Who's Who
The Windustry Staff:
If you would like to Windustry to speak at your event, please review our online Speaker Request Form.
Lisa Daniels
Lisa M. Daniels, Executive Director and founder of Windustry, has been providing wind energy information and technical assistance to farmers, ranchers, elected officials, rural utilities and other interested groups since 1995. Currently, Lisa leads Windustry in contracts with the US Dept of Energy and National Renewable Energy Laboratory and as an active partner on the Wind Powering America initiative. Nationally, Lisa serves on the American Wind Energy Association Community Wind Work Group Steering Committee, and the National Wind Coordinating Committee's Steering Committee. Lisa is also a founding member and on the Board of Directors for Women of Wind Energy (WoWE). She was recognized in 2004 by the US Dept of Energy Wind Powering America program, with the Chicago Regional Office Wind Advocacy Award for regional leadership, creativity, and commitment to wind energy development, and honored again in 2005 for her work with Wind Powering America’s Agriculture Outreach Team. Lisa received a B.S. in Business Management from Bentley College in Waltham, Massachusetts. She loves to canoe and kayak, and enjoys horseback riding and Nordic skiing with her family.
Read Lisa's interview with Wind Powering America.
Carita Zimmerman
Carita is a highly experienced finance professional, who manages the administrative side of Windustry and works closely with the Executive Director and Board of Directors.
Christina Mills
Christina started her employment with Windustry as an intern during the summer of 2008. She came on as full-time staff that autumn as a policy analyst. At Windustry Christina is tracking on local, state and federal regulatory proceedings both legislative and administrative. She is staffing a work team to update and create new materials on wind options, leases and agreements, and helping to grow community wind with USDA Farm Bill components. Prior to joining Windustry, Christina received her B.A. in Biology from St. Olaf College and her J.D. from Hamline University School of Law.
David Skarjune
As Online Community Builder, David handles communications and technology needs for Windustry. David is an Electronic Document Professional (EDP), Xplor International member, and has worked with the World Wide Web for over a decade. He champions Open Source technology and collaborative knowledge sharing approaches. In the 1990s he worked and consulted for major companies including Best Buy, UnitedHealth Group, and Personnel Decisions International. In recent years he taught digital design and development at Dunwoody College of Technology, and he worked at Minnesota AIDS Project and Minnesota State Arts Board. David holds a B.Sc. in Photography from the University of Minnesota, where he also completed graduate studies for the Teacher Education Series for Work, Community, & Family Education. He's active in Minnesota technology, graphics, and media groups, and he's the organizer of the Twin Cities Web Design user group.
David Tidball
Expansion of the number and scope of projects led Windustry to hire David in June of 2005 on a half-time basis to provide administrative support. David comes to Windustry with an eclectic background that includes eight years as a member of the ARC Retreat Community (a spiritual retreat center near Cambridge, MN) where he also served as board treasurer, volunteer experience with the Arsenal Clean-up and Conversion Project (a non-profit which worked on community-based re-use plans for the TCAAP facility of the Twin Cities northern suburbs in the late 90's), a life-time of full and part-time work as a church musician and a commitment to sustainable living practices that began with recycling and food co-ops (back when you had to hunt for places to take your recycling) and continues with a shift to a vegetarian diet in 1995 and deep interest in community investment and micro-finance.
Samantha Smart Merritt
Samantha Smart Merritt, Development Coordinator, is a long-time community activist and organizer around social justice, community economic development, and progressive political issues. She has done extensive research and organizing work centered on illuminating a gender-based analysis of social systems with a view toward creative transformation of dominant paradigms. She brings more than twenty years of experience in development, raising funds for a wide variety of organizations including electoral campaigns, community-based technology, and workforce development. Samantha is a graduate of Harvard University with a degree in Government.