People

Kate is a PhD Candidate in Epidemiology at the University of Guelph and a Sessional Lecturer in Ecological Determinants of Health at the University of Waterloo. She completed a Masters of Science in 2014 in Population Medicine. Kate’s work applies an EcoHealth paradigm.

After working as a public lands ecologist for 20+ years, I decided to branch off and try something new... my own, Nature interpretation business. My motivations are to share my love of Nature and make a little income. My angle? Place-based, holistic descriptions of the land.

“Cool,” or highly reflective roofs, reduce urban heat island effects, cut cooling energy use by up to 20%, reduce carbon and air pollution, and improve public health and safety—all at little to no additional cost above conventional roofs. There is a great need to accelerate the adoption of cool roofing material, especially in urban communities with high populations of socially vulnerable residents, and increasing exposure to extreme heat days due to climate change, such as the City of Los Angeles.
In 2013, Los Angeles became the first major U.S. city to enact a residential Cool Roof Ordinance. For the EECapacity project, Laura is working with Climate Resolve, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that championed the L.A. ordinance, to support development of a cool roof toolkit and education campaign for local governments that will promote awareness and action related to cool roof opportunities in other climate-vulnerable regions of California.

Laura Mack, CSBA, LEED ID+C, is an experienced facilitator of green building, climate resilience, and other sustainability initiatives that engage organizations and communities. She serves on the steering committee for the L.A. Regional Collaborative for Climate Action and Sustainability, the City of Los Angeles Sea Level Rise Stakeholder Working Group, the Pacific Palisades Community Council, and the San Fernando Valley Branch of the U.S. Green Building Council, Los Angeles Chapter.  
Laura is the lead author of Building Efficiency Guide for Governments: How Governments Can Take Action to Create Significant Cost and Energy Savings from Buildings (2013). She has served as a research fellow for the nonprofit R20 Regions of Climate Action, and directed multiple climate resilience, environmental, health, and safety programs for Mercury General Corp. She completed graduate studies in social psychology at the University of Bergen, Norway, and holds a Certificate in Global Sustainability from UCLA.