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Sustainable Northern Shelter
 
   in a World of Diminishing Resources

Panel Moderators
 

Mimi Burbage is AHFC's Program Coordinator for the Weatherization and Housing Rehabilitation programs for the State of Alaska. She also provides technical assistance to other agencies working in rural Alaska. She has a M.A. in International Relations with specialties in Anthropology and Economics. Much of her graduate work was done in remote Mexican villages. Her experience includes almost 30 years of working in the weatherization and building science fields, including hands-on technical assistance, curriculum development, as well as project and grants management.
 
She has worked steadily since 1978 serving Native Americans on Tribal Lands in Alaska and in the Western region. She is also the President of Energy Outwest, a technical peer organization that includes all the western states and agencies involved in delivering weatherization services. Outside of work she spends a great deal of her time at the rink managing youth hockey teams and helping organize tournaments and training opportunities for kids.

Jack Hébert has been designing and building homes in Alaska for over thirty years with the goal of creating high quality, well designed, environmentally appropriate and energy efficient buildings. His planned communities reflect this philosophy as well. Jack has received numerous honors in recognition of this commitment, among them, the first State of Alaska Governor's Award for Excellence in Energy Efficient Design, the Energy Rated Homes of Alaska President's Award. He has been twice honored as the Alaska State Homebuilder of the Year.
 
Jack is a very active member of the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB), serving in leadership roles on local, state, and national levels, most recently as President of the Alaska State Home Building Association. He currently represents Alaska on NAHB's National Executive Board.
 
Jack is the owner of Hébert Homes LLC, a corporation that builds homes and neighborhoods to the highest energy standards recognized. Jack was instrumental in founding the Cold Climate Housing Research Center. He was the design team lead, the project manager, and the superintendent on the construction of CCHRC's Research and Testing Facility. He is currently President and CEO of the Cold Climate Housing Research Center, which is committed to developing and implementing techniques and methods of building that promote safe, affordable, durable and energy efficient housing for cold climate regions.

Rich Seifert, Professor, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Energy and Housing has been the Cooperative Extension Service "Energy guy" at UAF in Fairbanks for 25 years. He has a Bachelor's degree in Physics from West Chester State University in Pennsylvania, and a Master's Degree in Engineering Physics from the University of Alaska. He has lived in Fairbanks 37 years, save for one year (1985-86) when he was a Fulbright Scholar at the Technical University of Norway, in Trondheim Norway. Seifert is the author of "A Solar Design Manual for Alaska" which he uses as a text for an Introductory course to integrate solar building design into homes for Alaskans. He has authored numerous articles and two books on cold climate homebuilding. He teaches primarily off-campus in public seminars for adults, mainly on the topic of Cold and Marine Climate Homebuilding techniques and renewable energy use for prospective homeowners and buyers. He has authored numerous technical and public information papers and pamphlets on housing issues, indoor air quality, radon, renewable energy and building design, and maintains a keen interest in sustainable design and construction.

Bill Semple is an architect and a licensed carpenter, with a background in design, building science, construction and environmental planning with extensive experience in the Canadian housing industry and on international development projects. In Canada, Bill operated a building and design business specializing in timber frame construction, passive solar designs and energy efficient buildings. Internationally he has carried out design projects in India, Tibet, China and Thailand where his design and land use planning work addressed what he sees as the inherent connection that exists between cultural and environmental sustainability.
 
Now a Senior Researcher with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), Bill is the Northern Housing Researcher where his work focuses on improving the performance and design of housing and communities in the Canadian far north. Working directly with northern communities and northern housing agencies, this work has focused on developing energy efficient housing, innovative building technologies, and sustainable communities. Using design charrettes to facilitate community involvement, Bill works directly with Inuit and First Nations communities on the development of designs for culturally appropriate, energy efficient northern housing, and the design of sustainable northern communities.
 
Bill is a past member of the Board of Directors of the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC), and Chairman of the CaGBC Residential Committee. He remains an active member of the CaGBC Residential Committee and is the CaGBC liaison member on the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) LEED Home Committee. Bill was recently appointed as an ex-Officio member of the Board of Directors of the Cold Climate Housing Research Center.