The American Carbon Registry provides access to Winrock’s internationally recognized team with depth and breadth of technical experience in carbon accounting as well as its sector-specific scientific expertise, specifically in forestry, agriculture and clean energy.

Winrock team members include a co-Nobel prize winner for her contribution to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), three co-authors of IPCC methodologies and leaders in clean energy, methane capture,  biofuels, agriculture practices, nitrogen management, land use change, afforestation, reforestation, forest management and avoided deforestation as well as scientists, ecologists, economists, policy analysts and business professionals.
 
Team members have been participants in standards and methodologies manuals and publications and co-authored protocols for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), DOE 1605(b) program, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the World Bank, the International Tropical Timber Organization, UN organizations, the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) and the California Climate Action Registry (CCAR).   
 
Winrock Senior Management
Frank Tugwell, President and CEO
Bill Howley, Vice President Environment Group
 
American Carbon Registry
John Kadyszewski, Director
Nick Martin, Chief Technical Officer
Mary Grady, Director of Membership and Registry Services
John Kunz, Manager of Registry and Client Services
 
Environmental Resources Trust
Gary Kaster, Director of Strategic Advisory Services
Mike Netzer, Remote Sending Specialist
Katie Goslee, Forestry Specialist
Lauren Nichols, Verification Associate
 
EcoSystems Services
Sandra Brown, Senior Scientist
Sarah Walker, Senior Program Associate
Nancy Harris, Senior Program Associate
Timothy Pearson, Program Officer II
Silvia Petrova, GIS Analyst
Solomon Ngoze, Program Associate, Soil Science
Sean Grimland, Program Assistant
Felipe Casarim, Program Associate
Erin Swails, Program Assistant

Clean Energy
Bikash Pandey, Director Clean Energy and Environment
Netanya Huska, Program Assistant
Michael Benedict, Program Assistant
 
US Programs
Karen McSpadden, Program Officer
 

Winrock Senior Management

Frank Tugwell became President and Chief Executive Officer of Winrock International Institute for Agricultural Development (Winrock International) on January 1, 1999.  Winrock International is a nonprofit organization that carries on the philanthropic work of the Rockefeller family in the fields of agriculture, environment, and rural development, both domestically and internationally.  Mr. Tugwell is responsible for leading the organization and advancing its mission to work with people in the United States and around the world to empower the disadvantaged, increase economic opportunity, and sustain natural resources. Prior to joining Winrock, Mr. Tugwell served as Executive Director of the Heinz Endowments, a philanthropy, which makes grants in the arts, human services, education, urban affairs, and the environment.   Before joining the Heinz Endowments, he was Vice President for Programs and Global Projects at Winrock International.  Mr. Tugwell has also held positions as founder and President of the Environmental Enterprises Assistance Fund, a nonprofit that invests in small and medium-sized environmental companies in developing countries; Deputy Assistant Administrator in the U.S. Agency for International Development in the Carter Administration; and Professor and Department Chair at Pomona College and Claremont Graduate School. He holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University.
 
Bill Howley is Group Vice President, Environment, Winrock International.  Through the Environment Group Winrock promotes sustainable use and management of natural resources to support the food and income needs of growing populations while ensuring the health of the planet. These activities encompass a broad range of programs and services in four principle areas: Forestry & Natural Resource Management; Clean Energy, Ecosystem Services and Environmental Resources Trust. The Environment Group currently makes up approximately half of Winrock International’s portfolio of projects worldwide.  The Environment group provides comprehensive and integrated approaches supported by advanced technologies and assessment and monitoring.  Bill Howley directs these activities from Sonoma County, California. Previously he was the founding Director of Winrock International’s Innovation Investment Program; Director of Planning & Strategic Initiatives and Country Office director for Winrock International Brazil. Howley spent 15 years as a project finance and international business development executive in the photovoltaics industry. He holds a master's degree in Business Administration from the University of California Los Angeles and a bachelor's degree in Human Biology from Stanford University.
 

American Carbon Registry

John Kadyszewski is the Director of Winrock International’s American Carbon Registry. For more than 30 years he has worked to apply sound science and economics to energy and resource management issues with experience in the U.S. and more than 20 countries in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Europe. In the early 90s, Mr. Kadyszewski led Winrock’s efforts to develop and field-test peer-reviewed methods and procedures for measuring carbon storage in forestry and agroforestry projects.  He directed collaboration efforts with the electric power industry and the environmental community resulting in the design, development and implementation of multiple forestry, land use change and renewable energy projects to sequester carbon or reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. In the late 90s, he managed development of advanced monitoring tools that combine aerial digital imagery with spatial information systems to improve measurement and analysis of land management practices and associated environmental impacts. He founded the Ecosystem Services Group at Winrock in 2001 and was the co-leader of terrestrial sequestration work for the Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership. Today he continues as the co-leader of terrestrial sequestration work for the West Coast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership covering potential terrestrial sequestration activities in California, Oregon, Washington and Arizona, including highlighting the significant impact fire has and will have on existing and future carbon stocks on forest lands in the west. He co-led work sponsored by the California Energy Commission’s PIER program to establish baselines and quantify terrestrial carbon sequestration opportunities for the State of California. He is a co-founder of the Environmental Enterprises Assistance Fund and the International Cane Energy Network and has authored studies and reports, testified before congressional committees, and made numerous national and international presentations. He has a BS in engineering from Princeton University.

Nick Martin, ACR Chief Technical Officer, is responsible for ensuring the environmental integrity of all offsets issued by and registered on the ACR. Mr. Martin leads the development of ACR standards and methodologies through the application of sound science as well as the validation of new methodologies through scientific peer review. He also manages ACR verification standards and processes and all project and methodology eligibility screenings. Mr. Martin has worked for over a decade in the clean energy and forest carbon fields, beginning his clean energy career by managing programs for renewable energy development in Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan, and then for Winrock managing forest carbon projects. While previously at Winrock, Mr. Martin managed Winrock’s participation as a partner in the Mendocino National Forest project for hazardous fuel reduction and carbon sequestration, which was awarded the prestigious U.S. Forest Service Two Chiefs award for conservation forest stewardship. Mr. Martin was one of the five individuals recognized for work on the project. Most recently, he was an environmental policy analyst with Xcel Energy where he lead climate change and energy policy analysis for the utility, which  serves eight states and is a leader in the renewable energy and GHG reduction. In this role, Mr. Martin served as the company’s lead technical resource on carbon offset project development, protocols, and policy, and developed offset pilot programs in Colorado, Minnesota, and Wisconsin including forest and agriculture GHG reduction and removal projects. He has a degree in music from Yale and a Master of Science in Energy and Resources from the University of California, Berkeley.

Mary Grady, Director of ACR Membership and Registry Services, is responsible for providing ACR members with the highest quality client services in addition to directing strategic marketing, communications, policy engagement and trading platform development. Before joining ACR, Ms. Grady worked for sixteen years in the renewable energy industry, most recently serving as Operations Leader at Clipper Windpower. In this role and others at Clipper, she contributed to the growth of Clipper’s wind energy project portfolio from 1,000 MW to 10,000 MW in five years and directly managed Clipper’s project portfolio in Latin America as well as over 1,500 MW of US projects. She was also responsible for marketing and sale of Clipper projects and wind turbines, negotiating turbine supply agreements, power purchase agreements, asset agreements and construction contracts. Ms. Grady began her renewable energy career at the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). She has worked extensively throughout Latin America since this time, including as the Brazil Director for the US Export Council for Renewable Energy (US/ECRE) and Project Manager of Golden Genesis’ solar rural electrification program in Brazil. At Winrock International she worked as the Director of the Brazil field office and the Clean Energy Group Manager for all Latin America activities. In addition, Ms. Grady has served as a consultant to the World Bank on the creation, financing and oversight of rural energy projects in Mozambique, Mexico and Nicaragua. Ms. Grady has an international MBA (MIBS) from the University of South Carolina and undergraduate degrees in Psychology and Spanish from Clemson University. She speaks Spanish and Portuguese.  

John Kunz is Manager of Registry and Client Services for the American Carbon Registry, manages the day-to-day operation of the Registry including direct member support and hands-on facilitation of transactions.  Mr. Kunz has been working with the American Carbon Registry and Environmental Resources Trust since 2005 on issues ranging from GHG offset policy and solar energy development to renewable energy certification and Clean Air Act compliance.  In coordination with other ERT-Winrock staff, Mr. Kunz developed the ACR’s offset screening and scoring tool, which provides a mechanism to evaluate the merits of GHG offset projects in a quantitative way.  Since 1998, Mr. Kunz has been involved in solar electrification projects in rural east Africa, and has served as the technical coordinator for a student-based village electrification program.  Mr. Kunz holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University.

Environmental Resources Trust

Gary Kaster is Director of Strategic Advisory Services for ERT. He is a graduate forester with more than 38 years of experience. Throughout his career, he as provided a wide range of forestry services in forest management, forest recreation and terrestrial carbon sequestration projects. In 2005 he retired from the American Electric Power (AEP) Company after 36 years as a manager of their forestry operation which involved management of over 100,000 acres of forest land. He  has been actively involved in climate change initiatives since 1994, managing AEP’s domestic terrestrial carbon sequestration projects, which included the planting of over 23,000 acres of company land and projects in the lower Mississippi River Valley. He is a past Cairman of the UtiliTree Carbon Company, and past President of PowerTree Carbon Company, LLC. Upon his retirement , he formed Carbon Project Service, LLC, a consultancy formed to assist and provide guidance to clients in evaluating, developing, and monitoring carbon sequestration projects. His clients included American Electric Power, Environmental Synergy Inc. and Edison Electric Institute.

Michael Netzer has a Masters degree in Ecology from the University of Otago.  Research included vegetation mapping using remote sensing and GIS technologies, vegetation analysis, and the tracking of red deer using GPS collars.  Michael has works as a GIS specialist for the California Forest Service and for the California State Parks, working on wild fire management projects.  He has experience in ecological field work and botanical analysis in California, Nicaragua and New Zealand.   Michael is currently employed at Winrock International as an Environmental Resource Associate in the Environmental Resource Trust Unit. Michael provides leadership in the development and analysis of carbon project data using field surveys, remote sensing and GIS technologies, and provides training to local project partners.  Duties include facilitating and coordinating GIS applications for carbon assessments and land use change modeling for small and large scale projects both internationally and in the US.  He also conducts high resolution aerial imagery acquisition missions for remote sensing applications.
 
Lauren Nichols is a verification associate for ERT-Winrock. She provides technical support for ERT’s verification activities. She is also responsible for the quality assurance of ACR registered offset projects.  She holds a master’s degree in Environmental Management, with a concentration of Environmental Economics, from Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment and a bachelor’s degree in Biology from Bates College.
 
 

Ecosystems Services

Dr. Sandra Brown is a Senior Scientist with Winrock’s Ecosystem Services Unit. She is a specialist in the role of land use and land cover change in the global carbon cycle and climate change, the impacts of climate change on terrestrial ecosystems, and the present and potential future role of terrestrial ecosystems for mitigation of climate change. She provides leadership and expertise to many national and international organizations in the field of land use/land cover change and its relation to climate change and mitigation.  Dr. Brown has successfully led over 40 projects for a variety of US governmental, multilateral, and non-profit donors, including the US Department of Energy, US Environmental Agency, US Agency for International Development (USAID), the World Bank, The Nature Conservancy, and Conservation International.  Her more than 26 years of project experience include conducting feasibility studies for climate change mitigation programs, projecting carbon benefits for reforestation programs that improve rural livelihoods, training local NGOs to conduct environmental assessments and data analysis, and apprising policy-makers of the socio-economics of land use change, deforestation, and carbon trading. Dr. Brown has served on many international and national panels and reports related to climate change and land use and forestry.  She has published more than 190 peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals and books.  She served as a co-convening lead author for five UNFCCC IPCC Reports for which she co-led a team of experts representing many countries, sub-disciplines, and points of view. 
 
Dr. Sarah Walker is a Senior Program Associate in the Ecosystem Services group of Winrock International. Dr. Walker is a climate change mitigation specialist in the agriculture, forestry and land use sector. She has over 10 years experience in carbon cycling modeling and assessing the sustainability and ecological impacts of land use/ land cover change. Dr. Walker provides technical guidance to international afforestation/reforestation and greenhouse gas emission avoidance projects. She is a lead author on several published climate change mitigation technical guidance manuals and training programs. Her experience in international project development and implementation includes projects in Brazil, China, Indonesia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mexico, Mozambique, Peru, Tanzania, and the United States. Dr. Walker holds a MS and PhD in Environmental Sciences from the University of Virginia and a bachelor’s degree in Biology from Smith College.
 
Dr. Nancy Harris is a Senior Program Associate in the Ecosystem Services group of Winrock International. Dr. Harris is a carbon specialist with over seven years of experience in climate change and land use and is an expert in the analysis and assessment of changes in carbon stocks and flows in the land use and forestry sector. Dr. Harris has worked in the U.S. and throughout the world to provide technical assistance on carbon sequestration and emission avoidance projects at both national and project scales. She has also led efforts to build Winrock’s capacity for completing entity-level greenhouse gas inventories. Dr. Harris helped develop the Voluntary Carbon Standard for avoided emissions projects and has published several peer-reviewed papers on carbon measurement, monitoring and modeling. Dr. Harris holds a PhD in systems ecology from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and a bachelor’s degree in Biology and Environmental Studies from Tufts University.
 
Timothy Pearson is a Program Officer II, Environment, Winrock International. Dr Pearson is a specialist in land use change and forestry with worldwide experience. He has extensive knowledge of the analysis of carbon stocks and flows in ecosystems and in the creation of carbon baselines. Dr Pearson has substantial national and international experience in project planning, experimental design, field methods, scientific method, and analysis. He has detailed knowledge of carbon projects in the land use sector both within the United States and worldwide. Dr Pearson has served as an expert for the CDM Afforestation/Reforestation working group; he has been a verifier for both the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) and the CCAR. He was the lead author for the forest measurement guidelines under the 1605(b) program, the Improved Forest Management Guidelines for the Voluntary Carbon Standard, and project development and carbon measurement manuals for international forestry offset projects (CDM). He is a contributing author to the Sourcebook for reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation. Tim Pearson has a PhD in tropical ecology from the University of Aberdeen, UK and a Masters Degree from the University of Cambridge, UK.
 
Silvia Petrova is a Geographic Information System (GIS) Analyst with Ecosystem Services Unit at Winrock International. She has over seven years of experience of applying GIS to variety of projects related to ecosystem monitoring, environmental modeling and urban planning. Her technical expertise includes development and management of spatial information, land use/ land cover change and spatial analyses, land cover classification from satellite images and estimation of deforestation impact on forest carbon stocks through spatial analyses and modeling. She holds a master’s degree in GIS for Environment and Development from Clark University, Worcester, MA and a bachelor and a master’s degree in Computer Science from Technical University in Sofia, Bulgaria. 
 
Solomon Ngoze is a Program Associate, Soil science, in the Ecosystems services unit, Winrock International. Through the Ecosystems services unit Winrock has been the organization trusted worldwide to bring the most cutting edge, proven information and services for Carbon assessment in land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF). The Ecosystem Services unit is comprised of experts in the field of terrestrial carbon estimation across a range of disciplines. Previously, Solomon Ngoze worked as a graduate research assistant at Cornell University on a multidisciplinary poverty dynamics biocomplexity model for smallholder agroecosystems, as an agricultural officer with the Kenyan ministry of Agriculture, and as postgraduate fellow at the International Centre for research in Agroforestry (ICRAF), working to improve land productivity and income of smallholder agroecosystems in East Africa. Solomon has managed and led research and extension activities in the tropical highland agroecosystems.  He is proficient in tropical agroecosystem socioeconomic and biophysical data collection, analyses and reporting. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Environmental information science with minors in soil science and rural development from Cornell University and a master's degree in Soil chemistry from Moi University, Kenya.
 
Sean K. Grimland, program assistant for Winrock International’s Ecosystem Services Unit, has strong GIS analysis skills using a variety of vector and raster applications. Mr. Grimland knowledge of GIS software includes both open source and proprietary titles.  His experiences include using GIS for biodiversity conservation, processing and analysis of remotely-sensed imagery, geodatabase development with GPS, quantifying land-use changes, predictive modeling, and multivariate geo-statistics.  He also is an experienced developer of mobile GIS applications.  Mr. Grimland has a solid background in research and management techniques for habitats and wildlife, including 5 years of professional field experience working with endangered species. He has extensive experience in the Balkans working with NGO and SME organizations. His roles for Winrock, working with both domestic and international clients includes land cover change  modeling, carbon baseline assessments, leading field teams for data collection, and carbon footprint assessments.
 
 

Clean Energy

Bikash Pandey is Director of Clean Energy and Environment at Winrock International.  Winrock's energy programs bring access to energy for the poor and increase clean electricity on the grid. Modern energy services are used to expand economic opportunity in rural areas and improve health care, education, and living standards. Bikash Pandey's work experience encompasses twenty years in policy review, design, and implementation of a range of clean/renewable energy projects in Africa, Latin America and Asia. A technical specialist in micro- and mini-hydropower systems, he has designed and implemented numerous community-based electrification, clean transportation projects, small-scale mini-grids, and home energy systems. He has extensive experience in developing small-scale renewable energy projects as activities under the Clean Development Mechanism. He also brings long experience encouraging policy change within governments, bilateral and multilateral donors to support clean energy. He holds an M.S. in Energy and Resources, from the University of California at Berkeley and a Bachelor's in Electrical Engineering from MIT.
 
Netanya Huska is a member of the Clean Energy Team, Environment Group of Winrock International.  As a member of Clean Energy her work involves project management, project back-stopping, proposal development, and proposal coordination.  She holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Policy and Planning from Virginia Tech University of Blacksburg, Virginia. While at Virginia Tech she was one of three volunteer coordinators of the Green Fee. The Green Fee was a student led initiative to create a fee included in tuition for all Virginia Tech students. This fee would go towards improving the sustainability and environmental stewardship of Virginia Tech. She worked on this endeavor with two other undergraduate students, faculty, and administrators.  This effort resulted in collaboration between administrators and students to discuss funding energy efficient projects on campus and the proposal to reinstate the recycling program at Virginia Tech. Since Netanya and her co-volunteers graduated in 2007, Virginia Tech has made great strides in becoming more sustainable and improving it’s environmental stewardship; including reinstating the recycling program, hosting the Greening Virginia Universities and Colleges Conference, and making campus sustainability a top priority.
 
Michael Benedict works with Winrock International’s Clean Energy Group. He helped design and carry out Winrock’s 2007 greenhouse gas inventory, and has experience processing and analyzing emissions data according to the WRI/WBCSD GHG Protocol. Michael has also conducted research on carbon finance for improved cookstove dissemination in developing countries.  He has completed coursework in Organizational GHG Accounting from the Greenhouse Gas Management Institute, and holds a master’s degree in Materials Science and bachelor’s degree in Physics from the State University of New York at Binghamton.
 
 

US Programs

Karen McSpadden is Program Officer for Environmental and Social Sustainability, Enterprise and Agriculture, Winrock International. She is responsible for managing corporate environmental and social responsibility projects, conducting product life cycle assessments and carbon footprints, and building capacity for value chain development in the food and agriculture sector. Prior to joining Winrock, McSpadden held positions as an environmental engineer in government and in private consulting. She has experience in a variety of industries, including wood products, energy production, food processing, specialty chemicals and aerospace. Karen McSpadden is based in Fayetteville, Arkansas. She holds a master’s degree in Business Administration from the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas and a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Arkansas.