Contact Us

For general questions about CNT or the issues we work on, please email info@cnt.org or call 773-278-4800. For questions about specific issues or programs, please contact the following staff:

Natural Resources:
Steve Wise, swise@cnt.org
Energy:
Anne Evens, anne@cntenergy.org
Transportation & Community Development:
Maria Choca-Urban, maria@cnt.org
Climate:
Jen McGraw, jen@cnt.org
GRID:
Linda Young, linda@cnt.org
I-GO Car Sharing:
Sharon Feigon, sharon@igocars.org
Green Building Tours:
Annette Stahelin, annette@cnt.org
Something else?
Nicole Gotthelf, nicoleg@cnt.org

For a complete staff list, see below.

Visiting CNT Headquarters

The Center for Neighborhood Technology occupies a formerly abandoned industrial building, dating to the 1920s, in the historic neighborhood of Wicker Park. CNT moved to its current location in 1987, at which point it completed an award-winning renovation of the 2nd and 3rd floors, incorporating energy-efficient features such as non-toxic interior finishes and resource-efficient workplace procedures. In 2001, CNT began another renovation, this time also incorporating the 3rd floor. The building was renovated according to the highest green building standards of the U.S. Green Building Council. In December 2005, the USGBC officially certified the building as LEED “Platinum,” making it one of the country’s most high performing buildings; LEED had previously certified only twelve other buildings as Platinum. Read more about the green building.

Traveling to Our Office

If you plan to visit the Center for Neighborhood Technology, we encourage you to take public transportation. Our office is conveniently located 1 1/2 blocks from the Damen stop on the CTA Blue Line. Plan your route with the RTA Trip Planner.

Other Public Transportation Links

Complete Staff List

Management

Scott Bernstein, President and Co-Founderscott
Scott leads CNT’s work to understand and better disclose the economic value of resource use in urban communities, and helps craft strategies to capture the value of this efficiency productively and locally.

He studied at Northwestern University, served on the research staff of its Center for Urban Affairs, taught at UCLA and was a founding Board member at the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Center. President Clinton appointed Scott to the President’s Council for Sustainable Development, where he co-chaired its task forces on Metropolitan Sustainable Communities and on Cross-Cutting Climate Strategies and to other Federal advisory panels on global warming, development strategy, and science policy. He helped write a climate change strategy for the 1st 100 days of the new Administration. Scott is a Fellow of the Center for State Innovation, works with governors, mayors and metropolitan organizations across the U.S., and most recently helped create the Chicago Climate Action Plan at the request of Mayor Richard M. Daley. CNT is a signer of the Charter of the New Urbanism and Scott is a member of the Urban History Association, which includes urbanists old and new.

Read more of Scott’s bio, including key work and publications >>

Kathryn Tholin, Chief Executive Officerkathy
Appointed CEO of CNT in September, 2005, Kathy directs and oversees CNT’s research, demonstration, and policy development.

From 2000 to 2005, Kathy was the founding General Manager of CNT Energy (originally Community Energy Cooperative). She was responsible for the development and management of the Cooperative’s energy-efficiency and demand reduction programs in the Chicago area, including an innovative multifaceted, geographically targeted demand reduction program; a natural gas price protection program for residential consumers; and the Energy-Smart Pricing Plan, the nation’s first real-time, market-based pricing program for residential customers. Kathy has also served as Project Director of the Illinois Smart Grid Initiative, a collaborative project to develop a consumer-centered approach to smart grid development in Illinois.

Kathy has more than 25 years experience in program management, policy development, and research on a wide range of community development, environmental and energy areas. Prior to joining the Community Energy Cooperative she has served as Executive Vice President of the Woodstock Institute in Chicago, National Director of the Success Measures Project of the Development Leadership Network, and Assistant Director for Policy and Communications at the Center for Neighborhood Technology. She is a founder and board member of the Chicago Community Loan Fund. She has a B.A. in sociology from Beloit College. Email Kathy

Stephen Perkins, Ph.D., Senior Vice Presidentsteve-p
Steve Perkins joined CNT in 1980 and has since developed and managed many public policy and economic development projects. Currently, Steve directs CNT’s Venture program, developing social ventures based on CNT’s intellectual property.

At CNT, Steve has been the lead planner for the Amoco Neighborhood Nonprofit Energy Program, which offered one-stop energy conservation services to 150 community-based agencies and over 170 buildings, and the Chicago Energy Savers Fund, a consortium of citywide and community groups which managed the energy conservation retrofit of 12,000 units of housing. He was the founder and convener of the Housing Abandonment Task Force, a multi-agency policy initiative to conserve the city’s existing housing stock and the director of the Amoco Fund for Neighborhood Economies which provided training and program related investments in Denver, Houston, Atlanta, Chicago and Northwest Indiana. Steve was founder and Director of Connections for Community Ownership, a CDFI that provided financing to minority entrepreneurs in franchising. He also directed the Wireless Community Network Project, as well as LEGInfo, an internet-based information service through which a consortium of coalitions tracked state legislation. He was co- founder of Faith in Place, the leading regional interreligious organization focused on sustainability.

Prior to CNT, Steve founded and directed the Phoenix Limited Partnership, an interracial development group, and served as assistant to the chairman of South Shore National Bank, now Shorebank. He was also co-director of Chicago’s Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Organization. In Evanston, Steve is the founder of the Evanston Interreligious Sustainability Project and the Network for Evanston’s Future. Steve has a B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard College and a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Chicago. Email Steve

Jacky Grimshaw, Vice President of Policyjacky
Jacky joined CNT in 1992 and has since developed its capacity to engage in public policy advocacy, transportation research, public participation tool development, GIS mapping, and community economic development. Jacky created and has led CNT’s transportation and air quality programs and has led CNT’s Transit Future Campaign in the fight for mass transit reform in the Chicago region.

Jacky serves on numerous boards, including: Congress for New Urbanism, Chicago Transit Authority’s Citizens Advisory Board, Renew America-Renew the Earth, Smart Growth America, Smart Growth Network, Surface Transportation Policy Project, and the National Academy of Sciences’ Transportation Research Board’s Committees on Women’s Issues in Transportation and Environmental Justice. She was a member of the Energy and Transportation Task Force of the President’s Council on Sustainable Development and has been a longtime activist for social justice.

Prior to CNT, Jacky spent time as a researcher in hematology and gastroenterology, in both state and federal government, in the Chicago Public School district and served in numerous other capacities, including political advisor for the late Mayor Harold Washington and Director of the Mayor’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, Deputy City Treasurer and talk show host for the Chicago NPR and ABC affiliates, and columnist for Crain’s Chicago Business. Jacky has completed the M.A. in Public Policy requirements at Governors State University and holds a B.S. in Biology from Marquette University in Milwaukee. Email Jacky

Maria Choca-Urban, Director, Transportation & Community Development Programmaria2
Maria joined CNT in 2008 to lead CNT’s initiatives in land use, transportation, housing and economic development. She works with state and local government officials as well as civic groups and other constituents.

Prior to joining CNT, Maria served as the General Manager for Policy and Strategic Solutions at the Chicago Transit Authority where she coordinated staff teams developing a strategic plan for the CTA to implement a system-wide Transit Oriented Development strategy and addressing the CTA’s absenteeism problem. Maria has also served as an Assistant Commissioner for the City of Chicago’s Department of Planning under the Washington Administration, directing the Department’s Neighborhood Planning Division and at Chicago Metropolis 2020, where she worked on transportation issues, including freight transportation with a particular emphasis on the south suburbs, economic development and housing. Maria was also Vice President at Woodstock Institute where she conducted research on alternative community financial institutions and provided technical assistance to banks and community representatives in the design and implementation of community lending programs.

Maria currently serves on the Board of Shore Line Place, and has held numerous positions on the Board of the St. Francis Xavier School and the PTA, including President, and has served as the Chair of the Wilmette Youth Commission and as a Board Member of the Interfaith Housing Council of the North Shore and Association House of Chicago. She is a member of Leadership Greater Chicago. Maria has a M.A. in Public Policy and Administration from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Notre Dame. Email Maria

Steve Wise, Director, Natural Resources Programsteve-w
Steve joined CNT in 2006 to lead the development, management and implementation of Green Infrastructure projects, including on-the-ground monitored quantification demonstrations of rain gardens, swales and other Green Infrastructure features, implementation of on-line information tools, policy development and outreach.

Steve has over 15 years of experience in environmental research and advocacy, with a particular focus on water quality. He previously acted as Development Director and Interim Executive Director of the Opal Creek Ancient Forest Center in Oregon, where he led a sustainability program that included green building, wastewater system improvements, and a restoration education program that involved the community in efforts to remove invasive species and install native plants. Steve’s work, as a contributing writer for Ecological Riverfront Development, as Consultant to Lewis and Clark College’s Northwest Water Law & Policy Project, as Adjunct Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Oregon, and as Economic Policy Advisor for the River Network and Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition in Portland, has extensively explored economic, social, and ecological impacts that result from degradation of water quality and aquatic habitats, especially as related to salmon conservation in Oregon. This work has addressed solutions including restoration-oriented urban development, improved agricultural irrigation efficiency, dam removal, restoration, and education. Mr. Wise also co-founded Virtual Production Services, a company that assists nonprofits in the production of online tools and resources, and has experience using technology and modeling to assess environmental impacts.

Steve has an M.S. in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota and a B.A. in History from the University of Michigan. Email Steve

Jen McGraw, Director, Climate Program, Manager - San Francisco Officejen
Jen has worked at CNT since 1999, most recently acting as the Manager of the San Francisco office.

Jen is currently working in partnership with the Clinton Foundation, Microsoft, and ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability to develop an online greenhouse gas accounting tool for cities. She recently co-led the mitigation research team for the City of Chicago’s climate action plan, including the development of a greenhouse gas emissions baseline for the city and region and documentation of 33 different mitigation strategies. Jen also led the team that researched transportation and land use for the Presidential Climate Action Plan - a set of recommendations for the current Administration.

Jen has a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and Bachelor’s Degrees in Biology and Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Email Jen

Linda Young, Research Directorlinda
Linda joined CNT in 2007 and oversees the project management, research design, and evaluation for research projects related to urban planning and environmental issues, including integrated transportation and land use planning, housing and transportation affordability, transit-oriented design, and climate change.

At CNT, Linda oversees the research team and community application process of CNT’s Housing and Transportation Affordability Index and acted as project manager for the 22-member CNT team conducting research for the City of Chicago’s climate action plan, including the development of a greenhouse gas emissions baseline for the city and region, and documentation of 33 different mitigation strategies.

Prior to joining CNT, she was the Title I Program Director at the Chicago Department of Public Health, where she oversaw a federally funded community planning program for a nine-county region. Linda also served as Assistant Director at Inspired Partnerships, a community development organization that provided technical assistance and support for facility operators housing community service organizations, and the Executive Director for the Ypsilanti Downtown Development Authority in Michigan. Linda holds a Masters of Urban Planning (M.U.P.) from the University of Michigan and an Master of Science in Historic Preservation Planning from Eastern Michigan University. Email Linda

Peter M. Haas, Ph.D., Chief Research Scientistpeter
Since joining CNT in 1994, Peter has expanded its research, geographic information systems (GIS), data, and technical analysis capacity. Peter has revolutionized the geographic analysis of social, environmental and economic data to produce ground-breaking tools for measuring sustainability in urban areas.

Peter has been integral in the development of CNT’s location efficiency metrics, and developed its Housing + TransportationSM Affordability Index, co-produced with the Brookings Institution. He acted as the Analytical Director for the 22 member CNT Research Team producing a greenhouse gas emissions inventory and 33 mitigation strategies for the Chicago Climate Action Plan. Peter also led the CNT team that analyzed the crisis in intercity travel in the U.S., focusing on the aviation system and produced “Missed Connections: Solving The Crisis in Intercity Travel”, as well as CNT’s nationally recognized community information system – CITYNEWS (www.newschicago.org), which allows citizens to investigate property information in their community. Peter’s innovative adaptation of an existing USEPA air emissions model (Mobile 6) made the addition of pollutant reductions criteria possible to calculate for transit agencies in CNT’s online emissions calculator, TravelMatters.

Prior to CNT, Peter was a systems manager at Sieben Energy Associates, Adjunct Faculty at the William Rainey Harper College, and post-doctoral researcher at Cornell University’s Laboratory for Nuclear Studies, and The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. Peter has a Ph.D. in particle physics from Ohio State University. Email Peter

Anne Evens, Director, CNT Energyanne
Anne leads CNT Energy’s programs including demand side management, energy research, real-time pricing and regional energy planning. She also plans program initiatives to promote the efficient use of energy in buildings. Previously at CNT, Anne was responsible for the development and oversight of an energy education program, a citywide energy efficiency retrofit program, and a plan to reduce energy consumption and emissions for Chicago neighborhoods.

Prior to CNT, Anne was the director of lead poisoning prevention in the Division of Environmental Health at the City of Chicago, where she administered energy efficiency, radon reduction and lead abatement programs with an annual budget of $8 million. She also worked in an engineering position building schools, clinics and other needed facilities in Africa.

Anne is currently working toward a Ph.D. in Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has a B.S. and M.S. in Engineering from Cornell and an M.S. in International Development from the University of Pennsylvania. Email Anne

Sharon Feigon, Chief Executive Officer, I-GO Car Sharingsharon
Since 2005, Sharon Feigon has been the CEO of I-GO Car Sharing, an affiliate organization of CNT. Previously, Sharon was CNT’s Manager of Research and Development where she specialized in finding innovative market-based solutions to the problems of urban sprawl.

As CEO of I-GO, Sharon has tripled its size and brought in many new partnerships and resources. Sharon works in close cooperation with the other car sharing companies and programs throughout the United States and Canada. Previously, as the Manager of Research and Development, Sharon was the Principal Investigator for a three-year project with the Transportation Research Board, “Combating Global Warming Through Sustainable Surface Transportation Policy”, which included development of an emissions calculator and policies for the use of local transportation and other governmental agencies. Sharon also coordinated CNT’s Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Program in conjunction with the Great American Station Foundation and was an author of a book on the barriers to transit-oriented development, The New Transit Town published by Island Press in December 2003. Sharon also managed CNT’s Green Building Program which included planning and overseeing renovation of CNT’s 14,000 square foot facility to attain LEED Platinum, the highest environmental rating possible from the U.S. Green Building Council.

Sharon is a member of the Congress for New Urbanism and has served on the Evanston Plan Commission and was Chair of that Commission’s Transportation Committee. She was recently a member of the Citizen Advisory Board for the PACE Bus System North Shore Study. She is currently a member of the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED-ND Committee, developing LEED standards for neighborhood developments. Sharon has an MBA from DePaul University and a B.A. in Economics from Antioch College. Email Sharon

Nicole Gotthelf, Director, Development and Communicationsnicole
Nicole joined CNT in 2005 and is responsible for its development and communication activities. Nicole brings to CNT twenty-five years of fundraising and communications experience for non-profits.

Prior to CNT, Nicole served as Director of Development for the Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance, Major Gifts Officer for the American Friends Service Committee, Executive Director of Community Shares of Wisconsin, and Business Coordinator for Commonwealth Development Corporation.

Nicole also brings to CNT her knowledge of urban development and municipal policymaking. Nicole was elected to the City of Madison Common Council and served for 8 years. As an Alderwoman, she served on numerous boards, committees, and commissions, in Transportation, Energy, Parks, and Water. She also served and chaired the Community Development Authority that owned and operated the City’s public housing and worked on redevelopment projects throughout Madison. She served 10 years on the board of Community Media Workshop, which she chaired for 4 years. Nicole currently serves on the Boards of Directors of the Andersonville Development Corporation and Woman Made Gallery. Nicole has a B.A. in Geography from Beloit College. Email Nicole

Adam Goldstein, Chief Financial Officer

Staff

I-GO Car-Sharing

CNT Energy





Who is CNT?

CNT is a creative think-and-do tank that combines rigorous research with effective solutions. CNT works across disciplines and issues, including transportation and community development, energy, natural resources, and climate change.

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CNT Headquarters

including CNT Energy and I-GO Car Sharing:

2125 West North Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60647
773.278.4800
773.278.3840 (Fax)

CNT West Coast Office

PO Box 14322
San Francisco, CA 94114
415.644.0877
415.462.6192 (Fax)