Keynote Speaker
Cameron Davis, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Facilitators
Jerry Adelmann, Openlands
Josh Ellis, Metropolitan Planning Council 

Panelists
Ann Alexander, Natural Resources Defense Council
Joel Brammeier, Alliance for the Great Lakes
Claus Dunkelberg, Milwaukee Water Council
Martin Felsen, Archeworks, UrbanLab
Margaret Frisbie, Friends of the Chicago River
Todd Main, Illinois Department of Natural Resources
Suzanne Malec-McKenna, City of Chicago, Department of Environment
Lynn McClure, National Parks Conservation Association
David Naftzger, Council of Great Lakes Governors
Sabina Shaikh, University of Chicago, RCF Economic & Financial Consulting
Jonah Smith, Alliance for the Great Lakes
John Swanson, Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission
Russell Van Herik, Great Lakes Protection Fund
Douglas Voigt, SOM, Urban Design and Planning
 
Jonah Smith
Director of Sustainable Business, Alliance for the Great Lakes

Jonah Smith began his tenure with the Alliance for the Great Lakes in January of 2005. Jonah is the Alliance’s Director of Sustainable Business and Membership Programs, where responsibilities include: 1) Conducting audits with corporate partners to improve their impact on the Great Lakes ecosystem while improving returns; and 2) Aligning corporate messaging with demonstrable sustainable operations.  As the head of the Membership Programs, Jonah handles membership relations, fundraising, membership events and communications, and other organizational duties such as marketing, database/web management and managing volunteers. Jonah has also worked as a Water Quality Project Manager for the Alliance on a variety of water quality issues in and around the Great Lakes.  

Jonah also completed sustainability coursework in the UM Business school during his graduate studies, and as part of his Master's Opus he obtained grants to travel to Brazil to conduct a sustainability study on water resources spanning several large cities. There he worked with and analyzed water use by publicly traded companies, federal and local municipalities, as well as NGOs, institutions and public-private partnerships. The results of Jonah’s thesis produced mechanisms to sustain water resources through a more proper valuation and allocation, by creating formulated and more appropriately regulated market prices.