GreenTech Planning Committee

Simone Baldwin

Lead, Technology & Innovation Programs, Environment Law Institute

Simone Baldwin started at ELI’s Technology and Innovation Lab in 2022. She currently works on projects related to community-based participatory research, environmental policy, the digital economy, and technological solutions to climate change and pollution. Prior to ELI, Simone attended Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health where she obtained her Master of Public Health degree. While at Johns Hopkins, Simone studied environmental health, with a particular focus on citizen science, environmental justice, and air pollution regulations. Simone also obtained a B.A. in Neuroscience from Pitzer College. This led her to study technological solutions to brain diseases at the National Institutes of Health through the two-year Postbaccalaureate Intramural Research Training Award. Finally, Simone contributed to watershed conservation through her work on invasive species removal in her home state of Hawaii.

Marisa Blackshire

Vice President & Associate General Counsel, Worldwide Transportation and Logistics, Amazon

Marisa Blackshire is currently the Senior Director of Environmental Compliance and EH&S at Bloom Energy. Bloom Energy's mission is to make clean, reliable, and affordable energy that is accessible to everyone. Some of the largest companies in the world trust Bloom to provide their businesses with clean, reliable and resilient energy. As Bloom’s environmental compliance and EH&S leader, Marisa is furthering Bloom’s mission by building the profile and engagement on environmental, health and safety issues company-wide.

Prior to joining Bloom, Marisa was a Senior General Attorney at BNSF Railway. In that role, Marisa led BNSF’s environmental legal, air and climate programs system-wide. She also worked on various environmental permitting, regulatory compliance and litigation matters that arose across the BNSF system, which includes 28 states and 3 Canadian provinces. Before BNSF, Marisa was in private practice at Alston & Bird LLP where she worked on similar issues for clients. In addition to serving on the ELI Board, Marisa is active in the American Bar Association’s Section of Environment, Energy and Resources, chairing its 2018 Spring Conference and currently serving on its Council and Equity and Inclusion Task Force. Marisa’s community involvement includes supporting multiple causes that provide high quality programming and resources to at-risk youth.

Marisa received her B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara and her J.D. from Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles.

Beth Deane

Vice President, Deputy General Counsel, Leeward Renewable Energy, San Francisco, CA

Beth Deane is Vice President, Deputy General Counsel of Leeward Renewable Energy, a growth-oriented U.S. renewable energy company with 22 renewable energy facilities in operation across nine states and 17 GW of projects under development. Before joining Leeward, Beth was Chief Counsel of Project Development at First Solar, a leading global provider of comprehensive photovoltaic (PV) solar systems that has shipped more than 20 GW of solar modules worldwide. In these roles, she has been involved in all aspects of solar project development, including real estate, permitting, interconnection, tax, and power procurement, as well as having responsibility for a wide variety of transactional, litigation, regulatory, and corporate matters. Prior to joining First Solar, Beth was Of Counsel at Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker, where her practice was focused on environmental law, including compliance with hazardous waste, water and air requirements, regulatory strategy, permitting, civil and criminal litigation, land use, and redevelopment of contaminated property. Prior to that, she was at Munger, Tolles & Olson, where she gained experience in litigation, employment and corporate law.

Beth attended the Yale Law School and the University of Cincinnati, which she earned a B.A. in Economics. After law school, she spent a year in Ecuador evaluating local deforestation and sustainability issues. She currently lives in Berkeley, California with her husband and two daughters.

Jordan Diamond

President, Environmental Law Institute

Jordan Diamond is President of the Environmental Law Institute. Previously, Ms. Diamond was the Executive Director of UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment, which designs and develops pragmatic policy solutions to environmental and energy challenges in California and across the nation. During her seven years leading the Center, she helped quadruple the size of the team and research portfolio and helped launch initiatives including GrizzlyCorps and the California-China Climate Institute. Recognized for her work on marine policy, Jordan also co-directed the Law of the Sea Institute at UC Berkeley and was appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown to serve on the California Ocean Protection Council. She has been recognized in the field of environmental law through the ABA Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources Distinguished Environmental Advocates: The Next Generation award and ELI’s own Environmental Futures Award. Throughout her career, Jordan has focused on ensuring environmental laws and policies are based on the best information available, developed through inclusive and transparent processes, and implemented through adaptive and accountable systems.

Jordan holds a J.D. and certificate in environmental law from Berkeley Law, where she was the managing editor of Ecology Law Quarterly, and a B.A. in earth and environmental sciences and a certificate in environmental studies from Wesleyan University, where she received the Sease Prize for outstanding work in environmental science.

R. Juge Gregg

Senior Corporate Counsel, Amazon

R. Juge Gregg is an experienced environmental attorney with a strong background in counseling and litigation. His deep background in sustainability, environmental, natural resources, and Native American law draws on work in both the private and public sectors. He currently provides strategic legal leadership for Amazon’s Worldwide Sustainability organization on its portfolio of climate and environmental, social & governance (ESG) issues, including decarbonization strategy, carbon offsets, ESG reporting, green claims, product sustainability, and social responsibility work.

Gregg obtained his J.D. from Stanford University Law School in 2000.

Rob Kirsch

Partner (retired), WilmerHale LLP

Rob Kirsch retired in 2018 as a partner from WilmerHale LLP, where he chaired that firm's environmental practice. Rob worked with a wide range of businesses nationally, including leading technology, energy and defense clients, focusing on environmental litigation, permitting appeals, compliance advice and environmental justice issues. Between 2004 and 2015, Rob was a leader of a pro bono team that represented six men interned at the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. That work resulted in the 2008 Supreme Court decision in Boumediene v Bush, the firsthabeas corpus trial of men held at Guantanamo, and the first and only negotiated release of Guantanamo detainees to the Republic of France.

Rob serves as the Vice Chair of the boards of the Environmental Law Institute and the Mount Washington Observatory.

John Lovenburg

Vice President, Environment for BNSF Railway

John Lovenburg is the vice president of Environment for BNSF Railway. He leads a team of employees responsible for environmental strategy, sustainability, law, energy, communication, permitting, compliance, remediation, hazardous materials, and industrial wastewater. John has more than 20 years of prior experience in environmental consulting with CH2M (now Jacobs) where he was vice president, Global Site Remediation and Revitalization. He is the Executive Sponsor for BNSF’s battery and electrification initiative focused on developing battery-electric locomotives to reduce life-cycle costs, carbon and other emissions. The project also includes electrification of cargo handling equipment and development of onsite renewable power. He is also active in environmental governance and sustainability. He is on the Board of Directors of the Environmental Law Institute, is a member of The Nature Conservancy’s Business Council, and serves as an Advisory Board Member of the Montana Outdoor Legacy Foundation.

John has a bachelor’s degree in geology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a Master of Science degree in hydrogeology from San Diego State University.

Brad Marten

Managing Partner, Marten Law LLP

Brad Marten is the Managing Partner of Marten Law LLP, an environmental law firm he founded and has grown to 15 lawyers practicing in four states. He is consistently ranked by his peers as one of the nation’s top environmental lawyers. Brad is a former President of the American College of Environmental Lawyers, and a Board member of the Environmental Law Institute in Washington, DC. He organized and now chairs the annual GreenTech Conference, bringing together technology and environmental leaders to discuss the future of environmental protection.

Brad has earned his national reputation by successfully representing clients in nearly every sector of the economy across the United States for the past 40 years. These include clients in several of the largest environmental damages cases ever brought in the country, including the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill in Alaska in 1989, and dozens of other cases and transactions for clients in the mining, manufacturing, refining, transportation, food processing, agricultural, and financial services industries. Brad has been recognized as one of the top 500 lawyers in the United States by Law Dragon, and by Best Lawyers and other peer publications for over 15 years.

Taalin RaoShah

Research Associate, Environmental Law Institute

Taalin RaoShah joined the Environmental Law Institute as a Research Associate in July 2023. His current work includes collaborating on the Municipal Climate and Waste Reduction Initiative and the GreenTech Conference. He also contributes to the Environmental Law Reporter. Taalin grew up in Boston, MA, where he developed a passion for policy and advocacy. He worked on the political campaigns of now-Mayor Michelle Wu, was appointed to the Mayor's Youth Council, and also interned for Senator Elizabeth Warren. More recently, he served as the Boston Organizing Intern for the Massachusetts Sierra Club, where he supported a grassroots campaign focused on building decarbonization. Taalin's interests also include climate justice and clean energy. During the summer of 2022, he lived in Paraguay with a team of Duke researchers studying the intersection of sustainable development and hydropower in the region. Then, in the fall of 2022, he travelled with the Duke University Student Delegation to COP27 in Egypt, where he tracked developments on green hydrogen, loss & damage, and local resilience.

Prior to joining ELI, Taalin was an undergraduate student at Duke University, from which he graduated in May 2023 with a B.A. in Public Policy, and minors in Psychology and Environmental Sciences & Policy.

Ethan Shenkman

Partner, Environmental Practice Group, Arnold & Porter

Ethan Shenkman is nationally known for his work with climate change policy and the energy transition, counseling clients on cutting-edge issues involving renewable fuels, carbon capture and sequestration, methane regulation, HFC regulation, renewable energy permitting, as well as NEPA and climate-related litigation. His government experience includes serving for seven years as a political appointee in the Obama Administration, most recently as Deputy General Counsel at the US Environmental Protection Agency and, prior to that, as Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the US Department of Justice's Environment and Natural Resources Division. As EPA Deputy General Counsel (2014-2017), Ethan oversaw the agency's legal and regulatory work relating to a wide range of issues, including air quality and climate change. He also helped lead EPA's work relating to Native American Indian Tribes and played a central role in developing EPA's treaty rights tribal consultation policy.A skilled appellate advocate and litigator, Ethan has argued and supervised numerous high-profile court cases and received several major awards and recognitions, including the Attorney General’s John Marshall Award.

Ethan teaches environmental law at the Georgetown University Law Center and is a featured columnist for The Environmental Forum, published by the Environmental Law Institute, where he serves on the board.

Mathy Vathanaraj Stanislaus

Vice Provost and Executive Director of The Environmental Collaboratory, Drexel University

Mathy Stanislaus joined Drexel from the Global Battery Alliance, a multi-stakeholder initiative established at the World Economic Forum. There, he served as its first interim director and policy director with a focus on establishing a global transparent data authentication system to scale up electric mobility and clean energy in alignment with circular economy, human rights and community development. At Drexel, he continues this engagement by connecting The Environmental Collaboratory to global partnerships including the World Bank Energy Storage Partnership, the Global Battery Alliance, the World Economic Forum and the Responsible Battery Coalition. He also continues to serve as an advisor to Carbon180 to align carbon removal strategies with community-driven environmental justice approaches.

In addition, Mathy was the founding co-director of the New Partners for Community Revitalization in New York — an organization dedicated to strengthening low-income communities and communities of color by linking technical assistance, land use planning and finance through the redevelopment of brownfield properties. He also served for eight years as the assistant administrator for the EPA’s Office of Land & Emergency Management, as well as the co-chair of the Chemical Plant Safety Interagency Task, both under the Obama Administration.