Ken Levenson, Executive Director
Ken graduated from Pratt Institute with a Bachelor of Architecture. After practicing architecture for 20 years in New York City, and in a climate panic, he discovered Passive House in 2009. He then became a Certified Passive House Designer and started designing Passive House buildings. To increase impact, in 2010 Ken became a founding board member of New York Passive House, the National Passive House Alliance, and in 2011, NAPHN, an organization that would become The Passive House Network – all nonprofits dedicated to popularizing Passive House through education. Working on projects Ken realized there was a gap in the American market of critical high performance Passive House building products and the practical knowledge needed for their correct use, so in 2011 Ken closed his architecture firm, and co-founded the company 475 High Performance Building Supply with a mission to supply essential materials, building components, and knowledge to help drive industry change. Ken has served on advisory panels for Urban Green’s 90 by 50 policy report and the Framework Guidelines for Energy Efficiency Standards in Buildings of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. Then in 2019, in a growing panic, Ken stepped down from the boards of PHN and NYPH and the management of 475 and volunteered with Extinction Rebellion, planning and participating in direct action civil disobedience protests to demand governments declare a climate emergency.
While his daughters thought his getting arrested was the only cool thing he ever did, his journalist wife suggested that he get a job, and so in 2020 Ken returned to PHN as its first Executive Director, focused on Passive House capacity building across the US.
When not thinking about Passive House or hanging out with his wife and daughters, Ken can often be found walking their Newfoundland dog in Prospect Park.
email: ken@passivehousenetwork.org
Holly Hinchliffe, Administrative Coordinator
Holly is a graduate of Northwestern University, where she studied theatre. She is proud to be working on a team that values sustainability and for a non-for-profit making positive industry change. When she’s not organizing invoices or updating spreadsheets for the Passive House Network, Holly loves biking around Brooklyn, swimming in the ocean and trying new restaurants.
Becca Castellano, Education Manager
Becca has a Bachelor of Science degree in Management and Business from Skidmore College. Upon graduating, she joined the Peace Corps in North Macedonia, working as an education volunteer. There she created a student centered English language curriculum and library system. When she returned to the U.S. she continued her work with the Peace Corps remotely, collaborating with North Macedonian teachers on remote teaching methods. More recently, Becca was the Media Specialist at an elementary school in Fort Collins, CO where she created a STEM focused curriculum for grades K-5. Becca is excited to be a part of the Passive House Network team, as she has always had a personal interest in sustainability and architecture. Becca enjoys spending most of her free time outdoors, playing soccer, and working in her garden.
Kim Ravold, Communications & Community Manager
Kim holds a BA in English Creative Writing and Film & Media Studies from Colgate University, and an MFA in Prose from UMass, Amherst, where she taught classes on writing, rhetoric, and contemporary literature. Her creative works are published or forthcoming in Redivider, Poetry.onl, The Masters Review, and elsewhere. All of her puns are intentional. When she’s not telling the world about the power of Passive House, you can find her refining her mediocre crocheting skills, falling off the rock climbing wall, or playing the guitar, badly. She’ll master that B chord someday.
email: kim@passivehousenetwork.org
Rachel Ravel, Management Assistant
Rachel is a proud graduate of Fordham University at Lincoln Center. When not assisting this brilliant team of women (and Ken), Rachel works as an actress, comedy writer, and producer.
