Live Interactive Webinars

Ms. Benia’s academic curriculum focuses specifically on wind engineering themes. Her undergraduate thesis determined the suitability of wind comfort and safety criteria of pedestrians, whilst her master’s dissertation quantitatively evaluated interference effects of neighboring buildings on the dynamic response of tall buildings. She has conducted and supervised a diverse array of studies in the wind tunnel, including the determination of wind conditions experienced by pedestrians and development of innovative mitigation strategies, wind loads on tall buildings, chimneys, shipping-yard cranes and long-span structures such as industrial pavilions and warehouses and airport terminals. In addition to being involved in the determination of wind loads on several stadia of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Ms. Benia has extensive experience with testing and analysis of static and dynamic section models of bridge decks, as well as complex, full-aeroelastic models for long-span bridges.

Dr. O’Rourke is a consulting engineer specializing in structural analysis and design, lifeline earthquake engineering, snow and rain loading on buildings and failure investigation. Dr. O’Rourke has published many books including Rain Loads: Guide to the Rain Load Provisions of ASCE 7-16” ASCE Press 101 pages, 2020 (with A. Lewis) and “Guidelines for Snow Loads on Solar Paneled Roofs” ASCE Press E-book, 2016 66 pages (with N. Isyumov) E-ISBN 978-0-7844-8024-3. Dr. O’Rourke also chaired the ASCE 7 Snow & Rain Load subcommittee from 1997 through 2017.

Mr. Torres, RRC, RRO is an Associate Principal and building envelope consultant with over 30 years of experience specializing in roofing and waterproofing systems. Since joining WJE in 2007, he has focused on the investigation, evaluation, and rehabilitation of building envelope systems, supporting architects, contractors, and owners across both new construction and existing building projects. His expertise spans all major low- and steep-slope roofing systems, including single-ply membranes, built-up roofing, modified bitumen, liquid-applied systems, and traditional shingle and slate assemblies. Mr. Torres has extensive experience in failure analysis, leakage investigations, and nondestructive evaluation, as well as in the design of repairs and replacement systems for complex structures. He has contributed to high-profile projects such as the World Trade Center Memorial, Hudson Yards, and Columbia University Manhattanville campus, providing roofing and waterproofing design and consulting services. In addition, he has developed and managed roofing databases and technical programs for large corporate clients, demonstrating a strong combination of field expertise and systems-level thinking.

PS is a consulting company that specializes in many aspects of design, building and construction. Much of that specialization pertains to Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Virtual Design and Construction (VDC). BIM and VDC are both up and coming fields in the building and construction industry and IPS is regarded as a leader in that field. Mr. Furlong’s introduction into the world of BIM came rather easy and stems from the fact that he has been designing in 3D for more than two decades using various programs. He has been responsible for coordinating more than $650M in construction dollars across the nation. The projects he has been involved with have been of varied type and use. From health care facilities to higher education to mixed use buildings, as well as museums, Mr. Furlong has experience in all areas and building types. He carries the CM-BIM (Certificate of Management – Building Information Modeling) designation, an accreditation awarded by the AGC after completion of the required coursework and passing a national exam. Mr. Furlong is also involved in the instructional training of the CM-BIM courses as an approved instructor. He has previously been an Applications Engineer with Autodesk and is certified to train and support various Autodesk products. Mr. Furlong is a BIM advocate and actively participates on the AGC Committee to revise the ConsensusDocs BIM documents. He has taken his knowledge and experience of construction and coupled that with his ability to use 3D software. As a byproduct of that, he has the ability to create a virtual environment from which to study building design and the interaction between the various system components that will be installed within that building.

Ms. Barter is an Oregon-based water lawyer and policy expert with more than a decade of combined non-profit, private sector, and federal experience. A strategic and pragmatic advisor, she has spent her career working to create balance among complex environmental, agricultural, municipal, and cultural water needs. In helping clients through wicked water challenges, Ms. Barter also draws on her background in coalition facilitation, conservation program implementation, natural resource management, and environmental science. She is a former chair of the Oregon State Bar’s Environmental and Natural Resources Section, a frequent speaker at conferences and legislative hearings

Ms. Bayer is a seasoned environmental attorney, regulatory specialist, and litigator at Tonkon Torp, where she serves as Chair of the firm’s Environmental & Natural Resources Practice Group. Her practice is focused on representing clients facing environmental issues related to regulatory compliance, site contamination, and business transactions. Clients value Ms. Bayer’s deep understanding of complex environmental challenges and her ability to provide creative solutions for the best possible outcome. She is adept at approaching her practice through a combination of science and law. No matter what issue her clients face, she puts their best interests first and provides practical advice and counsel all along the way.

Ms. Bayer has significant legal and technical experience remediating contaminated property and managing all stages of environmental litigation. She guides landowners through the appropriate steps when they suspect their property may be contaminated, assists clients with reporting obligations, works with consultants to ensure proper documentation of investigation and cleanup activities, and helps recover costs from responsible parties. Ms. Bayer also regularly assists businesses nationwide in complying with Extended Producer Responsibility laws.

She has represented clients from a variety of industries at some of the largest Superfund sites in the country. Ms. Bayer has experience obtaining stormwater, wastewater, and air emissions permits, negotiating settlements and resolving non-compliance issues with regulatory agencies, and transferring permits to new entities following change in ownership. When buying or selling a piece of potentially contaminated property, understanding environmental risk is key to avoiding major issues down the road. She works with environmental consultants and transactional attorneys to identify and appropriately shift environmental risk so that her clients can close their business transactions with peace of mind. 

Mr. Greene represents clients on matters related to the clean energy transition in the Northwest, providing advice to nonprofits, trade associations, and electricity generators, among others. Prior to joining Sanger Greene, Mr. Greene spent several years at Renewable Northwest, finishing as the organization’s Deputy Director. In that role he supervised work on regulatory matters such as utility resource planning and procurement, and on policy matters including clean energy legislation and renewable energy siting. He has engaged with all Northwest investor-owned utilities’ recent integrated resource plans, worked on the development of Oregon’s and Washington’s competitive procurement rules, helped to negotiate utility voluntary renewable energy programs, participated in writing and passing Oregon’s 100% clean electricity law (HB 2021), engaged deeply with the implementation of Washington’s Clean Energy Transformation Act, and advocated before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on matters related to Open Access Transmission Tariffs, particularly with regard to interconnection processes. He also helped to write and pass a suite of clean energy siting laws in Oregon and Washington, has served on several Oregon and Washington agency advisory committees relating to energy siting, and has authored amicus briefs on siting and permitting law before the Oregon Court of Appeals and Oregon Supreme Court.

Before working at Renewable Northwest, Mr. Greene served as a staff attorney in the Providence, Rhode Island office of the Conservation Law Foundation, where he appeared before the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission and Energy Facility Siting Board, as well as various state and federal courts; earlier in his career, he worked in the Law Department for the City of Providence, Rhode Island and represented indigent clients at Rhode Island Legal Services. Mr. Greene earned a B.A. in Latin from Carleton College and a J.D. from Roger Williams University, graduating cum laude from both institutions and finishing law school with an award for Natural Resources Law. Following law school, he clerked for the Honorable O. Rogeriee Thompson on the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. More recently, Mr. Greene has completed significant coursework in Electrical Engineering at Portland State University. 

Mr. Jaeger’s teaching includes graduate and undergraduate courses in environmental and resource economics, institutional economics, and sustainability. His research has a policy focus in the areas of environmental and resource economics, agriculture ,and sustainability with an emphasis on interdisciplinary research on human-natural systems. His work has involved the economics of water, climate change, fisheries and conservation, land use and land use change,  environmental taxation, the “environmental Kuznets curve”, and agriculture. Previously he taught for 12 years at Williams College. He has been a Visiting Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence Italy in 2016, a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Venice, Italy, and the University of Strasbourg, France 2023-24. He has also taught at the University of Washington and the University of Oregon.

Growing up in southwestern Oregon, Mr. Matteo spent seven summers from high school through college working on a blueberry farm near Roseburg. This work experience, his rural background, and his coursework at OSU led him to pursue a legal career serving the natural resource industries. Before attending OSU, Mr. Matteo served as a state officer for the Oregon Future Farmers of America (FFA) Association, and he continues to be involved with the FFA in Oregon.

Mr. Sanger’s legal and consulting practice focuses on energy, administrative, and public utility law. He represents energy trade associations, municipalities, electric cooperatives, irrigation districts, end-use industrial and commercial consumers, investor owned natural gas and water utilities, and renewable and cogeneration electricity producers. Mr. Sanger advises hydro, biomass, geothermal, wind, solar, cogeneration, and other electricity generators on a wide variety of transactional matters, including negotiating power purchase agreements, interconnection agreements, wholesale power sales, resource development and sales, and other matters. He has a lengthy background representing end[1]use industrial, commercial, and irrigation customers in all facets of retail rates and service quality. Mr. Sanger represents clients in energy and utility matters before state and federal courts, state public utility commissions, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the Bonneville Power Administration. Mr. Sanger is also an adjunct instructor at Lewis and Clark Law School, and in Portland Community College’s Paralegal Program. Mr. Sanger graduated from Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon in 2000 with cum laude honors and an Environmental Law Certificate, and from World College Institute of New College of California in 1995 with a bachelor’s degree in the Humanities with an emphasis in International Environmental Studies.

Ms. Siltanen is a land and natural resources attorney, with a practice focused on land use, permitting, and water rights law. She helps commercial, industrial, and residential clients entitle their projects and defend their land use entitlements against challenges before the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals and Oregon Court of Appeals. She also helps water suppliers and water users acquire, change, and protect their water rights. Ms. Siltanen has counseled private individuals, clients in natural resources industries, including agribusinesses and energy companies, and municipal and special district water providers on matters related to water supply and compliance with water right laws and regulations. She also regularly advises property owners and prospective buyers regarding water rights associated with agricultural, commercial, and industrial properties.

Mr. Tolman is the president and owner of AccenaGroup, a company that has served Utah and surrounding states as stormwater plan and consulting experts since 2007. His industry certifications include QSWPPP, Utah RSI, CISEC, and CPESC. Mr. Tolman has presented several times at American Public Works Association (APWA) conferences, CASQA, Stormcon, and other industry conferences. He has consulted on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Utah State consent decrees and regularly guest lectured for construction management classes at Brigham Young University and Utah Valley University.

Dr. Decker teaches in support of Commonwealth University’s Professional Writing minor. He is Professor and Chair of the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Writing at Commonwealth. Dr. Decker has PhD and MA degrees in English from The Pennsylvania State University (2001, 1997) and he graduated summa cum laude in English from Utah State University (1995).

While an undergraduate, Dr. Decker worked for several years as a staff writer for Aerotech News and Review, an aerospace and defense industry trade newspaper published in Lancaster, California. During graduate school, Dr. Decker was a member of the Leonhard Center for Technical Writing Initiative, a collaboration between Penn State’s Department of English and College of Engineering designed to promote an exchange of ideas between technical writing instructors and the scientific and engineering communities. Dr. Decker also taught Business Writing, Technical Writing, and an Advanced Technical Writing course that enrolled graduate students from technical and scientific disciplines.

After graduate school, Dr. Decker spent four years at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, where he taught Technical Writing in support of that school’s major in Technical Communication and served as the advisor for the student chapter of the Society for Technical Communication. Dr. Decker has given presentations at several national and international conferences and has published both a book and a co-edited book as well as several scholarly articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia chapters.

Mr. Frondorf owns and operates Cincinnati-based DG Frondorf and Associates LLC, a construction cost estimating consulting firm. He is a member of Consulting Estimator’s Round Table (CERT), AACE, and the American Society of Professional Estimators (ASPE). He has 25 years of service as a construction estimator, and has presented several seminars on estimating practices and ethical bidding topics to trade associations and at industry events. Mr. Frondorf is also a past instructor of construction estimating at the University of Cincinnati and has guest lectured there and at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College. He has also written several articles on estimating related topics in Estimating Today and Design Cost Data magazines.

Ms. Dobreva is a dedicated project manager with a successful track record in the construction industry. Currently based in Los Angeles, her experience encompasses a diverse range of projects in commercial real estate, luxury living, and biotech/life sciences, featuring budgets that span from $15 million to $300 million in states such as Arizona, Texas, Michigan, and Florida. She specializes in project management, cost management and construction consulting. Ms. Dobreva diligently engages in all project phases, from design to construction management, consistently delivering high-quality outcomes while building strong relationships with her clients. Passionate about purposeful design and the use of natural elements, she continually seeks innovative ways to add value to projects and spaces creatively, showcasing her dedication to both her professional and personal interests.

Mr. Bowen’s practice focuses on advising clients on best practices to prevent and respond to data privacy and cybersecurity matters. His expertise includes providing pre-breach and incident response counseling and managing all aspects of cybersecurity incident response, including forensic investigations and remediation, media and third-party communications, data mining, breach notification, subrogation, and litigation. Mr. Bowen has experience managing media and third-party communications with state, federal and international regulators and represents his clients in connection with government investigations that arise out of cybersecurity issues. Mr. Bowen also provides counseling on matters relating to HIPAA, Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, GDPR, CCPA, FERPA, PCI-DSS, and various state data protection and breach notification laws. He also has experience advising and assisting with proactive data privacy measures and breach prevention, including the creation of information security plans and programs, acceptable use policies, and incident response plans.

Ms. Dawson’s practice includes extensive experience of responding to data security incidents while ensuring her clients remain compliant with state, federal and international requirements, as well as managing operational and reputational impact. She also develops and provides oversights for complex insurance programs, implementing cyber incident response policies and protocols, overseeing risk management, engaging in insurance program negotiations, retaining and overseeing outside counsel, providing client training to mitigate risk, and resolving insurance coverage disputes. Ms. Dawson’s experience includes representing private companies and public entities whose operations have been affected by ransomware attacks or impacted by a business email compromise. She is certified by the International Association of Privacy Professionals as an accredited Certified Information Privacy Professional/United States (CIPP/US), Certified Information Privacy Professional/Europe (CIPP/E) and Certified Information Privacy Manager (CIPM). 

Mr. Moore is a Certified Insurance Counselor and Licensed Insurance Counselor who has specialized in insuring architects, engineers, environmental consultants, and surveyors for nearly 30 years. He is past president of a/e ProNet, previous chair of the City of Hillsdale Planning Commission, and trustee on the Hillsdale Community Schools Board of Education from 2019-2025 and was active with the Exchange Club of Hillsdale for nearly 25 years. Moore Insurance Services was founded in 1894 as the W.D. Taylor Agency, Charles L. Moore purchased the agency in 1968, and the Moore family has continued providing the professional and personal insurance service that William Dempster Taylor started 132 years ago.

Professor Opfer teaches coursework in construction management, cost control, cost estimating, structural design, and facility systems (MEP design). He is also an industry consultant on design and construction issues, construction safety/defects, methods/materials, and production issues. Professor Opfer has been a consultant to numerous ENR Top 600 Design Firms, Top 400 Contractors, and Fortune Top 500 Corporations. He received his B.S. in Building Theory, B.A. in Business, and B.A. degree in Economics, all from Washington State University. Subsequently he received his M.S. in Management (MBA) from Purdue University and his P.D. in Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Professor Opfer has been involved as an estimator, lead estimator, chief estimator, and estimating consultant on billions of dollars of construction projects over his career.

Mr. Quesada has been practicing law since 1993 and is admitted to all Michigan Courts and the U.S. District Courts of Michigan. His practice has been concentrated in the design and construction industries. He has represented architects, engineers, contractors, suppliers, private construction owners, and public entities in business and construction law matters, contract, construction and property disputes, construction lien and bond claims and defense, professional malpractice, copyright, insurance claims and defense and government affairs. Mr. Quesada has been named an honorary affiliate member of the AIA, and he was named one of Metro Detroit’s Top Lawyers by DBusiness Magazine. He is also an arbitrator on the AAA panel.

Mr. Stoner has successfully defended claims against design professionals for design defects, tortious interference, failure to inspect, and damages for delay, and he has handled contractor claims and surety and lien claims. In addition, he frequently represents shareholders in various business disputes, including breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, and usurpation of corporate opportunity. Mr. Stoner has successfully tried cases in both state and federal courts. His contributions to the legal profession are not limited to the courtroom. He has lectured extensively on various risk management issues for design professionals on areas such as contract drafting, project documentation, claims handling, and other issues that typically arise during a construction project. Mr. Stoner earned his Bachelor of Arts degrees in Economics and Political Science from Indiana University and his Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Toledo College of Law. 

Ms. Bowman Bowman currently teaches water law, administrative law, natural resources and property at the University of New Mexico School of Law. Her work has been cited in the New York Times, and she is a sought after expert in infrastructure, water, energy and regulation who has been interviewed by PBS, CNN, and Democracy Now.  Ms. Bowman has extensive law and policy experience in local, state and federal government, as well as in the non-profit sector. Ms. Bowman has published widely on infrastructure, telecommunications and regulatory issues. She has consulted for the Kenyan Government, USAID, the United Nations, and the U.S. State Department. Before joining The University of New Mexico, she taught at the University of Tulsa, the American University in Cairo, Egypt during the revolution of 2011, as well as at the University of Mississippi, the University of Arkansas and Kabarak University in Kenya. In 2023, she published a book with Palgrave McMillan Digital Development in East Africa: The Distribution, Diffusion, and Governance of Information Technology.

Ms. Jones draws on extensive environmental compliance and enforcement experience to provide strategic counsel to energy and natural resources clients on environmental litigation and regulatory enforcement matters. Ms. Jones represents energy and natural resources clients in environmental litigation and regulatory compliance matters. She helps clients navigate complex environmental issues ranging from New Mexico water law matters to defending against government enforcement actions and counseling clients on regulatory compliance strategies.

Having served for nearly a decade as a trial attorney with the DOJ’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, Ms. Jones gained unique insight into federal agency decision-making processes and enforcement priorities. This perspective allows her to anticipate potential regulatory hurdles and develop practical, collaborative approaches that align with clients’ legal requirements and business objectives. Ms. Jones’s experience spans the full spectrum of federal litigation and includes multiple oral arguments and complex e-discovery matters. She has worked on matters affecting the energy sector, including oil and gas operations, mining projects, and infrastructure development. She brings extensive experience negotiating resolutions among diverse stakeholders through consent decrees and settlement agreements.

Ms. Russo Baca is the staff attorney and Ombudsman Program Director at the Utton Transboundary Resources Center at the University of New Mexico (UNM) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In both roles that she fulfills, her mission is to support and represent constituents in a fair and unbiased manner. As the Ombudsman Program Director, she guides the activities of the Joe M Stell Ombudsman Program, a statewide program that provides impartial adjudication information and procedural guidance to unrepresented water rights claimants in the State of New Mexico. Ms. Russo Baca also manages the Native American Water Right Settlements E-Repository. She contributes significantly to the Utton Center’s overall mission of providing objective research-based public service to New Mexico’s communities on energy, climate change, ecological conservation, food systems, and international natural resource management issues. Ms. Russo Baca undergraduate degree is in agroecology, and she holds both Indian Law and Natural Resources and Environmental Law Certificates from the UNM School of Law. She has also served on the Tribal Law Journal as a staff member and editor and received the Dean’s Award upon graduation. During the Spring 2024 semester, she taught the inaugural Agricultural Law class at the UNM School of Law. Ms. Russo Baca is currently the Chair of the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District Board of Directors, holding Position No. 1, At-Large.

Rin Tara began working at the Utton Center as a staff attorney in the fall of 2023. They graduated cum laude from the University of New Mexico School of Law in May 2023, where they earned a certificate in Natural Resources and Environmental Law. Upon graduation, Rin received the Honorable Pete Domenici Award for Environmental Excellence. In addition to their studies, they served as both an editor and a staff member for the Natural Resources Journal and a board member for the Environmental Law Society.

During their time as a law student, Rin worked as a research assistant for the Utton Center, as well as a legal intern in positions with the United States Department of the Interior Solicitor’s Office Water Resources Division, the United States Department of Agriculture Office of General Counsel, and the nonprofit organization, American Rivers. As staff attorney specializing in water policy and governance, Rin is primarily interested in questions of water management in the face of climate change. They have done work in riparian restoration, river connectivity, tribal water sovereignty, climate change adaptation, and water rights. Rin is delighted to continue research on these topics in the service of the state of New Mexico, through the Utton Center.

Mr. Dutta is a registered Professional Engineer (P.E.) who is fully engaged in water and environmental protection through his leadership in S&M Engineering, LLC (SNM), a Maryland Corporation. He worked as the lead engineer in a superfund site remediation project and various RCRA sites involving design and installation of landfill cover systems, planning and implementing exhumation of a radioactive waste site in a DoD facility. Mr. Dutta worked in developing regulations and guidance later at a national level while with the US EPA for 20 years. He designed an innovative well interception plan, based on the bathymetric profile of the seabed to successfully kill the 1.4m gal/day Deepwater Horizon oil spill (Macondo Well) in Aug 2010. Mr. Dutta is also working on climate change impacts in the Himalayan region by visiting the glacial sources of rivers, specifically the Khatling Glacier (12,500 ft.) in Uttarakhand, India. Mr. Dutta’s most recent book Environmental Treatment Technologies for Municipal, Industrial and Medical Wastes, Remedial Scope and Efficacy, 2nd edition, Taylor & Francis (CRC Press), was published in October 2024 (new edition), Isbn 9781032058214.

Mr. Departhy, P.E., CFEI, CPD, is a Senior Consultant and Team Leader with Engineering Systems Inc., bringing over 20 years of experience in engineering, construction, and forensic investigation. His expertise includes HVAC and plumbing system design, building envelope performance, and moisture intrusion analysis, with a focus on identifying and evaluating failures in the built environment. Mr. Departhy is a Certified Plumbing Designer (ASPE) and serves on the ICC Mechanical Code Development Committee, providing him with direct insight into evolving code requirements and industry best practices. He has investigated numerous cases involving water losses, construction defects, and ventilation-related issues, and is known for delivering clear, technically sound conclusions. A licensed professional engineer in North Carolina and multiple other states, he combines practical design experience with forensic analysis to offer actionable guidance. In this seminar, he will cover plumbing, mechanical systems, and ventilation strategies critical to designing moisture-resistant buildings in North Carolina.

Mr. Isackson is a technical director of architectural engineering at Rimkus with more than 35 years of experience in architectural design and construction contract administration on commercial and military buildings throughout the United States. At Rimkus, he has experience with building enclosure investigation, property condition assessments, litigation, remediation design, and construction contract administration on commercial, military and residential buildings. His investigative and design work includes wall cladding and roofing assemblies. His litigation experience includes premises liability and design and construction defects. 

Mr. Jackson has worked across the residential and commercial sectors as a 3rd party advocate for owners, developers, HOAs, contractors and architects. He is a Level 3 Master Thermographer with a background in design review, failure analysis and hands on field diagnostics. He specializes in identifying the “why” behind a failure and how to prevent it. 

In 2011, Mr. O’Connor founded Advanced Enclosure Consulting, LLC (AEC). AEC has a 15-year history of successfully providing building enclosure consulting services. AEC’s project range includes various secured government facilities, federal courthouses, corporate headquarters, university classroom and laboratory facilities, data centers, office buildings, high rise residential buildings, transportation facilities, and hotels. The scope of AEC’s services includes building envelope commissioning, existing building envelope forensics, design build/design assist consulting, submittal reviews, factory & field QA/QC inspections and reporting, and building envelope field testing. Mr. O’Connor began his career in the building enclosure industry in 1997. He was employed full time while completing his master’s degree in civil engineering. Over the course of (14) years of continuous employment with several different building enclosure trade contractors, Mr. O’Connor held positions of Estimator, Project Manager, Sr. Project Manager, and Project Executive. In these roles, Mr. O’Connor gained experience in all facets of the building enclosure process, including: contract documents, design intent, contracts, system design parameters, budgeting, environmental conditions and their effect on building systems and enclosures, thermal transmittance, envelope air and water tightness, procurement, product selection, material compatibility and coordination, scheduling, material fabrication, factory production and assembly, installation, cost tracking & controls, logistics, factory and onsite quality assurance testing, factory and jobsite quality control, and documentation/reporting. Mr. O’Connor hold the following designations and certifications: IIBEC BECxP – Certified Building Enclosure Commissioning Provider, ASHRAE BCxP – Building Commissioning Professional and Electronic Leak Detection Testing Certification.

Professor Bernstein is a nationally recognized authority on tort law and feminist jurisprudence, as well as professional responsibility, products liability, and family law. Her awards include the first Fulbright scholarship in European Union affairs given to a law professor. As a member of the American Law Institute, she has served as an adviser on two torts Restatements, the recently completed one on intentional torts and the in-progress Restatement covering remedies. In 2020 she received from the AALS Section on Torts and Compensation Systems the top honor in her academic field, the William L. Prosser Award.

Her writings have appeared in dozens of law reviews, including the principal ones of Harvard, Yale, Columbia, California, Michigan, Cornell, Duke, Texas, and Vanderbilt. She is the author of two books about the law of human reproductive anatomy, The Common Law Inside the Female Body (Cambridge University Press 2019) and Making the Best of Semen (forthcoming, NYU Press). Her other books address torts, products liability, and the law of marriage. Professor Bernstein’s scholarship has been cited in decisional law by federal courts (both trial and appellate) and the supreme courts of Pennsylvania and Texas. She has also authored a series on legal malpractice in the New York Law Journal.

Prior to joining Brooklyn Law School, Professor Bernstein was the Sam Nunn Professor of Law at Emory University School of Law, the Wallace Stevens Professor of Law at New York Law School, and Norman & Edna Freehling Scholar and Professor of Law at Chicago-Kent College of Law. She also served as a visiting professor at Michigan Law School, Cornell Law School, and the University of Iowa College of Law, where she was the Mason Ladd Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law. Before her academic career, she practiced with Debevoise & Plimpton and was a law clerk to Judge Jack Weinstein of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Professor Goldman is Associate Dean for Research and Professor of Law at Santa Clara University School of Law. He also co-directs the school’s Datta Center for High Tech Law (DCHTL) and co-supervises the school’s Privacy Law Certificate. Before joining the SCU faculty in 2006, Professor Goldman was an Assistant Professor at Marquette University Law School, General Counsel of Epinions.com, and an Internet transactional attorney at Cooley Godward LLP.

Professor Goldman teaches and publishes in the areas of Internet Law, Intellectual Property and Advertising & Marketing Law. He blogs on these topics at the Technology & Marketing Law Blog, which has been inducted into the ABA Journal’s “Blawg Hall of Fame.” The California State Bar’s IP Section has named him an “IP Vanguard,” and Managing IP magazine twice named him to a shortlist of “IP Thought Leaders” in North America. In 2019, he received Santa Clara University’s Award for Sustained Excellence in Scholarship, the university’s highest award for scholarly achievement. In 2023, he received Santa Clara University’s Brutocao Family Foundation Award for Curriculum Innovation for his work on the school’s Privacy Law and Tech Edge JD certificates.

Professor Goldman received his BA, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, in Economics/Business from University of California, Los Angeles in 1988. He received his JD from UCLA in 1994, where he was a member of the UCLA Law Review, and concurrently received his MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA.

Professor Khan is an Assistant Professor of Law at Cleveland State University College of Law, where she teaches Intellectual Property, AI Law, and other tech-related subjects. Professor Khan is an expert on copyright law, platform governance, and artificial intelligence. Her recent academic scholarship includes articles on developing an accountability framework for large-scale AI training datasets, regulating automated content moderation and online speech tools, and the impact of AI on the creative industries.

Professor Khan was previously a Fellow at the Berkman Klein Center (BKC) at Harvard University. Her research at BKC examined ways of governing the practices involved in developing and deploying AI technologies. She is particularly interested in ensuring diversity and representation in the development process. She has also held positions at Yale Law School, serving as a Resident Fellow at the Information Society Project and as the Program Director for the Yale/Wikimedia Initiative on Intermediaries and Information. Additionally, she has been a visiting researcher at Stanford HAI. She is a recipient of numerous grants to work on the use of AI in hiring. In 2019, she was a Fellow at the Center for Technology, Society and Policy and a Research Grantee at the Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity.

Her doctoral dissertation, completed at Berkeley Law, examines the role of internet platforms in shaping fair use. This research was partly inspired by the challenges internet users face in accessing knowledge and the ways platforms like Google and Wikipedia navigate complex copyright rules to make knowledge more accessible.

Professor Khan is a licensed attorney and has previously worked as a lawyer in the United States, Malaysia, and Pakistan. She has held positions at the Wikimedia Foundation, Creative Commons, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation—three Bay Area institutions that have been at the forefront of many legal battles around digital rights. She holds an LLM and JSD from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.

Professor Lawrence is professor of law and associate dean of faculty at Emory University School of Law. He is a leading scholar of health law, administrative law, and the regulation of addiction. His work spans these fields by exploring how the framework rules that govern public institutions—including appropriations law, administrative law, and constitutional law—influence health outcomes in the real world, often invisibly and at scale.

Professor Lawrence was named one of the top 100 legal scholars of 2025 in Willey and Knapp’s citation-based ranking, is currently serving as a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States, and is a coauthor of The Law of American Health Care, a health law textbook centering federal statutory and regulatory law. His scholarship appears in top law journals including placements at the Columbia Law Review, Cornell Law Review, Duke Law Journal, Harvard Law Review, New York University Law Review, and Yale Law Journal, among others. His scholarship also appears in leading peer reviewed medical journals including the Journal of Law, Medicine, & Ethics (JLME), the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Public Health Reports, and Science.

Professor Lawrence has extensive, bipartisan federal experience. This includes service at DOJ during the Obama Administration, OMB during the first Trump Administration, and DEA during the Biden Administration, as well as work at the United States House of Representatives Budget Committee. He draws from this experience to inform his scholarship, teaching, and frequent media appearances. In 2023, Professor Lawrence was awarded the Provost’s Distinguished Teaching Award for Excellence in Graduate and Professional Education. His media appearances include Bloomberg, Kaiser Health News, Nature, The New York Times, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.

Professor Travis teaches and conducts research in the fields of cyberlaw, intellectual property, antitrust, international and comparative law, and human rights. He joined FIU after several years practicing intellectual property and Internet law at O’Melveny & Myers in San Francisco, California, and at Debevoise & Plimpton in New York. He has also served as the Irving Cypen Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Florida, a Visiting Associate Professor of Law at Villanova University, and a Visiting Fellow at Oxford. He graduated summa cum laude in philosophy from Washington University, where he was named to Phi Beta Kappa. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he served as a teaching assistant in philosophy classes taught at Harvard College and UC Berkeley. After law school, he clerked for the Hon. Wm. Matthew Byrne, Jr. at the United States District Court in Los Angeles, California.

Professor Travis is the author of Platform Neutrality Rights: AI Censors and the Future of Freedom (Routledge, forthcoming 2024), and Copyright Class Struggle: Creative Economies in a Social Media Age (Cambridge University Press, 2018), and the editor of Harmonizing Intellectual Property Law for a Trans-Atlantic Knowledge Economy (with Peter Mezei and Anett Pogácsás, Brill forthcoming 2024) and Cyberspace Law: Censorship and Regulation of the Internet (Routledge, 2013). He has also published works on copyright law, intellectual property remedies, patent reform, the freedom of expression, antitrust law, and net neutrality, including articles in the American Intellectual Property Law Association Quarterly Journal, American University Law Review, Berkeley Technology Law Journal, Miami Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review, Tulane Law Review, Villanova Law Review, and Yale Journal of Law and Technology. He has contributed to symposia and edited volumes on the international and comparative law of copyright and performers’ rights, including a piece on software contracts and copyright that was selected by West Group as one of the best articles relating to intellectual property law that was published in 2010. An article of his on intellectual property remedies was selected by West Group as one of the best articles relating to intellectual property law that was published in 2019. He co-directs the Intellectual Property Certificate Program.

Professor Travis has also published widely on genocide, cultural survival, and human rights. His work in this area has appeared in edited volumes from the University of Pennsylvania Press, Rutgers University Press, Routledge, Palgrave, Berghahn, and Bloomsbury; the international law journals of the Cornell, Washington University, and Brooklyn law schools; and specialty journals such as the International Journal of Middle East Studies, the Middle East Quarterly, Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal (twice), and Genocide Studies International (three times). He is the editor of The Assyrian Genocide: Cultural and Political Legacies (Routledge, 2018), and the author of Genocide, Ethnonationalism, and the United Nations: Exploring the Causes of Mass Killing Since 1945 (Routledge, 2012) and Genocide in the Middle East: The Ottoman Empire, Iraq, and Sudan (Carolina Academic Press, 2010). He has served as an editorial advisory board member of the American Intellectual Property Law Association Quarterly Journal and Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal (the journal of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, continued via University of Toronto Press and the Zoryan Institute as Genocide Studies International), and on the book review panel of the Journal of Genocide Research. He has coached or co-coached FIU’s Jessup International Law Moot Court team, Lefkowitz Trademark Law Moot Court team, BMI Copyright Law Moot Court team, and Cyber 9/12 team.

Mr. Hein is a consulting civil engineer with over 40 years of experience in the design, evaluation and management of transportation infrastructure. He retired from Applied Research Associates, Inc. of Toronto, Canada, where he managed the 90-person Transportation Infrastructure Division in the U.S. and Canada. Mr. Hein is the past president of the American Society of Civil Engineers Transportation and Development Institute (ASCE T&DI), and chair of several engineering standards committees. He is a member of the Transportation Association of Canada (TAC), past-chair of the pavements committee and past member of the Transportation Research Board pavement management, pavement maintenance and pavement preservation committees. Mr. Hein has been a member of the World Road Association (WRA) pavements and asset management committees since 2002. He has been involved in numerous national and international research, evaluation and asset management projects for Federal, State, Provincial and Municipal agencies and for many of the public/private/partnership highway construction projects across Canada and the United States.

Mr. Fisher has more than 30 years of experience constructing hundreds of customized, site-specific, calibrated groundwater flow and contaminant transport models for both private and public clients. As a senior level hydrogeologist, he brings a comprehensive understanding of geology, hydrogeology, chemistry, mathematics, and physics to the table while using specialized investigative techniques such as graphical analyses, statistics, groundwater flow modeling and contaminant transport modeling. His experience includes all aspects of remedial and hydrogeological investigations including soil/groundwater sampling programs; groundwater monitoring system design; monitoring and extraction well installation and development; aquifer characterization, testing and evaluation; and many types of environmental data collection, management, and interpretation techniques in many geologic terranes. Mr. Fisher has experience with conceptual and actual designs for remediation of fuel and solvent-related soil and groundwater contamination at privately and publicly owned waste management sites. He knows the natural chemical characteristics of groundwater, as well as the occurrence and behavior of man-made organic and inorganic contaminants. Mr. Fisher’s experience allows him to conceptualize and describe complex problems and to present solutions in three-dimensions in order to bring clarity to complex technical discussions. He uses a wide variety of mathematical and modeling tools including: GMS, MODFLOW, MODPATH, MT3DMS, RT3D and PEST as well as simpler, less labor-intensive analytical models.

Mr. Messmer has over 30 years of engineering experience in analysis, design, plan/specification development, and project management/personnel supervision for geotechnical, foundation and structural engineering projects in the transportation, industrial, municipal and commercial fields of civil engineering. Throughout his career he has placed an emphasis on quality control and staff training. Mr. Messmer is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Concrete Institute, the American Society of Highway Engineers and the Society of American Military Engineers. He earned his B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh. Mr. Messmer was accepted into the Academy of Geo-Professionals in 2013.

Mr. Howell specializes in complex litigation involving toxic and environmental torts, class actions, mass torts, and related matters. He litigates environmental citizen suits and permit challenges and disputes involving chemical exposure, groundwater contamination, air emissions, personal injury, stormwater, water rights, and property rights. Mr. Howell has counseled and represented clients in litigation related to most of the major federal environmental laws, including the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, CERCLA, and others as well as many counterpart state laws. He also frequently provides counsel on OSHA compliance and other process safety issues. Mr. Howell combines this subject matter expertise with substantial courtroom experience, having tried multiple cases to verdict in federal and state courts and administrative agencies. He is a state-wide officer in the Environmental Law Section of the State Bar of Georgia. Mr. Howell serves as the President of the University of Georgia School of Law Young Alumni Committee. He also serves on the board of the Atlanta Children’s Shelter, Young Professionals Advisory Committee. Mr. Howell is a member of the 2020 class of the Conservative Policy Leadership Institute and a graduate of the State Bar Young Lawyers Division Leadership Academy (2017).

Ms. Liberman has broad experience handling real estate-related disputes. She represents individuals, associations and businesses in matters such as real estate contractual disputes, fraud claims, construction-defect claims, boundary disputes, adverse possession, equitable partition, and contested trusts and estates. Based in the Atlanta area, Ms. Liberman is an experienced real estate dispute attorney handling cases throughout metropolitan Atlanta and the State of Georgia. She is a trained litigator with more than 20 years of experience who understands the value of resolving disputes before they escalate whenever possible.

Mr. Power has more than 30 years of professional legal experience focusing on eminent domain and real estate litigation. He has represented numerous state and local governments in their acquisitions, and he has represented property owners against various local governments as well as against the United States of America. He has tried over 60 eminent domain jury trials, has handled numerous mediations, and has served as a mediator in eminent domain matters. Mr. Power is admitted to practice law in Georgia and Virginia. Mr. Power holds a JD degree from Mercer University’s School of Law. He is a member of the State Bar of Georgia, Atlanta Lawyer’s Club, and the State Bar of Virginia, where he grew up and went to college. Mr. Power has been recognized as a Georgia Super Lawyer as published in Atlanta Magazine. He has been named by Georgia Trend as among Georgia’s “Legal Elite,” and holds the highest rating possible (AV) by Martindale-Hubble. Mr. Power, and his firm, have been recognized by U.S. News & World Report as a Tier 1 “Best Lawyer & Law Firm” for Eminent Domain. He has lectured numerous times over the past 20 years.

Ms. Snell has practiced almost exclusively in eminent domain since she began practicing law in 2015. She is appointed a Special Assistant Attorney General for the State of Georgia and represents the Georgia Department of Transportation in that capacity across the state. Ms. Snell also represents Henry County in condemnation litigation as well as multiple other local government agencies. She also has experience representing property owners in condemnation actions. Ms. Snell received her undergraduate degrees in Political Science and Convergence Journalism from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas in 2010. She received her Juris Doctor from Georgia State University in 2014.

Mr. Richardson has built his career around continuous learning and relationship-building through teaching engagements, presentations, and volunteer service. A committed advocate for diversity and sustainability, he has supported leadership development programs, served as a mentor, and held leadership roles with nonprofit organizations. Throughout his career, Mr. Richardson has collaborated with architects, engineers, contractors, commissioning agents, and owners on projects spanning high-end residential and industrial manufacturing, municipal schools, and state-of-the-art biomedical research facilities. With deep experience leading multidisciplinary teams, he develops and implements comprehensive strategies that align project execution with clients’ goals and sustainability commitments. In commissioning, Mr. Richardson’s leadership has strengthened internal practices and improved delivery processes. He has played a key role in training commissioning providers, developing commissioning programs, overseeing data analytics, and ultimately delivering stronger project outcomes.

Mr. Nuño is a civil engineering manager at the Denver office of Ware Malcomb. A 2008 graduate of the University of Notre Dame with a specialty in structural and environmental engineering, he has established himself as a leader in the field of drainage and erosion and sediment control. In his 15-year career, Mr. Nuño has excelled in the design of land development projects including grading, utility design, stormwater management, and erosion control. Through his experiences as a consulting engineer, he has prepared civil construction plans for such clients as Marriott International, San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), Lennar Homes, Oakwood Homes, and Kiewit Infrastructure West. In the field, Mr. Nuño has provided stormwater inspection services for SDG&E, Caesars Entertainment Group, and public agencies such as the City of Carlsbad, California, and the Town of Elizabeth, Colorado. He has managed civil projects in 17 different states and prides himself on working with developers, architects, and contractors to bridge the gap between regulatory compliance and constructability in the field. Mr. Nuño is a registered professional engineer in Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, and California; a Certified Floodplain Manager; a certified professional in erosion and sediment control, a Colorado LEED accredited professional, and a qualified SWPPP developer/practitioner. He is an active member in the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Urban Land Institute, and the Colorado Association of Stormwater and Floodplain Managers.

Professor M. Reza Alizadeh studies water and climate using advanced computation and Earth observation to address risks affecting communities and ecosystems. His work spans climatology, hydrology, remote sensing, and machine learning to build decision-support tools for sustainable water management from global to regional scales. Prior to MSU, he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT and received honors including the Banting Postdoctoral Award, CSBE Best PhD Thesis Award, FRQNT Postdoctoral Research Award, and an MIT Leadership Fellow distinction.

Mr. Bratton, PhD, PG, is Senior Science Officer at LimnoTech. He has broad expertise in earth and environmental sciences and has led successful projects that involve the characterization and restoration of large ecosystems, adaptive management, contaminated sediment remediation, hydrogeology, numerical modeling, observing system design and operation, environmental policy, and litigation support. Mr. Bratton has worked as a consultant, researcher, educator, and science manager for over 37 years, with a focus on the Great Lakes, Northeast, and Pacific regions. He previously served as Acting Director of the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory and as a leader of the geochemistry research group within the Coastal and Marine Geology Program of the United States Geological Survey in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. He also holds adjunct faculty appointments at Wayne State University and Madonna University. Mr. Bratton works at LimnoTech’s Corporate Headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Professor Lusch retired in 2017, after a 38-year career in the Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences at Michigan State University. Beginning in 1992 with the publication of the Aquifer Vulnerability Map of Michigan, He helped pioneer the use of geographic information systems for groundwater mapping and management in Michigan. Professor Lusch served as the Principle Investigator or co-PI on numerous applied grants and contracts, many funded by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ). The Groundwater Inventory and Mapping Project, which he co-directed, won the MDEQ’s Excellence Award in 2005. In 2008, MSU awarded him the prestigious Distinguished Academic Staff Award and IMAGIN, Michigan’s professional geospatial organization, presented him with the Jim Living Geospatial Achievement Award. As a member of the team that developed the Michigan Groundwater Management Tool (MGMT), Professor Lusch received the annual Director’s Recognition Award from MDEQ in 2009. MGMT allowed MDEQ staff to rapidly produce 2,451 provisional wellhead protection areas for Type 1 and 2 water supplies at no cost to these public drinking water systems. He authored the Groundwater and Karst chapter in the 2009 Michigan Geography and Geology book. Professor Lusch was a co-PI of the 2013 – 2018 Ottawa County Water Resources Study which used process-based flow modeling, coupled with field sampling, historical data mining, geostatistical analyses, and geospatial visualizations to better understand the underlying mechanisms controlling the patterns of shallow groundwater salinization in the county. He co-authored the two papers describing the results of this study (Curtis, et al. 2018. Groundwater. 56 (3): 377–398) and (Curtis, et al. 2019. Groundwater. 57 (5): 784–806). In 2022, Professor Lusch co-authored a review paper entitled “Groundwater in Crisis? Addressing Groundwater Challenges in Michigan (USA) as a Template for the Great Lakes” (Steinman, et al. 2022. Sustainability. 14, 3008). He serves as a Technical Advisor to the Michigan Water Use Advisory Council which advises EGLE on the implementation of the Michigan Water Use Program.

Mr. Aiken is a registered professional geologist and Vice President of Barr Engineering Company. He is responsible for coordinating Barr Engineering Company’s compliance efforts required of clients under the EPA’s new Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR) Rule. He has 27 years’ experience in environmental consulting with a background in investigation and remediation of groundwater and soil contamination as well as permitting for large capital projects such as mines and landfills. He also manages investigation and remediation efforts in Barr’s Bakken Region office related to both the power and fuels industries. His experience spans a wide range of regulatory programs and provides strategic consulting services to a wide range of clients including mining, local government, and manufacturing sectors. Mr. Aiken obtained both his BS and MS at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is a registered or professional geologist in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Missouri.

Ms. Dennis is a hydrologist in the Well Management Section at the Minnesota Department of Health, where she has worked for the past 10 years as a hydrogeologist. Her work includes geothermal permitting, working with local delegated well programs, and she provides continuing education for licensed well and boring contractors. Most recently, she helped launch a new system that will allow for online submission of well and boring records. She got her bachelor’s degree in Geology at Macalester College, and she got her Master of Science (MS) degree in Earth Sciences at Syracuse University in New York. Previously, she worked at Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, research institution of Columbia University specializing in the Earth system science.

Ms. Fortin is the Low Salt Strategist for Bolton & Menk and the inspiration behind Low Salt Design. Her expertise lies in chloride source reduction strategies, practical problem solving, networking, innovation, leadership, and what she likes to call “simplifying science.” As for her responsibilities, they’re plentiful and include client engagement, expanding our water resources division through her knowledge of chloride, integrating chloride reduction into Bolton & Menk’s repertoire, and keeping work fun for those around her. 

Mr. Gleason serves as the focal point for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) comprehensive water resource management efforts in the west metro area of the Twin Cities. Mr. Gleason specializes in comprehensive water resource management, hydrology, geology, surface water, ground water, water supply planning, local water management planning, environmental review, state public water law, technical assistance and communication, partnership development and coordination. He earned his B.A. in Geology from University of St. Thomas and his M.S. in Environmental Studies with emphasis in hydrology from Bemidji State University.

Mr. Olson is a water resources group leader who joined Bolton & Menk in 2006. His experience includes project management in both design and construction of complex water resources and environmentally sensitive projects. He specializes in comprehensive surface water management planning, innovative best management practice design, hydrologic and hydraulic modeling, drainage design and construction plan review, and NPDES Phase I & II MS4 and construction stormwater permitting requirements. He couples GIS techniques with water resources design and analysis. Mr. Olson has a passion for stormwater and water quality education and participates in several stormwater-related steering committees and stakeholder groups. He enjoys facilitating partnerships, developing new relationships, and collaborating with stakeholders to define a common vision and work toward shared goals.

Mr. Paulsen is a licensed civil engineer with over 20 years of experience in stormwater management, flood control, and resilient infrastructure design. He currently serves as a Senior Managing Consultant at Engineering Systems Inc. (ESi), where he leads forensic investigations and advises public agencies and private clients on complex water infrastructure and flood risk projects across the country.

Prior to joining ESi, Mr. Paulsen served as the Executive Director of the Metro Flood Diversion Authority, where he successfully led the $3.2 billion Fargo-Moorhead Flood Diversion project, the first U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Public-Private Partnership (P3) of its kind. His leadership included land acquisition, permitting, climate resilience planning, and large-scale BMP integration across municipal boundaries.

Mr. Paulsen is a Certified Floodplain Manager and an expert in the application of green stormwater infrastructure (GSI), construction-phase BMPs, and regulatory permitting under Minnesota’s MS4 and CSWGP programs. He frequently works with watershed districts, local governments, and developers to address erosion control, stormwater reuse, and long-term system maintenance. He has also served as a municipal elected official and continues to advocate for integrated, cost-effective stormwater solutions that benefit both infrastructure and the environment.

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from North Dakota State University and resides in Moorhead, Minnesota.