This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Green Foothills Leadership Program, and we were excited to celebrate the graduation of our 10th cohort of program participants on August 12. We are also excited to announce that applications for 2024 are now open! Application forms are available in English and Spanish on our Leadership Program...
Author: Andrea Fraume-Valencia
Bees and High Tech: Kian Nikzad Creates a Buzz
Kian Nikzad was a computer science student at UCLA when he signed up for the Green Foothills Leadership Program to learn how to make a difference for the environment. “I’ve always had a really deep passion for sustainability, but in college I got interested in computer science. I viewed information technology (IT) as a path...
Building Bridges Over Barriers
Mel Sarmento’s passion is connecting people with the outdoors. This 2020 graduate of the Green Foothills Leadership Program works for Guadalupe River Park Conservancy in San Jose as a Program Director. As a direct result of her participation in the Leadership Program, she now also serves as an Associate Director with Guadalupe-Coyote Resource Conservation District...
Learning By Doing: How One Concerned Citizen Deepened His Impact
Bryan Beck is an accomplished computer engineer who has always been passionate about helping the environment. His first foray into local environmental advocacy also happened to be his introduction to Green Foothills: when the Cargill company was fighting to build 12,000 homes on salt ponds along the bayshore in Bryan’s hometown of Redwood City. Bryan...
The Importance of Nature and Giving Back
Ravi Pathak is someone who seems to always have a smile on his face. With his presence alone, he offers a generosity of spirit to anyone who says hello. This graduate of the Green Foothills Leadership Program sat down to chat with me in July 2022 about his leadership journey. Ravi grew up in and...
Green Foothills Leadership Program: New Name, Alumni, and Recruitment Cycle!
We are proud to announce that the program previously known as the Community Advocates Leadership Academy (CALA) has a new name. Drumroll… Green Foothills Leadership Program! We chose this more straightforward name after careful consideration by the Leadership Program Advisory Committee and Green Foothills staff, along with input from program alumni. The 2022 cohort is...
From Fed to Local: Planning for a Better Future
When Cherise Orange took a job as a Planner with Santa Clara County’s Parks and Recreation Department in 2016, she knew that she would be working with vastly different populations from those she was used to in her previous life as a military planner. “Transitioning to the County … I had a huge learning curve...
Welcome 2022 Leadership Program Cohort
On January 8, we kicked off our 9th annual Leadership Program cohort, a group of 22 community members who want to learn how to become more effective agents of change. Participants meet monthly to learn how to prepare and plan an environmental advocacy campaign for a local cause. Upon completing the program in August, the...
We Are So Proud of Our Leadership Academy 2021 Cohort!
From climate resiliency teams in North Fair Oaks to the protection of Juristac, the 2021 Leadership Academy cohort shined in their efforts to create environmental protection campaign plans through a racial equity lens. As part of the training program, participants formed 5 separate workgroups around these current issues: Establishing Climate Resiliency Block Action Teams in...
Time to Apply for the 2022 Leadership Academy Program
Green Foothills is looking for creative, passionate, and curious changemakers who want to be more effective advocates for the natural environment. The Leadership Academy has been going strong since 2013, with over 200 alumni having gone through the program and stepping into positions of leadership where they use their advocacy skills to champion the protection...