Vera Cole

Dr. Cole serves as the program officer for the Energy and Sustainability Policy degree program. As a senior lecturer for the ESP program, she also develops and teaches courses related to energy sources, implications, and policy. While earning her BS in mechanical engineering from New York Institute of Technology, Dr. Cole attended school and worked full time — in a character-building process that took 8 years. This experience serves her well in the design and delivery of courses through the Dutton Institute, where many students work hard to advance academically while managing demanding jobs and lives. Offered a fellowship from Motorola, Dr. Cole earned her MS in industrial engineering from Arizona State University where she had her first experiences with computer simulation, systems thinking, and process management. This interest carried through in her PhD work at Drexel University, funded by a National Science Foundation grant. There she studied information science and technology, and researched the design of data-efficient heuristics for applying production management principles to information-based business processes, using systems dynamics simulation models.

Dr. Cole is currently president of local power with the Mid-Atlantic Renewable Energy Association, a non-profit educational organization, where she leads workshops (hands-on solar electric installations), publishes, and teaches solar-related courses. It was at one of these workshops in 2009 that Dr. Cole and the Dutton Institute met and recognized the shared values and perspective regarding our energy future and the role of education in getting it right. This serendipity embodies Dr. Cole’s philosophy of sustainability — the mindful on-going balance of deep attention to current actions with the dogged pursuit of game-changing new information. Dr. Cole is also a vegetarian and yogi, who spends a lot of time standing on one foot.

Dr. Cole can be reached by email at vjc12@psu.edu.

Seth D. Baum

Seth Baum is pursuing a PhD in the Penn State Department of Geography, in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. His research shows how today's sustainability challenges fit into the grander scheme of the universe. For example, his doctoral research focuses on the ethical and empirical foundations of climate change policy. His research has been covered in media outlets, including the websites of National Public Radio and the MIT Technology Review. He also collaborates extensively with Penn State's Rock Ethics Institute and Astrobiology Research Center, as well as with other scholars in several disciplines and institutions worldwide.

Before switching to geography in 2007, Baum focused on engineering, having completed degrees in optics, applied mathematics, and electrical engineering. He has extensive teaching experience. While in the engineering field, he worked in the Boston public schools as a National Science Foundation GK–12 Fellow. More recently he has twice taught GEOG 030 for residential students at Penn State; he co-authored and now instructs the online version of GEOG 030: Geographic Perspectives on Sustainability and Human-Environment Systems for the energy sustainability and policy degree program.

Jeffrey R. S. Brownson

Dr. Brownson serves as an adviser in the ESP program and also contributes to the authoring and instruction of several ESP courses. He holds a unique background as a materials scientist for energy systems, having completed degrees in geosciences and environmental chemistry. Following his PhD from the University of Wisconsin—Madison, Dr. Brownson pursued postdoctoral research in solar energy in France. He joined the faculty of the Department of Energy & Mineral Engineering (EME) in the summer of 2007.

The Brownson research team currently focuses on photovoltaic materials and systems design. The research achieves a unique vertical integration of expertise within the field of solar energy conversion by supporting a multidisciplinary environment for materials research, integrative solar system design, and energy simulations for analysis and deployment of new solar technologies. Dr. Brownson has recently emerged from his role as the faculty director for Natural Fusion, the Penn State project participating in the DOE-sponsored Solar Decathlon 2009 in Washington, D.C. The Natural Fusion home is now set on the Bayer MaterialScience campus just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Dr. Brownson revels in the exchange between the sciences, society, and the arts. He envisions graduates of the ESP program as a new reservoir of people-power, facilitating communication to effect policy change for a sustainable system of society within nature, and as part of the habitable environment.

Dr. Brownson can be reached by email at nanomech@psu.edu.

Shaobiao Cai

Dr. Shaobiao Cai, assistant professor of engineering at Penn State Hazleton, is a co-author and instructor of ENGR 312: Sustainable Energy Entrepreneurship, a required course in the Bachelor of Arts in Energy and Sustainability Policy degree program. Dr. Cai worked as a mechanical engineer in industry for four years, joining Penn State in 2008 after receiving his PhD  from The Ohio State University. His research interests and goals are to carry out fundamental studies in areas of applied engineering mechanics and sustainable engineering design with various applications, including energy and power generation systems, and systems in micro/nano scale. The scope of his research includes the development of analytical and numerical computational models, development of sophisticated instrumentation and techniques, and the acquisition of data for fundamental understanding. He also participated in the development of a bachelor of science in general engineering with an alternative energy and power generation track at Penn State Hazleton.

Chris Flynn

Chris Flynn is the co-author and instructor of ENGR 312: Sustainable Energy Entrepreneurship, a required course in the energy and sustainability policy online degree program. He is a 2009 graduate of the executive MBA program in the Smeal College of Business at Penn State. His entrepreneurial project focused on developing a business plan for an 8 MW solar utility. While completing the 21-month course, he worked as a consultant for community nonprofits and a local foundation to build awareness, raise funds, and develop viable programs in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.

As the business development specialist for the Sustainable Energy Fund in Allentown, Pennsylvania, he is responsible for the financial services unit of the fund that provides lending for small- to medium-sized businesses looking to implement renewable or sustainable energy projects. Flynn has more than twenty years of professional experience in sales, marketing, financial services, brand development, and management. He has held positions with the American Cancer Society, and Olympic Amis Ltd. in Reading, Pennsylvania and London, England. Since 1993, Flynn has held management positions in financial services for the Pennsylvania firms of Hartford Life and Annuity in Scranton, York Federal Savings and Loan, and Asset Funding Group in Reading.

Wieslaw Grebski

Dr. Wes Grebski is an associate professor of engineering at the Penn State Hazleton campus. He joined Penn State as an engineering faculty member in 1984 and serves as coordinator of the mechanical engineering technology (MET) program at the Hazleton campus and the MET program system-wide. Dr. Grebski received his PhD in technical sciences from the Stanislaw Staszic University of Mining and Metallurgy in Krakow, Poland, in 1978, where he was a full-time faculty member from 1974 to 1980.

Dr. Grebski's research interests have evolved from vibration control to computer-aided manufacturing. Presently he is focusing on alternative and sustainable forms of energy. In conjunction with this focus, he is coordinating the development of a bachelor of science in general engineering with an alternative energy and power generation track at the Hazleton campus. After the program is implemented, he will serve as the program coordinator. Dr. Grebski co-authored ENGR 312: Sustainable Energy Entrepreneurship, a required course in the energy and sustainability policy degree program.

Brian King

Dr. Brian King co-authored and instructs the online version of GEOG 030: Geographic Perspectives on Sustainability and Human-Environment Systems for the energy and sustainability policy degree program. He joined the Department of Geography at Penn State as an assistant professor in fall 2008. He earned his PhD in geography with a certificate in development studies from the University of Colorado in 2004, and from 2004 to 2008 he was an assistant professor in the Department of Geography and the Environment at the University of Texas. Dr. King's research and teaching interests concentrate on several topics, particularly conservation and development in southern Africa, social and environmental justice, and the intersections between livelihoods, health, and environment. In addition to supporting the development of an environmental justice minor in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, he is working actively in Penn State's Parks and People study abroad program, which serves as a model for integrating research, teaching, and service within a study abroad context.

Andrew N. Kleit

Dr. Andrew Kleit is the program officer for the Penn State undergraduate major in energy business and finance (EBF). He is the designer of E B F 200: Introduction to Earth Science and Energy Economics, which is included in both the EBF and energy and sustainability policy program curricula. After receiving his PhD  in economics from Yale University, Dr. Kleit worked on antitrust and regulatory matters at the Federal Trade Commission. He then performed similar duties at the Canadian Bureau of Competition. Prior to joining the faculty at Penn State, he taught at Louisiana State University. With respect to the energy and sustainability policy degree program, Dr. Kleit's focus is on the use of economic instruments to reduce pollution.

Michael E. Mann

Dr. Michael Mann is the author of METEO 469: From Meteorology to Mitigation: Understanding Global Warming, a required course in the online energy and sustainability policy degree program. The course provides an introduction to global warming and climate change, covering the basic science, projected impacts, and approaches to mitigation. Dr. Mann is a member of the Penn State faculty, holding joint positions in the departments of meteorology and geosciences, and the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute (ESSI). He is also director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center. He received his undergraduate degrees in physics and applied mathematics from the University of California at Berkeley, and both an MS in physics and PhD  in geology and geophysics from Yale University.

His current areas of research include model/data comparisons aimed at understanding the long-term behavior of the climate. Dr. Mann was a lead author on the "Observed Climate Variability and Change" chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Third Scientific Assessment Report, and in 2007 he shared the Nobel Peace Prize with other IPCC authors. He has been organizing committee chair for the National Academy of Sciences "Frontiers of Science." He has received the outstanding publication award from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and in 2002 was selected as one of the 50 leading visionaries in science and technology by Scientific American. The author of more than 120 peer-reviewed and edited publications, he has recently co-authored the book Dire Predictions: Understanding Global Warming with colleague Lee Kump. He is also co-founder of the energy and sustainability policy degree program and avid contributor to the award-winning science website RealClimate.org.

Barry Posner

Dr. Posner is the author and instructor of E B F 200: Introduction to Energy and Earth Sciences Economics for the energy and sustainability policy degree program. He is currently a principal strategy analyst with Exelon Power Team, the trading division of Exelon Corporation, America's largest investor-owned diversified utility and generation company. In this position he researches, analyzes, and forecasts the structure and fundamental drivers of domestic and global electricity, oil, gas, coal, and emissions markets in support of trading activities and corporate strategy development.

Dr. Posner earned his doctorate in energy, environmental, and mineral economics from Penn State in 2006. Formerly, he was an engineer and has ten years experience in oil, gas and oil sands production, refining, petrochemicals, and mining in Canada and internationally. He holds a B.S. in chemical engineering and an MS in mining engineering from the University of Alberta. Prior to joining Exelon, Dr. Posner was an assistant professor of economics at The Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi, UAE. He is also a visiting professor at the University of Delaware, where he teaches a course in energy markets.

Brandi J. Robinson

Brandi Robinson serves as a faculty member and adviser for the Bachelor of Arts degree in Energy and Sustainability Policy and is the author and instructor for several classes within the program. Ms. Robinson holds a master's degree from Penn State's Department of Geography (2005), where her research focused on local-scale mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, specifically using the University Park campus as a case study. After graduation, Ms. Robinson managed day-to-day operations for the Consortium for Atlantic Regional Assessment (CARA), which was a multi-institutional cooperative agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to explore the impacts of climate change on areas around the Mid-Atlantic region. When the grant period was over, Ms. Robinson worked for the Penn State Office of Physical Plant's Engineering Services Division as an engineering aide. Here, Ms. Robinson again pursued her campus-based greenhouse gas work and completed inventories for all of the Commonwealth Campuses. She also helped develop and implement reduction strategies and outreach programs to increase student involvement in energy conservation and other environmentally-focused activities.

Most recently, Ms. Robinson has served as a senior account manager and policy analyst at Environmental Credit Corporation located in State College, Pennsylvania. Environmental Credit is an offset project developer, focusing on projects that reduce methane emissions from farms and landfills. Here, Ms. Robinson has seen projects through the process of data management and collection, to third party verification and issuance of carbon credits. She also works closely to understand the emerging regional and federal policy landscapes as they relate to energy and carbon. Ms. Robinson is the author of GEOG/EME 432: Energy Policy, and will also be teaching GEOG 438W: Human Dimensions of Global Warming.

Haley Sankey

Haley Sankey is a faculty member for the online Bachelor of Arts in Energy and Sustainability Policy, instructing EGEE 495: Internship Experience and EGEE 299: Foreign Studies. Ms. Sankey has worked as a licensing coordinator assisting hydroelectric utilities navigate the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s cooperative licensing agreement process. She helped foster stakeholder involvement, a critical component for successful license submission and approval as well as supported habitat and water quality study efforts. Haley recently served as the Southern Alleghenies Regional Energy Coordinator, completing energy audits and educating municipalities on energy reduction and savings opportunities.

Ms. Sankey earned her undergraduate degree from Juniata College, where her program of emphasis was environmental practice and policy. Haley is currently pursuing her master’s degree in project management, out of the Penn State Black School of Business, offered through the World Campus.

Ron Santini

Ron Santini is an instructor for the online energy and sustainability policy degree program. He developed and teaches GEOG 469: Energy Industry Applications in GIS. Santini is retired from Duke Energy Corporation, where he was employed for 18 years. While at Duke, he served as a manager and senior environmental scientist, directing the functions of the Environmental Assessment and Monitoring Group, which was composed of environmental scientists and technicians responsible for environmental site investigations at fossil and nuclear generating facilities. These investigations and monitoring activities included ash basins, ash landfills, industrial waste landfills, gasoline-contaminated sites, and abandoned manufactured gas sites. He also managed the routine monitoring of surface waters at 11 reservoirs that supplied water for hydroelectric, fossil fuel, and nuclear generating facilities.

Derek Six

Derek Six is co-instructor of E B F 200: Introduction to Energy and Earth Sciences Economics for the Bachelor of Arts in Energy and Sustainability Policy degree program. He is currently the Chief Financial Officer for Environmental Credit Corp., the leading developer of GHG emission reduction projects in the U.S. His firm manages more than 60 projects throughout the country, which work to reduce GHG emissions and earn carbon offset credits through state and regional cap and trade programs. Mr. Six was the co-founder and treasurer of the Carbon Offsets Providers Coalition, served on the Climate Action Reserve’s ODS Working Group, and is a frequent panelist and speaker specializing in the effective design and implementation of offset programs within cap and trade frameworks.

Mr. Six earned his MBA in investment management and portfolio analysis from the Smeal College of Business at Penn State in 2006. He holds a BS in sociology from Penn State. Prior to joining Environmental Credit Corp., he was founder and president of several entrepreneurial ventures, and was a manager of hotel and restaurant properties. 

Petra Tschakert

Dr. Petra Tschakert co-authored and instructs the online version of GEOG 030: Geographic Perspectives on Sustainability and Human-Environment Systems for the energy and sustainability policy degree program. She is an assistant professor in the Department of Geography and the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute (EESI). She received her PhD  in arid lands resource sciences from the University of Arizona in 2003, and completed postdoctoral work in biology at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Dr. Tschakert's research and teaching interests focus on the intersection of rural livelihoods in Africa, social and environmental justice and health, marginalization, small-scale gold mining, and climate change mitigation and adaptation. With support from the United States Agency for International Development and the National Science Foundation, she is currently leading three large interdisciplinary research projects on climate change in Ghana, including one with collaborators in Tanzania. Dr. Tschakert is also part of Penn State's Parks and People study abroad program in South Africa, with the overall objective to unravel and communicate complexities in context of contested human-environment interactions.

Karl Zimmerer

Dr. Zimmerer co-authored and instructs the online version of GEOG 030: Geographic Perspectives on Sustainability and Human-Environment Systems for the energy and sustainability policy degree program. He is a geographer and environmental scientist whose research and teaching are focused on a group of interconnected topics centered on global human-environmental change. These interests concern the interaction of cultural, socioeconomic, and environmental dynamics in agriculture and resource use of developing and developed countries. His first area of interest is the role and conservation of agrobiodiversity in complex agricultural landscapes containing local and regional food and consumption systems. Recently he has extended this research to frameworks of agrobiodiversity in global environmental change and governance. His second area of interest is the role of globalization in agriculture, rural livelihoods, and biodiversity conservation. This research includes neoliberalizing policies and politics as well as other governmental, nongovernmental, and citizen approaches including "spaces of hope" in conservation and sustainability.

Dr. Zimmerer's third area of interest is concerned with concepts and theory in human-environment and nature-society approaches to environmental studies. It also includes the historical experience and present-day development of spatial-environmental models and planning, particularly through interaction of the knowledge systems of ecological science and local and indigenous peoples.

He is the author of numerous articles and chapters, and his books and monographs include four publications, most recently Globalization and New Geographies of Conservation (2006, University of Chicago). He is active in various groups and organizations involved with agricultural, environmental, conservation, and globalization policies; serves as the head of the Geography Department at Penn State; and also edits the Nature-Society section of the Annals of the Association of American Geographers.