Who We Are
Managing Partners
Signalfire Group is led by knowledgeable professionals with decades of experience in sustainability, materials management, policy, and product stewardship.
Resa Dimino
Resa Dimino brings 30 years of experience in waste reduction, recycling, product stewardship, solid waste management, and environmental economic development. She thrives at the intersection of policy and operations, bringing an operational grounding to policy development and a policy context to operational issues.
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Resa has worked in recycling businesses (Bronx 2000 / Big City Forest, WeRecycle) and with trade groups (NAPCOR) and served as the lead policy staff for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). While at DEC, she managed the development of the state’s Beyond Waste 10-year sustainable materials management strategy and helped to formulate the state’s e-scrap EPR legislation.
Resa is currently focusing on collaborative initiatives to improve recovery, increase sustainability, and facilitate product stewardship. She has extensive experience and deep networks in the recycling policy sector, including NGOs, trade groups, and government entities active in the space. She has managed and directed multiple recycling supply chain and infrastructure gap analyses for public and private sector clients.
Garth Hickle
Garth Hickle is an independent consultant with an emphasis on environmental product policy and the circular economy. Previously, he led the product stewardship program for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and oversaw the implementation of EPR programs for rechargeable batteries, electronics, and architectural paint.
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Garth has served as a board member of the Global Product Stewardship Council, the Sustainable Electronics Recycling International (SERI), the Global Product Stewardship Council, and Conservation Minnesota.
Garth is also a senior lecturer and visiting scholar at the University of Minnesota. He has published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology, Journal of Cleaner Production, Resource Conservation and Recycling, and Business Strategy and the Environment. Garth holds a MA in Public Administration from Hamline University, an MSEL from Vermont Law School, and a PhD in Industrial Ecology and Sustainability from Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
David Stitzhal
David brings over 30 years of experience in identifying and implementing realistic resource conservation opportunities, including the design and evaluation of product stewardship programs for such diverse materials as paint, pharmaceuticals, electronics, mercury-containing lighting, carpet, and packaging. He is known as much for his policy work with manufacturers as for his on-the-ground technical assistance for retailers and the service sector.
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David has served as a delegate to national product stewardship dialogues covering several products and has served on consultant teams advising on product stewardship and extended producer responsibility (EPR) matters to Seattle, King County, the Washington Department of Ecology, and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. David also helped develop early local, state, and national policy for the take-back of unwanted medications, including the first-in-the-nation state of Washington producer responsibility law mandating take-back by pharmaceutical companies.
He was the founding coordinator of the Northwest Product Stewardship Council, serving in that role for 15 years, and was one of the original stakeholders of the National Electronics Product Stewardship Initiative. David currently serves as board president of the National Stewardship Action Council.
Consultants
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Marisa Adler
Marisa Adler is a Senior Consultant with Resource Recycling Systems (RRS) where she leads RRS’s textile circularity practice and supports Signalfire Group’s Textile Policy Services. Her work focuses on the role of collaborative action and policy in advancing systems change to recover textiles.
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Isabelle Borkowski
Isabelle is an analyst at RRS and Signalfire. She monitors evolving policy landscapes for packaging and recycling legislation, analyzes legislation for a diverse set of clients, and compiles political landscapes to inform clients of the status and chances of passage.
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Teresa Conner
Teresa is a Consultant at RRS and Signalfire. Teresa monitors EPR implementation, analyzes EPR legislation for diverse clients and materials, and is an integral part of the Signalfire team.
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Joel Schoening
Joel Schoening is a Senior Consultant with Resource Recycling Systems where he supports public and private sector clients with product stewardship policy, compliance, and implementation and sustainable materials management planning.