meet the board
2024-2025
board OFFICERS
Elyse McBride, PE
Past President
Elyse McBride, PE is a mechanical engineer at Infrastructure Factor Consulting, Inc. She has experience with K-12 schools, hospitals, and commercial building design. She has previously served on the Tri-County ASHRAE board before moving to the SoCal ASHRAE region. She received her bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Cal Poly Pomona.
Rafi Karim
President
Rafi is the Mechanical Building Performance Leader for Arup’s Los Angeles office with extensive experience leading multidisciplinary teams to deliver high-performance projects. As a licensed mechanical engineer with over 10 years of engineering design and consulting experience, he helps clients make informed decisions on energy, water, indoor environmental quality, and resilient operations of buildings and infrastructure. Rafi is passionate about sustainable built environment and has served numerous grassroots positions in ASHRAE SoCal and ASHRAE San Diego during the last 11 years including the President-Elect, Treasurer, Secretary, Director of Chapter Technology Transfer Committee (CTTC), Sustainability and GAC (SoCal), Director of Student Activities & YEA (SoCal) and Chairman of Government Affairs Committee (San Diego). In January 2018, Rafi was appointed to the ASHRAE Technical Committee 2.8 (Building Environmental Impacts and Sustainability) as the chairman of Water Energy Nexus Subcommittee. In June 2023, Rafi was appointed as the Secretary of ASHRAE Technical Committee 2.8.
Matt Sittel
President-Elect
Matt Sittel is a New Equipment Sales Engineer for R.F. MacDonald Co., supporting clients with equipment and design assistance for hot water and steam boilers, pumps, and other commercial HVAC and industrial equipment. Matt covers West LA County through Santa Barbara. Since obtaining his B.S. in Environmental Engineering from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, he’s had nine years of experience as a sales engineer in the SoCal HVAC market, with experience in nearly all types of commercial HVAC equipment and systems. He has a passion for learning about and sharing new technology and energy-saving equipment and designs, as well as helping to solve complex problems with clients.
BOARD OF directors
Kristen Cole, PE
Director of Chapter Technology Transfer Committee
Kristen is a Project Manager and Mechanical Engineer at DLR Group. Kristen is a licensed professional mechanical engineer in California. She graduated from Penn State University with Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Architectural Engineering. She has ASHRAE Healthcare Facility Design Professional (HFDP) and High-Performance Building Design Professional (HBDP) credentials and a LEED AP BD+C credential. Kristen has previously served as the ASHRAE SoCal Director of Student Activities and PAOE chair. Kristen currently serves ASHRAE as a member of the Certification committee that oversees all ASHRAE certifications.
Alex Larson
Director of Membership and Retention
Alex is a Sales Engineer for DMG HVAC – Providing engineered solutions for a wide range of building types, from new construction to adaptive reuse.
He has been an ASHRAE Member since 2019: ASHRAE Student Member at Cal Poly SLO 2019-2020, ASHRAE Orange County Member 2020-2022, ASHRAE SoCal member 2022-Current, ASHRAE Membership Chair 2021-2022, ASHRAE Director of Membership and Research Promotion 2022 – Current, ASHRAE Communication Co-chair 2024-Current.