d2e down2:earth

Jennifer Baldwin Green Mover-and-Shaker

Jen earned her bachelor's degree at Tufts University in 2005, majoring in Environmental Studies and Art History. She devotes her time to slowing the consumption of global natural resources through work with organizations like Tufts Climate Initiative, the Climate Campaign, Clean Air-Cool Planet and Ecobanca, a Mexican non-profit promoting sustainable development in their national parks. She spent the summer of 2007 touring the United States on a biodiesel motorcoach with the Morris K. Udall Foundation, exploring young people's contributions to solving the nation's pressing environmental and Native American issues and videoblogging the trip. Jen is a "bright green" environmentalist, and is excited to help D2E draw attention to visionary businesses whose products and missions are making it easier for consumers to tread more lightly on the earth.

Ann Rappaport Faculty Member
Tufts University

Ann Rappaport is a faculty member in the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Tufts University. Her doctoral degree is in environmental engineering. Through the Tufts Climate Initiative, she is helping position Tufts to meet or beat the emission reductions associated with the Kyoto Protocol. Research and teaching interests include corporate environmental and social responsibility, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and technology development and transfer. Ann’s most recent book, co-authored with Sarah Hammond Creighton, is entitled Degrees That Matter: Climate Change and the University (MIT Press, 2007). She served on National Research Council committees addressing low-activity radioactive waste and innovations in groundwater technology.

Dan Ruben Executive Director
Boston Green Tourism

Boston Green Tourism (bostongreentourism.org) is a catalyst for expanding the use of environmentally-friendly practices in Greater Boston's visitor industry. Currently, Boston Green Tourism works with local hotels, convention centers, event centers and restaurants. Its mission is to make Boston a green convention and tourism destination.

Previously, Dan was the executive director of the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Conventions (www.cerc04.org), an organization that planned, implemented and publicized environmental best practices at the 2004 Democratic and Republican National Conventions. CERC won the international Environmentally Responsible Meeting Award, two EPA Environmental Merit awards, and Mass Energy’s Advocate of the Year award.

Dan served for nine years as vice president and president of the The Green Decade Coalition/Newton (www.greendecade.org), a grassroots volunteer environmental non-profit, and currently serves as a board member. The Green Decade works with households, businesses, schools and institutions in Newton and elsewhere to implement measurable improvements in the way we use resources.

Dan is also the Eastern Massachusetts Coordinator for the Global Action Plan's Household EcoTeam Program and has coached about 180 participants and more than 30 EcoTeams to live environmentally sustainable lifestyles. For this, he was honored as Unsung Environmental Hero for Massachusetts by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.

Dan speaks and writes extensively on the subjects of green tourism, global warming and environmentally sustainable lifestyles.

Terry Swack Founder & CEO
Clean Culture

Terry is a 25-year veteran of the design and technology industries, a leading experience design strategist and an environmental entrepreneur. The focus of her career has been to make complex ideas and new technologies useful, usable and desirable. Clean Culture, a customer experience research & strategy consultancy focused on cleantech and sustainable products is her latest venture. (cleanculture.com)

In 2005, Terry founded GreenBuildingBlocks.com and The Beam (now BlueEgg.com), a venture-backed Web 2.0 marketplace for consumers, manufacturers and service providers to power the demand for clean and green products and services.

In 2002, she became a founding team member of StillSecure, a network security software company. As VP of Customer Experience, in a unique partnership with the VP of Engineering, they managed the teams to bring three successful products to market in less than two years.

Terry's first company, TSDesign, was an Internet strategy and product design firm founded in 1994. The development of the User Experience AuditSM in 1996 was the first offering of its kind and positioned the company as the industry leader in design analysis and user experience strategy. TSDesign was acquired in 1999 by Razorfish, a global digital services provider.

Terry is a popular speaker for business, technology and design audiences, focusing on how to design effective digital business systems and the brand experience. She now also speaks on how to combine sustainabililty, business and culture.

Andrea Atkinson NEXUS General Manager at
The Green Roundtable

Andrea currently manages programs, staff and activities of The Green Roundtable's NEXUS Green Building Resource Center. Her work focuses on creating and improving systems and securing relationships that help to make NEXUS a comprehensive, free green building resource for all. She holds a degree in International Relations with a focus on sustainable development from Boston University. Andrea has worked with the Integrative Design Collaborative, the U.S. Department of Energy and other organizations in Latin America and Africa.

Ilene Bezahler Publisher and Editor of Edible Boston

Ilene Bezahler is the Publisher and Editor of Edible Boston, a magazine that focuses on the local food movement in the Greater Boston area. She has a B.A. in Psychology and has traveled the world extensively. Ilene's travels led to an increased interest in the foods and markets of other countries. Early on, she developed a successful philosophy about different foods: "Try, then Ask." Upon leaving the corporate world in 2001, Ilene worked at Allandale Farm, Boston's last working farm. In the position of Marketing and Wholesale Manager, she learned to understand and respect the importance of sustainable agriculture, local foods and local communities.

One of her goals for Edible Boston is to expose and educate people in the Greater Boston Area to the positive health, environmental and social benefits and rewards in supporting local agriculture and local food production. Today, Ilene's interests and community involvement are extensive. Ilene is a member of Slow Foods Boston and Chefs Collaborative, and she is on the Board of Directors for the Federation of Massachusetts Farmers’ Markets and the Massachusetts Specialty Food Association.