George L. Pla is an entrepreneur, philanthropist and author whose business and civic activities focus on enhancing and empowering communities throughout California. He is the founder, president and CEO of Cordoba Corporation, a nationally recognized civil engineering, program and construction management firm specializing in transportation, education, and water and energy infrastructure.

Mr. Pla was raised in East Los Angeles, after arriving in the United States undocumented from Zacatecas, Mexico. He was the first in his family to graduate from college, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from California State University, Los Angeles in 1972 and a Master of Public Administration from USC in 1974.

Mr. Pla is the governor’s appointee to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission, which is helping prepare for the 2028 Summer Olympics, and serves as the commission’s president. He served on the California Science Center Foundation Board of Trustees and led the planning of Cordoba Corporation’s historic transport of the Space Shuttle Endeavour through the streets of Los Angeles in 2012. He is a co-founder of the City Club, a premier private club in Los Angeles that embraces and reflects the diversity and spirit of the city.

Mr. Pla has made a commitment to establish the George L. Pla Leadership and Policy Forum and Institute at the university in the coming years for the generations to come. His philanthropic efforts extend to national institutions, including Cordoba Corporation’s commitment to supporting the Latino history initiatives at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Mr. Pla co-authored, with the noted academic and political analyst David Ayón, “Power Shift: How Latinos in California Transformed Politics in America”, which recounts the history of Latino political empowerment in California and beyond. As part of the book release, Mr. Pla met with students across the State of California to discuss their potential in the future of politics in this country.

Mr. Pla is an inaugural member of Cal State LA’s President’s Council. In 1991, he was honored as Cal State LA’s Alumnus of the Year, and in 2016, he received the Joe Shapiro Humanitarian Award at Cal State LA’s Billie Jean King & Friends Awards Gala. In 2017, he was awarded the Presidential Medallion, the university’s highest honor, bestowed upon individuals who have displayed outstanding leadership and extraordinary service to the Cal State LA community.

In recognition of his generous contributions to the campus and decades of commitment to the city of Los Angeles, the Board of Trustees of the California State University and California State University, Los Angeles conferred upon George L. Pla the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters in May, 2023.

Aida Collins is a long-time member of the Federal family who was recently hired to serve as the Deputy Director of the Office of Minority Programs in the Office of Energy Justice and Equity (EJE). Ms. Collins joins EJE from the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) at the Department of Labor, where she served as the Regional Director of the OFCCP’s Southeast Region.  In her current role, her team works tirelessly to advance the principles of recognition, procedural, distributive, and reparative justice by remediating energy injustices and disparities through equitable policy implementation, funding opportunities, and workforce initiatives that support disadvantaged communities, small and minority-owned businesses, and minority-serving institutions.

Shalaya Morissette(she/her) is Chief of the Minority Business and Workforce Division at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), located within the Office of Economic Impact and Diversity. She is a highly sought-after collaborator and co-conspirator in the clean technology space. Most recently she hails from the utility sector in safety and compliance. In 2022 she took on an additional role at Dearborn STEM Academy in Boston, Massachusetts as a teacher to 11th and 12th graders - delivering a curriculum for engineering with energy in mind. Previously she held various roles in higher education, including enrollment services project manager and in global transportation as the Director of Affiliate Relations. She is the former president of the Greater Boston chapter of the American Association of Blacks in Energy. Serving as the first African American board member of the New England Women in Energy and Environment, she has been devoted to elevating and engaging women and people of color in the energy space. As a Georgia Gwinnett College Alumni Association board member and a committee member for Browning the Green Space, she has been engaged in the nonprofit and higher education space as a strong advocate for elevating minorities in the energy transition. Morissette’s passion for bringing young people into the clean energy industry has also been supported with her work with Girls Inc and WriteBoston. Shalaya received her Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Georgia Gwinnett College and her Master of Education degree from Cambridge College.

Mr. Robert Medina is the Acting Associate Administrator, for the Office of Small Business Programs (OSBP) at NASA Headquarters (HQ). Prior to this position, he served at the Deputy Associate Administrator, since December 2023, and previously served as a Small Business Program Manager, at NASA HQ OSBP, from September 2019 to December 2022. Mr. Medina was a Senior Procurement Analyst and Small Business Specialist at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center, in Edwards, California from March 1994 through September 2019.

Mr. Medina is a native of Las Cruces, New Mexico and graduated from New Mexico State University in 1979 with a Bachelor of Accounting degree. After graduation he continued to work with NASA. He began his career with NASA in 1977 as a cooperative education student.

During his forty-five years with NASA, Mr. Medina has worked in many different procurement positions and at different NASA Centers. He has worked as a purchasing agent, price analyst, contract specialist, contracting officer, procurement analyst, and small business specialist.  In addition to his procurement background, he worked three years at NASA Headquarters in the Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology, as an Institutional Program Manager, having oversight over NASA’s three Research Centers (Ames, Langley, and Glenn). Most recently, Mr. Medina served on a detail at NASA Headquarters in the Office of Small Business Programs, from December 2016 through December 2017, serving as a Small Business Program Manager with oversight of the small business programs at NASA Stennis Space Center, NASA Shared Services Center, and NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center.

Mr. Medina has been a long-time supporter and member of the National Contract Management Association (NCMA). He is a NCMA Fellow and has held a number of NCMA chapter office positions, as well as national functional positions. Mr. Medina also is a member of the Department of Defense (DoD) Western Regional Council for Small Business Education and Advocacy and has served on the Executive Board for the council, as well as a chairperson of the council’s Interface Committee. In 2008 and 2013, he was selected as NASA’s Small Business Specialist of the Year.

Jay works as consultant with the Department of Energy with the Loan Programs Office on the Outreach and Business Development team. He is responsible for creating relationships and opportunities with external stakeholders and others within the clean and renewable energy ecosystem to assist with the equitable transition and implementation of energy infrastructure. 

Mr. Peck brings more than 10 years of experience in Transactions and Advisory Services, specializing in financial due diligence and advisory on strategic and pragmatic decision-making for acquisitions, renewable and solar financing, debt and equity financing, and real estate financing. Mr. Peck also works in the Clean Energy & Infrastructure (CE&I) Group with Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL). There he supports public and private organizations with creating a streamlined process transitioning new developments and the built environment to make buildings energy efficient assisting organizations in reaching their sustainability goals.

Mustafa Mahmoud is a Senior Supply Chain Deployment Manager at the DOE’s Office of Manufacturing & Energy Supply Chain. He supports running the Industrial Assessment Center (IAC) Implementation Grants Program, a provision under the IIJA which provides grants to small and medium manufacturers to execute recommendations from qualified assessments. Prior to joining the DOE, Mustafa worked as process engineer for a petrochemical facility and consultant focused on supply chain optimization and business transformation. Mustafa received his bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Virginia.