New York State Partners

AND

In partnership with:

(*Indicates voting member)

*KELLY BENNETT
Chair, NYS Apollo Alliance

In June 2007, Ms. Bennett was appointed by then Lt. Governor David Paterson to the State of New York’s Renewable Energy Task Force. She currently serves as Chair of the New York State Apollo Alliance, Co-Chair of the Environmental Business Association/NYS Climate Change Committee, and a member of the external review committee of the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation Environmental Excellence Awards. Ms. Bennett teaches a climate change course as an adjunct professor in the MBA for Managing Sustainability program at Marlboro College, Vermont, and is the board Treasurer for the Center for Economic and Environmental Partnership. An Albany Business Review 40 Under Forty honoree, Ms. Bennett is a frequent presenter at national conferences and other events.

W. HAYWOOD BURNS ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION CENTER

KEN WATSON
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Phone: (518) 426-2924
Cell: (518) 331-0298
Fax: (518) 463-0544
Kwatson3(at)nycap.rr.com
596 Manning Blvd.
Albany, NY 12210

ARBOR HILL ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE CORPORATION

*AARON MAIR
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Phone: (518) 463-9760
aaronmair(at)yahoo.com
596 Manning Blvd.
Albany, NY 12210

Aaron Mair devotes most of his free time to community and environmental issues. He has fought against suburban towns dumping trash in the Tivoli Preserve and against the ANSWERS plant, a state trash incinerator in the Arbor Hill neighborhood. As part of the settlement proceedings, the W. Haywood Burns Environmental Education Center and the Arbor Hill Environmental Justice Corporation were created as environmental justice watchdogs and to educate the community about environmental issues that affect public health and well-being.

Mr. Mair works for the New York State Department of Health. He is currently the President of the Board for the Arbor Hill Environmental Justice Corporation (AHEJC) and the Treasurer for the W. Haywood Burns Environmental Education Center. He is an elected (statewide) member of the Executive Committee and the Environmental Justice Chair of the Sierra Club’s Atlantic Chapter. He is the Co-Host of News, Views, and Interviews, an AM radio talk show on WROW 590 in Albany.

ENVIRONMENTAL BUSINESS ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK STATE, INC.

*SUZANNE MALONEY
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Phone: (518) 432-6400, ext.227
Fax: (518) 432-1383
Suzanne(at)eba-nys.org
991 Broadway, Suite 207
Albany, NY 12204

Suzanne Maloney is Executive Director of the Environmental Business Association of New York State. In 1998 she was the Marketing Director for the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens. She later took the position of Northeast Regional Marketing Director with FutureLink, a systems integration company. In November 2002 she was Executive Director for an initiative of The Nature Conservancy called the Invasive Plant Council of New York State. While there, her networking abilities increased the number of members by 15% and brought eight new Board members to the table, which in turn revealed additional funding opportunities. She implemented board handbooks, trained interested members for committee involvement and fundraising, and was the impetus for a green industry PAC in NYS.

HEALTHY SCHOOLS NETWORK, INC.

*CLAIRE BARNETT
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Phone: (518) 462-0632
cbarnett(at)healthyschools.org
773 Madison Ave.
Albany, NY 12208

Ms. Barnett is the founding Executive Director of Healthy Schools Network, Inc. (HSN), a national, environmental-health research, education, and advocacy organization, and the Coordinator of the national Coalition for Healthier Schools. She convened the fledgling Network in 1995 as a New York statewide coalition. Convening national and state partners into a national Coalition, she also shaped and won enactment of the federal Healthy and High Performance Schools Act in 2002, which codified school design criteria for the first time and established a successful, first-ever National Priority Study on the impacts of decayed facilities on children. Ms. Barnett led the successful campaign for the federal High Performance Green Buildings Act of 2007 that directs U.S. EPA to work with state agencies to advance healthy school environments. Since 1997 she has worked closely with scores of nongovernmental national, state and metropolitan organizations to develop and sustain effective policy activities, and is a resource for media on children’s environmental health at school.

NEW YORK STATE UNITED TEACHERS (NYSUT)

*STEPHEN K. ALLINGER
DIRECTOR OF LEGISLATION
Phone: (518) 213-6000
sallinge(at)nysutmail.org
800 Troy-Schenectady Rd.
Latham, NY 12210

With almost three decades of service to public education, Stephen Allinger is the Director of Legislation for the 600,000-member New York State United Teachers (NYSUT). In this role since January 2005, Allinger has been an advocate for the interests of millions of school children and college students, health professionals and their families and educators.

NYSUT has developed a strong statewide program to meet its members’ legislative and political needs. Allinger works closely with NYSUT’s elected officers to articulate the union’s positions about the State of New York’s schools and how to constantly improve them. Together with the union’s leaders and members, Allinger meets with federal, state and local elected officials, policymakers and their staffs to keep public education issues a top priority.

JOHN A. GREEN, III
LEGISLATIVE REPRESENTATIVE
Phone: (518) 213-6000, ext.6615
Cell: (518) 424-7869
Fax: (518) 213-6409
jgreen(at)nysutmail.org
800 Troy-Schenectady Rd.
Latham, NY 12210

John Green specializes in health care issues, school-related professions, charter schools, social justice issues and workplace health and safety concerns. In addition, he works with a number of coalitions involved with social justice and anti-discrimination issues. John holds masters degrees in criminal justice and elementary education from the Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy at SUNY Albany and the College of Saint Rose, respectively. He also attended Oxford University for a Legal Studies program. In addition to his teaching experience in the Schenectady City School District, John worked as a research associate with the NYS Civil Liberties Union, a legal intern with the NYS Attorney General’s Bureau of Consumer Fraud and Protection and with the New York State Assembly’s Social Services and Education Committees.

SIERRA CLUB ATLANTIC CHAPTER

SUSAN LAWRENCE

NORREIDA REYES
CONSERVATION DIRECTOR
Phone: (518) 426-9144
Fax: (518) 426-3052
Norreida.reyes(at)sierraclub.org
353 Hamilton St.
Albany, NY 12210

Norreida Reyes represents over 42,000 Sierra Atlantic Chapter members dedicated to protecting New York State’s environment. Ms. Reyes’ public policy and grassroots organizing experience spans eight years, during which she served on the New York State Assembly’s central staff, working for former New York State Comptroller H. Carl McCall, and worked for the Charter Schools Institute, covering such issues as education, workforce development, smart growth and biotechnology.

UNITED STEEL WORKERS DISTRICT 4

*FRANK HOTCHKISS
STAFF REPRESENTATIVE
Phone: (716) 565-1720
Cell: (716) 432-6922
fhotchkiss(at)usw.org
305 Cayuga Rd.
Cheektowaga, NY 14225

Mr. Hotchkiss has been a member of the United Steelworkers for 40 years. He spent 30 years working in an integrated steel plant, Bethlehem Steel, and has been on staff with the USW International for the past 8 years. He serves as an organizer and as the Political Coordinator for USW District 4, as well as treasurer and member of the board of directors for the Coalition for Economic Justice. Mr. Hotchkiss also serves as treasurer of the Massachusetts and Rhode Island USW 527 Committees. In Spring 2008, he was selected to serve as chair of the Western NY Apollo Alliance. He is also co-chair of the New York State Blue-Green Alliance.

WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE (WDI)

*ED MURPHY
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Phone: (518) 463-2141
Cell: (518) 421-5600
edmurphy(at)aol.com
96 South Swan St.
Albany, NY 12210

Ed Murphy is the Executive Director of the NYS AFL-CIO’s Workforce Development Institute (WDI) and has a long history as a leader in public policy, organized labor, economic and workforce development, strategic planning, business consulting and international trade. In 1999, he established WDI, which has become a statewide leader in workforce intelligence, education and training of unionized workers. WDI’s statewide and regional operations provide economic research, community audits, policy analysis and cultural services to working families.

Mr. Murphy was a co-founder of the NYS Apollo Alliance, bringing together organized labor, business, environmental organizations and educators and proponents of environmental justice to address energy and good jobs issues. Ed has been an op-ed columnist, had three photography exhibits sponsored by the New York State Vietnam Memorial, has been a technical advisor on a movie and was honored by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for Dear America: Letters Home From Vietnam, broadcast by HBO in 1987-88. Mr. Murphy and his daughter Zoeann co-authored and took the photographs for Vietnam, A Father Daughter Journey, published by Philmark Press in 2006.

PAUL SHATSOFF
Director of Public Policy and Government Relations   

Phone: (518) 272-3500, ext. 110
Fax: (518) 272-3501
Cell: (518) 429-9369
pshatsoff(at)wdiny.org
24 Fourth St.
Troy, NY 12180

Paul Shatsoff has over 30 years of experience in New York State government, having served as Chief Information Officer, Finance Officer and Human Resources Administrator. Paul also served as a part-time faculty member at the Rockefeller College Graduate School of Public Affairs and Policy, where he taught courses in public finance and budgeting and human resources management.  Paul is a Board Member of the State Academy of Public Administration.

ROCHESTER/CENTRAL NEW YORK APOLLO ALLIANCE STEERING COMMITTEE

Chair: John Lembach, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
Lisa Canedo, Greater Rochester Enterprise
Tom Gillette, New York State United Teachers
Bob Trouskie, Workforce Development Institute
Mary Ellen Mangino, Workforce Development Institute
Gay Nicholson, Sustainable Tompkins
Margy Peet, Genesee Valley Sierra Club
Mary Ellen Spennacchio-Wagner, Monroe 2-Orleans BOCES

ROCHESTER/CENTRAL NEW YORK PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT WORKING GROUPS

Sustainable Municipalities: Gay Nicholsen and Margy Peet, co-chairs
Green-Collar Jobs: Bob Trouskie and John Lembach, co-chairs
Energy Conservation: Lisa Romanowski, GEOS Global and Greg Goforth, Goforth Electric, co-chairs
Healthy Schools: Greg Lattimore, Auburn Municipal Power Agency, chair

ADDITIONAL LINKS

Governor Paterson’s Renewable Energy Task Force Report
15 x 15 Energy Reduction Initiative
New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA)
New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL)
New York State Solar Energy Industries Association (NYSEIA)
Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC)

BUFFALO-WESTERN NEW YORK APOLLO ALLIANCE STEERING COMMITTEE

Chair: Frank Hotchkiss, United Steelworkers
Cheryl Bird, Daemen College Center for Sustainable Communities
Linda Chiarenza, Westside NHS – Charter Neighborworks America
Roger Cook, WNYCOSH
Allison Duwe, Coalition for Economic Justice
Robert Knoer, Wind Action Group
Connie Krueger, Workforce Development Institute
Sam Magavern, Partnership for the Public Good and University at Buffalo Law School Affordable Housing Clinic
John Magney, Carpenters Local #289
Mary Martino, United Way of Buffalo and Erie County
Lori Nagel, WNY Energy $mart Communities
Bill Nowak, Green Gold Development Corporation
Brian Patterson, New Buffalo Impact
Gregory Stoner, Finishing Trades Institute of Western Central NY
Anne Robinson Wadsworth, Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper
Eric Walker, PUSH Buffalo
Art Wheaton, Cornell University ILR
Black Rock Riverside NHS
Buffalo First!