By Grey Lee
I'm Maria Vietz, the new Advocacy Fellow at the USGBC MA Chapter. I'm excited to meet and collaborate with all of you over the next few months, to boost USGBC's advocacy capacity, increase Chapter involvement, and spread awareness of our target issues to stakeholders.
A bit about me: I'm originally from Scranton, PA (Yes, the hometown of “The Office.” No, I haven't met Steve Carell). This May, I graduated from Boston University's Pardee School with a Masters in International Affairs & Political Economy. At BU, I assisted in teaching a few environmental courses for undergrads, and worked with some of my classmates to host an intercollegiate graduate conference.
Before grad school, I went to the University of Pittsburgh to get my B.Phil. in International Relations, with a focus on Sustainable Development. While at Pitt, I had the amazing opportunity to comparatively study sustainability in Argentina, the Czech Republic, and China. Being exposed to environmental and energy policies across the globe solidified my interest in advancing sustainability, and contextualized a lot of US environmental issues.
I'm planning to use my degrees to address global development issues–of which environmental policy and energy use are, of course, vital components. From both my academic research and professional experience, I've found that one of the most effective–but underutilized–ways of advancing development is through more collaboration between the public and private sectors.
The USGBC is especially remarkable to me because it functions so effectively right at that intersection of the public and private spheres. This framework seems highly translatable for making progress on other development goals, so I'm really looking forward to learning how the USGBC is able to make such great strides promoting green buildings. I hope my background in policy and our shared passion for sustainable development will make the next few months fun and productive.
Hoping to meet many of you next Thursday at the Showcase!
PE | Associate, LeMessurier
Vice President, AEW’s Architecture & Engineering group
Interior Designer, Jacobs, Boston
Senior Vice President, Market Transformation and Development U.S. Green Building Council
AIA LEED AP BD+C | Senior Associate, Gensler Boston 
LEED Fellow, WELL AP | Founder and Principal, Ecoworks Studio
LEED AP BD+C | Environmental Sustainability Manager, Armstrong World Industries
Sustainability Director, Steven Winter Associates
Assistant Professor of Exposure Science | Director of the Healthy Buildings program
Managing Director, Harvard University Office for Sustainability
Principal & Director of Certifications and Consulting, Epsten Group, Inc.
Vice President of Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility, Jamestown
Founder and Principal, Linnean Solutions | LEED AP, O+M; EcoDistrict AP
Associate Principal, BuroHappold Engineering
Senior Vice President, Sustainability at Kilroy Realty Corporation
Co-Founder, Facilitator at The Laurentia Project | LEED AP BD+C, LFA
Founder and President, Board of the Healthy Building Network
Building Technology Director, Kingspan North America
LEED® AP ID+C, BD+C, USGBC Faculty, WELL® AP, WELL Faculty and Fitwel Ambassador
Workplace Strategy Expert and Researcher, EYP
Principal, Integrated Ecostrategy
Senior Vice President, International WELL Building Institute
AIA, LEED AP BD+C, WELL AP
Principal, Bruner/Cott
Architect, Associate, and Sustainability Design Leader, Stantec Architecture and Engineering
FAIA, LEED Fellow, Long Green Specs
Products & Materials Specialist, BuildingGreen
Director of Acquisitions and Development
Director of Restorative Enterprise, Interface
Vice President of Sustainable Development, Shaw
Sustainability Manager, Consigli Construction Company
Global Head of Sustainability, Superior Essex