About The Collaborative

James Metoyer he/him
FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

As executive director of ECC, James works with youth and adult construction-training programs, community-based organizations, and other nonprofits to help professionals find careers in weatherization, residential energy auditing, deep-energy retrofitting, and net-zero building, and to ensure that BIPOC (black, indigenous, and people of color) communities have equitable access to healthy, sustainable, and energy-efficient housing.

Before launching ECC, James worked in several capacities (most recently as workforce development training manager) at Earth Advantage (EA), a Portland, Ore.–based nonprofit with a mission to create an informed and humane residential real-estate marketplace. He helped develop and deliver the Green Building Trainee Accreditation at EA to youth training/pre-apprenticeship programs across Oregon that serve historically underserved and under-represented populations in the construction industry. He also helped to develop and deliver a custom designed Sustainable Homes Professional program for LatinoBuilt members who are residential building professionals looking to enhance their building science knowledge, add new skills to their toolkit, earn the SHP designation, and grow the energy efficiency side of their business.

James is a son of the Cane River Créole community of Isle Brevelle, La., with more than 13 years of experience working in energy efficiency, James has earned several industry-recognized credentials, including Building Performance Institute (BPI), Performance Tested Comfort Systems (PTCS), Home Energy Score, HERS Rater, and LEED Green Rater. His passions are teaching students about energy efficiency, bridging the gap between the medical industry and the built environment to create healthy outcomes, and working to ensure that historically underserved communities have equitable access to healthy, safe, durable, sustainable, and energy-efficient housing.

Victoria James she/her
OPERATIONS MANAGER

Victoria James serves as the Operations Manager for EnerCity Collaborative. In this role she makes sure that the day-to-day administrative needs of the collaborative are met and that good work goes unimpeded by minutiae. Victoria has a background in local government and finance, as well as a Masters Degree in Information and Library Sciences. She understands that knowledge is power and centers her work in racial equity practices that address the unique challenges of racialized and indigenous people.

The Board

Dr. Derron Coles

PRESIDENT
Nakisha Nathan

VICE PRESIDENT
David Fortney

BOARD MEMBER

Principal Consultant, DRC Learning Solutions and Executive Director, The Blueprint Foundation
Dr. Derron Coles is a Learning strategist with over 14 years experience designing learner-focused competency development training. Derron has a wide-ranging portfolio that runs the gamut from learning solutions for technical topics, like a globally utilized online training on river system analysis, to interpersonal skills training, such as his award winning diversity training curriculum. Upon completing his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Derron moved to Oregon to complete a masters and doctorate in civil engineering at Oregon State University. Derron spent eight years managing the mathematics program for the OSU Educational Opportunities Program. In this role, Derron lead culturally responsive efforts to recruit and retain underrepresented science and engineering students. In addition to his position as executive director of The Blueprint Foundation, Derron is also owner and principal consultant for DRC Learning Solutions (DRC LS). Through DRC LS, Derron develops and evaluates project-based curriculum for technical and social justice-oriented education programs, including school districts in Portland and Salem.
Director of Strategic Partnerships and Operations at Neighbors for Clean Air
Nakisha Nathan is dedicated to co-creating spaces where people can enhance their sense of belonging and their capacity for leadership. She is inspired by memories of playing, learning, and photographing flora and fauna during her formative years when she lived in Panama, Canada, and throughout the United States.
Her life experiences combined with her work organizing communities to advocate for laws and programs that protect people, wildlife, and the environment continue to inform her philosophy and practice of education, leadership, and movement building. She is the Director of Strategic Partnerships and Operations at Neighbors for Clean Air. Previously she served as the executive director for an environmental non-profit and spent years as a community organizer, garden educator, and legal assistant for a public interest environmental law firm. Nakisha believes that many of us who have the expertise to transform our communities and cities are the same ones who face the most significant barriers but are often granted the fewest opportunities to do so. She also believes that principles of environmental justice and deep democracy are vital to helping build communities that enhance our ecological and social well-being.
She has lived in Portland for nearly 10 years and enjoys working with her hands, being outdoors, and her quest to find and meet every member of the Araucaria Araucana species in the Portland metro area.
Workforce Planning & Development, Portland General Electric
David Fortney manages Portland General Electric’s workforce planning and development programs where he drives strategic workforce investments toward a cleaner and more equitable energy future. David also has experience creating innovative economic and workforce development programs and policies in the public sector. He sees workforce development as a transformative tool in helping create access to good jobs and building prosperity for those underserved in our economy. He believes that preparing workers to decarbonize buildings and increase energy efficiency can do both.