In-Person Workshop: Community Composting Systems at 2024 USCC Conference

Brenda Platt

Director, Composting for Community Initiative, ILSR

Brenda directs ILSR’s Composting for Community project, which is advancing locally based composting in order to create jobs, enhance soils, sequester carbon, reduce waste, and build more resilient and healthy communities. She has worked 33 years fighting trash burners and promoting waste reduction, reuse, recycling and composting, particularly recycling-based jobs.

Linda Bilsens Brolis

Associate Director for Education & Advocacy, Composting for Community Initiative, ILSR

Linda manages ILSR’s Neighborhood Soil Rebuilders Composter Training Program and led the development of ILSR’s new Community Composting 101 Online Certificate Course. She also leads ILSR’s work advancing on-farm composting and its participation in the Million Acre Challenge, a collaborative focused on expanding the implementation of regenerative soil health practices in Maryland and the Chesapeake Region. 

Khari Diop

Founder & CEO, Think Green Inc.

Khari is an environmental educator, food security activist, and fifth-generation food grower from Atlanta. Khari is the founder and CEO of Think Green Inc. and the Community Compost Learning Lab Manager at the Truly Living Well Center for Natural Urban Agriculture. Khari designed a solar-powered ASP hexagonal bin system that is being built at sites around Atlanta, and manages the TLW ASP bunker system which processes more than 200 tons of material annually.

Domingo Morales

Founder, Compost Power

Domingo Morales, a NYC native, Green City Force (GCF) alumnus and inaugural winner of the David Prize, is the founder of Compost Power and serves as a compost consultant. His leadership and passion for a healthier and more environmentally-just city was born out of lived experience. As a former public housing resident, he saw first-hand how residents of underserved neighborhoods and public housing suffered from poor access to healthy food and a lack of sustainable infrastructure. Today, Domingo manages 9 community composting sites, supports GCF and the NYC Housing Authority as an expert on composting and waste diversion programs, and coaches’ others to implement best practices across the city. Domingo is laser-focused on making composting cool and accessible for everyone.

Michael Martinez

Founder & Executive Director, LA Compost

Michael is a former elementary school teacher, a father of two. He has grown LA Compost from a group of volunteers collecting organics using bikes, to a decentralized network of community compost hubs that span across the most populated county in the country. LA Compost has supported over 50 compost hubs over the past 10 years, all in partnership with existing communities, nonprofits, and organizations committed to healthy ecosystems inclusive of food access and healthy community engagement. The mission of LA Compost is to restore lost connections to the soil and one another.

Jennifer Perry

ADK Action / Compost for Good (farm-scale in-vessel rotating drum)

Jennifer Perry wears multiple hats in the community composting world. She is a cofounder of the Compost for Good (CFG) initiative which provides responsive support for a broad range of community scale composting efforts through technical assistance, microscopy consultations, guidance documents, educational videos, peer to peer connections, grant assistance, and more. CfG is part of the Adirondack North Country Association (ANCA) – a rural community development organization in the NY North Country. She recently transitioned from a 12 year position promoting clean energy programs, creating ANCA’s Organics Recycling Coordinator position, which is her forever home. Additionally, Jennifer owns and operates River Valley Regeneratives – a food scrap hauling, composting, and market garden business in the Adirondack Mountains.

Brian Jerose

Agrilab Technologies (AGT Mini System)

Brian Jerose has been President of Agrilab Technologies Inc. (AGT) since 2012. Based in Vermont, Brian works on a range of environmental and agricultural projects, with a focus on compost aeration and heat recovery (CAHR) systems. AGT has equipment installations in VT, NY, NH, MA, CT, CA and MI, and has provided technical and consulting services to national and international clients. Brian is a founding Board member of the Composting Association of Vermont and currently serves at VP. He has a BA from SUNY Geneseo and a MS in Environmental and Resource Engineering from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Brian lives in Fairfield, VT with his wife Joanna and daughters Maya and Lucy.

Betsy La Force

Green Mountain Technologies (Earth Flow in-vessel system)

Betsy La Force is a Sales & Business Development Manager for GMT. She has nearly a decade of compost industry experience from the realms of hauling, environmental advocacy, and project management. Betsy is a longtime compost enthusiast and passionate home gardener. A native of South Carolina, she is a graduate of the College of Charleston, Betsy has since earned relevant certifications in Permaculture Design from the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center in California, Master Naturalist training from Clemson University, and & Climate Leadership training from the Al Gore Climate Reality Project. Outside of work, you can find Betsy at the beach, doing yoga, or riding her bike to the farmers market and local breweries. Her favorite compost recipe is a 2:1 C:N ratio using bagged leaves at the curb and/or wood chips from local tree care companies layered with kitchen food scraps in her backyard pile.

Bruno Navarro

Nexusbau (DIY electric trommel screeners)

Bruno Navarro is a New York-based maker, designer, and video producer. He enrolled in The Cooper Union 2003 and graduated in 2008 with a B.S.Arch degree. In 2010, he formed a design/build company called “NexusBAU” in Bedford Stuyvesant Brooklyn which focuses on unique and singular custom works. Since then he has worked not only with private clients but nonprofit organizations, community gardens, The New York City Department of Parks and Recreations, and taught classes on “How To” to individuals who have been marginalized in our society.