Donny is a Senior Environmental and Sustainability Planner with 17 years of experience. He is a leader on VHB’s Climate Action Team and is practiced in sustainable design and development, urban and regional planning, and environmental consulting. He has led many planning projects for a variety of government and private organizations of various scales where sustainability and resilience were core focuses. This experience was gained by his work on dedicated climate action and adaptation plans, recently including the Massport Net Zero by 2031 Roadmap. In addition to managing this and related projects, Donny supports sustainability and climate action projects across VHB’s footprint through both advisory services and direct technical support (for example, with greenhouse gas emissions accounting, fleet electrification, building assessments, etc.). He is a LEED Accredited Professional (LEED AP O+M), certified planner (AICP), Envision Specialist (ENV SP), and TRUE Advisor.

Josh DeFlorio is Chief, Resilience and Sustainability at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ). He leads a team of more than 20 professional staff that focuses on ensuring that the aviation, port, urban rail, tunnel, bridge, terminal, and real estate facilities called for in the agency’s $37 billion capital plan are planned, designed, and delivered to be both environmentally sustainable and climate resilient. He is a Transportation Chapter Author on the 5th National Climate Assessment.

Mark is a water resources engineer and project manager with 17 years of professional experience. Mark focuses on surface hydrology, riverine and coastal hydraulics, stormwater, climate change adaptation, resilient design, and permitting for a wide range of land development, energy, municipal, and transportation improvement projects. Mark’s experience includes innovative coastal and riverine flood modeling that incorporates future climate conditions to evaluate flood impacts. This modeling is used to support his engineering design projects that focus on infrastructure improvements, nature-based solutions, and hybrid solutions to increase flood resilience. Some examples of his work include the design of the Rumney Marsh salt marsh restoration in Saugus, the restoration of Sweetwater Brook in Woburn, the Philadelphia Airport Resiliency study, and the Suffolk Downs Climate Adaptation Study that studied regional flood protection to the communities of Boston and Revere.

Katherine Brekka is the Sustainability Practice Leader and a Senior Associate at Fennick McCredie Architecture; a Boston based firm founded on humanist values. She has worked on a wide range of projects including educational, community, and aviation facilities, often with a primary focus on building reuse. Katherine received her Master of Architecture degree from the Savannah College of Art & Design in 2008.x000D x000D After attending a workshop on the AIA 2030 Commitment at Greenbuild in 2018, Katherine returned to her office and proposed that her firm sign on and begin tracking their progress towards a carbon neutral future. She started FM’s Sustainability Committee and has continued to expand their mission, recently signing on to the AIA Materials Pledge and working with the firm to implement a comprehensive evaluation framework that not only considers the issue of carbon and climate health but also promotes human and ecosystem health, social equity and circularity. She is a passionate advocate for environmental justice.