Twana Karney joined Acterra in July 2008 when she was hired as the program director of Green@Home. Twana began her career as a chemical engineer and received her MBA from the University of Chicago. Prior to joining our team, Twana worked for over eight years as the Executive Director for the Leadership Mountain View program, a program to train and develop community leaders. In January of 2007, Twana was selected by The Climate Project to be trained to present the slide show for "An Inconvenient Truth." Twana is currently giving presentations on behalf of The Climate Project to spread awareness about global warming and climate change. She was a member of the Mountain View Environmental Sustainability Task Force and has appeared with her husband, Bruce, on the News Hour with Jim Lehrer. In 2008 Twana was named vounteer of the year by Leadership Mountain View.

Elizabeth Sarmiento joined Acterra as the Green@Home Outreach Coordinator in November 2009. A native Spanish speaker, Elizabeth is an advocate for environmental and social justice. Prior to joining Acterra, she was a Community Organizer for Services, Immigrant, Rights, And Education Network (SIREN), where she organized the first two Immigrants for the Environment projects in San José, CA. While working on her Environmental Studies degree at San José State University, Elizabeth was Director of the Environmental Resource Center.

For over three years she interned at the Santa Clara Valley Water District in its Water Use Efficiency Unit, where she had the opportunity to learn more about issues related to water resources and to promote water conservation in Santa Clara County. In 2008, Elizabeth was a member of the Mountain View Environmental Task Force, which allowed her to share, research and help write the City of Mountain View's Environmental Sustainability Report. Since 2003, Elizabeth has been part of the Youth Enrichment Strategies (YES) program. YES brings families of limited resources together to learn and appreciate the natural environment, through play, while camping in the redwood forests.

A Bay Area native, Lisa has recently returned to the area after receiving a bachelor’s degree in Biology from Grinnell College and a PhD in Ecology from the University of California, Davis. Lisa has been committed to protecting the environment since elementary school, when she learned to leave a campsite cleaner than she found it. Before arriving at Green@Home, Lisa studied conservation in East Africa and researched plant-insect interactions, wetlands conservation, and spider diversity. Her graduate research examined the anti-predator behavior of wild horses in Northern California and Nevada. In between her studies, Lisa got as much travelling in as she could, including a tour of the U.S. by greyhound bus, living in Italy and Tanzania and visiting many major Islands — 11 so far, including Cuba, Malta, Bali and Zanzibar. Lisa is happy to be back in the Bay Area and is looking forward to participating with non-profits like Green@Home that promote energy and environmental awareness through non-traditional forms of education. She currently volunteers with the Girls to Women after school program in East Palo Alto, the Environmental Volunteers and Save the Bay. An avid reader with too many hobbies, Lisa is currently enjoying jewelry making and crocheting and is getting back into hiking. She can often be found walking slowly around her block with her arthritic dog, Asha.

Blaine Tehaney joined Acterra as a Green@Home Intern in June 2011. Blaine is excited to help community residents better understand their energy use and to institute energy efficiency measures in their homes. Recently graduating with degrees in Environmental Studies and Economics from UC Santa Barbara, he is well versed in the connection between saving energy and money. Before becoming an intern at Acterra, Blaine worked for two different California non-profits, Goleta Valley Beautiful in Santa Barbara and Friends of the Urban Forest in San Francisco. While assisting these nonprofits, he helped to write an urban forestry management plan that was adopted by Goleta city council and lead community planting efforts. Across all of his professional roles and personal endeavors, Blaine is avid about protecting the environment and reducing the impact of climate change through mitigation and adaption initiatives. Living on the Peninsula, Blaine can often be found enjoying local hiking trails with his new Labrador puppy Buck.

Debbie has been called "an environmental entrepreneur" for her skills in working with start-up projects and involving community volunteers. Her current role is to develop new programs for Acterra. Before working at Acterra, Debbie served five years as Outreach Director at the Foundation for Global Community. Debbie has also served leadership positions in several other organizations, including the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, Canopy: Trees for Palo Alto, the San Francisquito Creek Watershed Council, and Leadership Midpeninsula. She served for six years as Executive Director of the Peninsula Conservation Center.

Debbie worked for seven years for the Palo Alto Unified School District as coordinator of parent-community involvement and as a volunteer leader of the city-wide PTA Council. A Palo Alto resident for over 30 years, Debbie has been an active leader in many local organizations, including the Loma Prieta Chapter of the Sierra Club, Midpeninsula Access Corporation, the Center for Economic Conversion, Collective Roots Garden Project, and the Midtown Residents' Association, of which she was a co-founder. Educated at UC Berkeley and Stanford, Debbie has three grown children and five young grandchildren.

Moira Hafer joined Acterra in September 2011 as an AmeriCorps member. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Moira came west to earn her undergraduate degree at Stanford University. As a major in Human Biology, Moira studied the intersection between humans and the world around us, an education that has served her well in her environmental endeavors. In the past, Moira has interned for the Loma Prieta chapter of the Sierra Club and the GreenCityBlueLake Institute, an environmental non-profit organization in Cleveland. At GreenCityBlueLake, Moira conducted a survey of all the cities in Northeast Ohio to find out what actions they had taken to address the issue of climate change. From this data, Moira compiled a Toolkit for Local Communities to help Ohioans feel better prepared to confront today’s environmental issues. At Green@Home, Moira is excited about interacting with people in a hands-on way to help them reduce their energy use. In her spare time, Moira plays Ultimate Frisbee and cheers on Cleveland sports teams!

Lindsay Babbitt joined Acterra this summer as an intern with the Green@Home program. She is currently working on outreach and performing HouseCalls in Mountain View. Lindsay enjoys visiting Mountain View residents in their homes, and working with them to identify easy ways to save energy. She learns something new about energy use and savings from every volunteer, resident, and HouseCall. A Bay Area native, Lindsay began taking action for the environment during high school, when she started a recycling campaign at Hillsdale High School in San Mateo. Lindsay continued her education at Brown University, where she studies Literary Arts and will graduate in December of 2011. During a semester spent in Miami, FL, Lindsay worked for two non-profits, Catalyst Miami and Empowered Youth. She is interested in continuing environmental work through outdoor education, and plans to pursue a career in teaching.