Presentation Times and Speaker Bios (below)
October 25, Hartwick's Eaton Lounge, 9:30AM - 5:00PM.
9:30 AM Dr. Donna Vogler: Oneonta’s Ecological Footprint, global warming, ICLEI—Local Governments for Sustainability and the city of Oneonta.
10:15 AM Jen Montgomery: Urban Agriculture, empowering communities through food and community development.
11:00 AM Greg Boulos: Biodiesel development for communities, implementation and logistics
12:00 PM Lunch
1:15 PM Joel Murray: sustainable building design in the Catskill region
2:00 PM Steven Holzbaur: Ag marketing, value added marketing for agricultural products
2:45 PM Greg Boulis: Green Roof Design
3:30 PM Dr. Gay Canough: Solar Power for our region, Hartwick's Robertson Lodge Solar Project
4:15 PM Amy Kenyon, Skate Creek Farm: Why buying local matters: the effect of losing local working farms on our economy, tax base, and food system and the challenges facing our regional farmers today.
7:00 PM Potluck Dinner at Robertson Lodge AT PINE LAKE
8:00 PM Dennis Valente: Sustaining communities through natural disasters. AT PINE LAKE, STRAWBALE HOUSE
Bios
Greg Boulos completed his undergraduate work in English and Philosophy in 1999 before traveling in Europe and the United States for 3 years. In 2004, Greg returned to Slippery Rock University for his MS in Sustainable Systems. His thesis work was investigating an effective classroom module for presenting 'biodiesel'. While there, he also participated in the design and construction of many green roof and building projects. After graduation he co-founded two companies to help advance regional sustainability: Steel City Biofuels (a non-profit) which expands public awareness of biofuels and their production methods through education, research, advocacy and demonstration, and Urban Homesteaders LLC (a for-profit) which enables self-sufficiency in the urban ecosystem. Check out this podcast interview of Steel City Biofuels.
Dr. Gay E. Canough, [PhD, physics, U of Notre Dame, 1988]. Gay Canough has been working in the solar energy field since 1993, installing mostly photovoltaic systems. She founded Extraterrestrial Materials, Inc. (ETM Solar Works) in 1988. Originally ETM did aerospace consulting work. We did the conceptual design of the Lunar Prospector, a small spacecraft that went to the Moon in 1998 and found strong indications of water at the lunar South pole. In the early 90s she did work on space solar power for the Space Studies Institute in Princeton and for NASA. Since “coming down to Earth” in 1993, she has installed around 500 kW of PV, including the 186 kW system at the Tompkins County Library in Ithaca, NY. ETM has grown to 4 full time employees and 4 part time employees. Gay has been active in NYSEIA since it was re-formed in 1994. She was president for 3 years and is now treasurer and board member. In 1998 and 1999, she participated with other members of the New York Solar Energy Industries Association (NYSEIA) in the development of a PV Installer’s course. In 2000, she began instructing electricians and other interested people in how to install photovoltaic (PV) systems. Since then, she has run the PV Installer’s course 65 times. The course has been and continues to be offered in New Jersey and New York. It was also offered in Pennsylvania for their Renewable Pilot program. In spring of 2003, she received certification as a master trainer from the Institute of Sustainable Power (www.ispq.org ). In the fall of 2003, she received certification as a PV installer from the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (www.NABCEP.org).
Steven Holzbaur has a marketing degree from Kutztown State College in Pennsylvania. He spent over 15 years in the transportation and logistics business; over 5 years running a trucking company and 5 years owning his own warehousing and logistics business in Houston, Texas. He moved to Ithaca NY in 2000 and has worked with the following businesses/farms/ag agencies: Finger Lakes Organic Growers - marketing and logistics assistance Meadow Raised Meats Finger Lakes Culinary Bounty - distribution study linking farmers and chefs Regional Access - natural food distributor CADE - 2001 to present -various marketing and distribution studies Evans Farmhouse Creamery.
Amy Kenyon grew up on a Delaware County dairy farm, and today owns and operates Skate Creek Farm, raising grassfed and heritage livestock. She began raising animals as a way to have healthy and humane gourmet meat. Since then, her products have been featured in some of New York’s finest restaurants, and in magazines from Catskill Mountain Region Guide to Organic Living, In addition to farming, her background is in economic development and marketing. Amy is a consultant to local non-profits and municipalities, and she serves on the board of Farm Catskills (see article), a new organization dedicated to protecting and promoting our region’s working landscape of farms and forests.
Jen Montgomery started gardening in 1996 near Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. There, Jen managed a 4 acre Organic CSA for several years before exploring sustainable agriculture systems in New Zealand and Scotland. She received her Masters of Science in Sustainable Systems in 2005. Jen helped form Urban Homesteaders LLC to facilitate sustainable living in Pittsburgh and presently serves as the President of that organization. Jen currently works for 'Grow Pittsburgh' co-managing several urban agriculture projects.
Joel Murray is a New York State Registered Architect and a member of the American Institute of Architects. He holds a Masters of Architecture degree from Carnegie Mellon University, where he studied under the founders of the university’s Master in Science in Sustainable Design Program. He has a BA from SUNY Binghamton where he specialized in Sculpture under Ed Wilson. Mr. Murray is known for new and adaptive reuse projects within historically sensitive contexts, and has designed numerous projects throughout the region including Saratoga City Schools High School, SUNY Albany’s Administration Building Entry (The first physical addition to the original Edward Durell Stone campus), and an underground addition to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hagan House in western Pennsylvania. Mr. Murray currently runs a small residential practice in upstate New York integrating sustainable building principles into affordable and mid range residential projects.
Dennis Valente is the Davenport, NY town supervisor and owner of the Davenport Garden Center and the Antique Phonograph Supply Company, both located in Davenport Center where he lives with his wife Patti and son Alex. Dennis and Patti Valente, proprietors of the Antique Phonograph Supply Company, met over 25 years ago while Dennis, an accounting student, was working part-time at the New York fish market. Dennis had been interested in phonographs since he and his brother had fished some old wind-up machines out of some trash. He traded his brother his collection of Nixon campaign material for his brother's share of the cache. The Valentes operated phonograph sales and restoration shops on Long Island until 1989. Then, needing more space and feeling that Long Island was becoming too crowded for business, they moved to central New York State. Always a gardener, and descended from a generation of farmers, Valente began farming as a complement to the phonograph business. He took some agricultural extension courses.
Dr. Donna Vogler is an Associate Professor of Biology at SUNY College at Oneonta, teaching General Ecology, Plant Ecology, Conservation Biology, and Environmental Science. Her interests include plant reproductive ecology, plant biodiversity, and more recently, community sustainability. She currently chairs the Oneonta Susquehanna Greenway, serves on the board of the Otsego County Conservation Association, and has ongoing projects with the American Museum of Natural History and ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability.
