Dr. J. Marshall Shepherd is a leading international expert in weather and climate and is the Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor of Geography and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Georgia. Dr. Shepherd was the 2013 President of American Meteorological Society (AMS), the nation’s largest and oldest professional/science society in the atmospheric and related sciences. He serves as Director of the University of Georgia’s (UGA) Atmospheric Sciences Program and Full Professor in the Department of Geography where he was a previous Associate Department Head. Dr. Shepherd is frequently sought as an expert on weather, climate, and remote sensing. He routinely appears on CBS Face The Nation, NOVA, The Today Show, CNN, Fox News, The Weather Channel and several others. His TedX Atlanta Talk on “Slaying Climate Zombies” is one of the most viewed climate lectures on YouTube. Dr. Shepherd is also frequently asked to advise key leaders at NASA, the White House, Congress, Department of Defense, and officials from foreign countries. Prior to UGA, Dr. Shepherd spent 12 years as a Research Meteorologist at NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center and was Deputy Project Scientist for the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission, a multi-national space mission that launched in 2014. Dr. Shepherd currently chairs the NASA Earth Sciences Advisory Committee and was a past member of its Earth Science Subcommittee of the NASA Advisory Council. Dr. Shepherd received his B.S., M.S. and PhD in physical meteorology from Florida State University. He was the first African American to receive a PhD from the Florida State University Department of Meteorology, one of the nation’s oldest and respected. He is also the 2nd African American to preside over the American Meteorological Society.

Lisa is the Policy & Sustainability Services Director for Southface Institute, a non-profit organization based in Atlanta, GA. Southface promotes sustainable homes, workplaces, and communities through education, research, advocacy, and technical assistance. In her role as Policy & Sustainability Services Director Lisa is responsible for promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions with legislatures and utility commissions. She is also developing and leading an expanded agenda on clean energy policy matters in concert with local government and organizational sustainability initiatives, including energy codes, green infrastructure, and sustainable development strategies in Georgia and the Southeast. Lisa has almost two decades of experience partnering with energy and utility companies across North America and Europe to improve their business and information technology operations. In her 15 years at Accenture and three years at a data analytics firm thereafter she designed, developed and implemented business and technology solutions across the electric utility value chain, including generation, transmission & distribution, and retail services. Immediately prior to joining Southface Lisa supported the Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Coalition with its efforts to establish a long-term, sustainable source of funding for land and water conservation in the state.

Michael joined Scheller College in 2016 as the Managing Director of the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business where he co-leads strategic direction of the Center (with the faculty director) and oversees day-to-day management of Center activities that focus on integrating sustainability into business education and practice through faculty research, corporate engagement, and student (co)curricular courses and initiatives. Michael also teaches MBA, executive education, and undergraduate business classes in sustainability. Michael served as a co-PI on research that focused on energy burden in the Greater Atlanta region and is currently a co-PI for Drawdown Georgia and its beyond carbon work. Michael recently served as a co-lead for one of the working groups engaged in the development of a new GT-wide strategic plan is currently serving on the Scheller College of Business Diversity and Inclusion Council. Prior to joining Scheller, Michael spent over twenty five years working at the intersection of international business, sustainability, and risk management including serving in leadership roles at Acorn International LLC and Business for Social Responsibility (BSR).  In these roles, he advised a broad range of companies on local content, social impact, risk management, community engagement, reporting, and human rights initiatives.  Michael also has extensive commercial experience through his work in industry, as a consultant, and within government.  Michael's career spans assignments in the US and a broad range of international locations including two overseas residential assignments in Central Asia.  Michael has an MBA from Rice University, an MIA in international political economy from Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), and a B.A. from Trinity College in Russian Area Studies.

Dr. Sudhagar Mani is a Professor of BioChemical Engineering in the School of Chemical, Materials and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Georgia (UGA), USA. He also holds an adjunct professor appointment with the Department of Food Science and Technology, College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences. He received his Ph.D. in Chemical and Biological Engineering from the University of British Columbia, Canada. His research expertise and interests are in the development of sustainable bioproducts and biofuels, biomass pre-processing and conversion technologies, sustainable supply chain logistics and modeling, circular food and materials systems, techno-economic and life cycle assessment of biofuels, biomaterials. Dr. Mani is currently leading the Food Systems working group on the Georgia Drawdown Project. Dr. Mani has authored and co-authored more than 75 journal articles, book chapters, and technical reports, presented more than 100 conference presentations, invited talks, and workshops. He is a member of TAPPI, American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE), and Institute of Biological Engineering (IBE). He is also serving as an editor of the processing systems community by ASABE Journals.

Matt Cox, PhD, is the founder and CEO of Greenlink Analytics, an energy and equity research and advisory non-profit based in Atlanta, GA. He has authored over 80 scientific publications in energy policy, renewable energy, energy efficiency, economic development and job creation, the social and environmental impacts of energy use, and water policy. His policy recommendations have been adopted by dozens of cities and states, the U.S. government, and 12 other nations. Matt holds a PhD in climate and energy policy with a minor in sustainable development from the Georgia Institute of Technology.