Dr. Kelly Twomey Sanders is an Associate Professor in the University of Southern California’s Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Her research aims to ease tensions between human and natural systems, with particular emphasis on reducing the environmental impacts of providing energy and water services. She has authored more than two dozen publications and has given dozens of invited talks on topics at the intersection of engineering, science, and policy. Sanders has been recognized in Forbes’ 30 under 30: Today’s disruptors and tomorrow’s brightest stars and MIT Technology Review’s 35 Innovators Under 35 for her contributions to the energy field.
In 2019, she was granted an NSF Early CAREER award. Her research and commentary have been featured in media outlets such as Forbes, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal and Scientific American. Sanders received her B.S. in Bioengineering from the Pennsylvania State University, as well M.S.E and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Environmental Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, respectively. She teaches classes related to energy and the environment.
Ayesha (she/her) is a social entrepreneur with a passion for building sustainable supply chains that respect people and our planet. With over a decade of leadership to promote social justice and sustainability within the fashion industry, she founded Remake to ignite a conscious consumer movement. Remake’s advocacy campaigns, transparency ratings and citizen education are focused on making fashion a force for good. Ayesha has worked across the public, private and civil society sectors to promote the rights and dignity of the women who make our clothes.
Prior to leading Remake, she led brand engagement at Better Work, a World Bank and International Labor Organization partnership to ensure safe and decent working conditions within garment factories around the world. She also led the fashion vertical at BSR, providing strategic advice to brands including H&M, Levi Strauss & Company and Nike on the design and integration of sustainability into business. She has a master’s in public policy from the University of California, Berkeley.
AmyAnn Cadwell (she/her) is Co-Founder and CEO of The Good Trade, a premier digital destination for sustainable lifestyle content, annually reaching 50M highly-engaged readers. Cadwell also applies her expertise in digital behavior and marketing as an angel investor and advisor in early-stage consumer brands with a strong social mission. Cadwell has been recognized by Forbes and is a frequent speaker at conferences such as The Heart Series, BlogHer, and The Yellow Conference. Cadwell has a Masters of Arts in Social Entrepreneurship from Pepperdine University and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Rockhurst University.
Throughout her career in sustainability, Ellen Dux (she/her) has garnered significant experience working on a broad range of renewable energy, clean power, and cleantech initiatives. Her primary focus is stakeholder engagement and communications, grant fundraising, and program development.
Most recently, Ellen worked closely with the Los Angeles County Chief Sustainability Office to help launch the Clean Power Alliance, Southern California’s new clean energy utility. She also has partnered with the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator to develop and source funding for a large-scale energy efficiency buildings retrofit program. From 2014 – 2016, Ellen worked extensively with the Viterbi School of Engineering’s Information Sciences Institute on the Department of Energy’s Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Smart Grid Regional Demonstration Project. She began her sustainability career working in utility-scale PV.
Prior to transitioning to sustainability, Ellen held a number of senior positions in the entertainment industry, including Executive Director of 20th Century Fox’s mobile content division. She also co-founded a filmed entertainment production company with musician Peter Gabriel.