Helen J. Kessler, FAIA

Ms. Kessler is a Principal with UpFront Regenerative Design, a regenerative development and design, strategic facilitation, and LEED consulting services firm founded in 2003 (as HJKessler Associates). She uses an integrative design approach to enhance synergies among building designers and building systems and has had a leading role on over 80 LEED projects including 12 that have been certified Platinum. Ms. Kessler is a Board member and immediate-past Treasurer of the Chicago Women in Architecture Foundation and founder of CREW Chicago’s ad hoc Equity and Inclusion Committee. She is a cofounder and a former Board member of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) Chicago Chapter (now Illinois Green Alliance), codirected its education programs for many years, and was on the Greenbuild host committee. She is a past co-chair of the AIA Chicago Committee on the Environment and a past AIA Chicago Board member as well as current member of AIA Chicago’s Editorial Advisory Committee, chaired the Energy Code Committee which created Chicago’s first energy code, and was a voting member on the ASHRAE committee that created Guideline 0 – The Building Commissioning Process. She worked with Cook County on their early green building policies. Ms. Kessler is a frequent speaker and author on sustainability topics and regularly teaches various courses, including “Systems Thinking for Sustainable Design” at Northwestern University where she is an Adjunct Faculty member.