Sustainable MTA

Speakers

Organizer

Ernest Tollerson

MTA

A print journalist by training and a New Yorker by choice, Ernest Tollerson joined the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in January 2007 as the MTA’s Director, Policy & Media Relations. Prior to joining the MTA, he handled research projects for the Partnership for New York City, a business-led NGO that conducted a lot of the early research on the feasibility of a congestion-pricing zone covering Manhattan’s two central business districts.

From the mid-1970s through 1999, he worked as a reporter and editor for a number of newspapers, including the Philadelphia Inquirer, where he was a political reporter and statehouse bureau chief; New York Newsday, where he was the editorial page editor; and the New York Times, where he was a national correspondent and later a member of the Times editorial board.

During his nine-year stint at NY Newsday from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, he served as the deputy op-ed editor and an editorial writer. In May 1990, he was named editor of the editorial pages and served in that post until Times Mirror folded NY Newsday in July of 1995. That October, he joined the New York Times as a national correspondent covering the 1996 presidential election. He later served as the political editor on the metro desk and then returned to editorial writing as a member of the Times’s editorial board.

Speakers

Thomas Abdallah

New York City Transit

Tom is currently the Chief Environmental Engineer for the Capital Program Management Department (CPM) of MTA New York City Transit. He has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Rutgers University in New Jersey, and is both a Professional Engineer and a LEED Accredited Professional. Tom has been with NYCT for 22 years, and has been in the Environmental Engineering Division of NYCT since he started as an Assistant Engineer in 1987.

Tom was both a Principal Engineer and Construction Manager and has experience with all areas of the Environmental discipline including the National Environmental Policy Act, Waste Management, Air & Water Pollution Prevention, and Green Design. Tom is directly responsible for CPM’s ISO 14001 certified Environmental Management System which includes commitments to prevent pollution, minimize waste, save natural resources and continual improve NYCT’s environmental performance.

Paul S. Mankiewicz, PhD

The Gaia Institute

Dr. Paul S. Mankiewicz, Executive Director of the Gaia Institute, received his PhD from the City University of New York/New York Botanical Garden Joint Program in Plant Sciences. He holds patents on a modular composting system, an ultra-lightweight green roof plant growth medium, and a biogeochemical reactor to breakdown dioxins and PCBs.

Past president of the Torrey Botanical Society & board member of the NYC Soil & Water Conservation District, Dr. Mankiewicz has worked to incorporate ecology to treat water, capture carbon, and lower energy costs in urban centers. A number of working models have been constructed, including the first green roof in the Bronx, the first industrial-scale stormwater treatment facility on a six-acre, truck-to-barge material handling site on the Bronx River, and the first process water/greywater treatment green roof on the Linda Tool Corporation in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

John Rhyner

P.W. Grosser Consulting

John Rhyner is a licensed Professional Geologist and Senior Project Manager with P.W. Grosser Consulting in Bohemia, New York. Mr. Rhyner has 24 years of diverse consulting experience, over the past 10 years working on geothermal projects in New York City and Long Island. Mr. Rhyner has consulted on over 100 geothermal projects, currently on the anticipated LEED Gold New Education Building at Weeksville Heritage Center, Staten Island Museum geothermal retrofit at Snug Harbor Cultural Center, the General Theological Seminary, and update of NYC Department of Design and Construction’s Geothermal Heat Pump Manual. John is presently collaborating with NYCEDC and Columbia University on assessing the viability of geothermal throughout the city, including use of the technology for district heating and cooling. Mr. Rhyner received a BA in Geology from Dartmouth College and is working towards his MS in Hydrogeology from SUNY, Stony Brook. Mr. Rhyner is a LEED accredited professional and active member of the U. S. Green Building Council and National Ground Water Association’s Geothermal Interest Group.

*Additional speaker biographies coming soon.