Thomas R. Miles is the president of T.R. Miles, Technical Consultants in Portland, Oregon, a biomass energy consulting firm which designs, develops, installs, and commissions systems that improve efficiency and emissions and recycle nutrients from biofuel processes. Mr. Miles has extensive expertise in innovative biomass systems.
Kim Chaffee’s sales and management consulting prowess was built over many years in the air pollution monitoring instrumentation industry. Leveraging his engineering degrees from both Harvard and the University of California at Berkeley, he won millions of dollars in sales of environmental and process monitoring equipment for smokestack industries, including power, and cogeneration.
As founder and CEO of California-based Pacific Biochar, Josiah Hunt has been pioneering methods for putting carbon from the atmosphere safely into the soil using ecological, sustainable agricultural practices since 2011.Pacific Biochar was one of two companies cited in Forbes January 2020 article describing the growing importance of biochar in sequestering CO2 from the atmosphere.
For nearly 30 years, Chuck Hegberg has focused on “Re-shaping a Greener Future” using his management, technical, and research experience. With a strong reputation as an entrepreneurial visionary, he is known for innovative market-based solutions to some of the most complex environmental challenges. Consultant to Grant Projects Totaling $800,000 Mr. Hegberg has served as co-principal investigator or technical consultant for over $800,000 in grant funding.
Kelpie Wilson is founder of Wilson Biochar Associates and a mechanical engineer, writer, and consultant with a background in renewable energy and forest protection. Currently, she specializes in biochar technology and market development. Commissioned by a broad portfolio of clients, Ms. Wilson has been a reliable voice for climate change.
Albert Bates is author of 20 books on history, science and the environment including Climate in Crisis: The Greenhouse Effect and What You Can Do (1990) with foreword by Al Gore; The Biochar Solution: Carbon Farming and Climate Change (2009) with foreword by Vandana Shiva; The Paris Agreement: the Best Chance We Have to Save the One Planet We've Got (2015) with foreword by Rex Weyler.
Kristin Trippe Ph.D. is a research microbiologist with the Agricultural Research Service, an agency within the US Department of Agriculture in Corvallis, Oregon. Her laboratory focuses on the effects of biochar on soil health and microbial community dynamics and developed the Pacific Northwest Biochar Atlas.
Isabel Lima Ph.D.has been a research chemist with the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Southern Regional Research Center (SRRC) in New Orleans, Louisiana, since 1997. She received her M.S. and Ph.D. at the Bio and Agricultural Engineering Department of University of California, Davis, in 1992 and 1996.
Ronal Larson Ph.D. is a retired professor from the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). In 1977, after being selected to be in the first class of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Congressional Fellows, he became a Branch Chief and then the first Principal Scientist at today’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado.
Kathleen Draper is the US Director for the Ithaka Insititute for Carbon Intelligence, a non profit, open source organization focused on the use of biochar in climate farming and agroforestry as well as other industrial uses of biochar. She is on the Board of the International Biochar Initiative and one of the founders and editors of the Biochar Journal.
Heather Nobert Kingery, American Forest Foundation, was formerly a Nebraska Forest Service Forest Products Specialist, focused on the capacity of biochar to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and sequester carbon as a way to combat climate change.
As program coordinator for the New York Soil Health Program, Debbie conducts applied research and coordinates extension activities that help agriculture producers improve soil health using sustainable soil management practices.