“We're protecting the environment because it enriches us... yes, it enriches our economy… but it is also enriches us aesthetically, recreationally, culturally, historically and spiritually." Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.


Katie Hoffner, Conference Organizer
Email: Katie@CleanEnergyConference.com

Katie is a business consultant, entrepreneur, conference organizer, marketer and fundraising executive.  Katie has over 20 years of experience with entrepreneurial companies, from start-ups to established companies with several rounds of venture capital injections.  She help build the global strategic marketing and branding of consumer-based companies like Kaepa Athletic Shoes (owned by UMBRO Worldwide) and Outlast Technologies, which develops thermally adaptive materials, including the original temperature-regulating technology and ingredients for fibers, fabrics and coatings pioneered for NASA. 

Her professional foray into the environmental arena started with Hydrogenworks in Denver, where she helped promote the use of hydrogen energy through the Hydrogen Education Tour, Hydrogen Magazine, and Hydrogen.com.  Since then she has organized over 10 environmental conferences through ownership of Sustainable Conferences; including Aspen Climate Action Conference, Teton Green Building Conference and Denver Green Building Conference.  She has also consulted with DOE; helped write grants; and currently consults for several companies in the clean energy sector.  Katie was also part of the team that won an $11M DOE grant awarded in May of ’08 to the City of Fort Collins to demonstrate smart grid technology using renewable energy during peak demand.  This grant led to jump-starting a vision for the community with a zero energy district in downtown Fort Collins called FortZED (www.FortZED.com)

She sits on the Board of Directors for GenGreen Life, the largest on-line directory for green businesses (www.GenGreenLife.com) and is also a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board for School of Engineering at Colorado State University.  Katie is also very active volunteer for various environmental and political organizations.

Katie's education includes a BA dual degree from Sweet Briar College, where she graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.  Katie earned an MBA from the American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird).

Katie also owns a small tour business where she travels around the world with her Aunt Lydia visiting sacred sites.  She is based in Fort Collins, Colorado where her family has lived for 4 generations and still owns and operates a working ranch in Northern Colorado.

 

Tana Myers, Conference Co-Organizer
Email: Tana@CleanEnergyConference.com


Tana Myers is a social entrepreneur, change agent and grassroots activist with 20 years experience in nonprofit management and fundraising, project management and banking operations.

As an event coordinator, she organizes events focused on creating social, economic and environmental sustainability. In 2008, Tana co-created and coordinated the first national conference on Social Business, the poverty elimination business model of 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Muhammad Yunus, who was the keynote speaker for this historic event, held in Denver, Colorado. As a financial counselor for a Fort Collins nonprofit housing organization she worked with families facing foreclosure, helping many to devise strategies to avoid losing their homes. Tana implemented a microcredit loan program that provided mortgage assistance loans and allowed the repaid funds to be recycled back into the program for other families to access. The success of this program led to $50,000 in federal funding to expand the loan pool. As a grassroots citizen activist she has lobbied the US Congress for the creation and funding of domestic and international poverty alleviation programs.

Tana’s education includes a BS in Business Management from Regis University. She is currently a MSBA candidate in Colorado State University’s Global Social and Sustainable Enterprise (GSSE) program. Tana’s entire post-secondary education has been accomplished as a nontraditional student and working mother.

Tana’s mission is to alleviate poverty by economically empowering women through the creation of sustainable business opportunities. To this end, she is launching a social enterprise involving solutions to energy poverty in West Africa with her husband, a native Ghanian.

Tana lives in Fort Collins with her husband and two sons.