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Who We Are

Steering Committee:

Aaron Lehmer, Network Development Director | E-mail
Aaron co-founded Bay Localize and now develops its Local Resilience Network, publishes Bay Localize News, and helps coordinate its outreach, communications, and fundraising efforts. He also serves on the Oakland Climate Action Coalition Steering Committee, the Oakland Food Policy Council, and Earth Island Institute's Program Committee. Aaron holds an M.A. in Globalization and the Environment from Humboldt State University and a triple B.A. in Anthropology, Philosophy, and Environmental Studies from Iowa State University. He also worked for the Ella Baker Center's Green-Collar Jobs Campaign, Circle of Life, Earth Island Institute, Grassroots Globalization Network, ReThink Paper, and with the Student Environmental Action Coalition. His commentaries have been featured on AlterNet and NPR, in the Earth Island Journal, Sacramento News & Review, Permaculture Activist, Energy Bulletin, and the S.F. Bay Guardian. Aaron lives in Berkeley and is an avid gardener, hiker, singer, and amateur astronomer.
Dave Room, Local Clean Energy Coordinator | E-mail
Dave is black man of mixed origin born and raised in Bay Area. He has connections with several communities: the Bay Area, people of color, and eco-resilience. He enjoys getting things started and handing them off as appropriate. His daughter is his inspiration. Dave co-founded Bay Localize and coordinates the Local Clean Energy Alliance. Dave also does solo performance theater (The Monkey Trap) and Green Pill Workshops to awaken and activate mainstream audiences, people of color, and youth. He coined the term “Energy Preparedness” and served on the Oil Independent Oakland by 2020 Task Force. Dave holds an M.S. in Engineering-Economic Systems and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.
Kirsten Schwind, Program Director | E-mail
Kirsten brings over eleven years of organizing, research, and program development in the fields of social justice, global trade, food policy, labor organizing, clean energy, and local resources. Her writings on localization have been widely reprinted in several languages, and she enjoys speaking with groups of all sizes. She co-authored the report Tapping the Potential of Urban Rooftops, which won an award from the American Planning Association's California Chapter. Kirsten holds a B.A. in Economics and Public Policy from Swarthmore College and an M.S. in Natural Resources Management from the University of Michigan. At Bay Localize she focuses on program and organizational development. She has worked with a number of Bay Area nonprofits including as Program Director at Food First, and currently serves on the City of Berkeley’s Energy Commission. Kirsten lived for several years in Latin America and is fluent in Spanish.
Linda Currie, Green Faith in Action Project Organizer | E-mail
Linda conducts outreach to faith-based communities to help congregants make their homes more energy efficienct. She has been coaching groups of people around the East Bay to lower their carbon footprints through a program called "The Low Carbon Diet." She has worked with the Berkeley Public Schools, City of Berkeley, the YMCA, Berkeley's Energy Commission, First Presbyterian Church, the Ecology Center and the City of Albany. She also serves as a board member for Green Sangha, a chapter-based nonprofit dedicated to inspiring awakened action on various environmental fronts. Linda lives in Berkeley with her family and can be found biking around town, hanging clothes on the line, muttering to squirrels and occasionally painting.
Nile Malloy, Steering Committee | E-mail
Nile is a movement builder and organizer committed to social, economic, and ecological justice. He is currently Program Director for Communities for a Better Environment. He recently served as the Freedom from Oil campaigner at Rainforest Action Network. Outside of campaigning against big corporations on environmental standards, criteria and policy, he is deeply invested in local solution-based projects in the Midwest and in the Bay Area to revitalize urban centers. He also has wide-ranging background as a teacher and has taught at the New College of California in the Activism and Social Change Program. He holds a B.A. in Urban Anthropology and African American Studies from the University of Michigan and an M.A. in Cultural Anthropology and Social Transformation with a focus on local and global environmental justice projects. An aspiring writer and poet, Nile resides in Oakland.
Rosa Esperanza González, Steering Committee | E-mail
Rosa is a popular educator, writer, and visual and performing artist. As coordinator of popular education for the Partnership for Immigrant Leadership and Action (PILA), she helps link political education and community organizing. She designs curricula and facilitates theater-based workshops and townhall meetings for critical community dialog. Rosa is also a member of headRush, a psycho-political performance and popular education crew dedicated to inspiring working class communities through a blend of spoken word and teatro-style political satire. In 2002, she wrote and directed her first play, "My Camino Real," produced by Los Del Pueblos Actors' Lab. She writes to evoke spirit, inspire young people, and honor her ancestors. Rosa has a Masters in Latin American Studies from Stanford University and a Masters in Teaching from the Arts in Education program at the University of San Francisco.

Interns:

Ashley Weiss, Bay Area 2020 Network Development Intern | E-mail
Ashley helps with the Bay Area 2020 Program, networking with local groups and leaders to create a coalition of communities striving toward resilience. As a BFA interdisciplinary student at California College of the Arts, Ashley is delving into urban issues as they pertain to social interaction and use of public open space. She is dedicated to collaboration as a way to solve local issues through our collective effort and creativity. Ashley lives in San Francisco and spends much time daydreaming about repurposing all neglected or car-filled lots into community gardens and gathering places.
Emily Mikhaiel, Local Clean Energy Research Intern | E-mail
Emily assists with research for the Local Clean Energy Alliance, with a focus on advancing residential energy conservation programs and green jobs in the East Bay. She holds a BA in International Relations and a minor in Environmental Policy Analysis from the University of California, Davis. She helped to implement state clean energy policy by working for the Million Solar Roofs Program and with the California Energy Commission. She also helped launch a campaign in Sacramento to rid schools, parks, and hospitals of harmful pesticides. Emily lives in Oakland where she enjoys going to her neighborhood farmers market and nagging her roommates about recycling.
Jenni Perez, Media and Communications Intern | E-mail
Jenni assists with Bay Localize's overall communications, outreach, and online social media campaigns. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. While completing her studies, she developed a strong interest in social justice and global resistance. This, along with an increasing awareness of peak oil and climate change, led her down the path of sustainability. When she's not practicing her Permaculture skills, she enjoys playing the violin, singing, and songwriting.
Rachel Ortega, Use Your Roof! Project Intern | E-mail
Rachel assists the Use Your Roof! program, coordinating volunteer work days, raising community awareness, and assisting in green roof policy development. She is currently a student in Urban Studies and Planning at San Francisco State in hopes to start a career centered on community development. As a native in the Bay Area, Rachel wishes to learn more about the environmental injustices that dwell among us, as well as her role as a student, Filipino woman, and active member of the community.
Tad Veltrop, Bay Area 2020 Organizing Intern | E-mail
Tad is supporting the roll-out of Bay Localize's new Community Resilience Toolkit. After working over a decade in the field of social work, he has turned his focus towards helping to create environmental, economic, and social sustainability. He holds a Masters in Public Administration from California State University, East Bay. His background in social work and strong interest in the environment has led him to appreciate the crucial role that community resilience and re-localization plays in regional health. Tad enjoys being outdoors, exploring new territory, and experimenting with video and photography.

Board of Advisors:

Allyse Heartwell, Local Food Systems Advisor
Allyse holds a B.A. in International Relations from Brown University, where her studies focused on international environmental issues. She currently works as Coordinator of the Buy Fresh, Buy Local program at the Community Alliance with Family Farmers. She worked on media and community outreach for Bay Localize and served on the Steering Committee for over two years. A relatively recent Bay Area transplant, she now focuses her interest in sustainability on the local level and is involved in many activities relating to peak oil, urban agriculture, and localization. She lives in San Francisco, where she gardens, volunteers for Alemany Farm, and walks a lot.
Ingrid Severson, Rooftop Resource Systems Advisor
Ingrid is the former organizer and project leader of Bay Localize's Rooftop Resources Project and served on the Steering Committee for three years. She gained experience in the environmental field through undergraduate studies at San Francisco State and New College of California. She pursued a hands-on approach to Deep Ecology with extensive travels and environmental programs in Latin America. Ingrid is a certified Permaculture Designer and is competent in Spanish. She has worked with Sonoma County Conservation Action, the Sierra Club Bay Chapter, and independently in various video productions promoting environmental awareness. She has also held a professional therapeutic massage practice for eight years. Ingrid lives in Oakland and enjoys exploring the natural treasures within the Bay Area.
Leah Fessenden, Use Your Roof! Program Advisor
As a former intern with the Use Your Roof! program, Leah coordinated volunteer work days with Bay Localize's affiliated rooftop garden projects, assisted with green roof policy development, and equipped rooftop enthusiasts with tools and resources to get started on their own projects. She now serves as an advisor to the Use Your Roof! program. As a student in Environmental Management at Merritt College, she is well-versed in green building, and has gained a great deal of hands on experience with living roof systems, particularly through a greenhouse project at the department's headquarters, the Self-Reliant House. Leah lives in Oakland and is an avid fan of quality afternoon coffee.
Katherine "Kat" Steele
Kat is a permaculture activist, designer, educator, and founder of the Urban Permaculture Guild in Oakland. She facilitates workshops on natural building and permaculture as well as publicly speaks about eco-social design, city repair, and the power of placemaking. Trained in Ecovillage Design with the Findhorn Foundation of Scotland, Natural Building with Kleiwerks International, and Permaculture Design with the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, she also holds an MA in Creative Arts from San Francisco State University. She presently serves on the board of another Bay Area nonprofit organization devoted to peace, justice, and sustainablity, the NorCal Chapter of Architects, Designers, Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR) in Berkeley. She recently became one of a 1,000 Climate Project trainees, empowered to present a version of Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth slide presentation. Kat lives in Oakland and is devoted to localization, believing it to be a key strategy towards sustainability and thriveability.
Kevin Bayuk
Kevin started as an artist and filmmaker, explored an eight year meander as a technology entrepreneur (in an attempt to fund films) and has now graduated into a life as an activated advocate for ecotopian living. Currently he leverages his skills and relationships to develop organizations and projects that regenerate healthy ecosystems and socially just environments. In addition to advising Bay Localize, he serves on the Board of Directors for the Urban Alliance for Sustainability and Daily Acts. Kevin also facilitates permaculture trainings and shares his skills in organic gardening and composting in playshops and community workshops.
Dan Antonioli
Dan is a green construction specialist with over twenty years of experience in general construction and ten years in ecological design, alternative construction, and green building. He has a background in green building, natural building, permaculture, and ecovillage design and development. He's a licensed general contractor, a registered green builder with Build It Green, and has memberships with the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), the American Solar Energy Association, the Northern California Solar Energy Association, and the Eastern Oregon Renewable Energy Association. He's currently creating an inner city ecovillage in Oakland and a five parcel intentional community in Laytonville, California.

Consultative Advisors:

Volunteers:

  • Jessica Bell
  • Anne Blackstone
  • Krista Brown
  • Sara Bruckmeier
  • Brent Bucknum
  • Bruce Campbell
  • Bill Christopher
  • Debbie Collins
  • Beth Copanas
  • Victor Douglas
  • Erin Fisher
  • Mary Hansel
  • Janet Kobren
  • Jan Lundberg
  • Tyler Manchuck
  • Hugo Medina
  • Ericka Montana
  • Gaylord Moore
  • Rob Shapera
  • Kat Steele
  • Bob Strayer
  • Mary Thomas
  • Babak Tondre
  • Diana Voigts
  • Davin Wentworth
  • Carlucci Winborn
  • Share/Save

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