President and Treasurer, The Cynthia & George Mitchell Foundation, Keynote Speaker
“George P. Mitchell: The Power of Individuals to Change the World”

Katherine was elected president and treasurer of the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation in January 2011. In late 2012, Forbes Magazine named Katherine "Ones to Watch" as an up-and-coming face in philanthropy.

Katherine serves on the board of directors of the Environmental Defense Fund, The Philanthropy Workshop (chair), Puente a la Salud Comunitaria, the Endowment for Regional Sustainability Science, Exponent Philanthropy, and the Amaranth Institute.

Katherine is a member of the Global Philanthropists Circle of the Synergos Institute, and sits on the Council on Foundations Committee on Family Philanthropy. She also serves on the National Academies' Roundtable of Science and Technology for Sustainability.

Katherine formerly worked as Deputy Director for the Institute for Philanthropy, whose mission is to increase effective philanthropy in the United Kingdom and internationally.

Prior to that, Katherine lived in Oaxaca, Mexico for almost six years where she co-founded Puente a la Salud Comunitaria, a non-profit organization working to advance food sovereignty in rural Oaxaca state through the integration of amaranth into the diet.

Before founding Puente, she spent two summers living in rural villages in Latin America with the volunteer program Amigos de las Américas and later served on their program committee and as a trustee of the Foundation for Amigos de las Americas.  

Katherine is a frequent guest speaker on topics related to environmental sustainability, next generation philanthropy, and non-profit leadership. She holds a B.A. in Economics and Spanish from Davidson College.

Director, Program for the Human Environment, The Rockefeller University
Moderator, Session 2: Forecasts of natural gas demand

Jesse Huntley Ausubel is Director of the Program for the Human Environment at The Rockefeller University in New York City. The program elaborates the technical vision of a large, prosperous society that emits little or nothing harmful and spares large amounts of land and sea for nature. Mr. Ausubel was a main organizer of the first UN World Climate Conference in 1979. He helped develop the concept of “decarbonization” and published the first paper using the word in 1991. From 2006-2010 served as a director of the Electric Power Research Institute and now serves on its Advisory Council.

Associate Vice President & Chief Counsel, US Climate & Energy Program, Environmental Defense Fund
"Natural Gas in a Low Carbon Future:  Environmental Opportunities & Challenges"
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Mark Brownstein is Associate Vice President and Chief Counsel of the U.S. Climate and Energy Program at Environmental Defense Fund. Mark leads EDF’s team on natural gas development and delivery. In addition, he specializes in a variety of utility-related issues including electric grid development and wholesale and retail market design.

Prior to joining EDF, Mark held a variety of business strategy and environmental management positions within Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG), one of the largest electric and gas utility holding companies in the United States.

Mark’s career includes time as an attorney in private environmental practice, an air quality regulator with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, and an aide to a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Mark is a member of the Electric Power Research Institute’s Public Advisory Committee.

Mark holds a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School, and a B.A. from Vassar College.

Professor of Geology and Geological Engineering, Colorado School of Mines
Moderator, Session 1: Outlook for natural gas supply

Wendy J. Harrison is a tenured Professor of Geology and Geological Engineering at Colorado School of Mines.  Her fields of scholarly expertise are in geochemistry and hydrology as well as geoscience education and she has published papers in topics that range from impact shock metamorphism in lunar materials, the formation of gas hydrates and their role in CO₂ sequestration, metals uptake by trees in mined lands, and mitigating respiratory quartz dust hazard.  

During her career in academia at Colorado School of Mines, she has served as Director of the McBride Honors Program in Public Affairs for Engineers, and Associate Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Studies and Faculty.  Dr. Harrison recently completed an appointment at the National Science Foundation as Division Director for Earth Sciences in the Geosciences Directorate. She currently serves as an advisor to the Petroleum Institute, Abu Dhabi and Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan, in the foundation of in-country research and education programs in earth resources.  Educated at the University of Manchester, UK, she held a pre-doctoral fellowship at The Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington and a National Research Council research fellowship at NASA-Johnson Space Center. Her work experience includes 8 years as a senior research geologist for Exxon Production Research Company in Houston, Texas.

Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Energy Economics and Policy, Resources for the Future
"The health and environmental impacts of shale gas development:  What we know and don't" 
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Alan Krupnick is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Energy Economics and Policy (CEEP) at Resources for the Future.  Krupnick’s research focuses on analyzing environmental and energy issues, in particular, the benefits, costs and design of pollution and energy policies, both in the United States and in developing countries, with an emphasis on China. As head of CEEP, he leads RFF’s research on the risks, regulation and economics associated with shale gas development and has developed a portfolio of research on issues surrounding this newly plentiful fuel.

Founder and Executive Director, Investor Environmental Health Network
Moderator, Session 3: Environmental, health, and safety issues

Dr. Richard Liroff is founder and Executive Director of the Investor Environmental Health Network (www.iehn.org). He earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from Northwestern University and a B.A. in Politics from Brandeis University.

Since 2009 Dr. Liroff has led investor efforts to promote increased disclosure by energy companies on risks from horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing operations in “shale plays”. He is principal author of Extracting the Facts: An Investor Guide to Disclosing Risks From Hydraulic Fracturing Operations. It identifies twelve core management goals, practices to implement them, and indicators for reporting progress. He is also lead author of Disclosing the Facts, a disclosure scorecard based on Extracting the Facts.

Senior Research Scientist, Bureau of Economic Geology, Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin
"Seeing Reservoir Quality at the Appropriate Scale:  A Look at Tools for High-resolution Imaging and Our Evolving Understanding of Pore-Scale Processes in Fine-grained Systems"
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Kitty Milliken is a Senior Research Scientist at the Bureau of Economic Geology in the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin. She received degrees from Vanderbilt University (BA) and the University of Texas at Austin (MA, PhD). Her research concerns the integration of petrographic and analytical methods to decipher the chemical and mechanical histories of sedimentary rocks. Her current focus is on the fine grained sedimentary rocks that host unconventional reservoirs for oil and gas.

Chief, Office of Strategic Resources, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, U.S. Department of the Interior
"The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and offshore natural gas resources"
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Renee Orr has more than 25 years of experience with the Department of the Interior. She is a senior executive on the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management leadership team. As the Chief of the Office of Strategic Resources, Ms. Orr oversees development and implementation of the Nation's offshore oil and gas and marine mineral leasing programs. She also oversees the assessment of offshore oil and gas resources as well as ensuring that the Nation receives fair market value for these valuable assets. She completed the Department of the Interior's Senior Executive Service Candidate Development Program in 2001.

Vice President, Southern Gas Association
"Politics & Public Opinion: The Natural Gas Conundrum" 
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On December 1, 2008, Randy joined the Southern Gas Association as a vice president.

After retiring from Cinergy in 2005, Randy formed Double R Associates and began providing energy management advisory services.

From 1997 to 2005, Randy worked in various executive capacities at Cinergy Corp but most recently as VP, Gas Distribution Operations.

In 1995-97, Randy provided independent energy management and natural gas supply and marketing consulting services.

From 1993 to 1995, he served as VP Gas Resources for Transok and was responsible for gas acquisition, marketing, transportation and energy risk management services.

Over 17 years with The Williams Companies, he served in many capacities including President of Williams Energy.  During those years he directed the operation of gas pipelines, marketing, natural gas liquids and energy trading.

Randy received BS and BBA degrees from the University of Texas and completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.