List any previous leadership positions held with the National Recycling Coalition or state recycling organizations and describe what you accomplished in those positions.

-Executive Board, National Recycling Coalition (2004-2007)
Led development of NRC strategic plan, helped to facilitate integration of America Recycles Day into NRC, expanded NRC support for RecycleMania, hosted successful NRC Congress in Atlanta, expanded NRC’s sponsorship base to strengthen organization financial standing.

-Board, Georgia Recycling Coalition (1998 – 2004)
Guided GRC’s strategic planning process, helped expand membership and recently played central role in finalizing affiliation agreement with NRC.

If you currently serve in a volunteer leadership position with another organization, please explain your role and accomplishments.

-Chair, Beverage Packaging Environment Council (BPEC): Co-founded and continue to Chair industry leadership organization focused on increasing beverage recycling. Working in partnership with NRC, BPEC has funded cutting edge research to better understand beverage container recycling opportunities and hired staff to help advance strategic programs based on research findings.

-Board, Atlanta Recycles: Co-founded and Chaired leadership organization focused on increasing recycling in Atlanta. Atlanta Recycles has helped rehire a City recycling coordinator and has advanced household and commercial recycling initiatives.

-Executive Board, Piedmont Park Conservancy: Member of executive team working with City of Atlanta for the preservation of historic Piedmont Park. Conservancy has raised and invested more than $20 million in private funds to transform the 185-acre park into the most visited green space in the City.

What special abilities would you bring to NRC’s leadership?

I have been working in the field of sustainable material management for over a decade. For ten years I have worked on this issue from a corporate perspective and before that I worked on the issue as a consultant for the Federal government. I have worked on this issue in domestic markets and international markets. I have also worked closely with a vast range of commodity partners in the metals, plastics, glass, and fiber industries. This broad background enables me to understand and effectively represent the needs of a large number of members around the NRC table. Importantly, it also provides me with the skills for helping NRC build the strong relationships required for meaningfully enhancing recycling in this country.

What do you think are the most important recycling issues facing the NRC or recycling on the national level?

-Communicating the benefits of recycling and the role it plays in reducing energy and greenhouse gas emissions
-Focusing on the need for full-cost pricing of municipal waste management.
-Defining shared responsibility for the economic/environmental life cycle impacts of nondurable packages and products
-Promoting effective municipal composting systems for organics
-Harmonizing resource management performance metrics at the community, state and national level

What steps should the NRC take to strengthen its role and relationships with our affiliated state organizations?

There are four key steps that NRC should take for enhancing this critical relationship:

-Clear Leadership Platform: The biggest disconnect for NRC is that it hasn’t clearly articulated a leadership platform that state organizations can align against. Recycling needs a national voice and NRC should fill this void by building a national platform based on the common interests of its members.

-Value-Added Tools/Resources: NRC should provide tools and resources that are aligned to its leadership platform and that provide added value to its affiliates.

-Enhanced Communications: NRC should clearly communicate progress against its platform to members and serve as a catalyst for constructive dialogue by convening regional and national meetings that bring members together.

-Aligned National Partnerships: NRC should foster the development of stakeholder partnerships that are aligned to its platform and look for strategic opportunities to activate these partnerships in affiliated states as appropriate.

What individual or group in the field of recycling has had the most influence on you?

I have been the most influenced by the work of Coca-Cola’s Global CyclePET (bottle-to-bottle PET plastic recycling) Team. This team has advanced the development of innovative plastic recycling technologies, worked with governments around the world to secure regulatory approval for recycling plastic into food-grade containers and has made significant investments to build plastic recycling plants in the US, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Europe.

How would you “sell” the importance of an NRC membership to a person who is unfamiliar with the NRC?

NRC is the largest and most influential national organization focused exclusively on increasing the collection and reuse of multi-materials in the US.

How is the work you do as a professional compatible with NRC’s mission?

As the Director of Sustainable Packaging at The Coca-Cola Company, my job is to help the company realize its vision of a world in which packaging is no longer seen as waste but as a valuable resource for future use. Recycling is one of the most important vehicles for helping us achieve and sustain this vision, particularly when one considers that Coca-Cola’s primary packaging stream is 30% recyclable aluminum cans, 30% recyclable PET plastic bottles and 30% reusable or recyclable bulk fountain packaging in the US.

The NRC Board of Directors is comprised of individuals with a concern for the common good of the Coalition. Discuss how you would help the Board reach consensus among a group of peers with varied interests and/or positions on a specific issue.

The organization needs to spend more time first focusing on the items members all agree on and are aligned to NRC’s strategic platform. I think we may be surprised by how much the membership already has consensus around. At the same time, the organization does need to clearly identify those areas where we do not have agreement and, assuming this lack of consensus is a barrier to progress, create collaborative working groups to see if these barriers can be overcome. If an important issue can not be resolved after a collaborative working process the membership needs to decide whether the issue should be tabled or voted on and decided by a majority of members. It is important to note that if the organization wants to lead it will inevitably face difficult moments where an issue is faced that is not endorsed by all.

What would be your personal goals as a member of the NRC Board of Directors?

-Drive dialogue on value chain responsibility for waste impacts
-Build stronger technical forums within NRC
-Focus on the Congress as a premier national/international event