Green Schools Committee
John Diffenderfer, Principal, AEDIS
John is a Principal at AEDIS Architecture & Planning in San Jose and has 20+ years of California school design experience. John designed CA’s 1st Net-Zero Energy School and was a featured speaker at Greenbuild on Net-Zero Schools. He has overseen large and complex school construction programs, including an award winning project recognized by the City of San Jose's Green Star award.
Steve Murphy PE, LEED AP, (BD+C), Director of MEP Services, Blach Construction
WSteve Murphy comes to us from USGBC-NCC’s Monterrey Bay Branch where he served as the advocacy chair. During this time, Steve mobilized ~20 green schools advocates, in partnership w/ local community colleges, to offer free green consulting services to underfunded schools. Steve is currently the MEP Director for Blach Construction and specializes in green schools.
Sustainable Neighborhoods
Aaron Welch
Aaron Welch is one of the nation's leading LEED-ND experts. Aaron has managed the LEED-ND process for a total of 6 different development projects that are either certified or in the process of certification, wrote portions of USGBC's LEED-ND Reference Guide, has developed and delivered LEED-ND education for USGBC, and recently completed a Citizen's (Advocacy) Guide to LEED- ND for the Natural Resources Defense Council. Aaron has contributed to a wide variety of general plans, neighborhood plans, vision plans, and transit-oriented development.
Ellie Casson, Campaign Organizer, Greenbelt Alliance
Ellie Casson is a sustainable planning and community organizing specialist. Ellie grew up in Upstate New York and attended college at the University of Toronto and Hampshire College, where she graduated with a BA in Sustainable Community Planning. Ellie spends her days working as a Campaign Organizer for Greenbelt Alliance in the Silicon Valley. Through this position she has had the pleasure of collaborating with residents, elected officials, city staff, members of the business community, and more to help create plans and policies that will propel Silicon Valley cities toward more environmentally and people-friendly futures. In addition to her work at the local level, Ellie has been deeply involved in advocacy around SB375 and the Bay Area’s effort to create a regional greenhouse gas emission reduction plan. In her free time, Ellie enjoys exploring San Francisco’s never-ending outdoor, culinary and musical offerings.
Green Residential Committee
Maureen Ladley, Principal, Ladley & Associates
Maureen Ladley, principal of Ladley & Associates, leads a research and marketing consulting firm based in Oakland, California. With expertise in urban infill community research, planning and marketing, she is a passionate advocate of sustainable building practices and is both a LEED AP and a Certified Green Building Professional. Maureen has more than 20-years experience in research and marketing of residential, Active Adult, multifamily and mixed-use real estate. Prior to Ladley & Associates, Maureen worked with Forest City and Centex. She's a member of ULI, USGBC-NCC, and Build It Green, and serves on ULI's Communications Committee and co-chairs USGBC-NCC's Residential Marketplace Committee. Maureen holds an undergraduate degree in economics from UCLA.
Randy Potter, Vice President, Earth Bound Homes
Randy is the VP of a green, single-family homes company, Earthbound Homes. Randy has over 30 years of environmental advocacy experience. He is a member of the Mountain View Environmental Task Force, an advisor for the Santa Clara green building program, and served as a co- chair for USGBC-NCC’s Residential Marketplace Committee for 6 months in 2011.
State Policy: San Francisco Advocacy Committee
Dennis Murphy (Chair)
Dennis Murphy is on a mission to cool and heat buildings at scale utilizing the vast thermal battery potential of the ground below our feet. As part of the founding team at Seasonal Energy, Inc., he is commercializing Smart Thermosiphon Array thermal storage technology for a variety of large-scale applications. With a career arc spanning design to demolition and data to heat networks, Dennis filled business development and executive roles at Potter Drilling and GroundSource Geo. At GroundSource, he led a team that won a Clean Tech Open Sustainability Award and produced the “Project Negatherm” research report for the California Energy Commission. Dennis is active in clean tech and energy efficiency policy, has been deeply involved in NCC Advocacy and is the founding and current chair of USGBC California.
Paul Wermer (NCC Representative)
Trained as a chemist, Paul’s focus on sustainable practices began while he managed materials development programs in the semiconductor industry. Work on environmentally related projects highlighted how significant both regulatory and market forces are in influencing business actions, and the power of advocacy in shaping both those forces. Following his interests, he joined Global Footprint Network as a senior scientist, where he applied the Ecological Footprint as a sustainability metric in a number of projects – and was astonished at the resource impacts of building and remodeling practices. This evolved into an interest in land use and green building practices. Paul has been active in USGBC-NCC’s State Advocacy activities since 2008.
