Green Hive Foundation

The Team

Monica Gilchrist
Executive Director
 
Monica Gilchrist is a committed and experienced leader in sustainability.  With a background that straddles the non-profit and business worlds, she has professional experience both creating and implementing cutting edge green building and sustainable development programs, policies and projects.   A deep sense of ethics and a passion for creating buildings, communities and educational opportunities that protect the environment drive her leadership of the Green Hive Foundation.
As Co-Founder and Co-Owner of green building consulting firm Eco Creative Solutions, Monica most recently worked in the for-profit sector providing green building and sustainability consulting services ranging from basic sustainability reporting to turn-key project fulfillment for new and existing buildings and operations.   

Formerly the National Resource Center Coordinator for environmental non-profit Global Green USA, she helped create the green building product and material displays, resource library, event programming, professional development, databases of products and building professionals, outreach and consultations at Global Green USA's Green Building Resource Center.  She managed the daily operations of the center, providing green building advice to hundreds of residents, building professionals, students, municipalities and developers.  She assisted in the creation and opening of Global Green's second resource center in New Orleans, as part of Global Green's response to hurricane Katrina.

Monica has done extensive work developing municipal green building programs, working with cities such as Irvine, Pasadena, West Hollywood, and Cupertino.  She helped author the Global Green publication "Developing Green Building Programs: A Step-By-Step Guide for Local Governments," a guidebook outlining a process for local agencies to develop green building programs.

Seated on the Advisory Boards for Greenopia and the Green Home Guide, she has been featured in numerous media outlets from print to television as an expert in green building. Monica holds an MA in Urban Planning from the University of California, Los Angeles with an emphasis on Sustainable Development.  She and her husband live in Saugus, California where they are raising three beautiful children, four horses and six goats.

 

Adam Feldman, LEED AP
Project Manager (Volunteer)
 
Adam joined The Green Hive team in September, 2008. His desire was to apply his experience in sales, marketing and training to a company that was providing innovative solutions to enhance the quality of peoples' lives while also improving the environment. The Green Hive proved to be a perfect fit.

Prior to his current role the The Green Hive, Adam was a corporate trainer at Quicken Loans. There he authored an extensive reverse mortgage training manual and educated and trained over 100 employees in Quicken’s emerging reverse mortgage division.  Upon moving to California’s South Bay to live with his fiancé, Adam sought a change away from the corporate environment and into a rewarding and challenging position with an opportunity to make a significant impact on the world around him.  His responsibilities include the research, development and implementation of The Green Hive Library, the exploration and application for grant funds, and business development for sponsors, tenants and exhibitors.   

Adam earned his BA from the University of Massachusetts and recently obtained his LEED accreditation.  He is planning to begin taking continuing education classes in the fall towards a Sustainability Leadership Certification from the University of California, Irvine.  In his spare time, Adam can be found outdoors enjoying the endless California’s summers on a board, bike or trail programs.

 

Kris D. Kimble, LEED AP
Partner/CEO Greenhive LLC, Director of Development

Kris D. Kimble has been a business professional for 26 years. Starting a profitable business with social benefit has been a long term dream. Growing up in Michigan, Mr. Kimble is the son of parents who recycled, bought health food by the pallet and sought sustainable alternatives “before it was cool”.

A graduate of Michigan State University, Mr. Kimble has developed his sales, marketing, management and leadership skills with firms such as IBM, Motorola, and Pagenet. The environmental and energy conservation interest manifested itself in positions with Waste Management, Lighting Technology Services, and Sun Energy Solutions.

The entrepreneurial aspect of Mr. Kimble’s professional development has been the formation of DDK & Associates, a real estate LLC completing 13 real estate projects and most recently The Green Hive.

Mr. Kimble is a member o the CA Green Workforce Coalition and participated in the Leadership Manhattan Beach program resulting in his appointment as Commissioner with Parks & Recreation Commission for the City of Manhattan Beach.

Mr. Kimble has been married since 1990 and has two sons.

 

Todd M. Corbin
Board of Directors

Todd M. Corbin has been with the Cucamonga Valley Water District for over 11 years and is currently the Assistant General Manager. Mr. Corbin oversees and leads the daily overall District operations including the Financial and Administrative Services, and the Engineering and Operations Departments. During his tenure at the District Todd has implemented innovative programs such as the “Rolling Budget”, which is an innovative real-time budget monitoring process. Most recently Todd served as the Project Manager for the development of an educational demonstration and resource center called the Frontier Project, which has received numerous design and construction awards including the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum certification from the US Green Building Council. He is the Treasurer of the Frontier Project Foundation which operates the facility.

Prior to his work with Cucamonga Valley he was employed for seven years at the Rowland Water District in Rowland Heights, California. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration/Accounting from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a Masters Degree in Public Administration from Cal State University – San Bernardino. He is a Certified Public Accountant.

 

Nurit Katz
Board of Directors

UCLA's first Sustainability Coordinator, Nurit Katz is working to foster partnerships among academic, research, and operational departments and further the goals and initiatives of the campus sustainability program. Before starting in this position she founded the UCLA Sustainable Resource Center to provide resources for the community on sustainability. She then served as President of the Graduate Students Association and assisted Dr. Charles Corbett in developing a new interdisciplinary graduate certificate program - Leaders in Sustainability. After graduation she helped launch the UCLA Center for Corporate Environmental Performance. She has worked on a variety of sustainability projects including a project for the City of Los Angeles that focused on transit-oriented development along the Expo Light Rail Line. Her essay on the topic was published in the UCLA Anderson Forecast's "Solutions for Our City". Nurit holds an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and a Masters in Public Policy from the UCLA School of Public Affairs. She serves on the Executive Committee of the Luskin Center for Innovation and on the Board of Opportunity Green. In 2010 Nurit completed a full Ironman distance triathlon with Team in Training in support of the Leukemia Lymphoma Society.

 

Susan Piedmont-Palladino, AIA
Board of Directors

Susan Piedmont-Palladino is an architect, a curator at the National Building Museum and a Professor of Architecture at Virginia Tech's Washington/Alexandria Architecture Consortium (WAAC), the urban extension of Virginia Tech’s College of Architecture and Urban Studies. WAAC serves graduate and upper level undergraduate students and hosts a consortium of architecture and landscape architecture programs from around the US as well as Asia, Europe and Latin America. At the National Building Museum, she is the curator of the current exhibition Green Community. She had previously served as a consultant and guest curator, most recently for the exhibition Tools of the Imagination: Drawing Tools and Technologies from the Eighteenth Century to the Present.

She is the author of two books, Devil’s Workshop: 25 Years of Jersey Devil Architecture, and Tools of the Imagination, the companion book to the exhibition, both published by Princeton Architectural Press. She is currently working on the companion book for Green Community, expected to be published in October 2009. She writes frequently on American urbanism, sustainability, design-build, and architectural education. Her articles have appeared in the popular and professional press, including “Blueprints”, the “Journal of Architectural Education,” and “Perspecta 29” among others.

Susan received her Master of Architecture from Virginia Tech and her Bachelor of Arts in the History of Art from The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Before joining the faculty at the Washington/Alexandria Architecture Consortium, she taught at the University of Maryland and at the Catholic University of America. She is the former national president of Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility and served on the design committee for the National Peace Garden Foundation, and was an advisor for the Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon in 2005.

 

Eric Corey Freed, LEED AP, Hon. FIGP
Board of Directors

Eric Corey Freed, LEED AP, Hon. FIGP, is Principal of organicARCHITECT, an architecture and consulting firm in California, with nearly 20 years of experience in green building.

Eric co-developed the Sustainable Design programs at the Academy of Art University and University of California Berkeley Extension. He is on the boards of Architects, Designers & Planners for Social Responsibility(ADPSR), Green Home Guide and West Coast Green, as well as the advisory boards of nearly a dozen other organizations.

He was the founding Chair of Architecture for The San Francisco Design Museum and one of the founders of ecoTECTURE: The Online Journal of Ecological Design. He is a regular contributor for Sustainable Industries Journal, Luxe, Natural Home, Metropolitan Home and dozens of other publications. Eric lectures around the country at 40+ conferences a year, and his work has been featured in Dwell, Metropolis, Town & Country, Natural Home and Newsweek. He has been seen on television on Fox News, HGTV, The Sundance Channel and PBS.

When Eric was just 25 years old, noted architect and critic Philip Johnson described him as "one of the real brains of his generation". Today, Eric continues the tradition of "Organic Architecture", first developed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

He is a founding board member and current Chair of the Coachella Valley branch of the US Green Building Council, and sits on the Sustainability Commission of the City of Palm Desert. He has received awards from several Mayors, and worked with dozens of municipalities around the country.

Eric is the author of four books, including "Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies", a best seller with over 100,000 copies in print. His latest books, "Sustainable School Architecture" and "Green $ense for your Home" were just released in 2010.

Eric is considered a leader in the field; named by San Francisco Magazine "Best Green Architect" in 2005 and "Best Visionary" in 2007; and "Green Visionary" by 7x7 Magazine in 2008.