- Brandt Hertenstein, Metropolitan Energy Center
- Tami Alexander, Metropolitan Energy Center
- Allison Smith, KDOT
- Amy Link, KDOT
- Brooke Carroll, Kansas Power Pool
- Bill Roush, Retired
- Brad Mears, Kansas Municipal Utilities
- Hobie Parker, Evergy
- Julie Dietrich, Evergy
- Kevin Heptig, Bluestem Electric Cooperative, Inc
- Larry Kinder, LilyPad EV
- Wendy Marine, Evergy
- Zack Pistora, Kansas Sierra Club
Larry Kinder
Larry is CEO and founder of LilyPad EV. He is committed to the use of electricity as a transportation fuel. It contributes to environmental sustainability and leads to economic development opportunities.
Larry founded LilyPad EV in 2009 which has since grown into a leading provider of EV charging infrastructure in the US. LilyPad EV has deployed charging stations in 36 states and helps clients with planning of their EV charging programs including strategy, options, site acquisition, design, project management, procurement, installation and ROI analysis. This includes extensive work helping electric utility companies with deployments of charging infrastructure, advising on State highway corridor charging projects, and deployment of charging stations at highway corridor sites.
Brad Mears
Brad Mears joined Kansas Municipal Utilities in 2007 and currently serves as association’s Assistant Executive Director. In his position, he is responsible for developing and implementing programs and services for the benefit of municipal utilities across Kansas. He also represents municipal utility issues to governmental officials at the local, state and federal levels.
Before joining KMU, he served as city manager of Holton, Kansas for 15 years. In addition to his general city government responsibilities as city manager, he also directed the City’s electric, water and wastewater utilities, while also serving as General Manager for Public Wholesale Water Supply District No. 18.
Prior to his local government experience, he worked at the state level for the Kansas Department of Commerce. He has a master’s degree in Public Administration and a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, both from Wichita State University. He has also earned several awards for his work with local government and municipal utilities. Currently, he resides in McPherson, Kansas, with his wife Diane, and they are both active in several groups and non-profit organizations in the community.
Brooke Carroll
Brooke Carroll currently serves as the Director of Administrative Services for the Kansas Power Pool located in Wichita, Kansas. The Kansas Power Pool is a Kansas Municipal Energy Agency that buys and sells electric power for 24 municipalities within Kansas.
Brooke is responsible for maintaining and promoting positive relationships with Kansas Power Pool Members. KPP administrative services offers many benefits to its members such as rate designs and cost of service studies, electric utility financial reviews, education and training, electric distribution assessments, policy creation for solar and parallel generation, electric vehicle initiatives, cyber security preparation and awareness, special events such as Public Power Week, and other special projects, such as the implementation of AMI (automated metering infrastructure).
Prior to joining KPP in 2019, Brooke was the City Administrator for the city of Cherryvale, Kansas. In additions, she is also a licensed CPA in the state of Kansas and holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an Accounting Emphasis from Utah Valley University. She also is a 2018 graduate from the University of Kansas’ Certified Public Management Program.
Bill Roush
Bill Roush is retired from the Black & Veatch Renewables group. While at B&V he participated in several regional renewable energy assessments. He also was the utility scale solar plant warranty manager. In addition, he was project manager for the engineering team assisting utility scale solar project developers with interconnection applications.
Currently, he serves on the Mainstreet Credit Union board and it‘s supervisory board. Bill is also a member of the Kansas Climate and Energy Project’s Board of Directors.
Allison Smith
Allison Smith is an Environmental Coordinator and MPO Liaison with the Kansas Department of Transportation and has been with the agency for 14 years. Her primary duties include providing oversight to the metropolitan planning organizations in the state, administering non infrastructure federal aid projects, overseeing air quality related issues, and coordinating other environmental related initiatives.
Allison holds a B.A. from the University of Kansas, and M.S. from Western Illinois University, and Master of Urban Planning from the University of Kansas. She lives in Lawrence with her son.
Zack Pistora
Zack Pistora is an environmental champion from Linwood, Kansas. For ten years now, he has been the proud Kansas Lobbyist for the Sierra Club, working to improve public policy in Topeka.
Zack currently doubles as the Interim Executive Director for the Kansas Rural Center, a group concentrated on rural life and sustainable food and farm systems statewide. He is also a board advisor for another Kansas environmental nonprofit, the Kansas Natural Resource Council.
Outside of his advocacy work, Zack likes to spend his time with loved ones, adventuring, watching sports and live music, and growing and selling organic vegetables. To Zack, the question is pretty simple: we all count on our environment every day... can it count on us?