NRC Board and Staff

Board Members

Peter Adrian, Recycling Coordinator, Solid Waste Agency of Lake County (IL)

Pete Adrian has been talking trash since 1994 when he was managing a student run recycling program at Northern Illinois University. He has been with SWALCO since 2001, assisting various municipalities and organizations within Lake County to decrease the toxicity and volume of waste disposed in our landfills through the implementation of aggressive recycling and waste diversion initiatives.

Sarah Alessio Shea, Deputy Director Pennsylvania Resources Council (PA) 

Sarah Alessio Shea serves as the Deputy Director at Pennsylvania Resources Council (PRC), a statewide environmental non-profit dedicated to creating a PA where nothing is wasted. During her nearly two decades with PRC she has overseen programs that have diverted more than 15 million pounds from PA landfills. Sarah sits on the Professional Recyclers of Pennsylvania board of directors and is a Certified Professional Recycler of Pennsylvania.

Stephen Bantillo, Executive Director, Recycling Certification Institute (CA) 

Stephen M Bantillo has been involved in the recycling and resource management industry for over four decades. He assisted the Construction and Demolition Recycling Association (CDRA) in developing the National Standard Protocol (CORR) to provide third-party certification of C&D facilities. Subsequently, he launched the Recycling Certification Institute (RCI) where he now serves as its Executive Director in overseeing implementation of the Corr Protocol.

He created the nation’s first program to document and certify C&D material recycling in the late 1990’s for the City of San Jose. While there, he created and managed numerous innovative resource programs on materials management, economic modeling, and the flow of materials and finances.  He is co-founder and past Chair of California Resource Recovery Association’s Construction & Demolition Council, and also served several years as CRRA’s Executive Director.

Governor Schwarzenegger appointed Bantillo in 2007 to oversee California’s beverage container recycling program, which included management of the program’s $1.2 Billion annual budget and oversight of the certification and monitoring of thousands of recyclers.

Mr. Bantillo continues to work with public and private organizations as well as assist the building community applying an emphasis on increasing achievable material recovery performance with effective policy, practice, and regulation. Stephen is now serving his seventh term as a National Recycling Coalition board member, including Vice President, and has been a leader on NRC’s policy issues since 2004.

Keima Borsua, Solid Waste Extension Specialist, Oklahoma State University (OK) 

Teresa Bradley, CEO, Race to Zero Waste (MO)  

Teresa Bradley is CEO and Founder of Race to Zero Waste, an environmental non-profit that focuses on community-centered education. In support of its mission, Race to Zero Waste works to build local, national, and global campaigns through a network of community coalition leaders who are delivering the message of the circular economy through a variety of pop-up events, webinars, and workshops. Teresa is a Missouri native and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Geography and Environmental Studies from the University of Missouri and a Master of Science in Environmental Managment from the University of San Francisco. Teresa has worked in resource recovery for 20 years in both local government and the non-profit sector across the U.S. Additionally, she is the co-founder of CircularSTL, a reuse coalition led by other passionate environmentalists to realize a circular economy for the St. Louis Region. Lastly, she is an adjunct Professor at the University of San Francisco and is a TRUE Advisor. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling for weeks at a time in her RV, hanging out with her daughter Chloe, partner Jeff and cat Luna.

Robert Christian, Regional Sourcing Manager, SMI Inc. (IN)

Jeremy Drake, Principal, Strategy Zero Waste Solutions 

Jeremy Drake is a Zero Waste consultant with over 10 years of experience in community Zero Waste planning, project management, program design and implementation, collection system procurement, stakeholder engagement, technical assistance, and education. He holds a MA in Urban Sustainability from Antioch University Los Angeles and is a Zero Waste USA-certified Zero Waste Associate. After a decade in the nonprofit sector supporting youth musical development and building materials reuse—as well as a brief stint driving a compost collection truck—Jeremy is now principal of Strategy Zero Waste Solutions, a Montana-based firm specializing in optimizing systems to reduce waste.

Colleen Foster, Senior Associate, HF&H Consultants (CA)

Experienced professional with over 20 years in zero waste programming, planning, and policy with a focus on supporting local government in achieving their climate action, waste, recycling, organics, sustainable food systems, and extended producer responsibility goals, funding needs, and regulatory compliance.

Ann Gibbs, Senior Analyst, Skumatz Economic Research Associates (SERA)

Ann manages SERA’s national survey database, database of commercial programs, MRF model, compost facility model, and curbside collection models. She conducts and manages solid waste surveys and has conducted oops tags work and analyses. She has collected data on program design, costs, infrastructure, and diversion on the wide variety of recycling and solid waste programs across the US and Canada. Ms. Gibbs also serves on the board of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of SWANA.

Damany Head, Managing Partner, Essential Recycling 

A Managing Partner in Essential Recycling, where Damany has been expanding recycling in the commercial industry since 2008, he is an engineer by trade and a leader by birth. His natural ability to relate to people, while simultaneously driving concrete results, demonstrates his creative power.

Damany is significantly invested in his community. In 2016, he became the Chair of the Pontiac Regional Chamber of Commerce Board, where he works with civic, governmental, and business leaders to have a voice in the city’s planning initiatives and to enhance the business climate in the city. In the past two years Damany has worked with schools, community partners, and Pontiac Regional Chamber Members to create the Pontiac United Education Coalition (PUEC), a 501c3 non-profit organization, aimed at improving educational outcomes for students in Pontiac, and providing parent support. The PUEC launched Pontiac READS! in 2021, which is a local chapter of the Campaign For Grade Level Reading, aimed at increasing the reading proficiency of children by 3rd grade.

Marta Keane, Will County Green (IL) 

Marta has been involved in the recycling industry since 1988, starting in the private sector but joining the public sector in 1992. She has been the Recycling Coordinator and Environmental Programs Administrator in several municipalities over the years. Currently she is the Will County Recycling Specialist, writing the County Solid Waste Plan, implementing collection programs for a variety of materials and coordinating education through the website, social media and advertising. She has been a member of the Illinois Recycling Association since 1992, serving as a Board Member many times, and is a past-president. She has served on the SWANA Land of Lincoln Board of Directors and as President of the Illinois Recycling Foundation. She is also Chair of the Illinois Product Stewardship Council, a wife and mother of two.

Kristine Kubat, Executive Director, Recycle Hawaii (HI)

Kristine adds to this expertise as someone with direct experience across a broad range of social and political roles, serving as a grassroots organizer, a volunteer, the executive director a legacy recycling organization and as chief aide to a Hawaii state senator. She is eager to continue working with NRC to fulfill its mission and elevate its influence.  

Gary Liss, Principal, Zero Waste Associates (CA)

Lisa McDaniel, Project Manager, SCS Engineers

Lisa McDaniel is a Project Manager in the Overland Park, Kansas, office of SCS Engineers. She has more than 30 years of experience in solid waste management planning, policy development, public education, community engagement, and program management. She has crafted solid waste management plans and led studies to increase diversion through innovative and sustainable approaches. Additionally, she managed a five-county solid waste district in Missouri, which included administering an annual grant program, implementing a household hazardous waste program on a regional scale, spearheading public education campaigns, and coordinating regional planning efforts. She joined the NRC Board in August of 2022 and serves as Secretary.

Gena McKinley, Assistant Director, Austin Resource Recovery, City of Austin (TX) 

Gena McKinley is the Assistant Director for Austin Resource Recovery, the City department charged with the implementation of the City of Austin’s Zero Waste Plan. She has spent nearly 20 years working in the local government. Prior to joining the City of Austin, Gena worked in community and environmental planning at a regional council of government, where she worked on hazard mitigation, natural disaster recovery, nonpoint source pollution and solid waste. Her leadership, commitment and advocacy for zero waste earned national recognition as she was chosen to be included in Waste360s 40 Under 40 list of rising stars in the industry. Gena holds a Masters of Public Health from the University of Texas School of Health and a Bachelor of Arts from Southwestern University in Biology and Sociology. During her academic career, she focused on behavioral science with a focus on the impacts of the built environment on human health. Gena is Congress for the New Urbanism Accredited and a member of several professional organizations. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Texas Land Conservancy and the National Recycling Coalition. Gena lives in Austin with her wife, son and two dogs. They can often be found on a hiking trail or listening to live music. She also spends time serving as a Guardian ad litem for children in the foster care system through CASA of Travis County and helping Health Alliance for Austin Musicians (HAAM) raise money to fund its efforts to provide healthcare for Austin musicians.

Sue Momberger, Impact Entrepreneur, Professional Engineer (NY) 

BioSue graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1984 with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering. She has been a licensed Professional Engineer in NYS since 1991. She worked for 5 years in manufacturing and consulting in the food and chemical industries, followed by a 30-year career in all aspects of solid and hazardous waste management at NYSDEC.

Her NYSDEC experience and accomplishments include policy, guidance, and regulation development and program implementation, oversight, and enforcement in all across the state in all solid and hazardous materials management programs managed by the state.

Upon retiring from NYSDEC in August 2018, Sue is providing various engineering consulting services focused on innovative organics recycling technologies and PFAS mitigation. As an impact entrepreneur, she is also founding her own company to develop innovative, collaborative solutions for generating more and cleaner streams of collected recyclables and reusables, with a prime focus on social, economic, and environmental/climate impacts, to further promote R3 as is a genuine passion and way of life for her.

Sue is a past local chapter president of AIChe and president of her college alumni class. She is Chair for the Training Committee for the SMM Tech Division of SWANA; and is beginning her third term as an at-large member of the NYSAR3 board. She is also the founder and chair of NYSAR3’s Reuse and Governance Committees and active member of the W4R and Conference Planning committees and was a founding member of the membership and DEI committee.

She also plans industry conference sessions, and moderates or speaks on areas of expertise at various industry conferences in the northeast.

She’s happy to be able to pursue her passion for protecting the environment while also being able to enjoy a semi-retirement which allows her to see the practices around the world as an avid traveler who loves to meet new people and immerse in new cultures.

Marialyce Pedersen, Board Member, TRUE Advisor (CA)

Marialyce Pedersen is a professional writer, sustainable materials management professional and certified TRUE Advisor, supporting waste prevention, reuse, composting, responsible plastics use and ocean and climate protection. She served as NRC Board Secretary from 2019-2022, and was re-elected to a second term on the NRC Board of Directors in 2022, and will continue to volunteer on the Communications, Legislative and Membership committees. She also serves on the GBCI TRUE Advisory Council and helped to develop the TRUE Advisor course and exam in 2017. Marialyce was a senior environmental policy analyst for Disney for 16 years; worked in recycling for local government; and developed curriculum and taught a Zero Waste in Business course for community college students in 2012-2013. Marialyce can often be found outdoors – hiking, walking, e-biking, swimming and exploring and traveling the world, or at her home in So Cal, gardening, entertaining cats and working on green remodeling projects.

Marianela Perez, Owner, SUSPEC Solutions (PR) 

Marianela Perez is a skilled professional over 10+ years in sustainable recycling & circular economy, currently serving on the Board of Directors of Coalición de Reciclaje de PuertoRico(CORE). She advocates for innovative recycling initiatives and community education, coordinating events to raise awareness and encourage local and national community engagement. She takes a proactive approach to educating diverse stakeholders and is committed to enhancing compliance with legal and regulatory frameworks regarding with recycling management across communities, public and private sectors.

Tony Rios, Executive Director, Coalicion Reciclaje de Puerto Rico (PR) 

Martie Solomon, Recycling Specialist II, City of Chula Vista (CA) 

I have 30 years in the waste management industry. Seven years working for a hauler and twenty-three years with the City of Chula Vista’s Environmental Services Division. I have associate degrees in environmental safety and environmental management. I assisted with the implementation of the City’s PAYT program in 2002 and managed Chula Vista’s Multi-Family conversion to single stream in 2006-2007.

 Staff

Charles Kamenides, Executive Director, NRC  [email protected]

Charles has been an active Board of Director and Vice President at NRC for the past several years and is involved in many facets of the organizations business management and committees including; administration, finance, fund development, membership. He is also the Chair of the past two Recycling Congress’, bringing this great event back for our membership. Charles brings over 20 years of professional solid waste management to the NRC focused in waste, recycling and organics operations, business management, program and policy development. His experience in the municipal sector gives him a unique perspective of both government processes and goals as well as field operations, private sector waste and recycling companies and customer service/ outreach and education objectives. His accomplishments include achieving high diversion goals, creating municipal resolutions, developing PAYT rate structures, every-other-week trash collection programs, curbside organics programs, community recycling centers, and working with city councils, state recycling organizations, local recycling organizations, regional boards and commissions. Taking resource management one step further, Charles was instrumental in the design and construction of a Renewable Natural Gas fueling system, in which methane gas from the city’s wastewater treatment plant is captured and made into fuel for the solid waste collection vehicles. This system reduces the reliance and costs associated with carbon fuels and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Charles is based in beautiful Colorado and has been married 32 years, has two children and their dog, Korra. His interests include music, cycling and travel.

Ama Luna, Intern, UC San Diego