Alan Scott
Director of Sustainability, Building Science Solutions, Intertek

Alan Scott, FAIA, LEED Fellow, WELL AP, CEM, is a registered architect and sustainability practitioner with over 35 years of experience and a lifelong commitment to the environment. He creatively applies his skills as a facilitator, consultant, project director, and teacher in support of high-performance, sustainable built environment projects in North and South America.

Scott’s project work focuses on boosting new and existing building performance, decarbonization, occupant wellness, and resilience. He is a frequent presenter at conferences, workshops, and webinars on numerous topics related to sustainable communities, high-performance buildings, healthy building, and resilience, reaching audiences on three continents. Scott currently serves as Vice Chair of the USGBC Resilience Working Group and is a member of the USGBC LEED Environmental Quality Technical Advisory Group and the AIA Resilience and Adaptation Advisory Group.

Helena Ariza
Vice President, Sustainability & Resilience, AEI Consultants

Helena Ariza, AIA, CEI, LEED AP BD+C, is licensed as a Registered Architect in the state of New York as well as her native Spain. Ariza has more than 15 years of diverse experience in design, project management, construction monitoring, building enclosures, urban public space, and commercial real estate due diligence.

Ariza currently leads the Sustainability & Resilience Division of AEI Consultants. In this role, she oversees ESG and Resilience services, including property resilience assessments for multi-family and commercial properties and evaluation of FORTIFIED projects pursuing designation. With a background in façade design and energy code compliance, Ariza combines her diverse experience to develop innovative approaches to fulfill industry needs and requirements in a fast-evolving environment.

She is a member of the ASTM E3429-24 Standard Guide for Property Resilience Assessments Task Group and is a frequent speaker on the topic of climate risk and resilience, including for ULI's Resilience Summit and ASCE Inspire Conference.

Even Reis
Executive Director and Co-Founder, U.S. Resiliency Council

Zahra Ghorbani is the BIM Manager at the Office of Physical Plant (OPP) and a PhD candidate at the Department of Architectural Engineering at Penn State. Her primary research focuses on defining and leveraging Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) and Digital Twins (DTs) for capital facilities’ operations.

Ghorbani’s other research interests include immersive technologies (e.g., AR, VR, XR) and automation in construction. She is an officer of the NIBS Digital Technology Council Board of Direction (BOD). She also holds the position of Vice Chair within the NIBS Digital Twin Integration (DTI) subcommittee, where she plays a leading role in establishing the connection between BIM and Digital Twins.

In her capacity as the BIM manager, Ghorbani is responsible for identifying and recommending improvements and best practices to incorporate into OPP’s BIM-related documents and processes to improve project execution and life cycle performance. In addition, she monitors and supports project teams in the execution of BIM on capital projects. Prior to joining Penn State, Ghorbani received a B.E. in architectural engineering from Shahid Beheshti University in Iran and thereafter relocated to the United States to complete her M.S. in construction management at Texas A&M University. Her master's research focused on using deep neural networks for oil spill detection and segmentation.