Recap of 2019
It’s been a wonderful year full of exciting, challenging, and educational events here at AEE CRC. With the turn of the new year, we would like to take the time to recognize a few individuals who have been particularly crucial in making this year a success:
- Lonny Peet – Lonny has served as president of our AEE CRC board for over three years. He has been instrumental in maintaining the success of our chapter during these years and has done an exceptional job leading the organization. Loni has stepped down as president this year. We are now lucky to have Elin Shepard leading our chapter into 2020.
- Tina Schnell – Tina organized the CEM training this year. This was a big challenge to undertake, and Tina worked hard to make it a success. If you were lucky to have attended this event, you have Tina to thank for the accommodations, venue, and instructor’s attendance. As a member of the 2019 board, Tina kindly stepped down in order to allow the additional vacancy required for new candidates who’ve expressed interest in joining our board for 2020.
- AEE CRC Members – Thank you to the many AEE CRC members who helped out with and attended the many Energy Engineering Forums, Building Tours, CEM training, and celebrations we held in 2019.
New Board Members of 2020
There has been a lot of interest in participating as a member of our local chapter’s board. We are happy to announce the addition of several new members of our AEE CRC board.
We’d like to introduce the following four new members of our chapter’s board, all of which are excited to bring unique contributions to the successful operation of our chapter in the coming year!
Gertrude Villaverde, Energy Engineer, Energy 350 and past Student Chapter President at OSU Cascades
My name is Gertrude Villaverde and I am an energy engineer at Energy 350. I graduated with an Honors Baccalaureate in Energy Systems Engineering from Oregon State University – Cascades this last March and started working for Energy 350 in April.
I have been an active AEE member since 2015 and for three of the past four years, I have served on the board of the AEE Cascades Student Chapter, a recognized student organization at the Oregon State University – Cascades campus in Bend, OR. In my time as treasurer, 2016-2017, I worked to increase the chapter’s budget and successfully doubled it for the following year. This was with the intention of maintaining a position on the board and with the goal of expanding services to our members. I served my first term as president in 2017-2018, during which our chapter activities doubled to include not just quarterly guest speakers, but site visits each quarter as well. In my second term as president, 2018-2019, our chapter activities grew to incorporate workshops and collaboration with other student groups, while still hosting quarterly guest speakers and site visits.
Although the number of our chapter activities continued to grow, it was important to the board to reserve enough budget to support up to ten students to go to the AEE West, formerly EMC, conference, which we deemed the most important chapter activity of the year. There is no substitute for in-person networking and this trip served as a relief for the isolation the student members felt, being so far away from everyone else in the energy industry. I hope to share my experience as a former Cascades Student Chapter board member to work with the Columbia River Chapter and not only contribute to its current agenda, but to continue my mission to bridge the gap of isolation for members not in the immediate Portland area.
Gerard O’Sullivan, Sr Engineer, AESC
I am honored to be considered for a board seat! Honestly, my reasoning for wanting to join is because this group you have assembled are some of my favorite people in our industry.
Personally, I am looking to strengthen my outreach to our local community and the energy landscape we find ourselves in here in the pacific NW. AEE is core to what I do on a daily basis as a Senior Engineer at AESC, where I help lead up our SEM delivery and technical analysis studies. I also just took on a role with GridFWD, a non-profit helping to advance grid modernization in the PNW where I will be the strategic initiative & content lead, helping guide development of content for GridFWD activities, specifically the Utility Roundtable ‘Forward Focus’ workshop initiative. Other basic background info, I am a CEM and CBCP through AEE.
My interests with the group are not yet defined. If I was going to pick from the options you outlined, I would think I would have the most interest in events & training as this aligns with the work I already perform.
Thanks again for your consideration and happy holidays!
Candice Norton, Energy Engineer II, Wildan
My name is Candice Norton, I work for the WilldanPerformance Engineering office located in Beaverton. I’ve been in the energy efficiency field for over six years now. Istarted at Willdan Energy Solutions as an intern during my senior year of college. Once I graduated from Cal Poly in Mechanical Engineering Technology, I supported Willdan with energy audits and utility incentive applications. Over the last two and a half years I’ve moved within the company to support the Willdan Performance Engineering office in Beaverton Oregon with performance contracting/turn-key projects.
I’d like to be a board member for AEE CRC because over the last two years this chapter has been the group I’ve enjoyedbeing involved with the most, and I’d like to support the Chapter further. I’d also enjoy having an opportunity to voteon what subjects that are selected for AEE trainings and forums that support the local energy community. I especially enjoyed attending this year’s Certified Energy Manager (CEM) training.
If you select me for this board position, I will eagerly support the Columbia River Chapter in any way I can. I am especially fond of organizing and think that I would really enjoy organizing an event. Thank you for your time and consideration!
Tom Prevish, President, NWESI
My name is Tom Prevish, and I have been a member of AEE since obtaining my CEM in 2018. There are a lot of organizations vying for people’s time these days, but it was clear to me, early on, that the Columbia River Chapter of AEE has a good mixture of professional continuing education and camaraderie, with a well-established backbone necessary to ensure members are challenged to participate, without fear of being overwhelmed by more than they can handle as volunteers. AEE’s mission is one to take pride in, as everyone agrees on the importance of energy in our daily lives. I believe my experiences in leadership, and commitment to follow-up on what I say I will do, will help the Board accomplish events or activities that they’d like to add, providing even more value to attendees and therefore increasing membership. Specifically, I would like to get involved in marketing (is an engineer allowed to admit that?!), as well helping plan new events (perhaps regional ones, with other chapters?) and trainings.
I am a mechanical engineer, with a background in thermal fluids and combustion, have worked on distributed energy generation products for 17 years, and for the last several years, have worked in the building industry, for a company that does Commissioning, Testing, Adjusting, and Balancing, Building Envelope Testing, and other services.
Thank you for your consideration.
Tina Schnell, Candice Norton and Eric
