Board of Directors

Meet Our Team

JENN BALLEN

Co-Founder & Board President

Senior Consultant at Deloitte Consulting working at the intersection of technology and sustainability. Social Impact Fellowship working with The Monitor Institute. MBA 2017 MIT Sloan with Sustainability Certificate, B.A. from Tufts University in Economics, Entrepreneurship, and French. Co-Founder of BITL.

HANSON GONG

Co-Founder

CAROLINE LEWIS

The CLEO Institute

Executive Director of The CLEO Institute and Director of the new Cushman High School in Miami, FL. More than 30 years of experience as an educator and climate hawk in South Florida. Sits on several boards for education and climate leadership. Recipient of 2013 White House Climate Resilience Champions of Change. Founder of Global Fairchild Challenge. Nurtured and acted as a generous fiscal sponsor for BITL’s development in Miami.

AJANI STEWART

City of Miami Office of Resilience and Sustainability

Resilience Manager for the City of Miami Office of Resilience and Sustainability – developing policy and implementing initiatives to increase Miami’s resilience to many challenges including sea level rise. Over 16 years of experience in the private sector and local/state government managing a variety of environmental and sustainability initiatives. Founder of Resilient Caribbean – a collective of multi-disciplinary practitioners from the N. American Caribbean Diaspora dedicated to reinvesting expertise into climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction initiatives for the region. Sits on several advisory boards focused on climate vulnerability and sustainability. MBA in Environmental Management from Florida Atlantic University, B.S. in Environmental Studies from Florida International University.

DR. PANDWE GIBSON

President & Founder of EcoTech Visions

President and Founder of EcoTech Visions maker & incubator guiding entrepreneurs to grow green manufacturing in Miami. Member of the Board of Directors for USGBC South Florida and Miami Foundation. Maven of scaling enterprises, scaled Charter Management School Systems from one location to 20 locations and has led and grown more than 20 businesses. Holds many degrees - Bachelor of Arts from Scripps College, Master of Arts in Teaching and Learning from Claremont Graduate University, Master in Leadership from Harvard Graduate School, MBA from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and PhD from Claremont Graduate University.

PHILIP STODDARD, PH.D.

Mayor of South Miami

Mayor Philip Stoddard was first elected to office in 2010 and is currently serving his fourth term as Mayor. In 2015, Mayor Stoddard was appointed by the White House to the Governance Coordinating Committee of the National Ocean Council where he developed national policy for sea level rise. In 2016 Mayor Stoddard was named by Politico Magazine to the Politico-50 “guide to the thinkers, doers and visionaries transforming American politics in 2016”. He was named the Green Municipal Official for 2016 by the Florida Green Building Coalition. Miami New Times named Mayor Stoddard the “Best Politician of 2017". Dr. Philip K. Stoddard has been a professor of biology at Florida International University since 1992. A big proponent of renewable energy, his house and car are powered by the sun. Mayor Stoddard has been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Time, National Geographic, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, Stern, The Bond Buyer, NPR, PRI, BBC, MSNBC, and numerous documentaries including National Geographic’s "Years of Living Dangerously" which showed in 171 countries in 47 languages, and Discovery Channel’s “MOSQUITO” which showed in 189 countries.

ASHLEY HEACOCK

Founder and Creator of Purpose Lab & Hacking Our Digital Age

Founder and Creator of Purpose Lab (helping people discover and fulfill their purpose) and Hacking Our Digital Age (increasing awareness around technological challenges facing society). Research at MIT on automation, job loss, and identity, and on systems and sustainability. Mindfulness meditation teacher and leadership coach at Harvard. Founder and advisor of various startups. Previous work in the Middle East and West and North Africa on conflict resolution and economic development, and experience managing political campaigns in South Dakota. MBA 2017 from MIT Sloan School of Management, MPA 2017 from Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and B.A. 2010 from The George Washington University in Economics and International Affairs.

NICK MEYER

Entrepreneur-in-Residence

Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship. Spent his career founding startups and leading product or engineering for software companies in industries as diverse as social, video, travel, music, and gaming. While still in high school Nick co-founded the MMOG (multi-player massive online game) Kings of Chaos, which saw hundreds of thousands of players daily. During his one year at MIT, Nick founded Reble.FM, a peer-to-peer streaming music service that was partially funded through Y Combinator and was acquired by Playlist.com three years later. He then co-founded MileWise in 2009, a travel metasearch engine, where his roles included UI design, PR and marketing, and fundraising, until the company was acquired by Yahoo! in 2013. His most recent company was Sup, a mobile video app that was funded by Khosla Ventures. Nick is an IASI certified ski instructor and coach and a PADI certified scuba instructor.

ALEX BOZMOSKI

Managing Director of republicEn.org

Alex started the Energy and Enterprise Initiative at George Mason University with former U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC) in 2012. The project grew into republicEn.org, a community of EcoRight conservatives and libertarians advancing climate action rooted in free enterprise. He has been involved in the conservative movement and various campaigns since he was a teenager. Prior to republicEn, Alex developed rural-energy projects in East Africa. He consulted for think tanks and authored peer-reviewed articles on carbon-market design and risk. Alex supported World Bank technical assistance by designing and facilitating e-learning courses on environmental economics used by thousands of government officials and energy practitioners in developing countries. He holds degrees from Georgetown University and the University of Oxford. Alex grew up in Wisconsin and lives in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife, María Fernanda, and baby daughter, Penelope.