Charlie Mize, Hunter Parks Conservation Fellow, provides technical expertise to support forest carbon offset projects in the California compliance and voluntary markets. He is responsible for reviewing project listing applications, data reporting, verification and the development and approval of new quantification methodologies. Before joining ACR, Charlie restored forest habitat diversity as a Wildlife Forester in a joint position for the Ruffed Grouse Society and American Woodcock Society and the George Washington and Jefferson National Forest. Prior to that, he stewarded working forest conservation easements and supported forest conservation acquisitions on the West Coast for Pacific Forest Trust. Other experience includes using remote sensing to improve forest inventory estimates across a large forest restoration project area in Northern Arizona and supporting a forest conservation project in the specialty cacao supply chain in coastal Ecuador. His Master of Forestry and Master of Environmental Management degrees are from the Nicholas School of the Environmental at Duke University, where his Masters Project modelled site suitability for avoided conversion forest carbon credit projects in North Carolina.  His bachelor’s degree is in Sustainable Development from Appalachian State University.

Lauren Nichols, ACR Senior Advisor, was an ACR staff member between 2008 and 2023 and now provides strategic advice and guidance to ACR. In her 15 years at ACR, Lauren directly contributed to all aspects of ACR’s organizational development through progressively advanced technical, operational and management positions. She played a critical role in building ACR’s brand and global reputation including growing our team and our suite of methodologies to scale our climate impact, securing a leading role in the California compliance market and in the ICAO CORSIA, and developing and implementing three generations of ACR’s registry platform. She is accredited by the California Air Resources board in Offset Project Registry Operations, verification and in all regulatory offset protocols (ODS, Mine Methane Capture, Forestry, Urban Forestry, Livestock and Rice). She holds a master’s degree in Environmental Management, with a concentration of Environmental Economics, from Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment and a bachelor’s degree in Biology from Bates College.

Gabriel Piacsek, Technical Officer, Forestry, provides technical expertise to support forest carbon projects in compliance and voluntary carbon markets. He is responsible for reviewing project listing applications, data reporting, verification and the development and approval of new quantification methodologies.

Gabriel received his B.A in Biology and History from St. Olaf College in Minnesota, and his Masters in Forestry and Masters in Environmental Management from Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment. Having grown up in Brazil, he developed a great appreciation for nature. Additionally, his previous work has taught him the importance of managing our natural resources properly for healthier and more productive environments.

Warren Reed, Senior Technical Manager, Forestry, provides technical expertise to support forest carbon offset projects in the California compliance and voluntary markets. He is responsible for reviewing project listing applications, data reporting, verification and the development and approval of new quantification methodologies.

Before joining the ACR team Warren worked at The Pennsylvania State University researching forest ecology and carbon dynamics in the central Appalachian Mountains from an interdisciplinary perspective investigating the influence that bedrock geology exerts on forest carbon storage and uptake. His work utilized data from forests at multiple scales, from annual resolution tree-ring data to larger scale forest inventories. He has worked extensively across California and Oregon researching wildland fuels treatments with the United States Geological Survey and U. S. Forest Service and has also worked in coastal forests of South Africa researching carbon storage. His research has been published in internationally recognized peer-reviewed journals. Warren earned a PhD in Ecology from The Pennsylvania State University, a Master of Science degree in Forestry from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and a Bachelor of Science in Physical/Environmental Geography from The Pennsylvania State University.

Mollie Ruth, Senior Officer, Registry Operations, contributes to all aspects of registry services management, including client services relations, infrastructure maintenance, and strategic development of registry platform improvements.

Prior to joining ACR, Mollie worked as an environmental engineering consultant with a broad range of industrial and corporate clients. She has experience in GHG accounting and reporting, database management, client support, training, project management, compliance with legal and voluntary environmental standards. Mollie has a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Engineering from Michigan Technological University.

Gage Smith, Officer, Registry Operations, contributes to all aspects of operations and program delivery, including account management, process optimization, and data governance for ACR’s registry platform.

Prior to joining ACR, Gage worked in international development managing agricultural and economic growth projects across Africa and Southeast Asia. He brings extensive international experience working in climate-smart agriculture, supply chain strengthening, and market systems development, implementing over $250 million in USAID and USDA-funded contracts and awards. His background includes subaward and grants management, compliance monitoring, client and partner engagement, and adaptive global operations, with a strong focus on ensuring adherence to U.S. federal rules and regulations. Gage is pursuing a Master of Science in Agriculture and holds a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture from The Ohio State University.

John Swanson, Senior Technical Manager, Industrial Programs, provides technical expertise on carbon credit project review and verification oversightinvolving advanced refrigeration systems for the voluntary carbon market and mine methane capture for the California regulatory market. John also provides insight and support for methodology development. John joined ACR in 2025.

John has over 30 years of combined experience in environmental chemistry, development and implementation of environmental regulatory programs, greenhouse gas emissions and sequestration quantification, reporting, and verification, as well as verification accreditation programs at the state and international levels (California Air Resources Board and ANSI National Accreditation Board, or ANAB).

John has a Master of Environmental Management degree from Duke University, a Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Conservation from California State University, Sacramento, and is a certified Technical Assessor for validation and verification body accreditation for ANAB.

Andrew Taylor, Senior Technical Manager, Forestry, provides technical forestry expertise to facilitate carbon offset projects in the California compliance and voluntary markets. He oversees the review of forestry and other land based offset project listing, verification, and registration, and coordinates new offset methodology approval.

Andrew comes to ACR with a background in forest mensuration, forest inventory management, forestry technology deployment, and silviculture. He served as a Resource Information Forester for Hancock Forest Management, where he managed a national forest inventory program and implemented a new plantation assessment program to monitor and analyze stocking and seedling survival of recent plantings. He collected field forestry data for the US Forest Service in Colorado and Washington state, including several years working for the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program. Andrew earned a Master of Forestry (MF) degree in Sustainable Forest Management at Oregon State University, which concentrated on Silviculture, Fire and Forest Health. His research focused on silviculture for old-growth structure, particularly vertical canopy continuity, in the Oregon coast range, as well as the physiological impacts of partial harvest regimes and their influence on forest carbon dynamics. He has a Bachelor of Arts (BA) with a dual major in Music and German from the University of Vermont.