45^th Anniversary of Earth Day! Would you like some fresh ideas to celebrate the 45^th Anniversary of Earth Day at your facility or business? Join Christina Vernon, AIA, LEED AP BD+C AVP for a Healthy Environment of Carolinas HealthCare, Lisa S. Burch, MPH Director, Sustainability and Social Responsibility North Shore-LIJ Health System as they share the exciting Earth Day of the past and plans for April 22, 2015. Joining them will be Kathy Gatto of the Hospice of the Western Reserve and many of you who have innovative and creative Earth Day activities.

Presenters

Christina Vernon, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, Assistant Vice President, A Healthy Environment of Carolinas HealthCare

Christina E. Vernon AIA, LEED AP BD+C is the inaugural Assistant Vice President for a Healthy Environment at Carolinas HealthCare System, based in Charlotte, North Carolina. She and her team oversee sustainability practices and measures for nearly 60,000 employees and over 900 care sites in its portfolio, with sites across North and South Carolina. Ms. Vernon is a registered architect with more than 15 years' experience, most of which focuses exclusively on healthcare planning, construction and operations. The Office for a Healthy Environment is a center of excellence that advises sustainability practices throughout the enterprise and co-chairs the enterprise Energy and Facility Management Committee. In support of healthy environments for healthy communities, her team's efforts promote healthy operations, conserving resources and cultivating a culture of conservation. Carolinas HealthCare System is a member of the US Green Building Council, the Healthier Hospitals Initiative and Practice Greenhealth, and is a proud ENERGY STAR Partner.

Prior to joining Carolinas HealthCare System in 2013, Ms. Vernon served as Executive Sustainability Officer for Cleveland Clinic, in Cleveland, Ohio. As the Office for a Healthy Environment's first leader, established in 2007, she led sustainability practices for nearly 40,000 employees and its over 23 million SF in its portfolio, with sites in Northeast Ohio, Florida, Las Vegas, Canada and Abu Dhabi. Under Ms. Vernon's leadership, Cleveland Clinic received more than 50 national, green healthcare awards from Practice Greenhealth since 2008, including induction into the Environmental Leadership Circle; and became the first healthcare provider in the United States to sign the United Nations Global Compact in 2008, and the first to apply the rigorous Global Reporting Initiative to its annual UN reporting process.

Ms. Vernon received her Bachelors degree in Environmental Design cum laude from Miami University and a Master of Architecture degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. She is a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Accredited Professional with specialty in building design and construction, and completed a fellowship in Tokyo focused on robotics and virtual reality in the construction industry. Ms. Vernon frequently speaks on sustainable change at healthcare conferences and within communities, perhaps most notably as a panelist for “The Greening of America's Hospitals", hosted at the White House in 2012 and the USC Center for Effective Organizations' International Sustainable Healthcare Symposia in Gothenburg, Sweden in 2010 and Como, Italy in 2012.

Lisa S. Burch, MPH, Director, Sustainability and Social Responsibility, North Shore-LIJ Health System

Lisa Burch, MPH, is the first Director of Sustainability and Social Responsibility for the North Shore-LIJ Health System in New York, the nation's third-largest, non-profit, secular healthcare system. Lisa is responsible for weaving sustainability and social responsibility into the fabric of the health system, establishing system-wide goals and processes to monitor ongoing progress.

Lisa earned a BA from Clark University; an MPH from Hunter College; and in 2011 received a certificate in Corporate Citizenship Management from the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship at the Carroll School of Management. Lisa has over 25 years of experience working in the non-profit sector; the last eight with North Shore-LIJ. Prior to her current position, Lisa ran the health system's Office of Sponsored Programs which managed over $35 million in Before coming to the health system Lisa was the Director of Clinical Operations for Odyssey House, a non-profit drug treatment facility in NYC. Prior to that she was the Director of Program Operations and the Director of HIV Services for the Osborne Association, a non-profit criminal justice organization. Lisa has also worked for Planned Parenthood of NYC, Safe Horizons and Lisa also teaches two classes at North Shore-LIJ's Center for Learning and Innovations and was an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Hofstra University. Lisa has been on numerous panels and webinars nationally and locally.

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