Responsible Purchasing Network Speakers

Responsible Purchasing staff and experts are available to speak at your conference or events. For more information please email, or call (301) 891-3683.

Jonathan Cohen, Director, Workplace Programs
B.A., University of Delaware; M.A. New York University. Jonathan has specialized in corporate social responsibility (CSR) for the past thirteen years of his professional career.

Most recently he was Senior Manager for Chapter Relations and Corporate Social Responsibility for the American Staffing Association. He previously was the Executive Director of the William James Foundation, which educates and funds entrepreneurs to launch socially responsible businesses. Before that he managed the launch and development of the first global standard to verify CSR reports—the AA1000 Assurance Standard, as Programme Manager for the international, UK-based organization AccountAbility. He managed the United Nations Association of the USA’s national non-governmental organization (NGO) membership program. He created and taught the first class on NGO-CSR partnerships in New York University history, has published book chapters concerning global CSR trends, partnerships, the U.N.-business relationship, and the NGO role in global governance.

Outside of the Center for a New American Dream, he continues 20 years of service in numerous leadership positions with Amnesty International by working on business and human rights, and also campaigns for the return of street cars to Washington, D.C. with the Sierra Club.

Vincent Kitira, RPN Manager
M.Eng. and B.S., Cornell University. Vincent previously worked for the City of New York’s Department of Citywide Administrative Services; Division of Municipal Supply Services (DMSS) — NYC government’s main purchasing agency with a total annual procurement budget of $900 million. At DMSS, he served as the Administrative Manager of their Environmental Group, or “Green Team,” performing research on environmentally preferable products (EPPs) and promoting their use by NYC agencies, which annually purchase over $250 million in EPPs. His research included, among other things, alternative fuel vehicles, products with recycled content, energy efficient products, renewable energy sources, green cleaning products and biofuels. Vincent is also co-author of a study on the use of hybrid-electric taxicabs in NYC which was published in the journal, Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice. At RPN, Vincent conducts and manages responsible purchasing research, works with clients and partners on purchasing projects, and is developing a responsible purchasing handbook synthesizing RPN’s resources into a comprehensive framework for developing, implementing, tracking and reporting on responsible purchasing programs.

Sarah O'Brien, EPEAT Outreach Director
Through the RPN Extern program Sarah was placed at the Green Electronics Council where she educates purchasers and the general public about the EPEAT (Environmental Product Environmental Assessment Tool) system for purchasing environmentally preferable electronics. 

Sarah has many years of environmental purchasing and advocacy experience. Most recently, she was EPP Program Manager at Hospitals for a Healthy Environment (H2E), assisting health care facilities, systems and Group Purchasing Organizations across North America to reduce environmental impact and improve environmental performance through purchasing initiatives. Before joining H2E, as a Senior Outreach Associate with INFORM, a national nonprofit, Sarah assisted government agencies, institutions and businesses to reduce their purchase of products containing persistent toxic chemicals. As part of her work with H2E and INFORM, Ms. O’Brien was an NGO member of the national stakeholder team that developed and implemented the EPEAT standard and system, and served as a member of the EPEAT Board of Advisors.