Representative Emily McAsey
85th District (Moderator)
Emily McAsey is a full-time state representative serving the 85th District, where she continues a commitment to public service she first began as a middle-school teacher and criminal prosecutor. While Illinois has taken important steps to prioritize spending tax dollars more efficiently and making sure the state pays its bills, Emily knows much more must be done to get our state back on the right track. She has supported state budgets that protected crucial dollars for schools, health care, public safety, and needed care for seniors and veterans, while reining in unnecessary spending. She is fighting against unfair property tax increases by supporting legislation that freezes property taxes when home values decline.
As a former criminal prosecutor, Emily understands firsthand the dangers sex offenders pose to our communities. She sponsored a bill to close a loophole in the law and keep violent sexual offenders off the streets and out of our communities. When it was discovered that some rapists have been able to avoid justice because evidence is sometimes not processed quickly enough, Emily supported efforts to give prosecutors more time to put these dangerous rapists behind bars. McAsey has worked to make sure that those who take advantage of seniors cannot financially benefit from their actions. She sponsored a law to make sure those who are found guilty in a civil court of financial exploitation of an elderly or disabled person are unable to receive property or other assets following that person’s death.
A graduate of The College of William and Mary, Emily began her professional career as an eighth-grade social studies teacher. While teaching, she went to law school at night, graduating with honors from the Loyola University Chicago School of Law. After graduation, she joined the Will County State’s Attorney’s Office, where she worked as a criminal prosecutor.
McAsey’s full-time constituent service office works with residents who need assistance accessing local, state and federal services. McAsey hosts an annual senior fair so she can personally listen to the thoughts and concerns of local elderly residents and update them on new laws and available services. Continuing her commitment to serving young people that began with her career as a teacher, Emily also hosts an annual mobile zoo event, in partnership with the Brookfield Zoo, for children with developmental disabilities.
Walter Alcorn
Vice President of Environmental Affairs, Consumer Electronic Association
Walter Alcorn is Vice President of Environmental Affairs and Industry Sustainability at the Consumer Technology Association. He manages legislative initiatives impacting electronic product recycling, design, eco-labeling and hazardous materials restrictions. He currently coordinates CTA’s eCycling Leadership Initiative and serves as an advocate for the CE industry on Capitol Hill, before regulatory agencies and state legislatures on a range of sustainability and related issues.
Jeff Degarmo
Commodities Purchasing Manager, URT Solutions
Jeff DeGarmo is the Commodities Purchasing Manager with over 10 years of experience in the Electronics Recycling Industry. Jeff started working with URT in 2006 and helped develop a respected national presence opening facilities in WI, OR, TX, and NH while working on E- waste legislation.
Richard Hipp
President & CEO, Kuusakoski Recycling
Richard Hipp is the President & CEO of Kuusakoski US, a leading recycler with a 100+ year history of innovation. During his 2 years with Kuusakoski US, he has lead the organization through start-up operations in Illinois, the acquisition and integration of Vintage Tech Recyclers, and a turnaround driven by an industry-wide global recession in the commodities market. Mr. Hipp brings 25+ years of electronic product development and manufacturing experience to role. Prior to his appointment, Mr. Hipp lived in Hong Kong where he led Southco Asia Pacific, a global designer and manufacturer of electronic access hardware, with design and manufacturing centers in China, India, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Australia. Mr. Hipp currently serves on the Board of Directors for Laminators Inc. in Hatfield, PA, a leader in composite building materials, and on the Advisory Board for Arco Display Company of Philadelphia PA, a leading designer and green manufacturer of retail displays. Mr. Hipp received his Executive MBA from Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, PA. and his Bachelors degree from Widener University in Chester, PA.
Adam Jaquet
Vice President, Eagle Enterprises Recycling, Inc.
Adam Jaquet is Vice President of Eagle Enterprises Recycling, Inc. and serves on the Board of Directors of the Illinois Recycling Association. Adam grew up in recycling, working with his parents in the business since the age of 10. He obtained his B.S. from Western Illinois University in 2005. In 2008 he returned full time to recycling. At Eagle, he does all bidding and pricing, and coordinates new community recycling programs. He also manages Eagle’s electronic recycling program, which has been operating for ten years and has served twelve counties, all from a single collection location.
Jennifer Jarland
Recycling Program Coordinator for Kane County, IL
Jennifer Jarland has been the Recycling Program Coordinator for Kane County, IL for the last 5 years. Before that she was with Boulder County, CO as Zero Waste Specialist. Her work for the last year has been largely focused on negotiating the stormy seas of electronics recycling in Illinois. While managing, improving, and expanding recycling programs for Kane County, she also works with fellow Illinois County and Agency colleagues on broader state issues, such as food scrap composting, electronics recycling, and product stewardship initiatives. She is currently a Director of the Board for the Illinois Food Scrap Coalition, and was on the Board of the Illinois Recycling Association for two years 2013-2015.
Marta Keane
Recycling Program Specialist Will County Land Use
A graduate of DeSales University in Pennsylvania, Ms. Keane began her environmental career in 1988 working at a recycled greeting card company in Chicago. She successfully created a Green Team at a fortune 500 company then joined the public sector as a Recycling Coordinator for the City of St. Charles and became one the first State of Illinois certified Recycling Trainers. She helped numerous businesses, earned an award for multi-family recycling and went on to become the City of Naperville’s only Environmental Programs Administrator
There, Ms. Keane ran one of the busiest Household Hazardous Waste collection sites in the United States. She offered residents the first mid-west electronic recycling event in 1996. She excelled at building private-public partnerships for Earth Day celebrations, collection funding and educational efforts.
Ms. Keane returned briefly to the east coast in 2005 to run Delaware’s award winning school recycling education program. In 2006 Ms. Keane came back to Illinois to become Will County’s first Recycling Program Specialist. Since joining the County, she has forged partnerships with municipalities, townships and businesses to create more recycling drop-offs for traditional items, electronic items and medications. As part of a team, she worked on the County Energy Plan and created the County’s Green website, offering energy efficiency, water conservation, composting and recycling information to tens of thousands of residents and businesses annually.
Over the course of her career she has served on the Illinois Recycling Association board for a total of 12 years, filling the role of secretary, treasurer, VP and President at various times. She spent two years on the SWANA-IL board, was very honored to serve on the Illinois Statewide Recycling Taskforce, and currently serves as Chair of the Illinois Product Stewardship Council.
Melville Nickerson
Executive Director, Illinois Recycling Association
Melville Nickerson, is the Executive Director of the Illinois Recycling Association and the Director of Government Affairs for Accurate Strategies. Melville is the former Deputy Director of Illinois’ Energy & Recycling Office where he enacted several sustainable initiatives such as, a $4.6 million clean energy investment fund, an energy storage grant program and a waste water treatment facility energy efficiency program. He is credited with numerous legislative successes that include the Illinois Electronic Recycling & Reuse Act, the Mercury Thermostat Collect as well as other legislative initiatives that protect and advance the interest of the recycling industry and the environment. Melville was named the 2011 Recycler of the Year and a 2008 Green Revolutionary by the Illinois Recycling Association and the Museum of Science and Industry respectively.
Jerry Peck
Associate Director of Government Affairs, Illinois Manufacturing Association
Jerry Peck is the Associate Director of Government Affairs at the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association. Founded in 1893, the IMA is the oldest and largest manufacturing trade association in the nation. Mr. Peck advocates on behalf of nearly 4,000 manufacturers representing transportation, energy, heavy equipment, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and other manufacturing sectors.
In addition to advocating for manufacturers before the Illinois General Assembly and Governor’s Office, Peck leads the Manufacturers Environmental Group representing the industry on environmental and regulatory issues before the Illinois and U.S. Environmental Protection Agencies.
Prior to joining the IMA, Peck worked as a contractual lobbyist representing steel, energy, pharmaceutical and insurance companies in Illinois. In addition, Peck is an Emmy Award winning journalist who worked in television for over a decade including a stint as an embedded war correspondent in Afghanistan.
Terrence Sheahan
Environmental Engineer- City of Chicago Department of Public Health
Terry Sheahan works for the City of Chicago as an Environmental Engineer. He is currently with the Chicago Department of Public Health and manages the Hazardous Materials Program and the City’s Household Chemicals and Computer Recycling Facility (HCCRF). Terry helped open the HCCRF back in 2008 and since then, they have collected over 3 million pounds of e-waste and 2 million pounds of household hazardous waste from Illinois residents.
