OSE is excited to welcome a crew of new talented staff members on board in 2023! We are looking forward to working together to build a more sustainable, equitable, and carbon-neutral future for our city. Take a moment to get to know our new team members by reading their bios presented below in alphabetical order:
Amy Fowler, Climate & Buildings Support Program Advisor
Amy comes to OSE from the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, our regional air quality management and regulatory agency, where she spent nearly 23 years in various roles, including 9.5 years leading the agency’s diesel emission reduction projects and wood smoke reduction efforts and over 13 years managing the agency’s Department of Clean Air Initiatives. This department develops and implements voluntary and incentive-based programs to reduce fine particle pollution from indoor burning and diesel vehicles and equipment, and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the on-road and off-road transportation sector.
Before returning in 2000 to the Seattle area where she’d lived as a child, Amy was employed by the New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation, a non-regulatory state agency, where she conducted seminars on air pollution regulations that affected small businesses and served as a writer, editor, and graphic designer for related technical publications and outreach materials as part of the state’s Small Business Assistance Program (created under the Clean Air Act). Prior to that, she was a technical seminar instructor and technical editor for a university-based research center on energy-efficient lighting technologies and applications and has held other technical communications positions in the private and non-profit sectors.
An “Air Force brat,” Amy has lived in many states and is thrilled to call Washington home again. She’s an avid knitter who loves to travel and collect yarn “souvenirs”; has two cats, an adult daughter who lives nearby, and a grand-dog and grand-cat; and is married to a passionate climate-conscious architect.
Role at OSE: As the new Climate & Buildings Support Program Advisor, Amy will manage the Clean Building Accelerator program as it expands to include funding opportunities for frontline buildings to retrofit their energy infrastructures. Amy will develop and implement the mechanisms to disburse $4.5 million in funding allocated from the City’s Green New Deal.
Gemma Holt, Building Compliance Technical Lead
Gemma joined the Office of Sustainability and Environment as the temporary Building Compliance Technical Lead in June. She recently completed a Master in Public Policy and a Master in Urban Planning at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Gemma’s environmental policy career has taken her from researching sustainable development in the Finnish Arctic to advising the National Park Service on alternative transportation systems on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Gemma grew up in Seattle and is thrilled to be back in the Pacific Northwest after a decade in Massachusetts. She tries to spend as much time outside as possible running, hiking, or skiing.
Role at OSE: As a Building Compliance Technical Lead, Gemma coaches building owners and service providers on program goals, requirements, and compliance with the Seattle Building Tune-Ups ordinance, manages the Building Tune-Ups help desk, and ensures that building tune-ups meet the standards of the program.
Bin Jung, Resilience Hubs Advisor
Bin joins OSE as its new Resilience Hubs Advisor and is an urban planner with experience and expertise in project and strategy design, community planning, stakeholder facilitation, and policy development. She has extensive knowledge of affordable housing development, having previously worked at the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development and the Seattle Office of Housing. She first became passionate about environmental justice while leading a campaign to decommission a 1.3-mile highway in the Bronx, New York. She holds degrees from Wesleyan University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and is the recipient of a Fulbright-Garcia Robles Scholarship to Mexico.
In her spare time, Bin enjoys sewing clothes, gardening, karaoke, and dog memes.
Role at OSE: Bin leads the creation of the Citywide Resilience Hub Plan, which will guide how the City develops and supports a network of resilience hubs. Resilience hubs are trusted, community-serving facilities that can support the community in their daily lives before, during, and after an emergency.
Jaime Macadangdang, Operations Manager
Jaime Macadangdang joins OSE after seven years at Seattle University, leading the operations team for the Center for Community Engagement. In that role, Jaime worked to centralize the finance, administration, communications, data, and staffing systems of the 25-person team. Before moving to Seattle, Jaime worked in operations at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. She approaches her work with the core values of dignity, transparency/clarity, accessibility, and collaboration and loves operations because it finds her at the intersection of people and systems. Jaime is inspired by the mission of OSE and the people who find themselves drawn to it. She is a mother, an artist, a hiker, and a planner.
Role at OSE: Jaime is the Operations Manager of the Office of Sustainability and Environment, leading the efforts to manage staffing and central administration needs for the office.
Elise Rasmussen, Climate and Environmental Justice Associate
Elise Rasmussen (she/her) came to OSE from the WA State Department of Health, where she was an Equity and Social Justice Manager focused on environmental justice as well as a Climate Justice Coordinator in the state’s Climate and Health Program. Previously, Elise was the manager for the WA State Environmental Justice Task Force and worked with communities across the state to write the Healthy Environment for All Act, an environmental justice law that keeps WA state government accountable to communities most overburdened by pollution.
Elise is passionate about working toward and re-imagining a world where all living beings have the opportunity to thrive in healthy environments, especially in a changing climate. Outside of work, you can find Elise in the mountains year-round, competing in ultimate frisbee, or in the kitchen trying out a new recipe with vegetables from her garden.
Role at OSE: As a Climate and Environmental Justice Associate, Elise staffs the Green New Deal Oversight Board and supports the implementation of the City’s Green New Deal Ordinance and Environmental Justice Fund.
Mike Roos, Building Climate Policy Advisor
Mike is a data-driven sustainability professional with more than a decade of public sector experience. Most recently, Mike worked at Sound Transit where he managed annual sustainability and greenhouse gas reporting, oversaw a $25M internal sustainability grant program, and led research on topics like the Washington Clean Fuel Standard and zero emission locomotive technologies.
Prior to arriving in Seattle in 2019, Mike lived in New York City, where he worked as an energy analyst with the Department of Citywide Administrative Services Division of Energy Management and the New York City Housing Authority. Over the course of several years in New York City government, Mike conducted portfolio scale building energy performance analyses, supported the implementation of energy efficiency projects, facilitated energy benchmarking, and managed many large datasets.
Mike holds a Master of Public Administration in Environmental Science and Policy from Columbia University, a BA from Colgate University in Economics and Geography, and a Certified Energy Manager credential. Mike lives in Capitol Hill and enjoys live music, skiing, and hiking.
Role at OSE: Mike joined the Buildings team with the Office of Sustainability and Environment in January 2023 as a Building Climate Policy Advisor and has been providing data analysis and program management support for the Energy Benchmarking and Building Tuneup Programs.
Lauren Urgenson, Senior Urban Forestry Advisor
Lauren has been connecting science, policy, and collective action toward sustainable and equitable management of natural resources for over 20 years. She is excited to apply her strategic leadership, partnership-building skills, and deep forestry knowledge to work with interdepartmental and external partners to achieve Seattle’s vision of an urban forest where everyone— starting with those most harmed by inequities—has access to trees and the benefits they provide and where we keep our trees and forest healthy and thriving in the face of a changing climate.
She joins OSE from King County, where she led partnerships to solve complex issues affecting communities, salmon habitat, and environmental health in an urbanized watershed. Prior to her work at King County, Lauren worked as a research scientist at UW, leading projects focused on monitoring outcomes of ecological forest management and on community-based approaches to forest policy. Lauren has an M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the University of Washington, School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, and a B.A. from the University of Maryland. When not at work, Lauren enjoys spending time with family and friends exploring the wonders of the Northwest and around her home neighborhood in Beacon Hill, Seattle.
Role at OSE: As Senior Urban Forestry Advisor, Lauren will collaborate across departments and with external stakeholders to equitably sustain and grow our urban forest. Lauren will foster collaboration on the City’s overall urban forestry strategy, lead the development of a canopy equity & resilience plan, oversee a recently awarded federal grant to engage environmental justice communities in urban forestry planning and restoration, identify and pursue opportunities to advance projects that address the needs of the urban forest and strengthen and build partnerships with a wide range of stakeholders.
Gus Williams, Climate and Workforce Development Advisor
Gus Williams joins OSE as the Climate and Workforce Development Advisor with over a decade of invaluable workforce development experience to the table, specializing in cultivating enduring partnerships between agencies and employers to facilitate training and employment services. His expertise lies in creating impactful programs that benefit individuals and communities alike. Gus has served as a thought leader at many organizations, overseeing a diverse portfolio of initiatives and workforce development programs.
Outside of his professional commitments, Gus treasures spending quality time with his family. He finds joy in cheering on his two children as they compete in sporting events, witnessing their growth and achievements firsthand. Additionally, Gus maintains an active lifestyle and nurtures his passion for fitness through his love for Peloton.
Role at OSE: Gus is the thought leader to OSE on the build-out of a Climate and equitable Economy and workforce priority policy for the City, focusing on driving positive change by shaping policies, fostering collaboration, and supporting initiatives that lead the city toward a more sustainable, resilient, and equitable future.
Sunny Ysa, Program Associate, Data & Finance
Sunny entered the City of Seattle in the Fall of 2019 with the Department of Neighborhoods, working on inclusive community engagement and outreach, and providing administrative support to the Community Liaison program. Sunny’s personal history includes Sunny’s family’s journey as refugees of the Vietnam War, growing up in South Seattle, and studying political theories, post-colonialism, and critical refugee studies at Whitman College. Sunny enjoys watching soccer, gardening, and drinking cappuccinos and is most likely to be found shopping for chocolate or coffee beans.
Role at OSE: Sunny will be focusing on building, streamlining, and improving budget coordination and tracking, contract tracking, systems and operations improvement, and providing administrative and program support to the Climate Justice team.