Genesis 1 Welcomes Dr. Amanda Karls and Ed DeFraine to Strategic Advisory Council

Two leaders who understand both sides of campus sustainability join Genesis 1 Technologies as strategic advisors. Here's why their combined experience matters.

By Genesis 1 Technologies · Published 2026-06-19T16:50:58.000-04:00

Dr. Amanda Karls — Campus Sustainability Advisor

Dr. Karls currently serves as Director of Institutional Effectiveness and Compliance at the University of South Carolina Upstate, the same campus where Topper Stopper is piloting.

Over the past 15 years, she has worked across higher education in roles connected to institutional effectiveness, accreditation, student success, advising, and strategic planning. Her work focuses on helping institutions use data, assessment, and collaborative planning to improve outcomes, support accreditation compliance, and strengthen decision-making processes.

She has partnered with faculty, staff, and administrators to design assessment frameworks, analyze institutional data, and build systems that make improvement measurable rather than aspirational.

What this means for Genesis 1:

• Deep understanding of how campuses evaluate, approve, and sustain new programs
• Firsthand knowledge of the accreditation and compliance landscape that governs university operations
• Insight into how sustainability initiatives survive budget cycles, leadership transitions, and competing priorities
• The institutional perspective that ensures Topper Stopper is designed to work within real campus constraints, not just in theory

USC Upstate is not just a pilot location. It is the proving ground. Having Dr. Karls on the Advisory Council means Genesis 1 has a direct line to the institutional thinking that determines whether a campus program lasts beyond its launch year.

Ed DeFraine — Beverage and Sponsorship Strategy Advisor

Ed DeFraine spent 28 years at The Coca-Cola Company, culminating in leadership of a $450 million On Premise business as Vice President of Food Service and On Premise at Reyes Coca-Cola Bottling, covering California and Southern Nevada.

His career spans the full commercial stack: customer care operations, at-work sales channels, food service and venue partnerships, bottler dynamics, and sponsor relationships at scale.

After Coca-Cola, Ed served as President of Circular Solutions Advisors, where he helped organizations navigate the challenges of recycling and sustainability by emphasizing practicality and authenticity. He is currently Chief Revenue Officer at r.World, a reuse platform, and Founder of Red Boots Resources, where he helps executives cut through marketing noise to find strategies that actually work.

What this means for Genesis 1:

• Three decades of beverage industry relationships, including bottlers, distributors, and major brand partners
• Deep understanding of how sponsors evaluate, fund, and measure campus and venue programs
• Direct experience with the commercial logic that determines whether a sustainability initiative gets budget approval from a Fortune 500 partner
• A proven track record in sustainability strategy through Circular Solutions Advisors and r.World

The sponsorship model is central to how Genesis 1 plans to scale. Topper Stopper is designed to work as a zero-university-cost, ad-supported platform where beverage brands and corporate sponsors fund the system. Ed's experience sits exactly at the intersection of beverage commerce, venue partnerships, and sustainability programming.

Why Both

The logic is straightforward.

Scaling a campus sustainability platform requires two parallel conversations:

1. The campus conversation — Can this program be implemented, measured, sustained, and justified within an institution's governance, compliance, and budget framework?
2. The sponsor conversation — Does this program create enough commercial value for a beverage brand or corporate partner to fund it at scale?

Most sustainability startups can have one of those conversations. Very few can have both.

Dr. Karls ensures the campus conversation is grounded in institutional reality.

Ed DeFraine ensures the sponsor conversation is grounded in commercial reality.

Together, they give Genesis 1 the dual perspective needed to build a platform that works for both sides of the equation — the institution that hosts it and the sponsor that funds it.

About the Strategic Advisory Council

The Genesis 1 Strategic Advisory Council is a group of experienced leaders who provide strategic guidance as the company scales Topper Stopper from pilot to national rollout. Advisors serve in an advisory capacity only — not as board members or employees — and contribute quarterly strategic counsel, industry relationships, and operational insight.

Genesis 1 Technologies continues to build its advisory team with leaders who understand both the mission and the mechanics of making sustainability programs work at scale.

For more information about Genesis 1 Technologies and the Topper Stopper platform, visit genesis1.tech.