Wayne Johnson, Key Segment Manager – Education, Duke Energy Sustainable Solutions

Wayne Johnson, Duke Energy’s Key Segment Manager for Education, has served as a Facilities Management and Energy Executive in Higher Education and brings a wealth of experience to Duke Energy. Wayne has also managed safety and accreditation processes for higher education and has provided oversight and program responsibility for a regional outsourced facilities management firm. Wayne has a passion for “out of the box” thinking which generates a creative process in meeting the challenges facing energy infrastructure and asset management in education. Wayne strives to create a “synergy” that builds solutions to meet the needs of all campus constituents: Facilities leaders, CFOs, Presidents, Head of School, faculty, staff, students and local communities. His unique perspective and experience when combined with Duke Energy’s ability to execute can be of great support as schools look to become energy efficient, sustainable and viable for the future. Wayne enjoys international travel, time on the lake and hiking, especially when his extended family and wife can join in the adventure. Wayne has worked as a licensed electrical and general contractor and has degrees from Mars Hill University and The University of South Carolina where his advanced degree is in Education Administration

Zhihua Qu, Director of RISES (Resilient, Intelligent and Sustainable Energy Systems) Center, University of Central Florida

Zhihua Qu received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, in June 1990. Since then, he has been with the University of Central Florida (UCF), Orlando. He served as the Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering Department (2010-2021 and 2009-2004). Currently, he is the Thomas J. Riordan and Herbert C. Towle Chair and Pegasus Professor of Electrical Engineering, and the Director of RISES (Resilient, Intelligent and Sustainable Energy Systems, a university research center at UCF. His areas of expertise are nonlinear systems and control, with applications to autonomous systems and energy/power systems. His most recent work focuses upon cooperative control and plug-and-play operation of networked systems, distributed optimization and game algorithms, and resilient networked controls. In energy systems, his research covers distributed energy resources, dynamic stability of power systems, microgrid control, distributed generation and load sharing control, distributed VAR compensation, distributed optimization, and cooperative control. In robotics and autonomous vehicles, his research deals with control of nonholonomic systems, real-time path planning, and tele-operated systems. He is serving as a member on the following national organizations: the Board of Trustees for ECE Foundation; IEEE Smart Grid Steering and Operational Committees; Standing Council, Vision for Engineering Leadership Multi-sector Alliance; and Senior Past President of ECE Department Head Association. He has served as an Associate Editor for Automatica, IEEE ACCESS, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control. He is a Fellow of IEEE, a Fellow of AAAS, and an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer.

Kristy Walson, Principal Engineer, TLC Engineering Solutions

Kristy M. Walson, PE, LEED Fellow, BEMP is a mechanical engineer by trade who focuses on sustainable design as a Principal and Senior Sustainability Consultant at TLC Engineering Solutions. Kristy provides sustainability consulting, LEED and other sustainable rating system administration, energy modeling, and energy auditing on projects throughout the Southeastern US. In addition to her project duties at TLC, she has served in multiple roles over the years at the Central Florida Chapter of the US Green Building Council, sits on various advisory panels for the City of Orlando, and is currently the Chair of the University of Florida’s Green Building Learning Collaborative. A graduate of Virginia Tech (BS) and the University of Michigan (MS), Kristy has extensive experience in Visual DOE, Equest, and IES VE-Pro energy modeling software and uses these tools to accurately model the life cycle costs of building systems and energy use. In her spare time, Kristy enjoys hiking and enjoying the outdoors with her husband, Jamie, and their three children, Clay (10), Noah (8), and Finn (6).