River County Recycling Program, and Gorge Rebuild-it Center (a nonprofit reuse store). He is also a Master Recycler instructor.

Peter Spendelow, Oregon DEQ
Peter has worked on solid waste and recycling issues for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality since 1985, including overseeing Oregon's seven waste composition studies since 1992 and consulting on studies in the Metro region and in Washington before then. Other areas of work include the Oregon Bottle Bill, used oil recycling, recycling quantification and composition, and solid waste and recycling policy development and interpretation.

Arianne Sperry, City of Portland
Arianne develops and coordinates programs and policy related to materials management at the City of Portland Bureau of Planning & Sustainability (BPS). During the past three years, she has overseen the planning and implementation of an 18-month pilot and then the citywide launch of Portland’s curbside food scrap composting program. Prior to her work on recycling and composting programs, Arianne was a city planner at BPS and Fregonese Associates.

Brian Stone, Deschutes Recycling
Brian has been in solid waste management here in Oregon for almost 25 years.His background includes 18 years with Waste Control Systems/Allied Waste at Coffin Butte Landfill and PRC, a large composting facility, both located near Corvallis He is currently Operations Manager for Bend Garbage and Recycling and Deschutes Recycling. Among his responsibilities are the yard debris and food composting programs at Deschutes Recycling. He is past president of the Oregon SWANA Chapter.

Chris Thomas, Waste Connections/AOR
Chris is the Regional Recycling Manager for Waste Connections. He has been in the solid waste industry for 16 years managing landfills, hauling companies, transfer stations, and material recovery facilities in the Northwest. Previously, Chris served as the Regional Procurement Manager for SP Recycling Corp., where he was in charge of sourcing recyclable material to two single stream processing plants and a newsprint mill in the Northwest.

Ashley Tjaden, City of Gresham
Ashley is a Recycling Specialist at the City of Gresham. Office-based outreach is a change of pace for Ashley after years of climbing into dumpsters, chasing after garbage trucks at dawn, and outfitting herself in Tyvek and rubber gloves for waste sorts. She catapulted herself into recycling in 2009, starting at Community Environmental Services. Ashley assisted hundreds of multi-family property managers in Washington County and rallied thousands of residents to recycle through door-to-door apartment outreach. Incorporating her nine years of restaurant experience, Ashley now motivates food generating businesses to participate in the commercial “Gresham Composts!” program.

Jordan Trimmer, Pacific Region Compost
Jordan is the Sales and Marketing Rep for Pacific Region Compost. Jordan joined Allied Waste in 2010, and before that he was working on crop production management in Central Oregon. Jordan has a degree in Agriculture from Oregon State University.

Dave White, ORRA
Dave was hired as Oregon Refuse & Recycling Association’s (ORRA) Regional Representative in 1995. He spends much of his time staffing the Washington County Haulers Association, the Clackamas County Haulers Association, and the Tri-County Council, and working with ORRA members throughout the Portland metro region. Dave grew up in Forest Grove, Oregon and attended the University of Portland and earned a law degree from Pepperdine University in Southern California. He and his wife Michelle, his childhood neighbor in Forest Grove, recently celebrated their eighth Anniversary. He enjoys music, woodworking, and remodeling and landscaping their homes in Beaverton and Seaside.

Rick Winterhalter, Clackamas County/AOR
Rick is a Sustainability Analyst at Clackamas County. He currently works in franchise administration, waste reduction policy development, overseeing contractors, and occasionally checking in on the Recycle at Work team. Rick has served as AOR Board Chair since 2008.

Josy Wright, Waste Connections
Josy is the education department manager for Waste Connections' Vancouver hauling office. Since 1999 Josy has worked in the environmental services industry throughout the greater Portland/Vancouver area focusing on waste reduction and education for commercial and residential customers. Josy is also a Master Recycler.

Moderator Bios

Brad Bailey, High Country Disposal

Alison Briggs, Resource Recycling/AOR
Ali works with Resource Recycling and assists with the development and management of three national recycling conferences (Resource Recycling Conference, E-Scrap Conference, and Plastics Recycling Conference). She previously managed the nonprofit computer refurbishment organization Free Geek. Ali currently serves on the AOR board as the Conference Chair and in her free time enjoys eating vegetables out of her garden and spoiling her chickens and cats.

Elaine Jane Cole, Sustainability Consultant
Elaine has a Ph.D. in leadership and organizational change with an emphasis in environmental sustainability. Her dissertation, A Community-Based Social Marketing Campaign to Green the Offices at Pacific University: Recycling, Paper Reduction, and Environmentally Preferable Purchasing, embodied the blend of research and practice she enjoys in her work. Elaine Jane hails from Forest Grove and is currently engaged in community sustainability efforts there with the nonprofit Adelante Mujeras and is chair of a community-wide sustainability task force. She is ready to transition out of her consulting and volunteer roles and is currently looking for a full-time job to best utilize her professional passions.

Thomas Ebert, City of Beaverton
Thomas has been a Recycling Specialist for the City of Beaverton's Recycling & Solid Waste program since 2006. His focus is with single-family and multi-family residential education and outreach. Prior, he earned his undergraduate degree at Portland State University in Urban Planning. He lives and volunteers in the Independent Republic of St. Johns in North Portland. In his free time, Thomas enjoys looking under rocks, refurbishing worn out doilies, and teaching a course on distilling sauerkraut-infused schnapps at Portland Community College.

Tom Egleston, Washington County
Thomas has been working with Washington County for over two and a half years and is currently the Program Coordinator for the Solid Waste and Recycling Program. In this role, Thomas works with the 13 solid waste collection companies and three disposal sites in the County to ensure the solid waste collection and disposal system runs efficiently and effectively. Previously, Thomas worked in outreach and education under the Recycle at Work Program, providing on-site technical assistance to Washington County businesses and for Portland State University’s Community Environmental Services on a variety of projects.

Nate Forst, PSU Community Environmental Services
Nate is Project Lead for the Port of Portland Technical Assistance Project (PTAP). He is in his second year of PSU's Master of Business Administration (MBA) program, with a focus on sustainability and social enterprise. At the Port, he leads a team of students that provide support and operational assistance for waste minimization across all Port of Portland facilities, emphasizing the Portland International Airport (PDX). Previously, Nate worked in communications for Great Outdoors Colorado Trust Fund and in sustainable residential development for EcoUrban.

Michael Geller, Providence Health & Services
Michael is the Regional Sustainability Manager for Providence Health & Services, Oregon. He is responsible for the creation and adoption of sustainable management practices for the eight Oregon hospitals and multiple satellite facilities. This includes implementing programs in waste reduction and increasing recycling, alternative transportation, healthy food, and environmentally preferred purchasing. Michael also co-chairs the Providence Oregon Sustainability Council, and manages the vocational staff at the Providence recycling center who sort commingled recycling and works with vendors to sell the sorted material to help offset the cost of recycling programs.

Kristin Leichner, Pride Disposal
Kristin has worked for Pride Disposal Company in Sherwood for eight years and is the fourth generation of her family to work in the solid waste industry. Kristin is Pride’s Office Manager and also handles community outreach for the company.

Shannon Martin, Clackamas County
Shannon is a Sustainability Analyst with Clackamas County and is currently coordinating their commercial compost program. In the past four years working for the county, Shannon has been assisting the business community in the Recycle at Work Program, developing an Integrated Pest Management Plan, and helping to finalize the Business Recycling Requirement ordinance outreach project.

Michelle Metzler, Waste Management/AOR
Michelle is the Recycling and Organics Outreach Coordinator for Waste Management of Oregon. Michelle has worked with hundreds of businesses from a wide variety of industries to develop waste reduction strategies. She has extensive experience conducting waste audits, providing staff trainings, developing education programs, and helping find creative ways for businesses to reduce waste increase recycling. Prior to joining Waste Management, Michelle worked for the Multnomah County Sustainability Program where she helped government facilities reduce their waste and implement new recycling programs. She is also serves on the AOR board as the Education Chair.

Kelly Panciera, Green Specyrum Consulting/AOR
Kelly serves as AOR's Communications Director, managing the organization's print and online publications, website, and member services. She is also a principal at Green Spectrum Consulting, a sustainable materials management consulting firm specializing in recycling, waste reduction, green purchasing, and product stewardship. A large part of her consulting is performing research and communications support for the the Responsible Purchasing Network, an international network of buyers dedicated to socially responsible and environmentally sustainable purchasing.

Amy Roth, Green Spectrum Consulting/AOR
Amy is AOR’s Resource Director and a principal at Green Spectrum, a sustainable materials management consulting firm. As part of her consulting work, she coordinates the Oregon Recycling Markets Development Corporation, which helps support and develop local recycling markets in Oregon.

Heather Schmidt, New Seasons Market
Heather developed and manages the comprehensive sustainability program for New Seasons Market, a locally owned and operated grocery widely recognized for cutting edge sustainable practices, employee equity, and social responsibility. She serves on AOR's conference and membership committees as well as the Oregon DEQ Materials Management 2050 Stakeholder Workgroup. Prior to New Seasons, Heather spent ten years in social justice and violence prevention work. She has traveled to 40 countries and is an artist and published writer.

Andy Sloop, Metro
Andy is a manager in Metro’s Resource Conservation & Recycling Division. He oversees the Division’s legislative, measurement, and toxics reduction work. In a prior role as General Manager of Total Reclaim’s Oregon branch, Andy was involved in developing and implementing Oregon’s extended producer responsibility (EPR) legislation for e-waste, and he served on DEQ’s 2010 Product Stewardship Stakeholder Workgroup.

Joe Wonderlick, Waste Connections/AOR
Joe is the current Treasurer of AOR and has been involved in the solid waste field for over 20 years. For the past 10, he has been a financial analyst and controller for Waste Connections. Joe works with the company and local communities to ensure that programs are financially viable. This is not easy, as the challenges of providing a financial sustainable suite of services to a small population are daunting. He looks forward to a robust discussion about breaking down the barriers.

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