Board of Directors

KAREN SOARES, B.S., L.H.D. 

A Trailblazer in Clean Energy, Technology, and Inclusive Leadership 

Karen Soares is an equity-centered clean energy strategist, technology executive, board leader,  and social impact innovator whose work connects solar innovation, workforce development,  HBCU and MSI partnerships, and inclusive economic opportunity. With more than two decades  of experience across clean energy, technology, higher education, government, nonprofit, and  community-based sectors, she is recognized for building partnerships and programs that turn  vision into measurable, community-centered impact. 

As Chair of the American Solar Energy Society Board of Directors and the first Black woman to  lead the organization in its 72-year history, Karen brings a historic and mission-driven  perspective to advancing equitable solar leadership. She champions strategic partnerships,  workforce pathways, and inclusive representation across industry, academia, philanthropy, and  community organizations. 

Her governance and advisory leadership includes service as Chairwoman of the Board of  Trustees of Barber-Scotia College and contributions to national energy, broadband, workforce,  and policy efforts with organizations including NREL, NASEO, NTIA, IREC, and state energy  workforce initiatives. 

Through leadership roles at HBCU CDAC and Go Eagle Energy, Karen has developed clean  energy apprenticeship pathways, workforce curricula, accelerator programs, impact frameworks,  and place-based initiatives that expand access to clean energy careers while strengthening  institutional and community capacity. 

Her recognition includes Marquis Who’s Who in America, Marquis Who’s Who of Professional  Women, and Top 50 Entrepreneur by Business Leader Magazine. Her professional preparation  includes Six Sigma Green Belt certification, Sarbanes-Oxley Certified Professional credentials,  and FEMA continuity of operations training. 

Karen’s thought leadership includes publications and storytelling on equity in energy research,  systemic barriers facing Black energy researchers, and the 100 Women in Energy initiative,  which highlights underrepresented voices and transformative leadership across the energy  sector. 

She has brought her voice to national and global convenings, including ASES National Solar  Conferences, RE+ events, the West Virginia Governor’s Energy Summit, H2EDGE at North  Carolina A&T, the University of Ghana-Legon Ghana Roundtable, trade missions to Spain, and  international broadband collaboration in Hong Kong. Across every platform, Karen’s leadership  reflects a consistent purpose: to make the clean energy future more equitable, accessible, and  rooted in the communities it is meant to serve.

I love ASES and go to all the ASES conferences. I tell everyone to participate. I am the President of NorCal Solar, a 51-year-old ASES chapter. I have a lot of connections. My main business is solar and storage training and I am building an awesome solar training center.

I am a very busy person. If you want to get something done, ask a busy person. I will not have a lot of extra time, but I think the time I do have will be valuable for ASES.

CV: www.maximumpowerpointtraining.com
Website: www.solarSEAN.com

Renewable energy policies are changing. Solar panel innovation is advancing faster. Homeowners have slowed solar purchases in some markets. Financial impacts of solar have changed, for companies and individuals. Environmental concerns are growing. These shifts and more are happening while electricity demand is surging. The solar energy sector and renewable energy more broadly have major challenges, to say the least. ASES needs to address the issues by ensuring that strategy evolves and is implemented effectively.

In my activities as a board member at sustainability-focused non-profits such as Solar Washington, an educator on climate change, a freelance writer and a coach for start-ups, I have led and participated in actions by individuals and organizations to manage effectively amidst rapid changes. I led one non-profit through the challenges of Covid as president and coordinated the development of digital strategy for another at that time. As a co-founder of the local chapter of a global non-profit and the co-founder of an investor group focused on innovative sustainability-focused start-ups, I developed and led successful implementation strategies. I have also leveraged my experience as a homeowner with solar and as a knowledgeable solar sector participant to lead workshops on solar. At these and other organizations, I leveraged my experience and collaborated with teams to innovate, grow the organizations, support members and thrive amidst change.

Given its reach directly and through partnerships, ASES has a unique opportunity to address the issues in the solar and renewables sectors even more so we can help members and the broader community move usage of solar energy along faster. I look forward to leveraging my experience to build on the many initiatives at ASES that serve a variety of communities, and to collaborating to develop and enhance or support activities to drive solar energy usage forward.

Gokhan Tekiner is an experienced energy industry professional with more than 15 years and a global expert in delivering commercial energy projects with a focus on renewables, sustainability, and decarbonization. He is based in Houston, Texas and currently leading business development and partnerships in renewable energy for a major energy company. Previously, he served as a Vice President at a leading US Solar developer and earlier advised boards and executive teams in developing energy transition strategy. The sustainable energy projects which he delivered globally has won industry awards including those from the World Bank and Power Magazine. He holds a master’s degree in engineering, is a chartered accountant, and an alumnus of Harvard Business School.

John Edward Avenson, retired from AT&T Bell labs but still working to educate the public about the huge power of the sun when it comes to green building design. I’m a lifetime member of both ASES and CRES since 2006. I have been one of the lead committee members for the Denver National ASES Solar home tour since 1999. I have taken training courses for the Passive House building code from both PHIUS.org and PHI.org.

At nine years old I was made aware of the warming power of the sun when I visited the Ruins of the Ancient Cliff Dwellers in Colorado. The forest ranger told me that they dug their homes on the side of the mountain where the winter sun shined and kept them warm all season. So, I thought, Why don’t they build houses that way?  – This green home concept was a major goal under President Jimmy Carter when he created SERI / NREL in the late 1970s to get America off of Fossil fuels. In 1981 SERI ran a contest among Colorado Builders to design efficient homes. It was like a choir of angels to me that I could realize my modern version of the Anasazi Indian cliff dwellings. In addition, growing up in the 1960s was the influence of the futuristic Jetsons cartoons, Star Trek and Space Odyssey 2001.  My SERI Designed Passive Solar heated home has a combination of these Sun and automation concepts. After going through my first winder season, the energy for heating was near 0 and I knew I would tour the public through my house from then on to the present.

The ASES mission matches my goals to move our culture and existence on mother earth back to sustainability, by making use of our free energy source, the Sun.

Mary Ellen Barker is the Founder and CEO of Solar Land Agent, LLC.   Establishing Solar Land Agent is a testament to Mary Ellen’s commitment to advancing Renewable Energy solutions. Her team offers comprehensive Renewable Energy site advisory services, seamlessly integrating a wealth of experience in Renewable Energy, Finance, Economic Development, Real Estate, and Agriculture.

Solar Land Agent clients include developers and landowners involved in developing energy projects across the United States. Projects include utility-scale solar farms, battery storage systems, and site identification for any renewable energy project.

Hailing from the Peach State of Georgia, Mary Ellen is an alumna of the University of Georgia, where she majored in Finance and Risk Management. She completed her post-graduate work at Mercer University, earning an MBA.

Mary Ellen Served as the Georgia Department of Agriculture’s Director of International Trade for many years before starting her real estate and renewable business.

As a licensed architect for over 30 years, Debbie has designed hundreds of passive solar homes for clients across the United States and Canada in many climate zones. Her Bachelor of Architecture degree was obtained from the University of Arizona. She wrote and published a book on passive solar design – “The Sun-Inspired House: Home Designs Warmed and Brightened by the Sun.” The book and her design philosophies incorporate information from “Passive Solar Design Strategies; Guidelines for Home Building,” developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and are continuously evolving to adapt to low-energy construction methods, climate changes, and housing and energy technologies. Her work has been published in Fine Homebuilding, Home Energy, Mother Earth News, Solar Today, and Home Power.

Debbie is president of Sun Plans, Chair of the ASES Solar Buildings Technical Division, on the steering committee for the National Solar Tour, and a newly elected member of the ASES Board of Directors. She looks forward to assisting ASES with the goals of sharing knowledge and technologies related to the many uses of solar energy in general as well as interacting with others who share her passion for passive solar technologies.

I am a Houston-based financial planning and project economics professional with more than 20 years of experience in finance, including 14 years dedicated to the energy sector. Throughout the past seven years, I have supported Financial Committees and Boards of Directors by delivering strategic analyses and presenting scenario-based recommendations to aid informed decision-making. 

Recent reports from SEIA and Wood Mackenzie suggest that in 2025, the solar sector faces notable difficulties due to a slowdown in major residential and community solar markets, unfavorable government policies toward renewable energy development, and grid failures. To ensure profitable outcomes and secure reliable returns, I firmly believe that it is essential for ASES to actively engage the private sector in the financing of solar projects. By involving private entities, we can leverage their resources and expertise to drive investment and enhance the overall success of our initiatives.

Promoting technological advancement and innovative solutions through platforms such as ASES’s awards contest and conference papers will help accelerate progress in the field.  These initiatives engaging the private sector and fostering innovation are central to my commitment as a candidate. I am dedicated to supporting these efforts to strengthen ASES’s impact and promote sustainable growth in solar energy.

Abraham has spent the bulk of his 25-year professional career working on solar and other renewable technologies from the point of view of research (performance modeling, reliability, manufacturing), grid integration (systems analysis, inverter technologies), and applications ranging from rural development to large-scale PV power plants. He feels fortunate to have had the opportunity to work on solar as part of an educational institution, an investor-owned utility and a national laboratory, where he led a $15M/year R&D program.

His experience includes work as a research engineer at Southwest Technology Development Institute (SWTDI) at New Mexico State University (NMSU) from 1995 to 2000, system planning engineer at Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM) from 2000 to 2008, and research lead in renewable systems integration at Sandia National Laboratories since 2008, where he currently serves as Program Manager for Energy Efficiency and Manufacturing and Program Deputy for Secure Energy and Earth Systems. Between 2014 and 2019, He also managed Sandia’s Solar and Distributed Systems Integration Department.

Sampson Hao earned his masters at the School of Environmental Sustainability at Loyola University Chicago with a degree in Environmental Science & Sustainability. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology from the University of Rochester where he demonstrated proficiency in analyzing quantitative data through R and GIS. At Loyola, Sampson completed his masters thesis on the property value impacts of utility-scale solar projects in the Midwest. Prior to moving to Chicago, Sampson worked on many applied, energy related research projects for organizations such as Pattern Energy, the Sustainable Ohio Public Energy Council (SOPEC), and The Nature Conservancy.

Sampson now works as an Associate Project Manager at Pine Gate Renewables in North Carolina, and he received the John and Barbara Yellott Award from the American Solar Energy Society in 2023.

Sampson is passionate about being a key part of the energy transition process through his dedication and innovation. With a background in research and utility-scale solar development, Sampson is excited to contribute his knowledge and skills to address pressing challenges at the American Solar Energy Society.

I’m Samantha (Sam) Ronjak and my interest in the American Solar Energy Society comes from a long-held belief that renewable energy isn’t just an industry—it’s the path to a livable, equitable future. My work with EDF Renewables and Fortune 100 technology teams has given me a clear, hands-on understanding of how the solar sector operates, where the real pressure points are, and where the biggest opportunities lie.

ASES is rich in policy expertise, financial insight, and technical depth. What I offer is the strategic and human-centered lens that helps all of that expertise land with clarity and momentum. My background in design strategy and organizational planning is rooted in asking the right questions, aligning people around purpose, and building structures that actually work.

If elected, I would focus on three things: strengthening ASES’s brand coherence and digital visibility; using thoughtful, data-informed storytelling to bring in sponsors, partners, and donors; and applying design thinking to deepen member engagement and support sound, modern governance.

I’m committed to doing the steady, strategic work that keeps an organization healthy. I’d be honored to help ASES grow with intention and continue pushing our mission forward.

Henry brings the hands-on experience of a wide range of solar thermal systems.  Described as “a visionary,” Henry founded Solar Wave Energy in 1978. Over the last 30 years, he has been involved in all aspects of the design, installation, and service of solar thermal systems – including overseeing site-built and factory-built collectors and systems and servicing most of the many types of solar hot water systems used in the Northeast. Henry brings the detailed analysis of these mechanical system operations from years of installation and system assessment. He bought his first datalogger back in 1978 and has been looking at sensors ever since. He has taught conference workshops, trade school classes, and programs for teachers. Henry has been honored with the “Cambridge First Day” award given by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the City of Cambridge for his work preserving the environment – and the Distinguished Service Award from the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association. He continues to consult on solar thermal designs for building applications.