Our Team

Managing Principal

Parlin hails from the midwest, where she naturally became enamored with the idea of a life at sea. After completing a Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology from the University of Maryland, she fed her childhood dreams by spending ten years aboard oceanographic research and sail training vessels, ultimately earning her 500 ton Ocean Masters License. Following a transitional year at a wooden boat school, she sought a new path - this time revisiting another fascination from her youth: architecture. She returned to University of Maryland for a Masters in Architecture and Masters in Real Estate Development.

Informed by the myriad of conditions she weathered at sea, Parlin comes to architecture with an eye for climate responsiveness and a passion for sustainability. She has always held solar orientation, prevailing winds, and seasonal-mindedness as key factors to incorporate into every design she develops.

As Managing Principal at BrightBuilt Home, Parlin coordinates with all project teams and oversees the direction of BrightBuilt’s design and performance objectives. She has shepherded the growth of the BrightBuilt mission and team since developing the firm alongside founders Phil Kaplan and Jesse Thompson - from initial concept to today’s execution. Thirteen years in, she continues to enjoy bringing projects to life and helping innovative clients realize energy neutrality.

Outside of BrightBuilt’s sun-drenched offices, Parlin serves on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors for the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA), and frequently presents at area conferences and events. Year round, she can be found exploring Camden Hills State Park or sailing Penobscot Bay, from her home base in MidCoast Maine, with her adventurous 10 year old daughter alongside.

Principal, Studio Director

Jess has been drawing dream floor plans on grid paper and scrutinizing Architectural Digest magazines since she was 8 years old. To this day, she finds that her penchant for studying and making art, paired with the efficiency of precision drafting, and the inherent puzzle that is smart design, scratches a perpetual itch.​

After receiving her degree in Art History and working in the curatorial world, she went on to earn an M.Arch in Sustainable Architecture from the University of Oregon. She has been part of the BrightBuilt team since early 2016. She is electrified by the work, helping to shift the paradigm of off-site construction in the design world and make sensible, high-performance design more accessible to everyone. Always one to seek ways to improve the world and the collective experience, her loyalty to an honorable mission and people is the whole point. Her knack for hyper-efficiency fuels her. She currently serves on the Executive Committee for Building Energy Bottom Lines and also actively represents BrightBuilt in the program.

She hails from Michigan and now co-owns multiple businesses, lives and loves in Coastal Maine, along with her husband and two dazzling daughters. In true ambivert fashion, she can be found buried in a book, delighting in poetry, bird song, and pasta, and engaging in some sort of unserious repartee with anyone who will join in, on any given day. Jess exists without wearing her glasses despite needing them, because without them, the world transforms into a living impressionist painting. That is the sort of awe and wonder she likes to bring to everything that matters.

Principal, Director of Operations

Sara runs toward complexity the way most people run from it. As Director of Operations at BrightBuilt Home, she's the person who makes sure the trains run on time. Then she figures out how to make the trains more sustainable, better staffed, and quietly beautiful.

Her foundation is science: she studied Biology and Astronomy at UC Berkeley, which means she's equally comfortable thinking at the cellular level and the cosmic one. That range, from the microscopic to the infinite, turns out to be pretty useful when you're managing the full ecosystem of a firm. Finance, marketing, client relations, team development: Sara brings the same rigor to a budget spreadsheet that she once brought to a lab notebook. Hypothesize, test, refine, repeat.

After relocating from California to the East Coast in 2012, she incorporated her longtime love for graphic design and photography to her ever-expanding toolkit, because apparently one career wasn't enough of a challenge. The happy accident is that she found a role at BrightBuilt Home where process thinking and visual instinct aren't competing priorities; they're the whole job. She's deeply invested in what happens when operational excellence meets design that actually matters, and she believes the built environment should leave the natural one better than it found it.

She stays sharp through active membership in NESEA and participation in the BuildingEnergy Bottom Lines program, and she brings the same collaborative curiosity to AIGA. If there's a better way to do something, Sara has probably already started experimenting with it.

Senior Architectural Designer, CPHC

Audrey has worked in residential design since 2000, but discovering Passive House in 2011 was a real game changer! Passive House spoke to her drive to conserve resources and energy along with her quest to enjoy a healthy & comfortable home during long Maine winters.

In 2012, she became a Certified Passive House Consultant with the Passive House Institute U.S. and a Building Analyst through the Building Performance Institute. Prior education came from Hartwick College in Oneonta, NY, where she earned a BS in Computer Science, local Southern Maine Community College for Architectural & Engineering Design, and working closely with contractors, her true education.

Since becoming a CPHC, Audrey’s had her hands deep in high performance design; she’s been with BrightBuilt Home since January 2019. She was active in passivhausMAINE for a good number of years and completed her own high-performance project in midcoast Maine.

She’s constantly updating her 1913 craftsman style house in Cape Elizabeth with as much cellulose insulation as can be stuffed in, and of course painting; there’s always painting! When not thinking about design or air barriers, Audrey can be found trailing her dogs through various Maine vistas, devouring murder mysteries by page or pixel, and dreaming of her next deep energy retrofit!

Architectural Designer

Alejandro grew up in a historic manufacturing city on Long Island Sound, filled with brick factories, rail infrastructure, and a working waterfront. He then lived and studied architecture in southern Arizona, where the built environment is heavily influenced by the intensity of the climate. Now he feels lucky to live and work in Maine, a place with its own rich history and relationship with a demanding environment. In his free time, he enjoys surfing along the coast, which keeps him connected to questions of landscape, weather, and place.

In his work with BrightBuilt, he has had the opportunity to work with many different people: gardeners, orchestral musicians, painters, poets, and farmers. On any given day, he might be designing a grooming facility for show dogs, aligning a roof deck to get a good view of the Milky Way, planning a root cellar, or studying the regional vernacular of a site to design something that feels “of its place.”

People show up with the fullness of their being and their own priorities, looking to design homes on pieces of land that have their own history. He is grateful to have the opportunity to play an important role in shaping the final result. It lends a richness to the work that feels deeply meaningful.

Project Pilot

Alex helps guide clients through one of the biggest projects of their lives—designing and building a home—while making the process feel a little less overwhelming and a lot more collaborative.

As a Project Pilot at BrightBuilt Home, Alex works closely with clients, designers, and builders to help bring high-performance homes to life. Acting as a bridge between the many moving parts of design and construction, he helps translate ideas into reality while keeping the process organized, transparent, and enjoyable.

Alex is drawn to the collaborative nature of the work—refining ideas, solving design challenges, and helping create homes that feel intentional and personal. What excites him most about BrightBuilt is the opportunity to be part of building homes that perform better for both the people living in them and the environment.

Outside the office, Alex is usually training for endurance events, spending time outdoors, or finding new ways to challenge himself physically and mentally. Known for his calm demeanor and dry sense of humor, he brings curiosity, patience, and the occasional well-timed joke into design meetings.

At the end of the day, Alex believes that building a home should feel less like navigating a complicated process—and more like working with a team that’s genuinely invested in getting it right.

Project Pilot

Janie is a natural at seeing the forest for the trees while simultaneously amazed by the understory. Genuinely curious about people, the world, the universe and the invisible threads connecting all of it, she asks the questions most people forget to ask and notices the things most people walk right past.

She is a mission-driven visionary, passionately committed to creating a positive impact on the world. Hailing from the creative heartland of Minneapolis, Janie holds a Bachelor of Science from the renowned Minneapolis College of Art & Design, where she honed her skills in Sculpture and sustainability.

That instinct for seeing how things fit together and bringing ideas to life? It shows up everywhere. As a Project Pilot, Janie is the person you want in your corner when complexity threatens to swallow a project whole. She's client-centric, detail-obsessed, and quietly relentless: no stone unturned, no thread left dangling.

Her art practice takes that last part literally. Janie hand-deconstructs knit fabric to its fundamental connecting threads, weaving her magic through sculpture installations and paintings. She's completed residencies, grants, and commissions both across the country and right here in the heart of Portland’s Old Port, where her public art installation Buoyancy - commissioned by East Brown Cow and in collaboration with TEMPOarts - is a beacon of bright colors and intrigue.

Recently certified in Reiki, Janie has added another dimension to her already expansive practice and can occasionally be found staring at her own hands, genuinely amazed by what they're capable of.

Construction Liaison

Photographer, explorer, experimenter, and entrepreneur, Michael has found a rewarding niche at BrightBuilt Home, where he shares decades of creativity and building experience with a talented team of like-minded professionals.

Two years in, each day still feels like a breath of fresh air. He values the opportunity to contribute a bit of hard-earned wisdom while collaborating to create homes—and a process—that are greater than the sum of their parts.

Head of Regional Sale

Orion needed a job out of college and since no one was hiring Political Science majors at the time, he ended up in sales. Since then he has become a student of his craft supporting different USAID efforts, a local publishing company, and now with BrightBuilt Home.

Working at BrightBuilt is what Orion was born to do. Orion is wired up to talk to anyone looking to build a high-performance home. 9-5 hours don’t exist in his world since you never know when someone might want to learn more about our process. In fact, if that person is you, Orion would like you to know you can use the following link to Book a Meeting.

When he isn’t answering questions around sustainable building, Orion can be found climbing trees, running by/swimming in the ocean, throwing heavy things over his head, or driving his kids to be positive difference makers in the world.

Founder, AIA

Phil was raised in a household of designers and creative thinkers, and he remembers being transfixed by a set of wooden blocks he received from his parents as a child. Since then, he’s been dreaming in three dimensions, and his ideas draw from a background in psychology, physics, geography, music, language, math, and literature. Phil talks fast and thinks even faster, and he gets his energy from asking questions, especially “what if?” He’s a natural extrovert, and his passion is for designing spaces that truly match the needs, goals, and real lives of his clients.

Born and raised in Baltimore, Phil attended Boston University, received his B.Arch. (with a Psychology Minor) from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh in 1991, and moved to Maine in 1997. He is a Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire Licensed Architect, a

member of the AIA currently serving on the AIA Maine Board of Directors, and a LEED Accredited Professional. He has been lead designer on numerous AIA, PSA, and LEED-Award winning projects since 2003.

Phil gives talks about his firm’s work and sustainability efforts throughout the Northeast and has served as an exhibition juror, guest critic, and Adjunct Professor. He was a founder, in 2006, of The Portland Society for Architecture (PSA), a local design advocacy group. He is the former Board Chair of the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association, which helps high-performance and energy efficiency professionals improve their practices through collaboration and learning throughout New England and beyond; served as the Architect Liaison to the Portland + South Portland One Climate Future initiative; and has also served on local boards in his current hometown of Falmouth, Maine. His podcast, Green Architects’ Lounge, is featured on the Green Building Advisor website.

Founder, FAIA, CPHC

Jesse is co-founder and Principal of Kaplan Thompson Architects and BrightBuilt Home, and has become a national leader in green design, building science, and affordable housing.

Growing up in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, he started his career working construction in high school before graduating from the University of Oregon with a Bachelor’s of Architecture. In his nearly thirty years of practice, Jesse has developed a diverse portfolio of residential and commercial projects that reflects his commitment to increasing access to excellent design and raising the bar for sustainability standards.

Jesse’s always working on balancing elements—engineering with art and design, beauty with affordability, function with potential. His coworkers say that he’s grounded,

precise, technically-oriented, patient, and proven to get even the most impossible-seeming projects finished.

Jesse is an award-winning Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Connecticut Licensed Architect, LEED Accredited Professional, and the first architect in northern

New England to become a Certified Passive House Consultant. He has also served as past President Elect of the Maine Chapter of the AIA, a Board member of the Portland Society for Architecture, and a founding member of Passivhaus Maine.

The 2024 Jury of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) elevated Jesse to its prestigious College of Fellows. As the organization’s highest honor, Fellowship is awarded to members who have made significant contributions to the profession and to society, who exemplify architectural excellence, and whose work has had a profound influence or ripple effect. We have always known that he’s a superstar, and the architecture community agrees. Only 3% of the AIA’s 98,000+ national members have earned the distinction of Fellowship. In 2024, 96 AIA members were elevated to this honor. He joins six other Fellows in the state of Maine, and is the first to be recognized in the state since 2016.