Meet The 2021 Award Winners

Jessica Aldridge

Director of Sustainability and Zero Waste Programs, Athens Services

Jessica is a longtime environmental steward, community organizer, and waste industry leader working alongside nonprofits and community groups. She designs programs for the most challenging waste scenarios, consults with corporate brands, and advances Athens’ environmental goals. Jessica co-hosts/produces the podcast and KPFK radio show Ecojustice Radio. She is the Executive Director for Adventures in Waste, a co-founder of SoCal 350, a founding coalition member of ReusableLA, Co-Chair for SoCal Chapter of Women in Solid Waste and Recycling, and Steering Committee member for USGBC-LA San Fernando Valley.

Mona Benisi

Executive Director of Morgan Stanley; Head of Sustainability, Global Real Assets, Morgan Stanley Investment Management 

At Morgan Stanley, Mona works closely with the Real Estate, Infrastructure and Private Credit teams to develop and execute Sustainability strategies across North America, Europe and Asia. Previously she was the Global Head of Sustainability for Simon Property Group, a member of the Corporate Sustainability Office at Siemens Corporation in Munich, Germany. She also has held roles with the Environmental Defense Fund and Columbia University’s Earth Institute. Mona serves as the current Chair of NAREIM’s Sustainability Committee. She received a B.A. in International Business from Georg-Simon-Ohm University in Nuremberg, Germany and an M.S. in Sustainability Management from Columbia University in New York City.

Dr. Marilyn Black

Vice President and Senior Technical and Strategic Advisor, Underwriters Laboratories Inc. 

Founder, Air Quality Sciences, Inc. and The GREENGUARD Environmental Institute 

A Public Health scientist, Dr. Marilyn Black is a leader in the study of environmental pollution and its impact on human health. She founded the GREENGUARD Environmental Institute, a nonprofit organization that provides verification of chemical safe products. GREENGUARD has been instrumental in helping transform products to safer formulations for the betterment of the environment and human health. 

Following research and teaching, Marilyn founded Air Quality Sciences, Inc. (AQS), a research company focused on measuring sources of indoor pollution and associated health effects. She currently leads Underwriters Laboratories, Inc.’s not-for-profit organization Research Institute, Chemical Insights, providing scientific insights for societal well-being.  

Sonja Bochart

Regenerative Design, Sustainability and Biophilia Consulting

Sonja Bochart, a design leader in health and wellness for over 25 years, has an extensive background in creating spaces to support social and ecological well-being. As an educator and speaker, Sonja serves as a recognized biophilia leader, teaching at Arizona State University and serving on the ILFI Biophilic Design Initiative and the board for Green Plants for Green Buildings. As an advocate for fostering connections between people, natural systems, and regenerative development, Sonja is a foremost facilitator for design and education workshops, including innovation in product development and LEED, Living Building Challenge, and WELL project design guidance and charrettes.

Christine Brunel-Ligneau

Commercial Digital Farming EMEA Lead, Bayer CropScience AG 

Agronomist by training with “a farmer heart and a scientific mind”, Christine has served agriculture and food customers in more than 30 countries across Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia with a focus on new business development and the implementation of sustainable solutions. For more than 25 years she has served with Bayer always driven by shaping better and safer food systems that are good to society and the planet. For Bayer CS, Christine has elevated the preservation of the biodiversity, the reduction of carbon emission in agriculture, and the reduction of the impact of pesticides as the core priorities of her company. In her new role, Christine is currently leading the commercial digital team in the region EMEA, spearheading the adoption of Bayer first-class digital platform aimed at assisting farmers in their daily decision-making processes and advancing regenerative agriculture practices.

Gina Ciganik

Chief Executive Officer, Healthy Building Network

Gina is a champion of equity and environmental health at Ciganik, an innovator with a proven track record of creating leading-edge, nationally recognized sustainable spaces. Prior to HBN, she was Vice President at a Minneapolis-St. Paul area real estate developer, where she spent two decades creating thousands of healthy, high-performance affordable homes. She was named to Finance and Commerce’s Top Women in Finance (2012 & 2015). She completed the Achieving Excellence program at Harvard University's JFK School of Government and holds a B.S degree in Housing from the University of Minnesota.

Robyn Eason

Long-Range Planning & Sustainability Manager, City of West Hollywood

Robyn is a fun-loving professional who strives for excellence in the sustainability profession, while enjoying the diversity of people, places, and things that make the built environment so fascinating and unique. Her multidisciplinary career has spanned across multiple sectors in CA. Her role at the City of West Hollywood started as its first sustainability planner, managing a diverse set of citywide sustainability projects: electrical vehicle charging readiness, clean energy initiatives, water conservation, climate action planning, and green building. As Long-Range Planning & Sustainability Manager, she has expanded her scope to include mobility/transit, housing policy, and land use and zoning. Robyn is passionate about applying an equity and sustainability lens to all aspects of her work as well as fostering a culture of empowerment and stewardship within the organization.

Dr. Jennifer Holmgren

CEO, LanzaTech

Dr. Jennifer Holmgren is CEO of revolutionary carbon recycling company, LanzaTech. Today, under her guidance, LanzaTech is working towards developing a variety of platform chemicals and fuels, including the world’s first alternative jet fuel derived from industrial waste gases. Jennifer is also the Director and Chair of the LanzaJet, Inc. Board of Directors. A new company, LanzaJet will produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for a sector requiring climate friendly fuel options. In 2015 Dr. Holmgren and her team at LanzaTech were awarded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Presidential Green Chemistry Award and she was awarded the BIO Rosalind Franklin Award for Leadership in Industrial Biotechnology.

Prior to joining LanzaTech, she was VP and General Manager of the Renewable Energy and Chemicals business unit at UOP LLC, a Honeywell Company. She was one of the key drivers of UOP’s leadership in low carbon aviation biofuels, and under her management, UOP technology became instrumental in producing nearly all of the initial fuels used by commercial airlines and the military for testing and certification of alternative aviation fuel.

Jennifer is the author or co-author of 50 US patents and more than 30 scientific publications and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. In 2021 Jennifer received the Edison Achievement Award for making a significant and lasting contribution to the world of innovation.

Rachel Hodgdon 

President & CEO, International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) 

Rachel joined the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) in November 2016, bringing her broad sustainability expertise and track record as a leading global advocate for green schools, movement building, and social equity to IWBI’S work to advance human health through better buildings, more vibrant communities and stronger organizations. She was named president of IWBI in 2018 and CEO in November 2020. 

Prior to joining IWBI, Rachel was with the U.S. Green Building Council, where she founded the Center for Green Schools, which mobilized $275B+ investments in LEED-certified educational facilities, deployed over 750,000 volunteers in 73 countries to transform schools on every continent, and published 1,000+ pages of technical guides and original research. 

Rachel is a graduate of Tufts University. She serves on numerous boards and advisory councils, including Second Nature, Urban Land Institute’s Advisory for Health and Social Equity, the Walgreen’s CSR Advisory Council, and Paul Hawken’s new regeneration start-up. She is a sought-after media voice, inspirational speaker, and frequent guest lecturer and instructor at The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Center for Health and the Global environment, among others. 

Elaine Hsieh

Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer, Third Derivative (D3). 

With over 20 years of industry experience leading, managing, and consulting on a wide range of sustainability, green building, clean energy, and technology issues, Elaine is passionate about the power of multi-stakeholder alignment and helping people understand and respect the interconnectedness of our world. 

Elaine is currently focused on building and scaling up Third Derivative (D3) — a vertically-integrated global climate tech accelerator program created as a joint venture of Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) and New Energy Nexus. D3 finds, funds, hones, and scales the world’s most promising climate tech innovations to achieve larger, faster reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions. By uniting and aligning committed investors, global corporates, and RMI's market, regulatory, and policy experts — all the stakeholders needed to bridge gaps faster — supported by financing and insights along the way, D3 increases the rate at which climate innovations can help us achieve a prosperous, equitable, and inclusive 1.5-degrees C world.

Prior to joining the D3 leadership team, Elaine was widely recognized as the program director for VERGE at GreenBiz — the premier global event series focused on scaling solutions that bridge technology, sustainability, and systems-thinking across cities and industries. She has also had careers as a green building consultant, utility business strategist, engineer, and technologist. Elaine graduated from Duke University with a master’s degree in engineering management and a bachelor’s in biomedical engineering.