2025 Fall Speakers
Mike Abraczinskas
​Director
North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality
Division of Air Quality
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Mike Abraczinskas currently serves as the Director of the North Carolina Division of Air Quality (DAQ), bringing over 26 years of experience to the role. In this capacity, he leads the Division’s technical programs, policy development, strategic planning initiatives, budgeting, and operations.
Throughout his career at DAQ, Mike has built a broad and deep foundation in air quality management. His expertise spans emissions and air quality modeling, mobile source modeling, regulatory development, planning, compliance and enforcement, and quality management. He was named Deputy Director in 2010 and became Director in 2017.
Mike is recognized as a leader in the air quality field and actively contributes to national and regional organizations representing state and local air agencies. He has held leadership roles in the Association of Air Pollution Control Agencies (AAPCA), the Carolinas Air Pollution Control Association (CAPCA), the Mid-Atlantic Regional Air Management Association (MARAMA), and the Southeastern States Air Resource Managers Association (SESARM).
He holds a Bachelor of Science in Meteorology with a Minor in Environmental Science from North Carolina State University. He is certified as an Engineer-In-Training (EIT) and is a graduate of the North Carolina Public Managers Program.
Brooks Butler
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Brooks leads the commercial team at Masen EOS, an industrial data services company that is helping organizations solve their most complex and highest-value data challenges. As the Commercial Leader, Brooks is responsible for building client relationships and ensuring that Masen delivers services that create real value and helps clients make better operational decisions. Prior to co-founding Masen, Brooks spent twelve years with Georgia-Pacific, LLC, one of the nation’s leading forest products manufacturers. He began his career with Georgia-Pacific as an environmental engineer at the company’s Alabama River Cellulose facility and would go on from there to serve in various environmental leaderships roles across Georgia-Pacific’s manufacturing operations. Brooks received both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in engineering from Auburn University and is a registered professional engineer in Alabama and Florida.
Nathan Daniel
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Mr. Daniel is a Senior Engineer and Environmental Compliance Service Leader at Bunnell Lammons Engineering, Inc. (BLE), where he has been a licensed engineer for seven years. He brings unique perspective from his prior roles in industrial operations, including experience with specialty chemical manufacturers in the upstream oil & gas sector and a nylon 6,6 production facility. Mr. Daniel holds a B.S. in Environmental Engineering and an M.S. in Systems Engineering from Southern Methodist University. His leadership extends beyond BLE through his role as Chair of the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce's Solid & Hazardous Waste Subcommittee and participation in BLE's internal AI and Innovation Subcommittees, where he helps shape both industry standards and innovative engineering practices. He currently resides in Greenville, South Carolina with his wife, four-year-old daughter and one-year-old son.
David J. Evans
​David joined the staff of the North Carolina Board of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors in 1998. As the Board’s Assistant Executive Director he supervises investigations of engineers, surveyors and corporations as well as non-licensed practice. David also oversees business licensure and compliance;
continuing professional competency; license applications and renewals; and the Board’s regular program of enforcement and education.
David previously conducted criminal investigations in the U.S. Army as a Military Police Investigator. He is a past Chairman of the Committee on Law
Enforcement for the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and
Surveying and served on the Law Enforcement Advisory Group. David has a
B.A. in History and Social Science from Eastern Connecticut State University
Will Frierson
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Will Frierson is the Executive Vice President and Chief Government Affairs Officer for the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce. As a member of the organization’s executive leadership team, he is responsible for the development and management of the organization’s overall government affairs, public policy, and communications strategies, and its day-to-day lobbying activities.
Before joining the SC Chamber in 2021, Frierson was the Government Relations Manager for the National Cotton Council of America (NCC) in Washington, DC where he assisted in coordinating the Washington activities of the NCC and oversaw the organization’s political activities.
A native of Orangeburg, SC, Frierson attended Wake Forest University and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in politics and international affairs. He and his wife Emily live in Columbia with their Boykin Spaniel Auggie.
Dianne Green
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Dianne Green is a Principal with Geosyntec based in Cincinnati, Ohio. She has over 34 years of experience in the global product stewardship field (11 of those years at Procter & Gamble), with a focus on chemical and product risk assessment, regulatory compliance, merger and acquisition due diligence, and hazard communication.
She has managed complex international technical and multi-stakeholder programs in chemical registration and compliance, alternatives to animal testing, sustainability, life cycle assessment, hazard communication and environmental quality assessment. She has extensive experience with the US Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), European Union (EU) Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) Regulation, EU Classification, Labeling and Packaging (CLP) Regulation, and the United Nations (UN) Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS), and has led numerous REACH registrations, developed GHS classifications of hundreds of chemicals and mixtures, served as a Consortium Manager for two aerospace and defense consortia pursuing authorisations under REACH and provided technical support for several authorization applications under REACH.
Jay Hoffman
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Air Quality Consulting
Mr. Hofmann’s consulting focus is Clean Air Act permitting and compliance. Over the last 39 years, he has conducted numerous air pollution control technology evaluations, led more than 100 ambient impact studies, and prepared more than 100 major air pollution permit applications for industrial sources. His consulting work has focused on the refining, chemical, and cement industries to support expansion projects and new installations.
Mr. Hofmann is often called upon to evaluate prospective capital projects involving upgrades and implementation of newer and more efficient processes in a variety of industries. These evaluations often address whether changes can be implemented under the various Clean Air Act regulations. The economic viability of projects, cyclical market timing strategies, and return on invested capital are often impacted by the specifics of the NSR permitting process.
Mr. Hofmann has offered testimony in the form of expert reports and has been deposed by the DOJ in NSR matters. In 2005, Mr. Hofmann was selected to serve on an expert review panel for the National Research Council report on “Changes to the New Source Review Programs for Stationary Sources of Air Pollutants.”
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Air Quality Training
Since 1991, Mr. Hofmann has taught one- and two-day workshops on air quality regulations and NSR/PSD compliance. The NSR/PSD class has enjoyed attendance from more than 3000 industrial participants. He has also been invited to teach numerous private and customized NSR/PSD classes to major industrial companies, the U.S. EPA (Office of Atmospheric Programs and Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards), and over 20 state environmental/regulatory agencies.
Dr. Richard Kilpatrick
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Rick is currently the Director of Environmental, Health & Safety at Shurtape Technologies located in Hickory, NC. He has been with Shurtape since 2016 and previously served as the Corporate Environmental, Health, & Safety Manager for Gerdau Longsteel North America’s Downstream Operations.
He has a Bachelor’s degree from Western Carolina University and a Master’s from the University of North Carolina at Charlote and holds certification as a Registered Environmental Manager and a Certified Safety Professional.
In the Fall of 2012 he applied to, and was subsequently accepted, into Cohort #1 of the Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s Safety Sciences Ph.D. program and defended his dissertation in June 2017. He is a published author and serves as an expert witness for workplace fatalities involving mobile equipment and pedestrian interactions.
Alyssa Morrissey
As Director of Regulatory and Legislative Affairs, Alyssa advocates for the NC Chamber’s legislative and regulatory agendas, focusing specifically on agriculture, energy, environmental, labor, and telecommunications policies.  Prior to joining the NC Chamber, Alyssa worked on the federal government relations team for Primerica Inc., a financial services company. Based in Washington, D.C., she oversaw policy areas including insurance, securities, mortgage, corporate governance, and data privacy. Morrissey also managed the Primerica Political Action Committee. Morrissey previously served as a staffer for the Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations at the North Carolina General Assembly. During her time at the NCGA, Alyssa drafted legislation addressing orphan roads and worked with the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency to expedite hurricane recovery efforts in eastern North Carolina. Most notably, Morrissey testified before a Gov Ops hearing to address K-12 learning loss as a result of COVID-19. Alyssa earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science and Spanish and a Master of Arts in political science from Vanderbilt University, all with a focus on Middle East politics.
Katie Quinlan
Katie Quinlan is the Supervisor of the Rule Development Branch within the Planning Section of the North Carolina Division of Air Quality. Her responsibilities include managing the Division’s work related to the development and analysis of air quality rules, State Plans, SIPs, and related federal actions. Prior to joining the DAQ in 2019, Katie worked for the State of Texas reviewing NSR permits for chemical plants and related processes. She is co-chair of the AAPCA Energy Committee and holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.
Ray Stofko
Ray is a Senior Environmental Manager at Georgia-Pacific, one of the nation’s leading forest products manufacturers. Ray is responsible for continuous improvement of environmental operating systems at the Georgia-Pacific Consumer Products facilities that produce household products such as Angel Soft®, Brawny®, and Dixie®. Prior to this position, he supported the Georgia-Pacific operations in other site-level and regional environmental leadership roles since joining the team in 2015. Prior to Georgia-Pacific, Ray worked for 15 years in the specialty metals industry in various operations, environmental and safety roles. Ray holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Drexel University.
Rhonda Banks Thompson, P.E.
Chief, Bureau of Air Quality
South Carolina Department of Environmental Services (DES)
Columbia, SC
Rhonda Thompson has been with the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services (formally DHEC) for over 35 years. She has been the Chief of the Bureau of Air Quality since 2016. Prior to becoming Bureau Chief, she served as Assistant Bureau Chief, director of the permitting division, manager of the air toxics section, and a permit writer.
At the regional and national level, Rhonda is the newly elected Chair of the Southeastern States Air Resource Managers (SESARM), Board member of the Association of Air Pollution Control Agencies (AAPCA), and immediate past President of the Carolinas Air Pollution Control Association (CAPCA) Board of Directors.
Rhonda has a B.S. Degree in Engineering from the University of South Carolina, and she is a Registered Professional Engineer (P.E.) in South Carolina.
Mary Peyton Wall
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Mary is the manager of the Air Regulation and Air Data Analysis Section in the Bureau of Air Quality. She has been at the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services, and previously the Department of Health and Environmental Control, since April 2000, where she started in the Modeling Section, moving to Air Toxics in September 2005, and section manager in August 2016. Her section focuses on air regulation development and maintaining the state implementation plan, as well as the analysis of monitoring data for the air monitoring network. Mary Peyton has a B.S. in chemistry from the College of Charleston and a M.S. in analytical chemistry from the University of South Carolina.
Brett Zogas
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​Brett Zogas serves as Manager of Consulting Services for Trinity's Charlotte, North Carolina office where he leads complex air permitting and compliance projects and supports clients across a wide range of industries. Brett began his air consulting career in Houston, Texas in 2014 prior to moving to Charlotte in 2023 and has since built a diverse portfolio of work serving clients in the Carolinas as well as Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. With deep expertise in air permitting and compliance, Brett helps companies navigate regulatory challenges under programs such as Title V, PSD, Nonattainment NSR, and state-level air permitting. His compliance experience includes NESHAP compliance, audit support, emissions inventories, stack testing coordination, and enforcement negotiations. He has supported clients in industries including oil and gas, petrochemicals, refining, aerospace manufacturing and maintenance, composites, and general manufacturing.