(Left) SSV's Board Chair and Air Quality & Mobility Director, Andrew “Drew” Clark, positioning a sensor in the field; (Right) SSV's Board Member and Chief Scientist, Dr. Anthony “Tony” Strawa, opening the intercalibration unit at SSV Labs.
 

Dear Friends of SSV,

I’m delighted to announce two Sustainable Silicon Valley Board members have deepened their connection to the organization. Board Chair, Andrew “Drew” Clark, has taken on the additional role of SSV’s Air Quality & Mobility Director, and Board Member, Dr. Anthony “Tony” Strawa, has taken on the additional responsibility of SSV’s Chief Scientist.

Drew Clark, a recently-retired IBM technology executive, brings his 30+ years of experience to lead SSV’s air quality and mobility work. In his new role as Air Quality & Mobility Director, Drew taps his AI, Big Data, Smarter Cities, and IoT knowledge to “make sustainability come to life”. Drew says, “Now is the time to address the important issue of air quality. We now have affordable sensor technology, and this is a new and exciting way to engage the community.” Drew has deployed a number air quality sensors in the East Palo Alto community, where each set-up requires design, special hardware, and custom software. Recently Drew has written a cloud-based mapping app to locate and monitor the sensors remotely, combining air quality readings with traffic flow data. 

SSV’s Board member and Chief Scientist, Dr. Anthony Strawa, is the former Chief of the NASA Ames Technology Transfer Office that ensures that NASA’s investments in pioneering research find secondary uses to support the economy, create jobs, and improve the quality of life. For 20 years, he led the Aerosol and Cloud Micro-physics Group whose long-term goal is the study of the formation, evolution, and effects of aerosols and clouds. He currently serves on the San Jose Clean Energy Advisory Commission. Dr. Strawa is a Catholic Climate Ambassador for the US Council of Catholic Bishops and was Chair of the Diocese of San Jose, Catholic Green Initiative from 2009 to 2016. “I am delighted to become more involved with SSV’s mission to make the Bay Area a more sustainable and equitable place.” Tony said upon taking on his new duties at SSV.

Together Drew and Tony have launched SSV Labs at our new office in Sunnyvale. In the Labs, they have built the sensor set-ups which have been deployed in East Palo Alto with gas and particulate sensors. Most recently, they created a Sensor Intercalibration Unit. In the Unit, they will test affordable sensors to confirm they are calibrated correctly. The Unit will also serve as a bridge to the community— community members can bring their sensors to SSV Labs and confirm they are calibrated.

I’m thrilled to have Drew and Tony in the new roles. Please join me in welcoming them.

Sincerely,
Jennifer Thompson
Executive Director