Staff

Chris Collins – Executive Director

A graduate of Holy Cross College and Albany Law School, Chris worked for 20 years as a litigator in both New York and California. He specialized in complex commercial litigation, environmental litigation, civil rights, securities, elder abuse and many other areas of the law. After leaving the law in 1999, Chris worked as a Director at Oracle Corp. and as a Director of Risk Management at Sapient. Born and raised in the NYC area, Chris moved to San Francisco in 1988 and returned to New York in 2004 to take the position of Executive Director at Solar One.

Chris has had a long history of working with non-profit organizations. He was a founder of New York City’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Community Services Center and the Callan-Lourde Health Clinic. He served as Co-chair of the LGBT Center between 1985 and 1989. He was also a member of the Board of Directors of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force between 1991 and 1996 and served as Board Co-chair between 1994 and 1996.

Jamie Paquette – Operations Manager

Jamie studied geography at James Madison University and has been involved with the Solar One project since 2001 in various capacities. He started helping get the project off the ground by writing grants, reports and letters, creating marketing materials and working on a fledgling newsletter. Things have grown quite a bit since then, from the opening of the Solar 1 building in 2003 through the creation and expansion of Solar One’s unique set of programs. During that time, Jamie has been involved in many aspects of the organization from technology to fundraising to event planning to Solar 2. He now oversees much of the day-to-day operations of Solar One.

Fun Facts: Jamie has lived in Brooklyn for 8 years where he is a two-time Bocce league champion. His photo of a CSO at Stuyvesant Cove has become the Zapruder film of NYC water quality, appearing here and here, on the cover of a recent issue of City Limits Investigates, and elsewhere. Ask him about his near-death experience with a biodiesel generator.

Chris Neidl – Outreach and Advocacy Coordinator

Since initially gaining interest in renewable energy as a geography student at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Chris has steadily increased his knowledge of and commitment to the subject through a number of volunteer and professional experiences. Before joining the Solar One Staff in March of 2005, Chris worked at the Solar Living Institute in California as an outreach intern, while receiving a hands-on education in photovoltaic installation.

Originally from upstate New York, Chris has lived in Brooklyn for the better part of the last 5 years.

Chris is currently pursuing his MA at New York University’s Gallatin School.

Daisy Hoyt – Park Manager of Stuyvesant Cove Park

Daisy Hoyt is from a small town upstate, where she grew up running around in the woods and playing with plants, which is much the same as what she does now as Park Manager.  She graduated in 2005 from Clark University where she studied Studio Art and History.  Since then, she has worked in both horticulture and the Arts.  Her horticulture experience includes work at The New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, and in various capacities in the New York City area, including at Stuyvesant Cove Park prior to becoming Park Manager.  Her experience in the arts includes working for Jenny Marketou and the Bruce High Quality Foundation.  Daisy thinks Stuyvesant Cove Park is the best little park around, and is excited to oversee its success as a community resource and an educational asset to Solar One.

Daisy’s other interests include riding her bike everywhere, drawing, traveling, and taking classes at Brooklyn College and the Brooklyn Botanical Garden.

Tamar Rogoff – Arts Coordinator and Artistic Director

Tamar has curated hundreds of arts events throughout Stuyvesant Cove Park for Solar One, including helping to launch the inaugural season of the Solar-Powered Dance Festival in Summer 2005. As an artist, Tamar’s approach to performance ranges in style from site-specific, community- based work to film and more traditional dance theater. She is a four-time recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, and has been generously funded and commissioned by Dancing in the Streets, Association of Performing Arts Presenters, Rockefeller MAP Grant, the Trust for Mutual Understanding, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Harkness Foundation, and New York Theater Workshop’s Suitcase Fund.

Tamar also teaches at P.S. 122 and NYU’s Experimental Theater Wing, and has worked twenty years teaching arts workshops for Hospital Audiences Inc.

Sarah Pidgeon – Education Coordinator

Born and raised in South Orange, NJ, Sarah Pidgeon holds a BFA in Design from the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan.

She joined Solar One in 2009 as the Education Coordinator, but her experience as an environmental educator began in 2004, at the Frost Valley YMCA in the Catskill Mountains.  Prior to joining Solar One, Sarah worked as an educator for several years at the Center for the Urban Environment in Brooklyn, where she taught classes in Urban Design and Ecology and facilitated their environmentally-based service learning program.

Some of her other experience includes organizing the after-school apprenticeship program at KidsCreative in Manhattan, coordinating an after-school program in Canarsie, Brooklyn, and working as an after-school specialist for the St. Nicholas Neighborhood Preservation Corporation.

Fronsy Thurman – Educator

After working as a graphic designer and illustrator through much of her youth, Fronsy caught the environmental education/sustainable development bug when she joined the Peace Corps. She ended up in a Zambian village, where a sympathetic band of creatures including a cobra, a lizard, and some termites, allowed her to live in their hut while she worked with farmers to implement sustainable agricultural practices. Upon returning to the U.S., Fronsy continued to work in agriculture until 2006, when she accepted a position at the Center for the Urban Environment in Brooklyn, NY. As the coordinator of Urban Ecology Programs, she authored curricula, delivered programs to both students and educators, and facilitated EPA and DEP projects with high school students.

Raised in Mississippi, Fronsy managed to shed her accent, get a decent winter coat, and find her way to New York. She received her BFA in Illustration and Printmaking from Pratt Institute. Her work has been exhibited in New York and has appeared in numerous magazines and other lowbrow printed matter. She is very excited to be a part of Solar One.

Diana Pangestu – Energy $mart Communities Coordinator

Diana hails from Los Angeles, where she was raised amidst suburban  sprawl and sunny beaches.  Diana worked in commercial real estate and development for two years after graduating from UCLA with a BA in Business-Economics, then did a 180 to environmental conservation.  She came out to New York City to pursue her masters in Urban Planning with an emphasis on sustainable development at Columbia University.  Diana is co-founder of Los Angeles Green Drinks, co-founder of Green Builders at Columbia University, member of the American Planning Association, and member of the United State Green Building Council. Diana’s passion is building beautiful cities.

Max Joel – Energy $mart Communities Coordinator

Max is very happy to join Solar 1 as the newest and tallest member of the organization’s outreach team. Prior to working for Solar 1, Max was the Capital Projects Coordinator for the Queens Botanical Garden during a period that saw the construction of a green Visitor Center, new native plant gardens, and other facilities and exhibits.

Max grew up in and around Chicago, but recently celebrated his tenth anniversary as a New Yorker. He holds a BA in Urban Studies from Columbia University and a master’s degree in Environmental Management from the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. His interests include solar-powered dance parties and gingerbread city planning.

Dina Elkan – Events and Marketing Coordinator

Born and raised in Manhattan, Dina studied music at the High School of Performing Arts and comparative literature, astronomy, art history and political organizing at Barnard College. As a former downtown ingenue and low-level rockstar, Dina has performed all over New York City, the US and Europe. Highlights include performing for Joe Strummer on Valentine’s Day, recording and performing with the Dresden Dolls, playing with King Missile III at Slim’s in San Francisco, the Metro in Chicago, the Troubador in LA, Irving Plaza in NY, anywhere in Hamburg, Germany- and hanging out with rockabilly queen Wanda Jackson.

She has worked as an administrator, publicist, graphic designer, web designer and office manager in a variety of arts-related fields, and is excited to be part of the fabulous team at Solar One.

Pauline Augustine – Marketing Associate

Pauline has had one foot in the corporate and one foot in the non-profit worlds throughout her career. She managed a 6- language European ad campaign for Disneyland in Paris, consulted on funding strategies for the International Red Cross in Geneva, produced a corporate funding package for Habitat for Humanity in Georgia, and did PR and marketing for a trade photo book publisher across the US and an eco-tourism company in Indonesia. Having lived abroad for 10 years and worked on projects in 15 countries, she relishes the diversity that is New York City -her favorite place to live.

Deeply committed to environmental issues, she feels that she now has her best job of all–helping to garner sponsorship for the jewel of green buildings – SOLAR 2 -New York’s first carbon-neutral, net zero energy use Platinum LEED building. And you can find out what all that means by going directly to SOLAR 2

Kene Turner – TruLight/Eco-preneurship Coordinator

Kene Turner is the Coordinator for the TruLight Eco-preneurship program at Solar 1. He has over 12 years of youth development and 8 years experience in Youth Entrepreneurship Education. He has taught leadership, career development, self-esteem building and entrepreneurship training programs throughout New York City and in multiple cities nationwide. Prior to Solar 1, Kene managed all entrepreneurial programs for the YMCA of Greater New York, an organization which serves over 15,000 NYC youth. Kene is also a Certified Entrepreneurship Teacher Instructor with the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, an international organization.

With a holistic approach to Entrepreneurship and Green Education, Kene is viewed as an innovative Coordinator and Instructor. Kene brings a deep understanding and commitment to young people through a diverse number of communities, with an ability to draw practical connections between educational content and the lived experiences of the youth he serves.

Stephen Lehtonen – TruLight/Eco-preneurship Education Specialist

Before coming to Solar One in the fall of 2009, Stephen was the Program Coordinator at Ashoka’s Youth Venture where he launched a program that guides NYC high school students through the process of creating, launching and running their own social venture. He has consulted for Youth Venture and the YMCA for the past four years and has also worked as a teaching consultant for the ICD, Credit Where Credit Is Due and the NYC Department of Education, teaching entrepreneurship, public policy, leadership and community change. He recently started a consulting business, Breakaway Consulting which provides marketing and staff development for small businesses and nonprofits. Stephen earned a B.A. from the University of California at San Diego in Italian and English Literature.

He has also launched his own social venture, ActionArena.org that works to help people create local community change.

Finally, he is passionate about bikes, Italian wine and existentialism.

Michael Johnson-Chase – Green Collar Jobs Development

Michael is a former theatre professor; arts program developer; theatre director; producer and writer. After spending a year installing solar systems for Quad State Solar, he is currently developing Green Collar Job training programs at Solar One. Previously Michael served as the International Program Director at the Lark Play Development Center in New York City, and was Associate Professor of Theatre, Associate Chair and Director of the BA Program in Theatre for the Department of Theatre and Dance, and Associate Dean of Human Relations for The School of the Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He has also taught at SUNY, Purchase; the National Theatre Conservatory; the Denver Center Theatre Company and been a guest instructor at the University of California-San Diego; University of Utah; University of Minnesota; Yale School of Drama; Aspen Music Festival; Theatre Nepean of Sydney; the State Theatre School of Gothenburg, Sweden; Toi Whakaari – the Drama School of New Zealand; the Shanghai Theatre Academy; and the Moscow Actor’s Union.

Diallo Shabazz – Green Collar Jobs Development

Diallo has over 10 years of experience in program and leadership development, strategic planning, and policy evaluation. While serving as a regional director for the National NAACP Youth and College Division, Diallo managed resources throughout the northeast U.S and worked on campaigns impacting civil rights, educational policy, and community and economic development. Diallo also worked at the New York City Department of Education, where his work involved strategic planning, government and community affairs, organizational restructuring, and leadership development. As a public speaker and trainer, Diallo has worked with colleges and universities, non-profit organizations, and companies across the nation on training and development. He has received numerous leadership awards, been interviewed by national publications, and has appeared on high-profile radio and television programs, including New York Public Radio and ABC’s 20/20.

Angela Tran – Graphic Design

Angela Tran graduated from Pratt Institute in 2008. She earned a bachelor’s in communications design specializing in graphic design and typography.

Her dedication to environmental awareness, sustainable practice and progressive media led to her involvement in several projects through out NYC including Solar One’s campaign I Heart PV.

When not creating creative materials and web solutions for IHPV, Angela enjoys supporting innovative art spaces and collectives, generating murals, and rooftop gardening.

Louise Diamond – Program Services Manager

Louise received her M.F.A. in writing from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. She is a recipient of a Packard Future of Children Fellowship in Journalism from the University of Maryland, and a Producer Fellowship from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Louise has worked as a development professional for non-profit organizations promoting the performing and visual arts, as well for community and economic development in NYC for the creation of affordable housing, re-entry services, and employment training and placement for low-income individuals. As an independent filmmaker, she developed and implemented many successful proposals and funding strategies for documentary productions, receiving multiple awards and grants.

Her additional experience includes producing for public television stations WNET/Thirteen (NYC) and WQED/Pittsburgh, as well as for arts festivals at the Brooklyn Academy of Music/651, Mill Valley Film Festival in California and Atlanta’s National Black Arts Festival; and artist residencies with the Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue at Harvard University’s W.E.B. DuBois Center, Georgia Institute of Technology, Montclair State University, Carnegie Mellon University and at Ellen Stewart’s La MaMa E.T.C. in NYC.

James Ryan – Grantwriter

James Ryan has 20 years experience working for the institutional advancement of non-profits such as Helen Keller International, Covenant House, New School University, Ensemble Studio Theatre, among others. He is a recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, McKnight Foundation, and residencies at Yaddo. His plays have been produced at Playwrights Horizons, Ensemble Studio, Circle Repertory, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, and theaters across the country. He has sold screenplays to Warner Bros., Disney, Spring Creek, Mr. Mudd, and Showtime. Currently an adjunct professor in the graduate playwriting program at Rutgers University, he has taught at New School University (Chair, Playwriting MFA), Columbia University, and Muhlenberg College. A Board member of Ensemble Studio Theater, he is also Co-Chair of its Members Council.