The Natural Step Network USA Staff and Associates
Regina Hauser, Executive DirectorRegina Hauser - Executive Director
Regina believes that life is an adventure that shouldn’t be missed, which goes a long way to explain her decision to leave the comfortable life of a lawyer at Schwabe Williamson and Wyatt to take the helm of The Natural Step Network. Because she enjoys blazing a trail, it makes sense that she has led the Network from a local organization to a growing national network in just seven years. Perhaps it was the patent litigation in her background that attracted her to the science of the Natural Step. Regina’s exuberance for life, her sense of humor, and her passion for sustainability can be seen both in her many presentations about the Natural Step, and slide shows from trekking adventures in places like Bhutan, Tibet and Peru. Her husband Chris will attest that she’s not afraid to take a spill, whether in water, mud or life. Regina sees the challenge of sustainability as a defining opportunity for individuals and organizations alike, and believes our response to that challenge will define our character for generations to come. Contact Regina.
April Knudsen, Office AdministratorApril Knudsen - Project Manager
After earning an English degree from Centre College, April began a diverse career in administrative support and event planning. Always true to her skill set, this California native has lived and worked in Texas, Indiana, New Jersey, Kentucky and Colorado, and most recently spent five years in Nome, Alaska, in the field of healthcare administration. April came to The Natural Step Network in 2007 as an office administrator, and quickly took up additional duties in membership, communcations and IT. An amateur interest in architecture and design led to her initial investigation into sustainability as a career path, and she's grateful and excited that her work with The Natural Step has allowed her to work with so many leading figures in green building today. She lives in Portland with her husband, and dreams of living abroad someday. Contact April.
Staff photos: Brian McDonnell
Associates -
TNS Associates are experienced sustainability professionals who have received an advanced level of training in the Natural Step's Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development. Associates are experts in a variety of areas and experienced in leading sustainable change at the organizational level.
TNS Associates serve as an extension of Network staff for TNS trainings and consulting engagements.
Duke Castle, Senior Associate - Duke Castle was part of a group that introduced the Natural Step sustainability framework to Oregon in 1997. Since then he has been prominent in teaching organizations how to effectively integrate the Natural Step sustainability framework into their business planning and strategic operations using “backcasting” and the ABCD process.
He has conducted close to 400 sustainability trainings and briefings throughout the State of Oregon and other parts of the Pacific Northwest In 2000 he was asked to train Oregon state leaders on sustainability and The Natural Step as part of Governor Kitzhaber's sustainability executive order.
Duke’s business experience includes ten years as a marketing manager at Hewlett Packard and fifteen years as a strategic planning and marketing consultant. He has a BS degree in electrical engineering from Cornell University and an MBA in marketing from Stanford.
Heidi Speight, Senior TNS Associate - Heidi Speight has spent the last six years working with businesses and communities to reach their sustainability goals using The Natural Step Framework. In her previous role as Training Director with The Natural Step Network she developed and delivered online and advanced training across the country. Heidi’s journey into sustainability came after spending five years working in environmental and social activism and wondering if and when she would use her Business degree. When she moved to Madison, Wisconsin she began counseling and training start up businesses owners with Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative. She determined that businesses have a critical role to play in the creation of a sustainable society, found The Natural Step, and off to Sweden she went to learn from the founder himself. Heidi graduated from Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden in 2007, where she obtained a Masters degree in Strategic Leadership Toward Sustainability.
As an Associate, Heidi continues training and working internally with organizations in the mid-west. She also spends her time chasing her one year old son, tending the chickens and volunteering for a CSA share at a local farm.
Darcy Hitchcock, Associate - Darcy is president of AXIS Performance Advisors, a sustainability consulting firm based in Portland, Oregon. She and her business partner, Marsha Willard, have been in business for 20 years and bring to the sustainability field an expertise in organizational change, facilitation, teaching and team building. Darcy has written numerous business books including The Business Guide to Sustainability (2006, 2009) which won the American Library Association’s Best Academic Title award. A companion book, The Step by Step Guide to Sustainability Planning (2008) is a cookbook for how to create sustainability plans and reports. And Dragonfly’s Question is a novella and discussion guide to help people envision what sustainable lifestyle could look like.
To help spread sustainability throughout the world, Darcy and Marsha split their time between working with individual clients, teaching others how to implement sustainability, and managing the International Society of Sustainability Professionals. They developed and license people to use their sustainability assessment, SCORE, and their Sustainability Planning and Reporting Kit (SPaRK). For the over two years, they also hosted the Sustainable Today TV show.
Darcy teaches at Bainbridge Graduate Institute’s MBA and certificate programs as well as at the University of Oregon’s Sustainability Leadership professional certificate program. For more information, go to http://www.axisperformance.com.
Paul Horton, Associate - Paul is founder and principal of Paul Horton Consulting Group, LLC. Paul’s leadership experience includes co-founding and managing the non-profit Climate Solutions, serving as corporate sustainability director for the engineering firm David Evans & Associates, Inc, teaching sustainable business and carbon management at the Evergreen State College, and providing strategic sustainability solutions to tribes, universities, and other public and private sector clients. Paul has extensive experience in the areas of climate change, energy efficiency, renewable energy, green building, and sustainable transportation and land-use. He has conducted over 100 trainings and briefings on sustainable resource management and climate change. Paul earned a Certificate in Sustainable Business from the Bainbridge Graduate Institute and is a LEED Accredited Professional.
Jeff Leinaweaver, Associate - Jeff is founder and principal of Global Zen, a sustainability consultancy firm that works from a narrative and intercultural approach to help clients work with the Natural Step framework to build the capacity for strategic innovation and change. Jeff has worked with and advised a diverse line up of organizations, communities and leaders, including The Ocean Conservancy, Institute of Conservation Leadership, World Wildlife Fund, Amazon.com, Eastern Maine Development Corporation, Bainbridge Island Chamber of Commerce and others.
Jeff is also a social researcher and fellow at the Institute of Social Innovation, where he studies topics related to the knowledge management of sustainability, social change and storytelling. Jeff is passionate about helping his clients find new ways to make meaning of their own unique sustainability story.
Jeff has a PhD in human development and organizational systems and is a certified coach and global professional in human resources (GPHR). He is also an adjunct professor at Capella University’s School of Business and Technology. Jeff holds a certificate in Permaculture Design and is an accredited Cognitive Edge professional. As a SCORE Expert, Jeff also partners with Axis Performance Advisors on doing analysis for their industry-leading sustainability assessment tool.
Scott Lewis, Associate - Scott is the founder and CEO of Brightworks, a sustainability consulting firm with offices in Portland, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Brightworks helps organizations succeed by aligning their efforts with core principles of ecological sustainability. This work includes helping organizations develop and implement comprehensive, integrated sustainability plans, and helping developers, designers and owners improve the sustainability of their buildings.
Brightworks clients include Cisco, BP, NBC, Hyundai, Chevron, Yahoo!,Facebook, NOAA, the GSA, the University of California system, and some of the largest REITs and commercial real estate development firms in the United States.
Brightworks is recognized as one of the foremost LEED consulting firms, with over ninety active projects and well over 100 projects certified including the first LEED Platinum highrise building in the world, the first LEED Platinum condominium project in the US and the first LEED Gold US Courthouse. Brightworks has
active or completed projects throughout the US and in Istanbul, Hong Kong,Korea, Colombia and Mexico.
Scott is a past board member of the non-profit Northwest Earth Institute, past president of the Oregon Natural Resources Council (now Oregon Wild), and a current board member of Schnitzer Steel Incorporated, one of the largest scrap metal recycling companies in the U.S. He is also the founding chairman of the Portland Sustainability Institute and a member of Portland Mayor Sam Adams’Sustainability Cabinet.
Lisa MacKinnon, Associate - Lisa derives great satisfaction and energy from working with the diverse and growing group of people who are stepping up to tackle our global sustainability challenge.
She has been involved in various aspects of sustainable community development education, outreach and training for over a decade and is a recognized resource on the eco-municipality model, the Natural Step sustainability framework and sustainable development for communities and organizations in Wisconsin and beyond.
For the past five years, Lisa has served on the City of Madison’s Natural Step Implementation Planning Team, which trains and supports city employees as they incorporate sustainability into city operations, management and policy.
She has designed and delivered numerous presentations and training workshops on the eco-municipality model, the Natural Step (TNS) sustainability framework and sustainable community development in communities, organizations, university classes and conferences in Wisconsin, the U.S. and Europe. Recent engagements include: The Natural Step’s Strategic Sustainability for Leaders workshops in Chicago; Training the Village of Shorewood and the City of Marshfield Departments in the Natural Step; Partnering with The Natural Step-Canada on the Sustainable Twin Ports Early Adopters Initiative (Duluth, MN and Superior, WI); and moderating the first International Eco-Municipality Conference in Helsingborg, Sweden.
She is a co-author of Toward a Sustainable Community: A Toolkit for Local Government, a UW-Extension publication available online at www.shwec.uwm.edu.
Tracy Meisterheim, Associate - Energized by new challenges, Tracy Meisterheim jumped at the opportunity to work with nonprofit organization Sustainable Twin Ports in 2008. She coordinated the Early Adopter Project, an 18-month pilot project to train a cohort of businesses, nonprofits, educational institutions and municipalities in The Natural Step Framework in Duluth, Minnesota and Superior Wisconsin.
Tracy now divides her energy between leading a second round of training with Sustainable Twin Ports and her role as Sustainable Business Outreach Specialist for the University of Wisconsin-Extension. Her own firm, Blue Heron Sustainability Associates, is opening new doors for leading change toward sustainability.
With over 20 years of experience leading and developing environmental and sustainability education programs, Tracy’s team-approach to strategic sustainability planning is interactive and dynamic. She excels at ‘speaking the language of the listener’, building alliances and understanding between Main Street and the environmental community.
Her expertise in environmental science, facilitation, leadership and organizational development arises from an eclectic, 25-year collection of professional adventures including instructing for and directing environmental education centers and nonprofit organizations around the US. Prior to moving to Duluth, Tracy worked with Michigan State University Extension and served as Co-Director/Developer of a nonprofit education center in Michigan focused on sustainable living and environmental stewardship.
Heidi Spinella, Associate - Heidi is founder and principal of Practical PM, a management training and consulting organization. As a consultant, she has more than twenty five years experience in project management, strategic planning and team building, specifically helping organizations enhance communication, increase efficiency and embrace continuous improvement. Her client list includes General Electric, Hewlett Packard, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, New England Medical Center, Northeastern University, Raytheon, UMass Medical School, Unisys and World Bank.
Heidi is currently Adjunct Faculty at ESI International/George Washington University School of Business where she has presented more than 450 management seminars throughout North America and Europe over the last 15 years, with industry experience encompassing engineering, government, finance, health care, high tech, insurance, manufacturing and retail.
Heidi sees strategic sustainability as a way to move towards a prosperous, sustainable future by integrating environmental and social stewardship with economic management best practices. She has been an avid environmentalist for over thirty years, holds a M.S.in Environmental Science Education and is certified as a Project Management Professional by the Project Management Institute.
Jill Sughrue, Associate - Jill is a Pacific Northwest native who first discovered her passion for sustainability after participating in the first of many Northwest Earth Institute (NWEI) discussion courses back in the mid-1990s. Following 27 years in corporate risk management, the last sixteen as the insurance director with Portland General Electric Company, Jill launched Sustain-NW in 2005 to assist both public and private sectors in embracing more sustainable practices through lectures, workshops, benchmarking, and carbon auditing.
In 2007, Jill was chosen as one of the early presenters with The Climate Project and trained by Nobel-laureate Al Gore to share the sobering ramifications of global warming with audiences from 5th graders to senior citizens. Among clients, she was consultant to the City of Vancouver, WA’s task force during development of their municipal sustainability plan, and has been facilitating Earth Advantage Institute’s two-day certification workshop for realtors since it’s inception in 2007. As a public speaker and instructor, Jill immediately establishes rapport with learners of all ages and strives for a truly interactive session.
Jill is a founding member of ISSP (International Society of Sustainability Professionals), and as an associate and active volunteer with NWEI, she assisted in development of their course guides on Climate Change and Sustainable Systems at Work. In 2009, she completed the University of Oregon’s sustainability leadership certificate program, and co-founded a BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies) network in SW Washington.
