Adam Chapdelaine

Executive Director and CEO, Massachusetts Municipal Association

Adam Chapdelaine became the Massachusetts Municipal Association’s executive director and CEO on Sept. 9, 2023. Chapdelaine had been engaged with the MMA’s work for more than a decade, having served on the MMA Fiscal Policy Committee and the MMA Board of Directors, as president of the Massachusetts Municipal Management Association in 2018, and as MMA president in 2021. He also served as co-chair of the MMA’s DEI Advisory Committee. A Fall River native, Chapdelaine earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from UMass Dartmouth, and spent more than five years working for then Senator Joan Menard, starting in 2002.

After leaving the State House, Chapdelaine worked as Fall River’s elections director, community services director, and finally city administrator. Starting in 2010, he served two years as Arlington’s deputy town manager before becoming town manager. Chapdelaine has served as president of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council and on the Metro Mayors’ Coalition, the Commonwealth’s Group Insurance Commission, and the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission. Throughout his career, Adam has had a passion for sustainability and climate action. In every role he has served, he was worked to advance organizational focus on issues related to both climate mitigation and adaptation.

Barry Reaves

Vice President, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice & Workforce Development, Northeast Clean Energy Council

Serving as Northeast Clean Energy Council’s first Vice President for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice & Workforce Development, Barry leads the organization’s efforts to ensure that the elements of DEIJ are embedded as imperatives in NECECs mission, vision, values, and strategic plan. Barry is a seasoned diversity practitioner with more than 18 years of experience. In his development and oversight role with the Boston Planning and Development Agency, he was charged with leading the organization’s racial, equity, and diversity priorities while working to establish collaborative partnerships with multiple stakeholders. Barry is a graduate of the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute (DEOMI), which is the premiere Department of Defense school in Diversity, Inclusion, Equal Opportunity, and Equal Employment, focused on training, education, and research. He also previously managed the Discrimination Complaints Program for the United States Naval Air Systems Command. He is a veteran of the U.S. Army, serving on active duty for 18 years.

Lindi von Mutius

Director, Salata Institute Climate Action Accelerator

Lindi von Mutius is the inaugural Director of the Salata Institute Climate Action Accelerator. Lindi most recently served as the Director of the Sustainability and Global Development Practice graduate programs at the Harvard University Division of Continuing Education (DCE). During her time at DCE, she expanded the curriculum, nearly doubling course offerings in environmental justice, policy, economics, climate mitigation and adaptation, and core graduate research skills. She also worked with the Standing Committee on Climate Education to envision the future of climate education across Harvard’s schools and prioritize ways to improve climate education at the university in the short run.

She has held senior leadership roles at the Trust for Public Land (TPL), the Sierra Club, and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). As a member of TPL’s Executive Leadership Team, Lindi served as a strategic advisor to the CEO, Chair of the Board of Directors, and colleagues managing the Black History and Culture Sites, Health, and Equity programs. As Chief of Staff of the Sierra Club, she led a range of cross-departmental operations, including chapter-specific climate activism and environmental justice programs.

Prior to her work in the non-profit sector, Lindi practiced environmental, corporate, and bankruptcy law, and she worked with the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action on expanding renewable energy tax credits for corporations. Her professional passions are environmental justice, toxics litigation, and increasing equitable access to the outdoors. Lindi has spent most of her career broadening environmentalism’s tent to include voices from the grassroots, grasstops, academics, practitioners, and both sides of the political spectrum in service of climate action.

Taj Schottland

Associate Climate Director, Trust for Public Land

Taj Schottland is a seasoned professional with over 13 years of experience working in the fields of climate adaptation and mitigation, natural resource management, and community resilience. He currently serves as the Associate Climate Director for the Trust for Public Land (TPL). In this role he helps spearhead the organization’s climate strategy, implementing nature-based climate solutions to enhance community resilience and curtail carbon emissions. Taj also oversees TPL’s Climate Smart Cities Program, stewarding a network of place-based partnerships addressing the climate crisis through a unique approach to people and data-driven planning.

Before joining TPL, Taj worked for the National Wildlife Federation where he managed coastal resilience projects that took a holistic and integrated approach to safeguarding human communities, habitats, and wildlife from climate-driven hazards.

Taj Schottland holds a Bachelor of Arts in human ecology from College of the Atlantic where his studies focused on understanding and addressing the complex interactions between human societies and the environment.

Lindsay Woodson

Program Manager, City Support, Bloomberg Center for Cities

Lindsay T. Woodson, AICP, is a program manager for city support at the Bloomberg Center for Cities. She contributes to a variety of programming that supports mayors and city leaders driving meaningful change in their city halls and for their residents. In her previous role with the Innovation Field Lab—New York program at the Ash Center, she provided research-based support and advisory facilitation to ten participating cities, coordinated the program’s student research assistantships, and managed administrative requirements. She is inspired by work that requires participation from dynamic stakeholder groups, addresses complex urban challenges, and builds strategies that foster innovation in governance to deliver positive social outcomes.

Woodson came to Ash from a small international planning and design firm where she supported multi-scaled projects across New York City and the Philippines. Woodson has also spent time in different levels of government, including federal and state, supporting her belief that designers should have a seat at the policy table. Woodson completed a dual degree, a Master of Design in risk & resilience and Master of Urban Planning at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and earned a Bachelor of Architecture and minor in geography from Syracuse University. She is a certified urban planner with particular expertise in neighborhood planning.

In her role as the co-representative of the Staff Identity group, Woodson was also a member of the Ash Center’s inaugural Steering Committee, established to support leadership in advancing center-wide diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.

Kimberlyn Leary

Senior Fellow, Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University

Kimberlyn Leary, Ph.D., MPA is a senior fellow at the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University, an associate professor of psychology at the Harvard Medical School, and an associate professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

She served as an adviser to the Obama White House from 2014–2016, working with the White House Council on Women and Girls to develop the Advancing Equity initiative, which focused on improving life outcomes for women and girls of color. Most recently, she served as a senior policy advisor in the Biden White House to the Domestic Policy Council and as a senior equity fellow with the Office of Management and Budget, helping in both roles to implement the President’s executive order on equity. She is also a senior vice president at the Urban Institute. Dr. Leary has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Michigan, an M.P.A. from the Harvard Kennedy School, and an A.B. from Amherst College.

Kevin Knobloch

President and CEO of Greentown Labs

Most recently, Kevin Knobloch was President of Knobloch Energy, an independent advisory and consulting firm providing strategic and tactical guidance to mission-driven companies, agencies, and nonprofit organizations to accelerate the deployment of clean energy and technology. In that capacity, he served as Acting Executive Director of the National Offshore Wind Research & Development Consortium for seven months, from June through December 2022.

Previously, Knobloch was President of New York OceanGrid LLC, where he led Anbaric’s efforts to develop offshore wind transmission in New York from 2018 to 2020. Prior to that, Knobloch was a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy (CIERP) at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, where he co-authored, with Professor Bobbi Kates-Garnick, the report Clean Energy Policy and Expanding Markets: Insights from Corporate, Labor and Investor Leaders.

Knobloch was Chief of Staff of the U.S. Department of Energy in President Obama’s second term, working with Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz from June 2013 through January 2017. He was President of the Union of Concerned Scientists for ten years. Earlier in his career, he served as Legislative Director for U.S. Senator Timothy Wirth of Colorado, Legislative Assistant for U.S. Representative Ted Weiss of New York, and Director of Conservation Programs at the Appalachian Mountain Club. He began his career as a newspaper journalist for two Massachusetts newspapers.

He serves on the Board of Directors of the Northeast Clean Energy Council and National Offshore Wind Research & Development Consortium and on the Advisory Board of the Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center at Stony Brook University. He is a Distinguished Associate at the Energy Futures Initiative. He holds a Master in Public Administration degree from the Harvard Kennedy School with a focus on natural resource economics, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.