Date & Time: Tue., October 5, 2021 at 6:00 PM
About this Event
We’re going to tackle an important topic on October 5th, and we’re going to come at it with the help of a group of people who organized specifically for this topic and who are actively working the problem.
The topic? The lack of diversity in sustainability.
We see it in our midst. We see it out there. And, we have been actively trying to address it, but it’s not easy and you might not be able to tell from a distance.
That is why, for our October 5th event, we invited Browning the Green Space to BASG to speak with us. They are a volunteer coalition that is advancing the participation and leadership of Black and Brown people as well as Women in the “green” space.
They get it done in 5 very tangible ways.
- Providing Pathways to Employment
- Removing Barriers to Employment
- Supporting Entrepreneurs
- Supporting Contractors
- Reducing the Energy Burden
We will hear about their work, why it’s important, and what it means for sustainability.
If you were to ask any one of them about what drew them together, they’d probably all say something along the lines of creating a movement towards diverse, equal communities – a much needed movement in our minds. We hope you can join us to learn more about this issue and help fuel this movement.
As quick background, Browning the Green Space (BGS) was born from the realization that people of color often receive more than their fair share of “environmental bads”. Some examples are brownfields, pollution, and asthma. On the other end of the spectrum, they rarely benefit from “environmental goods” by missing out on cleantech jobs, renewable energy, access to clean water, healthy and natural foods, and modern urban farming.
We’re thrilled that they agreed to join us and share their best practices, ideas, and key concepts for solving this issue. Here’s who will be with us:
- Kerry Bowie, President, Browning the Green Space; Managing Partner & Founder, Msaada Partners
- Maggie Teliska, PhD, Innovation at Enel Green Power & Women’s Energy Network Boston Board Member
- Jeremy McDiarmid, Vice President, Policy & Government Affairs, NECEC
- Bhargavi Cheeva, Investor, Breakthrough Energy Ventures
- JocCole “JC” Burton, Founder & CEO, Maven Construction, Inc.
- Mary Wambui-Ekop, Asset Manager, Planning Office For Urban Affairs
Kerry Bowie, President, Browning the Green Space; Managing Director & Founder, Msaada Partners
Kerry is the Managing Partner of Msaada Partners and the Majira Project, a nonprofit accelerator program and innovator support organization that helps small businesses and startups grow with a mission of community development through entrepreneurship. Kerry works at the nexus of social, economic, and environmental justice and has more than 20 years of experience in private, public, and nonprofit management. Kerry holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management as well as an MS in environmental engineering from University of Michigan and a BS in environmental engineering from MIT.
Kerry personally has been intimately involved with internship programs at Texas Instruments, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy & Environmental Affairs (EEA), and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP). While at MassDEP, Kerry successfully ran the Commissioner’s Summer Speakers Series (CS3) for over six years when he brought in more than 100 speakers to share their knowledge on food, water, energy, environment, and climate change with interns and staff across the Secretariat.
Maggie Teliska PhD, Innovation at Enel Green Power & Women’s Energy Network Boston Board Member
Dr. Teliska works in the Innovation group of Enel Green Power’s Global Power Generation team. With more than 20 years of leadership experience in the design, development, and commercialization of power sources, she has been at the forefront of new technologies spanning academia, government, and private industry.
Dr. Teliska earned her BS in Chemistry from Boston College and an MS and Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from The George Washington University. Dr. Teliska currently sits on the Women’s Energy Network Boston board as Marketing and Communications Director and is the chair for Social Media and Marketing for Women’s Energy Network Global 2022 Conference. She is also Careers Chair for Browning the Green Space, Massachusetts Co Leader as a WomenHeart Champion and Co Leader of the Society of Participatory Medicine Atlantic Group. She has authored and published several peer-reviewed articles in the power sources field. She is also an ongoing contributor to the Axios Expert Voice series, an online news outlet for renewable energy. She lives in Tewksbury with her husband and cat.
Jeremy McDiarmid, Vice President, Policy & Government Affairs, NECEC
As Vice President, Policy & Government Affairs, Jeremy leads NECEC’s policy and government affairs team. Prior to joining NECEC, he served as Commercial Business Development Manager at SunBug Solar. Before joining SunBug, Jeremy advised Acadia Center on organizational and operational priorities, having previously spent six years there as a Staff Attorney and then Massachusetts Director. He also served three years as Senior Director for Innovation and Industry Support at the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, where he led and executed programs to advance clean energy development within the Commonwealth.
Bhargavi Chevva, Investor, Breakthrough Energy Ventures
Bhargavi is an investor at Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV). Prior to BEV, Bhargavi worked in operations and finance roles at Roche and ExxonMobil, including experience in petroleum refining operations and engineering design. Bhargavi also co-founded PicoEnergy to provide off-grid solar electricity to rural businesses in developing countries. Bhargavi holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.S. in Chemical-Biological Engineering from MIT
JC Burton, Founder & CEO, Maven Construction, Inc.
JocCole “JC” Burton, LEED AP BD+C is CEO of Maven Construction. JC is a Boston based entrepreneur who has spent her 23-year career in the construction industry. Burton’s company, Maven Construction is a Dorchester-based startup focused on energy efficiency, energy retrofit, multi-family housing, retail and municipal projects.
During her 23+ year career, she has worked on airport modernizations, airport renovations and the build out of concession spaces in Denver, LAX and Atlanta. Revitalized neighborhoods and communities through multifamily development in Atlanta, Cleveland and Richmond. She is a trouble shooter and most recently recruited Maven Construction to assist the District in the completion of 50+ school projects at DGS for DCPS. JC has worked on some of the first LEED projects in the United States which includes more than 50 LEED projects, three Net-Zero projects and she developed an on-line sustainability platform to help assess the final driver for green investments. She brings these experiences and her personal commitment to excellence to every opportunity.
JC sits on the advisory board of Ben Franklin Institute of Technology, Construction Management department. JC is the mother of one elementary aged daughter. In her spare time, you can find JC with her daughter, cooking and advocating for better food access for under-resourced children. In her time working with children interested in STEM careers.
Mary Wambui, Asset Manager, Planning Office For Urban Affairs
Mary Wambui- Ekop is an affordable housing asset manager for the Planning Office For Urban Affairs (POUA) a non-profit social justice ministry of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. Her expertise ranges from preservation of affordable housing assets through property, and portfolio repositioning to maximizing performance through capital planning, green and sustainable design, rehabilitation, debt restructuring and building stakeholder relationships. Mary also serves the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as Councilor in the Energy Efficiency Advisory Council (EEAC) a state body that directs the energy efficiency vision for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. She is a co-chair of the EEAC Energy Equity Working Group. Mary’s goal is to open doors of access and opportunity for others especially those in greatest need.
BASG 