Maria Koetter

Maria is the Executive Director at the Global Cool Cities Alliance. In this capacity, Maria leads all efforts on global programs including the Cool Roof Rating Council and the C40 Cool Cities Network. Maria launched and is leading the Cool Roadways Partnership and engages with leaders and subject matter experts from cities, universities, and federal entities, as well as the manufacturing and industrial sectors. Maria provides market leadership towards advancing the availability and use of cost-effective, high-performance cool roadways solutions. Maria is also leading efforts to monitor and measure the heat reduction impacts of cool surfaces in partnership with key stakeholders.
Maria formerly served as Louisville, Kentucky’s first Director of Sustainability and led city-wide strategic sustainability planning, policy development and program implementation. Maria developed Louisville’s first comprehensive sustainability plan “Sustain Louisville” in 2013. Under her direction, the City conducted the first-of-its kind urban heat island study that identified specific actions that could be taken to effectively manage urban warming. Maria developed Louisville’s Cool Roof Incentive program to act on the study recommendations. Maria also led the City’s Division of Community Forestry and launched a number of additional efforts including the PACE program, green infrastructure incentives, greenhouse gas emissions reduction plan and the climate adaptation plan.

Bipin Shah

Mr. Shah serves as Technical Advisor to GCCA, and is currently President of WinBuild Inc, a private consulting firm. He has a B.S. and an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering and over 20 years of experience in building energy efficiency research and technology advancement. He is a CEM-Certified Energy Manager, CBEP- Certified Business Energy Professional, CDSM – Certified Demand-Side Management Professional and National Fenestration Rating Council Certified simulator. He is currently a Board of Director of Cool Roof Rating Council and National Fenestration Rating Council. Through his company WinBuild and as a US-DOE consultant, he has worked internationally to develop and establish energy efficiency ratings programs and policies. He specializes in providing simulation trainings and for establishment of testing laboratory for building envelope, essential for implementation of Building codes and policies. He interacts internationally with industry, decision makers, technical experts, government officials and researchers, on work related to building envelope research, policies, technical services implementation and codes and standards development that creates demand for advanced emerging technologies.

Dr. Laurence S. Kalkstein

Dr. Kalkstein serves as a Technical Adviser to GCCA, and currently serves as a Professor within the Voluntary Faculty in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Dr. Kalkstein’s career has been dedicated to evaluating the impact of climate and climate variation on several environmental parameters, including human health, air quality, insect migration, and various climate change impact issues. He shared the Nobel Peace prize in 2007 with lead authors of IPCC working groups; Dr. Kalkstein’s group dealt with climate change and extreme weather impacts on human health and well-being. He heads the University’s Synoptic Climatology Laboratory, which is dedicated to evaluating the impact of weather situations upon various environmental features, and his work has been funded by a variety of federal government agencies, as well as NGOs, utility companies, and public health agencies. He and his research group are responsible for developing heat-health warning systems, used by the National Weather Service to issue advisories and warnings for over 30 cities in the United States, as well as 30 more major urban areas around the world.