Dr. Ilkay Altıntaş, a research scientist at the University of California San Diego, is the Chief Data Science Officer of the San Diego Supercomputer Center as well as a Founding Fellow of the Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute. She is the Founding Director of the Workflows for Data Science (WorDS) Center of Excellence and the WIFIRE Lab. The WoRDS Center specializes in the development of methods, cyberinfrastructure, and workflows for computational data science and its translation to practical applications. With a specialty in scientific workflows, she leads collaborative teams to deliver impactful results by making computational data science work more reusable, programmable, scalable, and reproducible. Her work has been applied to scientific and societal domains such as bioinformatics, geoinformatics, high-energy physics, multi-scale biomedical science, smart cities, and smart manufacturing. Dr. Altıntaş received a Ph.D. degree from the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. For a list of the more than 25 journal papers and 100 refereed scientific articles that Dr. Altıntaş has published, visit her Google Scholar page. Ilkay and her team's work has been featured in TIME magazine, the National Public Radio (NPR), The New York Times, and Voice of America.

Tony Andersen currently serves as the Deputy Secretary for Communications at the California Natural Resources Agency.

Relatively new to California from Portland, Oregon, Tony has built a career addressing some of the Western U.S.'s most pressing natural resource issues through communications and progressive policy. He started his career working on natural areas and outdoor equity policy in the Metro Council Office at Portland's Regional Government. He's held high-profile roles in public opinion research and environmental public health, led public affairs for the Oregon Department of Forestry, oversaw communications for the Portland Water Bureau as they recovered from water quality challenges, and most recently helped lead Oregon's Task Force charged with recovering from the 2020 wildfires, now regarded as the worst natural disaster in the state's history. He's lived and worked in Medellin, Colombia, and was appointed by Governor Newsom in 2022 to manage strategic communications on issues related to forestry, natural resources, and climate at CAL FIRE.

Tony holds a bachelor's degree in public policy and creative writing from the University of Oregon and a master's degree in strategic communication and writing from Portland State University.

Carmel Barnhart currently works for CAL FIRE / Office of State Marshal, Community Wildfire Preparedness and Mitigation Division. With over 28 years with the department, the last 8 years have been specific work in planning. She is the Program Administrator for the department’s Land Use Planning Program which she oversees staff assisting local agencies with updates to their Safety Element in the General Plan regarding wildfire mitigation recommendations through Goals, Measures, and Policies. Carmel also serves as the NFPA Firewise USA state liaison (CA) and oversees staff offering Firewise Application assistance, review, and application approval for new/existing recognized communities. Additionally, she participates in various instruction cadres, workgroups, and special projects throughout CA.

Greg Barton was appointed as Fire Chief for the City of Beverly Hills Fire Department on June 23, 2017. Chief Barton is a 25-year veteran of the Beverly Hills Fire Department. Chief Barton has earned a Bachelor of Arts degree, a Master's degree in Public Administration, and is a 2012 graduate from the United States Fire Administration's National Fire Academy Executive Fire Officer program. He has completed many prestigious education programs, such as the Naval Post Graduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security-Executive Leaders Program, the Los Angeles Fire Department Leadership Academy, and the International Association of Fire Chiefs – Fire Service Executive Development Institute. Over the years, Chief Barton has earned numerous awards, including Firefighter of the Year recognitions from the Kiwanis Club, the Beverly Hills Fire Department Felix Rothschild award, and the Beverly Hills Masonic Lodge. His many certifications cover every aspect of Firefighting, Urban Search and Rescue, Fire Prevention, and Emergency Management.

Daniel Berlant was appointed State Fire Marshal by Governor Gavin Newsom on October 6, 2023. 

Chief Berlant began his career with CAL FIRE in 2001 as a volunteer and was hired in 2002 in the Fire Prevention Bureau of the Nevada-Yuba-Placer Unit. In 2005, he began working in the CAL FIRE Communications Office as a Fire Prevention Specialist in Sacramento.

After several fire sieges and extensive work in the public information function, he was promoted in 2008 to Department Information Officer and was tasked with serving as CAL FIRE's main spokesperson. In 2014, he was promoted to the Chief of Public Information overseeing the Sacramento and Region staff of the Communications Office. In 2016, Chief Berlant was promoted to Assistant Deputy Director at the Office of the State Fire Marshal over the Wildfire Planning & Engineering, and Fire Engineering & Investigations Divisions.

In 2022, Chief Berlant was promoted to Deputy Director of Community Wildfire Preparedness and Mitigation, which was new to the Department after being established through the passage of Assembly Bill 9 (2021), which created the Community Wildfire Preparedness and Mitigation Division within the Office State Fire Marshal.

In January 2023, Chief Berlant was designated Acting State Fire Marshal, in addition, continuing to function as the Deputy Director over Community Wildfire Preparedness and Mitigation. 

Chief Berlant holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Davis.

Frank Bigelow is an Assistant Deputy Director for CAL FIRE, serving 20 years with the Department. He started his career as a Fire Fighter and worked his way through the ranks working in various programs along the way, including, fire operations, the air program, fire plan and currently for the Office of the State Fire Marshal. In this current role Chief Bigelow oversees 15 statewide programs in the Community Wildfire Preparedness and Mitigation Division, Fire Engineering & Investigations Division and Support Services.

Nick Bown -Crawford was born and raised in Humboldt County and after time across the country and overseas, recently returned to the area to focus on economic development, disaster recovery and regional emergency food systems.  Nick is currently the Executive Director of Humboldt Made, a leadership member of Humboldt COAD (Community Organizations Active in Disaster), and the Executive Chair of the Humboldt Eel River Valley LTRG (Long Term Recovery Group) a first of its kind in the region that is driving the recovery and rebuilding process for local disaster impacted individuals, families and businesses. During his tenure in Atlanta, when the pandemic began in 202o, Nick was faced with one of the most challenging points in his career and was forced overnight to shutter all 12 individual restaurant locations for the group he was leading, and subsequently laying off over a thousand employees in a single day. Recognizing the gravity of the situation that not only his employees were in, but the over 150,000 hostility workings in the Atlanta area that were in the same situation - he turned his sights to ensuring that food was accessible to all those who needed it during periods of lockdowns and fears of personal safety. Leveraging his professional industry network, Nick launched a prepared foods production and delivery service - the sole mission, to combat a food insecurity crisis that was already at a building point. Over the course of the first six months of operations the program focused on utilizing dormant commercial kitchen space around the city, securing large-scale partnerships with food purveyors and farmers, developed a volunteer driver delivery platform, and fundraised around $2.6 million. Over the course of the first year of operations, this program prepared and delivered over 3,200,000 meals to impacted households.

Jason is the Co-Founder and CEO of Fire Aside. Fire Aside is a leader in providing solutions to fire agencies, fire safe councils, and HOAs to help their communities adapt to wildfire. Fire Aside now supports partners in California, Oregon, Nevada, & Colorado with over 3,200 properties a week and 175,000 cubic yards of high risk vegetation removed.  

Shea’s passion for protecting people and property stems from the loss of his childhood home during a deadly California wildfire in 1993. He believes problem-solving happens when individuals work toward a common goal, and he has extensive experience partnering with firefighters, military personnel, and emergency managers to solve fire-related problems. Shea is also a Naval Scientist working in the explosion effects and consequences division for the DoD. He has a track record of implementing cutting-edge technologies to solve complex geospatial problems, which he does for both FlameMapper and the Department of Defense (DoD). Shea holds a Masters in GIS and is Esri Enterprise Certified.

Bringing over 13 years of unwavering dedication to Interface Children & Family Services, Kelly Brown has championed the 2-1-1 program, forging vital partnerships with health and social services to fortify our community's safety net. Kelly’s mission is clear: to pave accessible pathways for communities of color, moderate to low-income households, and those in crisis, connecting them with the resources they need to thrive. In her role as a 2-1-1 leader, she places a premium on staff development, strategic planning, nurturing meaningful partnerships, securing funding, and delivering the highest quality of service. As a community leader, Kelly’s relentless mission is to uplift vulnerable communities, eradicate racial disparities, bridge the wealth gap, and foster the next generation of leaders. 

When not pursuing social justice throughout the state of California, Kelly can be found gardening at home in Ventura County which she shares with her husband, two teenage sons and one precocious rescue dog.

Valerie Brown is the Deputy Executive Director for United Policyholders, a national insurance advocacy nonprofit that helps consumers in all 50 states and provides assistance to disaster survivors navigating the complicated insurance claims process. A North Carolina native with a BA from Duke University and 30+ year nonprofit professional with extensive experience in crisis work, economic development, social services, and community coordination, she began her work in the field of disaster recovery after the 2007 San Diego Wildfires, which destroyed over 1,500 homes.  When her friends and neighbors lost their homes, she coordinated the local long-term recovery efforts for the communities of Rancho Bernardo, Escondido, Poway, and Rancho Santa Fe. After this disaster, she joined San Diego VOAD and the Community Recovery Team, established the Rancho Bernardo Fire Safe Council, became a Home Ignition Zone instructor, and has been an active contributor to subsequent disaster recovery in San Diego County.  Valerie is currently the Chair of San Diego County VOAD, Chair for the 2020 CZU Fire Santa Cruz County Long Term Recovery and Chair of the 2020 Cameron Peak Fire (Larimer County, CO) Long Term Recovery Group.

Brittany Cole Bush, AKA Cole is an entrepreneur, educator, and consultant in the fields of climate beneficial agriculture, land stewardship, and prescribed grazing based out of the Ojai Valley in Ventura County. With over a decade of experience, Cole has developed and managed the treatment of thousands of acres on private and public lands using prescribed grazing with commercial-scale herds of sheep and goats as an ecosystem service for ecological enhancement and fire hazard reduction throughout California. She is dedicated to training new entrepreneurs and practitioners in the prescribed grazing field, as well as providing consultation and technical assistance services for climate smart agricultural and land stewardship projects.

Cole is the owner-operator of Shepherdess Land and Livestock Co. performing prescribed grazing services and consultation in Ventura and Los Angeles counties, as well as spearheading a vocational training and workforce development program called the Grazing School of the West. She serves as a member of the CA Board of Forestry & Fire Protection’s Range Management Advisory Committee, the California Wool Growers Targeted Grazing Committee, and is the co-founder of the Ojai Valley Community Supported Grazing Program of the Ojai Valley Fire Safe Council.

Les Carberry has established an impressive career in the fencing industry, demonstrating expertise and dedication at every stage. Currently, Les is the resident fencing expert at Bison Pipe and has built a solid foundation of knowledge and skills. Prior to this, he excelled as a fence contractor in Idaho for 13 years, showcasing his commitment to quality workmanship. Carberry also brings experience as a cow/calf producer and fence contractor in Wyoming, further enhancing his versatility and expertise in the field.

Dr. Cooper is an Assistant Vice President in the Division of Academic and Strategic Collaborations at Texas A&M. His research, teaching, and practice focus on participatory planning, particularly regarding helping socially vulnerable populations prepare for, survive and recover after disasters. In 2017 he received the Texas A&M Association of Former Students (AFS) Distinguished Achievement Award for Extension, Outreach, Continuing Education & Professional Development. Dr. Cooper serves on the Advisory Board for the University of North Carolina Coastal Resilience Center and recently completed a term as chair of the Advisory Council for the Center for Disaster Philanthropy. He previously served on the board of directors for the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities and was a founding member of the board of directors for the Bill Anderson Fund. From 2005-2010, he was a Program Director at MDC Inc. in Durham, NC, where he directed the FEMA-funded Emergency Preparedness Demonstration Program (EPD). The EPD was a $2.5 million effort to increase disaster awareness and preparedness in marginalized communities in eight (8) states along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Dr. Cooper earned a bachelor’s degree in Economics as well as his Master’s in Urban Planning from Texas A&M before completing a PhD in City and Regional Planning at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill (UNC).

Jon is a Product Operations Director at Google, and a Fellow working as a Program Manager on the Planscape project with the California Natural Resources Agency, Spatial Informatics Group, Forest Service, amongst many others.  Jon has spent over 19 years at Google in a variety of different roles in the Ads business in both the UK & US, across Sales, Strategy and most recently in Operations.  Before Google, Jon worked in a number of smaller businesses in the early days of the internet, where he helped companies embrace digital media. Jon grew up in the Bahamas, was educated in the UK and has lived in Budapest, Hungary, London, UK and now Saratoga, California.  

Molly has a Joint Master's in Public Policy and a Master's in Business Administration, with a concentration on designing public-private partnerships that unlock funding to positively impact community for all.  Now, Molly leads WRA’s Community Resiliency team to support 501(c)(3) organizations, local governments, private landowners, and special districts in cultivating grant funding opportunities, managing grant-funded projects, leading outreach and facilitation efforts, and understanding relevant policy and rule changes. WRA has collectively pursued approximately $50M in state and federal resilience grants, designed vegetation management resident cash assistance programs, written CWPPs for fire safe councils, provided land management policy recommendations to state land conservancies, and led stakeholder engagement efforts for county government departments.

Prior to joining WRA, Molly served as the Director of Grants and Government Programs at After the Fire. There she was the first grant administrator for the North Bay Forest Improvement Program, a CAL FIRE-funded cost-share incentives program to implement non-commercial forest improvement activities on private forested land in Lake, Sonoma, Mendocino, and Napa counties.

Molly has also served as a staffer for California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and Vice President Kamala Harris during her Kamala Harris for The People presidential campaign.

Molly is a native of Sonoma County and resides in Santa Rosa with her husband and two young children.

Hailing from Colorado, by way of the cornfields of Minnesota, Mitch values contribution and stewardship of the lands that sustain us all. Feeling a superpower is connection, he is fascinated with the power collaboration holds to address the wicked problems facing Mother Earth. With passion for climate adaptation, he holds a Master’s of Conservation Leadership from CSU – Fort Collins, and could not dream up greater alignment with COCO’s vision of ecosystems and communities thriving together. When not pushing the ball forward for wildfire mitigation, you'll find him mountain biking, skiing, meditating, wandering around in the woods, dancing to the music, connecting with humans, and/or playing with puppies.

Erik de Kok, AICP, is the Director of Interdisciplinary Planning at Ascent. He has over 25 years of experience as a planner in the public and private sectors, with a primary focus on climate action and adaptation. Prior to re-joining Ascent in early 2023, he served as Deputy Director at the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR) where he led statewide planning, policy, and technical assistance programs, including OPR’s Fire Hazard Planning Technical Advisory update and a new Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Planning Guide and Best Practices Inventory.
 

Erik is currently working with CAL FIRE, Resources Legacy Fund, and the Fire-Adapted Communities Working Group under the State’s Wildfire & Forest Resilience Task Force on the Fire-Adapted Communities Roadmap and Dashboard project, which will provide a statewide implementation strategy to accelerate community fire adaptation and resilience.

Henry Dubroff is a successful journalist and entrepreneur. He is the founder of the Pacific Coast Business Times, the weekly business journal for the Central Coast of California and the dominant financial news source in Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

The Business Times is a five-time winner of the “Best in Business” awards from the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing (SABEW), the association for business journalists. The newspaper’s coverage of the financial crisis won a national Sigma Delta Chi award from the Society of Professional Journalists, and it is a multiple winner of Los Angeles Press Club awards. Dubroff chairs the First Amendment Committee at SABEW and is a recipient of its President’s Award. Before founding the Business Times, Dubroff was the editor of The Denver Business Journal and Business Editor at The Denver Post. He serves on the boards of the UCSB Economic Forecast Project, Venture Forum for the Central Coast, and on the California LutheranUniversity School of Management Advisory Council. From 2012-2023 he served on the California State University Channel Islands Foundation board.

He earned a bachelor’s degree from Lafayette College in Easton, Pa. and a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Jennifer Eberlien became Pacific Southwest Regional Forester in July 2021, giving her overall responsibility for 18 National Forests in California, covering one-fifth of the state or 20 million acres of land, as well as responsibility for State & Private Forestry programs in Hawaii and the affiliated Pacific Islands.

Jennifer started her career with the Forest Service in 1992 on the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest in Park Falls, Wisconsin. She has since served as Deputy Forest Supervisor for the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest in southwest Oregon, Forest Supervisor of the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest in Everett, Washington, Deputy Regional Forester for the Pacific Southwest Region in Vallejo, California, acting Regional Forester for the Rocky Mountain Region headquartered in Denver, Colorado, and as the Associate Deputy Chief for National Forest Systems in Washington, D.C.

Jennifer is a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a bachelor's degree in anthropology. She also holds a master's degree in anthropology from Northern Arizona University.

Carol Ekarius is the Emeritus Director of Coalitions & Collaboratives, a nonprofit that supports place-based groups around the country working on forest health and wildfire, watershed protection, and habitat. She also served as the founding Executive Director, of the Coalition for the Upper South Platte, a nonprofit watershed group in Colorado. In her roles with these nonprofits Carol became a national expert on post-fire recovery, working directly on over a dozen large-scale fires, and advising communities on several dozen more around the West.

Gabriel Etcheverry firefighting career spanned 34 years, working with LA County Fire Department for 27 years. Twenty-one of those years were spent in the position of Fire Captain. Before working with LACOFD, he was a firefighter for La Mesa and Santa Monica Fire Departments. Throughout his career, Gabriel gained multifaceted skills and knowledge in various domains of firefighting. He played integral roles in recruit training, urban search and rescue, health hazardous materials management, and wildland firefighting training, demonstrating an unyielding commitment to his career. In 2014, after retiring from the LA County Fire Department, Gabriel served as an instructor at the Counterterrorism Operations Support (CTOS) Center for Radiological/Nuclear Training under the Department of Homeland Security. In this role, he educated responders and military personnel on the intricate protocols and procedures for handling radiological and nuclear incidents, including the formidable challenges of dirty bombs and nuclear detonations. He also was a hazardous materials instructor at UCLA, dedicating the last seven years to imparting critical knowledge to future firefighters. In 2021, he was appointed and currently serves as a Fire Safety Liaison for the City of Malibu.

Will Evans is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Clear Lake Environmental Research Center (CLERC), a Lake County-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Founded in 2014, CLERC serves as a steward for environmental and economic sustainability of Clear Lake, its neighboring lands and waters, local communities, and beyond. Since the Valley Fire in 2015, which, at the time, was the third-most destructive fire in California history, Will has focused his career on implementing restoration and mitigation projects in areas impacted by fires in Lake County. CLERC stepped into the role of coordinating landscape-scale forest health and fire resilience projects in Lake County by securing multiple large grants from CAL FIRE for fuel reduction, workforce development, and planning future projects. To date CLERC has been awarded $26.2M from state and federal sources to achieve wildfire resilience, including fuel reduction on 6,000+ acres of federal and non-federal lands.

Prior to becoming CLERC’s Executive Director, Will spent nearly a decade employed in various resource management positions with the County of Lake including Deputy Director of Water Resources, Associate Resource Planner in the Community Development Department, and Compliance Coordinator for Special Districts Administration. Will possesses a BS in Urban Policy Studies, as well as a Master of Public Administration (MPA) from the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University, where his studies focused on economic development planning and geographic information science (GIS).

Dr. Michael Falkowski is a program manager at NASA Headquarters where he runs two wildland fire related programs; the Applied Sciences Wildland Fires program and the FireSense Project. Before going to NASA HQ, Dr. Falkowski spent nearly ten years as a professor at land grant institutions where he taught courses and conducted research on topics in applied land management, including wildland fire. Dr Falkowski has over 20 years of research experience in conjunction with a variety of governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations to solve problems in ecosystem science and applied natural resource conservation and management.  Prior to his academic career, Michael also served on wildfire and prescribed fire crews.

Megan has been working in and around wildfires since 2003. She currently works in NFPA’s Wildfire Division as the Firewise USA® Program Manager and represents the organization in different wildfire working groups.  She connects with federal, state, and local partners to engage residents and communities in proactive wildfire risk reduction activities through the framework of the Firewise USA® Recognition Program.  Before joining NFPA in 2017, Megan worked for the Washington State Department of Natural Resources. She worked her way up from a seasonal fire fighter and engine leader to a permanent position in the state’s fire coordination center. Her final year and a half with Washing DNR she served as the state’s Firewise.

Megan holds a master’s degree in Natural Resources from the University of Idaho and a certificate in Fire Ecology, Management and Technology. Her transition to the NFPA and supporting Firewise USA has allowed Megan to pursue her goal of using a collaborative approach to help reduce risk and loss from wildfire at the national level.

Michael Flaster is President of If & When Emergency Solutions. Before that he was a media consultant who advised a range of institutions including National Public Radio, the public and commercial broadcasting systems of the Republic of Moldova, the National Endowment for the Humanities and Minnesota Public Radio.

Mr. Flaster's history in new media, broadcasting and film spanned 30 years including more than two decades managing and producing for public radio and television stations, including a role as Associate General Manager for KPBS Radio and Television. There, his responsibilities included program development for both stations' national and local production divisions as well as management of the station's radio reading service, news and operations departments.

Mr. Flaster has taught in the Communication Departments of San Diego State University and Kent State University, was a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and an Executive in Residence in the Communication Studies Department at the State University of New York College at Cortland.

Genevieve Flores-Haro is the Associate Director for the Mixteco/Indigena Community Organizing Project(MICOP), a nonprofit serving the indigenous migrant community on California’s Central Coast. In this capacity, she supervises MICOP programs specific to mental wellness, health access, families with children ages 0-5, and unaccompanied minors, as well as research and investigation. She also oversees the organization’s policy priorities, special events, communications and is a founding member of the 805 UndocuFund.
 
In 2021, she was appointed to the Ventura County Behavioral Health Advisory Board by Supervisor Matt LaVere and represents MICOP on the Ventura County Public Safety Racial Equity Advisory Group. During the current COVID-19 pandemic, her focus has been advocating for farmworker labor rights, mask distributions (for healthcare workers and farmworkers), language access, and safety net programs for undocumented Californians.

In 2022, Genevieve was elected to the Oxnard Union High School District Board of Trustees, representing Area 4, and serves as Vice Chair.

Genevieve received her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and her Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Southern California. She is the immediate past Board President for Ventura County’s local LGBTQ organization Diversity Collective, the immediate past Board President of the 805 UndocuFund, and Board Member for the Planned Parenthood Central Coast Action Fund.

In 2018 she was awarded a Women of the Year Award by State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson and Assemblymember Monique Limón for her work during the Thomas Fire. In addition, she was named part of the 40 Under 40 Class of 2021 by the Pacific Coast Business Times. In 2022, she was awarded Woman of the Year by Assemblymember Steve Bennett for her work during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2023, she received the Carmen Ramirez Achievement Award at Diversity Collective Ventura County’s Diversity Gala.

Danny Franco, Senior Project Manager, has been working with the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy for 13 years, primarily on natural resource conservation, vegetation management, and landscape-scale habitat restoration projects. Since 2018, Danny has managed the delivery of fine-scale vegetation mapping and landscape database projects in Marin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz counties, which included regional collaboration of over two dozen local, state, and federal land managing agencies and partners. Danny is currently leading the completion of the Marin Regional Forest Health Strategy, a data-driven initiative of the One Tam collaborative that will identify opportunities to improve forest resilience and protect biodiversity, while also strategically managing vegetation to reduce wildfire hazards for communities, key habitats, and other valuable resources.

Chief Frievalt (ret.) has served since 1979 with Special District, City, County, State, and Federal fire agencies in roles from Firefighter to Fire Chief.  He holds a M.S. from Oklahoma State University in Fire and Emergency Management Administration, and currently serves as Director of the Wildland-Urban Interface Fire Institute at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.  Frank is an SME for the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Wildfire Advisory Council, and previously served as a Senior Policy Advisor to the Western Fire Chiefs Association, with an emphasis on the development of resilient Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) communities.  His work is grounded in aligning key stakeholders around a core set of parcel and community level mitigations that will disrupt the fire pathways which lead to conflagration.  He is pursuing the actuarial valuation of risk mitigations, for both the public and private sectors, because we share the same desired outcome, minimizing property loss to the peril of wildfire.

David is an advisor to federal, state, and local government, and the private sector, specializing in disaster resilience, multi-agency and multi-jurisdictional coordination, complex disaster response and recovery, innovative use of existing authorities, Defense Support of Civil Authorities (DSCA), fostering collaborations and public policy. He supports the Naval Postgraduate School, Center for Homeland Defense and Security, Executive Education Program, which includes the acclaimed Pacific Executive Leaders Program (PELP), for leaders across the US Pacific Territories and the Hawaiian Islands to foster collaboration and capacity building with all levels of government, DoD, NGOs, and the private sector.

He has served in government, including as Deputy Director for Response and Recovery Operations at the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES), and as a Federal Coordinating Officer with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), where he led federal interagency response and recovery operations, supporting state, local, tribal, and territorial governments.

He’s currently an advisor to, US Army Pacific, US Agency for International Development (USAID), the Ventura County Community Foundation, and the RAND Corporation.

David serves on the board of the Museum of Ventura County, and as Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees for Community Memorial Healthcare.

Amber is the Clearinghouse Manager for California Fire Safe Council. She joined CFSC in 2003 as Grant Manager for the Coast Region after working for several years with local Fire Safe Councils in the Bay Area. Amber was promoted to Clearinghouse Administrator in 2009 and paved the way for significant upgrades to the Grants Clearinghouse in response to changing federal regulations and technology. Recently, Amber led a major upgrade of CFSC’s outdated grants system to new, improved grant management software. She manages the year-round Clearinghouse activities, from application to grant closeout and provides support to grantees and grant managers. A senior staff member, Amber has ten years of experience in helping to shape and improve CFSC’s efforts to meets its mission.

Amber holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Resource Management with an emphasis in fire ecology from the University of California at Davis. Her studies propelled her to travel after graduation throughout the U.S. with The Nature Conservancy promoting fire ecology on prescribed fire crews and as a fire management planner.

Ventura County Fire Chief Dustin Gardner leads an all-hazards fire department of 658 personnel with primary responsibility for about 850,000 of the people living in Ventura County.

Gardner was promoted to chief in February 2022 after working his way through the ranks of the department, including supervision of all five bureaus of VCFD’s daily operation. He has experience with incident command and regional coordination on large-scale emergencies, including the Thomas Fire, Easy Fire, and the Borderline shooting.

Gardner is the 12th fire chief in the department’s 95-year history. This year, he oversaw the introduction of rescue ambulances into VCFD operations, providing additional ambulances when the existing emergency response system is overwhelmed.

Deborah Glaser is the Climate Resilient Communities Project Director at the Nature Conservancy in California focusing on disaster resilience, land use, and biodiversity conservation. Much of her work focuses on communities in the Wildland-Urban Interface that are experiencing high wildfire and flood risk. Deborah has over 15 years of experience working both in the US and internationally to advance Nature Based Solutions for climate adaptation and resilience with a focus on equitable partnerships and solutions. She received her Masters from the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, specializing in climate and environmental policy.

Ron W. Goode is the Tribal Chairman of the North Fork Mono Tribe since 1983. He is a Veteran of the United States Army, a Life Member of the Sierra Mono Museum, and of the United States Judo Federation. Ron holds a 6th-degree Black Belt in Judo and still enjoys teaching. He is also a retired Community College Professor in Ethnic Studies and received his Life Credential from the State of California and the National University of Fresno. Ron was inducted into the Clovis Hall of Fame for his work in Education and Community Service in 2002. In 2006, he was selected as CA Indian Education Teacher of the Year, and in 2006 and 2007, Mr. Goode was nominated for the Who’s Who of America’s Teachers. In 2013, Ron was recognized by Gov. Brown for his work with the Dept. of Water Resources and co-founder of the Tribal Water Summit.  In 2022, Ron was honored by the Society of California Archaeology with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his work in Cultural Preservation. At the 2023 Tribal Water Summit that Ron chaired, the State of CA Legislature honored him with a Proclamation recognizing his endeavors in organizing the 4th CA Tribal Water Summit.

Mr. Goode is a published author of an ethnobotany book on native plants and resources: Cultural Traditions Endangered, 1992. In 2017-2018, Ron was the Coordinating Lead Author for the Tribal Indigenous Communities Climate Change Assessment as a new report of the California 4th Climate Change Assessment. Ron is also the Co-Founder of the CA State Tribal Water Summit and has chaired all three of the events and is heading up the 4th Water Summit in 2023.

Ron and his tribal archaeological team have been conducting archaeology for five decades. They are now mapping their traditional homeland trails and watersheds, including adding ancient village and landscape names from the Nium language. Ron and the Tribe and tribal team partner with numerous colleges and Universities to conduct and train other Native American Monitors as well as agency archaeologists and cultural resource managers in new and advanced archaeological techniques.

Mr. Goode and his tribal and ecological team have been conducting Cultural Burns with Sequoia Park, Bass Lake Ranger District - Sierra National Forest, Cold Springs Rancheria, and Private and Tribal Lands in Mariposa with the Mariposa Miwok Tribe. Ron then takes their practical work and presents it at Universities, Colleges, Seminars, Zoom webinars, and other Internet venues. Ron’s journal writings and webinar presentations have garnered worldwide attention.

Mr Griffith represents Tekniam in the Western US. He has more than 20 years’ experience in the business of networked technologies. In his youth, he was the son of rural Colorado mountain volunteer firefighters, at times riding shotgun. He is a CERT volunteer and enjoys hiking and summitting the occasional 14er.  He received a Bachelor of Science from USC, EMT training and a Master of Business Administration from UCLA.

I have been at the RCD since January 3, 2023. I spent thirty years with the US Forest Service, Cleveland National Forest, in Wildland Fire Management. Nearly 25 of those years were in the hotshot community, having been the Superintendent of the Palomar Hotshots for 11 years. I finished my career as Deputy Fire Chief in the Cleveland National Forest.

On coming to the RCD, I have the privilege of working in many of the same places with many of the same faces. This affords comfort and familiarity that serves both our partners and the RCD with a level of efficiency and ease of communication.

I am grateful to have the opportunity to continue serving the people and region in our quest for healthy and resilient landscapes. The amount of passion in the community cannot be overlooked, it is my pleasure to match those in need with the resources available.

Tegan has over 25 years of experience in building resilient solutions for people, nature, and climate— is one of Coastal Quest’s founding members and the Executive Director of Coastal Quest.

Recently Tegan has led projects across Coastal Quest’s four program areas with a majority of the work being based in California. She has focused on developing public-private partnerships to get funding resources on the ground to local community-based organizations (CBOs) and governments for multi-benefit coastal solutions. She leads projects with the goal of building human and financial capacity for local government and CBOs and outreach strategies to engage California Tribes and Tribal organizations and communities in need of climate and environmental justice, including projects with California State Parks, Ocean Protection Council, State Coastal Conservancy, State Water Resources Control Board, County of Santa Clara, City of Alameda, Los Cerritos Wetlands Authority, and others.  Currently, she oversees a team that manages a portfolio of programs including offering grant-writing technical assistance to state, local government, California Tribes and Tribal organizations, as well as CBOs with the goal of supporting and accelerating planning and implementation of their priorities.

Tegan leads Coastal Quest’s work focused on fire-resilient coastal communities and Coastal Quest supported securing funding for Ventura County Wildfire Collaborative and the California Wildfire Conference and also runs a small grant program and accelerator for CBOs wanting to plan and implement resilience projects.  In 2022 Coastal Quest launched a Collaborative focused on Watershed and Infrastructure Fire Resilience and led 4 meetings with leaders representing multi-sectoral and scale perspectives and conducted a literature review of research and monitoring data and information on this topic and a survey of agencies, landowners, CBOs, and water utilities about needs, opportunities, and management solutions to reduce fire impact on coastal water quality and water infrastructure.   Our goal with partners is to move these recommendations forward.

An author of several publications and recipient of numerous awards and research grants for her work on climate resilience, conservation, resource management, and building local conservation capacity across the West Coast, Wider Caribbean, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific.

She graduated from University of California, Berkeley and holds a Ph.D. and master’s degree in geography and a B.S. degree in conservation resource studies.

Mr. Huebner leads enterprise risk management, capital strategy, reinsurance programs, strategic sourcing and procurement, real estate, security, business resilience, and corporate insurance. He was previously the vice president of treasury at CSAA Insurance Group, overseeing risk, investments and banking, and served as director of Risk Management and manager of Risk Finance & Captive Operations. His prior experience includes large commercial casualty insurance brokerage, real estate investment trust risk management, personal lines insurance sales and accident and health insurance claims. He serves on the Board of Governors of the California Insurance Guarantee Association, as well as the board of AAA Life Insurance Company. He has a bachelor’s degree from Dickinson College and an MBA from Notre Dame de Namur University.

Dr. Jacy Hyde is the Executive Director for the California Fire Safe Council. She grew up in the Santa Cruz mountains, and her love of the outdoors led her to pursue a BSc in Field and Wildlife Biology from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. After spending several years managing ecology field work all over the Western US and East Africa, Jacy went on to earn her PhD in Forest Resources and Conservation from the University of Florida, where she researched the impacts of energy infrastructure development on forest health. As a Science Fellow with the California Council on Science and Technology, Jacy developed and analyzed state policy with CA State Assembly Committee on Natural Resources. She then led mitigation efforts out of the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services as the Branch Chief for Hazard Mitigation Assistance and Deputy State Hazard Mitigation Officer, overseeing a portfolio of state and federal grant programs aimed at reducing risk from natural hazards and advancing equitable climate adaption approaches.

Kelly is the Operations Director of the Community Wildfire Planning Center and principal of Wildland Professional Solutions Inc. He has 32 years of community wildfire resilience and landscape-level fire management planning, fire operations, and fire management experience. Kelly remains involved in projects across North America, including co-author of the American Planning Association “Planning the Wildland Urban Interface” publication, developer of the first national WUI regulations training course for FEMA, co-developer and instructor of the CAL FIRE Land Use Planner Training program, technical specialist and committee member for the development of the National Research Council of Canada’s National Guide for Wildland-Urban Interface Fires, Technical Advisor and past Executive Director for FireSmart CanadaTM, and the co-developer and program lead for the CWPC REALFire®  and FireSmart Canada Home Partners Home Ignition Zone programs. He also volunteers as an appointed member of the NFPA Wildland and Rural Fire Protection Technical Committee and the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs Climate Adaptation Committee. Kelly continues to remain an active and qualified practitioner as a Registered Professional Forester, Fire Behavior Analyst, Ignition Specialist, Structure Protection Specialist, and Chief Fire Officer.  

Dr. Alicia M. Kinoshita is an Associate Professor in the Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering Department and Director of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (URCA) at San Diego State University (SDSU). She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Colorado School of Mines. Her research group focuses on understanding water resources and hydrologic processes after disturbances such as wildfires. Her post-fire studies have focused on hydrologic and geomorphic response, water quality, vegetation recovery, and long-term flow regimes. Her research also investigates short- and long-term watershed processes to improve hydrologic prediction and management. Her work is supported by agencies such as the National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the San Diego River Conservancy. Dr. Kinoshita also received an NSF CAREER award to study the coupling of post-fire vegetation and volumetric sediment regimes in urban Mediterranean systems.

Jim Kniss has been a Ventura County resident for 42 years and started his mapping career with the Ventura County Public Works agency in 1980.

While working in the mapping department Jim helped develop the GIS (Geographical Information System) basemap that is used by all county departments for spatial awareness and decision making. In 1995 he went to the Ventura County Fire Department as the GIS analyst responsible for the integrity of the 911 centerline used for emergency response. While with the fire department Jim responded to over 50 large scale fires, floods, landslides, and Hurricane Katrina as a GIS specialist. Jim retired from the county in 2008 and started Veteran's Emergency Technical Services, inc. which provides mapping and infrared analysis during wildfire operations throughout California.

In 2016 Jim started working with Central Ventura Fire Safe Council designing and developing the Ranch Plans. In 2020 Jim came on the CVFSC board as well as joining Team Rubicon (a veteran disaster volunteer organization). He is currently the Metro Administrator for the central coast (Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo).

Peter Kobylarz, GISP, is a senior spatial data science professional and leads WRA’s GIS Services team. He brings more than 16 years of combined experience in the public and private sectors with a strong combination of Enterprise IT and GIS experience to provide valuable spatial data driven solutions and landscape-scale problem solving. Peter leads GIS analysis for complex resiliency projects including work on wildfire recovery and response in the aftermath of the devastating 2017 and 2018 wildfires in northern California and 2020 fires in Oregon. He is an integral member of WRA’s growing resiliency practice and has established a reputation as a leader in environmental and resiliency GIS in California and beyond.

Jennee Kuang is a Program Officer at Resources Legacy Fund. She is responsible for the development and management of projects and campaigns for philanthropic programs that address wildfire resilience. Before coming to RLF, Jennee was an Environment Program Fellow at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation where she developed the foundation’s wildfire resilience grantmaking strategy. Prior to that, she consulted for the Natural Resources Defense Council on its American Cities Climate Challenge. Earlier in her career, Jennee served as special assistant to the Chief Innovation Officer of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She holds a BS in Natural Resources from Cornell University and a Master of Public Policy from UC Berkeley.

Alice has proudly served on the CIBA Board of Directors for eight terms. She is a member of the Karuk Tribe and worked over 20 years as an independent artist, making traditional jewelry and weaving Karuk style baskets. She teaches basketweaving to local tribal members at her store, the Klamath Book Nook in the town of Klamath, California. In addition, she works with local schools and other institutions and at events throughout the Pacific Northwest region. Alice was instrumental in reviving CIBA’s Following the Smoke program, building valuable partnerships with local, state, and federal agencies. As part of her CIBA efforts, she successfully planned a rekindling culture and fire event, which included demonstrations of cultural fire, fire safety education, engaging youth in cultural practices and tours for potential gathering areas to burn. Alice recognizes the value in the rich diversity that exists within the various tribes, which ensures meaningful dialogue and collaboration for successful events. Alice wants to be a voice for her people and ensure safe places to gather, which is vital their culture and traditional practices.

Kathryn (Katie) Lipiecki is director of the Mitigation Division for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Region 9 office in Oakland, California. In this role, she oversees the regional implementation of mitigation programs, including the flood mapping program, Hazard Mitigation Planning program, and multimillion-dollar disaster/non-disaster mitigation grants.

Prior to joining Region 9 in 2020, Katie was the Hazard Mitigation Division Director in Puerto Rico, supporting local recovery efforts. In this role, she oversaw the implementation of $3.6 billion Hazard Mitigation Grant Program and supported the obligation of over $115 million for 406 mitigations.

Before FEMA, Katie worked for URS Corporation, where she supported FEMA’s flood map modernization program. She also volunteered on a local historic preservation commission in Haddonfield, New Jersey, providing guidance on compliance with historic district regulations.

She holds a Master of Science in Urban Planning from Columbia University in New York City, where she concentrated in housing policy, and has a Bachelor of Arts in Historic Preservation and American Studies from Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland. She is also a graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Command and General Staff Officers' Common Core course.

Served as Forester and retired as Assistant Chief for the County of Los Angeles Fire Department Forestry Division.  Work involved forest management, urban forestry, nursery operations and reforestation, vegetation management, habitat management, and restoration, defensible space, pre-fire engineering, and implementation of forest and chaparral best management practices.  He received a BS Degree in Agricultural-Forestry Engineering.  Served as Qualified Logistics Section Chief Type 2 & 3, Urban Search and Rescue, Burned Area Response Team, and Watershed Emergency Response Team.  Incident Command System liaison and instructor for the United States Agency for International Development and Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Member of the California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, State Fire Marshal’s Wildfire Mitigation Advisory Committee, California Fire Safe Council Board of Directors, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources Fire Advisory Committee, and Fire Adapted Communities Workgroup.  Served the Society of American Foresters National Board of Directors, Southern California Regional Area Safety Taskforce, California Fire Science Consortium Advisory Board, Los Angeles County Weed Management Area, and Theodore Payne Foundation.  Supports the California Conservation Corps, National Fire Protection Association, FIREWISE, U.S. Green Building Council Los Angeles, Tree People, and numerous community-based organizations.  An active member of the Society of American Foresters, California Licensed Foresters Association, California Urban Forests Council, and U.S. Green Building Council.  Received the Society of American Foresters Fellow Award, Presidential Outstanding Field Forester Award, and USGBC-LA Resiliency Award.

Amanda (Mandy) Mulcan Lopez is a geoscience researcher in the Water and Ecosystems group at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Her current research focuses on using watershed modeling and remote sensing data to study water quality, coastal ecology, and marine resource management. Mandy joined JPL in 2021 after completing her Ph.D. in geology at the University of Houston, where she studied the biogeochemical cycling of trace metal contaminants in Galveston Bay estuary. She has additional experience in environmental consulting, marine renewable energy, and science education.

Jessica is the Program Director for the California Fire Safe Council. She grew up on a small family farm in the Pacific Northwest where the seeds for her love of land stewardship and healthy practices for resilient communities were planted. Jessica holds a BA in Environmental Studies, with a minor in American Indian & Indigenous Studies, from UC Santa Barbara. Prior to her time at CFSC, Jessica worked in Urban Indian Health developing and directing programs to connect traditional and cultural practices to health and wellness for the wellbeing of American Indian/Alaska Native urban communities. Jessica’s background spans from sustainable food systems, to native habitat restoration, to traditional ecological knowledge, to cultural programs for resiliency. Jessica brings with her years of experience in leadership, program development, grants/contract management, project direction, partnership building, community engagement, and advocacy.

Michelle Medley-Daniel is the deputy director of the Watershed Center, a place-based organization that was started in the mid-1990s in Hayfork, CA. In her role as deputy director, Michelle supports program strategy and operations from field crews to national policy work. In addition to her leadership role at the Watershed Center, Michelle has spent the last decade working to support community-based organizations across the United States as they envision and act on wildfire resilience. Michelle co-directs the national Fire Networks partnership that empowers communities to advance better fire futures through place-based solutions. She co-directs the partnership with partners at TNC and the USDA Forest Service through trio networks that support hundreds of community-based fire leaders from Hawaii to New Jersey and in 33 states between. Michelle has lived in Hayfork since 1990.

Kristen Merrill is a Supervising Environmental Scientist with CAL FIRE’s Climate and Energy Program and has served as Program Manager for the California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force since its inception in 2021. Kristen previously served as a program specialist for CAL FIRE’s Forest Health program and supported both the Forest Management Task Force and the Tree Mortality Task Force dating back to 2017.

Kristen previously administered the Preserving Wild California grant program for Resources Legacy Fund Foundation in Sacramento. She started her career in Washington, DC where she worked for the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Kristen holds a Master's of Science in Wildlife Ecology from Utah State University and a BS in Environmental Studies from UC Santa Barbara.

Luis Montes is a dedicated and enthusiastic professional specializing in public engagement. With his master’s degree from the University of San Francisco and background in local government, he brings a strong academic foundation in environmental studies and a deep passion for community outreach and education. Driven by a commitment to environmental stewardship and public safety, he applies his knowledge and skills to develop effective wildfire vegetation management plans that prioritize public engagement.

Max got his PhD in biogeography in 1999, has been a statewide wildfire specialist with the University of California Cooperative Extension since 2004, and is an adjunct professor at the Bren School at U.C. Santa Barbara.  Much of his research is on the dynamics and effects of fire regimes at relatively broad scales, including drivers of fire hazard, projections of climate change effects, and home loss studies.  Through his extension activities, Max aims to apply scientific information for sustainable planning and management decisions on fire-prone landscapes.

Molly Mowery, AICP is the Executive Director and co-founder of the non-profit organization Community Wildfire Planning Center and founder of Wildfire Planning International. As a certified planner by the American Institute of Certified Planners and 20 years of experience, Ms. Mowery focuses on integrating wildfire hazard and resiliency with land use planning practices. She has authored, presented, and taught on land use planning and wildfire topics across the globe, including serving as lead author of the American Planning Association’s Planning the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI), providing technical expertise on Canada’s National Guide for Wildland-Urban Interface Fires, and developing and teaching WUI planning courses for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Ms. Mowery currently serves on the Sustainable Development Code Advisory Committee and is chair-elect of the American Planning Association’s Hazard Mitigation and Disaster Recovery Division. She earned a Bachelor of Arts from Naropa University (Boulder, CO) and a Master's in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA).

Heidi Nelkie is the current Division Manager of AtkinsRealis’ Federal Business Unit in San Francisco, CA. She has been an emergency manager and responder for over 25 years throughout the United States. Her technical expertise including leading teams planning for, mitigating, responding, removing, and remediating natural, man-made, and environmental disasters and/or contamination while building long lasting client relationships that support a client-centric approach. She provides insight and expertise from working with agencies and seeks to utilize this experience to develop strategies to help clients transition to a low carbon economy that support the long-term resilience. 

Brian Newman-Lindsay is a Program Manager with the Department of Conservation's Division of Land Resource Protection, where he leads the Regional Forest and Fire Capacity and Transformative Climate Communities programs which support innovative, place-based, collaborative climate resilience work throughout California.

For more than a decade, Brian has worked in and with the public sector to see good projects get implemented. Prior to his service with the Division of Land Resource Protection, he was a CEQA planner, an Environmental Construction Engineer with the Department of Transportation, and a Project Engineer working on construction, environmental restoration, and FEMA response projects throughout the USA.

Ken started with CAL FIRE in 1987 as a seasonal firefighter and ultimately worked his way through the ranks to Director and California’s State Forester, a position he held from 2010 until his retirement in December 2018. Chief Pimlott has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Forest Resource Management from Humboldt State University and is a Registered Professional Forester in California. Ken continues to work on fire and forest management initiatives and is currently working with the County of El Dorado and the fire safe council to implement wildfire preparedness and resilience programs.

I have worked in several different areas in my life. I have been a traditional storyteller, an Indigenous educator, an Indigenous monitor/consultant, a spiritual adviser, a traditional paddler and builder of Chumash canoes, a preschool teacher and a juvenile institution officer at the Kern County Juvenile Hall and the Kern Youth Facility. I am a published author of “Tata, The Tataviam Towhee, aTribal Story” and “A Tataviam Creation Story” , and “Coyote Rescues Hawk”.

My family has traced our family ancestry to the Chumash village of Ta’apu, now known as Simi Valley and the Tataviam village of Chaguayanga near Castaic, Ca. We are Ventureno Chumash and Fernandeno Tataviam. My ancestors were brought into the San Fernando Mission starting in 1799. I actively protect my ancestors village sites and tribal territories. As a monitor and cultural resource advisor I took archaeology classes at Cal-State Bakersfield in 1993. I have monitored since 1994. I continue to
monitored sites for my tribe, the Fernandeno Tataviam Band of Mission Indians. I, also was the lead monitor from 2011 to 2017 at the Boeing Santa Susana Field Lab site in Simi Valley. It is a 2800 acre unique site with a sacred solstice and rock art site. It is just one of the many sites I have worked to protect.

I have been actively involved with several Native American groups. I am a founding member of the Kern County Native American Heritage Preservation Council and the Chumash Maritime Association. I am a member of the California Indian Advisory Council for the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. I have been a community advisor with the Ventura County Indian Education Consortium for over 24 years.

As a member of the Chumash Maritime Association I helped build the first working traditional Chumash plank canoe in modern times and have paddled in this plank canoe for over 25 years. I will oversee the construction of two tomols in 2023 for the Ventura Chumash community. It has been over 180 years since Chumash tomols (canoes) have been built in Ventura.

I am a member of the Elder’s Council for the Fernandeno Tataviam Band of Mission Indians. I have also been involved with teaching youths about Native American cultures for 30 years. I have done professional educational programs at schools, museums and cultural events for 25 years. I have done storytelling programs at the American Museum of Britain in Bath England the summer of 2015, but it is
the schools in Chumash and Tataviam territory I enjoy going to the most. Sharing my tribal stories and mentoring the next generation of storytellers is one of my future goals.

I have also, worked as a Juvenile Institution Officer and Group Counselor for approximately 20 years at Juvenile Facilities in Santa Barbara and Bakersfield, Ca. At the Juvenile centers, besides supervising young people, I dealt with people in difficult situations on a daily basis. Counseling at risk youth was a large part of my job. Motivating and inspiring troubled youth is something I have strived to
do most of my adult life.

My life experiences have exposed me to many different cultures and people of different
backgrounds. I have been a Spiritual adviser within the Chumash and Tataviam community. I do ceremony and lead prayer circles during traditional Native American gatherings. I continue to fight for tribal issues of urban indigenous people. I was raised to be proud of my Native American heritage and I take pride in being a positive role model and a respected Elder.
 

Sincerely, Alan Salazar – Puchuk Ya’ia’c (Fast Runner)

Don Schmitz, AICP, is President and Principal Planner of Schmitz & Associates, a land use consulting firm, specializing in land development entitlements, strategic planning, project management, and government affairs and advocacy. With over 35 years of planning experience, Mr. Schmitz is recognized as one of the State’s preeminent experts in coastal land use planning. Prior to establishing his own consultancy, Mr. Schmitz served as the California Coastal Commission’s South Coast District principal planner on public and private development projects, and coordinator for access and wetlands matters. He has worked within the coastal communities of Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Dana Point, Avalon, Playa Vista, Venice, Pacific Palisades, Seal Beach, Rancho Palos Verdes, Malibu, Santa Barbara Santa Monica, and Carpentaria, and unincorporated South Laguna Beach, Irvine Cove, Newport Dunes, Santa Ana River, and Sunset Beach. He has also practiced extensively in many non-coastal jurisdictions including the counties of San Diego, Orange, Los Angeles, Ventura, and Santa Barbara, and the cities of Los Angeles, Calabasas, Agoura Hills, Thousand Oaks, Vista, Santa Clarita and Moorpark.

As the founder and President of Schmitz & Associates, Inc. Mr. Schmitz has led the start-up, management representation, and successful entitlement of over a thousand land development projects, including retail, office and commercial developments, equestrian centers, resorts, residential subdivisions, lot line adjustments, estate homes, multifamily residences, agricultural uses, shoreline protection devices, infrastructure improvements (including sewer mains and treatment plants), roads and bridges, and restoration projects. Integrating decades of technical planning skills, a creative and sensitive design approach, and a keen understanding of the regulatory standards, policies, and procedures, Mr. Schmitz oversees and manages a team of talented and experienced planners, architects, biologists, engineers, and geologists on these projects from inception to public hearing and through condition compliance. Schmitz & Associates’ track record of successful advocacy of its client’s projects demonstrates Mr. Schmitz’s expansive, cultivated effective working relationships with government planners, elected officials and Planning and Coastal Commissioners.. Mr. Schmitz is an acknowledged expert on the Coastal Act, California Subdivision Map Act, CEQA/NEPA, fire safety issues, and state Water Code. His work as an expert witness and litigation consultant has been pivotal in numerous landmark legal proceedings, including cases dealing with Coastal Act policies, improper regulatory denial of entitlements, takings damages, prescriptive rights, land use related escrow and contractual disputes, and standard of care disputes.

Long committed to public service, Mr. Schmitz is the founder and president of the Coalition for Fire Safe Communities (CFSC) and the Fifth Amendment Rights Alliance (FARA), is an appointed member of the City of Malibu Trails Committee and served as the Chairman of the Malibu Chamber of Commerce’s Government Affairs Committee. He is also a founding member of the Recreation and Equestrian Coalition (REC), and a long-term member of the American Planning Association and the California Farm Bureau. Mr. Schmitz holds a Bachelor's degree in Geography from the University of California Santa Barbara, a Master's degree in Geography with an emphasis in land use planning from the California State University Long Beach and has taught college courses in these fields as an adjunct professor. He is an accomplished public speaker and is often invited to make presentations on planning and land use issues in various public forums. In addition, Don owns Malibu Solstice Vineyard which only produces Cabernet Sauvignon Wine. The vineyard was planted in 1995 and is located in the Santa Monica Mountains overlooking Malibu and the Pacific Ocean.

Phillip SeLegue is the Staff Chief for Fire Intelligence in CAL FIRE's Fire Protection Operations, overseeing the statewide Intel Program, including the Sacramento Intel Program, Wildfire Forecast & Threat Intelligence Integration Center (WFTIIC), Fire Integrated Real-time Intelligence System (FIRIS), and Predictive Services. With a CAL FIRE career dating back to 1999, he has held various roles, starting as a Fire Fighter I and rising to Staff Chief. Throughout his tenure, he contributed to the development of the CAL FIRE Intel Program and expanded the Sacramento Intel Program by implementing advanced wildfire forecasting and modeling tools. Chief SeLegue also played a crucial role in deploying CAL FIRE's Common Operational Platform and other critical applications. As a member of CAL FIRE Incident Management Team 5 for 15 years, he served as the Situation Unit Leader and participated in multiple State, Federal, and International Groups, Cadres, and Committees.

Ronojoy Sen is an Officer with the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Fiscal Federalism Initiative, providing research and analyses on federal and state budgeting for natural disasters. Before coming to Pew, he worked with the StateStat performance management program out of Governor Martin O’Malley’s office in the state of Maryland, as well as being a Case Manager with the Court Appointed Special Advocates of Montgomery County, Maryland. He holds a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Maryland.

Mike Silacci recently joined the Ventura County Community Foundation team as its Chief Philanthropy Officer, responsible for growing relationships and creating more pathways into our community foundation to continue to grow philanthropy in our region.

Mike is leveraging his prior deep experience with the VCCF having had the privilege of serving on its Board of Directors for 14 years, with half of that service as Board Treasurer and serving as chair of the Board Finance/Administration and Investment committees.

Prior to joining the VCCF team, Mike completed a 40-year career with AT&T, where he served in various management assignments in Corporate Accounting, Information Systems, Finance, Regulatory Compliance, and External/Government & Community Affairs (EA). He spent the final 25 years of his career representing AT&T to local, state, and federal government officials and community leaders and community/civic organizations across the greater Los Angeles region, covering Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Kern counties, including nearly 10 years leading the AT&T greater LA EA team as its Regional Vice President.

Over the past several years, Mike has been active on over two dozen community non-profit boards, mainly in Ventura and Los Angeles counties, including having the privilege to serve as board chair for the Economic Development Collaborative, Ventura County Economic Development, El Concilio del Condado de Ventura, Ventura County Civic Alliance (Inaugural Chair), United Way of Ventura County, CSU Channel Islands Alumni & Friends Association, Ventura Chamber of Commerce, Ventura County Library Foundation, and Economic Vitality Corporation of San Luis Obispo County.

Mike is a native of San Luis Obispo and graduated from California Polytechnic State University – San Luis Obispo, in 1981, with a B.S. in business administration/finance emphasis. He and his family have lived in Newbury Park for over 25 years.

Mary Small is the Coastal Conservancy’s Deputy Executive Officer, a position she has held for the past 12 years. Her responsibilities include overseeing the agency’s budget and providing leadership for several initiatives, including work on climate adaptation and wildfire resilience. She has spent the last 20 years working on land conservation and environmental planning projects around the state. Mary has worked at the Coastal Conservancy since 2001, managing dozens of wetland restoration, land conservation, and public recreation projects around San Francisco Bay and throughout Southern California. She was hired by the Coastal Conservancy as a project manager and later promoted to be the Conservancy’s southern California regional manager. She has a BA from Cornell University and a Master’s in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning from UC Berkeley.

Jeff Stackhouse, University of California educator in livestock and natural resources management, has over a decade of experience working land managers on the North Coast. While working almost exclusively with private land managers, Stackhouse works to understand landowners’ vision for their properties and helps them to identify management options that fit their ideology. Acceptable land management actions on the landscape look different to everyone. Jeff works with landowners to develop management plans and assess vegetation management options to determine how best to reach their goals at the ownership-scale. Privately funded vegetation management often require creative strategies to meet the operation’s budgetary limitations. Working within budgets has drawn much of his research and education toward the nexus of livestock and fire.

During his tenure, Stackhouse co-founded the first Prescribed Burn Association in California and has been working with colleagues across the state to return the tool of prescribed fire to landowners wherever there is interest. Prescribed Burn Associations and other community-based burning groups give landowners, of all ecosystem types, access to fire on their terms. Jeff considers himself a lifelong learner of livestock, fire, and society and how they all interact within the natural world.

Victor Steffensen is an Indigenous writer, filmmaker, musician, and traditional knowledge practitioner. He is a descendant of the Tagalaka clan from North Queensland. Much of Victor's work is based on the arts and reviving practical traditional knowledge values, particularly Aboriginal fire management, with Aboriginal and non-indigenous communities. He is a co-founder of the Firesticks Alliance which involves a large community network across Australia. Victor holds an Honorary Doctor of Science from James Cook University. He is the author of the book, Fire Country and the children’s book, “Looking After Country With Fire.” Through his artistic label Mulong, Victor has published music tracks and videos such as Great Land, and Cool Burning.  

Scott Stephens is interested in the interactions between wildland fire and ecosystems. This includes how prehistoric fires once interacted with ecosystems, how current wildland fires are affecting ecosystems, and how future fires and management can change this interaction. He is also interested in wildland fire and forest policy and how it can be improved to meet the challenges of the coming decades, both nationally and internationally. Working with Indigenous partners to learn how to steward ecosystems into the future is a key area of research.

Wildland fires typically have very complex behaviors. Stephens’ believes to predict fire affects you must first quantify fire behavior and fuel consumption, fire size, fire season, and past fire occurrence. In many cases the use of replicated experimental prescribed fires and restoration thinning’s are necessary to make inferences. Stephens has given testimony on fire and forest policy at the US House of Representatives, the White House, California Assembly and Senate, California Governor’s office, to many US Senators and Representatives, and currently is on the US Wildfire Commission created by the Biden Administration.  

Chris Thompson has worked at Perimeter Solutions for 10 years. He serves as its Prevention and Protection Business Manager, which includes all of the company’s long-term fire retardant customers who use Perimeter Solutions’ Ground Application products. Chris spent the last six years overseeing Perimeter’s full-service tanker base program as its U.S. Airbase Services Manager, which included 40+ full-service tanker bases in the Western U.S.  Perimeter Solutions’ Prevention and Protection Business is the industry leader for safe, effective, and reliable ground applications of long-term fire retardant. The company is opening new doors in the wildland fire protection industry by bringing the same reliable long-term fire retardant tool that has been used from the air for 60 years and putting it in people’s hands on the ground to help save lives and protect homes, property, and critical infrastructure.

Yana Valachovic is the County Director – Forest Advisor for the University of California Cooperative Extension in Humboldt and Del Norte Counties. Yana is passionate about finding solutions to challenging problems bringing her skills in forestry, natural resources, and sociological research, design and mitigation of the built environment for wildfire resilience, as well as her years rooted in County government and community engagement. She is a member of the Governor’s Wildfire Forest Resilience Task Force and other state fire policy workgroups. She is the co-lead of the Northern California region of the California Fire Science Consortium and is a founding member of the Northern California Prescribed Fire Council. She has co-authored papers on fire behavior in California forests and the intersection of fire performance in home and landscape design.  She is active in California policy development and has been a technical resource for bioenergy, forest management, home hardening, and improvements to defensible space legislation. She will share a vision for adaptation and is keenly interested in helping communities adapt to wildfire.

Stephen Watson is an emerging leader in the field of wildfire preparedness, and his invaluable contributions have been pivotal in the growth and development of the Ventura Regional Fire Safe Council (VRFSC). As the Executive Director, Stephen's deep understanding of the challenges inherent in running a nonprofit organization has been instrumental in propelling the Fire Safe Council forward. Though Stephen’s background stems more from a mental health area, he has been working in nonprofits for over ten years now.

During his time at the Fire Safe Council over the last two years, Stephen has witnessed and contributed to its tremendous growth. In particular, VRFSC’s Home Hardening program and Firewise USA® community development have begun to have a significant impact on Ventura County. Stephen’s insight from the early stages of these programs allows him to speak at length on the successes, challenges, and lessons learned.

Additionally, Stephen focused a great deal of his energy on organizational infrastructure, finances, grant tracking, policies, procedures, and more. As a result, he gained a deeper working knowledge of the administrative side of managing programs in addition to the operational aspect. This allows for a fully comprehensive view of all that goes into running a nonprofit in this field.

Anne Whatley has served for the last five years as the Facilitator for the Ventura County Long Term Disaster Recovery Group, a collaborative of more than 50 organizations from all sectors of the community jointly coordinating assistance to residents impacted by the 2017 and 2018 wildfires with an emphasis on serving the most vulnerable residents in our community. In this role, she has worked with the Ventura County VOAD to integrate lessons from these recent experiences to improve disaster preparation, response, and recovery and create a more resilient region including securing CDBG grant funding for disaster mitigation planning, training, and preparedness education. Anne’s work in disaster preparedness outside of California includes advising communities in the Midwest to better prepare for low-attention disasters through the Funders Network’s Philanthropic Preparedness, Resilience, and Emergency Partnership.

Anne is a strategy consultant at Network Impact Inc where she advises social enterprise clients such as Cisco Systems, Kaiser Permanente and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Prior to consulting she served as Managing Director for Cause Communications, a mission-driven communications agency based in Los Angeles. Anne received her MSc with honors from the London School of Economics, her BA from Washington University in St. Louis and is an alumna of the Coro Fellows program in Public Affairs. She lives in Ventura with her husband, children and dogs.

Matthew Wibbenmeyer is a Fellow at Resources for the Future (RFF), a non-partisan nonprofit research organization in Washington, DC focused on improving environmental, energy, and natural resource decisions through impartial economic research and policy engagement. Wibbenmeyer’s research studies climate impacts and mitigation within the US land sector, with a special emphasis on the impacts of accelerating US wildfire activity for communities, and how policies to mitigate hazard, vulnerability, and exposure to wildfire risk can be used to reduce these impacts. Before joining RFF, Wibbenmeyer earned a PhD in economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

As the Air Quality Meteorologist for the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District, Tommy’s primary functions are short-term air quality forecasting as well as maintenance and calibration of each air monitoring station’s suite of meteorological sensors. Additionally, he contributes to Ventura County’s Agricultural/Prescribed Burn Program, the Wildfire Smoke Text Alert System for Farmworkers, exceptional events mitigation, public outreach and provides research and data support for special projects and data requests. Tommy is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Coastal and Marine System Science with a focus on remote sensing from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.

Marion Wittmann, Ph.D. is a program officer in the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation's Wildfire Resilience Initiative, where she works on implementation and adaptive management of the foundation’s strategies and grantmaking to achieve healthy fire-adapted ecosystems and resilient fire-prone communities, by reducing the threat of severe wildfire and enabling beneficial fire.

Prior to joining the foundation, Marion was the Executive Director of the University of California Santa Barbara Natural Reserve System, stewarding nearly 60,000 acres of California’s lands -- supporting science, conservation, safety, and wildfire resilience in habitats ranging from the Channel Islands to the Sierra Nevada. Marion served as a AAAS Congressional Fellow in the United States Senate and was a Research Professor at the University of Nevada Reno. As a scientist, Marion has worked on collaborative research programs across the North American West, the Great Lakes and internationally in Central America, authoring over 25 peer-reviewed scientific articles in risk assessment, freshwater resource management, and environmental change. Marion is currently a member of the California’s AB1757 Natural and Working Lands Expert Advisory Committee, supporting the state’s carbon emissions reductions goals.

Marion received a B.A. in Integrative Biology from the University of California Berkeley, a Ph.D. in Environmental Science & Management from the University of California Santa Barbara, and was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California Davis - Tahoe Environmental Research Center, and the University of Notre Dame.

Dr. Kristina M. Wolf, Environmental Scientist for the Board of Forestry & Fire Protection (‘Board’), manages the activities and business of the Range Management Advisory Committee (RMAC), a statutory committee that advises the Board of Forestry on rangeland resources, along with being a Certified Range Manager in the State of California. She works with a variety of stakeholders across private and government sectors to address issues in range policy and management on working rangelands throughout California. She has a BS in Animal Science, an MS in Soil Science from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and a PhD in Ecology from UC Davis, with a focus on the ecology, economics, and social considerations of rangeland management in California. Dr. Wolf coordinates regular public meetings of the RMAC, works with stakeholders and partners to address rangeland needs across the State, assists in communications between the Board and advised agencies, and works with partners to develop an annual range-related public education and outreach series.

Roy Wright, President and CEO of the Insurance Institute for Building & Home Safety, is a leader in climate adaptation, building science, and disaster mitigation. A former FEMA official, Roy brings together stakeholders across industries and specialties to tackle some of the toughest disasters facing communities across the U.S. From wildfires to hurricanes, tornadoes to hailstorms, he oversees the research and risk-reduction efforts that are creating stronger, more resilient homes, businesses, and communities. Roy is a recognized resiliency shaper who has dedicated his career to breaking the cycle of human suffering that strikes families and communities in the wake of severe weather.

Recently returning to her native state of California, Pamela Wyville was appointed as the Director of Ventura County VOAD (Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster) during this past year. Prior to this, Pamela spent her first career as a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). As a diplomat, she has lived, worked, and traveled to over 100 countries worldwide. With a focus on community-based approaches and capacity development, she led USAID’s New Partners Initiative (NPI), managed $300 Million annually in grants and contracts with NGOs on behalf of the US Government, and served as the only career officer in the Center for Faith-based and Community Initiatives/Neighborhood Partnerships under two Administrations.

Pamela’s career in disasters started with USAID in West Africa focused on everything from grasshoppers and locusts to famine and food aid upon completion of her service as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Niger, West Africa. She has also worked on Haiti’s earthquake, tsunamis in Asia, and hurricanes in Central America and the Caribbean. With an MPH from Johns Hopkins University, much of her career was focused on public health including from HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Ebola, Zika, COVID, maternal health, and child survival as well as anti-trafficking in persons, gender-based violence, and child marriage. In addition to JHU, she was also educated at University of California at Santa Barbara, Oxford University, and the Marine Corps University at Quantico.

Leo Zlimen is the CEO of Ladris. Hailing from a fire-prone region in the Sierra Nevada foothills, Leo co-founded Ladris in 2019 while at UC Berkeley to bring key advancements in predictive artificial intelligence to the emerging field of climate risk management. In the years since, Ladris has had the unique opportunity to support leading emergency management agencies across the United States in their work to prepare, respond, recover and mitigate the impacts of fires, floods and other man-made and natural disasters on people and property.