Who We Are

Staff

Anya Schoolman - Executive Director

Anya Schoolman has been working on environment and sustainable development for more than 25 years. She spent nearly 10 years in the Federal Government at the US EPA and the Department of the Interior and the following 10 years working as a strategic advisor for NGOs and Foundations on strategy, grant-making, campaign design, base-broadening, energy policy, voter engagement and program development and design. She founded the Mt Pleasant Solar Coop five years ago with her son Walter.  As President of the Mt Pleasant Solar Coop she has led a city-wide effort in Washington, DC to make solar accessible and affordable to anyone who wants it.  She has assisted more than 70 homeowners in Washington DC to go solar and has helped foster the creation of 11 sister coops that joined together to form a city wide organization called DC Solar United Neighborhoods (DC SUN). She is the founder of the Community Power Network.

John O'Neill

John O'Neill started working with the Community Power Network in 2011. He attended the University of Arizona where he study political science and sustainable development. For the few years prior to working with the CPN he has worked for a technology company and also as a legal assistant. He has also worked on projects that involved researching solar energy policies. These experiences have drawn him to the Community Power Network's mission of getting everyone involved to take part in our country's energy future. His work with the CPN has included helping to develop the content and design of the website.

Advisors

Tom Matzzie

Tom Matzzie is a social entrepreneur, political strategist and veteran online campaign leader. For more than a decade he has led marketplace, legislative, political and corporate campaigns for social change organizations including MoveOn.org--the leader in online organizing. Locally, he volunteers his political campaign skills to DC Solar United Neighborhoods and recently helped pass legislation to grow the renewable energy market in Washington, DC. He is also the proud owner of a 5 KW solar array and buys his electricity from a supplier of wind energy.

Stanley Florek

Stanley Florek, CEO of Tangerine Power, is capturing emerging opportunities in  distributed energy finance and deployment. He has delivered technology solutions for hundreds of organizations, including Microsoft, John Deere, the US Air Force, and the University of Washington Medical Center. He earned an MBA at the pioneering Bainbridge Graduate Institute for Sustainable Business, with a concentration in Sustainable Energy Solutions. He is actively involved in distributed energy policymaking at the state and federal levels, and co-founded the trade association Washington Local Energy Alliance (WALEA). He also serves on the board of Solar Washington. Tangerine Power is Stanley's 4th venture.

John Farrell

John Farrell directs the Energy Self-Reliant States and Communities program at ILSR and  he focuses on energy policy developments that best expand the benefits of local ownership and dispersed generation of renewable energy.  His latest paper, Democratizing the Electricity System, describes how to blast the roadblocks to distributed renewable energy generation, and how such small-scale renewable energy projects are the key to the biggest strides in renewable energy development. 

Farrell also authored the landmark report Energy Self-Reliant States, which serves as the definitive energy atlas for the United States, detailing the state-by-state renewable electricity generation potential.  Farrell regularly provides discussion and analysis of distributed renewable energy policy on his blog, Energy Self-Reliant States (energyselfreliantstates.org), and articles are regularly syndicated on Grist and Renewable Energy World.

John Farrell can also be found on Twitter @johnffarrell, or at jfarrell@ilsr.org