Meet The Trainers

Chris Whittet

Energy Codes Specialist

Chris Whittet is an Energy Codes Specialist for PSD that has been in the energy efficiency industry for over 13 years. He is an experienced auditor and quality assurance professional, holding Building Performance Institute (BPI) certifications as a Building Analyst Professional, Envelope Professional, Heating Professional, and Healthy Home Evaluator. With a significant amount of experience in the field, Chris provides training to students with a real-world and hands-on perspective. 

Chris started his career as an energy auditor for the New York State Weatherization Assistance Program. Throughout his years as an energy auditor, he has conducted over 1,500 residential energy audits for both the Weatherization Program and the Empower NY Program. During this time he performed combustion appliance zone testing, blower door testing, and infrared thermography. He has written comprehensive work scopes and provided project management for low to middle-income, single, and multi-family homes to help reduce their energy consumption and financial burden. Chris has also worked within multiple NYSERDA energy programs in various capacities for CLEAResult and Honeywell. 

Jerone Gagliano

PE, CEM, LEED AP, Sr. Building Performance Engineer

Jerone Gagliano is nationally recognized for his expertise in the retrofit energy analysis of multifamily buildings. As Vice President of Energy Engineering Services at Performance Systems Development, he serves as a subject matter expert for the company’s multifamily retrofit efforts including internal green retrofit procedures, program design, and development of training curricula.

Mr. Gagliano has extensive building performance experience from years of ASHRAE-compliant energy retrofit audits. He delivers advanced training on multifamily and commercial facility energy audits, consulting services, and develops best practices for and oversees the quality assurance of the company’s energy audits. He considers building retrofits a financial and societal investment from start to finish that should balance risk, accuracy, and budget. Mr. Gagliano serves as chair of the Multifamily Homes Group for Efficiency First.  Mr. Gagliano is a licensed Professional Engineer, a Certified Measurement and Verification Professional, a Certified Energy Manager, BPI Multifamily Analyst, and a LEED Accredited Professional.

Jerone is a frequent presenter at national conferences including GreenBuild, ACI, and ACEEE, and has served on technical panels such as Oakridge National Lab’s national evaluation of the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP), the DOE Clean Energy Roadshow, and multifamily data standards meetings led by Fannie Mae and MacArthur Foundation. He serves as chair of the Multifamily Homes Group for Efficiency First, as well as a committee member and contributing author to standards on the RESNET Software Approval Standard working group, the BPI Data Collection, and Transfer Standard working group, and the California Multifamily Home Energy Retrofit Coordinating Committee (MF HERCC).

Ethan MacCormick

HERS, RESNET, BPI

Ethan has a distinctive background as both a builder and software developer. As Vice President of Services to Energy Businesses, he delivers quality software, training and efficiency solutions to home performance contractors and energy raters. He is a certified HERS Rater, a RESNET trainer and a BPI-certified Building Analyst, Building Envelope and Heating Professional and a field proctor for BPI. An expert energy modeler, he contributed to the development of TREAT and is a primary trainer in the software. Ethan is a founding Director of the Northeast HERS Alliance and sits on the RESNET Quality Assurance and Ethics Committee.

Mike Turns

Director of Energy Code Services

Mike has been with PSD for over eight years, managing several residential new construction and energy code support programs. Currently, Mike manages the implementation of the Mass Save® Codes and Standards Compliance and Support Initiative, New York energy code training funded by NYSERDA, and energy code support services to the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. Before that, Mike led the DOE-funded Pennsylvania Residential Energy Code Field Study. He is an expert in the International Energy Conservation Code and has developed and taught numerous training programs in several states under a variety of code versions. He has over 15 years of energy code training experience and has presented at national conferences like the RESNET, HPC, the DOE Energy Codes Conference, and AESP. Prior to joining PSD, he was the Associate Director of the Pennsylvania Housing Research Center (PHRC) at Penn State University, where he managed the largest provider of residential building code training in Pennsylvania. Mike has a master’s degree from Penn State with a thesis focused on assessing and reducing energy consumption in new homes.

Chris Balbach

Emelie Cuppernell

HERS, RESNET, BPI, NAHB

Emelie has leveraged her background in physics to become an expert building scientist. Her foundation in field-based activities has honed her skills in building analysis and software modeling. She conducted a two-year long research project on cooling systems in Massachusetts that included a comprehensive inspection of 80 homes with data monitoring. Emelie is a RESNET certified Rater, Trainer and Quality Assurance Designer, NAHB green verifier, EPA universal refrigerant handler, and hold two BPI certifications.  She manages the HERS Rater Provider division of Performance Systems Development and oversees quality assurance for more than 70 raters.

David Abrey