About

USDN Board of Directors

Sidney Ribaux

Sidney is a dynamic leader and entrepreneur dedicated to ecological transition and sustainability. With over 25 years of experience, he currently serves as the Director of the Office for Ecological Transition and Resilience in Montreal, where he leads a team focused on climate action and resilience initiatives. Sidney has successfully developed and implemented the city’s 2020-2030 Climate Plan and has been pivotal in shaping regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in buildings.

Previously, Sidney co-founded Équiterre, a major environmental organization in Canada, where he grew the organization’s revenue from $200K to $6M and expanded its membership to 20,000 donors. He also played a key role in establishing the Centre for Sustainable Development, overseeing the creation of a LEED Platinum-certified building.

A lawyer by training, Sidney’s impactful work has been recognized with multiple awards, including the Canadian Environmental Innovation Award and fellowship with Ashoka, an organization that champions social entrepreneurs. Fluent in both French and English, he is committed to leveraging Quebec's resources to address climate challenges for future generations.

Cheyenne Flores, Co-Vice Chair (Interim)

Cheye Flores specializes in building energy programs, energy justice, heat resilience, and equitable community engagement. Throughout her career, she has had the pleasure of serving as a bridge between community-based organizations, residents, and city government in order to form impactful programs and policies aimed at improving quality of life. Beginning her career as an Urban Sustainability Director's Network EDI Fellow, Cheye has held several roles with the City of Philadelphia Office of Sustainability. She helped develop impactful community-based organization capacity-building projects around energy and heat resilience such as Beat the Heat Hunting Park, the Energy Burden Focus Groups, and the Neighborhood Energy Center Capacity Assessment and Outreach Campaign. Cheye also has managed complex programs including the Building Monitoring Program, which uses building automation systems to improve operational efficiency and occupant comfort, and the policy-driven Building Energy Performance Program (BEPP). Cheye loves community-identified policy work and has had the privilege of engaging her neighbors on how to build climate policy together to benefit communities and respond to racial and environmental injustices, and promote equitable access to high living standards. Currently, Cheye works at the Office of Sustainability Municipal Energy Office as the Program Manager for the Energy Infrastructure Performance unit. Cheye's credentials include PMP, LEED AP, Building Science Principals (BSP) Certificate of Knowledge, and a BA in Environmental Studies.

Darice Ellis, Co-Vice Chair (Interim)

Darice J. Ellis has worked extensively in sustainability-related fields for more than thirty years, covering both public and private sectors. She served a number of years as a senior staff specialist for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regional office in Philadelphia, PA, managing and implementing various indoor air, water, and children’s health programs and policies. Darice joined the city of Phoenix in 2006 and currently works in the City Manager’s Office of Sustainability as a specialist. Her job focus is on the development and advancement of the city’s sustainability goals as well as growing student sustainability leaders and providing them civic engagement opportunities in policy and decision making. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree from the Ohio State University (Columbus, OH), graduate work in multicultural education from Eastern College (St. David’s, PA) and The Executive Leadership Program, The Graduate School (Washington, D.C.). Darice is committed to protecting human health and the environment. She remains passionate about the equitable treatment of people, is dedicated to fairness and inclusion, and absolutely loves consignment and thrift shopping.

Austin Blackmon, Board Treasurer

In addition to executive roles in management consulting, clean energy and finance, Austin was the Chief of Environment, Energy and Open Space for the City of Boston. There, he led the Environment, Parks and Buildings departments as well as the City's award winning climate investments. In this position, "Austin from Boston" served on the USDN Steering Committee, helping set the strategic vision for the organization, including its transition to a standalone 501(c)(3) and fiscal agent.

He also represented Mayor Walsh as the Co-Chair of Climate Mayors and on C40 Cities' Steering Committee. Through these roles and Boston's membership in the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance, Austin collaborated extensively with Sustainability Directors to grow these networks, create multi-city strategic communications and provide technical support to amplify and accelerate the success of his colleagues.

Austin is now a Partner at Earthshot Ventures, a $94M climate-focused venture fund spun out of Elemental Excelerator. The firm invests in entrepreneurs building technologies to rapidly address climate change across energy, mobility, food systems and industry.

Jesse King, Board Secretary

Jesse King is the founder and managing director of Fulcrum Advisors LLC, a firm that provides consulting services in the arenas of leadership, organizational development, and philanthropy. Some non-profit sector clients include the Annie E. Casey Foundation, The Children's Defense Fund, The Black Community Crusade for Children, and the Center for Creative Leadership. Jesse served as the Vice President and Chief Operations Officer for the Daniels Fund and as a project manager for the Rockefeller Foundation. Jesse’s board service included the REI CO-OP, Inc., Net2Phone Inc., The Chinook Fund, The Denver Community Foundation, and Funders for LGBTQ Issues.

Erin Huber

Erin Huber is the Founder and Executive Director of Drink Local Drink Tap, a nonprofit improving health by advancing equitable access to safe drinking water through education, community engagement, and global WASH programs. She brings over 17 years of experience across local, national, and international water initiatives.

Huber has collaborated with utilities, municipalities, and partners such as the U.S. Water Alliance to advance water equity planning and implementation. She is a founding member of the Greater Cleveland Water Equity Partners and served in a leadership role for seven years.

Her work has reached more than 100,000 people through education and community programming, and she has supported the construction of over 225 WASH projects in Sub-Saharan Africa. Recognized as a 2026 Wavemaker by the Alliance for the Great Lakes, Huber brings a community-informed, systems-level perspective focused on equity, access, and sustainability.