Speakers and Presentations

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  Felix Heisel, International Assoc. AIA, Freier Architekt AKBW

  Assistant Professor, Director of the Circular Construction Lab, Cornell University

  Felix Heisel is Assistant Professor and Director of the Circular Construction Lab at Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, as well as a Faculty Fellow at the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability. He is a licensed architect in Germany and partner of 2hs Architekten und Ingenieur PartGmbB, an office dedicated to developing circular prototypologies. Heisel’s research and teaching focus on reimagining the built environment as a material depot for continuous reuse and transformation. His work on framing and scaling circularity has received international recognition, numerous awards, and is widely published, including Building Better – Less – Different: Circular Construction and Circular Economy (Birkhäuser, 2022) and Building from Waste (Birkhäuser, 2014). Heisel graduated from the Berlin University of the Arts and has held teaching and research positions at ETH Zürich, Harvard GSD, and other institutions worldwide.

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  Kathleen Hetrick, LEED AP BD+C, WELL AP, CSR-P

  US Sustainability Integration Leader, Buro Happold

  As the Buro Happold US Sustainable Integration Lead and a Bloomberg Fellow at Johns Hopkins University, Kathleen merges her passion for supply chain transformation and public health with her technical expertise in Architectural Engineering. She spearheads the sustainable design process on groundbreaking projects, including LEED Platinum campuses, Living Building Challenge civic institutions, and county-wide circular economy plans. Her recent work includes pioneering the circularity strategy for New York City’s first circular design pilot project, including the deconstruction and reuse of the construction materials for NYCEDC, Science Park and Research Campus (SPARC) Kips Bay, Component A. She is a board member of USGBC-California and a founding instigator of the Carbon Leadership Forum – Los Angeles.  She currently chairs the USGBC-CA circularity committee. Her contributions to the construction industry earned her the 2023 Living Future Hero award.

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  Mark Klein, WELL Faculty, LEED AP BD+C & ND, Fitwel Ambassador

  Senior Sustainability Manager, Healthy Workplaces, Genentech Inc.

  Mark Klein is a sustainability leader at Genentech, driving campus-wide strategies that align with Roche’s global priorities in climate protection, circular economy, and biodiversity. He leads transformative initiatives such as Genentech’s Healthy and Sustainable Built Environment Program and the Campus Deconstruction Strategy, championing regenerative design, carbon-negative goals, and large-scale material reuse. With expertise in triple bottom line assessments, cross-functional stakeholder engagement, and alignment with LEED, WELL, and Living Building Challenge frameworks, Mark integrates data-driven analysis with creative solutions. His work advances sustainability across 200 acres and 50 buildings, embedding resilient systems that connect people, nature, and innovation for long-term impact.

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  Aaron Vaden-Youmans

  Sustainability Lead (North America) Grimshaw

  Aaron Vaden-Youmans is the North American Sustainability Lead at Grimshaw Architects, where he advances climate action and regenerative design grounded in science and equity. An architect and optimist, he believes we can build the world we want by forming tighter, more durable coalitions and finding new synergies to expand our bench of allies. Based in Los Angeles, he brings 20+ years of experience shaping bold, high-impact projects globally, including the Terra Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai, Miami’s Frost Museum of Science, and ASU’s Walton Center for Planetary Health. He also serves on the National Steering Committee of US Architects Declare Climate, Justice, and Biodiversity Emergency.