Shan Arora is recognized globally as an effective advocate for the design, construction, and operation of regenerative buildings that have net-positive impacts on the environment. As Director of The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design at Georgia Institute of Technology, the region’s first regenerative Living Building, he engages people across cultures, ages, and vocations to amplify the message that in a resource-depleted world, it is not enough to do less harm. We must give back to nature more than we take. To advance this mission, Shan relies on his experience in clean energy policy, sustainability, community engagement, business development, and tax policy. Shan obtained BA and JD degrees from Emory University. He has received Living Future Accreditation from the International Living Future Institute, which recognizes proficiency in the most ambitious, advanced, and holistic sustainable design standards available.

Chandra Farley serves as Chief Sustainability Officer for the City of Atlanta. In this role, Chandra sets direction for the City’s sustainability and resilience goals and leads the interdepartmental, and community-wide, engagement necessary to address the inequitable effects of climate change. Chandra’s charge is the development of a comprehensive climate resilience strategy that will address energy insecurity, healthy housing, food systems, waste diversion, building decarbonization, workforce training, and fleet electrification while advancing the City’s goal to achieve 100% clean energy for 100% of Atlantans by 2035. Chandra is also developing the strategy to leverage the historic federal investment in clean energy and the Justice40 Initiative to advance these goals through a lens of environmental justice. Prior to joining the City, Chandra founded ReSolve Consulting, an energy justice consulting firm and the “Good Energy Project,” a social space connecting the transformational power of Black Women and their community leadership to the movement for an equitable clean energy economy. In 2022, Chandra completed a historic run for the Georgia Public Service Commission.

Rainey Shane serves as the Social Sustainability Director for JLL, where she manages social sustainability client consulting services for the Americas region. She is also the co-founder of SEAM, Inc., a 501c3 nonprofit organization that created the SEAM Certification™, which stands for social equity assessment method, and is a standard for addressing issues relating to the human stakeholders of a commercial real estate project, much in the same way that LEED Certification tackles climate change. SEAM is dedicated to the social impact of a real estate project to prevent harm and create positive sustainable outcomes that contribute to long-term systemic changes in areas of diversity, equity, inclusion, human rights, social justice, and prosperity. Prior to founding seam certification and launching Social Sustainability services, Rainey established and grew the Adaptive Reuse division for Project and Development Services' Southeast Central region. Her passion for adaptive reuse remains a strong influence on her work within the social impact space as they are so closely related. Rainey has landed coverage in print outlets such as Bisnow, the Puget Sound and Atlanta Business Chronicles, Atlanta Journal and Constitution, Curbed and Atlanta Intown for her projects as well as her perspective on social impact and adaptive reuse issues. She is a sought-after speaker and instructor on topics of social impact and sustainability, equitable development, adaptive reuse, public-private partnerships, and economic development by organizations such as ULI, CREW, CoreNet Global, National Institutes of Health, USGBC’s GreenBuild @ Home, Georgia Economic Development Association, AIA Georgia, GA Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute, and GA Tech School of Architecture.

During her 20-year career in Buckhead, Denise has collaborated with business and community leaders to put the area on a sustainable path. Her work began with a focus on transportation and air quality issues as she led the formation of the Buckhead Area Transportation Management Association in 1999. In 2011, Buckhead needed an organization to lead the implementation of its new greenspace plan and Denise responded enthusiastically, forming Livable Buckhead. When Denise began working in Buckhead, sustainability was just beginning to register on the corporate radar. Now the community boasts: • More than 19 million square feet of commercial building space participating in the Atlanta Better Buildings Challenge 102 LEED projects • More than 63 percent of Buckhead within one-mile of an electric vehicle charger • 34 new acres of greenspace Denise and Livable Buckhead have won more than 14 awards for exemplary programs and contributions, including being recognized by the Buckhead Business Association with their top award “Bullish on Buckhead” in 2009 and by the Atlanta Business Chronicle Environmental Awards as the “Emerging Leader” in 2012. Denise earned an undergraduate degree in Architecture and a Master’s Degree in City Planning, from Georgia Institute of Technology. She is a graduate of Leadership Buckhead, RLI, Leadership Atlanta Class of 2014 and is a member of Buckhead Rotary serving as the co-chair of the human trafficking committee. Denise, son Will and husband Michael live in Brookhaven with their dog Moxie. “The pack” likes to travel and have visited many great places including Japan and Costa Rica.

Laura Turner Seydel works with and supports organizations that address urgent challenges affecting the health and vitality of our life support system: our air, water, land, food, biodiversity, and climate. Laura co-founded Chattahoochee Riverkeeper to help protect the drinking water of more than 5 million Georgians. Laura works to achieve the same safe-water mission internationally as a board trustee for Waterkeeper Alliance (the consortium of over 300 waterkeepers worldwide). Laura also co-founded Mothers and Others for Clean Air to improve air quality for at-risk populations in metro Atlanta. Laura serves on the board of Project Drawdown, which focuses on measuring the top scalable solutions to address global warming. Laura also works to address the extinction crisis as a Patron of Nature with the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Additional organizations she serves include the UN Foundation, Turner Foundation, Nuclear Threat Initiative, League of Conservation Voters, Turner Institute of Ecoagriculture and currently serves as Chair of the Captain Planet Foundation, Chair of the Carter Center Board of Councilors and is a member of Atlanta Rotary.

James Marlow is an innovator, business and nonprofit builder, technology marketer, and digital transformation leader in computing and clean energy. As Southface president, James leverages his extensive experience to scale sustainable, cost-effective building and development solutions to environmental challenges. James led software and digital technologies at Computerland and contributed to 11 new business initiatives at Lotus Development, IBM, and Yahoo!. He was the founder of two energy startups, CEO and Co-Founder of Radiance Solar, and CEO of Clean Energy Advisors. Throughout his career, he has worked directly in the development, engineering, design, construction, and operations and maintenance of over 350 solar PV and energy storage projects. James is a Georgia Southern alumnus, earned a Mid-Career Management Certificate from Georgia Tech, and is part of the Institute for Georgia Environmental Leadership (IGEL) 2023 program. He’s a trustee for The Nature Conservancy of Georgia, serves on the Georgia Drawdown Leadership Council, and has been part of many other organizations, including The Carter Center Board of Councilors, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Savannah Riverkeeper, and EarthShare Georgia. James was also a US congressional candidate in Georgia’s 10th District.