:: Board Bios

Michael Hancoxis the Chief Operating Officer at E² Inc. and a founding board member of the Green Infrastructure Center.  He has extensive experience in the areas of organizational development and change management, strategic planning and analysis, stakeholder engagement and facilitation, land revitalization, community renewal, market analysis, and feasibility studies. Since joining E² Inc. he has managed the firm's mission support services and policy analysis for EPA's Office of Superfund Remediation and Technological Innovation and EPA's Office of Underground Storage Tanks.  He also manages the EPA Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response's Technical Assistance Services for Communities contract that provides technical assistance on hazardous waste issues to impacted communities across the country.  In addition he has overseen a comprehensive economic analysis of the benefits of Superfund program, and on behalf of the Superfund Redevelopment Initiative he has developed and managed a multi-disciplinary team of land use specialists who have worked at more than 100 Superfund sites developing new approaches to public participation and planning for the reuse of NPL sites. Prior to joining E² Inc., Mr. Hancox held senior level management positions in the real estate development and construction industries for more than 15 years.

He has a Master of Planning degree in Urban and Environmental Planning from the University of Virginia and a bachelor's degree in Political Economy from Skidmore College.  He is currently pursuing an MBA in Sustainable Management at Green Mountain College in VT.

Rick Roth is a professor of geography at Radford University. His academic interests include sustainable communities, green infrastructure planning, rivers, and watersheds. He has taken a leadership role with a number of local and regional environmental and conservation organizations, including Friends of the New River, Friends of the Rivers of Virginia, the New River Watershed Roundtable, the New River Valley Environmental Coalition, the Radford University Environmental Center, and the Radford University Green Team (as faculty advisor). Mr. Roth lives in Blacksburg, Virginia, with his wife, Polly Jones, and daughter Liza. He is a self-described “river rat” who is happiest in a boat with a paddle in his hands. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Virginia (1972) and a Master of Planning Degree in Urban and Regional Planning (1989) and a Ph.D. in Environmental Design and Planning from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (1993).

Karl E. Bren is President of GreenVisions Consulting. GreenVisions provides consulting services relating to the application of green building and sustainable design, especially in single and multifamily affordable housing. He is also a nationally known conference speaker and conducts workshops on green building and sustainable design. He is a LEED Accredited Professional with the US Green Building Council and has been involved with green building and sustainable development for over ten years. Mr. Bren has played a leading role in many sustainable design and green building efforts. He currently serves as the Program Director of EarthCraft Virginia, a nonprofit that administers the EarthCraft residential green builder program in Virginia. EarthCraft was created by Southface Energy Institute and the Homebuilders Association of Atlanta in the late 1990s and has certified several thousand single and multifamily housing units. Mr. Bren also is the founder and past President of the Virginia Sustainable Building Network (formerly the Virginia Housing and the Environment Network).

Mr. Bren has served on numerous boards including the James River Green Building Council and the Better Housing Coalition, a progressive nonprofit community development corporation committed to green building and sustainable design. He is also a board member of the Virginia Conservation Network. He has received many acknowledgements and awards for his work, such as the 2007 Ukrops Visionary Leadership Award winner given by the Leadership Metro Richmond organization. While serving as Nonprofit Affairs Director with the Virginia Housing Development Authority, the agency became one of the first housing finance agencies in the country to integrate green building principles as part of their programs. For more information on GreenVisions, visit www.green-visions.com or www.earthcraftvirginia.org.

Mr. Bren is married and lives in Henrico County, Virginia. Mr. Bren holds a Master of Urban Affairs degree from Virginia Tech and has served as adjunct faculty at Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Richmond, where he teaches courses on housing and the built environment with a focus on green building and sustainable design.

Michael B. Cook has 41 years of federal service, including 28 years as a senior executive at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He introduced many innovations into federal programs, including environmental management systems, asset management, security planning, and new technologies. Mr. Cook directed long-term cleanup of hazardous waste sites in EPA's multi-billion dollar Superfund program and also managed Environmental Response Teams. Prior to this role, he directed EPA programs to issue permits to control several hundred thousand municipal and industrial wastewater discharges, and administered more than a billion dollars a year of financial and technical assistance for municipal sewage treatment plants. Mr. Cook directed EPA's drinking water program to manage state issuance and implementation of numerous regulations to ensure high quality of drinking water for the nation and represented EPA during Congressional reauthorization of the Safe Drinking Water Act. He directed the writing and implementation of regulations governing transport, treatment, storage, and disposal of hazardous waste and represented EPA during reauthorization of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Mr. Cook directed EPA's program for emergency response to oil and hazardous chemical spills, including early implementation of the Superfund law, and was responsible for planning and legislative policy in EPA's multi-billion dollar grants program for sewage treatment plant construction.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Cook served as a Foreign Service Officer in the counterinsurgency program in Vietnam, and as consul in Northeast Thailand. While on loan to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, he helped three cities plan and implement the Model Cities program and he served as President Nixon's representative for long term recovery from Hurricane Camille on the Gulf Coast.

Mr. Cook’s community work includes volunteer efforts to assist the Vietnamese Resettlement Association with recent immigrants to the United States and he has also coached youth wrestling for six years. Mr. Cook is married with two sons and two grandchildren and is an ironman triathlete, tennis player, and marathon runner. He has a Bachelor of Philosophy in politics from Oxford University, and attended Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs. Mr. Cook also has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Swarthmore College. He is a Rhodes Scholar and received the Distinguished Executive Award presented by President Reagan and EPA's gold, silver and bronze medals and the Distinguished Career Service Award.

Elissa Rosenberg is an Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Virginia. She teaches design studios, seminars, and technical courses dealing with urban landscapes, including courses in the "eco-technology" sequence on grading, earthwork, and urban hydrology. One of her academic interests is the relationship of landscape architecture and engineering, with a particular focus on the design of working landscapes-- new hybrids that combine recreational uses with elements of urban infrastructure and regenerative technologies.

Ms. Rosenberg served as Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Virginia from 1998-2002, and was a visiting professor at the Technion Institute, Israel (1996-98). In 1993, she received The Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture Award of Distinction. She practiced landscape architecture in New York City and neighborhood planning in Toronto. She is married and has two children. The family will be living in Israel from 2007-08 where she will be teaching and writing.

Dr. Botchwey specializes in community development and neighborhood planning with emphasis on local religious and secular institutions and the promotion of public health. She joined the faculty of the Department of Urban and Environmental Planning at the University of Virginia (UVA) in the fall of 2003, and teaches undergraduate and graduate planning workshops on neighborhood planning, community planning and environmental impact assessments. She also developed Healthy Communities, a graduate seminar exploring the connections between the built environment and health. Dr. Botchwey also co-organized the Department's 2004 Spring Symposium, "Healthy Communities, Healthy People: Exploring the Relationship between Public Health and the Built Environment" as well as the 2008 and 2009 UVA Sustainability Symposia focusing on climate change and health. 

Her work on religious and secular nonprofits provides empirical documentation of the characteristics and community revitalization contributions of these neighborhood-based organizations. It also identifies health promoting opportunities that exist through these venues for people with type-2 diabetes. She has recently been working to design a project in South Africa concerning public health and clean water with UVA's Center for Global Health and the University of Venda in South Africa.

Dr. Botchwey is an Annie E. Casey Foundation Junior Scholar, and National Institutes of Health National Center on Minority Health Disparities Scholar. She has an A.B., from Harvard University and both an M.C.P, and Ph.D., from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Botchwey is married with two children and lives in the City of Charlottesville.

Dave Hirschman is a Senior Water Resources Specialist with the Center for Watershed Protection’s since 2005. He has worked for 20 years in the public, private, and non-profit sectors on a variety of water resources and environmental health issues. In his life prior to the Center, Dave managed a water resources program for Albemarle County, managed a non-profit organization and ran a small environmental consulting office for Biohabitats.  He also has taught water resources courses at the University of Virginia’s School of Architecture. His areas of concentration include innovative stormwater design and implementation, stormwater program development, land use planning, and training. Mr. Hirschman works for the Center from the satellite office in Charlottesville, Virginia.

He has a B.A. in Biology from Duke University and a Masters of Urban & Regional Planning from Virginia Tech.  He is married to his wife Garnett and they have two children and live in Charlottesville.  He is an avid kayaker and also enjoys keeping chickens in the city.

Susan Reeve is the principal of Lionfish Consulting, which offers solutions to organizations and individuals to incorporate sustainability into their businesses and creates social and community programs that make a difference. Recent consulting projects have included: National Geographic 2008 Explorers Symposium, Clean up the World North American launch, National Geographic Lion Conservation Initiative, and Photo Camp Botswana. Prior to establishing her own firm, she was the director of the Explorers Program and Special Projects for National Geographic, where she worked for 13 years. Ms. Reeve is currently seeking an MBA in Sustainable Management from the Presidio School of Management, San Francisco, CA.  She has a B.A. in Mass Communications from Pennsylvania State University.  She also studied British Media through the University of Manchester, England exchange program.

Ms. Reeve lived in Washington D.C. where she was an active volunteer with the Whitman Walker Aids Clinic.  She recently relocated to Sausalito, CA and serves on various boards and committees such as Vision Workshops, a nonprofit mentoring program, providing positive learning opportunities for youth using the tools of photojournalism.  When not volunteering or working, she enjoys competitive sailing, SCUBA, surfing, yoga, photography and world travel.