Marshall Keneipp is a registered professional engineer with over 34 years of energy industry experience in the development, implementation and evaluation of utility energy service programs. His primary areas of expertise include end-use technology performance and application, energy use modeling and measurement, market assessment and marketing strategy development, product and service development, and performance measurement and evaluation of energy programs.

Marshall’s most recent work has focused on developing innovative approaches to program evaluation and the design and implementation of new products and services in residential and commercial applications. He is currently engaged in developing innovative funding mechanisms for local government sustainability efforts.

Bernie Pallissard is an Associate Director with Tierra.  His work focuses on market research for client companies. He has held numerous marketing and market research leadership roles throughout his career. His marketing experience has included senior roles in Marketing, Product and Segment Management. His market research experience has included management of extensive qualitative and quantitative research projects to meet a diverse array of business needs – market segmentation, new product development, customer experience, pricing strategy, and branding and advertising strategy and measurement. Bernie earned his MBA from Thunderbird School of International Management.

As Tierra’s Finance Director, Valerie leverages over 20 years of experience in customer service and marketing with a strong office management and bookkeeping background. She brings a diverse skill set to her role, combining financial expertise with exceptional communication and problem-solving abilities. These facets, blended with her attention to detail and capacity to anticipate needs, make her an asset to clients and team members alike. Valerie holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Brandeis University and has completed financial accounting studies at the University of Hawai‘i and Cabrillo College. 

Julie Gidley is a Managing Consultant at Tierra who has over 15 years of experience in the clean energy sector.  With a sharp focus on program design and implementation, Julie has led a wide range of residential and commercial customer energy programs throughout her career.   

In her previous role as Senior Program Director at Plug In America, a prominent non-profit dedicated to electric vehicle education, research, and advocacy, Julie played a pivotal role in shaping the organization’s program strategy and delivery. Prior to that, at CLEAResult Consulting, Julie led the delivery of energy efficiency programs for utility clients across the Southwest region, demonstrating her comprehensive understanding of Demand Side Management (DSM) programs.  

Julie’s academic background includes a bachelor’s degree in environmental science and a master’s degree in sustainability from Northern Arizona University (NAU).  Prior to her career in clean energy, Julie cultivated her passion for education by managing children’s programming at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix and implementing forest ecology education initiatives for NAU’s Ecological Restoration Institute. 

Residing in Flagstaff, Arizona, Julie enjoys spending her free time in nature and can often be found exploring the nearby mountains, rivers, and lakes with her family. Her commitment to environmental sustainability and dedication to fostering positive change resonate deeply in both her professional endeavors and personal pursuits.  

Tom Hines is an energy efficiency expert with over 20 years of experience in Demand Side Management (DSM) program design, implementation, and evaluation. He has successfully designed and managed multiple award-winning energy efficiency programs, including the Arizona Public Service (APS) ENERGY STAR Homes program and the APS Home Performance with ENERGY STAR program. Throughout his career, Tom has worked closely with industry stakeholders (including builders, contractors, Realtors, lenders, raters and other trade allies), to drive market transformation. He has testified extensively during public utility commission proceedings and is a public spokesperson for energy efficiency related topics.

Most recently, Tom has served as a strategic advisor on the design and development of APS’ entire portfolio of DSM programs – working with program managers, implementation contractors, and evaluators to explore opportunities for reducing costs, maximizing cost effectiveness, and otherwise optimizing the APS portfolio of DSM programs.

Tom also serves as a board member of the Energy and Environmental Building Alliance (EEBA), an organization devoted to advancing building science and energy efficient building practices. He likes to spend his downtime being outdoors, playing music, spending time with friends and family, and making positive change in the world in any way he can.

Floyd Keneipp brings 32 years of experience in developing and managing complex engineering projects and business solutions.  Since 1999, he has worked on the technical, programmatic, and regulatory application of distributed energy resources (DER).  For the past several years, he has focused on developing integrated approaches to scale DER implementation at the community and utility levels, including optimizing the impacts on fuel consumption (buildings and transportation), grid reliability, and economic development.  He has been a founding member of several consulting firms, including Tierra and Summit Blue Consulting (acquired by Navigant Consulting Inc. in 2010) where he served as the impact evaluation practice area lead.  Floyd’s engineering and management knowledge is enhanced by his prior work as a project developer for several large energy service companies where he engaged in all aspects of project development, from inception through financing, design, construction, and commissioning of final installations.  During this time, Floyd also founded and operated the Industrial Lighting Company, a design/build firm that installed energy efficiency projects in the commercial and industrial markets.  Prior to entering the energy services industry, he was a licensed professional engineer (Industrial) implementing manufacturing systems and refining management processes to improve cost, quality, and production efficiencies  in the aerospace, consumer products, and commercial semiconductor markets.

Mike Yim has extensive experience analyzing the economic and energy-driven impacts of Demand Side Management (DSM) programs implemented within a broad range of market sectors.  He has leveraged this cross-cutting exposure to construct pragmatic and cost-effective deployment strategies for DSM programs with a focus on integrating the design, implementation, and evaluation phases of the program life cycle.

More recently, he has continued to facilitate the transformation of the broader energy industry with an emphasis on Distributed Energy Resource (DER) Planning, along with the characterization of Grid Reliability and Resiliency (GR&R) impacts of conservative initiatives.

Matthew Joyce has nearly 20 years of demand side management experience, including strategic advising, market assessment, utility portfolio and program design, process impact evaluation, and customer experience and behavior studies.  Much of his present work focuses on distributed energy resources, electrification, and on utility program and portfolio optimization, helping utilities adapt to changing and increasingly complex market demands driven by new technologies, customer choices and new regulatory requirements.

From 2011-2015 Matthew was lead process evaluator on 30 evaluations for Duke Energy’s residential and commercial EE and DR programs in the utility’s five-state territory.  His expertise covers EM&V framework development, research and sampling design, database and literature reviews, surveys and focus groups; interviews with management, vendors, trade allies, and customers; and in-depth reviews of marketing effectiveness, enrollment practices, customer service, trade ally and vendor implementation, rebate and other business processes; and adherence to codes and standards.

As the research director at E Source (2000-2011), he managed and performed consulting projects for hundreds of IOUs and municipal utilities, cooperatives, local, state and federal agencies, and C&I customers. He oversaw dozens of qualitative and quantitative research projects, including technology assessments, program design, process improvement studies, and best in class benchmarking of all aspects of utility performance.

Matthew’s work appears in 70 energy-related publications, as well as in 16 books and dozens of national magazines, newspapers, and online outlets. He is also an accomplished speaker with over 150 speaking, training, and facilitation engagements on his resume. Prior joining the energy industry, he worked for Stanford University and the University of California.

Mark has 34 years of experience in the energy industry, including 17 years in the utility sector and 20 years in sustainable building and community design, construction and operations. He excels at implementing transformational energy efficiency, renewable energy, and carbon reduction strategies.

More recently, Mark served as the chief sustainability executive for the largest energy services firm in North America where he managed internal corporate sustainability initiatives and developed cost-effective, carbon neutral roadmaps for clients.

Mark consulted on 70 MSF of high-performance buildings and developed 40 MW of solar energy systems. He directed LEED certification for 80 projects, trained over 6,000 professionals in sustainable design, construction, and operations, led two successful sustainability consultancies, and addressed over 100 worldwide audiences.

At the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Mark managed $20 million of collaborative R&D in energy efficient building technology and served as EPRI’s e-Business Strategic Alliance Manager. He also held many leadership roles at Arizona Public Service Company (APS), where he directed the development of the world-renowned APS Environmental Showcase Home.

Mark currently serves on the Industrial Advisory Board for Arizona State University’s Professional Science Master’s degree program in Solar Energy Engineering & Commercialization. In 2017 Mark was named a Top 50 Energy Manager in North America by Business Sector Media’s Energy Manager Today Magazine

Nick Snyder has been providing strategic planning for local governments and utilities regarding the design, implementation, and financing of distributed energy resource (DER) programs for over half a decade. His experience includes analysis of financing for energy efficiency, distributed generation and load management; technical and market assessments of DER technologies; evaluation, measurement and verification of energy efficiency programs; incremental cost and tariff analysis; and modeling. Nick also has a deep understanding of the current barriers and opportunities facing local governments from his previous position on the Contra Costa County Sustainability Commission.

Before joining Tierra, Nick worked in the Energy Division of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), where he supported local government programs and regional initiatives, including Community Choice Aggregators (CCAs), Regional Energy Networks (RENs), and Local Government Partnerships (LGPs). When he isn’t pouring over regulatory documents, Nick enjoys listening to podcasts, cheering on the Utah Jazz, and playing the latest FromSoftware video game.

Phanindra Pagadala has over 12 years of experience in the utility and energy industries specializing in engineering and analytics for large C&I energy efficiency programs.  He has managed several custom impact evaluation projects for both major utilities and utility commissions across North America.

Phanindra is an expert in research roadmap development; impact evaluation; EM&V; benefit/cost analysis; process and market evaluation; in-field data collection & end-use metering; implementation of DOE-2 & other building simulation models; integrated data analysis and reporting.

He is a Certified Energy Manager and a Certified Demand Side Management Professional accredited by the Association of Energy Engineers (AEE). He is also a U.S. DOE certified Data Center Energy Practitioner.

Rachel Insley supports the ENERGY STAR Homes program for Arizona Public Service (APS) by managing the program incentive payment process to ensure goals are met and guidelines are compliant. Processing up to 800 homes monthly, Rachel reviews 100% of the lots in the database for accuracy, confirming third-party data and verifying all data to matches program requirements.

Rachel tracks, coordinates and implements solutions for user software issues with the development team. She provides documentation to determine root cause and audits solutions after deployment. She also provides technical support to the builders and provider/raters in addition to the software vendor by actively being involved in the development of the database. Rachel is instrumental with new rollouts, testing, debugging, user interface design and stabilization to ensure customer satisfaction. In addition, she assists with the creation energy cost brochures and other marketing materials for the program.

Michelle is a marketing specialist for Tierra.  She is a successful sales, marketing and event management professional with over 18 years’ advertising, sales and marketing experience.    Michelle’s experience includes marketing, public relations, recruiting, event planning, and web development. 

As an account manager for an ad agency in Austin, Texas, Michelle supported Dell and several Austin businesses.  She then moved to Sports Illustrated Magazine in San Francisco, CA and worked with the advertising director.  SI’s clients included Adidas, Nike, Apple and Levi.  Michelle holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Elizabeth Shehter is an Analyst with Tierra. Her work focuses on supporting a variety of projects, including evaluation, measurement and verification; strategic planning; and modeling for government agencies and utilities’ energy and sustainability programs. Her experience includes data science applications to environmental and renewable energy related problems, as well as research in the field of energy access and grid flexibility. Before joining Tierra, she worked on environmental justice issues at GRID Alternatives, supporting their marketing, education and outreach efforts as well as working with clients to install solar systems on low-income housing in California. Elizabeth also worked on business development at a grid-connected wave energy start-up called Eco Wave Power.

Dan Violette is a Senior Advisor at Tierra Resource Consultants.  He is a recognized industry leader in the areas of demand-side management and distributed energy resources (energy efficiency, demand response, electric vehicles, renewables and storage).  He has led a number of overall integrated supply-side/demand-side resource planning assignments for utilities and collaborative processes, and he is currently working on operational/performance risk assessments of utility distribution systems and DER investments.  Dr. Violette has authored guidebooks and protocols on DSM evaluation for California (the DR Impact Protocols), EPRI, NARUC, the International Energy Agency, and OECD.  He has managed projects on innovative pricing, customer end-use technologies, monitoring and verification for demand-side activities, and provided regulatory support on these topics including testimony in over a dozen jurisdictions in the U.S. and Canada. His work in the area of evaluation includes authoring the chapter on “Net Savings Estimation: Theory and Practice” and the chapter on “Persistence and Other Issues” for the DOE’s Uniform Methods Project (UMP).  

Dr. Violette served three elected terms as the Chair of the Association of Energy Services Professionals (AESP) and two terms as the Vice Chair of the Peak Load Management Alliance (PLMA).  He currently is a member of the DER Advisory Council at the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA). He has over 200 papers in journals, books, and conference proceedings and has been a keynote speaker at industry events.  Dr. Violette was a founder and CEO of Summit Blue Consulting prior to its acquisition by Navigant Consulting.  After the acquisition, he served as a Managing Director in Navigant’s Energy Practice for 9 years. Other positions included senior executive positions at EDS Management Consultants and Hagler Bailly, Inc.  He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Colorado where he was awarded highest honors in the fields of econometrics and industrial organization.

Gary (Wolf) Lichtenstein is Principal and Founder of Lightstone Consulting, LLC and Evergreen Carbon. He has provided environmental and climate change services to clients for over 20 years. He has expertise in GHG inventory accounting and developing GHG management systems and carbon offset projects. He is a local and international GHG auditor under multiple jurisdictions and across many industries. Wolf is an expert in most GHG accounting protocols, including The Climate Registry and its reporting for Local Government Operations and the WBCSD/WRI Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventories. Wolf serves on the leadership team for the Washington Businesses for Climate Action (WBCA) and enjoys being a member of the Washington CleanTech Alliance. He has been an Assessor for the ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB) in their GHG accreditation program for third party Validation/Verification Bodies for over 13 years, through which he has conducted assessments in a wide variety of industrial, agricultural and other settings. He holds a B.S. in Chemistry from University of New Mexico and a Master’s in Environment and Community from Antioch University in Seattle. Wolf has developed workshops on GHG accounting, carbon markets and carbon offset project development. He has been a certified Lead Auditor for both ISO 14001 and ISO 9001.

Dave currently supports Arizona Public Service by integrating findings from the evaluation of their DSM into their resource planning processes. Dave believes and strives for a collaborative approach to problem-solving that is based on a positive, inclusive, and fun work environment that encourages colleagues to be creative and innovative while feeling supported and understood.

Dave earned an M.S. in the Building Science Program in the Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering Department from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a B.S. in Biomedical and Electrical Engineering from Duke University. His master’s thesis focused on the automated calibration of building energy models.

Gregory Brown has over ten years of experience applying analytical and econometric techniques to the evaluation of Demand Side Management (DSM) programs and the energy generation and distribution system at large. He has leveraged these skills together with prior experience in the financial sector to develop cost-effective strategies for measure implementation and energy portfolio optimization. He has worked on a broad range of energy efficiency measure evaluations and characterizations, including sample design, econometric analysis of billing data, engineering data, behavioral and demand response programs, and statistical analysis of evaluation and research plans. Mr. Brown has performed academic research on a variety of statistical methodologies used for evaluating DSM programs.  

Randy Gunn has near 40 years of experience in the planning, design, implementation, and evaluation of utility energy service programs. He has extensive experience with DSM portfolio evaluation studies, market potential studies, benchmarking of DSM programs, market assessments, and baseline studies, and has led many projects in these areas. Randy joined Tierra in early 2021. At a previous firm he was project director for DSM portfolio evaluation studies for AEP Ohio, ComEd, Nicor Gas, Peoples Gas, and North Shore Gas. He was Project Director for over 20 DSM potential studies, including several projects for AEP Ohio and Otter Tail Power Company. He received degrees in Planning, Physics, and Religious Studies, and served as a member of the Board of Directors for the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (MEEA) for 12 years, including three years as Vice Chair, and six years on the Executive Committee. He is based in Chicago.

Luisa Wassung is a positive, multi-faceted, efficient, and reliable professional with over 14 years of experience. As an Executive Assistant, Luisa moves effortlessly between many different types of projects and tasks, and applies her working knowledge of computer and online tools to provide administrative, management, coordination and scheduling support to our executive team. She supports marketing and sales initiatives, as well as the development of the company’s operational and organizational infrastructure.  Her past experience includes directly supporting Partners and Directors responsible for $28 million of revenue to Guidehouse’s $210 million Energy, Sustainability, and Infrastructure segment.

Steven Nguyen has worked within the energy industry, and more recently, the broader resource management consulting sector, for more than a decade. During his tenure, Mr. Nguyen has both managed and established expertise across all stages of the Demand Side Management (DSM) lifecycle. Specifically, he has supported the design of conservation programs, facilitated the program implementation processes, and led the Impact, Process, and Market Evaluations of numerous utility program portfolios across the country. This experience allows Mr. Nguyen to provide his clients with unique insights into the application and assessment of energy conservation technologies, and more recently, Distributed Energy Resources (DER).

Mr. Nguyen has experience working across the full gamut of utility program offerings, including DTE Energy’s (DTE) Residential HVAC program, Residential Audit and Weatherization program, PECO’s Residential Low- Income program, and LG&E/KU’s Multifamily Low- Income program. Mr. Nguyen also has extensive onsite M&V expertise having led data collection, monitoring and verification efforts for several evaluation studies. Additionally, Mr. Nguyen has conducted market assessment and incremental cost research to support the Benefit-Cost valuations of utility DSM portfolios.

Graham is an Analyst at Tierra, focusing on data analytics and customer research. A recent graduate from the University of Oregon, Graham completed a B.S. in Environmental Science and Geography. In 2020, Graham started work with Portland, Oregon based non-profit, Willamette Riverkeeper as their Stewardship Assistant. While there, he established and managed recreation sites along the Willamette River Trail as well as aided restoration efforts along the river. In Eugene, at the University of Oregon (UO) Student Sustainability Center, Graham developed and led the Habitat Restoration program, including establishing community partnerships, outreach and coordination, and restoration planning and execution.