Our Leadership Team
Dennis Corelis is a licensed architect with over 40 years of experience developing California’s building codes and standards. As Deputy State Architect, he led efforts to update California’s accessibility codes to align with the Americans with Disabilities Act while preserving the state’s enhanced accessibility requirements. He also contributed to statewide initiatives focused on sustainable landscape irrigation and seismic safety for public school facilities. Since 2021, Dennis has worked with the National Charging Access Coalition to advance equitable EV charging access in multifamily housing through California’s GALGreen building code.
Neda Deylami is an attorney, EV advocate, and member of the National Charging Access Coalition’s Advisory Committee based in Chicago, Illinois. She began her EV advocacy in 2018 by organizing to expand charging access for renters and residents of multi-unit dwellings through community outreach, education, and the drafting of state and local policy. She is the author of Illinois’ EV Charging Act, the first statewide law in the Midwest requiring EV charging infrastructure in new residential construction. At the Environmental Defense Fund, she works to expand charging infrastructure and improve equitable access to support the transition to zero-emission vehicles and cleaner air for all.
Guy Hall is a global technology leader with 29 years of research, development, and leadership experience at Hewlett Packard. After becoming involved in EV advocacy in 2010, Guy helped expand public education and community engagement around electric transportation through his former roles as president of the Sacramento chapter of the Electric Vehicle Association (EVA), National Board Secretary of the EVA, and Director of the NorCal Clean Cities Coalition. He was also a founding member of the EV Charging for All Coalition and served on the leadership team from 2020 to 2024, helping advance California building code updates to expand EV charging access for multifamily housing residents.
Co-founder of Plug In America
Linda Hutchins-Knowles has been an EV driver since 2012 and an advocate for transportation equity since 2019. She co-led the EV Charging for All Coalition, helping secure California’s requirement for EV Ready charging in all new multifamily housing with parking. Through leadership roles with Mothers Out Front, Acterra, and Charge Across Town, Linda has advanced equitable charging access, multilingual outreach, and clean transportation policies across California. She is the Principal of E-Mobility and Electrification Consulting and serves as Director of Campaigns and Volunteer Engagement for Climate Action California.
Michelle Pierce is a retired electrical engineer, electric vehicle advocate, and founder of EV Nirvana, where she works to expand EV education and charging access. An EV driver since 2012, she has more than 20 years of experience in the municipal electric utility industry, including electric vehicle strategic planning, energy efficiency, renewable energy, and project management. She also worked for an engineering firm designing EV charging infrastructure for government entities and is a co-founder of the EVA’s Inland Empire Chapter, advising prospective EV drivers on overcoming charging hurdles. As a co-leader of the National Charging Access Coalition, Michelle combines her engineering expertise with her firsthand experience living in an apartment to advocate for equitable EV charging access.
Vanessa Warheit is the Project Director for the National Charging Access Coalition. She also serves on the California Energy Commission’s Transportation Electrification Advisory Committee and advises Moon Five Technologies. Previously, Vanessa co-founded the EV Charging for All Coalition, helping advance equitable EV readiness through California’s building energy codes in partnership with Acterra and Plug In America. Her climate advocacy experience spans leadership roles with organizations including Seed the Vote, Atmos Financial, Fossil Free California, 350.org, The Bioneers, and the League of Conservation Voters. She is also an award-winning documentary filmmaker whose work includes the PBS feature The Insular Empire and the educational film Worse than Poop, which may still be the only funny film about EVs and the climate crisis.
Dwight MacCurdy has more than 46 years of experience in the electric utility industry, including roles with the Alaska Public Utilities Commission, the California Energy Commission, and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD). During more than three decades in SMUD’s Electric Transportation Program, he worked to advance electric vehicles, fleet electrification, and charging infrastructure. Dwight supports the National Charging Access Coalition’s efforts to strengthen EV charging requirements for multifamily housing in California’s GALGreen code and is co-author of the University of California Institute of Transportation Studies report, Multifamily Households Across California Are Paying a Lot More to Charge Their Electric Vehicle.
Sven Thesen is an engineer, entrepreneur, and clean transportation leader with more than 40 years of experience in the environmental field and over 20 years advancing electric vehicle charging. He co-founded both the EV Charging for All Coalition, which helped establish California’s gold-standard EV charging requirements for new multifamily housing, and the National Charging Access Coalition. Sven has led EV initiatives at PG&E and Peninsula Clean Energy, co-founded several EV charging companies, including Orange Charger and EV PlugBox LLC, and has been driving electric since 2007. He was also among the scientists and engineers whose work contributed to the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007.