Anisa Heming

Anisa (Baldwin Metzger) Heming is director of the Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council. As the Center's director, Anisa provides strategic direction to USGBC’s work in schools and coordinates an organization-wide team to promote environmental sustainability, health and wellness, and sustainability literacy in school systems around the world. She began her work with USGBC ten years ago in New Orleans, hired to assist with rebuilding the schools after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. During her two years with the city’s Recovery School District, she established green design and construction standards, received an EPA grant to hire an indoor air quality manager for the schools, completed a public-private partnership to install solar PV on school roofs, began a recycling pilot program, and laid the foundation for the district's energy management program. She later brought this experience to Washington, D.C. to begin begin the nation's first network of school district sustainability staff and found the Green Schools Fellowship Program to place and train sustainability directors in school districts.

Anisa’s areas of expertise include sustainability policy and implementation, school district operations, the application of green building rating systems, and disaster resilience and planning (particularly, in a schools context). She has worked directly with dozens of schools and school districts, both domestically and internationally, to implement greener design, construction, and operations strategies. In 2014, Anisa was named in a list of the "Most Powerful Women in Sustainability" by Green Building and Design Magazine. She is a Little Rock native and holds a B.S. in Architecture from Washington University in St. Louis and an M. Arch. from the University of Washington in Seattle.

Recent speaking engagements include:
In July 2018, moderated a Congressional briefing on Capitol Hill entitled 'Schools as Resilience Infrastructure: New Opportunities to Strengthen Disaster Preparedness' for the Congressional Green Schools Caucus.
In July 2018, moderated a panel for the American Institute of Architects Students leadership conference, entitled 'Green Building in the Real World: Holding the Line on Building a Better World.'
In July 2018, taught a day-long workshop for K-12 teachers through the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s “Chesapeake Classrooms” program. The course brought forward lessons that educators can use to teach sustainability concepts through the built environment and was called 'Platinum City: Design for a Sustainable Future.'
In May 2018, interviewed for a two-part feature on the “Leadership and the Environment” podcast series.