Brian Dunbar, M.Arch, LEED Fellow
Executive Director & Professor Emeritus
brian.dunbar@colostate.edu, (970) 491-5041
Brian Dunbar is Executive Director of the Institute for the Built Environment (IBE) and Professor Emeritus at Colorado State University. Professor Dunbar holds two degrees in architecture from the University of Michigan and is a LEED Accredited Professional. Professor Dunbar has taught Interior Design, Construction Management, and Sustainability courses at Colorado State and created the graduate emphasis in sustainable building, professional certification courses in green building, and sustainable design and construction courses offered in Costa Rica and on the island of St. John, USVI.
Through IBE, Brian has guided project work and facilitated design charrettes for the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, American Institute of Architects, cities, numerous school districts, and the Colorado Governor’s Energy Office. Since 2004, Brian has annually been selected as a LEED faculty member by the U.S. Green Building Council. Brian is co-author of “147 Tips on Teaching Sustainability” and his sustainable building teaching and research has been honored and recognized by the AIA, the USGBC-Colorado Chapter, the Colorado Governor, the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, communities, businesses and universities.
Josie Plaut, M.S., LEED AP BD+C
Associate Director
josie.plaut@colostate.edu, (970) 491-5665
Josie Plaut is Associate Director for the Institute for the Built Environment at Colorado State University where she leads a variety of green building and sustainability projects across the commercial, non-profit and government sectors. A LEED Accredited Professional since 2004, Josie has worked on dozens of projects that have earned or are seeking LEED certification. In addition to green building consulting, Josie works with companies to develop capacity and action plans for organizational change toward sustainability. Josie is an engaging and sought after trainer, lecturer and workshop facilitator. She is known for her ability to inspire and motivate people through articulating a practical vision for creating a healthy, prosperous and ecologically responsible world. Josie finds fulfillment in the services she provides to clients and enjoys the professional growth and mentoring that she offers to student interns at IBE. Josie has a degree in Sustainable Enterprise from Fort Lewis College and a Masters of Construction Management with an emphasis in Sustainable Building at Colorado State University.
Josie's professional work includes providing educational design and guidance for the USGBC's Green Associate and LEED Accredited Professional Study Guides, serving on the Commercial Technical Advisory Committee for the City of Fort Collins’ green building code amendments, and serving as a Volunteer Ambassador for the Living Building Challenge. Josie is a founding developer of The LENSES (Living Environments in Natural Social and Economic Systems) Framework, which is a ground breaking research project focused on creating transformational change toward regenerative design and practice.
Jennifer E. Cross, Ph.D.
Director of Research
jeni.cross@colostate.edu, (970) 491-5041
Jeni Cross is the Director of Research for the Institute for the Built Environment and Associate Professor of Sociology at Colorado State University. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Colorado State University and received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California at Davis. Her areas of expertise include conservation, community development, professional social networks, social norms, and behavior change. Jeni’s passion is applying the tools of social science (theory and research methods) to help communities and organizations create meaningful change. For example, she has created social marketing projects to improve radon mitigation, reduce substance use, and increase energy conservation. Her current research projects focus on how social norms influence energy conservation and how inter-organizational social networks contribute to innovation and sustainability.
Jeni is a talented and sought after lecturer and facilitator. She regularly gives keynote addresses and develops workshops for businesses, non-profits, local government and educational groups. Recently she has spoken about using social network analysis for informing the integrated design process, making organizational transformation for sustainability, and creating social marketing campaigns for conservation. Jeni is dedicated to the land grant mission for service and outreach and is known for her skill at translating social science into practice. She is an engaging speaker, making even highly technical knowledge interesting and useful to a variety of audiences.
Lenora Bohren, Ph.D.
Research Advisor
lenora.bohren@colostate.edu, (970) 491-1805
Lenora Bohren, Sr. Research Scientist, is the Director of the National Center for Vehicle Emissions Control and Safety (NCVECS) and Research Advisor at the Institute of the Built Environment (IBE) at Colorado State University (CSU) in Fort Collins, Colorado. She has been working on environmental issues with organizations such as the USEPA and the USDA for over twenty years. While working with these issues, she has helped develop methodologies to assess the socio-economic characteristics of managing tropical soils and has conducted air pollution studies throughout the United States and Mexico. In addition, she has supervised the development of an environmental education curriculum for middle school/junior high school students to teach pre-drivers how to become environmentally responsible drivers and has organized national and international Clean Air Conferences focusing on air quality issues related to mobile sources. She has also worked with the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory (NREL) at CSU interviewing farmers and ranchers assessing their attitudes toward adaptation to climate change and with the Institute for the Built Environment (ISE) at CSU assessing indoor air quality in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation school system. More recently, she was elected to be President of the National Association for Practicing Anthropology (NAPA) a section of the American Anthropological Association (AAA).
April Brown, M.S., LEED AP BD+C
Projects Manager
april.wackerman@colostate.edu, (970) 491-5041
April is the Projects Manager at the Institute for the Built Environment with expertise in integrated design, green building strategies, sustainable operations and maintenance, occupant behavior engagement, corporate sustainability, facilitation & trainings, and LEED certification. Often referred to as the in-house “LEED Therapist,” she assists clients and development projects with successful implementation of sustainable design and operations and has managed project certifications across multiple LEED rating systems (BD+C, CI, EB:O&M) with a range of building types including labs and higher education facilities, corporate office buildings, K-12 schools, dormitories, and a variety public buildings. Additionally, she provides professional mentorship and guidance to the graduate student interns at IBE. April has a Bachelor’s of Science from Ohio University and a Master’s of Science in Construction Management and Sustainable Building from Colorado State University. Her masters’ thesis identified effective techniques for facilitating paradigm shifts. April volunteered as a content expert for the USGBC LEED regionalization task force for LEED 2012 and is currently involved with the Center for Green Schools’ EBOM Higher Education Focus Group.
Stephanie Barr, M.S., LEED AP BD+C
Research Associate & Green Schools Specialist
s.barr@colostate.edu, (970) 491-3260
As a Research Associate at the Institute for the Built Environment, Stephanie directs the Institute's Green Learning Environment research initiative and coordinates a variety of other research efforts. Stephanie specializes in the studying the impact of green building and sustainability programs in schools, assisting school districts in integrating sustainability into facility planning and operations, facilitating the buy-in and engagement of stakeholders, and creating sustainability-focused resources for educational programs. Stephanie’s skill set also includes data organization and visualization, process mapping, project management, and developing educational content, skills which she utilizes in a variety of projects beyond the education sector. Stephanie is the developer of the Whole-School Sustainability Framework, a tool for helping schools to integrate sustainability into all aspects of their organization, from culture and facilities, to curriculum. Through her work, Stephanie seeks to advance the development of sustainable, healthy schools designed for educating the next generation of sustainability leaders.