2023 Air Central Texas Outstanding Organization Award

Movability received the 2023 Air Central Texas Outstanding Organization Award for their exceptional efforts to help reduce local air pollution. Movability currently has 86 member organizations, representing roughly 30,000 employees. Through their work, these organizations offer commuter benefits and reduce demand for drive-alone trips and parking resources. Members have logged 7,500 commute trips a year, which has resulted in a 24-ton reduction in CO₂, a 31.4 lb. reduction in NO_X, and saved commuters roughly $34,000.

(From left: Bill Schnell, Lonny Stern, and Alexander Terrazas)

2023 Air Central Texas Environmental Education Award

Dr. Peter Beck received the 2023 Air Central Texas Environmental Education Award for his exceptional leadership on air quality and environmental education. Dr. Beck was an Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Policy (ENSP) at St. Edward's University from 2003-2023. Dr. Beck was responsible for starting the ENSP program at St. Edward's, which has taught thousands of students about the effects of environmental pollution on ecosystems and human communities, and the pros and cons of various policy solutions. He passed away in the summer of 2023 and was represented by St. Edward's Dean of the School of Behavioral and Social Sciences, Catherine Campbell.

2023 Bill Gill Central Texas Air Quality Leadership Award

Bill Gibbs received the 2023 Bill Gill Central Texas Air Quality Leadership Award for his distinguished work as the Execute Director of the Clean Air Force of Central Texas. A lifelong advocate of sustainability, he is committed to keeping air quality in Central Texas in compliance with EPA standards so all can enjoy healthy air. As leader of the Clean Air Force, Bill reached out to local businesses, non-profits, educational institutions, and government agencies to bring them together as advocates for reduction of air pollution. Jim Stephens, Clean Air Force's current Executive Director, accepted the award on Bill's behalf.

2022 Air Central Texas Outstanding Organization Award

The City of Bastrop, Capital Area Rural Transportation System (CARTS) & Lone Star Clean Fuels Alliance (LSCFA)

The 3 coordinated the establishment of transit alternatives that blended electric cabs and smaller transit vehicles into an app-based on-demand micro-transit service (CARTS NOW). They utilized electric and fuel-efficient vehicles to provide a higher level of service to both residents and visitors to Bastrop while reducing vehicle miles traveled and pollutants. The effectiveness of the project saw a 300% increase in ridership while reducing the Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMTs), thus a reduction in nitrate oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM10). Such reductions lend themselves readily toward our region maintaining compliance with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). Their efforts garnered national as well as international attention with the information derived from the project in Bastrop providing the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) and the DOE with a greater understanding of rural mobility.

The City of Bastrop is growing Central Texas City that is committed to multi-modal transportation as evidenced by its adopted Comprehensive Plan as well as its financial commitment toward sustaining a micro-transit infrastructure.

Capital Area Rural Transportation System (CARTS) delivers transportation tailored specifically for each of the many communities served in Central Texas. This venture is consistent with CARTS’s commitment to bring mobility improvements the residents and visitors within its service area.

Lone Star Clean Fuels Alliance (LSCFA) is an Austin-based non-profit that is part of the Department of Energy’s national Clean Cities program. LSCF works to advance affordable, domestic transportation fuels, energy efficient mobility systems, and other fuel-saving technologies.

2022 Air Central Texas Media Award

David Yeomans received the 2022 Air Central Texas Media Award for his exceptional media coverage of air quality or air quality issues within the past year as chief meteorologist at KXAN TV. David has been actively involved with all aspects of Air Quality in Central Texas by working to keep public “Air Aware” with regularly announcing Ozone Action Days and becoming a regular attendant of Clean Air Force's annual Meteorologists Luncheon and Air Quality Professional Forum. He has interviewed air quality professionals on air and supports the use of air quality sensors in schools. Unfortunately, David could not be with us as he is fresh off his honeymoon and had some work to catch up on.

2022 Air Central Texas Environmental Education Award

Dr. Amy Concilio received the 2022 Air Central Texas Environmental Education Award for her exceptional leadership on air quality and environmental education. Dr. Concilio is an Associate Professor of Environmental Science at St. Edward's University where she teaches climate change, natural resource conservation and management and has previously been involved with the City of Austin's Climate Equity Plan. She is a leader in the Environmental Science and Policy program and one of the most popular instructors at the university. She employs a diversity of research methods, including ecological field trials, greenhouse experiments, and stakeholder interviews to measure impacts of global change on plant communities and ecosystems and to test the effectiveness and feasibility of land management approaches. As an instructor, she believes strongly in ensuring that her students understand the value of trees in the air pollution cycle and why they are so important to preserve. She is part of the Tree Campus campaign and was a founding member of the Food Forest, established on campus this year. Dr. Concilio has inspired hundreds of students to follow their passion with causes important to local air quality issues.

2022 Air Central Texas Researcher Award

Dr. Paul Walter received the 2022 Air Central Texas Researcher Award for his findings in the field of air quality in Austin, San Antonio, and other areas of Texas. His research included ozonesonde launches to understand ozone formation and concentrations in the atmosphere. An ozonesonde is a lightweight, balloon-borne instrument, similar to a weather balloon but with ozone measurement tools include, that measures various atmospheric parameters and transmits them by radio to a ground receiver. His research revealed the ozone concentrations at different altitudes and how ozone is transported within the atmosphere. An understanding of ozone transportation and concentrations allows the region to understand other area’s impact on local ozone levels.

2022 Air Aware Student Leadership Award

Ethan Tobias received the 2022 Air Aware Student Leadership Award for his role with the Office of Sustainability for St. Edwards University as Intern. As the Sustainability Intern for St. Edward's University, Ethan has spearheaded the efforts to raise awareness for Environmental and Climate Justice and has promoted cleaner and healthier practices for all types of pollution. In his role with the Office of Sustainability, he has promoted renewable energy, the importance of trees, and using public transportation to help reduce our burden. He also shares information regarding air quality alert days with the campus community and worked with the Clean Air Force in hosting their local meeting on campus. Ethan is also the President of Students for Sustainability and uses his role there to not only share this information with them, but facilitate their role as advocates for a cleaner, more sustainable lifestyle; particularly with promoting renewable energy efforts on campus and encouraging carpooling and public transportation. Ethan has promoted and empowered the groups where he leads, has helped shaped policy and projects at the university, and has helped elevate Climate Justice as one of the pillars of the university's strategic plan. He also coordinates Tree Campus USA team, helping them maintain their designation for the last 7 years.

2022 Bill Gill Central Texas Air Quality Leadership Award

Christiane Heggelund received the 2022 Bill Gill Central Texas Air Quality Leadership Award for her long lasting and distinguished work at the Capital Area Council of Governments. Christiane is an environmental scientist who supported the CAPCOG Air Quality Program for 6+ years. She primarily worked in air quality monitoring and technical analyses during her tenure at CAPCOG and was crucial in implementing the display of CAPCOG air quality monitoring data on EPA’s AirNow platform. This allowed residents of the region to access air quality data quickly and streamlined.Christiane’s work in establishing the reporting of CAPCOG’s air monitoring data on EPA’s AirNow site will benefit the region for as long as the site is active. She optimized CAPCOG’s ozone monitoring network in order to capture air quality data for the residents of the region by relocating monitors into more populous areas or areas with an air quality concern. During her tenure she oversaw the selection and execution of new ozone monitoring stations within the region to expand the region’s understanding of air pollution concentration differences. She performed spatial and tabular analyses of air quality and meteorological data for various CAPCOG regional air quality reports and was instrumental in writing the 2 EPA grants for fine particulate matter monitoring, which CAPCOG was awarded. Those EPA grants will allow an understanding of particulate matter concentrations in the region at a scale that the region has not seen in the past. Christiane performed emissions inventory work to refine and improve the data, that TCEQ and EPAuses, for the CAPCOG region in the on-road, non-road, and point source categories. This work will allow the TCEQ and EPA to refine emission inventory data for use in state and national analyses.

2019 Air Central Texas Outstanding Organization Award

Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority received the 2019 Air Central Texas Outstanding Organization award for its commitment to being a sustainability service provider. In 2018, Capital Metro launched Connections 2025, a re-imagining of the transit service. This offered more frequent, connected and reliable service delivery which resulted in over 5% ridership increase - one of only a few transit agencies to see a significant increase in ridership. In 2020, Capital Metro will launch their first zero-emission electric buses. A total of ten buses will be put into service, and the North Ops Bus Depot will be transformed into one of the first fully electric ready bus depots with a capacity to expand the E-Bus fleet to over 180 buses.

2019 Bill Gill Central Texas Air Quality Leadership Award

Scheleen Walker, Travis County received the 2019 Bill Gill Central Texas Air Quality Leadership Award for her career in air quality planning. While managing Travis County’s Air Quality Program, Ms. Walker was an essential partner in the development and implementation of the region’s ground-breaking, voluntary air quality improvement agreements. Working with the Texas Commission on Environment Quality and US Environmental Protection Agency, the region was able to enact voluntary regulations to reduce ozone-forming emissions, and remain in compliance with the Clean Air Act’s standards for ground-level ozone. During Ms. Walker’s first tenure at Travis County she was instrumental in crafting vehicle emissions testing legislation, and supporting Travis County’s buy-in of the program. As Legislative Director for Representative Donna Howard, Ms. Walker she facilitated the region’s air quality legislative agenda, and worked with Rep. Howard to author and pass legislation allowing local enforcement of heavy- duty vehicle idling restrictions. Now in her current position at Travis County, Ms. Walker continues to support efforts to reduce emissions and improve air quality in the County's long-range planning initiatives.

Air Central Texas Outstanding Organization Award

Leander and Eanes ISDs received the 2018 Air Central Texas Outstanding Organization award for their adoption, leadership, advocacy, on propane-fueled school buses. The conversion of a diesel school bus to propane is estimated to reduce Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) emissions by 1,488 pounds of NOx annually, and combined the ISDs are operating over 80 propane school buses. They were nominated by Lone Star Clean Fuels Alliance. 

Bill Gill Central Texas Air Quality Leadership Award

Pharr Andrews, City for Austin received the 2018 Bill Gill Central Texas Air Quality Leadership Award for her career at the City of Austin’s Air Quality program serving as the program’s coordinator. Andrews' helped develop of each of the region’s air quality plans, served on the Clean Air Coalition Advisory Committee including time as the committee's  chair, helped transfer the Commute Solutions Program to CAPCOG, and supported major public outreach campaigns including the creation of CAPCOG's Air Central Texas Program and the CLEAN Air Force's outreach to local meteorologist. Pharr was nominated by her former co-workers at the City of Austin's Transportation Department.

The Air Central Texas Public Sector Award

City of Austin – Transportation Department was awarded the Public Sector award for the Smart Commute Rewards program that incentivizes employees to change their commuting behaviors from single occupant vehicle use to more sustainable commuting options.

Air Central Texas Private/Non-Profit Sector Award

Movability was awarded the Private/Non-Profit Sector award for working with employers to improve access and mobility by helping employees and visitors find and use viable travel options to reduce driving alone at rush hour.

Air Central Texas Media Award

Emmis Communications Austin was awarded the Media awards for being a key media partner supporting the regional air quality messaging for at least a decade.

Bill Gill Central Texas Air Quality Leadership Award

Cathy Stephens from the Travis County Government was awarded the Bill Gill Central Texas Air Quality Leadership award for her career work helping to pass legislation to allow designations of near non-attainment areas in Texas, helping pass idling legislation, and was a key staff member in getting Travis and Williamson counties to be the only counties in the country to voluntarily implement a mandatory Vehicle Inspection & Maintenance program.

The Air Central Texas Public Sector Award

Former Williamson County Precinct 4 Commissioner Ronald Morrison posthumously received the 2016 ACT Public Sector Award Recipient for his longtime service and leadership on the Central Texas Clean Air Coalition and the Clean Air Force of Central Texas. Capital Metro and the City of Cedar Park were also nominated for the Public Sector Award.

The Air Central Texas Private/Nonprofit Sector Award

The Lone Star Clean Fuels Alliance received the 2016 Air Central Texas Private/Nonprofit Sector Award for their role in cleaning the air through various projects such as migrating vehicles to alternative fuels, converting much of the booming landscaping industry in Texas to propane mowers, and development of alternative fuel infrastructure. Texas Lehigh Cement Company and the Beyond Coal campaign were also nominated for the Private/Nonprofit Sector Award.

The Bill Gill Central Texas Air Quality Leadership Award

Tom “Smitty” Smith received the 2016 Bill Gill Central Texas Air Quality Leadership Award for his work as the Director of Public Citizen’s Texas office since 1985, where he organized efforts that lead to the development of the renewable energy boom across Texas and the Texas Emission Reduction Program — both reduced air pollution in the Central Texas area and other parts of the state. This award is named in honor of CAPCOG’s former Air Quality Program Manager Bill Gill, who worked on air quality throughout his career and was instrumental in the establishment and success of the region’s air quality program. Former City of Austin and CAPCOG employee Fred Blood was also nominated for this award.