Emilie Rex, Consultant 

Building on her experience as a sustainability officer and educator, Emilie Rex consults with nonprofits and colleges and universities on sustainability and resilience issues. Recent projects include the Big Ten Prospectus—an effort to synthesize executive leadership priorities across the Big Ten cohort and map and measure sustainability’s contribution to these objectives—and a collaboration with Second Nature to create the New England Climate Leadership Alignment Initiative, an extension of the Big Ten Prospectus aimed at deepening our understanding of the ways in which the Climate Leadership Commitments support mission-level priorities. Ongoing clients and collaborators include: Mercy Corps, Second Nature and Leith Sharp. Emilie holds a B.A. in English Language and Literature (University of Michigan) and a M.P.A. in Policy Analysis (Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs).

Denice Wardrop, Director, Sustainability Institute Penn State University

Denice functions as a visionary leader and organizational strategist to initiate Penn State’s trajectory to become a national model for sustainability in higher education. The Director utilizes the Sustainability Strategic Plan as a blueprint to integrate sustainability into both the operational and academic functions (including curriculum, research, and outreach) of the University, network with and facilitate internal and external resources to accomplish that goal, report on progress and return on investment, and evaluate the needs of the University community. She is responsible for developing programs and new initiatives to meet the goals of the SSP and create detailed implementation plans for those initiatives, develop metrics for formative and summative evaluation, and utilize collaborative resources emanating from activities to seek external funding for high profile projects. Dr. Wardrop also creates and implements communication strategies to promote broad awareness of initiatives, leads and manages an organizational structure to support sustainability inquiry, change, and assessment, and institutes a process by which sustainability is integrated into the overall University strategic planning process.

Michael Gulich, Director of Campus Master Planning & Sustainability, Purdue University 

Michael J. Gulich, AIA, LEED AP, LFA is the Director of Campus Master Planning and Sustainability at Purdue University and is responsible for directing the campus master planning process for Purdue’s 19 million square foot campus and for providing the vision, organizational strategy, and focus for advancing sustainability efforts campus-wide. Additionally, Mr. Gulich oversees campus planning, architectural, and landscape design standards and provides leadership and approval related to campus aesthetics. Purdue University, home to more than 38,000 students, is a major research institution and is supported by top-ranking disciplines in pharmacy, business, engineering, and agriculture. Mr. Gulich, who received his LEED-AP designation in early 2002, worked for Croxton Collaborative Architects (CCA) prior to coming to Purdue. At CCA, he served as Vice President and director of the firm’s initiatives in High Performance Buildings and Strategic Sustainability Consulting. Mr. Gulich has more than 15 years of prior experience in the management, design, and practice of architecture for a wide client base including commercial, institutional, and public agency organizations. At CCA, he also provided green / sustainability leadership and facilitation for school, health care, and institutional projects, and was an in-house mentor on topics of green design and technologies and LEED®.