Brianne Milano
Project and Event Coordinator, NASA Earth Science Project Office
Brianne is passionate about empowering communities to live in harmony with the planet through her work at the intersection of environmental science, education, and experiential leadership. With a Master of Science in Outdoor Education from the University of Edinburgh and a Bachelor of Science in Wildlife, Fish & Conservation Biology from UC Davis, she brings over eight years of experience spanning science, education, and sustainability. Brianne has contributed to statewide conservation research addressing climate and land-use challenges with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, led experiential learning and leadership development initiatives at Stanford University, and coordinated large-scale environmental field campaigns with NASA’s Earth Science division. Her six-month thru-hike of the 2650 mile Pacific Crest Trail reflects a lifelong dedication to environmental stewardship and the transformative power of time spent outdoors. Guided by curiosity, collaboration, and a deep respect for nature, Brianne is committed to advancing Turning Green’s mission to educate, inspire, and mobilize the next generation of changemakers.
Lauren Grossman
Business Development Manager, Calm
Lauren has spent the past 11 years building creative and meaningful partnerships at companies including Discovery Channel, Snapchat, Strava, and currently as a Business Development Manager at Calm. She is passionate about bringing purpose and creativity into collaborations that make an impact for both brands and the people they serve. On weekends, you can find her hiking in the Marin Headlands with her husband and dog, Henry.
Sarah Jones
Director, Marin County Community Development Agency
Sarah served 16 years with the City and County of San Francisco and five years as planning director for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. Jones has a bachelor’s degree in urban studies from Stanford University and a master’s in city planning from the University of California at Berkeley.
The Community Development Agency has 90 employees and an annual budget of $21 million. CDA oversees planning, building & safety, housing, federal grants, code enforcement, environmental health, environmental review, and sustainability. They are dedicated to promoting, protecting, and advancing healthy, safe, and equitable communities.
Aradhya Seth
Lead Analyst, Cigna Healthcare
Aradhya currently works as a Lead Analyst with Cigna Healthcare in Chicago, Illinois. Aradhya first became a part of the Turning Green family when he was a sophomore in college in India and participated in Project Green Challenge 2018, finishing as a runner-up. He has been involved with the TG family ever since, serving as an ambassador and speaker in the following years. He came to the US in 2021 to pursue his master’s degree at the University of Illinois, and since his graduation in May 2023, he has been residing in Chicago. He credits PGC as a turning point in his life and always loves coming back, believing that PGC has the power to shape future leaders and help them identify their purpose in life.
Caralee Ellis
Events & Engagement Manager, Conscious Kitchen
Caralee Ellis is the Events & Engagement Manager for Conscious Kitchen, where she leads statewide initiatives that bring the farm-to-school movement to life across California. She manages and executes all Conscious Kitchen events and on-the-ground projects, including the Organic Farm-to-School Workshop series, hosted in partnership with The Alice Waters Institute, and the Organic Farm-to-School Road Tour, which connected small organic farmers with school districts throughout California in the summer of 2025. In her role, Caralee also oversees strategic communications that extend beyond social media to reach food service leaders, farmers, and community partners. She develops and distributes key resources such as a Weekly Organic Availability List and the Organic Produce of the Month series, supporting schools in sourcing fresh, local, organic ingredients directly from regional producers. Caralee joined Conscious Kitchen in 2021 and has since played an integral role in scaling its impact — coordinating farm-to-school procurement, managing multi-stakeholder partnerships, and advancing the vision of 100% organic school meals for all students.
Gabriela Nahm
Development Associate, Salzburg Global
Gabriela is currently a Development Associate at Salzburg Global, an international non-profit committed to gathering open-minded leaders for breakthrough conversations on the world’s most pressing issues, based in Washington, D.C. She has worked for Turning Green in many capacities and across programs since starting as an intern in the summer of 2021. She recently had the honor of representing Turning Green at the Clinton Global Initiative at 2025 NYC Climate Week, where she helped share Turning Green’s mission with global leaders.
She is a passionate, curious, and empathetic individual who cares deeply about building stronger relationships with her communities, the planet, and herself. She is eternally grateful for her journey with Turning Green that has transformed her into the person she is today, and she will continue to return whenever she can to support their deeply meaningful work. Gabriela graduated from Davidson College with honors in environmental studies, phi beta kappa. Whenever she can, she enjoys reading, connecting with people in coffee shops, and walking through Rock Creek Park.
Ilana Zeitzer
PhD Candidate, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
Ilana is a PhD candidate in the program of ecology, evolution and conservation at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. She is pursuing research on beneficial plant-fungal interactions and their impact on prairie restoration. She received her MS in ecology from SUNY ESF and her BS in biology from Dickinson College. She was the 2017 PGC second place winner and has been volunteering with Turning Green ever since. Outside of Turning Green, she was a co-founder of Re-Earth Initiative and co-director for her local animal rescue.
Kevin Grossman
Brand Manager, SC Johnson Lifestyle Brands
Kevin is a Brand Manager at SC Johnson Lifestyle Brands, overseeing the Method personal care product portfolio. Before joining SC Johnson, Kevin spent seven years at Clif Bar, a multi-bottom line organic food company, where he held various roles ranging from managing retailers and distributors to developing product launch and channel growth strategies. Here, Kevin began to see the many challenges and opportunities facing the K-12 school food system and how organic food companies can help drive change. Kevin also serves as a board member of Turning Green and holds an MBA from Berkeley-Haas.
Mary Jane Chandler
Program Officer, Food Waste Warrior Program, World Wildlife Fund
Mary Jane is currently the Program Officer for World Wildlife Fund’s Food Waste Warrior Program, leading K-12 schools across the U.S. in reducing cafeteria food waste through education and analysis. She brings five years of prior experience in community organizing, education, and food systems, including roles as a middle and high school science teacher in Guinea with the Peace Corps and as a community economic development liaison in Turkey. With an MSc. in Food Studies from Syracuse University, Mary Jane specializes in regional food systems, focusing on community-driven food waste reduction and recovery, food education, and advocating for regional food policies.
Nolan Zail
Founding Principal, Impact Urban
Nolan is a founding principal of Impact Urban, a real estate development company that advances innovation, sustainability and social and economic value to create positive impacts in the built environment. Nolan contributes over 30 years of experience in real estate development including design and construction, developing and re-developing residential, commercial, historic and mixed-use projects. Nolan’s mixed-use and residential development experience includes founding principal of Transform Urban (CA), Senior Vice President of Development with Carmel Partners (CA) and development manager with Santa Clara Development Co. (CA). In addition, Nolan has commercial development experience with Cushman & Wakefield (NY) and non-profit housing redevelopment experience with Common Ground Community (NY). Prior to real estate, Mr. Zail worked for award winning architectural firms on residential and commercial projects. Nolan was the Project Executive with Carmel Partners for UC Davis West Village, a 130- acre planned net zero energy mixed-use development that received the Urban Land Institute Global Award of Excellence. Nolan received a Master of Science (Real Estate) from New York University; a Graduate Diploma in Applied Science (Horticulture) from the University of Melbourne; and a Bachelor of Architecture from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Notable Projects include UC Davis West Village, Davis, CA; Grand Central Terminal Redevelopment, New York; Prince George Affordable Housing Redevelopment, NY and ACMI, Federation Square, Melbourne, Australia.
Brian O’Connor
Teacher, AP Human Geography, Colegio Nueva Granada
Brian is a passionate bilingual social studies educator that currently works at Colegio Nueva Granada in Bogota, Colombia. As an anthropologist from the University of Iowa interested in ethno botany and Latin American studies, Brian spent much time studying in Mexico and Colombia. After a few years studying abroad, teaching, and social work he entered the MAT in social studies teaching at Lewis and Clark College, Portland, OR. After three years teaching US and World History in Spanish in Woodburn, Oregon, Brian and his wife Marta moved back to Colombia in 2007. Brian makes sustainability part of the curriculum in his AP Human Geography and AP Seminar courses, as well as the PGC class inspired by this amazing program. Brian enjoys working at the school where his two sons attend, his wife works, and has a bio diverse campus that have inspired many student-led projects over these past 18 years here.
Reese Costis
Consultant, Bain & Company
Reese is a recovering electrical and computer engineer turned management consultant. In his time at Bain and Company, Reese has worked with conservation non-profits to drive American reforestation, international energy companies studying global energy transition strategy, and served as Chief of Staff for Kenya’s largest waste management company, TakaTaka Solutions. Reese recently graduated with an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley where he sat as the 2023-2025 Board Fellow for the Berkeley-Haas Center for Responsible Business.
Ruthie Burrows
Research Associate, Project Drawdown
Ruthie Burrows, Ph.D., is a population-environment researcher with interdisciplinary experience in geography, demography, and epidemiology. She is currently a Research Associate at Project Drawdown, where her work focuses on examining the human health, adaptation, and biodiversity benefits of climate solutions.
Ruthie earned her Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Minnesota, where she was also a Population Studies Trainee in the Minnesota Population Center. Her dissertation research examined the role of social and natural environmental contexts on child health outcomes in Senegal. Previously, she worked at the Center for a Livable Future, contributing to research on local food systems in Baltimore, Maryland. Ruthie holds master’s degrees in Epidemiology and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) from Johns Hopkins University.
Ruthie has volunteered with Turning Green since she was a PGC finalist in 2012. She enjoys gardening, cooking, reading, and going for hikes with her dogs, Sunny and Ruby.
Sarah Trager
Director of Engagement and Policy, Massachusetts Department of Public Health
Sarah is a mission-driven strategist, advisor, and problem solver who has worked with entrepreneurs from around the world, governments, and nonprofit organizations to tackle some of the world’s toughest challenges. She is the Director of Engagement and Policy at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, loves learning from others and is excited to support this project however she can. This will be her fifth year as a PGC mentor.
Taylor Lee
Head of Sales, Patagonia Provisions
Taylor has been in the Natural Foods Industry for over a decade working with companies whose primary goal is to grow acreage for organic and regenerative organic agriculture. He currently leads Sales at Patagonia Provisions, the food and beer arm of Patagonia, whose mission is to save our home planet. Previously, he led Sales Strategy at Clif Bar & Company while leading a task force that trained and equipped the sales team to have impactful conversation around climate and clean energy with retailers to shift consumer behavior.
Taylor graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a BA in Global Economics. He currently lives in San Francisco and spends most of his free time on the trails around the Bay Area and the Sierras. He’s passionate about building and nourishing community and is currently an active member of the ALS Network.
Tracey Wingate
Assistant Manager of SNAP Outreach, Greater Boston Food Bank
Tracey currently works as the Assistant Manager of SNAP Outreach for the Greater Boston Food Bank. In this role, she helps Massachusetts residents access SNAP benefits, furthering the food bank’s mission to end hunger in Eastern Massachusetts. She graduated from Skidmore College in 2018 with a BA in Environmental Studies and a minor in Intergroup Relations. During college, Tracey developed a passion for sustainable agriculture and its potential to mitigate climate change after studying food systems in Cuba, Alaska, and New York. In her free time, Tracey enjoys visiting farmers markets, trying new FLOSN recipes and hanging out with her three-year-old niece. Tracey was a PGC Finalist in 2015 and has been honored to support PGC in different capacities since then as a challenge reader, ambassador and judge.
