Board Members
Mauricio Velásquez
ICL Board Chair, President and CEO of The Diversity Training Group
The Diversity Training Group
Mauricio is President and CEO of the Diversity Training Group, based in Herndon, VA. Mauricio started his firm specializing in Diversity Assessment, Design, Diversity Training, and Executive Coaching. In the 20 years of operation, Mauricio and his team have expanded into that nexus of where Respect in Workplace, Engagement, Trust, and Higher Performance meet. Mauricio also conducts Sexual Harassment Prevention Training, Mentoring Training, and all related employee retention related services (exit interviews, post-exit interviews, survey, focus groups, etc.). Mauricio earned a BA in Economics and Psychology (double major) from the University of Virginia and an MBA in Human Resource Management from the George Washington University. DTG past include National Wildlife Federation, Nature Conservancy, The Conservation Fund, Department of Interior and other “Green Organizations.” Past clients also include HP, Black & Decker, NASA, Visa USA, The White House, law enforcement, Native-American tribes, military and other organizations. Son of immigrant parents, Mauricio is bilingual and his work and life have taken him to every state but North Dakota and nearly 70 countries.
Kevin Brubaker
ICL Board Vice Chair & Treasurer, Deputy Director Environmental Law and Policy Center
Environmental Law and Policy Center
Kevin Brubaker is the Deputy Director of the Environmental Law and Policy Center and has served as the organization’s Project Manager for the Midwest High-Speed Rail Network Project since 1996. Mr. Brubaker served as the Principal Policy Associate and Deputy Chief of Staff to Governor Sundlun of Rhode Island, and as the Associate Director of Save the Bay, an environmental advocacy group. He was also the Outreach Director for the Committee for the National Institute for the Environment. B.A., Brown University, 1985.
Naomi Cobb
ICL Board Secretary, Environmental Educator, Lynden Sculpture Garden
Lynden Sculpture Garden
Naomi Cobb is a self-employed consultant and program designer, bringing integrated ecology and art education programs to low income schools in the Milwaukee area. In addition, she has committed her working career to advocating for the emotional and physical wellbeing of children. Her past employment history includes maintaining a private practice as a Child, Adolescent and Family, providing psychotherapy treatment and consultations to schools and community organizations, and working as an environmental educator. Her board experience includes The Institute for Conservation Leadership, Congregation Sinai, and she served as the Board President for The Counseling Center of Milwaukee.
Sarah Bursky
Community Planner, Wild & Scenic Rivers Program
National Park Service
Sarah Bursky has a passion for building relationships and teams; empowering those she works with to achieve system-level change. For close to 20 years she has worked as a program manager and facilitator at the intersection of community engagement and conservation.
Sarah is currently working at the National Park Service as a Community Planner with the Wild and Scenic Rivers Program, working closely with 11 communities and associated nonprofits on 3 designated partnership rivers in the Concord, Massachusetts area. Prior to her work at the National Park Service, Sarah worked at New England Aquarium leading the New England Ocean Science Education Collaborative. In this role she served as the ‘glue’ connecting 55 institutions by facilitating co-learning opportunities, strategically guiding opportunities for collective work, and managing grant-funded projects. She also recently completed a fellowship, and worked as an associate consultant, at Third Sector New England, an OD firm based in Boston serving the nonprofit community.
Passionate about social justice, Sarah has worked for internal change and greater cultural competency in all of her roles. Sarah is a graduate of the University of Vermont’s Ecological Planning Program, and Cornell University. A native of Philadelphia, Sarah now lives with her wife, son, dog and cat in Roslindale, MA, and considers herself a New-Englander at heart.
Robin Camarote
Consultant/Blogger
RobinCamarote.com
Robin Camarote is a strategic program planner, communications consultant, meeting facilitator, and blogger at robincamarote.com. She is intent on helping federal and non-profit clients such as the National Park Service get more done with fewer headaches by outlining clear, creative solutions that build buy-in at all organizational levels. She is passionate about public policy and environmental issues and enjoys engaging with people on how to build a more sustainable, healthy future. She lives with her husband and three children in Falls Church, Virginia.
Shelley Cohen
CEO & Co-Founder
Alpha Solar Group
Shelley Cohen has 20 years of experience in environment and energy related fields. Ms. Cohen is the CEO and Co-founder of Alpha Solar Group, a woman owned and operated solar development company. Ms. Cohen founded ASG in April 2015 after spending 14 years in the renewable energy industry developing landfill gas, energy efficiency, CHP, and solar PV projects. Ms. Cohen founded ASG to follow her passion for solar and maximize her impact on the environment, the economy, and the quality of people’s lives.
Ms. Cohen has been an innovator and leading expert in the renewable energy field for the past 20 years. For the past 13 years, Ms. Cohen worked as a Senior Project Developer for Ameresco. Ms. Cohen worked on both sides of the meter to create comprehensive energy solutions to meet her client’s energy needs. In her position with Ameresco, Ms. Cohen focused on developing solar PV, CHP, energy efficiency, and Landfill Gas Utilization projects, developing 18MWs of renewable energy projects. Prior to joining Ameresco, Ms. Cohen worked for the EPA in the Office of Air as Team Lead of the Landfill Methane Outreach Program. Prior to that role, Ms. Cohen worked at the White House as the Education Policy Task Force Coordinator for the President’s Council on Sustainable Development, and as an Environmental Policy Intern for the White House Office on Environmental Policy. Ms. Cohen’s first jobs in DC were working on Capitol Hill in the offices of Senator Joseph Lieberman (D/I-CT) and Congresswoman Barbara Kennelly (D-CT).
John Eben
Vice President - Business Operations
Hunter Business Group
John Eben is Vice President – Business Operations for Hunter Business Group, a consulting company. John has over 25 years experience in leadership of professional services companies providing consulting, training and other services to clients. John has also served as Chairman of the Board of Second Harvest of Wisconsin, Treasurer of The Counseling Center, and Treasurer of Victory Gardens Initiative, all based in Milwaukee, WI. His experience includes financial management and other leadership roles. John is a Certified Public Accountant and holds a MBA from The University of Chicago.
Ed Gimenez
Director of Retirement Plan Services
Raffa Financial Services
CFP®, AIF®
As the Director of Raffa Retirement Services, Mr. Gimenez strives to create a culture of innovation among his team to enhance the experience Raffa Retirement Services’ clients have admnistering their retirement plans. He helps his clients manage plan risk and expenses while seeking to improve plan performance and preparing employees for a confident retirement. As a professional in the field, he regularly gives educational seminars to plan sponsors on Best Fiduciary Practices, Investment Due Diligence, and Preparing Employees for Retirement.
Prior to joining Raffa Retirement Services, Mr. Gimenez led the Retirement Plan division at Design Benefits, an employee benefits firm in Charlottesville, Virginia. For over 8 years, Mr. Gimenez used his expertise to help numerous for-profit and non-profit organizations develop well-administered, compliant retirement plan programs.
From 1999 through 2005, he headed up the Employee Benefits division of the Charlottesville, Virginia office of Northwestern Mutual/Strategic Employee Benefits. He worked with hundreds of organizations to implement quality and cost-effective employee benefits packages, including group health, dental, vision, disability and life insurance as well as retirement plans.
Mr. Gimenez began his career in 1994 as an Advisor at Life of Virginia, which later became Genworth.
A Biology/Chemistry Major at Hamilton College, Mr. Gimenez later found his calling in the financial services industry. A 21 year veteran as an advisor, he has earned the CFP® designation from the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, the AIF® Accredited Investment Fiduciary designation from the Center of Fiduciary Studies, and the RPA Retirement Plans Associate designation from the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans. He speaks Spanish fluently.
Ed is an AMPRO certified racquetball instructor and has played competitively, earning many regional and state titles. Most recently, he was the racquetball pro for the Atlantic Coast Athletic Club in Charlottesville, VA. Ed resides in Rockville, MD.
Julian Keniry
Senior Director
National Wildlife Federation
Jim Petterson
State Director
The Trust for Public Land
Jim is the Colorado state director for The Trust for Public Land, where he works from backyards to the backcountry to ensure every Coloradoan lives within a 10-minute walk of a great park, playground, trail or natural area.
Prior to joining The Trust for Public Land, Jim spent 17 years at The Nature Conservancy, including 12 years in a variety of senior marketing leadership roles, such as chief communications officer and communications director, and five years as senior advisor to the CEO. Prior to joining the Conservancy, Jim spent 10 years working as a communications director and press secretary for a senior member of Congress and the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.
Jim lives in Lakewood, Colorado with his wife and two teenagers. In his free time, Jim can be found running and exploring the trails of Colorado’s high country.
Mikki Sager
Vice President
The Conservation Fund
Mikki Sager Is Vice President of The Conservation Fund, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to conserving our nation’s working lands and advancing sustainable economic development. In her work with the Fund’s Resourceful Communities Program, Mikki helps communities across North Carolina and the South implement triple bottom line efforts that promote sustainable economic development, social justice and environmental stewardship.
Resourceful Communities provides capacity‐building and small grants to help communities implement triple bottom line efforts; helps more than 700 partner grassroots groups and resource groups connect with each other; and helps communities implement place‐based economic development projects, including sustainable agriculture, community gardening, youth development, ecotourism, community forestry and conservation‐based affordable housing, that leverage environmental techniques and resources. RCP has distributed more than $3.5 million in small grants, and helped partner organizations create more than 800 jobs in the last three years in urban and rural communities alike. Mikki is a graduate of The Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor’s degree in health and physical education.
Cynthia Sarthou
Executive Director
Gulf Restoration Network (GRN)
Cynthia (Cyn) M. Sarthou has been Executive Director of the Gulf Restoration Network (GRN), headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana since 1995. The GRN is a diverse network committed to uniting and empowering people to protect and restore the resources of the Gulf Region. The GRN works to coordinate build the capacity of grassroots groups across the Gulf, and pursues regional campaigns on priority issues that include: (1) advocacy for restoration in the aftermath of the BP Oil Disaster; (2) reduction of water pollution entering the Gulf; and (3) increasing resilience of coastal communities.
Cyn received her B.A. from the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, her law degree from the University of Mississippi in 1983 and her Masters of Law in Law and Marine Affairs from the University of Washington in 1992. She has received the River Hero Award for her work to stop the Yazoo Backwater Pumps Project in Mississippi, the Hero of the Seas Award for her years of advocacy for the marine resources of the Gulf, and the Brock Evans Award for Endangered Species Protection.
John Selman
Vice President
LMI
John Selman is an expert in bridging the gap between the built and natural environments. He is a Vice President at LMI in McLean, VA, where he leads and manages the strategy, business development efforts, research, and management of more than 125 engineering, science, business, and public policy professionals in the Infrastructure Analytics Division. His team supports federal clients in areas related to asset management, engineering and environmental management, environmental compliance, climate change analytics, energy management, and health and safety. John also was a Principal at Booz Allen Hamilton, a civil servant at the US Department of Energy, and a staff member in the US Senate. He holds an MS in environmental sciences from Johns Hopkins University, an MPA from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, and a BA in Economics from the University of Connecticut.