Leadership

Alexander G. Núñez served as senior vice president of governmental, regulatory, and external affairs for BGE. In this role, Núñez oversaw the company’s strategic direction and initiatives, regulatory work, state, local, and municipal government engagement, energy acquisition, marketing and communications, economic development, strategic customer-facing programs, and efforts to drive a meaningful, positive impact in its communities.

Professional History

Núñez served previously in the following executive roles at BGE: senior vice president of strategy and regulatory affairs, senior vice president of regulatory and external affairs, and vice president of governmental and external affairs. In his earlier roles at the company, he served as director of state affairs and as senior public affairs representative and Annapolis counsel. Before joining the company in 2001, he worked for the Maryland General Assembly for several years, where he served as Committee Counsel to the Senate Finance Committee of Maryland.

Civic Involvement

Núñez contributes actively to several community and business organizations. He serves as vice president of the Walters Art Museum Board of Trustees and as chair of its Engagement Committee. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Maryland Tech Council. He is chair of the Corporate Advisory Board for the Baltimore chapter of the Association of Latino Professionals for America. Núñez currently serves as an appointee on the Governor’s Commission on Hispanic Affairs and previously served on the Governor’s Workforce Development Board.

Núñez is a graduate of The LEADERship Class of 2018. He is also a graduate of the Leadership Maryland Class of 2005 and served on its Board of Directors for several years. Núñez represented the company in the Maryland Chamber of Commerce, including on its Legislative Committee, Environment Committee, and Civil Liability Committee. He was a founding member of the Greater Baltimore Committee’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee and is past president of the Legislative Committee of the MD-DC Utilities Association.

Education

Núñez received a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors from the University of Notre Dame and a Juris Doctorate with honors from Valparaiso University School of Law. He is admitted to practice law in the state and federal courts of Maryland and in the US Supreme Court.

Coretta Bennett joined Johns Hopkins University, Facilities & Real Estate as the inaugural Director of Operations, Design & Construction. She has over 24 years of experience in operations, construction, sustainability, and renewable energy. In addition to providing leadership and management for design and construction activities, she champions excellence around collaboration, systems, processes, procedures, and customer service.

Previously, she served as Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Bithenergy, an award-winning renewable energy development and engineering firm overseeing day-to-day operations, strengthening B2B relationships, implementing corporate initiatives in energy production and management, and providing oversight of investors and financial institutions.

A Baltimore native, Bennett is a graduate of Baltimore Polytechnic Institute. She earned her B.S. in Civil Engineering from Morgan State University, an MBA in Strategic Business Policy and Finance from Rutgers University, and is a LEED Accredited Professional BD+C.

Bennett serves as the Vice Chair of Morgan State University’s Construction Management Board and teaches Sustainable Construction Practices, preparing students to obtain their LEED Green Associates accreditation. Additionally, she is a member of United Way of Central Maryland’s Tocqueville Society.  As a dedicated resident of Maryland, Ms. Bennett participates in a variety of educational, volunteer, civic, philanthropic, and engagement initiatives with organizations that have shared vision and community impact.

Brian is a Senior Director at Gartner, the world’s largest research and advisory company. He is the Business Operations and Strategy lead for Gartner’s IT Leaders research portfolio. Prior to his current role, Brian was an advisor supporting strategy and human capital management challenges. Before joining Gartner, Brian served in the Navy as a MH-60S helicopter pilot. He holds bachelors degrees from the Naval Academy in Economics and Political Science, a master’s in Leadership Development from the University of Maryland, and an MBA from the Wharton School.

Astrid Caldas is the senior climate scientist for community resilience at the Climate & Energy program of the Union of Concerned Scientists, working on equitable climate change adaptation and resilience measures with practical policy implications for ecosystems, the economy, and society, also focusing on science communication to various audiences and media outlets.

Before joining UCS, Dr. Caldas was a Science & Technology Policy Fellow at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Climate Change and Wildlife Science Fellow at Defenders of Wildlife, and a research scientist at the University of Maryland. Dr. Caldas has advised or consulted on projects with organizations including the Smithsonian Institution and the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center.

Growing up on the Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, she is “a Bay person.” She moved from Rio de Janeiro to Maryland in 1996, and has been a Chesapeake Bay lover ever since. She is a member of the Education, Communication and Outreach Workgroup of the MD Commission on Climate Change and a previous member of the Energy, Air Quality and Climate Advisory Board of Montgomery County. She works on various projects on coastal adaptation in Maryland.

She holds degrees in Entomology, Ecology, and Environmental Management and has been quoted widely, including in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Time Science, and People Magazine. She has appeared on numerous NPR stations, PBS, CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN, Univisión, and Telemundo. She tweets under the handle @climategeek.

Chris is a County Commissioner for Queen Anne’s County and attorney licensed to practice in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Washington DC.  Chris served as President of the Board of Queen Anne’s County Commissioners in 2021 and 2022.  He was appointed by Governor Hogan to the Board of Trustees for the Chesapeake Bay Trust in 2021, he is a member of the Upper Shore Regional Council Executive Board, where he served two years as Chairman.  Since 2023 Chris has served on the Board of Trustees for the Local Government Insurance Trust.  Chris earned a B.A. from the University of Maryland at College Park and a J.D. from the University of Baltimore, School of Law.  Chris was named Maryland Super Lawyer® in 2020 and 2021.  He was Editor of the Maryland chapter of the Tort Law Desk Reference: A Fifty State Compendium (2008-2022).  Chris lives on Kent Island with his wife and three daughters, where his family is actively involved with many Queen Anne’s County community organizations and activities.

Bob is the President and CEO of JR Frazee Strategic Consulting, LLC. His practice is rooted in his broad base of experience in executive leadership, banking, and agriculture in the eastern and southeastern United States and the Caribbean, during a career that has spanned 40 years. He is a seasoned chief executive with specialized experience in strategy, mergers, commercial lending, enterprise risk management, organizational design, and succession planning. As CEO, he led MidAtlantic Farm Credit through two successful mergers. He was a collaborating consultant in the creation of the first agricultural credit cooperative in the Republic of Armenia.

He is a founding Steering Committee member of the Delmarva Land and Litter Collaborative where he currently serves as Vice Chair. He also serves on the board of Sustainable Chesapeake.  He was national Chair of the Council for Agriculture Research, Extension and Teaching, (CARET- a citizens advocacy group for land grant universities),  Co-Chair of the Dean’s Global Leadership Council of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources of the University of Maryland at College Park. He was founding Chair of the Maryland Agricultural and Resource -Based Industry Development Corporation (MARBIDCO), a member of the Governor’s Intergovernmental Commission for Agriculture, is Chair Emeritus of the Maryland 4-H Foundation, past Treasurer and board member of Leadership Maryland and the board of the Fuel Fund of Maryland.

He is a graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park with a B.S. in Agricultural and Extension Education. He did post-graduate work in Administrative Science at The Johns Hopkins University and the Stonier Graduate School of Banking.

Henry Hopkins worked at T. Rowe Price Associates from 1972 until his retirement in 2008, where he served as the Head of its Legal Department and as vice president of T. Rowe Price Group, T. Rowe Price Investment Services, and T. Rowe Price Trust Company. He is a member of the Maryland, Baltimore City, and American Bar Associations and is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. Henry earned his L.L.B. degree from the University of Maryland (’68) and his B.A. from Trinity College (’65).

Henry currently serves as the lead independent director of the boards of the Brown Advisory Funds. His other current activities include serving as a board member of the Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law Board of Visitors, the MD Center for History and Culture and as the president of the Board of Directors for the Mount Vernon Place Conservancy and Friends of Clifton Mansion. He is also a board member of the Calvert School.

Henry is a trustee emeritus of Boys’ Latin School, Garrison Forest School and the Gibson Island Historical Society. He is a past board member of Jemicy School, Gilman School, US Lacrosse Foundation, Parks and People, Baltimore City Recreation and Parks, Baltimore Efficiency & Economy Foundation, Gibson Island Corporation, and the Warrenton Condominiums.

Mr. House has more than 30 years of investment experience. His responsibilities include strategic and long-range consulting services with a focus on construction and implementation of custom multi-asset investment portfolios for institutional clients.

Mr. House joined Graystone Consulting – The J.K. Meek Group, recognized as one of Barron’s 2025 Top 100 Institutional Consulting Teams, in 2019 from Brown Advisory where he was an Endowments and Foundations Portfolio Manager.

Mr. House earned his Bachelor of Arts in History from Southern Methodist University and his Master of Business Administration degree from The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. He is a member of the Investment Committee at the Friends School of Baltimore in addition to his service with the Chesapeake Bay Trust.

Jeff is a senior vice president at TEKsystems, a global business and technology services company with operations in North America, Europe, and Asia. TEKsystems, an Allegis Group company, was founded and is headquartered in Maryland.

He leads TEKsystems strategy and transformation efforts and oversees marketing, sales enablement, strategic communications, and organizational change management. Joining TEKsystems in 1996, he’s held multiple leadership positions over the years including leading a globally distributed project management office, acquisition integration, business transformation and managing global delivery operations.

Jeff lives in Montgomery County, MD with his wife and two children. They get away to the Eastern Shore whenever possible and enjoy spending time on the water and in nature.

For more than 30 years, Vernice has been a leading proponent of environmental justice and equitable and sustainable development, at the nexus between civil rights and environmental enforcement. She was recently awarded the Robert Bullard Environmental Justice Award from the Sierra Club, which recognizes individuals who have done outstanding work in the area of environmental justice. She has a deep understanding of community-based planning and restoration and capacity building around cross-cultural conflict resolution through her work as a lead trainer supporting clients such as the Georgetown Climate Center, the Chesapeake Bay Trust and Chesapeake Bay Funders Network, EPA’s Urban Waters, Chesapeake Bay and Near-ports Capacity Building programs, as well as drafting national guidance to facilitate partnership building among state and federal agencies and local organizations.

Dave Nemazie is currently the Chief of Staff and Executive Director for Government Affairs for the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES). He has over 35 years of experience in aquatic research, science and policy interface, university administration, partnership development, and public and government relations. He has developed new science and policy partnerships with the public, private, and non-profit sector, locally as well as internationally. He is passionate about environmental science: both communicating its relevance to the public and its impact on the decision-making process.

Dave received his MS in marine sciences while studying the ecology of the Chesapeake Bay through the University of Maryland, College Park. Dave and wife Cheryl live in Salisbury, Md. They enjoy international travel and he is a competitive fencer.

Sonal Ram, PE, holds 32 years of extensive experience leading large environmental programs. She currently is the Vice President, Regional Practice Leader for Water Resources at KCI Technologies, Inc. She supports the growth of KCI’s Water Resources practices across the region and nation, overseeing a wide range of water resources engineering, alternate delivery projects and watershed services.

Previously, Sonal served as the long-term Director of the Office of Environmental Design at the Maryland State Highway Administration. She spearheaded the administration in delivering key environmental programs encompassing compliance, compensatory mitigation, restoration design, environmental asset management, and context-sensitive solutions to support transportation capital projects and operations. Sonal forged collaborative relationships with government agencies, consultants, contractors, and environmental groups, to deliver an extensive portfolio of water quality improvement projects, for a cleaner Chesapeake Bay.

Sonal holds a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Maryland and a Bachelor of Science in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Gujarat University. She also serves on various committees, including the Steering Committee for the AASHTO Committee on Environment and Sustainability, SHA Liaison on the ACEC/MD-Environmental Committee, the Maryland Green & Blue Infrastructure Policy Advisory Commission – Pay for Performance Workgroup, and the Chesapeake Bay Trust’s Pooled Monitoring Group Advisory Committee.

Ava Richardson first joined the Office of Sustainability in 2018. In her role as the Sustainability Director, she oversees climate mitigation, adaptation and strategic planning aimed to make Baltimore City more sustainable, equitable and resilient. Ava works with the Sustainability team, city agency staff and many partners across the city to advance the implementation of citywide plans including Baltimore’s 2019 Sustainability Plan, 2023 Disaster Preparedness Plan and 2024 Climate Action Plan. She works closely with the team to coordinate, advise and direct the Commission on Sustainability which hosts monthly public meetings on various climate topics and an internal Sustainability & Resiliency Subcabinet including six working groups focused on buildings & energy, extreme heat mitigation, flooding & infrastructure, people & nature, sustainable transportation and waste. Ava also advises on budget planning, grant proposals, and leads many external collaborations that connect the city with tools, technical assistance or peer-learning opportunities which contribute to the Offices pioneering and innovative work. Ava has over a decade of experience leading public health initiatives, advocating for environmental policies, and managing programs designed to address social and racial inequities and environmental justice. She previously served as the Sustainability Manager and a Food Matters Technical Advisor in the office, where she led the implementation of special projects, supported the updated of several citywide climate-related plans and helped to pilot new sustainability programming. Ava also served as the ReCAST Project Director at the Baltimore City Health Department, advancing efforts to address decades of trauma in West Baltimore, where she gained keen skills and knowledge in public health. Ava graduated from Frostburg State University with a Bachelors in Biology in 2010. In 2013, she received a Masters of Public Health (MPH) from Morgan State University, and is currently obtaining a Doctorate of Public Health (DrPH) with a focus on environmental health and engineering from The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She loves Baltimore’s Farmers Markets where she buys fresh produce and local groceries, monthly Bike Parties where thousands of Baltimore areas bikers have a party in the streets of Baltimore on two wheels and riding the Charm City Circulator as it provides convenient, sustainable access across many parts of the city. 

Matthew Rowe is the Assistant Director of Maryland Department of the Environment’s (MDE) Water and Science Administration which oversees approximately 300 staff implementing state and federal water programs regulating public drinking water systems, wastewater, stormwater, wetlands, and compliance, as well as water quality monitoring, standards development, TMDL and non-point source management programs, with a focus on Chesapeake Bay restoration and building climate resiliency into Maryland’s water programs. Matt received a Bachelor of the Arts degree from Eckerd College, a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Science/Stream Ecology from Oregon State University, and an Executive Education Program certificate in National Smart Growth Leadership from the University of Maryland. Matt serves the Chesapeake Bay Program partnership in support of the Principals’ Staff Committee and as co-chair of the Conowingo WIP Steering Committee, has served on the Maryland Water Monitoring Council Board of Directors and chaired Leadership Development Program implementation throughout MDE, and is a certified Climate Change Professional with the Association of Climate Change Officers.  Prior to MDE, Matt worked in streams research at the University of Maryland, as a field biologist with the Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, as a research fellow with EPA’s National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, and as an engineering technician in the private sector.  Matt and his wife Rebecca have three adult children (Elizabeth, Isaac and Aidan) and live in Columbia, Md.

Senator Pam Beidle represents District 32 in northern Anne Arundel County, she currently serves on the Senate Finance Committee, is Vice-Chair of the Executive Nominations Committee and Chair of the Anne Arundel County Senate Delegation.  She joined the Senate on January 9, 2019 after spending twelve years in the Maryland House of Delegates serving on the Environment and Transportation Committee.  Pam was the sub-committee chair for Motor Vehicle and Transportation Policy Subcommittee.  She chaired the Anne Arundel County House Delegation in 2015 and 2017.  Pam has received high scores from the League of Conservation Voters for her work over that past twelve years.  Pam owned the Beidle Insurance Agency until her retirement in May of 2017.  She currently serves as a Director with Baltimore Washington Medical Center, a Director with Arundel Federal Savings Bank, and a member of the Anne Arundel County Local Development Council.

David Fraser-Hidalgo has served as a Maryland State Delegate for six years where he sits on the Environment and Transportation Committee and is the Chair of the Transportation Sub-Committee.  He is also honored to be the Chair of the Maryland Legislative Latino Caucus.  Prior to being elected to the Legislature, Delegate Fraser-Hidalgo was a partner in a web site development firm, worked for a nonprofit organization and served as a Police Officer in Montgomery County.  He has resided in Maryland since he was five years old and attended Montgomery County public schools, Montgomery College, and St. Mary’s College of Maryland, where he received a B.A. in History.

Delegate Fraser-Hidalgo has been the primary sponsor on several key pieces of legislation which were enacted to protect the environment and combat climate change.  Most notable legislation:  the 2017 ban on hydraulic fracturing in Maryland and legislation which has resulted in over $10 million in funding for incentives for electric vehicle and electric school bus purchases.

Jason is currently the Watershed Implementation Program Manager for the Maryland Department of Agriculture. He has over 18 years experience in agricultural conservation program delivery and currently oversees the implementation of the agricultural sector’s responsibilities under the Chesapeake Bay TMDL. In addition, he managesthe planning, coordination, budgeting and implementation of research activities associated with the evaluation of new innovative technologies related to environmental improvements on agricultural land. He also provides oversight and direction to both the Maryland Agricultural Certainty and Ecosystem Markets Programs. He is currently Maryland’s representative on the Chesapeake Bay Program Agricultural Workgroup. Prior to his current position, Mr. Keppler was responsible for the development of Maryland’s Conservation Tracker System and worked closely with Maryland’s BayStat Program and USEPA to ensure accurate and timely reporting of conservation information. He also reviewed conservation grants administered through the Maryland Agricultural Water Quality Cost-Share (MACS) Program and was a Non-Point Source Environmental Technician for the West Virginia Conservation Agency. Mr. Keppler is a certified Nutrient Management Consultant and Professional Fertilizer Applicator in Maryland. He is also a Past President of the Old Line Chapter of the Soil and Water Conservation Society.

Secretary Josh Kurtz is a lifelong outdoor enthusiast and conservationist, passionate about the beauty of our state and all of the natural resources it offers. Governor Wes Moore nominated him to serve as the 12th Secretary of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources on Jan. 18, 2023.

As a cabinet partner in the Moore/Miller administration, Secretary Kurtz leads teams across the state to improve water quality and Chesapeake Bay resilience, restore and conserve forested land, expand access to state parks, monitor and slow the spread of invasive species, and ensure the state maintains sustainable fisheries.

Kurtz previously served as the Maryland executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, where he provided key strategic vision and leadership for the policy/advocacy, litigation, science and terrestrial restoration programs. Kurtz was the primary relationship strategist for key state and federal stakeholders and partners, including the Governor’s Administration, Maryland General Assembly, Chesapeake Bay Commission, University System of Maryland, private restoration firms, conservation finance entities and various coalitions.

In his role as policy and government relations director for The Nature Conservancy in Maryland, Kurtz created and led advocacy campaigns leveraging strong relationships with partners and industry leaders to build support for policies regarding conservation and climate change in both the Maryland General Assembly and the DC City Council. Appointed by the secretary of the U.S. Department of the Environment, Kurtz served on the Maryland Climate Change Commission Mitigation Working Group from 2020 – 2022.

Kurtz holds a master’s degree in public policy from George Mason University and a bachelor’s degree in wildlife conservation from the University of Delaware. He lives in Crownsville, Maryland with his wife, Samantha, and infant son, River.