Staff

Barbara Martinez-GuerreroBarbara Martinez-Guerrero
Barbara Martinez-Guerrero

— Executive Director

  • M.A. – Teachers College, Columbia University

  • B.S. – Florida International University

  • Professional Educator’s Certificate for the State of Florida & State of New York

Barbara grew up in south Florida, graduating from G. Holmes Braddock, a local public school in Miami and attending FIU to obtain her undergraduate degree in elementary education with a focus on Teaching English to Students of Other Languages (TESOL). She is a returned Peace Corps volunteer, having spent two years teaching English as a foreign/second language in a high school in eastern Europe.

She was a classroom teacher for 10 years teaching both in Miami public schools and New York City public schools. She earned her Master’s at Teachers College, Columbia University for International Educational Development with a focus on Peace Education and Conflict Resolution. Upon her return to Miami, she began her informal educator experience through Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden’s environmental education outreach program where she integrated sustainability and conservation lessons to teachers and students throughout south Florida. Her experiences uniquely position her to take on the role of Executive Director, leading the organization in expanding its programs in the region.

Alexandra Ender
Alexandra Ender

— Program Manager

  • University of Miami

  • M.A. in Marine Conservation

  • B.A. in Marine Affairs

Alexandra moved to Miami in 2007 from Kansas to attend the University of Miami. There she obtained her Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in marine conservation. Prior to joining Dream in Green Alexandra was researching fisheries ecology with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Looking for new challenges outside of scientific research, Alexandra came across the opportunity to join the Dream in Green team. She is excited to be a part of DIG by heading its programs both in schools and the community and to oversee their expansion in South Florida.

Founders

Nicholas Gunia
Nicholas Gunia

— Founder & Current Board Member

  • BA Dartmouth College

  • Juris Doctor degree, summa cum laude, University of Miami

  • Davis Polk & Wardwell NYC

  • President of K.G. International

Nick Gunia, LEED AP, was born in Kingston, Jamaica and raised in Miami. He graduated from Dartmouth College, where he received his Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, in Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Nick earned his Juris Doctor degree, summa cum laude, from the University of Miami School of Law, where he was on the University of Miami Law Review.

He began his career at the law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York City, where his practice areas included mergers and acquisitions, banking and investment management. In 2003, Nick relocated to Miami to serve as President of K.G. International, Inc., a leading Miami-based distributor of chemicals, ingredients, and packaging materials.

Carlos Canino
Carlos Canino

— Founder & Alumni Advisory Committee

  • West Point Graduate > Rank of Captain

  • Law Degree Florida State University

Carlos is a graduate of West Point. A former Army Captain, he led soldiers in the United States and the Republic of Korea over a seven-year military career and piloted the UH-60 Black Hawk, OH-58 scout, and UH-1 Huey helicopters. He went on to earn a law degree from the Florida State University College of Law and an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. He currently practices as a litigation partner with the law firm of Stearns Weaver Miller in Miami, Florida. In addition to devoting his time to Dream in Green, he is the President of the Board of Directors for Legal Services of Greater Miami, an organization dedicated to providing free civil legal services to Miami-Dade County’s low income citizens.

Amy Rosenberg
Amy Rosenberg

— Co-Founder

  • B.A. University of Pennsylvania

  • J.D. University of Miami School of Law

Amy Rosenberg is an attorney and arts & environmental advocate who founded the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts young patrons group. Amy is a member of Art Basel’s Junior Host Committee and sits on the boards of LegalArt, the Funding Arts Network, New World Symphony’s executive committee and the Florida Association for Women Lawyers. Amy is a Leadership Miami alum and was a Fellow in the prestigious Miami Fellows Initiative.

Board of Directors

Mark Peck
Mark Peck

— Chair

  • University of Alabama

  • B.S. Quantitative Finance

  • CFA Charterholder

Mark is a third generation Floridian born and raised in Fort Lauderdale. He left Florida for a short time to attend the University of Alabama. After graduating, Mark returned to begin a career in finance and now works on the Strategic Finance team at Magic Leap. Mark is a proud CFA Charterholder, who has a passion for strategic thinking. He spends most of his free time on the water fishing or diving, and his connection with the ocean is what drives him to contribute positively to the environment.

Carolina RiveraCarolina Rivera
Carolina Rivera

— Secretary

  • MSc. in Risk and Stochastics, London School of Economics.

  • MSc in Statistics, University of Costa Rica.

Currently Head of Advisors Client Services for MasterCard Central America.
Carolina has 10+ years of experience in consultancy firms.
She supports delivery of analytical products and projects at scale across LAC using advanced analytics techniques for data analyses and model creation to address the clients’ most relevant questions and deliver them significant impact across many industries.
In her free time, Carolina enjoys spending time with her family and friends. She loves travelling and meeting new places. She enjoys occasional scuba dives trips, to experiences the wonders of the ocean. She is from Costa Rica, a country that is most well-known for its nature and wishes to support efforts that can educate and promotes the protection of the environment.

Mariana Espinoza
Mariana Espinoza

— Treasurer 

  • B.A. Universidad Metropolitana – Caracas

Mariana is a Transfer Pricing Director in the Miami office of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

She graduated with a degree in Business Administration with a specialization in Finance.  Mariana’s experience has focused on performing intercompany pricing studies for multinational corporations, with focus on industries such as industrial and consumer products, pharmaceutical, telecommunications and financial services, as well as coordinating and managing global and regional documentation projects, and writing relevant publications on international tax matters.

On a personal note, Mariana has a deep interest in promoting environmental awareness as well as empowering our younger generations into making a difference.
Odette Smalley
Odette Smalley

—  Board of Director Member

  • BS – Management with Accounting concentration, Tulane University

  • MBA – Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

  • Executive Director at JPMorgan Chase, NY

Odette is a Banker in the Corporate & Investment Bank, and is responsible for the US and Canadian subsidiaries of Latin American, Iberian and Nordic Multinational Corporations.  Her focus is to drive new business development and sales of JPMorgan’s broad array of banking products across debt capital markets, risk management, trade and treasury services.  Prior to this role, Odette spent over seven years in the Corporate Credit Risk team.

Before joining JPMorgan as a post MBA grad, Odette held various corporate finance positions at private and public companies and was an auditor at a major public accounting firm.

When she isn’t traveling for work, Odette enjoys traveling for fun and spending time with her family and friends, especially the younger generation which fuel her passion for protecting the environment.

Michelle Salas
Michelle Salas

— Board of Director Member

  • B.A.  in Business Administration, Jones College

  • M.A. in Environmental Studies – Florida International University.

Michelle founded Lady Green Recycling in 2010 with a goal to protect the environment and help people and businesses through waste reduction in our communities. Coming from an entrepreneurial family, Michelle always knew she would one day start her own business doing something she is passionate about.

Michelle brings 19 years of management experience, including 11 years of executive management working with top business leaders. Prior to founding LGR, Michelle was part of a successful start-up company that is now a leader in the U.S. for deploying greenhouse gas reduction projects and renewable energy projects. Michelle received a Bachelor’s of Science in Business Administration from Jones College in 2007 and later pursued her Master’s in Environmental Studies at Florida International University.

During her first year in graduate school, Michelle found much inspiration from her professors, peers and education, that she felt it was time to launch her recycling dream. She decided to drop out of graduate school and fully invest her time and resources into creating her vision. Understanding the real value in education, Michelle continued to ‘sit’ in classes to learn the material without having to pay the cost of tuition.

In her free time, Michelle enjoys spending time with her family, friends and pets as well as training Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. Michelle’s currently a purple belt who enjoys to compete and holds a World Championship title. Her goal is to one day become a Gracie black belt World Champion.

Alumni Advisory Committee

Jesse RittenhouseJ Rittenhouse
Jesse Rittenhouse

— Alumni Advisory Committee

  • B.B.A. International Management in Latin America

  • LEED AP BD+C

  • Vice President of Strategy, Spinnaker Group

Jesse is proud to serve on the Board of Directors for Dream In Green. He believes that everyone should be able to live in a sustainable, healthy, and equitable world and he supports that through his voluntarism and his career. As Vice President of Strategy for Spinnaker Group, he directs the strategic planning for business development and marketing of one of the most respected green-building consultant firms.

He developed his passion for sustainability, environmental education, and corporate social responsibility over the years starting as a young boy learning about nature, conservation, and service, to being the President of Net Impact in business school, and then in his career by helping to start the first fully permitted biodiesel facility in Miami-Dade County, working in and educating about recycling, becoming an ecopreneur, and most recently as a Sustainable Building Consultant at Spinnaker Group. In addition to being Chair of the Board of Directors for Dream In Green, he volunteers as Facilitator and Ambassador for the Living Future Florida Collaborative, and had previously served the community through leadership roles for USGBC Miami and Net Impact South Florida. Jesse brings his passion and experience to help us to achieve our mission and to support our cause.

Eric Wenke
Eric Wenke

— Alumni Advisory Committee

  • BoA Biological Basis of Behavior UPenn

  • Co-founded Civicom Inc.

  • AVP, Co Development @ Baptist Health South Florida

Eric Wenke was born in Queens, NY and has lived in several cities before settling in Miami Beach, Florida. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, where he received his Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, in the Biological Basis of Behavior with a Concentration in the Physiology of Neural Systems. After graduating, Eric began his career at the New England Consulting Group, a boutique strategy consulting firm where he worked with C-Level Executives at Fortune 500 clients on acquisitions and new business development.

Representative clients included Sprint, Heinz, Nabisco, Acxiom, AC Nielsen, Tickets.com and Sprague Energy.

After consulting, Eric next co-founded a profitable Internet Telephony start-up, Civicom, Inc., where he served for several years as Chief Operating Officer and currently sits on the Board of Directors. From 2004 to 2008, Eric lead Strategic Planning and Business Development practice for Telefonica North America, supporting and managing several Telefonica SA operations in the region with a focus on developing and bringing to market innovative communications solutions. Eric is currently AVP, Corporate Development at Baptist Health South Florida. Outside of work, Eric is an avid fan of life on the beach, reading, fitness/nutrition, music/entertainment and pop culture.

Vanessa Ramirez
Vanessa Ramirez

— Alumni Advisory Committee

  • BS Electrical and Computer Engineer, University of Mendoza, Argentina

  • MS Electrical Engineering in Power Systems, UTA, Texas

  • Co-Founder Resilient Grids, LLC

  • Certified Energy Manager (CEM)

Vanessa Ramirez is an electrical engineer consultant. Originally from Argentina, she has been in the US for eighteen years, and in Miami for fourteen. She has been involved in the energy sector for over fifteen years with experience spanning from generation, transmission, energy markets, and smart grid implementations in distribution systems at major US utilities and energy stakeholders. She is currently working as an independent consultant for Utilicast.

She was a Manager for The Structure Group for 8 years with smart grid assignments in the distribution automation and IT DMS areas. Previously she had worked at Navigant consulting as a Senior Consultant. She has also worked at PB Power as an Engineer Consultant performing studies on grid congestion/pricing, congestion management, ancillary service functions, and reactive power assessment of deregulated markets performed through modeling of the system using different power tool applications. She is the co-author of several white papers, holds two US patents, and has authored several articles on energy and sustainability. She has served at the board of directors at the AEE’ Council of Women in Energy and Engineering Leadership (CWEEL) group, a globally recognized organization; and is now excited to serve Dream in Green, a local-organization in Miami that shares her values and motivation for environmental sustainability.

Gwendolyn FooteGwendolyn Foote
Dr. Gwendolyn Foote

— Board of Director Member

  • M.A. University of Texas

  • Doctorate of Education

Dr. Gwendolyn Foote graduated from College of Veterinary Medicine, Texas A&M University; M.A. in Art from University of Texas; and earned a Doctorate of Education. As a professional Biomedical Technologist, an experienced wildlife rehabilitator, and mentor / science teacher.

  Dr. Foote is a lifelong activist for environmental issues. For years, she has worked with Dream in Green Program, with her students and Nautilus Middle School, and other environmental programs, impacting students’ lives and communities. Dr. Foote is a proponent for raising environmental awareness through education and empowering people in finding solutions for environmental concerns, in improving the quality of life and our global home. This is up to each and every one of us, working together.

Meital Stavinsky
Meital Stavinsky

— Board of Director Member

  • LL.M. TAU

  • U.S. Green Building Council LEED AP Certified

  • Partner, Co-Chair, Israel Practice

  • Attorney @ Holland & Knight

Meital’s practice focuses on government relations. She primarily advises Cleantech companies in the areas of renewable energy, alternative fuel transportation and infrastructure, energy efficiency, water and waste treatment, green materials and green buildings.
Meital has worked on U.S. congressional and federal legislative matters as well as with various federal agencies such as the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Agriculture.

As the coordinator of the Corporate and Securities Israeli practice development and initiatives from a business perspective, Meital assists Israeli companies seeking to enter the U.S. market and expand their operations in the States.

There has been proven success as these Israeli companies have been matched with strategic partners, potential joint ventures and other business-to-business connections. Meital often serves as a speaker at conferences and seminars in the United States and Israel on Cleantech and Israel related matters.