Appendix D

Biographical Sketches of Planning Committee Members

Latonia Viverette Batiste

Dr. Latonia Viverette Batiste is a lead environmental scientist at WSP USA. She is a champion of climate, sustainability, and resilience for underserved communities with special interests in exploring innovation solutions to reduce the carbon footprint for energy companies and environmental, social, and governance reporting. She has extensive experience in environmental permitting and compliance for the built environment green infrastructure and is GPRO (green professional) certified. Prior to her position at WSP, Dr. Batiste was founding director of sustainability and energy efficiency at Xavier University of Louisiana. She also served as founder and principal sustainability and environmental scientist at an advisory firm, Ivy Environmental Consulting, LLC, from 2012 to 2019, and as principal environmental scientist at Kinder Morgan Pipeline (formerly known as El Paso Corp) from 2006 to 2008. She is a member of the American Association of Blacks in Energy, and the U.S. Green Building Council, Louisiana, and is on the advisory board of The First Tee of Greater New Orleans. She earned her Ph.D. from Jackson State University, her M.S. from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, and her B.S. from Xavier University of Louisiana.

Thomas F. Degnan

Dr. Thomas Degnan is a native of Wilmington, Delaware. Dr. Degnan worked for 3M in its Central Research Laboratories in St. Paul, Minnesota, from 1976 until 1980 and then joined Mobil’s Central Research Laboratory in Princeton, New Jersey. After a 34-year career at Mobil then ExxonMobil working primarily in the refining and chemical businesses, he (re)joined Notre Dame in January

2015 as a professor in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department. He retired from teaching at Notre Dame in 2020. As an emeritus professor, Dr. Degnan is still engaged in several university research programs. He is active on the advisory councils of several universities and remains engaged with several professional organizations. Dr. Degnan was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2013. He graduated from Notre Dame with a B.S. in chemical engineering in 1973 and completed his Ph.D. in the same discipline at the University of Delaware.

Sara N. Ortwein

Sara Ortwein retired from ExxonMobil in March 2019. Prior to retiring, she was president of XTO Energy, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil, from November 2016 through February 2019 and was responsible for ExxonMobil’s unconventional oil and gas business. Ms. Ortwein held numerous technical and managerial assignments throughout her career. In 1997, she was named reservoir evaluation and planning manager for Exxon Ventures, CIS, focusing on new venture pursuit and capture in Russia, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan. In 2001, Ms. Ortwein became a corporate upstream advisor to senior management at ExxonMobil headquarters in Irving, Texas. Three years later, she was named production manager responsible for ExxonMobil’s U.S. production operations. Ms. Ortwein was named vice president of engineering for ExxonMobil Development Company in 2006, where she was responsible for engineering design for major projects around the world. She served as president of ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company, from September 2010 until November 2016, where she was responsible for research and technology development and application for ExxonMobil’s Upstream business. In 2020, Ms. Ortwein was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. She currently serves on the board of directors of The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas and is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers. Ms. Ortwein is past chair of the University of Texas Engineering Advisory Board and currently serves on its executive committee. In late 2020, she joined the board of directors of Sanara Medtech. Ms. Ortwin earned a B.S. in civil engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.

Francis Wiese

Dr. Francis Wiese is senior principal within Stantec’s Environmental Services Group and serves as Stantec’s overall technical leader for marine science. He brings 25 years of experience working in the coastal and marine environment throughout the world; designing, implementing, and managing large interdisciplinary, multi-institutional science programs in the North Atlantic, North Pacific, Bering Sea, Gulf of Alaska, and the Arctic; and conducting projects in the North Sea, Caribbean, Galapagos, Gulf of Mexico, and the east and west coasts of North America. Dr. Wiese has worked for and with academia, government, nonprofits,

and industry; is a technical reviewer for more than 20 international journals; and serves on a variety of national and international science panels and working groups. He has also provided expert testimony for oil pollution–related issues in Canada and the United States. Dr. Wiese has focused extensively on environmental impacts as a result of anthropogenic stressors, marine shipping, marine spatial planning, climate change, environmental policy, adaptive management, resiliency, population and bioenergetic modeling, aerial surveys, satellite telemetry, marine mammals, seabirds, fisheries, study design, statistical analyses, and public speaking. He most of all enjoys thinking outside the box to solve complex real-world issues.

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