June 24, 2009
Having grown up in a progressive home, where meals often included home-grown vegetables and discussions on sustainable living,
Danial Rushton has always been interested in environmental issues. However, after college he fell into work in the online advertising sector. As he continued in this field it became increasingly apparent that he needed to do something more fulfilling with his life. In Fall 2008 Danial joined GreenHomeNYC in order to begin his move towards a more sustainable career. With any luck he will be starting graduate work next year in a program that can help further this goal. In his spare time Danial enjoys cooking, watching an exciting game of soccer, and playing the drums in his band.
June 15, 2009
Jordan Bonomo became interested in environmental issues during his senior year at Boston University when he worked on a climate change campaign for MASSPIRG. After a year working with a New York-based nonprofit managing environmental cleanup projects in third world communities, he was bit by the travel bug and left the states to live and work in Thailand for a year. Upon returning to the US, he went straight to work for the Barack Obama Campaign as a Field Organizer in Michigan and Indiana, comforted by the idea that if Obama didn’t win, he could always move back to Thailand for as long as he needed. Fortunately, he didn’t have to make that decision and is currently back in New York, planning ways to make the best city in the world the leader in urban sustainability.
Mohini Tadikonda has recently completed a Permaculture Design Certification course. Her goal is to be an active participant in making NYC a more sustainable city through retrofitting the current infrastructure. She believes that the first step is making information accessible and understandable to the public which is where organizations like GreenHomeNYC become so important.
Mary Tchamkina has recently decided that selling art to rich people is not how she’d rather spend the hours between 9 am and 5 pm. She is now volunteering with GreenHomeNYC and interning at Solar1 to learn everything she can about green building in hopes that, one day, she can have a 9-to-5 educating and helping others. She is really grateful for being able to get involved with GreenHomeNYC’s Green Careers team and to have met such a passionate group of people in general.
February 20, 2009
Having grown up in various countries and developed a love for traveling,
Olivia Susai Eckfeld found a passion for the urban environment at an early age. After attaining her bachelor’s degree in urban planning in Perth, Australia (her hometown) she moved to Canada and received her Master of Planning degree at Queen’s University focusing on city planning (public space design and environmental psychology). She then worked in strategic planning policy and real estate development for a few years in Toronto. Since moving to New York in early 2008, she has been involved with green organizations and became a LEED AP. She hopes to combine her passion in planning and sustainability into a dream career in sustainable development in this city. Outside of work, Olivia enjoys a good hot chocolate, photography and painting.
January 3, 2009
Robbie Holden has an interest in sustainable building practices and how it can enhance one’s emotional and physiological well being thus impacting behavior. She is particularly interested in research that confirms that sustainable medical facilities can improve recovery time after surgery, and that green educational institutions are more conducive to learning. She currently is a mental health therapist in private practice in lower Manhattan. Robbie also provides services to patients at a Davita Dialysis Clinic in the Bronx, NY. She has been in the behavioral health field for approximately 12 years. She has 5 ½ years of management experience with non profits in New York City and has performed post deployment assessments and brief treatment to Iraqi and Afghanistan veterans in the States of NY and NJ. Robbie has her undergraduate degree from Rutgers University and her graduate degree from the University of Maryland.
Melani is a new volunteer in 2009.
Dwan Daniels was first introduced to GreenHomeNYC by an attorney at her office. After attending the monthly forums for a year, she decided to volunteer in 2009. Dwan is an affordable housing advocated and has been in New York since January 2007 when she started her job with the New York City Housing Development Corp (NYCHDC) as the REMIC Finance Director. Prior to joining NYCHDC, Ms. Daniels was employed with the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority where she administered the Hardship Refinance Program. She served on the Colorado State Executive Committee of the Foreclosure Prevention Taskforce in the area of Public Relations and training for a statewide initiative to decrease foreclosures. She is an active member of Women in Housing and Finance and is seeking her LEED Accreditation. Ms. Daniels holds a B.S.’s in International Business and Marketing from the University of Colorado at Denver and an M.A. in Urban Affairs from Queens College. She loves to belly dance, do yoga, snowboard, bike ride and be outdoors.
Diana Nezamutinova was raised in the oil and gas region of Western
Siberia (Russia), where the the environmental impact of the oil industry
was felt by many. She studied Economics in Tyumen State University
focusing in Environmental Management. She enhanced her environmental
education in a Master program at the Central European University in
Budapest (Hungary), where she actively participated in the European
Parliament Research Project on energy policies of Central European
countries. Later she enrolled in the graduate environmental program at
Bard College in upstate NY, where she specialized in the energy audit of
Bard campus and the international carbon market. During her studies, she
interned at Winslow Management, a socially responsible investment
firm, and at Clearwater, an educational NGO. After her graduation,
she went to work at Power Concepts, an engineering firm in Manhattan.
She conducts energy audits, does energy modeling and writes energy
reduction plans for multifamily buildings and small industries. She
bikes, does yoga and cooks Russian and Central Asian food.
January 1, 2009
Dolly is a new volunteer in 2009.
Mohini Tadikonda has recently completed a Permaculture Design Certification course. Her goal is to be an active participant in making NYC a more sustainable city through retrofitting the current infrastructure. She believes that the first step is making information accessible and understandable to the public which is where organizations like GreenHomeNYC become so important.