Elizabeth Beardsley is Senior Policy Counsel at the U.S. Green Building Council. Her portfolio includes federal, state, and local green building law and policy issues.. Recently her work has focused on connecting building policy to climate mitigation and she represented USGBC at COP-21. She came to USGBC from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, where she was a Senior Attorney involved in evaluating government environment and energy programs. Prior to her legal career, she was an environmental engineer and Principal at Camp Dresser & McKee (now CDM Smith), where she focused on water issues and infrastructure planning. Liz has a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Stanford University and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.