Mission of the Center of Excellence

Dr. Pamela Loughner has more than twenty years of experience in the field of workplace learning and performance. During that time, she has been responsible for the design and development of more than 500 custom learning solutions. Industries in which she has worked include pharmaceuticals, information technology, energy, manufacturing, construction, chemical, and financial services. Her work on a wide variety of projects, combined with her pursuit of advanced degrees in the field of instructional systems design have helped Dr. Loughner build expertise in curriculum design, instructional design and development, and program evaluation. Dr. Loughner earned a B.S. in Education, and M.Ed. and Ph.D. degrees in Instructional Systems from The Pennsylvania State University.

Dr. Bandala is an advisor and heads our water division. He is also Assistant Research Professor for Advanced Water Technologies at Desert Research Institute. He holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering; MSc in Organic Chemistry, and BEng in Chemical Engineering. His research interests in Environmental Engineering include A) The Water-Energy-Food NEXUS; B) Water Security; C) International Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (IWASH); D) Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) for environmental restoration; E) Synthesis, characterization and application of nanomaterials for environmental restoration; G) Development of Climate Change adaptation methodologies for water security. Dr. Bandala is author or co-author of 99 peer-reviewed papers in international journals (average impact factor 2.7, >3,040 citations, h-index 27); 5 books, 27 book chapters and 65 works published in proceedings of international conferences.

Michael Guttman is the Director of Special Projects and a blogger for the Center of Excellence. He played a pivotal role in the founding of the Center with Dr. Stein when he was Director of Sustainable Development for Kennett Township (PA). The Kennett area is the historic epicenter of the 100+ year-old US mushroom industry, today generating over $500M in yearly sales and supplying about 50% of the US fresh mushroom market, all grown in indoor vertical farms. This is Pennsylvania’s largest agricultural industry with an economic footprint of about $3B/year, and also makes Kennett the largest single concentration of vertical farming in the world. Mr. Guttman leverages his working knowledge of Kennett’s highly developed infrastructure for growing, packing, cold-storage, logistics, financing and shipping of indoor-grown produce at commodity levels to encourage the growth of all forms in indoor agriculture. Previously, Mr. Guttman was a software innovator and serial entrepreneur specializing in the architecture of large-scale distributed systems.

Paul Brentlinger is President of CropKing Inc., based out of Lodi, OH. He has extensive knowledge of growing high-quality food products and is a controlled environmental agriculture expert who has spoken at the University of Florida, Indoor-Ag Con, Cultivate and a variety of other conferences. Having been in business for over 35 years, CropKing is the leader in commercial hydroponics and growing systems, with many techniques and practices applicable to a wide variety of crops. Under Paul’s leadership, CropKing consults for new operations, manufactures greenhouses and hydroponic systems, and distributes a variety of products in supports of both cannabis and produce growers around the globe.

 Dr. Bandala is Assistant Research Professor for Advanced Water Technologies at Desert Research Institute. He holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering; MSc in Organic Chemistry, and BEng in Chemical Engineering. His research interests in Environmental Engineering include A) The Water-Energy-Food NEXUS; B) Water Security; C) International Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (IWASH); D) Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) for environmental restoration; E) Synthesis, characterization and application of nanomaterials for environmental restoration; G) Development of Climate Change adaptation methodologies for water security. Dr. Bandala is author or co-author of 99 peer-reviewed papers in international journals (average impact factor 2.7, >3,040 citations, h-index 27); 5 books, 27 book chapters and 65 works published in proceedings of international conferences.

Ty Howard is currently the Managing Partner of Zeus. He previously served as the CEO of Wembley, Inc. a gaming and real estate company until its sale for $540 million. He also was Executive Vice President of AIMCO a large apartment REIT responsible for its value add improvements and founder of Reading Australia a publicly traded theater and retail developer. He started his career with Trammell Crow in Silicon Valley. Graduate of Stanford Graduate School of Business and Harvard Law School.

Kyle currently serves as National Account Manager at WestRock focusing on helping growers create superior packaging, labels and merchandising solutions. Kyle started his career as a grower in both aquaponic and hydroponic operations focusing on leafy greens and lettuce production. He later created PonicJobs.com as a recruitment resource for the CEA industry. After joining BrightFarms in 2015, he worked his way up to Key Account Manager for the company, focusing on the sale of produce to supermarket chains and distribution channels. After 2 years, Kyle took a position with Hort Americas as a Sales Manager focusing on substrates, fertilizers, and LED lighting sales to CEA growers. Kyle also partnered with the CropTalk Media podcasts to create #KyleTalksAgTech, a new segment that focuses on CEA, vertical farms, and greenhouse technology as well as CEA leaders.

Altoro Hall is the Director of Manufacturing & Advanced Industries for the City of Philadelphia’s Department of Commerce. He is often on the front line leading strategy for both attracting new companies to the city, as well as helping to grow, expand and retain businesses within Philadelphia’s manufacturing sector. Altoro has been considered a keystone person throughout his career for the impact he has had.

Victoria is a junior at Cornell University studying Plant Science and Business. She became interested in indoor farming first through the sustainability aspect and is now looking to analyze the business and economics of it. At Cornell, she works in a Controlled Environment Agriculture lab with a focus on lighting and its effect on various crop yields. She looks forward to giving outreach support to the Center of Excellence and learning through experience.