Program

Suzanne Shelton is the CEO of Shelton Group, an ERM Group Company, the nation’s leading marketing communications agency entirely focused exclusively in the ESG space. She regularly counsels C-level executives at Fortune 1000 organizations on how to best define and leverage their sustainability approaches to drive business results. She currently serves on the board of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) and the executive advisory board of Cyclyx, and recently served on the board of the Energy and Environmental Building Alliance (EEBA). Ms. Shelton offers insights and inspiration on conference stages around the country, guest writes for the likes of Fast Company, Green Builder and GreenBiz, and directly manages a team of leaders who, collectively, have made Shelton Group a 30-year success story.

Carol is the Senior Manager of Global Sustainability at The North Face, where her work spans all aspects of The North Face’s environmental footprint, from retail waste to regeneratively-grown raw materials. She oversees the brand’s sustainability initiatives and helps teams across the brand action on TNF’s sustainability strategy and goals. She is a textiles enthusiast and loves handcrafts. She co-founded Aggie Reuse Store, a creative reuse store at UC Davis. She has a BA and an MFA in Design from UC Davis and an MBA in Sustainable Management from Presidio Graduate School.

Keiko Niccolini is a marketing, operations and reuse leader currently fighting plastic pollution and disposable waste through strategic partnerships, systems solutions, and industry-changing product innovations. She has extensive experience in both the food & beverage and CPG industries. Her experience with entrepreneurial and more established brands, including Conde Nast, Moët Hennessy, Illy Caffé and others, makes her a key driver of an organization's growth and success. In 2021, Keiko helped to spearhead the delivery of the first public private partnership in reuse in North America with the launch of the Reuse Seattle, a city initiative of Seattle's Public Utilities Department. Keiko now focuses exclusively on working with cities and municipalities to develop and operationalize reuse as a climate, waste and social solution.

Sydney brings a unique blend of facilitation and policy expertise to Upstream. With a foundation in science research and 10+ years of experience in environmental advocacy, Sydney now focuses her time on her true passion: reuse. She enjoys supporting stakeholders across all sectors as they design, introduce, and pass strong policies that drive packaging reduction, reuse, and recycling, and she is recognized for supporting the passage of the nation’s first packaging EPR laws. Sydney now leads Upstream’s engagement with state, federal, and global policy and supports the policy team with local engagement as well. She is also passionate about social and environmental justice and has held many youth advocacy and education positions. In her spare time, she co-leads Reuse Portland – a community reuse coalition in Portland, ME - and enjoys any excuse to get outdoors.

Elizabeth Chin Start is the founder of Start Consulting Group LLC, a Milwaukie-based business. Her career has spanned local government, private industry, nonprofit, and consulting, with a focus on the circular economy and materials management. Start Consulting Group works to weave equity and justice into the circular economy. Elizabeth is also a reuse artist and advocate.

An international keynote speaker and certified TRUE Zero Waste Advisor, Moji Igun is a sustainability consultant and founder of Blue Daisi Consulting who works with businesses and organizations that want to grow their sustainability practices by pursuing zero waste.She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Zero Waste Washington, King County Solid Waste Division’s Re+ Community Panel, and the NextCycle Washington Governance Board.

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Joycelyn speaks Cantonese, Mandarin, and English. The time she spent assisting local Chinese-speaking restaurants navigate thecity-mandated waste management programs influenced the genesis of the Restaurant 2 Garden project. Joycelyn has a Master’s in Public Health from the University of Washington. She's dedicated to environmentally-just and place-based solutions to keep food scraps out of the landfill.

Andrew Lee has worked for Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) for over 11 years and is currently the SPU General Manager / Chief Executive Officer (GM/CEO). Andrew has spent his entire 23-year career working on water, wastewater, and stormwater issues, with 17 of those years in local government for Seattle, San Francisco, and Bellevue. Andrew is regionally and nationally recognized for his expertise in water/wastewater regulations, smart water technology, and asset management. He is committed to delivering high quality utility services, maintaining affordable rates, and partnering with and serving the community with a focus on environmental justice. He is also passionate about developing high performance organizations through an emphasis on shared leadership, employee engagement, continuous improvement and diversity/equity/inclusion. Andrew has a bachelor’s and master’s degree, both from Stanford University.

As strategic initiatives manager in Eastman’s Global Sustainability Organization, Holli Alexander helps translate the complexity of sustainability into tangible and actionable efforts.

For the last 10 years, she has focused on plastics, recycling and sustainability. In 2012, Holli launched and led the Full-Wrap Label Consortium, a group founded by Eastman to address the challenges recycling PET bottles that use shrink labels.  She represents Eastman in a variety of external organizations including the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s CE100.  She serves on the Sustainability Advisory Board for PLASTICS and is leading an emerging work group there exploring chemical recycling technologies.

Holli was born and raised in Indiana and received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Indiana University. 

Ashley has 17 years of experience bringing sustainable packaging solutions to market with some of the world’s most prominent brands.  Prior to joining Dow in 2019, she gained diverse experiences from a variety of roles spanning both technical and commercial functions, from start-up to multi-national, in sustainable packaging and consumer goods product development.  She led the development and launch of new packaging and technologies across 5 continents for companies including PepsiCo, Amcor, HAVI Global Solutions, and 915 Labs.  Ashley received a DuPont Packaging Award, R&D 100 Award, Chairman’s Award, and a patent for her work on sustainable packaging at PepsiCo, and a Pinnacle Award for Marketing Excellence at Dow.

 Currently, Ashley is the Sr. Marketing Manager for Value Chain Engagement for Circular Packaging at Dow. Her role focuses on increasing collaboration across the value chain to accelerate adoption of sustainable packaging solutions and to create circular ecosystems for plastic packaging.  She also has responsibility for shaping the commercial strategy and introduction of Dow’s circular products made from advanced recycling processes.  Ashley served on the Executive Committee of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition from 2019-2022.

Ashley holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University and is a certified yoga and meditation instructor.

Joe Macleod is the founder of the worlds first customer ending business. A veteran of the product development industry with decades of experience across service, digital and product sectors. Author of the Ends book that iFixIt called the best book about consumer e-waste.

Head of Endineering at AndEnd. TEDx Speaker. Wired says “An energetic Englishman, Macleod advises companies on how to game out their endgames. Every product faces a cycle of endings, from breakage to customer burnout to falling behind consumption trends. It's important to plan for each of them. Not all companies do."

Dr. Joy Banner is Co-Founder and Co-Director of The Descendants Project, a nonprofit foundation committed to the liberation of the Black descendant community through the dismantling of inequitable and discriminatory economic, environmental, and social systems inherent in the violent legacies of slavery. As part of this work, Dr. Banner is on the front lines of the struggle against environmental racism in the form of petrochemical plants and heavy industry along Louisiana’s River Road, otherwise known as “Cancer Alley.”

Jason Pelz is Vice President of Sustainability for Tetra Pak in the United States, Canada, Central America and the Caribbean. Jason and his team work with a range of stakeholders across various geographies to advance Tetra Pak’s global sustainability ambitions, including growing recycling and collection of post-consumer cartons, and reducing climate impact across the value chain. Jason also serves as Vice President of Recycling Projects for Carton Council of North America, where he works with food and beverage brand owners, local municipalities and communities, and other third parties such as recyclers and paper mills to increase the availability of carton recycling in the U.S. and Canada.

Sarah Burkhart is the Senior Director of Product Management for Software and Experiences in the Dell Client Solutions Group. Sarah is a seasoned product management leader who has built a career around moving the needle for the experiences our customers have with the Dell client portfolio. Her team defines and delivers innovative solutions for Dell PCs that delight end users and enterprise IT decision-makers at a time when people’s expectations about their PC are rapidly evolving. A native Texan, she and her family of five (three young boys!) keep busy and active exploring all there is to do in Central Texas.

Dylan has spent nearly two decades building better environmental and social impacts in the nonprofit and public sectors and the Fortune 500. Prior to GreenBiz, she was a lead strategist on the social innovation team at Verizon, where she introduced climate justice as a core element of the company’s climate approach and worked to address the rural digital divide. Formerly, at power company NRG, she developed climate and water strategy, and helped conceive and launch a consultancy to help commercial customers navigate climate action, resilience, clean energy, and energy efficiency. 

She now applies her experience in the field to lead and build upon GreenBiz’s offerings for sustainability professionals, working to support, drive, and lift up sustainability practice in business. A former music journalist, she lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Lindsey Boyle is passionate about business that supports well being and regenerates nature. Lindsey’s work is focused on helping citizens make the choices required on our journey from a linear to a circular economy. As chief strategist for Circular Citizen Consulting, a certified BCorp, Lindsey works with brands towards the goal of mainstreaming circular culture. Lindsey’s expertise is in creating demand; using market research data and human-centered design to inform circular innovation, brand strategy and storytelling. Lindsey was formerly senior vice president with global insights & innovation agency The Sound, a partner to Google. Lindsey has a foundation in strategic brand marketing from Kraft Foods. This early role provided transparency into the harmful industrial food system and was a catalyst for Lindsey becoming co-founder of Sandown Centre for Regenerative Agriculture, where she is currently board chair. Lindsey lives in Victoria, BC Canada with her learning-to-be-circular family. She holds a Commerce degree from Queen’s University.

Alyssa Macy (Wasco, Navajo, Hopi) is the CEO of Washington Conservation Action, a statewide environmental policy and advocacy organization with deep roots in the state. She is a citizen of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Oregon and was raised on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. Prior to WCA, she served her Nation as the Chief Operations Officer where she was responsible for $33 million in tribal programming and services. Her previous experiences include working in transportation, campaign management, communications and international advocacy within United Nations bodies. She is a published writer and co-authored the first ever national report on Native American voting in 2005. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, writing, traveling, and spending time outdoors. She is a graduate of Arizona State University where she received her B.S. in Justice Studies.

Liz Fikejs has worked in local government for over 25 years, focusing on conservation programs across multiple natural resources. Most recently, her work at Seattle Public Utilities has centered on preventing food and textile waste through partnerships that span public sector agencies, private businesses, national NGOs, and local community organizations. Examples include the Pacific Coast Food Waste Commitment and leading Seattle Public Utilities’ Food Rescue Innovation work. Liz is dedicated to systemic change that digs below surface-level challenges and creates larger scale solutions.

Yinka N. Bode-George is the Founder and CEO of Sustain our Future Foundation - a national philanthropic nonprofit that transforms sustainability to achieve environmental justice and maximize community impact. In this role, Yinka provides the overall strategy and development for the Foundation. As an environmental health advocate, Yinka works to advance environmental justice and sustainable development through infrastructure development and social impact strategies. Prior to founding Sustain our Future Foundation, she led the strategy and management of Volt Energy Utility’s environmental justice and community impact practice as the Director of Sharing the Power Foundation - Volt’s community impact nonprofit. There, she managed programs associated with Volt’s Environmental Justice Power Purchase Agreement (EJPPA) to assist renewable energy buyers achieve their clean energy goals and commitments to Environmental, Social, and Governance standards. Yinka has served as the Environmental Health Program Manager for the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators. In that role, she facilitated state-level environmental health and justice policies by resourcing and organizing a national network of state legislators around zero waste and circular economy solutions, toxic chemical protections, and sustainable agriculture policies. As the former Public Policy & Program Manager for Maryland Philanthropy Network, Yinka cultivated opportunities for Maryland philanthropists to improve community conditions. Additionally, Yinka has served as program manager for Maryland Environmental Health Network, where she advanced policies that promote environmental health and justice for all Marylanders.Yinka received a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science, and a Bachelor of Arts in Public Health, from the University of Maryland Baltimore County. She received a Master of Health Science degree in Environmental Health from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

John Holm is the Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at PYXERA Global where he spearheads the organization’s new ventures in circular economy, last mile energy access, and corporate advisory services. He has spent the majority of his career pioneering new markets for global brands, leading the market entry of the Subway chain in Hungary and Libri in Romania, while also advising Starbucks and IKEA on their respective market entries in Central & Eastern Europe and the Balkans (Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia). Additionally, John also serves on the Hoops4Hope board and is a senior adjunct lecturer for Maastricht School of Management in The Netherlands on Shared Value and Circular Economy. While facilitating cross-sector partnerships is his primary job function by day, John also enjoys spending time exploring new terrain and kayaking with his wife and dog.