Keith Crenshaw graduated from Texas A&M University - Kingsville with a degree in Range & Wildlife Sciences and a minor in biology. He has worked on restoration in South Texas and wetland delineation and restoration in Florida for the Nature Conservancy. He worked as the Environmental Specialist for a small city in Austin for four years before taking up his current job with Texas Parks & Wildlife.

David Crossley is President and founder of the Gulf Coast Institute, which focuses on urban growth issues relating to the economy, community, and environment, as well as leader of the Livable Houston/Smart Growth Initiative. He has served as President of the Citizens’ Council, and as Chair of the Urban Structure Task Force for the City of Houston Planning Department’s City-Wide Committee for Clean Air.

Pliny Fisk III is the co-director of The Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems in Austin, Texas. Mr. Fisk and CMPBS have received several national and international awards including the Earth Summit Award given to the United States in Rio in 1992 for the Center’s work with the City of Austin for creating the first Green Builder Program in the world. He has received the American Solar Energy Society, Passive Solar Pioneer Award for the Year 2000, the first Sacred Tree Award from the US Green Building Council in 2002, the Presidential Team Award for contributing to the plan for moving towns relocated by the Mississippi Flood, and several other national and international recognitions.

Mr. Fisk has been selected as upcoming Fellow of Sustainable Urbanism Signature faculty program - Joint appointment Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Planning, Texas A & M University, College Station, Texas. Pliny has served as the Bruce Goff Chair for Creative Architecture, University of Oklahoma, Herrin Distinguished Fellow, Department of Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Planning, Mississippi State University, and gives lectures to universities and national conferences including 6 plenary speeches in the last 8 months.

The 2002 Sacred Tree Award was the First Annual Public Sector Leadership/NGO Award for “Significant Contributions to the Advancement and Transformation of Green Buildings in the Public Sector.” This was the first award series ever given by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Ron Jones is the owner of Sierra Custom Builders, a design/build company located in Placitas, New Mexico. His national award winning company specializes in challenging site projects and environmentally appropriate construction. His firm offers design, construction management and consulting services throughout North America and the Caribbean.

Ron is the only person ever to serve as a member of the Board of Directors of both the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). He served as charter chairman of the NAHB Green Building Subcommittee and is an original member of the LEED Homes committee for USGBC.

He has served as a speaker and consultant to a variety of organizations including the American Solar Energy Society, National Recycling Association, Sustainable Buildings Industry Council, NAHB, USGBC, International Housing Conference of the Americas, Fannie Mae Partnership Foundation, National Arbor Day Foundation, and many others in the private and public sectors.

Michael Myers of Aspen Systems Corporation is nationally known for his expertise on energy efficiency and green building practices. Mr. Myers, a USGBC LEED Accredited Professional has over 20 years experience in developing award winning innovative energy efficiency, green building, and renewable energy programs. Mr. Myers currently serves as the principal liaison to the Texas Energy Partnership, which was formed to assist Texas jurisdictions meet the requirements of the Texas Emission Reduction Plan.

Mr. Myers was previously the Program Manager for Affordable Housing & Existing Building Research for the US Department of Energy. In that role, Mr. Myers served on the President’s Council for Sustainable Development’s Metropolitan and Rural Communities Task Force and the President’s Partnership for Housing.

Mr. Myers was the Manager of Energy Services for the City of Austin where he co-created the nationally acclaimed Austin Green Building Program. He has worked for the cities of San Antonio and New York City,. He has appeared on HGTV, conducted nation-wide trainings on energy efficiency and green building and has co-written a manual on how to organize a successful Green Building Tour.

Roksan Okan-Vick currently serves as the executive director for the Houston Parks Board, a non-profit organization that creates, improves, and protects parkland for Houston. Roksan received her Masters of Architecture from Rice University and her Bachelors of Architecture from Istanbul Technical University. In addition to her title as a Registered Architect for the State of Texas, she holds memberships to various architecture organizations and sits on the advisory board of directors for several non-profit groups including The Park People, Trees for Houston, Friends of Lamar Park, Friends of Hermann Park, and the Memorial Park Conservancy. Roksan recently served as director of the Houston Parks & Recreation Department and executive director of Friends for Hermann Park.

Linda Shead is Program Director for the Trust for Public Land. A registered professional engineer with degrees in engineering and zoology from UT-Austin, Ms. Shead has also served as executive director of the Galveston Bay Foundation (GBF) where she received numerous awards recognizing the effectiveness of GBF programs on behalf of the Bay. She is currently implementing the Galveston Bay Land Conservation Initiative and serves as a member of the Galveston Bay Freshwater Inflows Group, the Outer Continental Shelf Policy Committee of the Minerals Management Service, the Citizens Advisory Committee of the Gulf of Mexico Program, and the Natural Resources Advisory Committee of the Houston-Galveston Area Council.

Rives Taylor is a Research Scientist for the High Performance Building Team with over 20 years experience in residential, institutional and commercial architecture with 14 years in strategic planning, programming, design, project management and commissioning in university facility environments and private practice. He is a Texas licensed, practicing architect and recently the University Architect for the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. The newest buildings there include the School of Nursing and Student Community Center, a 195,000 GSF facility with a total project cost of $63 million, completed in 2004. This facility is LEEDTM gold rated.

Gary Woods acted as the Private Sector Coordinator of the City of Houston’s 2X2 Program (to plant 2 million trees by the year 2000) from 1990 through 1994 and worked as the tree planting coordinator for the Spark program from 1993 to 2001. He currently coordinates the "NeighborWoods" program for Trees For Houston, is the Tree Advocate for the Gulf Coast Institute and is a board member of the Houston Area Urban Forestry Council.

Brian Yeoman is Senior Research Scientist at the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) and Director of Education and Development for the National Association of Educational Buyers (NAEB), Hauppague, NY. He received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of South Dakota. Mr. Yeoman served as a dedicated public servant of the University of Texas System for 27 years.

He is the author of numerous articles and lectures on a broad range of topics. As a futurist, Brian has a keen interest in the environment and sustainable development. He has written extensively on the incorporation of sustainability principles into business operations, the need for individual initiatives as opposed to governmental action. Mr. Yeoman serves as a columnist for the National Association of Educational Buyers (NAEB) contributing through the Roamin' with Yeoman column.

At HARC, the former Associate Vice President of Facilities Planning and Campus Development at the University of Texas Health Science Center will facilitate a High Performance Building Team. He was instrumental in the development of UT's $57 million School of Nursing and Student Community Center, which will open in May 2004. The building will have many green features, including cylinders to catch and recycle rainwater and runoff from air-conditioning units, and photovoltaic cells to generate power. Mr. Yeoman has extensive experience in facilities management, procurement and management systems with significant sustainable development design experience.

While at the Health Science Center, Mr. Yeoman also was accountable for the implementation of campus wide sustainable development strategies and projects. He headed up the team responsible for the new construction of $297 million of facilities, and led the comprehensive review of building systems for the campus master plan. In addition, he served as the liaison officer to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for the management of a $100+ million flood recovery effort. He also is highly involved in teaching the Natural Step to the community.