Alumni Program

 

A Supportive Network for Leadership Program Graduates

Calling all alumni of the Green Foothills Leadership Program (formerly Community Advocates Leadership Academy/CALA)! The Alumni Program is a dynamic and diverse community of over 260 changemakers who are advancing environmental justice and conservation initiatives in San Mateo, Santa Clara, and San Benito Counties.

Through the Alumni Program, Green Foothills Leadership Program graduates support one another as they advance in leadership roles and pursue community initiatives. Our alumni are active in various civic processes to benefit the environment and their communities. They lead campaigns that secure funding for green space, participate in public and private commissions, hold positions of power in nonprofits, public agencies, and the private sector, and more.

Upcoming Events for Alumni

Alumni meet several times per year for a variety of events. Events are free, but please register online in advance. Here’s what’s coming up. Questions? Contact [email protected].

Breakfast with Ben – a Leadership Program Alumni Event
Saturday, March 16, 2024, from 10:00-11:00 a.m.
Location: Raptor Room, Peninsula Conservation Center, 3921 E. Bayshore Rd., Palo Alto

Enjoy breakfast with your fellow Green Foothills Leadership Program alumni and Leadership Program Manager, Ben Estrada. We’ll be serving a full breakfast spread (vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options available) and plenty of coffee! This is a great opportunity to meet up with your fellow alumni, get to know Ben and the members of the Leadership Program Committee, hear about where they’re taking the program going forward, and give your input about future alumni events. This event includes an icebreaker activity and speed networking to help you meet new people and build your professional network. This event is free of charge. RSVP here.

Leadership Program Committee

The Alumni Program is supported by alumni volunteers who help carry out the vision of a representative, effective Bay Area environmental movement. Alumni are invited to join the Leadership Program Committee, which works closely with our Leadership Program Manager to improve the training and alumni programs. Learn more about the Leadership Program Committee at greenfoothills.org/leadership-program-committee/.

What’s New With Our Alumni

Meet Our Alumni

Class of 2023

Agustín headshot
Daly City

Agustín Angel Bernabe

Bianca headshot
Hollister

Bianca Esparza

David headshot
San Jose

David Fernandez

Isabella ‘Amne headshot
San Lorenzo

Isabella ‘Amne Gomez

Yurina headshot
Campbell

Yurina Guzman

Briana H.
San Jose

Briana Horta

Quetzali headshot
Milpitas

Quetzalli Jimenez

Juan Carlos headshot
East Palo Alto

Juan Carlos Mendoza

Hannah headshot
Fremont

Hannah Moreno

Ray headshot
San Jose

Raymond Mueller

Rae Ann headshot
San Jose

Rae Ann Prado

Migdalia headshot
San Jose

Migdalia Rodriguez Cubides

Laura headshot
East Palo Alto

Laura Rubio

Joanna headshot
San Jose

Joanna Xing

Daly City

Agustín Angel Bernabe

Agustín is one of the co-founders of Leaders4EARTH. He was born in Guerrero, Mexico, and he is a first-generation graduate from San Francisco State University with a B.S in Health Education and double minor in Holistic Health and Community Health. He has experience working in the public health sector, community health, environmental health/justice, youth leadership and community engagement.

Agustín is a dedicated community organizer and youth educator whose primary work began with Salinas Valley (Monterey County), and Bayview Hunters Point (San Francisco) youth and residents, whom he continues to work alongside. He’s served as a mentor for rising environmental and social justice leaders from these regions, where he’s cultivated relationships with rising advocates and partners from nonprofit organizations, government officials, local activists, global activists, community residents, and health professionals. He seeks new opportunities to be of service to his local, state, and global community as an agent of positive societal change and as an environmental health activist.

Hollister

Bianca Esparza

Bianca is passionate about education and youth development. She is hoping to help others by pursuing a community leadership role.

San Jose

David Fernandez

David Fernandez is a San José State University alum who has experience with helping underrepresented and underserved populations. Currently he works as Deputy Chief of Staff for a county board member, managing housing policy, constituent services and community events. Refining and improving his skills, knowledge, and connections through the Leadership Program will enable him to better serve his community. He also looks forward to learning more about conservation and environmental justice issues.

San Lorenzo

Isabella ‘Amne Gomez

Isabella ‘Amne is a Muwekma Ohlone Youth Ambassador and an intern at Santa Clara University doing community-engaged writing, research, and cultural programming. She looks forward to using the skills, knowledge, and connections gained in the Leadership Program to more efficiently help her community. She also looks forward to meeting other future leaders in this program with whom she can collaborate on issues important to her tribe.

Campbell

Yurina Guzman

Yurina ha sido organizadora comunitaria por medio de varias organizaciones, como Latinos Unidos Por Una Nueva América (LUNA) Papeles Para Todos, Nuestra Voz Derecho y Voto, Coalición de Derechos Laborales, y Ciudadanía del Área de la Bahia. Ella está dedicada a compartir fuertemente todo lo que ha aprendido sobre defensoría de la comunidad y del medio ambiento tanto con su comunidad como su familia para que estén preparados en tiempos difíciles y puedan seguir los pasos correctos y empoderen a otros miembros de la comunidad.

Yurina has been a community organizer for various organizations, including Latinos United for a New America (LUNA), Papeles Para Todos, Nuestra Voz Derecho y Voto, Coalition for Labor Rights, and Bay Area Citizenship. She is dedicated to sharing what she has learned about community and environmental advocacy with her community so that they are prepared in difficult times and can take the right steps and empower others.

San Jose

Briana Horta

Briana is a Senior Program Manager at San Jose Conservation Corps & Charter School. She plans to use what she learns in the Leadership Program to supplement and elevate her current skill set to be a better advocate for our environment and local communities.

Milpitas

Quetzalli Jimenez

Quetzalli is a Youth Muralist Lead with ConeXcion to Community, a local nonprofit that supports youth and families’ well-being through educational and culturally competent social services. She plans to use what she learns in the Leadership Program to help inform community members and youth about what they can do to contribute to what happens in their spaces.

East Palo Alto

Juan Carlos Mendoza

Juan Carlos es residente de East Palo Alto y trabaja en la área de la bahía como electricista. Ha vivido en East Palo Alto por 25 años. Organiza obras de limpieza por las calles de su barrio con sus vecinos y familiares. Ha trabajado con YUCA (Youth United for Community) y con LUNA (Latinos United for a New America) para mejorar el estado de su comunidad. Juan quiere fomentar un sentimiento de compromiso por el cuidado del medio ambiente en su comunidad.

Juan Carlos is a resident of East Palo Alto and works in the Bay Area as an electrician. He has lived in East Palo Alto for 25 years. He organizes neighborhood street cleanups with his neighbors and family. He has also done community work with YUCA (Youth United for Community) and LUNA (Latinos United for a New America). Juan wants to foster a feeling of commitment to caring for the environment in his community.

Fremont

Hannah Moreno

Hannah is an elementary school teacher and a member of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band. She loves being outdoors in nature and enjoys teaching her students about California habitats, native plants, and animals. She is looking forward to learning skills in the Leadership Program that will enable her to help her tribe advance issues that are important to them.

San Jose

Raymond Mueller

Ray is an East San Jose community organizer and a member of the Citizens’ Advisory Committee of the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority. With more than 40 years of grassroots organizing experience, he plans to use what he learns in the Leadership Program to increase and enhance his leadership, organizing, and advocacy skills; cultivate community connections; and identify the next leadership role he wants to pursue.

San Jose

Rae Ann Prado

Rae Ann is a member of Calpulli Tonalehqueh, a local Aztec dance group based on the foundation of wisdom, harmony, and culture. She also works as an academic counselor and dean. She plans to use the skills she learns in the Leadership Program for the benefit of Calpulli Tonalehqueh and the wider community.

San Jose

Migdalia Rodriguez Cubides

Migdalia es colombiana deportista y vivió gran parte de su vida en el campo, lo que le permitió adquirir un gran amor por la naturaleza y el cuidado de la misma. Esta visión de vida la impulsó a trabajar con la comunidad siempre en función de la protección de medio
ambiente y colaborando a los adultos mayores, niños, niñas y jóvenes a quienes siempre buscó darle una apropiación del conocimiento relacionado con la importancia de aprovechar correctamente los recursos, comprendió que no había desechos en la naturaleza, comprendió que cada acción en este caminar por la vida, se debe repensar, para reducir las afectaciones que se pueden ocasionar en el ambiente y con consecuencias en los aspectos económicos y sociales.

Como residente permanente en San José, California, ha podido visualizar de manera significativa la tendencia del consumismo que está afectando significativamente los recursos naturales por este modelo económico lineal (comprar, acumular y desechar) dejándonos
llevar por las industrias que su meta principal es la rentabilidad y acumulación de capitales. Se ha dispuesto a trabajar en comunidad en la implementación de acciones que conduzcan a un sistema circular, siendo la vía para el cumplimiento de los Objetivos de Desarrollo
Sostenible ODS. Piensa que se deben tomar acciones para hacer que el gobierno, las empresas, la sociedad civil y la academia, estén conectados buscando una política pública que parta de una Educación Ambiental buscando la Justicia social, ambiental y económica.
Considera que unidos se llegan a mejores rutas en cada acción.

Migdalia is a Colombian athlete and lived a large part of her life in the countryside. Because of this, she developed a great love for nature and this has led her to focus her community work on environmental protection.

As a resident of San Jose, she has seen how consumerism significantly affects resources through a linear economic model (buy, accumulate, and dispose), led by industries whose main goal is profit and capital accumulation. She is working toward the implementation of actions that will lead to sustainability and to fulfilling Sustainable Development Goals. She thinks actions should be taken to connect government, companies, civil society and academia in seeking a public policy that starts from an environmental orientation seeking social, environmental and economic justice. She believes that we achieve better outcomes when we work together.

East Palo Alto

Laura Rubio

Laura después de sus horas regulares de trabajo limpiando casas, está enteramente dedicada y comprometida, al bienestar de su comunidad en East Palo Alto, compartiendo información de programas y promoviendo el desarrollo personal, profesional y cuidado del medio ambiente entre miembros de la comunidad. Es miembra del Comité Latino East Palo Alto, la mesa directiva de inquilinos de East Palo Alto, y la mesa de Control y Estabilización de Renta en East Palo Alto.

Es parte de la Coalición ETB, donde se reúne líderes y representantes de algunas organizaciones de East Palo Alto. Trabaja mucho en coordinación con Youth United for Community Action (YUCA), algunos concejales de la ciudad y vecinos de su área, limpiando las calles y la orilla del San Francisquito Creek dos o tres veces por año. También pertenece a La Alianza Nacional de Trabajadoras del Hogar, la mesa directiva de Pop Cultural de la Alianza Nacional de Trabajadores del Hogar, y la mesa directiva del Comité Asesor Latino del senador Josh Becker.

La finalidad de mantenerse activa es aprender, y compartir estos conocimientos con la comunidad.

Laura, after her regular work as a house cleaner, is entirely dedicated and committed to the well-being of her community in East Palo Alto, sharing information about programs and promoting personal and professional development and care for the environment among members of the community. She is a member of the East Palo Alto Latino Committee, the East Palo Alto Tenant Board, and the East Palo Alto Rent Control and Stabilization Board.

She is part of the ETB Coalition, a coalition of leaders and representatives of various East Palo Alto organizations. She works in coordination with Youth United for Community Action (YUCA),along with city councilors and neighbors in her area, on cleanups of the streets and banks of San Francisquito Creek two or three times a year. She is also a member of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, the National Domestic Workers Alliance Pop Cultural Board, and the board of Senator Josh Becker’s Latino Advisory Committee.

Her goal is to learn and to share knowledge with the community.

San Jose

Joanna Xing

Joanna is a lead attorney with the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley’s Health Program, which serves low-income people with mental health disabilities. She signed up for the Leadership Program to increase her advocacy skills around environmental health and its intersections with physical, spiritual, and mental health. She is especially interested in QTPOC well-being and how public/private land use has impacted historically underserved communities. Joanna moved to San Jose about two years ago from Boston and loves exploring redwood forests in their free time.

Not pictured here, but also in the Class of 2023: Araceli Guzmán – Redwood City, Domingo Jimenez – Milpitas, and Martha Ortega – Redwood City.

Class of 2022

Kevin B. headshot
Oakland

Kevin Bailey

Lillian C. headshot
Madera

Lillian Camarena

Cade C. headshot
South San Francisco

Cade Cannedy

Mary Anna C. headshot
San Jose

Mary Anna Cazarez-Sterling

Louis C. headshot
Felton

Louis Robert Chiaramonte, Jr.

Wendy C. headshot
San Mateo

Wendy Chou

Julie D. headshot
San Jose

Julie Dominguez

Juan Estrada headshot
San Jose

Juan Estrada

Helen G. headshot
San Jose

Helen Garza

Cheryl L.
San Jose

Cheryl Lim

Karen M. headshot
Montara

Karen Madsen

Janica M. headshot
Stanford

Janica Mendillo

Rebecca N. headshot
Mountain View

Rebecca Neill

Jacqueline R. headshot
San Jose

Jacqueline Rivera

Monica R. headshot
San Jose

Monica Rosquillas

Marlene S. headshot
Newark

Marlene Santoyo

Tamara headshot
East Palo Alto

Tamara Smith-Jones

Oakland

Kevin Bailey

Kevin (he/him) is a Labor Organizer for Service Employees International Union throughout the Bay Area. His passion for social justice and racial equity has led him to a commitment to being the voice for those unable to advocate for themselves. Through various campaigns and activism efforts, Kevin began to notice clear gaps in environmental and community wellness between neighborhoods of predominantly Black and Brown people versus neighborhoods of more racial balance or majority white residents. In the wealthy and thriving cities of the Bay Area, it is inexcusable for skin color and other socio-factors to be determinants in environmental wellbeing. Kevin joined the Green Foothills Leadership Program with the intention to better understand the relationship between racial and environmental justice and learn new tools to organize and begin solving the problem.

Kevin Bailey is a graduate student at Mills College. He is studying for his Master’s Degree in Public Policy. When not fighting the good fight, he can be found watching movies, or if the weather permits, outside reading a good book.

Madera

Lillian Camarena

Lillian is a tribal member and tribal secretary of the Tamien Nation. She currently lives in the Central Valley and works from home. Lillian is married with two children; together they love to travel, play baseball, and visit with family. She is currently in the early stages of working on a double major in Administrative Law and Archeology. She wanted to get involved with conservation and environmental justice because the Santa Clara Valley is within her tribe’s territory, and she wishes to be a part of the solution to help keep her homelands clean and safe. She intends to continue to advocate for clean parks and be a resource that her people can turn to for their future campaigns.

South San Francisco

Cade Cannedy

Cade works as a Program Manager and Community Organizer for Climate Resilient Communities (CRC). Cade grew up in the rural, unincorporated community of El Prado in Northern New Mexico. From a young age, he saw his community collaborate to share water through centuries old acequias and struggle for environmental justice against a Chevron-owned mine. He believes in pairing collaborative, community-driven solutions to climate change with advocacy for the large structural changes required to tackle the roots of the climate crisis. He is passionate about protecting people from the harms of air pollution and wildfire smoke, which represent a profound and often overlooked health threat. He believes the only legitimate use of privilege is the dismantlement of privilege and has committed himself to the struggle for a more just, humane, and sustainable world for everyone.

San Jose

Mary Anna Cazarez-Sterling

Mary Anna is a community leader in San Jose, and a program coordinator at La Mesa Verde with Sacred Heart Community Services.

Together with Latino mother leaders, she has been advocating for resources for child English learners around issues such as learning loss and mental health, due to forced isolation and distance learning during the pandemic.

She became connected to food access and food justice by joining La Mesa Verde and by showing children how growing their own food is bringing justice to their table.

With the Green Foothills Leadership Program, she has made a commitment to become an advocate for her community in the Food Justice movement and empower families by teaching them that growing their own food and bringing food from the garden bed to their table is powerful.

She loves to experiment with growing her own microgreens at home, and making compost. She likes the feeling she gets when she is self-sufficient just by doing these simple things. It is empowering. This feeling has helped her relate and connect with her community, and she loves it! You can always find her in Community.

Felton

Louis Robert Chiaramonte, Jr.

Lou (he/him) is a fifth-generation resident of San Jose. He currently resides in Santa Cruz County. He serves on the Santa Cruz County Democratic Central Committee and as a delegate to the California Democratic Party; led the organization of South Bay Indigenous Solidarity, a grassroots organization based in San Jose; and was a member of the organizing committee for the Silicon Valley Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) chapter, for the DSA Santa Cruz chapter, and for the DSA Santa Cruz Mountains branch. He was also co-owner of Chiaramonte’s Sausage and Deli, the region’s oldest family-owned foodservice business. He has a background in the field of cultural resource management.

San Mateo

Wendy Chou

Wendy Chou is Communications and Outreach Manager with the nonprofit Acterra and a volunteer with Citizens’ Climate Lobby – San Mateo County. With the skills gained in the Leadership Program she intends to pursue policies and programs that enhance a healthy quality of life for all, including access to nature, clean air and water, healthy food, and a livable climate. She recently began producing the Keeping It Cool podcast (five episodes old!) on encouraging climate action in Bay Area communities. She loves music, hiking, and dumplings.

San Jose

Julie Dominguez

Julie is a member of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area and is an advocate for the protection of land and waterways on her ancestral homelands. Following her mother’s leadership on food justice, she is an advocate for underrepresented communities, including her tribe. She lives in San Jose with her two sons, is a California Native dancer, and is a lover of art, music, and culture. Her family is supporting the revitalization of dance, culture, and tradition with the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area.

San Jose

Juan Estrada

With over a decade of advocacy and organizing experience as a community activist in East San Jose, Juan is supporting community efforts to re-envision the Reid-Hillview Airport for community-serving uses that include open space, among his other projects. Juan is also deeply involved in following the Ravenswood Specific Plan, advocating for minimal environmental impact on residents of East Palo Alto and sensitive habitats near the area.

Juan joined the Green Foothills staff as an Advocacy Associate & Organizer in July 2021, and is enhancing his organizational knowledge and skill set through the Leadership Program.

San Jose

Helen Garza

Helen is a professional in the fields of education, social services, employment development, and community advocacy. She raised a family and put herself through college while working full time. She has many interests and is involved in the community in the City of San Jose, the County of Santa Clara, and the State of California. One of her proudest achievements is that she successfully advocated for the City of San Jose to to spend $885,000 from its General Fund to create the 11-acre Plata Arroyo Park at King Road and McKee Road, a feat never before achieved. She spoke up for what she thought was needed, and because of that the park exists today as a place of rest, relaxation, and aesthetic enjoyment for the people of San Jose. She looks forward to putting the skills she learned in the Leadership Program into action to achieve even more for our community.

San Jose

Cheryl Lim

Cheryl is excited to be part of the 2022 Green Foothills Cohort. Growing up in the Bay Area, she has been blessed with the opportunity of exploring countless trails. She’s still new to advocacy, and she enjoyed learning from her peers in the Leadership Program as she works to advocate for environmental equality. Aside from working and attending school, she has been trying to train her cats to hike with her.

Montara

Karen Madsen

Karen is an active volunteer in the areas of marine and land conservation. She is currently a naturalist for Fitzgerald Marine Reserve, a docent for Año Nuevo State Park, a member of the Skyline Committee for Peninsula Open Space Trust, a Beach Watch Surveyor for the Greater Farallones Association, and Plastics Policy Lead for the Surfrider Foundation.

Karen came to care for conservation/environmental issues due to her love of the ocean and open spaces. She plans to use the knowledge she gained in the Green Foothills Leadership Program to initiate grassroots activism to reduce single-use plastics. She is a retired lawyer, with a business and biology background. She loves exploring tidepools, whale watching, sailing, and learning about native California wildflowers.

Stanford

Janica Mendillo

Janica is an undergraduate at Stanford University studying Earth Systems with a focus on climate and energy policy. She has done federal advocacy work for the Natural Resources Defense Council, a nonprofit that melds law and climate science to mitigate climate change and protect natural resources. She came to this work through her own experiences with climate anxiety coming from San Diego, a city that is conscious of its water availability and heat waves. She aspires to become a more effective leader in local climate action. In her spare time, she likes to read contemporary authors and go for runs.

Mountain View

Rebecca Neill

Rebecca works as a geological consultant in the offshore wind industry. Before moving to California, she volunteered with educational organizations in under-resourced communities. She shifted her focus to learning about conservation and environmental justice upon moving to California. She is interested in applying what she has learned through the Green Foothills Leadership Program to helping vulnerable communities be aware, adapt, and respond to sea level rise. Rebecca loves to rock climb, hike, and learn about native plants in her free time.

San Jose

Jacqueline Rivera

Jacqueline is an environmental advocate because climate change is all-encompassing. She believes environmental issues are indigenous, political, and economic issues. She is a grassroots community activist in the San Jose area on issues such as demilitarization and indigenous sovereignty.

She has a B.A. in Environmental Studies from UC Santa Cruz. Currently she works at Our City Forest, where she plants trees in residential areas and public parks. In her free time, she enjoys gardening, visiting local cafes, and learning new skills.

San Jose

Monica Rosquillas

Monica Rosquillas is senior manager for zero-waste special projects at the San Jose Conservation Corps. She has worked for environmental nonprofits for a total of seven years, focusing on environmental education and outreach. She intends to continue working towards creating a more just environment with the skills and education she is gaining in the Green Foothills Leadership Program. Monica enjoys traveling and has lived in four countries: Mexico, South Korea, Spain, and the United States.

Newark

Marlene Santoyo

Marlene was raised in East Palo Alto from K-12 and is a college graduate from UC Riverside where she majored in Sustainability Studies. Through her advocacy and work, she is committed to seeking environmental justice to ensure the wellness of our natural and built environment, while amplifying the needs of our underserved communities.

She has worked with Grid Alternatives as a Workforce and Volunteer Assistant, where she helped update and develop educational materials for youth. Marlene currently does collaborative work between the Menlo Park-based organizations Menlo Together, Belle Haven Community Development Fund, and Menlo Spark to bridge racial, economic, climate, environmental, and housing justice.

East Palo Alto

Tamara Smith-Jones

Tamara grew up in East Palo Alto (EPA) in the 1980’s but she attended school in suburban areas for a better education than what EPA could offer. This was Tamara’s first reality check about socioeconomic inequity. Having access to science camp, book clubs, and a variety of summer lessons helped open doors to future opportunities that most of her friends in the neighborhood would not live to see. These benefits were huge contributors to Tamara’s moral compass. She now works to ensure that members of underserved communities have equal access to life resources such as food, housing, healthcare, and education, all of which are a right, not a privilege.

Tamara intentionally plugs into different spaces where her education, talents, and emotional intelligence (lived- and learned-experiences combined) can reflect the voice of alienated communities to improve their chances of thriving rather than just surviving. Her work is in alignment with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) and the World Health Organization’s Social Determinants of Health (SDoH), which highlight the correlation between social, economic, and environmental, emphasizing that action in one area directly affects the outcomes in others. She will know progress is happening when members of disenfranchised communities are able to redirect their attention from securing basic needs to advocating for the dismantling of environmental and social injustices in their communities. She says, “Green Foothills acknowledging the value of our voices and necessity of our presence, starting with the Leadership Program, is an inclusive and promising first step.”

Not pictured here, but also graduates of the Class of 2022:  Samantha Faul, Adrian Gonzalez, Alicia McKean, Diana Mireles, and Chanelle Tedonnang.

Class of 2021

Lizbeth
Santa Clara

Lizbeth “Xochipapalo” Amador

Kira Barsten headsho
Los Gatos

Kira Barsten

Sierra Barsten headshot
Los Gatos

Sierra Barsten

Manjeet Bhamra headshot
San Jose

Manjeet Singh Bhamra

Izzi Henig
Atherton

Iszac Henig

Emma Hokoda
Santa Clara

Emma Hokoda

Kian Nikzad headshot
Los Altos

Kian Nikzad

Kenny Solorio headshot
San Jose

Kenny Solorio

Radhika headshot
Palo Alto

Radhika Thekkath

Alexis Whitaker headshot
San Mateo

Alexis Whitaker

Ron Valenzuela Headshot
San Jose

Ron Valenzuela

Santa Clara

Lizbeth “Xochipapalo” Amador

Lizbeth is a long-time resident of San Jose and has been connecting her friends to nature through Calpulli Tonalehqueh, a Mexica dance group in San Jose, where she is a member and Chicomecoatl (sahumadora). Lizbeth is passionate about connecting people to nature and using this connection as the foundation for healing work.

Los Gatos

Kira Barsten

Kira is an active local environmental advocate. She previously worked on organizing a climate action city team in Los Gatos through 350 Silicon Valley and on political strategy with Sunrise Silicon Valley. She has worked as a Sustainability Analyst with the City of Mountain View and is very interested in running for a local commission or other local elected seat.

Los Gatos

Sierra Barsten

Sierra is a current full-time graduate student at NYU, studying Food Policy and Comparative Racisms. Having worked in environmental education, advocacy, and journalism, her exploration of her studies in graduate school now focuses on food sovereignty, racialized capitalism in food systems, and decolonizing extractivist economic systems that perpetuate the conditions for climate change and food insecurity.

San Jose

Manjeet Singh Bhamra

Manjeet is new to advocacy but has long understood how important it is to bring environmental justice to the forefront. In an effort to better combat climate change, he came across Green Foothills back in 2015. He carefully began reading about initiatives to help shape the landscape he calls home. In his small way he got members of his often non-voting immigrant community to participate in bringing about positive change and was particularly proud to showcase Green Foothills’ posts on Measure B/Measure C in the June 2018 election. Manjeet now serves on the Green Foothills Advisory Board. A physician, he advocates for his patients with the American College of Rheumatology. Manjeet enjoys trying different coffees, craft beer, exploring local wineries, HIIT workouts, and hiking in the Diablo Range and Santa Cruz Mountains.

Atherton

Iszac Henig

Iszac has extensive experience doing community change work with a social focus. He is working on getting a degree in Earth and Planetary Science with a focus on Environment and Energy Geoscience from Yale. His area of interest falls into protecting access to water, watersheds, oceans, and ensuring access to clean water.

Santa Clara

Emma Hokoda

Emma believes that progressive climate action can be implemented a lot faster through nonprofit and community work. She has done several community-based research projects focused on environmental justice locally: from equitable park funding to addressing air pollution burdens for school children. She also did outreach and communications work for the Sunrise Movement and the City of Sunnyvale, and supported Catholic Relief Services (an international NGO) with their climate smart agriculture portfolio. Emma now lives in Seattle, working with the International Rescue Committee as a Financial Literacy Associate.

Los Altos

Kian Nikzad

Kian is a UCLA graduate who enjoys working on a wide variety of sustainability projects ranging from facility audits to bees. He is currently exploring how to transform his passion into a career. He graduated from the Green Foothills Leadership Program in 2021. The program showed him the diverse ways people can get involved and contribute to something they support.

San Jose

Kenny Solorio

Kenny has experience in trail maintenance and fuel reduction on top of creating and facilitating informational, artistic, and community workshops. He is actively advocating for immigrant, land, and tenant rights, and is exploring more ways to be involved with local education, advocacy, and conservation efforts.

Palo Alto

Radhika Thekkath

Radhika Thekkath is a retired computer scientist who worked in the tech industry for many years. Growing up in India, she used to play with friends on the edge of a jungle wilderness where she came to cherish the natural beauty of the mountains, animals, and flowers. She moved to California in 1985 and loved the different landscape here. An active board member of the California Native Plant Society (CNPS) Santa Clara Valley Chapter, Radhika has a mostly native home garden and gives talks on native plants and related subjects for CNPS. She also serves on the Green Foothills Advisory Board and is passionate about preserving the remaining Bay Area flora and fauna for future generations to enjoy.

Radhika and her family lived in western Washington State for three years from 2017 to 2020, and there she became a member of WNPS, took a class on forestry management and stewardship, became a member of WOWNET (Women-Owned Woods Network), and actively managed a small forested area. She is learning to build using cob (lumpy adobe) and is currently working on her first cob building. Cob houses use local materials that sequester carbon, so they are very sustainable. They are also fire-resistant and healthy, having no toxic materials in the structure of the building. Radhika is a recently certified permaculture designer. Permaculture design emphasizes principles for a regenerative lifestyle, whether it is just living, gardening, water use, or agriculture. She is very keen to get other people excited about regenerative living.

San Mateo

Alexis Whitaker

Alexis works as the Utility and Sustainability Coordinator of the San Mateo Community College District, where she manages sustainability programs, incorporating students and fellows into the district’s initiatives to promote sustainable practices on campus and at home. Her background is in greenhouse gas analysis, energy efficiency, and decarbonization, and she is passionate about emissions reductions in the built environment. She combines her diverse experience to spearhead holistic sustainability projects at the District, helping to define and support SMCCCD’s ambitious sustainability goals.

San Jose

Ron Valenzuela

Ron Valenzuela is the son of first generation immigrants, Patria Culla and Oscar Gaba Valenzuela of Naujan Mindoro Island, Philippines. Born and raised in Kamuning/Quezon City and in Mindoro Island, home of the Alangan Tribe Territory, Ron has been active in social justice and Indigenous land rights and sovereignty, both locally and in the South & Southwest areas.

Currently residing in San Jose on Ohlone/Tamien lands, he works with a Bay Area open space preserve, maintaining the preserve and trails, interacting with the public and continued stewardship of our local lands. When not working or advocating for conservation and protection, Ron enjoys exploring the beauty of the Bay Area mountains, beaches, trails, lakes and the Pacific Ocean, and long, extended road trips to less traveled locations, exploring destinations and visiting family and relations. Ron also serves on the Green Foothills Advisory Board.

Not pictured here, but also graduates of the Class of 2021: Allison Dykens – Half Moon Bay, Carl van Reis – Los Altos, Cathleen Grado – Stanford, Ever Rodriguez – North Fair Oaks, Rhoda Fry – Cupertino, and Sarah Tang – Milpitas.

Class of 2020

Redwood City

Michele Beasley

Palo Alto

Sophia Christel

San Jose

Alex Coronado

San Jose

Jonathan Davis

Emerald Hills

Sudha Fatima

San Mateo

Adriana Fernandez

East Palo Alto

Roxana Franco

San Jose

Natalie Goolsby

San Jose

Maisha House Asemota

Santa Clara

Ariana Hoyt Perez

Burlingame

Raymond Larios

Los Gatos

Dashiel Leeds

San Jose

Monica Noel Matthews

San Jose

Amada Montelongo

San Jose

Camille Hong Xuan Nguyen

East Palo Alto

Iliana Nicholas

San Jose

Shauna “Honu” Nichols

Redwood City

Marina J Rose

San Jose

Mel Sarmento

Mountain View

Susan Steinbrecher

Redwood City

Michele Beasley

Michele is the Executive Director of the San Mateo County Parks Foundation. Prior to that she worked to protect open space lands and create livable communities in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties for over a decade while at Greenbelt Alliance. Michele also spent four years as a homelessness and affordable housing advocate in Contra Costa County and spent two years with the Peace Corps in West Africa, supporting community-based ecotourism enterprises. Michele serves on the board of directors for TransForm which promotes excellent transportation choices at the nexus of affordability and climate.

Palo Alto

Sophia Christel

Sophie Christel’s lifelong passion for the environment began when she was a kid hiking with her in the Bay Area’s foothills and shorelines. Since 2018, she has worked to protect her stomping grounds as an employee of the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, where she began in public access planning and now manages the implementation of Midpen’s Climate Action Plan.

Sophie has a B.S. (2015) and M.S. (2017) in Earth Systems from Stanford University.  There, she first dipped her toes into advocacy with the Fossil Free Stanford divestment campaign.  She is also a docent and research volunteer at Stanford’s Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve and always stays curious about everything she finds in nature, whether animal, vegetable, or mineral.  Sophie is driven by dreams of environmental justice, including equitable access to open space and environmental science education. She is thrilled to join the 2020 cohort of CALA in the fight for a better world.

San Jose

Alex Coronado

San Jose

Jonathan Davis

Jonathan is currently a professional organizer for the UC Students Association, and an active organizer with Silicon Valley DSA, through which he has been active in tenant organizing, indigenous rights and electoral work. He is a founding member of South Bay Indigenous Solidarity, a coalition resisting the development of Juristac.

Emerald Hills

Sudha Fatima

Sudha Fatima grew up in Tamilnadu, where her ancestors have lived for at least 120,000 years. She was raised with indigenous cosmology that all beings on Earth are sentient, especially the plant world. Her pressing desire is to protect native habitats, and ecosystems in as pristine a condition as possible. She uses climate change as a dialectical tool to stress the need to preserve natural ecosystems. She is a Speech Language Pathologist who is completing a doctorate in Anthropology. Her research focuses on climate change and lifestyle emissions of Silicon Valley.

San Mateo

Adriana Fernandez

Adriana has been living in San Mateo since she was three years old. Coming from a mixed immigration status household, she pursued a career in environmental justice in order to bring to light the injustices communities like hers face. After watching Food, Inc., Adriana recognized the similarities between the injustices that migrant field workers face to her own family’s challenges. During her time in college, Adriana co-started a student organization named Environmental Justice for Underrepresented Communities and after graduating she started a Latina Mothers Hiking Group for the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office CARON Program. She now serves on the Executive Board of the San Mateo County Parks Foundation and is helping build Nuestra Casa’s new Environmental Justice Program as the Housing and Environmental Justice Coordinator. Adriana hopes to uplift and amplify the voices of our Spanish-speaking and immigrant community through authentic community engagement. She is tired of having communities like hers being left out of the environmental advocacy conversations when they are hit the hardest by environmental impacts. Adriana attended Cañada College in Redwood City and transferred to the University of California, Davis where she graduated with a B.S. in Environmental Science and Management.

East Palo Alto

Roxana Franco

Roxana is the Environmental Justice Programs Manager at Nuestra Casa. She has collaborated with Youth United for Community Action and Environmental Coalition for Water Justice to work on Prop 1 and implement a needs assessment survey. Roxana is currently working in concert with various organizations to educate and activate East Palo Alto communities on the impact of climate change.

San Jose

Natalie Goolsby

Natalie works as the Outreach Coordinator for the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters and wants to create a more dynamic presence in the community. She would someday like to start a non-profit to educate the public about voting, and how local government works with a focus on civic engagement. Natalie has also worked with the County’s Foster Care Eligibility Program.

San Jose

Maisha House Asemota

Maisha House-Asemota is a proud San Francisco Bay Area resident. Maisha has a Bachelor of Science in Business with a minor in Spanish from CSU Sacramento. Maisha worked as an analyst for several private and public organizations before completing a Master of Arts in Economics from California State University East Bay. She has taught basic and advanced courses in economics, business forecasting, and public policy at the Community College level. Maisha completed her Master of Business Administration from Mills College before working for the Client Computing Group at Intel Corporation. Maisha is passionate about gender equality and the environment. Apart from completing her graduate study at a Women’s college, she worked diligently with Symantec Corporation on Gender Equality Principles for Technology organizations. Maisha has travelled to several countries in Africa and the Caribbean. Additionally, she completed a study abroad program in Cuernavaca, Mexico. Maisha serves as a thought leader for Community led organizations across the Bay Area.

Santa Clara

Ariana Hoyt Perez

Ariana Hoyt Perez is a Program Coordinator with Building Skills Partnership, a nonprofit organization that provides vocational and immigrant integration programs for janitors and property service workers throughout California. Ariana was inspired to join CALA and learn more about environmental advocacy by seeing how graduates of BSP’s Green Janitor Education Program committed to sustainable practices in their daily lives. She graduated in 2012 from Stanford University with a BA in Human Biology and honors in Education. Ariana is a Bay Area local, and has strengthened her knowledge of regional issues through volunteering at local organizations, including NAMI of Santa Clara, the Immigration Institute of the Bay Area (IIBA) and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group (SVLG). In her free time, Ariana enjoys hiking, camping, and spending time with friends and family.

Burlingame

Raymond Larios

Ray has been civically engaged and a volunteer in the community since he first emigrated from Honduras to the United States in 2009. He earned a bachelor’s degree from San Francisco State University in Political Science and International Relations; subsequently, he worked as an Outreach Coordinator for San Mateo County Manager’s Office. Currently, he is serving the American people at the U.S. Department of State. Ray also serves as a member of the Peninsula Clean Energy Citizen Advisory Committee and is an alternate member for District 1 of the San Mateo County Democratic Central Committee. Ray has worked on several political campaigns and has experience providing operational and strategic input to win elections. His favorite pastimes are beekeeping, gardening, and wilderness backpacking. He lives in Burlingame, CA, with his wife, Alice.

Los Gatos

Dashiel Leeds

San Jose

Monica Noel Matthews

Monica has expertise in field biology, research, environmental compliance and education in life sciences, physical sciences, and history. She has been active in efforts led by Protect Juristac, Black Lives Matter, the Anti-Police Terror Project and L.A. Jail Reform.

San Jose

Amada Montelongo

Amada Montelongo was born and raised in San Jose, and works as a Youth Outreach Specialist with the Female Intervention Team, under the City of San Jose’s Gang Prevention Task Force. She is on the Engaged Latina Leadership Activism Committee with the Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley, enjoys practicing yoga, and cheering for her favorite Bay Area sports teams: San Francisco 49ers, Golden State Warriors, and San Francisco Giants. One of Amada’s goals for this year is to find more eco-sustainable ways to live and to travel to Croatia, Spain, and Portugal.

San Jose

Camille Hong Xuan Nguyen

Camille is an Orange County native who initially moved to the Bay Area to represent clients who are involuntarily placed in locked psychiatric facilities and for mental health consumers living in our communities.  Currently, Camille continues to serve low-income and underrepresented communities as a health attorney at the Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County.  She focused on social justice advocacy and access to healthcare during law school at UC Irvine.  She also studied political science, and computing and the arts at UC San Diego.  Camille continues to pursue causes that prioritize access health as a basic human right, and that provide dignity and respect to all communities.  Camille will always say yes to hikes, dogs, and dessert.

East Palo Alto

Iliana Nicholas

Iliana lives in East Palo Alto and holds degrees in Urban and Regional Planning and Sociology from San José State University. She has worked for an environmental non-profit organizing and leading climate resiliency work in East Palo Alto. While she has now transitioned to the field of affordable housing, she aspires to continue to be of service to her community. In her spare time, she volunteers as a youth mentor empowering youth to pursue higher education, engage in civic participation, and become agents of social change.

San Jose

Shauna “Honu” Nichols

Honu is a student at Foothills College who is heavily involved in civic engagement. She created the Foothill/De Anza Environmental Coalition to build collaboration between the sister schools’ towards sustainability. Honu interns with the Foothill De Anza Faculty Association Political Action Committee. She also played a role in the effort to successfully bring Measure G to the 2020 ballot.

Redwood City

Marina J Rose

Marina has led Non-Violent Communication courses in Redwood City and Palo Alto. She is a food gardener and volunteers for Second Harvest’s food distribution programs. She has a health care practice in Los Altos with a focus on natural remedies. Marina is also an active member of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Redwood City where she is currently organizing a training for white allies.

San Jose

Mel Sarmento

Mel Sarmento is a San José State graduate whose passion is connecting all individuals with the outdoors. She has worked, interned, and volunteered with various outdoor education organizations for the last 15 years. As the current Education Program Manager with Guadalupe River Park Conservancy, she is able to foster her passion by bringing groups outdoors who typically do not have the opportunity – Title One students, students of color, Special Needs groups, and many more! Mel continues to advocate for safe, clean, and natural spaces for all to enjoy.

Mountain View

Susan Steinbrecher

Susan is a life-long environmentalist at heart and strives daily to reduce her carbon footprint and encourage others to do so as well. She has been a member of the Sierra Club, GreenPeace, and the Audubon Society for a very long time and is an avid birder and outdoor enthusiast.  Recently, Susan became active with the Center for Biological Diversity and with Silicon Valley Climate Action Now, a direct action fossil fuel divestment group picketing and protesting Wells Fargo. She also graduated from the Climate Reality Leadership Training with Al Gore 2020, which she found to be an extremely exhilarating, empowering program. Before soon retiring from her career as a Labor and Delivery nurse, Susan intends to launch and set in motion a new chapter of the world-wide organization Alliance of Nurses for a Healthy Environment (ANHE), whose aim is to inspire nurses to be leaders in helping our communities connect climate change issues with health and racism.

Class of 2018-2019

San Jose

Jaime Angulo

San Jose

Elaine Bauer

Palo Alto

Patricia Becker

Felton

Robin Brune

San Jose

Alba Cardenas

San Carlos

Diego Castro

San Jose

Stephanie Flores

San Jose

Shay Franco-Clausen

Milpitas

Andrea Fraume-Valencia

San Carlos

Kathleen Goforth

San Mateo

Jessica Gonzalez

San Jose

Rick Holder

Kris headshot
Moss Beach

Kris Lannin Liang

Moss Beach

Mary Larenas

Palo Alto

Ava Lindstrom

San Martin

Connie Ludewig

San Carlos

Jay Macintosh

Redwood City

Alison Madden

San Jose

Diego Martinez

Sunnyvale

Deepti Nanawati

San Jose

Cherise Orange

San Jose

Julianna Page

San Francisco

Alexii Sigona

Mountain View

Barb Singleton

Redwood City

Michael Smith

San Jose

Matthew Warren

San Jose

Jaime Angulo

Jaime Angulo is a native of Colombia who trained as a Mechanical Engineer, specializing in metal structures and modular housing construction. He came to California in 2000 to work on a manufactured migrant farm workers housing project in the Central Valley. In 2001 he married Dayana Salazar, a San Jose State University Urban Planning professor. In 2002 Jaime and Dayana settled in San Jose and Jaime starting working for Neighborhood Housing Services of Silicon Valley (NHSSV) as their Community Building and Organizing Program manager.

NHSSV and United Neighborhoods of Santa Clara County developed the Responsible Landlord Engagement Initiative (RLEI) and appointed Jaime to lead the program. Today, after 6 years, RLEI has become a recognized community inspired tool that helps neighborhood groups resolve problem property issues, ensuring that neighborhoods stay safe and healthy. In 2015, the RLEI program found a new home with Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County. Jaime continues in his role as manager of RLEI with the plan to growth and expansion of the program in Santa Clara County. Jaime and Dayana live in downtown San Jose with their 10-year old son Kai.

San Jose

Elaine Bauer

Palo Alto

Patricia Becker

YouTube.com and Health News You Can Use at YourHealthandJoy.com She also recommends products including Organic Body Care, Health Foods, Yoga Props and Books at BESTHealthCare.

Patricia has 25 years of education, expertise and practical experience. Her nutrition study is steeped in ancient Macrobiotic Dietary Guidelines. She teaches yoga based on the Principles of Alignment and is a certified Yoga Alliance RYT®. She is also part time Yoga Instructor for Stanford University’s Health Improvement Program.

Felton

Robin Brune

Robin Brune has been a resident of the San Lorenzo Valley, in the Santa Cruz mountains, for fourteen years. She looks forward to strengthening her skills in advocacy and civic engagement through the Community Advocates Leadership Academy.

San Jose

Alba Cardenas

Alba is interested in bridging the community with information they need. Alba is bilingual which helps her reach communities that otherwise would not learn what is affecting their environment and how it impacts their lives. Alba is passionate about the access that communities have to green spaces, as well as making a change to improve or increase those opportunities. She is looking forward to learning many tools and network connections in CALA to aid in her community advocacy.

San Carlos

Diego Castro

San Jose

Stephanie Flores

San Jose

Shay Franco-Clausen

Shay Franco-Clausen is a mother, activist, mentor, change-maker, nonprofit founder and wife, who find ways to serve as a voice for those whom have lost theirs.

A “protector of Women’s, LGBTQA, Environmental and Human Rights,” Shay finds her way to take her rightful place at many decision-making tables. Always advocating for policies changes that benefit “all people” of her community, Shay serves on many boards and commissions. Being the first Afro-Latina, Lesbian to serve as Chair the Santa Clara County Commission on the Status of Women, Chair Justice and Advocacy Committee, past member of the Santa Clara County IPV – Domestic Violence Task Force, Norcal Representative for Association of California Commissions for Woman, President of the Silicon Valley African American Democratic Coalition, Chair of the San Jose Evergreen Green Valley College Bond Oversight Committee and Director of Outreach and Communication for Santa Clara County Democratic Central Committee, to name a few.

A champion in the fight for socioeconomic, racial, and gender equity, Shay is the Director of Development and Government Relations for a local Nonprofit, Silicon Valley FACES, using her lens to serve the K -12 students. In the school communities, Shay know the importance of teaching empathy and understanding, as a guide to building stronger communities. In January, with her passion and love for open space and conservation, Shay will be elected to serve 4 years on the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority, representing District 5. Shay is a mother of 5 wonderful children, with her wife Yolanda, who is a Law School student that serves in Palo Alto Police Department. Shay values her life experiences, as the impetus to her passion for serving.

Milpitas

Andrea Fraume-Valencia

Andrea Fraume Valencia has been calling the Bay Area “home” since 2005. She was raised to believe in improving the world for future generations and care for the environment. Living and studying in San Jose gave young Andrea the safety to apply these lessons, serve her local community and learn about social justice. Andrea currently works as an Outreach Coordinator for Bay Area Wilderness Training, bringing resources for educators and youth workers to lead outdoor trips for youth of color and young people from low-income backgrounds.

San Carlos

Kathleen Goforth

Kathleen grew up on the East Coast, went to college in the Midwest, and has lived in San Carlos for over 30 years. For most of her adult life she has worked at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regional office in San Francisco, where she currently manages the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) program. Kathleen has a B.S. in Science and Environmental Change, with an emphasis on biology, and is a Certified California Naturalist. She volunteers as a docent, Education Center host, and citizen scientist at Edgewood Preserve in Redwood City, and serves on the board of the Friends of Edgewood.

She has completed the San Mateo County Office of Sustainability’s (OS) Master Conservation and Master Composter training programs, and periodically volunteers to assist with public outreach for OS programs and Peninsula Clean Energy. She has also been trained in crisis response by the National Organization for Victim Assistance.

Kathleen loves working with children. She has enrolled in CALA to learn how she can be most effective in working at the local/regional level to: ensure that Peninsula communities continue to be leaders in combating and adapting to climate change; support the well-being of foster children; and generate public support for the restoration and protection of native ecosystems. When not working or volunteering, she can often be found puttering around in her yard, which she is trying to transform into a locally native wildflower garden.

San Mateo

Jessica Gonzalez

Jessica Gonzalez is the first generation in her family to attend college. She has lived locally in San Mateo for 27 years. She works as a Para Educator for the San Mateo Foster City School District. Jessica is involved with my community through volunteering in public schools and with a non-profit organization called Faith In Action. She is a leader for San Mateo Unidos where they gather once a week to be in community. The impact she hopes to make is to inspire our future generations and continue to fight for equity for everyone. Jessica enjoys going on hikes and finding a good bite for pizza.

San Jose

Rick Holder

Born and raised in the city of San Bernardino, California, Rick Holder is intimately familiar with the challenges of concentrated poverty, mass incarceration, and civic disengagement. After a rather tumultuous childhood spent in the foster care system, Rick enlisted in the United States Navy as an Information Systems Technician. His six-years of service took him on a journey around the globe aboard the USS Chancellorsville, a guided-missile cruiser ported in Yokosuka, Japan.

Having recently separated from active duty, Rick is currently studying Economics and Political Science at Foothill College with the hopes of transferring to a four-year university to study Public Policy. He’s been extremely active in his post-military life, interning with Congresswoman Anna Eshoo and the California Wilderness Coalition while also working part-time at two technology companies. Profoundly passionate about all matters pertaining to poverty, criminal justice, veterans, and climate change, Rick hopes to have the opportunity to channel his endless energy and passion to affect real change in his community and beyond.

An avid reader and writer, Rick hopes to one day pen his own novel, but until then he’ll be content with traveling the world with his lovely wife Leslie and caring for their adorable Australian Shepherd. His mission is leverage his energy, passion, and experience to uplifting and empowering society’s most marginalized individuals and communities. Although he doesn’t know what the future holds, he knows for certain that he’ll continue to serve in whatever capacity he can, whether as an elected official or as a highly engaged community advocate.

Moss Beach

Kris Lannin Liang

Kris is a third-generation Bay Area native that spent the better part of her youth in forts, forests, playgrounds, and city, county and state parks. She rescues and rehabilitates marine and terrestrial mammals and birds, and advocates for protecting them, and their onshore and offshore environments. As a University of California Certified Naturalist, she educates the public about the importance of restoring, protecting and utilizing our biodiverse communities to improve human health as well as the health of our planet. Kris is excited to meet and collaborate with people committed to positive change, and learn from people that have been successful in their endeavors.

Moss Beach

Mary Larenas

Dr. Mary Larenas possesses a BA in Biology and a Doctorate in Psychology. During her Post-Doc as a Neuropsychologist with the UCSF Memory and Aging Center Mary became fascinated with how the brain responds to the natural environment and how wilderness experiences are vital to good mental health. During her 64 years on planet earth, she participated in two Arctic expeditions, traveling by canoe, with no outside contact, in Canada’s Northwest Territories. Each trip was almost 40 days long and over a 1000 miles in length. Mary and her husband lived on a sailboat for 12 years and traveled over 30,000 miles on their 30-foot sailboat to the Galapagos Islands, French Polynesia, and Hawaii. Mary has been actively involved in advocating for sensible development, gender equity, the right to die with dignity, Marine Protected Areas, open-space and natural resource protection. Currently, she is a Docent naturalist at Fitzgerald Marine Reserve (FMR) in Moss Beach. Her passion is working alongside the County Parks Dept., N.O.A.A., Fish and Wildlife, community members and other stakeholders to update policies that protect the fragile habitats at FMR, which has been designated an Area of Special Biological Significance.

Palo Alto

Ava Lindstrom

Ava is a native of Illinois and has worked for Committee for Green Foothills for several years; she currently manages development and communications. As an officer with the local Democratic Socialists of America chapter, she hopes to create a better and more just Silicon Valley. Ava graduated from Stanford University with a degree in French and enjoys reading, trivia games, and pictures of adorable reptiles.

San Martin

Connie Ludewig

Connie has been a resident of San Martin since 1988, and resides with her husband on the land where six generations of the Ludewig family have lived. Together they enjoy their two cats in the yard, family, and traveling. As a former board member of the San Martin Neighborhood Alliance (SMNA), she has taken concerns to the county, and worked to develop relationships with officials. She has also co-chaired fundraisers to support community needs, and is an advocate for the San Martin community.

Following the 2017 storm-related contamination of San Martin, Connie researched and brought awareness to residents and the authorities about recurring raw sewage spills from Morgan Hill to San Martin during the past several years. She continues to work to establish solutions to these problems (including 204,000 gallons of sewage released into Llagas Creek).

During the past year, Connie has been the Membership Director of the San Martin Chamber of Commerce (SMCoC), established in 2017. She also writes their quarterly newsletter, and a bi-monthly article in the GMH Today magazine, featuring the Chamber. Connie’s hopes are to gain proficient skills for successful community leadership, and to implement positive changes in San Martin.

San Carlos

Jay Macintosh

Jay is a native Californian raised in Cupertino, CA with an engineering and psychology degree from Santa Clara University. He’s been a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) in San Mateo County the past few years where he advocates for youth on behalf of the juvenile court. Jay’s mission is to ensure that all foster children know that they matter a great deal to their local community. This occurs when a multitude of community members show up to lend a hand. To achieve this, he’s orchestrating an effort to make it easy for individuals, businesses and other organizations to find, connect and contribute resources to a specific foster child at the time of need.

Redwood City

Alison Madden

Alison lives in Redwood City in a floating community that they are trying to save initially through advocacy and now in the realm of litigation (unfortunately, as last resort). A fun fact about Alison is that she lives on a houseboat. She has always been involved in community activities, mostly access to services and voting, until she realized the importance of civic and citizen engagement in the planning process. Alison seeks, as a resident, voter and mom, to improve civic engagement and the focus of councils onto the people, not just the projects and the money.

San Jose

Diego Martinez

Sunnyvale

Deepti Nanawati

San Jose

Cherise Orange

A true Marylander, Cherise Orange has always strived to build bridges instead of walls. From helping organizing community events as a young child to a volunteer planner at Baltimore’s Neighborhood Design Center. It is her love of people and building stronger Black communities that pushed her path toward planning. In 2013, she graduated from Morgan State University with a Masters in City and Regional Planning and was recognized by the American Planning Association (APA) Planning in the Black Community Division as a Robert A. Catlin/David W. Long Scholar.

Today, Cherise is an Associate Planner for Santa Clara County Parks where she focuses on innovatively engaging the public in the planning process and getting people outdoors. Cherise serves as the Board of Directors Chair for the African American Community Service Agency in San Jose and on the APA – Northern California Section Board as the South Bay Regional Activity Coordinator. In these roles, she hopes to implement changes that will help minorities to thrive in Silicon Valley.

San Jose

Julianna Page

J’ana Page is Bay Area born and raised. She is a full time student and part time barista. She is majoring in political science at San Jose State University and graduates in spring 2019. In her free time she volunteers for campaigns and find ways to help her local community. Her ultimate goal is to better the world in big or small ways.

San Francisco

Alexii Sigona

Alexii is an undergraduate student at the University of San Francisco (USF) in the department of Environmental Studies. A proud member of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band located here in the Bay Area, Alexii is deeply interested in the intersections between indigenous knowledge and environmental issues at the local level. He is very active on campus at USF and continuously works to bring indigenous voices to academic settings. He also works part-time for the Amah Mutsun Land Trust which works to restore traditional Amah Mutsun territory and bring back Native plants, cultures, and traditions. He hopes to learn how to effectively work with local communities to improve settler colonial relations and protect our open spaces and ecosystems. Alexii plans to attend graduate school and study food sovereignty and indigenous land rights.

Mountain View

Barb Singleton

Barb has been a strong advocate for the issues close to her heart. As an amateur violist who got her start in public school beginning strings class, she has a passion for children’s music education, all performing arts, and live orchestral music. This led her to work at a professional symphony as a development manager.

During the 2012 presidential election cycle, Barb was in charge of contributions to political campaigns for Proposition 37, which would have required labeling of genetically engineered food (GMO’s). The outpouring of passion from contributors inside and outside of California for this ballot measure showed Barb what could be accomplished when people join together. Sparked by this job, she joined the League of Women Voters, started a Money In Politics committee, organized and promoted the City of Emeryville’s City Council and School Board Candidates forums and accompanied the Mayor and City Manager to speak to the public about the issues.

After moving to Mountain View in late 2016 for a cyber security position at NASA, Barb became more aware of the extreme issues facing Silicon Valley including the housing shortage and inequity. This prompted Barb to return to a career in the nonprofit sector. Recently, Barb has volunteered with ProMatch.org, Innovate Climate Action in Sunnyvale, and STEAMfest – Redwood City Library Foundation.

Barb is originally from Southern California and has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for over 20 years. She holds a BS in Business Management from Pepperdine University and a MS in Telecommunications Management from Golden Gate University in San Francisco.

Redwood City

Michael Smith

Mr. Smith is the founder and CEO of E&I Advisors, a boutique management consulting firm focused on delivering operating and go-to-market strategy for small and medium-sized technology companies that are struggling to meet their revenue goals. He is also an Assistant Professor of Business at Cañada College in Redwood City where he teaches courses on business law, entrepreneurship, and strategy.

Prior to the founding of E&I Advisors, Mr. Smith was a Director of Strategy and Business Planning at American Express based in New York. In this role, he worked in the Global Corporate Payments business unit focusing on innovation and target growth development.

Mr. Smith also lived and worked in Seoul, South Korea as a Global Strategist for the Samsung organization. While at Samsung, he advised c-suite members of the company on market entry, competition, and mergers & acquisitions. He also spent several years on Wall St as an investor and relationship manager.

Mr. Smith lives in Redwood City where he serves as a Planning Commissioner and the Palm Park Neighborhood Co-chair. Michael holds an MBA from New York Univeristy’s Stern School of Business. He also holds a BA in Political Economy from Yale University.

San Jose

Matthew Warren

Matthew Warren is a staff attorney for the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley in San Jose, California. His work includes litigating fair housing matters in state and federal courts as well as advocating for the production and preservation of affordable housing locally. Through his practice, Matt works to combat displacement of households of color from the diverse communities of Silicon Valley. Matt graduated from Santa Clara University School of Law, where he was a Dean’s Fellow. He received a Master of Arts in Social Justice and Human Rights from Arizona State University, and he received his undergraduate degree from Gonzaga University.

Not pictured here, but also graduates of the Class of 2018-19: Kimberly Delgado – San Martin, Julian Garcia – East Palo Alto, Melanie Liu – Palo Alto, Maria Marroquin – Mountain View, Janette Rosales – Campbell.

Class of 2017-2018

Palo Alto

Vibha Akkaraju

Palo Alto

Kathy Alford

San Jose

Nick Allen

San Carlos

J.R. Bae

San Jose

Kat Baumgartner

Oakland

Ofelia Bello

Lauren headshot
Menlo Park

Lauren Bigelow

East Palo Alto

Andrew Boone

Kyra B. headshot
East Palo Alto

Kyra Brown

Matt headshot
Half Moon Bay

Matthew Burrows

San Jose

Donna Cortez

San Jose

Cynthia Denny

San Jose

Serena Desai

San Jose

Mariska Gaska

San Jose

Miguel Gonzalez

Atherton

Bill Grove

San Martin

Trina Hineser

Redwood City

Rick Hunter

San Jose

Flora Kaplan

Campbell

Riley Knight

San Jose

Karen Lattin

Daly City

Rebecca McDowell

San Jose

Nicole McLane

Menlo Park

Chiseche Mibenge

Santa Cruz

Jane Mio

San Jose

Mackenzie Mossing

Redwood City

Mitchell Oster

San Jose

Smita Patel

Hollister

Peter Ruddock

San Jose

Emily Schwing

San Jose

Nicole Shaddox

Redwood City

Elizabeth Softky

Santa Cruz

Erica Stanojevic

San Bruno

Cindy Urquidez

San Mateo

Megan Waters

Redwood City

Vilami Young

Palo Alto

Vibha Akkaraju

Palo Alto

Kathy Alford

Kathy is a native Californian, having lived here all but 21 months of her life. She earned a B.A. in Photojournalism from SJSU, and has worked in horticulture since the late 90s, becoming a California Certified Nursery Professional in 2003, an ISA Certified Arborist in 2006, a UCCE Master Gardener in 2013, and an ISA Tree Risk Qualified in 2017. Kathy founded her tree care business in 2001. Kathy started volunteering with Canopy, Palo Alto’s tree advocacy non-profit, in 2007 as a planting leader. She was quickly invited to join the Program Committee, is a founding member of the Tree Care Subcommittee, and has been a Pruning Instructor and Supervisor since 2012. She’s now a part time Canopy employee, with the title Tree Care Specialist. Working with Canopy has been one of the most rewarding experiences of Kathy’s life, enabling her to combine work she loves to do with her continued passion for the environment. Following completion of the Community Advocates and Leadership Academy, Kathy is looking forward to providing a more proactive role in the environmental non-profit sector.

San Jose

Nick Allen

A transplant from Montana, Nick has lived up and down the peninsula for 15 years. He now lives in San José with his wife, a San José native. He tries to stay plugged in with the local arts, education and maker communities. Nick has been an actor and director, a cabinet maker and now a worker in a tech field. He is also an education, public health, social justice and environmental advocate. Nick nurtured an early passion for environmental issues on expeditions with the Institutes for Journalism & Natural Resources. Those many journeys helped him develop an appreciation for a wide variety of topics from fire ecology to the plights of threatened salmon fisheries; from the impacts of mining on communities to the great debates about the how we access and enjoy public lands. In his time with CALA Nick hopes to develop the skills needed to organize and promote community action on initiatives affecting our local environment. As our infuriating and discouraging national politics create obstacles to smart policy around global climate change and general environmental stewardship, he aims to contribute to grassroots movements that can be meaningful to the communities that are and will be disproportionately affected by pollution, rising sea levels, and the like.

San Carlos

J.R. Bae

J.R. lives with her family in San Carlos and works as an attorney, educator, and nonprofit administrator. She has been engaged in volunteer community service continuously for over 40 years. By gardening with senior citizens, representing women seeking asylum from the Democratic Republic of Congo, tutoring and mentoring struggling and underserved students, and serving as a community mediator and facilitator, she has lived her commitment to advancing the common good through personal service.

She enrolled in the CALA class in order to strengthen her advocacy and civic engagement skills so that she could be more effective in her work to assure that the most vulnerable people in our community have equal access to social services and civil justice.

San Jose

Kat Baumgartner

Kat is a native Californian and has lived most of her life in the South Bay. While she has always felt a connection to her community and has been concerned for the welfare of her fellow citizens, she’s only become more involved in the past few years. Kat had worked as a fire fighter for over 14 years, but unfortunately the physical toll the job took on her body led to multiple injuries which eventually brought that career to an end. Kat works as a personal trainer and nutrition consultant now and spends her free time looking for other ways to benefit her community.

Kat has been active politically as a volunteer for the Bernie Sanders campaign and has also been involved in environmental activism. She worked with The Climate Mobilization as a field mobilizer for Northern California and was trained by Al Gore as a Climate Reality leader in 2015. Kat is looking forward to learning more about how she can advocate for her community and looks forward to collaborating with everyone.

Oakland

Ofelia Bello

A Bay Area Native, Ofelia has lived in East Oakland for about 3 years but was born and raised in the Gardens neighborhood of East Palo Alto. Ofelia holds a bachelor’s degree from UC Santa Barbara in Sociology, U.S. History and Sociocultural Linguistics and a master’s degree from the University of San Francisco in Urban Affairs.

Ofelia has worked with various organizations and coalitions around housing issues, with a specific focus on the needs of low-income, working-class, immigrant and communities of color. Ofelia is currently a planner on the Housing and Neighborhoods team at ABAG-MTC and is eager to continue working closely with her community in East Palo Alto. Ofelia is eternally indebted to the community that raised her and her long-term goal is to not only help stabilize vulnerable neighborhoods, but also make them vibrant, healthy, safe, culturally relevant spaces where legacy residents have the opportunity to build assets.

Menlo Park

Lauren Bigelow

A native Texan, Lauren came to the Bay Area in 2010 with a family that’s passionate about engaging with and protecting the natural world. She has been an active member of the Silicon Valley progressive community for the past 8 years. After receiving a BS in Psychology and Social Action, Lauren began working with regional nonprofits on a variety of social justice issues. She brings more than a decade of marketing and community experience to her work at Palo Alto Housing, a local affordable housing nonprofit where she manages the City of Palo Alto Below-Market-Rate (BMR) rental and ownership programs, Mountain View Employee Homebuyer Loan Program and most recently, the City of Mountain View’s BMR rental and purchase programs.  A recent graduate of CGF’s Community Advocates Leadership Academy, Lauren is delighted to be part of the advisory board and lend any help she can in the endeavor to use land well.

East Palo Alto

Andrew Boone

Andrew Boone has lived in the Bay Area for ten years, and over that time has persistently pushed policy makers to invest in better infrastructure for people walking and bicycling. Andrew holds a Master’s degree in Sustainable Energy Engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden. Andrew presses for improvements to public streets that prioritize walking and bicycling as modes of transportation, via the public input processes various bicycle and pedestrian transportation plans, land use specific plans and El Camino Real “corridor plans”, and office space developments. Andrew has worked as a journalist since 2013, first for Streetsblog San Francisco before founding his own People Powered Press in 2015.

East Palo Alto

Kyra Brown

Read Kyra’s impact story at greenfoothills.org/kyra-brown.

Half Moon Bay

Matthew Burrows

Matt, a native of Los Altos, is an old Greenfeet hand, having served on our Board from 2006 to 2014, including multiple years as President. His knowledge of our organization and long-time commitment for our mission are welcome additions. When not spouting unfounded opinions at our board meetings and events, Matt works in the automotive industry and also administrates the Frank Burrows Memorial Scholarship in east San Jose. He lives in San Carlos and enjoys hiking and traveling while he’s not working or volunteering with us.

San Jose

Donna Cortez

San Jose

Cynthia Denny

San Jose

Serena Desai

Serena Desai graduated from California Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo. She received her B.S. in Biological Science and has an STS minor in Science & Risk Communication. After graduation she worked with California Collaborative Fisheries Research Program, a statewide organization that assesses Marine Protected Areas along the Central Coast. Her data analysis project looked at how temperature and larger oceanic processes affect the catch rates of blue rockfish. It was through her love for the ocean and passion to help the environment that she came to CivicSpark, an Americorps program focused on addressing California’s climate change and water management issues at a local level. In her second year as a CivicSpark fellow, Serena is looking forward to addressing water conservation working with the Santa Clara Valley Water District in her home city of San Jose. She truly hopes to help implement changes that help reduce carbon footprint on a local level because she believes every action has a ripple effect.

San Jose

Mariska Gaska

San Jose

Miguel Gonzalez

Miguel Gonzalez is a Colombian-American educator. Raised in San Jose, he started working in East Palo Alto schools in 2006 as a substitute instructor, and has since then developed his own urban arts and life-skills program. Having received his BA degree in social sciences from San Jose State University, he applies his knowledge of the various social sciences to his approach in using arts, culture, and creative expressions as vehicles for youth empowerment and transformation. He currently works with schools in San Jose, East Palo Alto, and Oakland, where he actively seeks to collaborate with other educational and youth empowerment organizations. His knowledge of cultural and intellectual arts is important in his role as a social emotional learning coach with Oxford Day Academy.

Atherton

Bill Grove

Bill is a retired physician who is concerned with the degradation of our environment and global warming. He believes we need fair solutions to local, national and global health policy issues as well as social and economic injustice. Bill is currently involved in his community disaster preparedness group as a CERT member, neighborhood organizer and Ham radio operator. The news paints a bleak polarized world which is mired in intransigence. In contrast, Bill sees the world not in black and white, in right and wrong, in us versus them, but in shades of gray. He hopes to learn how to be more effective in resolving competing interests and working with compromise when necessary to achieve win-win outcomes that move forward.

San Martin

Trina Hineser

Trina holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Ornamental Horticulture from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. She and her husband have been residents of San Martin for two decades and her step-daughter is in college studying Animal Science. Since 2015, Trina has been the President of the San Martin Neighborhood Alliance, which aims to protect San Martin’s rural integrity. Her objective has been to bridge the gap between the County and the Community and to find common ground to resolve community issues. She sits on the San Martin Planning Advisory Committee, which gives land use recommendations to the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors & Planning Commission. Over the past few years Trina has written a column in her local paper, Gilroy/Morgan Hill Life, on issues as they relate to San Martin. Most recently, she has been working with others in the community to create a San Martin Chamber of Commerce. As of June 2017 Trina agreed to be their Community Liaison Director until their formal election next year. Her goal is to continue to raise awareness of our rural community, one person at a time.

Redwood City

Rick Hunter

Rick has been passionately involved in Redwood City affairs for several years and looks forward to continuing this work. His first volunteer endeavor was as the treasurer of the Parent Club at his kids’ school, which later turned into serving as president of the school’s Site Council. Rick created the first middle school cross-country team, which became a citywide after-school sports program. After this, as a board member of the Redwood City Education Foundation, he started and directed the city’s first half marathon and 5K to raise money for the local schools. Rick joined with his wife to volunteer and help lead several parcel tax and bond campaigns, including the first successful parcel tax in the school district’s history.

Later, when an opening came up on the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission, he applied and was appointed by the city council. A couple of years later, he was appointed to the Planning Commission–he is an advocate for balanced growth and protecting our quality of life. A native of New Jersey, Rick graduated from Princeton with a degree in Public and International Affairs, and later earned an MBA from UCLA. His professional career was as a CPA, although he is semi-retired. He is married to his wife, Naomi, and has three grown sons.

San Jose

Flora Kaplan

Flora has always been passionate about social justice and environmental issues. After earning a degree in Sociology from UC Santa Cruz, she returned to the Bay Area to work in various fields, including social service, tech, and higher education. Several years ago, she decided to pursue her dream of a career driving sustainability and completed a Master’s degree in Sustainable Management. Through this program she gained expertise in cultural transformation, renewable energy, climate change, food systems, and waste management. At that time she also served as the Environment and Natural Resource Fellow at a national nonprofit conference where she harmonized corporate and nonprofit partners to craft panel discussions on global water security, reforestation, ecological economics, life-cycle analysis, and sustainable design. After contributing research to the Sustainable San Mateo Indicators Report for 7 years, she became the Program Manager in 2015.

Campbell

Riley Knight

Riley’s family has lived in Campbell for 5 generations and he has always been close to nature living across the street from the Los Gatos Creek. As a certified arborist and landscape designer, Riley’s passion lies in helping the community green their living spaces and learn how to become more efficient and effective stewards of their environment. He works for an urban forestry nonprofit based in the South Bay and has many opportunities to harness civic engagement through projects and events that the group hosts. He also has opportunities to engage elected officials whom the group seeks to support their organization and its efforts. Riley is looking to gain the ability to be more effective in his leadership and communication skills to further the work he is already involved in doing in his community from CALA.

San Jose

Karen Lattin

Karen became involved in civic activism through a Participatory Budget process that was taking place in her neighborhood. She was concerned about the negative turn the process was taking and decided to get involved. Doing so awakened a long-forgotten interest in civic and social issues that she had developed in college while studying international relations and political science. Last year, Karen joined her neighborhood association to help her neighborhood flourish. She saw the NA as a natural advocacy platform for the community, and she became Vice President this past January. Since then, she has been interested in doing more for her community and the larger region. As her awareness has evolved, she has expanded her interests from a very local focus to issues that involve more than just her neighborhood. Karen believes personal interests must be balanced with regional and global interests for the best solutions. Through the neighborhood association, she has gotten involved in many different issues that affect her community. She is currently on the Community Working Group for High Speed Rail, advocating for specific alignments that will better preserve her neighborhood in San Jose. Recently homelessness has come into the forefront in the Bay Area and she would like to become more involved in looking for positive solutions that involve the community and are compassionate, integrated and effective. Karen is really looking forward to learning more about how to be an effective advocate, especially in terms of influencing government and positive change.

Daly City

Rebecca McDowell

Rebecca, born and raised in San Francisco, moved to Daly City about 5 years ago. After earning her bachelor’s degree in nutritional science, Rebecca continued her educational career at the University of San Francisco where she earned a Master of Public Affairs. Passionate about food justice and environmental justice, Rebecca aspires to work at the intersection of these important causes. She believes that in order to protect and restore our environment, the food system, from soil to consumer, must be reformed from its current state to one that is ecologically sound and sustainable. In addition to protecting the environment, Rebecca’s lifelong mission is to help end global hunger. ​

San Jose

Nicole McLane

Nicole has always been interested in helping others. She started with helping dogs find good homes and has moved to helping her neighborhood out to wanting to help those that don’t have a voice because of their age. She is currently interested in helping children that come from abusive homes. Their age limits them in what they can do for themselves and our system does not seem to understand that they need an advocate that can speak for them and that an attorney is not always the best fit. Nicole wants to speak for them through our government officials and the court system.

Menlo Park

Chiseche Mibenge

Chiseche Salome Mibenge holds a PhD in International Human Rights Law and is the author of Sex and International Tribunals: The Erasure of Gender from the War Narrative’ (Penn Press 2013). As part of her doctoral research, Chiseche conducted fieldwork in Rwanda and Sierra Leone. In her current position, Director of Community Engaged Learning for Human Rights at Stanford University, she promotes and facilitates experiential and rights based approaches to learning through: curriculum development with instructors; and relationship building between the University and community organizations. Some of her Bay Area partners include Africa Advocacy Network, Menlo Park Police Department, and Samaritan House. Prior to her work at Stanford, Chiseche was an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the City University of New York. She taught human rights courses to graduate and undergraduate students and led a study abroad tour to Chile allowing students to experience community based research and advocacy with indigenous communities. Her community service in NYC included volunteering as an advocate for survivors in emergency departments under the North Central Bronx Hospital Sexual Assault Treatment Program. Chiseche is also a creative writer and is a Columbia Journal Winter Contest for her short story ‘The Protected Party’ (Spring 2017).

Santa Cruz

Jane Mio

Nature has always been Jane’s passion, oasis, teacher, and delight. Her protective environmental outlook and approach was influenced by her German up-bring, and this has drawn her to becoming involved in diverse local environmental issues. Jane is currently the Santa Cruz Bird Club Conservation Officer, a member of the Sierra Club Executive and Conservation Committee, and a member of the Valley Women’s Club Board. In the past, she participated in the San Lorenzo River Task Force, San Lorenzo Paddle Pilot Program Advisory Group, and Riverwalk Summit.

During Jane’s involvements in environmental initiatives she has realized that the environment and its needs are low on the priority list of government decision-makers. She has also learned that positive environmental change can be achieved by determined, well-thought-out, hard work. Jane is excited to participate in CALA because she is eager to learn how to place the environmental voice successfully at the local government decision-making table.

San Jose

Mackenzie Mossing

Mackenzie’s life has been shaped by a love for all animals domestic and wild. She grew up in San Jose and attended Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, where she initially started on the pre-veterinary track. But those plans changed when Mackenzie started working for a wildlife rescue and education facility during her junior year of college. Through that job, she came to learn about local and global threats to wildlife, and decided to change her career path to focus on wildlife conservation. Mackenzie spent a summer interning for the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia and then went on to intern for Save the Elephants in Kenya after completing her degree. Now, she works for the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society as an Environmental Advocacy Associate, where she is focused on establishing a future for wildlife and nature in Santa Clara County.

Redwood City

Mitchell Oster

Mitchell is a native of San Diego but has lived in the Bay Area for 23 years. A former high school math teacher, he now works at Save The Bay as a Regional Political Organizer. Over the last 8 years he has worked on political campaigns as a staffer and consultant ranging from city council and school board to U.S. Congress. He also worked as the San Mateo County Regional Organizer on the successful Measure AA campaign in 2016. He hopes to expand on that experience and deepen ties to the region-wide political landscape and increase his understanding and knowledge of the unique issues related to the work of protecting and restoring our natural resources–particularly the Bay and shoreline. He lives in Redwood City with his wife, niece, and two dogs.

San Jose

Smita Patel

Smita was born in India and grew up in San José. In 2002, she and her cousins in the foothills of the Himalayas launched the Mountain Children’s Foundation, which works to empower young people in mountain regions to transform their communities from the ground up. She also volunteers as a mentor for foster youth and is involved with a number of other nonprofit organizations working on a variety of issues. At the local level, she is passionate about protecting our wilderness and its inhabitants — especially the South Bay’s unique and beautiful Coyote Valley — and finding real solutions to the crises of homelessness and mental illness in our county.

She is dismayed by the lack of civility and informed discussion in the current political and social discourse and is looking to CALA to learn how to facilitate more productive conversations, mobilize support and action, and become a more effective leader and organizer.

Hollister

Peter Ruddock

Peter Ruddock is a sustainable food advocate and small business consultant. He is working toward creating a more sustainable world, by changing the way we interact with our environment and with each other. He concentrates on food systems change, because given that everyone eats everyone should be able to relate to a healthier, more sustainable food system. He believes that there are four areas where he can best work on fostering this change: educating people about sustainability, creating a resilient local economy, creating vibrant local communities, and changing policies to foster these other changes. He is active in a number of grassroots non-profits to help accomplish these goals: Slow Food, Slow Money, Transition Palo Alto, and the San Mateo County Food System Alliance. He is the Coordinator of the California Food Policy Council. And he is also a co-founder of EcoFarm’s new Diversity Advisory Group, which is working to make the EcoFarm Conference a more diverse and inclusive place.

San Jose

Emily Schwing

A native of the Jersey Shore, Emily Schwing came to the Bay Area by way of the University of South Alabama where she earned a B.S. in Meteorology (2011). Emily earned her M.A. in Communication Studies at San José State University (2014) with a focus on Environmental Communication. In her current role as Development Communications Manager at Veggielution Community Farm, Emily coordinates Veggielution’s overall communication strategy across a variety of media platforms. She is responsible for implementing the farm’s education and community engagement programs including Veggielution Cocina, a community cooking class series. A longtime surfer, Emily is now an avid backpacker. When she’s not on the farm, she can be found in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

San Jose

Nicole Shaddox

Nicole Shaddox lives in San Jose, CA with her husband, Francisco, and daughter, Samantha. Nicole was a teen mom and after graduating high school, she went to school to become a Certified Medical Assistant. As a medical assistant, she worked in low cost and free clinics in the bay area. She currently works for the nonprofit Helping Parents Helping Parents. Working as an Education Specialist, helping families of children with disabilities. She is also a volunteer CASA (Court Appoint Special Advocate) for foster youth.

She is one of the founding members and current Executive Board Officers of the CUHSD Education Foundation. She has been a dedicated volunteer for the past decade. She was an active volunteer at her daughter’s elementary and middle schools. When her daughter entered high school at Westmont she decided to become very involved in supporting the Westmont community and CUHSD. In the last four years, she has been part of the Westmont PTSA board, the last two years as president and grad night chair. She was on Westmont’s School Site Council. She is also part of the LCAP and Financial Advisory committees at CUHSD. In 2016, she co-chaired the CUHSD Measure AA campaign.

Her dedication to advocating and volunteering on behalf of today’s youth does not stop there, she is also part of organizations that support and advocates for foster and LBGTQ youth. Also, she is part of organizations that support youth in need of mental health, special education, and teen parents. Nicole’s has a passion for advocating for human, social and civil rights.

Redwood City

Elizabeth Softky

Santa Cruz

Erica Stanojevic

Erica is a Milpitas native who spent a long time living in San Jose and now lives in Santa Cruz. She has always been interested in environmental protection and regeneration. Erica serves as secretary for her local Sierra Club group,which addresses issues ranging from transportation to forestry. She had the honor of representing the Sierra Club for her city’s Water Supply Advisory Committee, which created a water plan for Santa Cruz. Erica has a five year old boy who likes to cook and loves being outdoors and rides on the back of her cargo bike for trips around town. Currently she is interested in the possibility of public banking to create a systems change by empowering communities to use their funds locally while divesting from oil pipelines.

San Bruno

Cindy Urquidez

Cindy has always been passionate about social justice issues and helping others. Her activism and community involvement began in high school where she focused on youth mentorship, advocacy, and volunteerism. This passion continued during her undergraduate studies on race and ethnicity at Stanford University and graduate school studies at Hunter College School of Social Work in New York.

Cindy has worked as a facilitator for public speaking, community organizer for academic equity, and mental health worker. Currently as a health educator, she is committed to improving the physical and emotional health of young people, due to the growth in both childhood obesity and mental health issues. As a native of San Mateo, Cindy is concerned about the population growth and gentrification of the Bay Area, and its impact on open space. She is interested in addressing the growing fear among immigrant communities due to the current xenophobic climate.

Cindy looks forward to the opportunity within CALA to network, think, and innovate among community advocates. Cindy desires to catapult herself into a more active role in community advocacy…she feels like she has been dormant for too long and is ready to organize! She currently lives in San Bruno with her husband and 2 year old daughter.

San Mateo

Megan Waters

Megan grew up in Maryland, just outside D.C., but has called the Peninsula home for the past two years. After a brief stint as a college swim coach, having swum competitively in college herself, Megan was inspired by her student-athletes to pursue a career in the field of sustainability. She began her career volunteering with Rock Creek Conservancy to remove invasive species from the nation’s second oldest park, until landing an internship in D.C. with the National Association of Regional Councils (NARC) . At NARC, Megan supported the transportation team in developing a Solar in Transportation toolkit, which outlined actions and funding sources available to local governments.

Shortly thereafter, in November of 2015, Megan accepted an AmeriCorps position here in the Bay Area. The AmericCorps position was through a Governor’s Initiative program called CivicSpark, designed to increase the capacity of local governments in California to prepare for and adapt to the effects of climate change. Partnering with the County of San Mateo and City of Foster City, Megan focused her AmeriCorps year on water conservation, after which she was hired full-time by the County to assist with the Schools program to promote the 4R’s of waste reduction (reduce, reuse, recycle, rot-compost). Now, Megan serves the County as the Commute Alternatives Coordinator in the Office of Sustainability, encouraging and supporting County employees in taking transit, carpooling, and walking or biking to work.

In her spare time, Megan still dabbles in coaching with the San Mateo Master’s team, and enjoys rock climbing, biking to work, knitting, and cooking. She is excited to be able to share her experiences with and learn from her CALA group, in preparation for a waste reduction campaign she is planning for a multi-family housing development in San Mateo.

Redwood City

Vilami Young

Not pictured here, but also graduates of the Class of 2017-18: Alipate Faaulaao – East Palo Alto, Jay MacIntosh – San Carlos, Vaea Sanft – East Palo Alto, Jena Weinberger – Santa Cruz.

Class of 2016-2017

Bryan headshot
Redwood City

Bryan Beck

Sunnyvale

Kelli Brownell

Hillsborough

Martha Dannis

Santa Clara

Lauren Edwards

Half Moon Bay

Valdeir Faria-Filho

San Mateo

Nicole Fernandez

Sunnyvale

Rani Fischer

San Jose

Smita Garg

Uriel headshot
East Palo Alto

Uriel Hernandez

Santa Clara

Jan Hintermeister

Redwood City

Jessica Huckabay

San Carlos

Deb Kramer

Los Gatos

Terian Lee

South San Francisco

Margaret Li

El Granada

Eliza Manchester

San Mateo

Jude Martin

Moss Beach

Barbra Mathewson

San Jose

Sylvia Miller

Redwood City

Shab Nemati

Sunnyvale

Albert Nguyen

Santa Clara

Sajeemas Pasakdee

San Jose

Ravi Pathak

San Jose

Nancy Paul

Class of 2017

Christopher Sturken

Sunnyvale

Sridhar Subramaniam

San Jose

Christina Thalls

San Jose

Yvette Valenzuela

San Jose

Doreen Villemaire

Santa Clara

Benazir Vohra

Los Altos

Cheryl Weiden

Moss Beach

Cid Young

San Francisco

Sophia Young

Redwood City

Bryan Beck

Bryan has a degree in architecture from UC Berkeley. For the majority of his career, Bryan has worked in the research divisions of pharmaceutical and biotech companies. He is currently working as a statistical programmer, preparing clinical trial data for submission to the FDA.

Bryan’s hobbies include bicycling and nature photography. He graduated with the Leadership Program’s 2017 cohort.

Sunnyvale

Kelli Brownell

My interest in civic engagement began in college with a class on the politics and ethics of public service. Since then, I worked as a fundraiser for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties organization, and the Ada Initiative, an organization that supported women in open technology and culture. I’ve also worked as a web developer for nonprofits across many areas. I have found that the the CALA curriculum and speakers, their wisdom, their diverse experiences, and their resilience, have really helped me think about how to take practical and effective action for positive change.

Hillsborough

Martha Dannis

Santa Clara

Lauren Edwards

Half Moon Bay

Valdeir Faria-Filho

I was born in Brazil, grew up in California, and lived a fairly nomadic life until recently. In each place I’ve lived, I’ve tried to engage with the needs of the local community, whether by volunteering at local orphanages, working at a poll booth, or assisting with community-led projects. Human development is the cause I feel most invested in and it brings me so much happiness to see people succeed and reinvest in their own communities. I’d like to use my own success to help my community, and the Green Foothills Leadership Program is the perfect fit for that goal. I knew that I would learn about things that have sparked my curiosity for a long time like community leadership, communication, and organizational structure. It’s been a great program and I have enjoyed every class.

San Mateo

Nicole Fernandez

Sunnyvale

Rani Fischer

I am an environmentalist from Sunnyvale. I signed up for CALA in order to learn how to influence legislation through community engagement. As a member of Peninsula Interfaith Climate Action, my advocacy is centered on climate issues and tree protection. I also work as a church organist.

San Jose

Smita Garg

Smita Garg, Ed. D. is a San Jose based artist and arts educator. She is an active member of her community, serving the city of San Jose as Arts commissioner. Smita co-founded the Campbell Union High School district Ed foundation and served as the inaugural chairperson for the same. In her private time, Smita volunteers for several organizations and is an accomplished Holistic healer/therapist who studied under world renowned Dr. Brian Weiss and Dr. Linda Backman. Most recently, Smita helped form a coalition of artist activists called Creatives for Compassionate Communities. She is a firm believer in the adage that to see change, we must be the change. Smita is a 2016 graduate of the Green Foothills Leadership Program.

East Palo Alto

Uriel Hernandez

Uriel Hernandez grew up exploring the bay area from his home in East Palo Alto. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College where he studied Architecture and History. Living in rural Vermont while studying how spaces and stories fit together, he developed a love for easily accessible green spaces for recreation and contemplation. He brought this love back to East Palo Alto through his work at Canopy where he organized community tree plantings and advocated for more green space from 2015-2018. Uriel has a special fondness for trees and is an ISA-certified arborist.In 2017 Uriel joined the City of East Palo Alto Planning Commission. In 2018 he was made Vice Chair.His hobbies still include exploring the bay area in search of unique places, special parks, and public space treasures. His favorite places include the baylands around East Palo Alto. He dreams of the day when he can bike along the bay through a green corridor from East Palo Alto to San Francisco.

Santa Clara

Jan Hintermeister

Redwood City

Jessica Huckabay

As a professional health educator, I see the impact of chronic health conditions and health disparities on a daily basis. My work is all about improving the health outcomes of older adults. As an advocate for this population, I have dedicated my professional career to creating and implementing programs that address their highly sensitive needs. I credit much of my professional success to the relationships I have built in the community while engaging policy makers and advocating for community -based organizations.

San Carlos

Deb Kramer

I run an organization called Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful: my vision is a community that works together for a vibrant, healthy creek. Coyote Creek has suffered from poor “public relations,” most recently with the 2017 Coyote Creek flood. However, through increased community awareness efforts, many people now have a more positive view of the creek and are motivated to restore and preserve it. The CALA program has helped me in my work with a core group of community advocates on the creation of Coyote Meadows, an urban open space park. CALA has shown me how to use communication and leadership skills to improve collaboration among diverse groups working on a common cause.

Los Gatos

Terian Lee

I’m really interested in civic processes, I follow water issues in the news, and last year I became a Community Emergency Response Team member. I’ve volunteered for diverse causes such as literacy and voter registration, and recently through online groups, I’ve become increasingly involved in local issues. CALA’s broad overview of networking and organizing has helped me become more effective when assessing the needs of others and their involvement in a given cause. CALA has introduced me to a new approach that has improved the way I advocate for local causes.

South San Francisco

Margaret Li

I was born in Hong Kong and moved to Hawaii when I was ten. I feel that I gained a good perspective on life from living in paradise and then moving out of it. I learned to appreciate the beauty of nature and its vulnerability to development. I became really interested in urban planning and joined the Sierra Club. As an environmental engineer, I understand the importance of the balancing sustainability and development. I’m a dedicated advocate for clean energy initiatives and for shifting attitudes about clean energy. CALA is a vital community of passionate advocates who want to make a difference and make me proud to be involved.

El Granada

Eliza Manchester

My family has been in the Bay Area for generations and I am a proud resident of the coastal community of San Mateo. I have worked with many public officials over the years and have served as an advocate for environmental issues like reducing the use of plastic bags. I am passionate about identifying ways to maintain the beauty of our Coastside while promoting sustainable, eco-friendly growth for recreation and affordable housing.

The CALA program is a great opportunity to learn more about pertinent challenges facing the Bay Area. The best part of CALA was networking with other community leaders attending the class. I know I will see many of my classmates advocating for important causes in the future and I look forward to working with all of them! I currently work for the Economic and Community Development Department at the City of South San Francisco and can be reached at [email protected].

San Mateo

Jude Martin

I grew up in the small town of Kenosha, Wisconsin, and I like to say that like Don Ameche and Orson Welles, I moved out of Kenosha to see the world. My work for greater inclusivity is influenced by the anti-war activists, feminists, and racial equality advocates I met at University of Illinois in the 70’s, from working to teach nutrition and health, to helping secure dignity and respect for our elders, to empowering youth to make a difference.

Moss Beach

Barbra Mathewson

I’ve lived in my community in the unincorporated Coastside for over 40 years, and my community has seen many proposals for poorly-planned development following a change in our water laws. I’ve become a passionate advocate for Coastside open lands, and am committed to fighting unrealistic development. I worked for PG&E for 45 years and after my retirement I felt it was time to give back but I was uncertain how best to do it. CALA and Committee for Green Foothills gave me the perfect platform to learn how to make a difference.

San Jose

Sylvia Miller

Redwood City

Shab Nemati

I’m heavily involved in Redwood City’s public North Star Academy and serve as a Park, Recreation, and Community Service Commissioner, all while working full-time as a realtor. I care deeply about education and supplementing our school with enrichment to address the dearth in funding in our community. I have overseen the creation of 8 after-school programs at North Star Academy and also rolled out a Persian Immersion preschool class at the Park and Rec Center in Redwood City. CALA is a wonderful supportive community that has taught me to look beyond my perceived boundaries and overcome obstacles to reach my goals, however unattainable or difficult they seem.

Sunnyvale

Albert Nguyen

I am a resident of Sunnyvale, California, and have lived in Santa Clara County for the past 6 years. I am passionate about my work in the field of mental health and social work. I advocate for victims of child abuse, suicide, bullying, youth violence, and individuals afflicted by trauma. I attribute much of my drive to make a difference to my many years of martial arts training and practice. I am passionate about making an impact on the on other’s quality of life, especially for those who are marginalized, disenfranchised or oppressed. CALA provides a blueprint for the development of great leadership.

Santa Clara

Sajeemas Pasakdee

San Jose

Ravi Pathak

I’m a devoted father and husband, and although I work for a large tech company my true passion is public service. I’ve assisted nonprofits like the Art Of Living, Care for Children, Rotary Club, the Evergreen Cultural Association, and the American Heart Association. I also enjoy learning to fly small airplanes, acting on stage and television, and participating in various adventure sports such as paragliding. I’ve even won a national award for sketching!

San Jose

Nancy Paul

I have been a public school teacher in San Jose for almost 20 years. While I am devoted to all children, my particular passion is closing the achievement/opportunity gap for African-American and Latino children. CALA has given me the skills I need to pursue projects over time that will help me contribute to closing that gap.

Class of 2017

Christopher Sturken

I’m a Belmont native. I was a SF State Environmental Studies student and part-time grocery clerk; now I’m a CivicSpark Fellow for the City of Hayward Environmental Services Department and a tenant/immigrant rights advocate. At Hayward, I do greenhouse gas emissions reporting and promote community engagement through environmental programs. Back home, I organize with One San Mateo to advance tenants rights; and, I present before local government councils to enhance immigrant protections. CALA has taught me how to empower my community to influence local government policy.

Sunnyvale

Sridhar Subramaniam

I am a Silicon Valley tech industry veteran looking to use technology to help address climate change. I’m especially interested in energy usage and the potential of time-shift technology to mitigate it. CALA has helped me identify a place where my goals for my business and my environmental values intersect. The leadership and advocacy skills covered in the program have helped me during recent conversations with energy utilities and companies.

San Jose

Christina Thalls

San Jose

Yvette Valenzuela

I was born in El Paso Texas but relocated to San Jose at age 4 and never left. I believe I was born an advocate, and now I am now 40 years old and can say that every year I am a part of something that not only makes me grow as a person but gives me helpful things to pass on to others as well. My latest project is bringing a Greenmarket-style farmer’s market to California. New York’s Greenmarket has been going on for over 40 years now, and I believe if it can happen in a state with winter it can definitely happen in the Valley of Heart’s Delight! I think that the Green Foothills Leadership Program is providing a specialized training not currently found elsewhere, even in high-ranking universities. Every class not only leaves each student ready to apply a lesson to our own advocacy efforts, but also provides us with the contact information of agencies and people in the community who can provide further resources and advice. I love being in such an eclectic group of people, and I strive to help us have a good time while we’re working for things we believe in.

San Jose

Doreen Villemaire

Santa Clara

Benazir Vohra

Los Altos

Cheryl Weiden

I became an environmentalist late in life after working for years in finance and high tech. One day I picked up a book about how catastrophic the earth’s future could be unless there is a drastic change of course. I knew I had a responsibility to act for the future of my children, or at least to do what I could. The Leadership Program is helping me develop the leadership skills I’ll need to be an effective activist.

Moss Beach

Cid Young

San Francisco

Sophia Young

Earlier Classes

Class of 2015-2016: Adam Loraine, Annette Mowinckle, Ashley Donovan, Bob Sawyer, Christine Bleyenburg, Daina Lujan, David Tran, Ekpa Akpan, Haddie Lyons, Jill Halloran, Jo-Ann Sockolov, John Liu, Justin Triano, Katherine Aitken-Young, Linda Nguyen, Maria Candida Langbauer, Maureen Reyes Damrel, Michael Atkins, Michelle Domocol, Morgan Aitken-Young, Ojan Mobedshahi, Paul Elliott, Smita Garg, Stephanie Kriebel, Sylvia Ornelas Wise, Tina Castaneda, Vasanta Kottapalli, Violet Saena, Virginia Thomas

Class of 2014-2015: Ana Janof, Ashley Donovan, Byakhya Lamichhaney, Carlos Lazarte, Carolyn Straub, Caruthia Archie, Catherine Brooker, Christina Medina, Dan Ponti, Elizabeth Flores-Lathan, Eric Acedo, Garima Wilson, Janet Creech, Jasmine Ibarra, Joyce (Freidel) Cohen, Julie Baird, Julie Reynolds-Grabbe, Kirk Gharda, Kyli Lyn Arford, Lois Wilco-Owens, Louise Bekins, Lucrecia Rivera, Margaret MacNiven, Monica Nanez, Nancy Reyering, Patti Sexton,  Paul Higgins, Sarah Young, Sharif Rosales-Webb, Shila Bagley, Stephanie Kriebel

Class of 2013-2014: Adam Turrey, Adrienne Etherton, Andrea Savage, Benoit Delaveau, Bita Shahrvini, Brian Haberly, Elaine Uang, Elidia Tafoya (Contreras), Gabriela d’Souza, Isabel Perez, Joanna Huitt, John Ebneter, Jose Leo Caparas, Judy Lindow, Katja Irvin, Kristal Caidoy, Kristina Contreras, Laura Nachison, Linda Ruthruff, Lorna Fear, Lynn Krug, Priscilla Padilla-Romero, Regina Valentine, Sandra Slater, Shannon McEntee, Shannon McDonald, Stella Torrez, Tamara Fagin, Veronica Stork, Wendee Crofoot

Note: Biographies on this page were written the year each participant graduated from the Leadership Program, so some information may now be out of date.

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