Tanya has 20 years of experience as an innovator, entrepreneur, technologist, and utility nerd building enduring practices and products, including a successful business exit. From 2016-2019 Tanya helped reformulate and re-start PECI, securing millions in non-dilutive funding for execution of all aspects of technical service, product development, operations and commercialization of PECI’s grid edge products. In 2019 PECI spun off its technical and grid-edge products as Community Energy Labs with Tanya at the helm. Tanya’s speciality is in leading systems and people to set the stage for the high achievement culture necessary to iterate and scale. Tanya is fluent in Swedish and functionally proficient in Danish, Norwegian and Icelandic.
Tracy has over 25 years of experience in a wide range of both hardware and software technologies. After completing his Masters in Electrical Engineering at Rice University, he went on to work on everything from embedded processor design and mobile and embedded programming to cloud and IOT architectures. He has worked in a variety of industries at both startups and large corporations, including video and audio processing as well as scalable and fault-tolerant emergency notification platforms. Tracy is fluent in C#, Java, C/C++, and Javascript.
Rebecca has over 20 years of experience with buildings - from facility operations, to construction, to building technologies. She has a passion for helping customers achieve aggressive goals through meaningfully applied technology. Her background includes strategy development, change management, and continuous improvement in Facility Operations, Energy & Sustainability and Construction in both the private and the public sector. Her first role as Energy Manager for a public school district inspired her lifelong passion for climate action as well as for education.
Rebecca holds an MBA from Oxford University’s Saïd Business School, and a BS in Industrial Engineering from Texas A&M University. She is passionate about diversity in technical fields and volunteers through the Taproot Foundation, Chicago Cares and the National Girls Collaborative. In her free time, Rebecca enjoys traveling, competing in triathlons and other outdoor sports. She is an intermediate Spanish speaker.
Luciana has 15 years of experience in building energy efficiency and sustainability, energy modeling and solar thermal energy. She has worked for clients in Brazil, Canada, Germany, US, UK and Italy. She has participated in research projects about natural lighting availability in urban public spaces, solar water heating systems commissioning, district solar water heating for low income housing, and solar thermal HVAC systems. Luciana is fluent in Portuguese and Italian.
Moe is a researcher and machine learning scientist with a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Florida International University (FIU). Moe's research revolves around leveraging the potential of deliverable energy flexibility through the use of machine intelligence to achieve national decarbonization goals. His work includes managed EV charging, grid interactive buildings, transactive energy, and load profiling among others. Moe joined CEL’s team as an energy consumption modeler for load forecasting applications and is currently working on evaluating machine learning frameworks for balancing building occupant comfort at the lowest possible cost and carbon emissions. Moe previously was an Assistant Professor of Renewable Energy Systems at Colorado School of Mines where he taught Integration of Renewable Energy and High Power Electronics. Moe is also a volunteer Project Manager and Event Organizer at M.Powering Lebanon, a non-profit focused on utilizing renewable energy to help address the energy crisis in Lebanon. Moe is bilingual in Arabic and proficient in French.
Kiswana has over a decade of experience in human services, project management, administrative processes and operations. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Francis Marion University. Kiswana is committed to demonstrating excellence in everything she does and is passionate about helping others, cooking, traveling and she loves to sing and upcycle furniture.
Andrew holds a BS in Resource Economics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He brings 10 years of experience at startups managing operations and projects, market expansion, and analyzing supply and utilization data. He's passionate about team-building, problem-solving, and process optimization. Outside the office, Andrew enjoys hiking, tinkering in his workshop, and nurturing his garden. Andrew is elementary proficient in Spanish.
Carol has a decade of experience in: office management; project management; research; administrative processes and systems; data entry, transfer and transcription. Whether it has been helping grant and proposal teams execute the necessary steps to secure project funding at PECI, or, tracking and managing data and communication flows for virtual teams during the pandemic at CEL, Carol is a capable and thorough administrator with attention to detail, Carol is bilingual in Kiswahili.
Daniel holds three Bachelor of Science Degrees in Mathematics, Computer Science, and Applied Physics from CSU Channel Islands. He has done various research projects ranging from spin glass simulations to disagreement between epistemic peers. He has trained multiple delegates for national level conferences within higher education and facilitated the love of STEM to underserved high school students. In 2021 Daniel was chosen from a competitive pool of applicants for a Product Technology Research Analyst internship at CEL. Daniel is fluent in Java, Python and C++.
Leslie has over a decade of experience in project management and process optimization across the real estate and financing industries. She holds two BS degrees in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management and Environmental Economics and Policy from UC Berkeley. Her ability to navigate and become a subject matter expert across industries showcases her adaptability and commitment to continuous learning. Leslie is a dedicated advocate for sustainability, with a track record of fundraising for global causes. In her free time, she enjoys being with her dogs and surprising her partner with increasingly unique but mostly delicious recipes.
Laura holds a Master's degree from The George Washington University. She is the founder and director of Elevation Advising, LLC, a Denver-based company helping socially conscious organizations increase and diversify revenue by effectively evaluating and communicating impact. She has worked with a variety of organizations from small startups to international development NGOs. Laura supports CEL in the areas of communications, marketing, content development, and business development. Laura is moderately competent in French and moderately incompetent in Spanish.
Aaren Esplin is a design leader specializing in enterprise experiences, user interfaces, and design systems.
With over ten years of experience, she has worked on products that solve company problems & meet business needs for a variety of companies and startups.
In her freetime she enjoys hanging with her pack (four dogs, a cat and a husband). She believes that puttering and yard work help keep her happy and creative.
She supports CEL in the areas of user experience and product design.
Alvina Zhan is a mechanical engineering student at UCLA, currently entering her third year. With a deep-rooted interest in the intersection of engineering and sustainable development, Alvina is committed to assisting disadvantaged communities through the energy sector. Her dedication to this field was ignited during her first internship with a nonprofit community in Mpoma, Uganda, where she witnessed firsthand the transformative power of sustainable infrastructure in resource-constrained communities. Alvina has completed several research-based projects centered around waste management and sustainable solutions in university dining operations. Alvina was also a previous engineering intern for the Forest Service, where she contributed to construction and facility operations projects. In her free time, Alvina enjoys painting, reading, and cooking. She is an intermediate Burmese speaker.
Husnain is a recent Mechanical Engineering graduate from Heriot-Watt University. He is elected as an Associate Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE). He has done several research-based projects and worked closely with the industries like Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) in UAE. His final year research project was awarded Dubai's best project certificate award by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, UK (ImechE). He loves brainstorming on thermodynamic systems such as HVACs, Chillers, and Heat Pumps. He is also closely working with the IoT industry where he provides custom-engineered solutions to regulate, monitor and improve the energy usage, air quality and temperature/humidity of commercial and residential buildings. Husnain is bilingual in Urdu and fluent in AutoCAD, MATLAB & WITNESS Horizon.
