Center for Healthy & Efficient Spaces

Russ Carnahan served as a U.S. Representative for Missouri from 2005 to 2013 and has been a vocal proponent of addressing the impact of buildings on climate change and human health. While in congress, he founded the bipartisan Congressional High-Performance Building Caucus to raise awareness about building-related policies that can address energy and environmental challenges. As co-founder of Building Action, an advocacy-oriented nonprofit focused on building sustainability, Carnahan works with a broad coalition of stakeholders to advocate for building policy that improves communities and combats climate change.

Jim Freihaut specializes in indoor air quality, building science, enclosed space air quality issues, and system constraints on air treatment/filtration solutions and is part of Penn State’s Institutes for Energy and the Environment (IEE). IEE is one of the lead institutes for the Global Building Network, a global network supported by the United Nations to create an international framework to make buildings healthier, more efficient, and more sustainable.

Ron Keller is the North American Executive Director at Brookfield Global Integrated Solutions (BGIS). BGIS is one of the leading providers of integrated facility management for the Global 100 Corporations. Ron has over 25 years in Real Estate development, construction project, transaction and facility management areas, both as an end user and service provider. Ron has been the global practice leader for industry sectors for Oil & Gas, Industrial and Financial Sectors. Prior to his current role at BGIS, Ron was an Executive Managing Director at CBRE and also Executive VP for KeyBank overseeing a variety of areas within finance, marketing, market research, M&A and Commercial and Corporate Real Estate.

Dr. Memo Cedeño Laurent is Assistant Professor at the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute at Rutgers University, where he leads the Climate Adaptive and Restorative Environments (CARE) Lab. His group studies the mechanisms by which climate change is impacting human health in the built environment. The CARE Lab focuses on implementation research to find practical solutions for scalable and equitable climate adaptation and mitigation solutions.

John McKeon is a medical entrepreneur and currently the CEO of Allergy Standards Ltd (ASL), an international standards and certification body, a company he founded while working as an Emergency Room Doctor. As the founder he has led the development of an international intellectual property portfolio of patents and trademark applications and negotiated complex licensing agreements with multinationals such as P&G and 3M. Along the way he has secured significant equity investments as well as academic and industry grant awards. As a serial entrepreneur, John is involved in a number of successful healthcare related ventures.

John qualified as a doctor from Trinity College Dublin, is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, and also holds his United States Medical Licensing exams. He maintains a keen interest in clinical medicine and has had several publications in medical journals.

Lidia Morawska is a Professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane, Australia. She is also the Director of the International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health at QUT and a Co-Director of the Australia – China Centre for Air Quality Science and Management. She conducts fundamental and applied research in the interdisciplinary field of air quality and its impact on human health, with a specific focus on science of airborne particulate matter. She is a past President of the International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate and a consultant for World Health Organization.

Bill Sisson is currently the Executive Director of North America, for the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. Sisson directs and oversees multiple sustainability-oriented projects at WBCSD including the Transforming the Built Environment Initiative, which focuses on creating built environments that are healthy, circular, and have net zero-emissions. Prior to this role, he was on the Board for the Global Buildings Performance Network, a Paris based NGO that offers a knowledge hub for best practice policies.

A deep concern for how interior environments impact human health and performance has informed every facet of Linda's 45-year career as an interior designer, educator, and advocate of healthy, safe, and livable environments. As COO of mindful MATERIALS she drives sustainability change through materials choices. Linda spearheaded market transformation efforts for the US Green Building Council as the Senior Director of Education Partnerships and LEED for Commercial Interiors. She is an active member of American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) and currently part of the steering group for the ASID Committee on Climate, Health, Equity. Linda has served on the boards of the Healthy Building Network and Health in Buildings Roundtable. She recently co-authored the ASID INSIGHTS Briefs research studies on COVID-19 and its impact on interior design.