Profit and Purpose '25 - WCA Sustainable Business Conference

Justin E. Driscoll is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the New York Power Authority (NYPA), the nation’s largest state-owned electric utility. He is responsible for developing and implementing the statewide utility’s strategic vision and mission, and for overseeing its operations, legal and financial matters, and relationships with external stakeholders. He is also responsible for the operation of the New York State Canal System.

Justin supervises NYPA’s 17 generation facilities and 1,550 circuit-miles of high-voltage transmission, as well as its role as an energy efficiency project developer and as energy supplier for its governmental customers, including New York City, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the New York City Housing Authority, state agencies and local governments.

Through Justin’s leadership, the Power Authority is helping the Hochul administration meet its nation-leading clean energy goals. To fully access New York’s growing renewable energy resources, he is guiding the most dramatic transformation of the state’s grid in more than four decades by implementing large-scale transmission projects, such as Smart Path, Smart Path Connect, Propel NY, Clean Path New York and Central East Energy Connect.

Before joining NYPA, Justin was engaged in the private practice of law and represented clients that included Fortune 500 companies, governmental entities and energy companies, in complex commercial litigation and regulatory matters.

Justin serves on several boards including, Electric Power Research Institute, the Alliance to Save Energy, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, the GridWise Alliance and New York City’s Urban Green Council. Justin is a graduate of American University in Washington, D.C. with a bachelor’s degree from the School of Public Affairs. He received his law degree from the New York Law School and attended the New York University School of Law L.L.M. Program in trade regulation.

Aharon Kestenbaum is a transformational sustainability leader with proven success in developing and implementing comprehensive ESG strategies across complex healthcare and corporate environments. As Director of Energy and Sustainability at Montefiore Health System, he leads sustainability initiatives for 300+ healthcare locations, driving significant cost avoidance and implementing impactful decarbonization strategies.

With extensive experience in sustainability leadership, Kestenbaum has demonstrated expertise in energy management, clinical sustainability, and stakeholder engagement. His work spans critical areas including renewable energy implementation, carbon reduction, and sustainable healthcare practices. He has successfully integrated sustainability curriculum into medical education and built cross-functional teams to advance environmental initiatives.

Kestenbaum’s professional journey includes strategic sustainability roles in healthcare, real estate, and public infrastructure, consistently delivering innovative solutions that create both environmental and operational value. He has led comprehensive projects ranging from energy conservation to clinical sustainability programs, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving organizational efficiency.

A distinguished graduate of Columbia University’s Master of Science in Sustainability Management, Kestenbaum holds multiple professional certifications including WELL AP and LEED Green Associate. He remains an active member of the Climate Disclosure Project’s Buildings Expert Advisory Group, continuing to drive forward-thinking sustainability solutions.

Alice Korngold, President & CEO, Korngold Consulting LLC, and her team provide strategy advisory services and facilitate leadership strategy retreats for executives of multinational companies, and board members and CEOs of global, national, and regional nonprofits. Korngold has authored three books, including A Better World, Inc.: Corporate Governance for an Inclusive, Sustainable, and Prosperous Future (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023). Korngold taught a course on “Sustainability and Corporate Governance” for the Master of Financial Accountability, York University in Toronto, Canada. As recognized in The Wall Street Journal, Methodology Behind Ranking Management Top 250 Companies, Korngold developed the methodology for the Drucker Institute to rank Fortune 250 companies based on their alignment with Peter Drucker’s Social Responsibility principles. She is a keynote speaker at conferences worldwide. She has a B.A. and an MSEd. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Angela is an experienced sustainability consultant, whose entire career has been focused on educating and coaching owners, architects, and contractors on sustainability best practices and implementation. Her areas of focus include LEED, Living Building Challenge, Passive House, zero energy and zero carbon, building commissioning, facilities planning, and sustainability visioning services. Angela’s technical expertise and community-focused nature make her well-suited for untangling complex challenges and working across the entire sustainability spectrum. As a Senior Sustainability Manager for Skanska, Angela helps clients across all building scales and sectors outline, apply, and push forward their sustainability goals. Integrating with teams from design through occupancy, she works to deliver low-impact, high performance projects that look holistically at the larger green picture. Angela has talked all things sustainability across the country and is involved in several regional and international volunteer and advocacy organizations. Angela received a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture and a Master of Engineering in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Lehigh University.

Briana joined the Sustainability Services team after completing a two-year rotational role in the firm’s US CFO Program where she served CFOs in all industries helping them think strategically about their key priorities.
Briana authored three articles in The CFO Journal, a subset of the Wall Street Journal. She also helped publish CFO Signals reports, one with a special topic on decarbonization. Briana has assisted clients on their sustainability journey, from hosting preliminary educational sessions to delivering on assurance engagements.
Prior to joining Deloitte, Briana graduated magna cum laude from Marist College with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and a minor in Marketing. She is a licensed CPA in the State of New York, is IFRS accredited, and is now pursuing an FSA license.

Experience
• 10 years of experience serving a variety of clients in all industries
• Relevant experiences:
• Assurance and Assurance Readiness of Financial and Non-Financial Reporting
• Business Assurance Services: Scope 1, 2 and 3 Assurance
• Environmental, Social and Governance Assurance Services: Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) Metrics
• Controls Readiness to Ensure Alignment with SEC Climate Rule
• Detailed Gap Assessments against ESRS regulations and SEC Climate Rule
• The European Union (EU) Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD)
• ESRS disclosure drafting in accordance with CSRD
• Double Materiality Assessments in accordance with CSRD
• Bachelor of Science in Accounting, Marketing Minor – Marist College
• Certified public accountant (CPA) (NY)
• International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) accredited
• IFRS Foundation Fundamentals of Sustainability Accounting (FSA) candidate.

Elizabeth Gousse Ballotte has more than 20 years of operational and organizational consulting and management experience. Liz specializes in development of sustainability assessments and impact program office implementations across all industries and advices clients on environmental, social and governance matters, risk management, and compliance issues. Liz works with organizations on sustainability framework development, policies and procedures, internal controls and Board level sustainability oversight.

Liz has conducted over 500 compliance and due diligence reviews for organizations across the U.S. She has worked on federal grants/programs including ARPA, FEMA and disaster recovery efforts related to hurricane Sandy, Irene and Lee. In addition, Liz has served as a whistleblower administrator for higher education clients. Her engagements have required her to perform internal control reviews, operational assessments, board of director workshops and grant compliance monitoring on a national scale.

Liz supports clients in painting a full picture of their organization’s financial, operational and cultural condition and helps implement operational and financial strategies that enhance performance. She has experience in performing operational assessments that evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of an organization by reviewing strategy, policies, technology, people and structure.

She is an active member of the consulting industry, with a focus on private foundation compliance audits and management consulting. She assists clients in developing compliance programs that meet the demands of federal, state and local regulations and help prevent theft and other forms of corruption.

Liz has published articles in The NonProfit Times and the NonProfit PRO. She has also held leadership roles in executive forums, workshops and symposiums.

Professor Joshua Galperin is the Faculty Director of the Sustainable Business Law Hub. He joined the Haub Law faculty in July 2021. Before that, Professor Galperin was on the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law since 2018, where he taught Torts, Administrative Law, Constitutional Law, and Environmental Law, Policy, and Practice. Professor Galperin was a student nominee for the Distinguished Public Service Professor award and a dean’s nominee for the Provost’s Diversity in the Curriculum award. He was also a two-time winner of the Most Valuable Professor award.

Prior to the University of Pittsburgh, Professor Galperin was the Director of the Environmental Protection Clinic, Lecturer in Law, and a Research Scholar at Yale Law School. He has been a fellow at Yale University’s Pauli Murray College from 2017 to the present. Professor Galperin was also a lecturer and the Environmental Law and Policy Program Director at the Yale School of the Environment (YSE). In addition to directing and teaching the Environmental Protection Clinic, Professor Galperin directed the dual law-environment degree program between YSE and Pace, Vermont, and Yale law schools. He was a lead collaborator in the Land Use Collaborative between YSE and Pace. Professor Galperin was also the associate director for the Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy, where he oversaw all operations of the Center including budgeting, fundraising, research, and teaching. Professor Galperin received the award for excellence in research, teaching, and service from the YSE graduating class of 2017.

Professor Galperin’s research and teaching cover environmental law, administrative law, food and agriculture law and policy, property, constitutional law, and tort law. He has published extensively on environmental law, with particular emphasis on the role of non-governmental advocates in the creation and maintenance of environmental law, takings and just compensation, invasive species policy, and private environmental governance. His research in administrative law looks at constitutional democracy and administrative legitimacy with a focus on how governance intuitions influence political power. He has also written about food and agriculture law and policy, particularly where agriculture and food law intersect with environmental policy and administrative law doctrine. His work appears in the Georgetown Law Journal, the Columbia Journal of Environmental Law, the Stanford Environmental Law Journal, University of Pittsburgh Law Review, Cambridge University Press, University of Virginia Journal of Environmental Law, Denver Law Review, Arkansas Law Review, Vermont Law Review, Fordham Urban Law Journal, George Washington Journal of Energy and Environmental Law, and elsewhere.

Before Yale, Professor Galperin worked for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE), where he was a policy analyst and research attorney. In that position he established and managed SACE’s coal plant retirement campaign, which was a hybrid legal, grassroots, and analytical effort to catalyze retirement of the Southeast’s oldest, dirtiest, and least efficient coal plants. Before SACE, Professor Galperin was a legislative counsel for the Vermont General Assembly, where he primarily staffed the House and Senate committees on agriculture. In that role he was involved with a number of bills that eventually became law including Vermont’s farm-to-plate investment program, dairy price stabilization, and creation of the Vermont Grape and Wine Council. Professor Galperin studied law at Vermont Law School, where he graduated magna cum laude and was a member of the Vermont Law Review’s senior editorial board. He earned a master’s degree in environmental management from the Yale School of the Environment (then the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies), and a bachelor’s degree in political science with a minor in wildlife conservation from the University of Delaware.

Judith M. Watson immigrated to the United States from Jamaica at the age of seven and was raised in White Plains, New York. After graduating from White Plains High School, she enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving three years on active duty stationed at Ford Island, Hawaii, followed by seven years in the Army Reserves, ultimately achieving the rank of Sergeant E-5. She credits her military service with instilling the discipline, work ethic, and deep commitment to service that have defined her career.

Judith earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Pace University and her Master of Public Health from New York Medical College. Her healthcare career began in 1994 at the Greenburgh Health Center—now part of the Westchester Community Health Center (WCHC) system—where she has dedicated over 31 years to advancing community health.

Throughout her tenure, Judith has held a range of leadership roles, including Executive Director of the Greenburgh site and Chief Operating Officer of the Mount Vernon Neighborhood Health Center. She now serves as Chief Executive Officer of WCHC, leading a health care system of  nine sites providing high-quality, accessible care to underserved populations across Westchester County.

Judith is deeply active in the community and serves on 14 community and nonprofit boards, including the Board of Westchester Medical Center. In recognition of her decades of service and impact, she was recently awarded an honorary doctorate by Mercy University School of Business for her contributions to public health and community well-being.

Outside of her professional responsibilities, Judith enjoys spending time with her family and significant other, jogging, traveling, watching movies, and practicing meditation.

About Westchester Community Health Center Westchester Community Health Center (WCHC) provides high-quality, preventative, and affordable health care to adults, teens, and children in Westchester County and the Bronx. As a Federally Qualified Health Center, WCHC is committed to reducing disparities and expanding access to primary care, OB/GYN, pediatrics, behavioral health, dental, and supportive services in an atmosphere of dignity and respect. WCHC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, an Article 28 Licensed Diagnostic and Treatment Center, a Joint Commission-accredited Primary Care Medical Home, and recognized by the NCQA as a Patient-Centered Medical Home. To learn more, visit wchchealth.org or follow us at facebook.com/wchchealth and instagram.com/wchchealth.

Kelly Raskauskas is the Senior Managing Director of Sustainability, Government, and Public Affairs at Webster Bank. She leads the bank’s sustainability strategy, ensuring it supports long-term shareholder value and meets evolving regulatory expectations. Kelly has built Webster’s sustainability program from the ground up, leveraging advanced analytics, stakeholder engagement, and public policy expertise to drive transparency, strengthen risk management, and improve operational efficiencies.

Kelly chairs both Webster’s cross-functional Sustainability Council and the Climate Working Group. Under her leadership, the bank has produced award-winning ESG reports that underscore its commitment to responsible growth and clear disclosure. Kelly also oversees the bank’s federal Political Action Committee (PAC), aligning corporate advocacy with governance priorities.

A graduate of Harvard Kennedy School with a Master in Public Policy and a certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, Kelly brings a data-driven, strategic mindset to sustainability and public affairs.

Kiley Kemelman has over 15 years of experience spanning engineering, operations, finance, project management and sustainability.  In her current role as Department Manager of Sustainability and Strategic Programs in Con Edison’s Environment, Health & Safety organization, she focuses on the integration of sustainability practices in large-scale capital projects.  In her prior role in Con Edison’s Investor Relations department, she led the development and issuance of the Company Annual Sustainability Report and other Environment, Social and Governance disclosures.

Kiley has a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology and an M.B.A. from Fordham University. She is a LEED Accredited Professional and holds her Project Management Professional (PMP) certification.  She resides in Hoboken, New Jersey with her husband and three kids and enjoys indoor rock climbing and kickboxing in her free time.

Michael N. Romita, a business leader with extensive public policy expertise, was named the President & CEO of the Westchester County Association in March of 2020.  Since taking on this role, Michael has helped to create and advance groundbreaking initiatives designed to strengthen the economy in Westchester and the surrounding region.  He has led the WCA’s growth in focus areas such as real estate and housing, healthcare and life-science, workforce development, energy and sustainability, and digital opportunity.  He is repeatedly recognized as one of the region’s leading voices in business, economic development, and sustainability.

Prior to the Westchester County Association, Michael was Executive Vice President in charge of corporate strategy and operations at Castle Oil Corporation, a mid-stream energy company founded by his grandfather.  He started his career as an environmental litigator at the U.S. Department of Justice where he represented the United States in federal court on a broad array of environmental and energy matters.

Michael holds a B.S. from Tufts University, J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School, and Master of Laws from The London School of Economics. He has served on the boards of many charitable and civic organizations, including the Westchester County Parks, Recreation, and Conservation Board and MINT, a mental health foundation.  In addition, he recently co-chaired the Westchester County Executive’s Transition Committee on Economic Development.  Michael and his wife Melissa live in Westchester and wait patiently for their daughter to face time them from college from time to time.

Mohita Sinha serves as the Co-Chair of SILC’s Education Committee. A seasoned financial services executive with over 25 years of expertise in change management, corporate financial reporting, and regulatory compliance, Mohita focuses on helping businesses integrate sustainability risk into corporate strategy and reporting to support the transition to a low-carbon economy. Mohita holds a Sustainability and Climate Risk certification from the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP), climate disclosure certificates from the Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), and an MBA from Bentley University. She also serves on the board of the Lower East Side Ecology Center, reflecting her commitment to environmental stewardship and urban sustainability.

Monika U. Ehrman is Professor of Law at SMU Dedman School of Law and Professor of Engineering (by courtesy) in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at SMU’s Bobby B. Lyle School of Engineering. Professor Ehrman began her academic career at the University of Oklahoma, where she earned tenure and full promotion. At OU, she served as the Faculty Director of the Oil & Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Center at the College of Law.

Prior to teaching, she served as general counsel of a privately held energy company; senior counsel with Pioneer Natural Resources (now Exxon Mobil); and associate attorney at Locke Lord LLP (now Troutman Pepper Locke). Before law school, Professor Ehrman worked as a petroleum engineer in the upstream, midstream, and pipeline sectors of the energy industry. In addition to her experience with the technical aspects of the industry, she also worked as an analyst in the areas of commodity risk management and energy trading. She is currently Chair of the AALS Section on Natural Resources & Energy and on the editorial board of the Journal of World Energy Law & Business (published by Oxford University Press).

Her scholarly interests are in the areas of natural resources, energy, mining, property, and environmental law & policy. She is principal investigator of a multi-year team grant awarded in 2021 from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to study the impact of the clean energy transition on Native American communities. Professor Ehrman earned a B.Sc. in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Alberta; J.D. from SMU Law; and LL.M. from Yale Law School.

Prior to joining Sustainable Westchester as Executive Director in January 2024, Noam served for eighteen years as the Mayor of New Rochelle and for ten years as a member of the New Rochelle City Council.  Noam was among the founding Board Members of Sustainable Westchester, and has been at the forefront of local and regional efforts to promote forward-looking environmental action.  Noam is a life-long Westchester resident and a product of the New Rochelle public schools.  He went on to Harvard University, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree in Public Policy.  Noam is married to Catherine (“Catie”) Stern, Ph.D., a clinical pediatric neuropsychologist, affiliated with Family Health Associates of White Plains and Manhattan.  They have two sons, Jeremy and Owen

Pete Harckham was elected to the New York State Senate in November 2018 and re-elected in 2020. 2022 and 2024—the culmination so far of a distinguished career in public service. Currently, he is chair of the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee.

Through his three full terms in office, Harckham has become one of the most productive members of the New York State Senate. He worked to make the 2% Property Tax Cap permanent; delivered record aid to education; and addressed the opioid crisis by doubling minimum treatment times and reducing barriers to life saving treatment.

Well-regarded as a champion of the environment, Harckham helped pass the toughest climate protection legislation in the nation, and also introduced legislation, later enacted, requiring all new passenger car and truck sales to be zero emission by 2035 and allowing municipalities to build solar canopies and jumpstart community renewable energy projects. In 2023, Governor Kathy Hochul placed Harckham’s landmark wetlands legislation protecting Class C streams statewide, which will safeguard fragile drinking water resources, into her proposed 2023 State Budget.

Additionally, Harckham has been a leading voice to hold the utilities accountable in the wake of failed responses to natural disasters, and has been there for residents during the Covid-19 pandemic. To date, he has held 18 food drives to fight hunger, assisted thousands of residents with unemployment claims and delivered PPE to first responders and municipalities throughout the 40th Senate District.

In 2015, Harckham was appointed Assistant Director of the Office of Community Renewal, responsible for the roll out and implementation of a special allotment of $4.3M in CDBG funding for Westchester municipalities. Afterwards, he served for two years as the Director of Intergovernmental Affairs for the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge project.

From 2008 to 2015 Harckham served on the Westchester County Board of Legislators (BOL), where he was a leading voice for protecting the environment, maintaining vital services and investing in our families. He was the BOL’s Majority Leader from 2010 through 2013.

Before being elected to the BOL, Harckham served as board president of A-HOME, a not-for-profit housing corporation that builds affordable housing in northern Westchester, and worked as

a communications professional on Madison Avenue for major advertising agencies. He also helmed his own communications and marketing firm, and founded K&E Farms, a small horse farm in Katonah, NY, where he donated conservation easements from the farm to the Westchester Land Trust. Both his prior residence and farm were converted to solar power.

In addition to his professional work, Harckham served on the President’s Council for the Northern Westchester Hospital, and was a board member for the United Way of Westchester and Putnam, the Junior League of Northern Westchester Community Advisory Council and the Livable Communities Council.

Peter McCartt has had an extensive and successful business career with a focus over the last 24 years on the environment, energy conservation, clean transportation, and sustainability. Currently he is the Director of Energy Conservation and Sustainability for Westchester County.

Peter has been instrumental in the creation of several successful organizations and programs across Westchester County. Peter helped found and sat on the Board of Directors of Sustainable Westchester, Inc. He created and has chaired Eastchester’s Environmental Committee since 2006, he created and is Executive Director of the Friends of Twin Lakes County Park, he helped formulate and chaired the Advisory Board of Southern Westchester Energy Action Consortium, and is President of the Twin Lakes Civic Association. In 2012 Peter was named United Way’s Volunteer of the Year for his work on the environment in Westchester/Putnam/Rockland and has been cited for many other awards for his distinguished public service to our region.

Peter and his wife Jennifer live in Eastchester with their children Camilla (21) and Miles (17). Peter is originally from Cincinnati and attended Columbia University where he was a Student Senator and lettered in Track and Cross-country.