Wayne Koeckeritz
President
Wayne Koeckeritz, from Knoxville, is a Product and Zero Waste specialist at Eco-Products. His role is to help implement Zero Waste programs, conduct waste audits and analysis, provide product information, connect haulers and composters with end users, and support expansion of commercial composting infrastructure throughout the South and Southeast. Prior to this role, he was a food waste hauler for 6+ years in Charleston, SC. He was one of the first to earn his Certified Composting Professional credentials through the USCC in 2019 and loves to facilitate, educate and advocate for all things composting.
Brad Miller, Secretary
Brad Miller is a Market Development Manager in the Corporate Innovation division at Eastman Chemical where he is leading multiple projects within the Aventa ™ Renew compostable materials platform – A range of cellulose-based resins ideal for creating sustainable food service packaging. He holds a BBA, concentrated in Marketing, from East Tennessee State University and an MBA from Milligan University. He is a member of the US Composting Council as well as the Tennessee Composting Council. While new to this space, he has a strong passion for composting and the role it plays in reducing food and packaging waste away from landfills.
Jeffrey Barrie
Treasurer
Jeffrey currently serves as CEO of Tennessee Environmental Council. He has been a staunch advocate of sustainability for his entire professional career, which he launched in 1993 after graduating from UCLA with a B.A. in Environmental Studies. Ever since, Jeffrey has applied his love of filmmaking towards the cause of environmental solutions and derives great pleasure in making a difference in this field. Jeffrey has produced award-winning feature documentaries on the value of Environmental Education (Generation Earth — 1995), the importance of preserving the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (Arctic Quest — 1999), and the benefits of energy efficiency, conservation and renewable power (Kilowatt Ours — 2008), in addition to producing 10 short documentaries on various topics of related to sustainability. He has leveraged the power of effective documentary storytelling combined with grassroots organizing and public strategies to lead to positive changes in the world. He has been composting since the 1980s.
Laura Howard
Laura Howard has worked at SSWI under the leadership of Tom Leonard for five years. Here she serves in many roles including marketing compost, education & outreach and grant writing.
Prior to serving at SSWI, Laura was the Executive Director of the local affiliate Keep Sevier Beautiful and founded the first river based affiliate, Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful. Through both roles, Laura has received numerous awards for her leadership and passion to protect the environment.
Clay Ezell
Clay Ezell is a certified Master Composter, a USCC-Certified Site Operator and graduate of New York’s EarthMatter training program, where he took part in the NYC Compost Project, processing organic waste from the five boroughs of New York City for use in local parks. He serves as President of the Tennessee Composting Council, is a member of the US Composting Council, the Tennessee Environmental Council and the Cumberland River Compact. Clay is a native Nashvillian who, in addition to being happy to be home, is dedicated to helping realize the dream of making Nashville the Greenest city in the Southeast. He is an active volunteer with Publicolor and the Tennessee Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation, and serves on the board of FriendsLife Community.
William Anderson
William serves as the Solid Waste Director for Franklin County, TN and has served in this role for over seven years. William graduated from MTSU with a Bachelor of Science degree in 2006. Throughout his years in the waste industry, he has served in many roles for different organizations to include: TSWDA Co-Chair, TN SWANA Board, Inter-local Solid Waste board of directors and the TN Composting Council. Questions for me? Please feel free to reach out to me anytime at william.anderson@franklincotn.us.
Robert Wadley
Robert has worked for the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation's Division of Solid Waste Management since March 2006. As the Department’s subject matter expert for organics management, he is tasked with increasing the diversion of organics from landfills through source reduction, feeding people, feeding animals, industrial uses, and composting. He has a BS in Biology from Union University in Jackson, TN and is a SWANA Certified Professional in Composting Programs.
Tom Leonard
Tom is the General Manager for Sevier Solid Waste, Inc., a solid waste authority that serves the waste disposal needs for the Cities of Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, Sevierville and Sevier County. He earned a Bachelor’s degree from East Tennessee State University and holds compost management, manager of landfill operations, solid waste management and transfer station certifications from SWANA and the State
of Tennessee. He started working for SSWI in 1999 and is currently responsible for managing over 500 tons of MSW per day at the largest MSW composting facility in the U.S. He also manages a Recycling facility, a Class I Landfill, a Class III Construction and Demolition Landfill. He also is the founder of the local Keep America Beautiful Affiliate, Keep Sevier Beautiful, and still serves on the Board of Directors.
Tom is the recipient of many awards - including the Governor’s Environmental Stewardship Award for solid waste management (twice) and Keep Tennessee Beautiful’s highest honor, The Edith Hellyer Lifetime Achievement Award.
Janet Boscarino
Janet Boscarino is the founder and Executive Director of Clean Memphis - an environmental education nonprofit in Memphis. She started Clean Memphis in 2008 after spending 20 years in business development and traveling to other cities and beautiful places. Her desire was to create a space where everyone could engage in creating a greener and more vibrant place to live, work and play. Clean Memphis host over 100 community improvement projects annually fostering connections between communities, schools, faith-based groups and the business community. Recognizing the need for education she launched a comprehensive environmental education program supporting schools in Shelby County. The program has grown to three full time teachers providing STEM based environmental education to over 10,000 students annually. This led to the creation of local sustainability certification for schools called the Sustainable Schools Challenge where schools work to reduce their environmental footprint. Schools in the program have reduced their energy and water consumption saving thousands of dollars in utility costs and reducing their green-house gas emissions, diverted over 30% of their waste and fostered a culture of sustainable practices for the school community. Through their Project Green Fork program, the 50 participating restaurants have diverted over 3,000 tons of glass, cardboard, food and other waste from landfills. Clean Memphis is now convening local and regional stakeholders to reduce food waste by 30% in five years. In 2019, Clean Memphis launched the Memphis Food Waste Project working to reduce food waste by 50% by 2030.
Janet is a holds a bachelor and master’s degree from the University of Memphis. She loves travel and spending time with her family and friends. She enjoys biking and walking through Memphis’ many parks and greenspaces.