Lisa Albrecht

Lisa Albrecht is a principal at All Bright Solar, which provides affordable rooftop solar, community solar, and big fields solar utility panels.  Lisa credits her interest in solar power to participation in science fair projects as a youth.  Lisa entered the Solar Energy Industry in 2007, and trained with former vice president Al Gore in 2012 as part of the Climate Reality Project.  In 2018, Lisa founded All Bright Solar.  Part of the mission of All Bright solar is to support youth in climate endeavors:  “our vision is to become a contagious catalyst for positive change, empowering communities to work toward solutions and spread hope.” 

Kyle Burkybile

After graduating from the University of Illinois and spending several years working at a marketing agency, Kyle realized that he wanted to devote his career to fighting climate change and building a more sustainable energy grid. Currently, he works on the Multi-Family energy efficiency programs for Illinois gas and electric utilities, helping consumers to save money on their bills, use fewer natural resources, and lower the demand for fossil fuel consumption. 

Rowland Davis

Rowland Davis is a retired pension consultant.  During his professional career, Rowland helped pension funds decide how much investment risk would be appropriate for their investment policy decisions, using mathematical simulation models involving actuarial science and future scenarios for economic and investment outcomes.  Since retiring two years ago, Rowland has dedicated himself to an active role in the climate crisis movement.  That meant learning as much as possible about all aspects of climate change issues, participating with organizations such as 350.org and doing research on the investment risks related to the transition to a low carbon economy.  He has three grandchildren, and he wants their future lives to be spared the worst consequences of climate change!

Julie Moller

Julie Moller is currently chair of the River Forest Sustainability Commission which she co-founded in 2015. She implemented River Forest’s curbside compositing program. Other sustainability work in River Forest includes: creating the River Forest Schools Sustainability group, Green4Good in 2009 and the creating and running the River Forest Recycling Extravaganza for the past 7 years. Julie represented River Forest and District 90 on the PlanItGreen Core Team from 2012-until recently and volunteers with the One Earth Film Festival. Most recently she completed Climate Reality Leadership training in Minneapolis.

She also participates in fundraising for Beyond Hunger, Y.E.M.B.A. and the Oak Park not for profit, Women’s Global Education Project.

Julie is here to share her experience of researching micro plastics in Indonesia as an Ambassador for the 5 Gyres Institute which empowers action against the global health crisis of plastic pollution through science, art, education, and adventure.

Ross Powell

Ross Powell has been a professor of geosciences at Northern Illinois University since 1980. He earned a BSc and MSc from Victoria University, New Zealand, and a PhD from The Ohio State University.

His primary concerns from a scientific and social perspective are assessing how human activity through global warming, is changing Earth’s environments relative to natural changes.

He and his undergraduate and graduate students have conducted geoscientific research on every continent. However, his primary research focus has been studying past and present climate change in the Arctic (32 seasons) and Antarctic (16 seasons) regions, where current effects are being amplified. The research projects have also incorporated high school students and grade school and high school teachers.

He has published over 160 research papers in scientific journals (including “Nature”) and chapters in books, and has earned over $60 million in research funding, primarily through the National Science Foundation. He also has been on numerous national and international scientific advising and planning committees.

Alisa Singer

Alisa Singer is a self-taught artist who lives and works in the Chicago area.

Since retiring from the practice of law in 2013, Singer has worked to create art to bring attention to and support meaningful causes. Her process is to begin with a graphic depiction of a key fact (a chart, graph, map, word or number) and translate it into colorful, seemingly abstract, contemporary art. The underlying message is made more impactful by the interaction between the art and the data. Her greatest efforts have been directed towards creating art to enhance climate change awareness and education.

In late 2014 Singer began the series of digital paintings, Environmental Graphiti – the Art of Climate Change, which uses contemporary art to enhance awareness and understanding of this critical issue. The Environmental Graphiti collection has been extensively exhibited, both in the US and internationally, at universities, science museums, galleries, conferences and other venues.

Peg Steffen

Peg Steffen has been a science educator at the middle, high school and college levels in all sciences. She was a program manager for NASA Education and served as the education coordinator for NOAA’s National Ocean Service where she led a development team that provided web-based products and professional development for educators. She has been a climate educator for many years in the United States and served with the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam to promote climate education. Peg is currently a curriculum writer for the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy.