Rachel Taplinger

Head of Sustainability, Maybelline New York at L’Oréal

Rachel is an experienced sustainability expert with a demonstrated history in the consumer goods sector. She is currently Head of Sustainability for the Maybelline New York brand at L’Oréal. Prior to L’Oréal, she developed foundational sustainability programs at Nike, Revlon, and The Estée Lauder Companies (ELC), working across supply chain, packaging, operations, and marketing, among other functions.

Rachel has her MBA in sustainability and strategy from the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University and a Bachelors in Psychology and Communications from Tufts University.

Tiya Gordon

Founder, itsElectric

Tiya holds 20 years of experience in design, leadership, and operations across a range of disciplines for some of the country’s top firms and institutions. She is now venturing to spend the next 20 years on projects that use design to wage war against the Climate Crisis. Tiya’s work has received the industry’s top accolades, including The National Design Award from the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum; the SXSW Innovation Award for Urban Infrastructure; the Inaugural Cannes Gold Lion for Creative Data; the Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at the Cannes Film Festival; the designation of second most innovative design firm in the world; and the Sustainability winner of the 2023 Innovation by Design Award by Fast Company.

Stephanie Stahl

Senior Advisor, Boston Consulting Group

Stephanie is a consumer-driven and sustainability-focused business leader, brand builder, board member, and advisor with extensive marketing and strategy experience in high growth, turnaround, and early-stage operating environments.

Stephanie is an active public and private company board director and was formerly Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer at both Coach, Inc. and Revlon, Inc., and a partner at Boston Consulting Group. She is the Co-Founder and former CEO of Ace of Air – a B Corp Certified circular beauty and wellness brand.

Stephanie serves on three public company boards: Dollar Tree, Inc., where she chairs the Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility Committee; Carter’s, Inc.; and Newell Brands, Inc. She previously served on the boards of Knoll, Inc., where she chaired the Nominating, Governance & ESG Committee, and Founders Table, an L Catterton portfolio company. Stephanie also serves on the board of Kibo, a Vista Equity portfolio company. She is an early-stage venture advisor and angel investor through her company, Studio Pegasus LLC, and serves as a Senior Advisor to BCG. Stephanie, as CEO of Ace of Air, led the creation, development, and launch of this zero-waste DTC skincare and nutritional supplements business.

Stephanie holds a bachelor’s degree in quantitative economics from Stanford University and a master’s degree, with distinction, from the Harvard Business School. She is currently pursuing a master’s in sustainability at Harvard.

Lisa Chamberlain

Communications Lead and an urban strategist at the Centre for Urban Transformation, an initiative of the World Economic Forum

Lisa is the Communications Lead and an urban strategist at the Centre for Urban Transformation, an initiative of the World Economic Forum. Prior to joining the Forum, Lisa reported on commercial real estate for The New York Times, was the Executive Director of the Forum for Urban Design, and a consultant to architecture, planning and economic development firms in New York City. She has a BA from the University of California Davis in international relations, and an MS in journalism from Columbia University, where she also studied urban planning.

Angela Oberg

Chief Climate Officer, Senior Director of Climate Action and Sustainability at Rutgers University

Angela is the Senior Director for the Office of Climate Action. Previously, she was an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Human Ecology at Rutgers University. As an urban environmental planner, her work aims to make cities more livable and sustainable. Oberg’s work investigates how the everyday lives of urban residents shape and are shaped by urban political ecologies. In particular, she studies the urban political ecology of sewage.

Before coming to academia, Oberg practiced professionally as an environmental planner in California, Texas, and Pennsylvania on projects in the United States, Italy, the United Arab Emirates, and Sudan. She holds a Ph.D. in planning and public policy from the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers and a Master of Landscape Architecture from Cal Poly Pomona.

Krystal Persaud

Designer and Climate Entrepreneur Featured on Sharktank

Krystal is a product design executive and startup veteran with over 10 years of experience launching consumer tech products. She is passionate about using toy and game design principles to highlight important issues. As Senior Director of Product Design at littleBits, she democratized invention and coding for kids. As Founder of Grouphug and Wildgrid, she lowered the barrier to adopting climate technologies like solar. She’s appeared on ABC’s Shark Tank where she won an investment from Mark Cuban. She’s an adjunct instructor of interaction design at NJIT, SVA, and Parsons. She graduated from Georgia Tech with a B.S. in Industrial Design.

Kirpa Grewal

Climate Advocate & Youth Ocean Leader Advancing SDG 14 | WCS Board Member

Kirpa is a dedicated environmentalist and sustainability advocate with a rich background in environmental science and humanitarian work. Her career encompasses significant roles, including Co-Chair of the Volunteerism Committee and Executive Committee member of the WCS Board of Directors. As an expert in natural resource management and climate science, Kirpa has led numerous initiatives to protect vital ecosystems and promote global environmental change. She actively contributes to fundraising and finance efforts at MOBY, a social enterprise, and serves as a Youth Ocean Leader with the Sustainable Ocean Alliance (SOA) and a Hero Guide within the Viriverse. Kirpa’s influence spans various sectors, and her commitment to sustainability drives her ongoing efforts to foster meaningful connections and inspire collective action for a more sustainable future.

Emily Porro

Senior Vice President and Co-Lead of the Bliss Group’s Impact practice

Emily brings proven PR experience and passion for supporting organizations dedicated to positive social and environmental change to her role as Co-Lead of the Women in CleanTech and Sustainability New York City chapter. A seasoned communications strategist, Emily has worked with clients at every stage of the corporate life cycle — from sustainable and climate startups to iconic global brands. Emily has held senior-level leadership positions at some of the most respected PR and communications firms in the world. In more than 20 years as a PR professional, she has led programs that have defined industries, shaped messaging, educated audiences, and moved the needle for numerous companies and causes.  Emily serves as a U.S. advisor on the UNDP’s Climate Communications Task Force. She is a mentor to emerging climate technology startups through the NASDAQ Entrepreneur Center’s Mentor Makers, a mentor-matching platform. Further, Emily is a recognized thought leader in public relations, with work frequently published in publications such as Forbes and PRNEWS.