We appreciate our 2023 Symposium speakers contributions to the field and openness to share their knowledge. Please review the biographies below to learn more about our presenter's experiences!
James (Jim) Allerdice
Director and Chief Consulting Officer, Vianair, Inc
Jim Allerdice began his Air Traffic Control career when he entered the United States Air Force in May 1980. After receiving an Honorable discharge from the US Air Force, Jim began his 31-year FAA career in November 1983. He has worked in all types of Terminal facilities culminating with over 22-years at Atlanta Tower/TRACON. Jim was the Chief Designer of the Area Navigation (RNAV) infrastructure for the Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (ATL). He pioneered new and innovative designs such as the Equivalent Lateral Spacing Operations (ELSO) based on the MITRE Study, which enables reduced divergence RNAV Off-The-Ground (OTG) departure operations. The ELSO design has exceeded expectations since full implementation in October 2011. Jim was also heavily involved in the research and development of Optimized Profile Descents (OPD). Through collaborative efforts with Georgia Tech and the FAA, some of the first OPD Standard Terminal Arrivals (STARs) were designed and implemented within the Atlanta airspace. Jim also worked on other pioneering efforts such as RNAV Visual Flight Procedures (RVFP), Established on Required Navigational Performance (RNP) (EoR) approaches, and RNAV Closely Spaced Parallel Operations (CSPO) procedures. Jim was the Lead Specialist for the Atlanta Class B Airspace redesign. This required organizing public forums for discussion and feedback on the Class B design through contacts with local, state, and federal agencies. Jim was also the Lead Presenter at numerous public forums interacting with various groups that were interested in the impact that the proposed design would have on their homes, businesses, and communities. Jim was presented the Secretary of Transportation's Award for Excellence on November 15, 2012, for "Outstanding Service to the American People, Recognizing [his] Dedication, Achievement, and Leadership in the areas of Performance Based Navigation, Environmental Stewardship, and Fiscal Responsibility." This award was presented for his work designing and implementing Performance Based Navigation procedures as an Atlanta TRACON Support Specialist. Since retiring from the FAA in November 2014, Jim, and the other founding partners, formed ABCx2, LLC, a consulting firm that is dedicated to providing support for communities impacted by aircraft noise surrounding America’s airports. Jim was Managing Partner for ABCx2 from February 2015 until ABCx2 merged with Vianair in January 2022. Vianair provides advocacy for communities with airport staff, the FAA, and the aviation industry and provides collaborative solutions for impacted communities that provide meaningful, measurable, and implementable results utilizing the unrivaled Vianair Airspace Information Management (AIM) proprietary software.
Dr. Akshay Ashok
Sustainability and Regulatory Specialist, Boom Supersonic
Dr. Akshay Ashok is Sustainability and Regulatory Specialist at Boom Supersonic, where he aims to advance Boom’s mission of sustainable supersonic travel by increasing understanding the impact of supersonics on the environment and then building solutions to mitigate those impacts. Topics of active investigation include sustainable aviation fuels, aircraft/engine design and performance characteristics, modeling of climate impacts and environmental standard setting. Akshay leverages skills and experiences gained from his previous work as an Environmental Consultant at Ramboll, and during his graduate research work on aerospace and the environment, to make sustainable supersonic travel a reality. Dr. Ashok has earned his Master’s and PhD degrees in Aeronautics from MIT, and his undergraduate degree in Aeronautics from Purdue University.
Dr. Elena Austin
Assistant Professor, University of Washington
Dr. Austin received her Doctor of Science in Environmental Health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, with concentrations in Exposure Assessment and Biostatistics. Her expertise areas and past work include multi-pollutant exposure metrics, geographic information systems, remote sensing, risk communication in farm-worker communities and the development and evaluation of data visualization tools. A number of her projects leverage novel applications of emerging technologies to improve worker health and safety, particularly in WA State agricultural workers and their families. In her ongoing work, she aims to develop methods to jointly investigate exposures to mixtures of pollutants on human health, deploy low-cost methods to assess environmental exposures and implement novel intervention studies with the goal of improving community and worker health, with a particular focus on under-studied populations.
Dr. Ameya Behere
Research Engineer, Civil Aviation Research Division, Georgia Institute of Technology
Ameya is a Research Engineer at the Aerospace Systems Design Lab at Georgia Institute of Technology. His research focus includes modeling and simulation of aviation noise events, and the evaluation and optimization of mitigation techniques. He has worked on multiple FAA projects through the Aviation Sustainability Center (ASCENT). In his doctoral dissertation, he investigated the use of advanced computational techniques such as reduced order modeling in the context of aviation noise mitigation.
Dr. Magali Blanco
Environmental Health Researcher, University of Washington
Magali Blanco is an environmental health researcher at the University of Washington. Her research focuses on the development of air pollution exposure models for epidemiologic applications. She has a special interest in ultrafine particles, late-life cognitive function, and mobile monitoring campaign designs. Her team recently characterized annual average traffic-related air pollution levels, including ultrafine particles, in the greater Seattle area. She is currently investigating the impact of short-term air pollution sampling designs on exposure prediction models and the resulting health inferences.
Skye Carapetyan
Team Member, BETA Technologies
Skye Carapetyan is a member of the aircraft sales team at BETA Technologies, where he works with existing and potential customers to realize the benefit of our aircraft to help improve their bottom line and reduce their carbon footprint. During his time at BETA, he has also spent time focusing on the build-out of the company's nationwide multimodal charging infrastructure, which is designed to advance the development and deployment of our zero-emissions aircraft and other EVs.
Skye has built his career leading teams in the aviation and electric vehicle (EV) sectors. Prior to his post at BETA, he served as VP for a large transportation and logistics firm where he led the sales team in all western states before ultimately moving to the EV sector. As National Sales Director for an EV startup, Skye worked with the State of California, various utilities, and numerous municipalities to further the adoption of clean transportation and EV infrastructure. A commercially rated pilot, Skye has flown Embraer regional jets for nearly 5 years as a First Officer and when he was promoted to Captain, flew Canadair CRJ 700s. He has also served as an Adjunct Professor and certified flight instructor (CFI), CFII, MEI at Jacksonville University via the Delta Connection Academy. He graduated from Jacksonville University with B.S. in Aviation Operations and Management and currently lives in Sacramento, CA with his family.
Jesse Chancellor
DC Metroplex BWI Community Roundtable
Jesse Chancellor has served on the DC Metroplex BWI Community Roundtable since its inception in 2017. He is currently the vice chair of the BWI Roundtable’s technical committee and is a past vice chair of the organization. Mr. Chancellor retired in 2017 as president and chief executive officer of National Children’s Center (NCC) in Washington, D.C. Prior to NCC, Mr. Chancellor was active in advising, creating and growing businesses in impact investment and affordable housing finance for over 25 years. Mr. Chancellor has served as chief executive of Calvert Foundation's (now Calvert Impact Capital) U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission registered investment advisory subsidiary, Community Investment Partners Inc., as principal of Prudential Mortgage Capital Company where he created the Affordable Housing Investments Group, as senior vice president of MuniMae and a director of the Enterprise Foundation, now Enterprise Communities. Mr. Chancellor began his finance career with Citicorp Real Estate in New York in the Metro commercial division. He received his bachelor’s degree in history from Washington University in St. Louis, his MA in Public Policy Administration from the University of Missouri-St. Louis and a MS in Real Estate Development from Columbia University. Of note, research that Mr. Chancellor completed in 1988 while at Columbia was a seminal contribution to the development of the global Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (CMBS) market.
Dr. Cindy Christiansen
Aviation-Impacted Communities Alliance (AICA) and BOS Fair Skies
Cindy L. Christiansen, PhD is a founding member of Aviation-Impacted Communities Alliance (AICA) and BOS Fair Skies. She previously served as a member of the Massport and the Logan Community Advisory Committees. Christiansen co-authored AICA’s Technical Response regarding FAA’s Report to Congress: DNL Metric and DNL 65 Standard For Airplane Noise, June 2020, and AICA’s Executive Report 1.0 and Executive Report 2.0 on FAA’s Noise Policy Review. Professionally, she is Biostatistics Course Director at Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine, is a health policy researcher with a PhD in statistics, and teaches statistics to graduate students. Christiansen has twenty-five years of experience on dozens of multidisciplinary health care, health policy, and medical studies at Boston University, Harvard Medical School, and Health Services Research Centers of Excellence at the Veterans Affairs. Much of her research involves development and use of valid metrics and statistical prediction models. She is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association.
Erin Cooke
Sustainability Director, San Francisco International Airport
Erin currently serves as SFO’s first Sustainability Director, Zero Energy and Resilient Outcomes (ZERO) Committee Chair and Sustainable Aviation Fuel Working Group Co-Chair where she co-creates, implements, and annually reports on the Airport’s Strategic, Sustainability, Zero Waste and Climate Action Plans. By brokering and implementing high-impact emissions reduction investments across campus-wide and facility-specific projects, SFO has cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 41%, operationalized its first zero net energy building, and banned plastic food ware and water bottles. Erin is honored to serve on the Board of Directors of the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure (ISI), as the co-chair of the ACI-NA International Working Group and SAF Task Group, and on the ACI World Environment Standing Committee (WeNSC). Erin previously served the City of Cupertino as its first Sustainability Manager and Deputy City Manager, drafting and activating the City’s first Climate Action Plan, including lead roles in the launch of a countywide community choice aggregation program (Silicon Valley Clean Energy), Silicon Valley Collaborative Energy Procurement (SV-REP) and Silicon Valley’s Climate Adaptation & Resilience Plan. Erinwas also a member of climate planning teams at the Conservation Law Foundation, Goddard Institute of Space Studies, and National Park Service. Erin is a LEED AP and holds a MPA in Environmental Science and Policy from Columbia University.
Dr. Nathan Cruze
Statistician, NASA Langley Research Center
Dr. Nathan Cruze joined NASA Langley Research Center in 2021. His work at NASA focuses on supporting the planning and execution of community noise test campaigns during the Quesst mission. Prior to joining NASA, he served as a research mathematical statistician at USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service for more than eight years where his research focused on improving crop and economic estimates by combining survey and auxiliary data through statistical models. He holds bachelor’s degrees in economics and mathematics; master’s degrees in economics and statistics; and a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Programs, all from Ohio State University. Dr. Cruze co-chairs the Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology interest group in Computational Statistics and the Production of Official Statistics.
Chris D'Acosta
CEO, Swift Fuels, LLC
Mr. D’Acosta has worked in leadership positions in the oil & gas industry for over 35 years. He began his career as a consultant serving major international clients including Shell, Amoco, Diamond Shamrock, Pemex and YPF working in US, Europe and Latin America. In 1996, he joined Koch Industries in Wichita Kansas serving in various senior positions responsible for Operations Reengineering, Regulatory Compliance Auditing, and Mergers, Acquisitions & Divestitures. Following its acquisition from Dupont, he led the Global Logistics, Procurement & Supply Chain operation for INVISTA, Koch’s wholly-owned international petrochemical business.
In 2012, D’Acosta was appointed CEO of Swift Fuels - a privately held research and development company located in the Purdue Research Park. Under his leadership, Swift has become a global leader in the development of next generation fuels and process technologies. The company has developed proprietary processes for producing premium gasoline blendstocks and diesel fuels from light gases. The company is also a leader in testing and commercialization of new high-octane piston-engine gasolines marketed on a global scale. In addition to his work at Swift, D’Acosta serves as an industry advisor for a chemicals research consortium called CISTAR, and he serves on the Industrial Advisory Board for the Purdue University Chemical Engineering Department. He is co-inventor on 7 US patents. He recently retired as chairman of global missions at his local church.
D’Acosta was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas. He graduated with a BS Industrial Engineering from Texas Tech University in 1980. He has a wife Elisa and two sons Christopher (21) & Daniel (19).
Andrea Deitz
Asia Pacific Manager (Acting), Federal Aviation Administration
Andrea Deitz is a Foreign Affairs Specialist with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Office of International Affairs. She currently serves as the acting Asia Pacific Manager. Andrea previously served as a desk officer for Southeast Asia (2021-2023) and the Caribbean (2017-2021). Andrea has been with the FAA for twelve years. Prior to joining the FAA Office of International Affairs, Andrea was an Environmental Protection Specialist in the FAA Office of Environment and Energy for six years, where she was the agency lead on climate change adaptation, and was engaged in community involvement, National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and aircraft noise issues.
Andrea co-leads the climate adaptation work within the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP) Working Group 2, which published the 2018 Climate Adaptation Synthesis Report (published in 2020 link) and the 2022 guidance material on aviation climate change vulnerability, risk assessment, and adaptation measures (link). She currently co-leads a task to update the 2018 Climate Adaptation Synthesis Report. Andrea co-authored an article in the ICAO 2022 Environmental Report (link), and an article in the ICAO 2019 Environmental Report (link).
Andrea holds a Master of Arts in International Security from George Mason University and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from The College of William and Mary.
Marie-Jo Fremont
Community Representative, Concerned Residents of Palo Alto
Marie-Jo is a co-founder of Concerned Residents of Palo Alto, a community group who is working to mitigate the negative noise and emissions impacts of aviation in the San Francisco Bay Area/NorCal Metroplex. She was trained as a scientist and holds an MBA from UC Davis. Marie-Jo also brings 30+ years of experience in R&D and operations at Fortune 500, high-technology companies where she worked on product development, supply chain management, and new product and new business launches. Since NextGen started in March 2015 in the San Francisco Bay area, she has been advocating for aircraft noise reduction locally as well as nationally
Ben Goldman
Manager, Acoustics, Archer
Ben began his career with Bell Helicopter where he spent 5 years improving their acoustic prediction methods, as well as learning field test and civil certification procedures. Prior to joining Archer, Ben spent 2 years at Joby Aviation leading the aeroacoustic design of their vehicle. His current responsibilities include leading design of the cabin and external noise profiles for Archer’s production vehicle, Midnight. Ben holds a bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from Purdue University and a master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering with a focus on aeroacoustics from the Pennsylvania State University where he studied under Kenneth Brentner.
Jerry Griffin
General Manager, Delta Air Lines
Jerry Griffin is a member of Delta’s Global Sustainability team overseeing the development and execution of the company’s sustainability strategy. Beyond developing Delta’s decarbonization strategy, he launched the cross-divisional team managing fuel savings across the airline’s operations and established the company’s contrail research collaboration with MIT. Prior to this role, he led various commercial and operational initiatives within Delta’s Airport Customer Service and Cargo divisions. Before joining Delta in 2019, Jerry worked at McKinsey & Company where he served US Financial Institutions and Payment Providers. Jerry is a native of Athens, Georgia and a graduate of the University of Georgia with degrees in Economics, Mathematics, and Statistics.
Dr. Neelakshi Hudda
Assistant Professor, Tufts University
Neelakshi Hudda, PhD. is Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Tufts University. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering, a Master’s degree in Environmental Management and Negotiations and Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering. Dr. Hudda’s has over 15 years of research experience in urban air pollution with a particular focus on transportation-origin emissions and ultrafine particulate matter. Her seminal work on the long downwind spatial range of the impacts of aviation emissions on ultrafine particles is recognized for its implications for the health of millions who reside near airports. She has published widely on quantifying the impacts of airport-origin emissions on ambient and residential air quality and health effects associated with these emissions in communities near airports.
Dr. Sonja Jeram
National Institute of Public Health
Sonja Jeram is holding a PhD in biology, University of Ljubljana. The topic of her theses was insect sound and vibration communication. Since 1997, she works as a researcher at the National Institute of Public Health where she was first involved in the chemical safety in Department of toxicology. From 2003 to 2005, she worked as a visiting scientist at the European Commission Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Italy. She was awarded the Doerenkamp-Zbinden Prize in acknowledgment of her outstanding work in the promotion of alternatives to animal testing in ecotoxicology. In 2009, she joined the European Network on Noise and Health (ENAH). Since then she established the Noise and Health programme at the National Institute of Public Health. Her main task is now assessment of acceptability of national and regional spatial plans and programs with respect to noise pollution. She has been involved in the European project ANIMA on aviation noise and health working on assessment of aviation noise impacts on human health and establishing a dialog forum with local communities living near Ljubljana airport. At present she takes part in the European project Equal-Life focusing on exposome approach combining physical and social exposure in relation to youth mental health and cognitive development through mediators such as stress, sleep and coping. Sonja Jeram is a member of Slovenian Acoustical Society and a contact point for Slovenia as part of the X-NOISE network. She is active in promoting good quality sound environment in kindergartens and schools at home and in nature. She is a passionate mountaineer.
Dr. Kris Johnson
Senior Social Research Scientist, Seattle & King County’s Assessment, Policy Development & Evaluation
Kris Johnson, PhD, is a senior social research scientist with Public Health – Seattle & King County’s Assessment, Policy Development & Evaluation division. She currently leads an evaluation of community health worker deployment in addition to supporting a team of evaluators. Prior to joining King County, she taught prevention science, family theory and research methods at the University of Minnesota. Prior to joining UMN, Johnson conducted research for social service agencies across the United States and in Australia and Canada to assist efforts to prevent child maltreatment. Johnson has also worked with financial assistance, juvenile justice, adult corrections and adult protective service agencies and is committed to collaborative, community-based research and an equitable evaluation framework.
Kevin Karpé
Principal, Diverse Vector Aviation Consulting LLC
Kevin Karpé is the owner of Diverse Vector Aviation Consulting LLC (DVAC), a Veteran Owned Small Business, which he founded in 2018. His company provides aviation expertise to clients in the areas of Air Traffic Control (ATC), airspace and procedures design and assessment, Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), including Advanced Aerial Mobility (AAM), Urban Air Mobility (UAM), municipality support for noise and environmental impact, and Expert Witness services for litigation. Prior to founding DVAC he spent 31 years with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Air Traffic Organization (ATO). Mr. Karpé was a frontline Air Traffic Controller and Supervisor for many years before he was selected for upper managerial positions. He has held the position of Air Traffic Manager of Gillespie Field and Montgomery Field Airport Traffic Control Towers, and Operations Manager, Support Manager, and Assistant Air Traffic Manager/Staff Manager at Southern California TRACON (SCT). Mr. Karpé also held the position of Quality Assurance Specialist assigned to the Air Traffic Directors staff, at the FAA Western-Pacific Regional Headquarters in Lawndale, California, performing oversight and guidance to all Air Traffic Facilities in Western Service Area. Prior to working for the FAA, he was an Air Traffic Controller in the US Navy for 7 years, assigned to both ashore and afloat commands Mr. Karpé has provided leadership and support for many NexGen initiatives within the Air Traffic Organization such as Optimization of Airspace in the Metroplex (OAPM) for Southern California, replacement systems for both communications and radar, airspace design, community outreach, and built relationships with both city and county airport entities. Since 2018 DVAC has been providing consulting services to communities, and groups on a variety of airport issues that impact their quality of life and environmental issues, balancing the needs of the aviation system users. Mr. Karpé is currently the primary Aviation Consultant for Newport Beach, CA, and is also working with Environmental Sciences Associates (ESA) performing services for the Naples Airport Authority, in Naples, FL. Mr. Karpé is a member of the Palomar Airport Advisory Committee, appointed by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors in 2019. He is also an alternate on the City of San Marcos, CA, General Plan Advisory Committee, and was a member of the San Marcos Board of Education, Proposition K Citizens Bond Oversight Committee.
Dr. Barbara Lichman
Shareholder, Buchalter
Barbara E. Lichman, Ph.D. has an extensive and successful record representing airports, municipalities, developers, and other public and private clients in litigation and administrative proceedings under Federal Aviation statutes such as the Airline Deregulation Act and Airport Noise and Capacity Act; the California Public Utilities Code governing land use in airport environs (Aeronautics Act); and federal and state environmental statutes including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Federal Clean Air Act, the Federal Clean Water Act, the California Environmental Quality Act, and the California Coastal Act. She has also successfully represented clients in litigation involving land use issues such as inverse condemnation, development agreements and specific plan amendments. Dr. Lichman holds a doctorate in urban and regional planning.
Dr. Lichman’s experience is both national and international. As a Registered Federal Lobbyist, Dr. Lichman successfully lobbied and testified before Congress on behalf of aircraft owners and operators on issues including the grant of investment tax credits for noise reduction of aircraft engines. She also served as counsel to Air AAA Group, a consortium of international architectural, engineering and construction companies in their airport development activities at Pudong Airport, Shanghai, China. Dr. Lichman served as managing partner of Chevalier, Allen & Lichman, LLP, for sixteen years, and has been at Buchalter for six years.
Dr. Lichman’s clients include public entities, airport owners/sponsors, land developers, major power generating companies, airport fixed-base operators (FBOs), and aircraft owners.
Philippe Masson
ATM & Rulemaking, Airbus
My work at Airbus is focused on an optimized and sustainable integration of existing and new flying platforms into the airspace. I build partnerships and projects with the objective of demonstrating the viability of innovative and efficient operations. In addition to aircraft and drone platforms, I have a background in Air Traffic Management, where I've been working for Military and Civil ATM system developments, with technical director positions. I've built and managed different European ATM innovation programs in SESAR for a better integration of aircraft and drones in the airspace (4D trajectories, ATM Conflict detection and resolution, U-Space, non-CO2 operational mitigations). More specifically with fello'fly, I'm looking for optimizing the environmental benefits with the best concept of operations, for the smoother integration in today's operations.
Gregory Maxwell
Principal Aviation Noise Consultant, Crawford, Murphy & Tilly
Greg is an industry-recognized expert in aviation noise abatement and flight performance analysis who works with airports, airlines, aircraft manufacturers, the community, elected representatives, and the FAA to address aviation noise concerns and advance aviation in an environmentally sustainable manner. Prior to joining CMT, he managed aviation noise abatement programs at both Portland (PDX) and Philadelphia (PHL) airports. In addition, he consulted for Boeing’s Airport Community Noise Engineering group, assisting customer airlines and key airports in developing quieter flight procedures and quantifying the predicted changes in noise, fuel burn, and population overflown. Greg also participated in several research initiatives at NASA Ames that focused on maximizing environmental flight performance. He instructed Boeing staff on techniques of environmental analysis using ArcGIS. Following his work at Boeing, he worked for two of the three main noise and operations management software (NOMS) providers as a technical expert performing aircraft noise and flight performance analysis for airport customers worldwide. Gregory used his industry knowledge and real-world experience in aviation noise abatement to help airports find new ways to communicate data with stakeholders and track flight performance in relation to the utilization of new RNAV/RNP flight procedures. He regularly instructs clients and industry professionals on aviation noise topics, including co-teaching a Noise 101 session annually at the U.C. Davis Aviation Noise and Emissions Symposium for the past eight years. In his present role as the Principal Aviation Noise Consultant for CMT, he oversees all noise management studies and lends his technical expertise to airports around the country to study complex noise management issues.
Dr. Shruti K. Mishra
Senior Technical Staff, Sandia National Laboratories
Dr. Shruti Mishra is working as a Senior member of technical staff at the Sandia National Laboratories. Dr. Mishra was trained as an applied economist at The Ohio State University, where she completed her master’s and PhD degrees. She has been working on the domain of energy economics and ecosystem services valuation as a Fulbright Scholar and employee at the U.S. Department of Energy National Laboratories, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the World Bank. Dr. Mishra’s domain of work is in the interface of energy, environment, climate change and economic analysis. She develops and demonstrates integrated assessment framework that couple biophysical models with economic models to generate information on the economic costs and benefits of energy innovations. Dr. Mishra’s analytical work is on the quantification of ecosystem services associated with innovative energy solutions and estimation of the monetary values of ecosystem service benefits. Her analysis goals are to support in the assessments of economic viability and environmental sustainability of energy technology and innovation. In this symposium, she will share with us her recent work on the evaluation of the health benefits associated with the use of sustainable aviation fuel.
Joseph Oldham
President & CEO, New Vision Aviation, Inc.
A native of the San Joaquin Valley and a private pilot since 1974, Mr. Oldham has had a passion for aviation since early childhood. A graduate of California State University, Fresno, Mr. Oldham has spent most of his professional life working to improve air quality in the region through deployment of clean energy and clean vehicle technology. Mr. Oldham is the President and CEO of New Vision Aviation, Inc., a 501c3 non-profit charitable organization focused on providing aviation education for youth and residents of communities of color and low-income neighborhoods in the San Joaquin Valley. Mr. Oldham is the lead pilot and project manager for the Sustainable Aviation Project designed to validate operations of electric aircraft and has over 230 hours of flight in Pipistrel Alpha Electro aircraft, the first production electric aircraft in the world. The project is beginning the process of getting the public familiar and comfortable with electric propulsion in aircraft as a step toward the advanced electric powered aerial sky taxi vehicles of the future and larger commercial electrically powered aircraft. Mr. Oldham is a contributor to the NASA white paper published in 2021 on the potential for Regional Air Mobility using advanced electric aircraft to change how underutilized regional airports can bring enhanced mobility to the communities they serve.
Robert Olislagers
Senior Coordinator, EAGLE (Eliminate Aviation Gasoline Lead Emissions)
Prior to joining EAGLE, Olislagers served in numerous airport leadership positions, focusing on various priorities including economic development, environmental sustainability, aviation security, and workforce development. He participated in several National Academies of Sciences, Airport Cooperative Research Program studies, including “Options for Reducing Lead Emissions from Piston-Engine Aircraft” published in 2021. Under his watch, Centennial Airport became the first general aviation airport in Colorado to adopt a sustainability program, earning the state’s gold standard.
Rep. Tina Orwall
Washington State Representative, 33rd District
Tina has represented the 33rd legislative district since 2009. She has advocated and secured funding to address airport issues, including air quality, noise mitigation, and siting of a new airport:
2017: Secured an appropriation of $250,000 for the University of Washington Mobile ObserVations of Ultrafine Particles (MOV-UP) Study, a two-year study to assess ultrafine pollution particles within 10 miles of the Sea-Tac International Airport in the direction of aircraft flight.
2018: Secured an appropriation of $300,000 with local match required for the Washington State Department of Commerce Sea-Tac Airport Impact Study to analyze the impacts that current airport operations and expansions have on public health, transportation, parking, public safety, property values and economic development in the surrounding cities and other impacted neighborhoods.
2019: Secured an appropriation of $125,000 for Public Health – Seattle & King County to conduct a study on the population health impact of the Sea-Tac Airport communities.
2021: Secured an appropriation of $940,000 for the University of Washington Healthy Schools pilot to reduce exposure to air pollution and improve air quality in schools.
She sponsored the following bills, which passed the legislature:
SB 5370/HB 1683 (2019) to create a state Commercial Aviation Coordinating Commission tasked with identifying a location for a new primary commercial aviation facility.
HB 2315 (2020) relating to addressing noise mitigation to allow the Port of Seattle to be able to replace or make necessary repairs to homes with failed noise mitigation equipment.
Suicide prevention and implementing the national 988 system to enhance and expand behavioral health crisis response and suicide prevention services, rape kit reform and creating a trauma-informed response for survivors, anti-trafficking, the Foreclosure Fairness Act and other consumer protections for homeowners, improving language access in the schools, compensation for those wrongly convicted, and adoptee rights are among her other legislative accomplishments.
Tina has worked with all levels of government to help embrace best practices to better serve the community. Her 20 years of experience working in the public behavioral health system, as well as her expertise in strategic planning in workforce development and affordable housing have established her as a valued legislator and community leader. She earned both a BS in Psychology and a MSW in Administration from the University of Washington.
Tim Pohle
Vice President, Environmental Affairs, Airlines for America
Tim Pohle was named Vice President, Environmental Affairs for Airlines for America (A4A) in November 2021. An environmental attorney, Pohle leads A4A’s environmental sustainability programs on behalf of A4A’s member airlines. Since joining A4A in September 2005, Pohle has led the A4A’s members in developing policies on domestic environmental issues of national significance, including water quality, air quality, aircraft noise and climate change. Pohle has also represented A4A members for over a decade at the International Civil Aviation Organization’s Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection negotiating aircraft and aircraft engines standards. Pohle works to address local air quality and noise issues at the state and local level, engaging regulators to reach practical and reasonable approaches to achieving environmental progress. Pohle has been instrumental in providing leadership and counsel as the aviation industry deepened its commitment to the environment and sustainability initiatives. A native of Madison, Wisconsin, Pohle received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University and a Juris Doctor cum laude from University of Michigan Law School.
Matt Prescott
Head of Carbon Strategy, Heathrow
Matt is Head of Carbon Strategy at Heathrow where he is responsible for its net zero plan and works with colleagues from across the airport and wider sector to deliver solutions to aviation decarbonisation. Matt is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
Don Scata
Noise Division Manager, Office of Environment and Energy, FAA
Don is an aviation professional working in the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Office of Environment and Energy (AEE), as the Noise Division Manager. His current work is focused on managing FAA's research and policy development regarding aircraft noise effects on individuals and communities; noise modeling, metrics, and environmental data visualization; and noise reduction, abatement, and mitigation. Don spends his time focused on addressing challenging questions ranging in topics from FAA's noise policy review to new entrants. In his previous role, Don coordinated FAA's International Environmental Activities, including work in the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP) on the development of the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA). Prior to joining FAA, Don worked as an aviation management, aviation planning, and environmental consultant focused on meeting the needs of FAA and airport clients throughout the US.
Don holds a MS in Air Transportation Management from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and a BS in Aviation Management with Flight from the Florida Institute of Technology. Additionally, Don holds a single/multi-engine instrument commercial pilot certificate and was a certified flight instructor.
Dr. Stavros Sidiropoulos
Founder and CEO, Vianair Inc
Dr. Stavros Sidiropoulos is the Founder and CEO of Vianair Inc. Dr. Sidiropoulos is an expert in mathematical optimization for terminal airspace design, transport systems and engineering. He has been collaborating with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) since 2015 for his PhD research and since 2017 for his work with Vianair. Dr. Sidiropoulos has been leading business and software development efforts in expanding the use of Vianair's technology to the largest airport authorities and airlines in the World. In parallel, he has been co-leading procedure design and noise mitigation projects at large Metropolitan areas across the US, including Washington, DC, Baltimore, MD, Boston, MA, Seatac, WA, Laguna Beach, CA, among others.
Phil Stollery
Environmental Intelligence Services, Envirosuite
Phil has been involved in aviation noise and environmental management for over 30 years initially designing airport noise monitoring terminals and then onto software development, business development and as Head of Product Marketing was responsible for Envirosuite’s product strategy. Phil currently operates Environmental Intelligence Services, a global team providing services that complement Envirosuite’s noise and operations monitoring and community engagement technology.
Phil has spoken at many international conferences and held positions on several aviation environment committees including the Airports Council International (ACI)- Europe Environment Committee and the ACI World Environment standing committee. As chair of the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO) Environment committee, Phil led a team that established goals for reducing aviation greenhouse gas emissions through improvements in the efficiency of air traffic management.
Debi Wagner
Community Advocate, University of Washington MOV-UP Advisory, Quiet Skies Puget Sound, Quiet Skies Coalition
Debi Wagner became involved as a community advocate in the early 90’s as a newly impacted resident under a busy sky highway near Sea-Tac Airport. As a vocal opponent to a third Sea-Tac runway, she was elected President of a large grassroots organization. She was subsequently hired as Administrative Director of a non-profit umbrella organization Regional Commission on Airport Affairs reaching 34,000 residents with news and information. She authored the book Over My Head documenting events of the nearly 15 year opposition to the third runway. In 1998 Debi co-founded a national environmental organization of US groups with ties to 26 European countries.
Debi’s primary interest for nearly 30 years has been to gain understanding of the impact of aviation emissions on health, welfare and the environment. In 2014, as an elected City Council Member she had a greater opportunity to make connections with decisionmakers and community. This experience has helped her be part of a successful model collaborating with researchers, legislators and community groups for funding and academic pursuits resulting in changes in legislation, broadening scientific knowledge, and pursuing environmental justice. For the past five years she has been an advisory board member for the University of Washington MOV-UP (UW DEOHS) studies and currently a member of the King County Climate Task Force.
Darlene Yaplee
Co-Founder, Aviation-Impacted Communities Alliance (AICA) and Concerned Residents of Palo Alto
Darlene Yaplee is a founding member of the Aviation-Impacted Communities Alliance (AICA) whose mission is to protect communities from harmful levels of aviation noise and emissions through campaigns for legislation and industry change nationwide. She is also a co-founder of Concerned Residents of Palo Alto, working to mitigate the negative noise and emissions impacts of aviation in the San Francisco Bay Area/NorCal Metroplex. Darlene brings 25+ years of experience such as Chief Marketing Officer and Vice President positions at Fortune 500, high-technology companies where she worked on strategic alliances, international marketing, and new market development. She was the Chief Marketing Officer at PLOS, a nonprofit Open Access Science publisher and advocacy organization where she promoted the understanding and adoption of Open Access with organizations such as Google, the Wellcome Trust, and Research Universities. Darlene was the University of California, Davis Alumni Commencement speaker and recipient of Sun Microsystems “Business Woman of the Year'' Award and YWCA “Tribute to Women” Award. She has guest lectured at Stanford Graduate School of Business and Santa Clara University.
Wig Zamore
Co-Founder, Mystic View Task Force (MVTF) and Somerville Transportation Equity Partnership (STEP)
Wig Zamore of Somerville Massachusetts uses intense participation in grass roots groups, environmental health science and public process to help drive sustainable and equitable land use and transport decisions and actions across a broad range of spatio-temporal scales. He is especially interested in local transportation related ultrafine particles (UFP) and noise, and reduction of impacts on the most exposed neighborhoods.
Over the last 25 years, Wig and fellow activists co-founded several non-profits – the Mystic View Task Force (MVTF) and Somerville Transportation Equity Partnership (STEP) - which have driven local mixed use district re-development and extension of subway and light rail systems. Working with local universities, STEP also initiated several waves of environmental health studies funded by NIH, EPA and HUD to establish new science.