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The UNC EFC reaches local communities through the delivery of interactive applied training programs and technical assistance. The UNC EFC sees one of its major roles as increasing the capacity of other organizations to address the financial aspects of environmental protection. For this reason and to support the leveraging of resources, the UNC EFC does most of its training in a collaborative manner – partnering with established organizations that have environmental, but not necessarily financial expertise.
In addition to direct community outreach, the EFC works with decision makers to assess the effectiveness of environmental finance policies at a regional or state level, and to improve those policies as a way of supporting local efforts.
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Jeff
Hughes, Director
Richard Whisnant, Professor of Public Law and
Government
Stacey Isaac Berahzer, Project Director
Andrew Westbrook, Project Director
Shadi Eskaf, Project Director
Glenn Barnes, Project Director
Mary Tiger, Project Director
Lauren Patterson, Research Assistant/Environmental Finance Analyst
Andrew d'Adesky, Graduate Intern/Environmental Finance Analyst
Lydian
Altman, Associate Director, Public Intersection Project
Ricardo Morse, Assistant Professor of Public Administration
and Government
John Stephens, Associate Professor of Public
Administration and Government
Kara A. Millonzi, Assistant Professor of Public
Law and Government |
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 Jeff Hughes is the Director
of the Environmental Finance Center at UNC. Jeff works with local
governments, not for profit organizations, and private companies
to identify and implement innovative methods of financing and maintaining
environmental facilities and programs. Jeff has a Masters in Water
Resources Engineering from the School of Public Health, University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an undergraduate engineering
degree from Duke University. Jeff served as the Chatham County Public
Works and Utility Director between 1996 and 1999. He has worked
extensively overseas as an environmental finance specialist with
the Research Triangle Institute, providing technical support and
training assistance to local and national governments throughout
Eastern Europe and Africa.
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 Richard
Whisnant is an Professor
of Public Law and Government. He teaches environmental and administrative
law, often to local and state officials such as city and county
managers and attorneys, judges, and finance officers. As an Institute
of Government faculty member, Richard works with local government
on a daily basis to answer questions and give advice about environmental
problems. Richard's interests and expertise are in environmental
law, including the core air, water and waste statutes, the law of
cleaning up contaminated property, and various specialized areas
such as risk assessment, water resource management, coastal development,
sedimentation and erosion control; administrative law, including
the structure and processes of administrative agencies at the state
and local level, regulatory reform, rulemaking, permitting and enforcement;
and in financing environmental infrastructure. Richard is also knowledgeable
in the area of digital content creation and distribution. He holds
degrees from Harvard University, including a J.D. and a Masters in Public Policy,
and from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to joining the Institute faculty, he served
as General Counsel to the N.C. Dept. of Environment, Health and
Natural Resources. |
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Stacey Isaac Berahzer
is a Project Director with the Environmental Finance Center and
works from a satellite office in Georgia. Stacey provides outreach
services to local communities and disseminates tools and resources
on topics such as funding strategies for stormwater management,
rate setting practices, and general innovative financing techniques
to improve water quality. She earned her Masters degree in Public
Administration at UNC - Chapel Hill. She earned her undergraduate
degree at NC Central University in Environmental Science. Stacey
has worked in the area of pollution prevention and water quality
at RTI International. Her experience in the field of education involved
teaching high school, working with street children in Bolivia, research
on closing the academic achievement gap in NC, and work in the area
of "service-learning." |
Andrew
Westbrook works with the EFC on providing tools to
help utility professionals and elected officials communicate effectively
in order to implement proactive infrastructure financial sustainability
measures. He has a graduate degree from the Environmental Sciences
& Engineering Department of the School of Public Health at UNC
– Chapel Hill. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Civil
& Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at
Urbana – Champaign. As a graduate student at UNC, he has conducted
research on the rate of disinfectant (chloramine) decay in drinking
water distribution systems. |
 Shadi
Eskaf joined
the Environmental Finance Center in 2004 and has worked on projects
analyzing environmental systems in local, statewide and regional
settings. Shadi conducts research on a range of topics including
water systems collaboration and regionalization, water and wastewater
rates and rate-setting, residential water consumption, infrastructure
capital needs and funding. Shadi is currently a doctoral student
in the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill's Department of
Environmental Sciences and Engineering. He received his Master's
degree in Environmental Engineering from the same department in
2003, and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of
Tennessee, Knoxville in 2000. Shadi has also worked for the World
Bank, Mercury Associates Inc., and Kimberly-Clark Corporation. |
 Glenn
Barnes joined the Environmental Finance Center in 2006. Barnes
teaches courses, provides direct community assistance, and carries
out research on a range of topics including stormwater management,
water and sewer rate-setting, wetlands, woody debris recycling,
and green government. Prior to joining EFC, he worked for non-profits
in New England focusing on renewable energy, biofuels, and environmental
regulation. Barnes holds a BA and MPA from The University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill. |
 Mary
Tiger is a Project Director for the
Environmental Finance Center and provides outreach services
to local communities on water conservation strategies and sustainability.
Ms. Tiger holds a masters of public administration from the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill a BS in Environmental Journalism from the University of North
Carolina at Asheville. Mary interned with Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Utilities during the summer of 2008. There she conducted a process
evaluation of their irrigation violation ticketing process and
helped CMU explore the policy behind drought surcharge development.
Prior to moving to Chapel Hill, she served as the Utility Conservation
Coordinator for Loveland Water and Power in Colorado. |
 Lauren Patterson is a PhD student in the geography program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her Master's degree at UNC examined the effect that flood policy had on the development patterns of human populations exposed to riverine flooding. Prior to coming to UNC, Lauren's previous research experience has included an internship with the Geographic Information Sciences and Technology division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory working on population modeling. |
 Andrew d'Adesky started working with the Environmental Finance Center in 2008. He performs research on a range of topics including water rate setting, interlocal agreements and water systems collaboration. Andrew is currently attending the Master of Public Administration program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Originally from Miami, Florida, Andrew holds a BA in Political Science and Religious Studies from Florida International University.
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 Lydian
Altman joined the School of Government in 1999. Her
prior work has been with public sector organizations, including several
years as a director or board member of a nonprofit rape crisis and
domestic violence agency, community college administrator, staff to
a chamber of commerce, and in local government administration. In
her current work with the Public Intersection Project, she promotes
and fosters better cross-sector working relationships for more effective
public problem-solving. Altman also facilitates strategic planning
with boards and employee groups. Many of her project-generated articles
have been published in Popular Government, ICMA’s IQ Report
and PM Magazine, the American Review of Public Administration and
PA Times. Altman holds a BS in industrial relations and an MPA from
UNC-Chapel Hill. |
 Rick
Morse joined the School of Government in 2006. He previously
was assistant professor in the Public Policy and Administration
Program at Iowa State University. He has also served as a project
manager at Virginia Tech's Institute for Policy Outreach. He has
worked extensively with state and local public officials on community
collaboration processes in Virginia and Iowa. More recently, he
led a team of colleagues consulting on a county-wide community visioning
effort in Wilson, North Carolina, and continues to do advising and
teaching in the areas of collaborative problem solving, visioning,
and citizen participation. His publications include several articles
and book chapters on collaboration and public participation. He
also is lead editor of two recently published books on public leadership,
Transforming Public Leadership for the 21st Century (M.E. Sharpe,
2007), and Innovations in Public Leadership Development (M.E. Sharpe,
2008). Morse holds a BA and MA in public policy from Brigham Young
University and a PhD in public administration/public affairs from
Virginia Tech. |
John
Stephens earned his B.A. from Earlham College, Master of
Philosophy from The City University, London, and Ph.D. from George
Mason University's Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution.
Before joining the Institute of Government in 1996, he was Research
Director of the Ohio Commission on Dispute Resolution and Conflict
Management. Previously, he had managed political campaigns, worked
for a congressman, and was a lobbyist for the Home Builders Association
of St. Louis, Missouri. He coordinates the Institute's public dispute
resolution program and teaches public dispute resolution and
citizen participation in the Master of Public Administration program.
John's specialties are multi-party negotiation and consensus-building.
His publications include Guidebook to Public Dispute Resolution
in North Carolina, Public Management Bulletin: Using a Mediator
in Public Disputes, solo authored, and Reaching for Higher Ground:
Tools for Powerful Groups and Communities, Listening to Citizens:
County Commissioners on the Road and School Funding Disputes: Mediate,
Don't Litigate, all co-authored. He is also the editor of Popular
Government. |
Kara A. Millonzi joined the School of Government in 2006.
She previously practiced law with Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault,
LLP in Boston and clerked for the Honorable Louis F. Oberdorfer,
United States District Court for the District of Columbia. She is
a member of the North Carolina State Bar and the Bar of the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts. Recent publications include "Lawful Discrimination
in Utility Ratemaking: Classifying Customers within Territorial
Boundaries" and "Lawful Discrimination in Utility Ratemaking: Classifying
Extraterritorial Customers," both published in Local Finance
Bulletin. Millonzi earned a B.A. in economics, summa cum laude,
Phi Beta Kappa, from the University at Buffalo and an M.A. in economics
from the University of Maryland at College Park. She earned a J.D.,
with highest honors, Order of the Coif, from the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she served as editor in chief of
the North Carolina Law Review.
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