• Session: Earth, wind and fire--the renewable energy connection

Loren Aiton has been involved in the construction industry for over 22 years, 18 years as a Licensed Architect. Loren has performed in the capacity of Designer, Project Manager, Project Architect, Construction Administrator, Construction Program Manager, and LEED™ Accredited Professional, through all phases of design and construction of new and remodeled facilities on Both Public Sector and Private Sector Projects. Loren became involved in Green Building about 4 years ago and is currently the LEED™ Accredited Professional on the first LEED™ registered project in Bakersfield, California. Loren Aiton is a founding member of the US Green Building Council Central California Chapter Formational Committee and is active in the Green Building Industry in the San Joaquin Valley Region.

• Session: Green buildings now!

• Session: 3000 megawatts in 10 years

Ladi joined the Sustainable Agriculture program with Sustainable Conservation, and brought with him over 15 years of agribusiness finance and product management experience. As a financial consultant and economist, Ladi helped renewable energy and other Central Valley-based agribusinesses solve startup and business continuation challenges. Most recently he managed the permitting and financing of biogas generation facilities located at municipal landfills in California. As product manager with Harris Moran, an international vegetable seed company, he successfully managed the introduction and commercialization of numerous vegetable varieties.

Ladi received a BS in tropical agriculture from the University of Sierra Leone, an MS in agricultural economics from Texas A&M University and an MBA from Santa Clara University. He also studied computer technology at UC Santa Cruz, and is a licensed instructor.

• Session: Renewable energy and agriculture--partners for the future

A third-generation Fresno native, Elliott Balch works in the State Capitol office of Assembly Member Juan Arambula (D-Fresno), covering natural resources, agriculture, utilities, and other issues. He is also principally responsible for coordinating the office’s efforts with the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley. Before joining the Capitol staff in November, Balch worked for two years as a field representative for Mr. Arambula, based in Fresno. Balch is a past board member of the Downtown Association of Fresno, where he chaired Fulton Plaza Thursdays, a monthly street fair, in 2006, and was an active advocate on the future of downtown Fresno’s Fulton Mall. He holds an undergraduate degree in physics from Harvard University.

• Session: Infrastructure bonds--transportation, water and housing

Born Los Alamos, New Mexico she was admitted to bar, 1988, California and U.S. District Court, Southern and Central Districts of California. Her education includes University of California, San Diego (B.A., 1982); Hastings College of the Law, University of California (J.D., 1987).She is a member of the San Diego County and American Bar Associations; State Bar of California; Association of Environmental Professionals. Her areas of practice are in Environmental Law; Airport Law; Airport Land Use Commission; Land Use Compatibility Planning; Zoning, Planning and Land Use; Air Quality; Endangered Species; Hazardous Waste; Hazardous Waste Regulation.

• Session: Airport land use compatibility planning

John Baltierra is a 14 year veteran of both the U.S. Army and the U.S. Marine Corps. After an honorable discharge from the Marine Corps, John became an agricultural Standards Specialist, first with the U.S.D.A. then with the County of Fresno. His interest in computers came when he picked up an old computer at a garage sale and took it apart to see how it ran. He taught himself a lot about hardware and software, and then when the opportunity came he became a certified technician. He took over the Firebaugh Computer Learning Center in November 2005. It wasn’t until he became the Executive Director of the Center that he discovered how important a Community Technology Center is in fighting the Digital Divide that exists in rural communities.

• Session: Rural technology access--narrowing the gap

• Session: Health Care: The Challenge

Caroline Beteta serves as the first Executive Director of the new industry-led California Travel and Tourism Commission (CTTC), a non-profit organization created to market California as a desirable travel destination and to increase the Golden State's share of tourism-related revenues. In her capacity as executive director, Ms. Beteta is responsible for implementing CTTC's marketing plan and serving as the lead spokesperson for California's $71 billion tourism industry. Under legislation (California Tourism Marketing Act) that created the CTTC, she also serves as Director of the California Division of Tourism. Ms. Beteta's recent accomplishments have resulted in her being named to Travel Agent Magazine's "100 Rising Stars" for three consecutive years (1997-1999). In addition, Travel Agent Magazine named her one of the "Most Powerful Women in Travel" for 1999. Under her leadership, California Tourism has been the recipient of many national tourism and marketing awards from organizations such as the Travel Industry Association of America (TIA), National Council of State Travel Directors and Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International.

Prior to her selection as Executive Director of the CTTC, Ms. Beteta served as Deputy Secretary for the California Trade & Commerce Agency. As Deputy Secretary for Marketing and Communications, Ms. Beteta oversaw the economic development, international trade and investment, and tourism marketing programs for the State of California, which included advertising, public relations, cooperative marketing, collateral and fulfillment, and trade development efforts in key in-state, domestic and international markets. From 1991 through 1997 she served as Assistant Secretary for the California Trade and Commerce Agency and Director of Tourism Marketing.

• Session: Branding your community

Kenneth Brennan is a Senior Project Manager in Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s (PG&E’s) Gas Transmission and Distribution group. He has worked with PG&E for nearly five years in a regulatory capacity focusing on natural gas market structure, tariff, and interconnection issues in numerous proceedings before the California Public Utilities Commission. In his current position in Business Development, Mr. Brennan is responsible for the development of the gas quality and facilities specifications, and contract requirements and rules necessary for PG&E to accept digested biogas from dairy waste into PG&E's gas transmission pipelines. He is also working to increase PG&E’s involvement in other green initiatives such as wastewater treatment and biomass.

• Session: Empowering Customers

As a senior planner for Mead & Hunt, Ken Brody manages airport planning, land use planning, and environmental projects. His strong analytical, design, writing, and communication skills have been instrumental in the firm’s outstanding record of plan adoption and implementation.

Mr. Brody is among the leading experts on airport land use compatibility planning in the state of California. He has spoken on the topic at numerous public meetings and regional conferences. A major highlight to his more than 30 years of experience in the field was his responsibility as the principal author of the 2002 California Airport Land Use Planning Handbook, which was published by the California Division of Aeronautics.

Mr. Brody has prepared compatibility plans for airports throughout California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. His responsibilities include project management and preparing master plans for airports and heliports, and preparing specialized planning analyses.

Another facet of aviation planning in which Mr. Brody has greatly expanded the firm’s capabilities is in helicopter facility planning. In addition to preparing the plans for these facilities, he has represented the firm at many public hearings on frequently controversial proposals for heliports at hospitals.

• Session: Airport land use compatibility planning

Mr. Carbone has been involved in airport/land use compatibility planning for the past 24 years. He is currently a Senior Planner for the County of San Mateo, California. His primary duties include providing staff support to the San Francisco International Airport/Community Roundtable and to the San Mateo County Airport Land Use Commission. Since August 2004, David has served on the Advisory Board for the Federal Aviation Administration Center of Excellence, known as PARTNER (Partnership for Air Transportation Noise and Emissions Reduction). In October 2006, he was invited to serve on a task force to advise the American Planning Association (APA) Legislative and Policy Committee on airport environs planning issues. He has also served twice on the Caltrans Division of Aeronautics Advisory Committee to assist in the preparation of the California Airport Land Use Planning Handbook.

• Session: Airport land use compatibility planning

• Session: Culture and transportation--lessons for Highway 99

Since joining Kennedy/Jenks in 2005, Gary Carlton has provided regulatory liaison services to Kennedy/Jenks’ clients in the public and private sector throughout California to assist them in developing regulatory compliance strategies and obtaining wastewater discharge permits. Clients include major trade associations for the food and wine industries, individual processors and wineries, and numerous Publicly Owned Treatment Works.

Prior to joining Kennedy/Jenks, Gary spent 8 years with the California Water Boards, serving for 5 years as the Executive Officer of the Central Valley Regional Board and for 3 years as Member of the State Water Board.

Prior to that, from 1977 to 1997, he co-founded and served as President and CEO of an environmental engineering firm providing water and wastewater consulting services in 15 major cities across the U.S. and internationally.

Since joining Kennedy/Jenks in 2005, Gary Carlton has provided regulatory liaison services to Kennedy/Jenks’ clients in the public and private sector throughout California to assist them in developing regulatory compliance strategies and obtaining wastewater discharge permits. Clients include major trade associations for the food and wine industries, individual processors and wineries, and numerous Publicly Owned Treatment Works.

Prior to joining Kennedy/Jenks, Gary spent 8 years with the California Water Boards, serving for 5 years as the Executive Officer of the Central Valley Regional Board and for 3 years as Member of the State Water Board.

Prior to that, from 1977 to 1997, he co-founded and served as President and CEO of an environmental engineering firm providing water and wastewater consulting services in 15 major cities across the U.S. and internationally.

Gary received his B.S. degree in Civil Engr from U.C. Davis and M.S. degree in Environmental Engr from California State Univ at Sacramento. He is a Registered Civil Engr in CA. Gary received his B.S. degree in Civil Engr from U.C. Davis and M.S. degree in Environmental Engr from California State Univ at Sacramento. He is a Registered Civil Engr in CA.

• Session: Addressing salinity--some solutions

• Session: Dollars for education

Kathy Chorba is the Business and Project Development Manager at the Center for Health and Technology. She has worked for the UC Davis Health System for over 20 years, and is a founding member of the Center for Health and Technology’s Telemedicine Program, which began in 1996. Throughout Ms. Chorba’s history with the UCDHS and it’s Center for Health and Technology, she has acquired an extensive clinical operations background in primary care, rural health, and the delivery of specialty care. In her role as Operations Manager, Ms. Chorba has successfully implemented more than 30 UC Davis specialty clinics at more than 40 community hospitals and clinics throughout California. In her role as Business Development Manager, she has successfully designed, procured, managed and completed numerous large scale projects integrating technology, patient care and human resources, funded by Federal, State, public and private agencies. Ms. Chorba’s exposure to the unique health care and educational needs of diverse populations of patients and physicians throughout California’s rural communities and state facilities provides her with a wealth of knowledge regarding the challenges and successes of telemedicine and distance education.

Ms. Chorba plays an active leadership role in the strategic visioning and development process of new programs and joint ventures for the Center for Health and Technology. She serves as Project Director and Lead Instructor for the CHT’s Telemedicine Learning Center, a three-day, CME accredited course designed to teach health care professionals the technical and operational aspects of building and sustaining a telemedicine program. She has been an invited guest speaker at over 20 national conferences and workshops, addressing issues pertaining to Telemedicine, it’s many applications, and techniques for successful implementation and sustainability.

• Session: Health by the megabyte

Sheriff Adam Christianson began his career by graduating from San Joaquin Delta College with a certification in Paramedicine. He worked as a paramedic in Stanislaus County for several years including work as a flight paramedic for Medi-Flight of Northern California. Sheriff Adam Christianson began his career by graduating from San Joaquin Delta College with a certification in Paramedicine. He worked as a paramedic in Stanislaus County for several years including work as a flight paramedic for Medi-Flight of Northern California.

Sheriff Christianson started his law enforcement career with the Ceres Police Department. He also worked for the Modesto Police Department before joining the Sheriff’s Department in 1996. He has worked a variety of assignments including Patrol, the Reservoir Unit, K9 handler, Bailiff, Field Training Officer, Hi-Tech Crimes Detective, and Sergeant. He has supervised the K9 Unit and the Satellite Office of the Sacramento Valley Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force.

Christianson was promoted to Lieutenant in February of 2004 and asked by Sheriff Les Weidman to lead the Homeland Security Division. As a Lieutenant, Christianson worked with several other federal, state and local agencies in developing Emergency Response Plans, dealing with domestic disaster preparedness issues and sharing information that is critical to the protection and safety of our communities. He also worked with the California Anti-Terrorism Task Force and the Joint Terrorism Task Force. He also held the positions of Administrative Lieutenant overseeing Human Resources, Training/Recruitment/, Background Investigations, Internal Affairs, and the Injury Management Coordinator, the Commander of the K-9 Unit, Commander of the Air Support Unit and the Northwest Area Commander including the town of Salida. Sheriff Christianson has a BA degree in Criminal Justice Management.

Sheriff Adam Christianson was sworn into office on July 11, 2006.

• Session: Gangs--enforcement and intervention strategies

• Session: Growing a community

• Session: Earth, wind and fire--the renewable energy connection

• Session: Developing your downtown

• Session: Building coalitions around transportation
• Session: Culture and transportation--lessons for Highway 99

A native of the Azores, Portugal, who taught and served as a principal in area schools for many years, Costa has done research which has focused on bilingual education, teaching and education administration, and reading and literature programs for school children. He serves as Director of the Center for Portuguese Studies at CSU Stanislaus. Costa has an Ed.D. from University of the Pacific.

• Session: Immigrants--international becomes local

Cheri Cruz is the executive director of the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium. Born and raised in Fresno, Cruz is a first-generation college student who has dedicated her professional career to helping young people achieve their educational goals. She is well acquainted with the work of the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium after having served as its associate director from 2001 to 2005.

Cruz graduated from McLane High School. She attended Fresno City College and transferred to California State University, Fresno where she earned a bachelor’s in English literature and a master’s in education counseling and student services. In addition to her position as executive director of the CVHEC, she is an adjunct professor at Fresno Pacific University.

Most recently, Cruz was a consultant with an educational consulting firm in Fresno where she developed programs and conducted program evaluations for K-12 and higher education institutions. Previously, she was director of extension and travel study programs at Fresno State. She also served as academic program coordinator for the UCSF Fresno Latino Center for Medical Education and Research. Prior to that she was a program coordinator with Extended Opportunities Programs and Services at West Hills Community College District.

• Session: California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley

• Session: Central Valley youth voice

Ms. Del Chiaro directs Environment California’s Clean Energy Program and serves as the contact for state clean energy issues. Since 2003, Ms. Del Chiaro has been the lead advocate of the Million Solar Roofs campaign. She also directed Environment California’s Clean Energy L.A campaign, a successful coalition effort to establish a 20% by 2017 renewable energy standard at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Ms. Del Chiaro advocates in the California state legislature, before the California Energy Commission and the California Public Utilities Commission, and before municipal agencies and governments on clean energy issues. She's been quoted and published in numerous media outlets including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, San Francisco Chronicle, San Diego Union Tribune, San Jose Mercury News, Bloomberg News, Sacramento Business Journal, Photon International, and Comstock’s Business Magazine and many more. Del Chiaro has been invited to testify before the Little Hoover Commission and various legislative committees and energy policy workshops.

Prior to joining Environment California’s staff, Bernadette served as Organizing Director for the Toxics Action Center where she coordinated the successful campaign to clean up Connecticut's "Filthy Five" power plants. She remains on the Board of Directors for the Toxics Action Center and is a former Board Member of the New England Grassroots Environment Fund. In 1998, she graduated from Green Corps, the field school for environmental organizing, and from 1995-1996, Ms. Del Chiaro staffed the local campaign office to stop the proposed Ward Valley nuclear waste dump in Needles, CA. Del Chiaro holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Conservation and Resource Studies from the University of California at Berkeley.

• Session: 3000 megawatts in 10 years

• Session: Cities respond to climate change (presentation)
• Session: Cities respond to climate change (interactive)

Theresa A. Dunham is currently on counsel with the law firm Somach, Simmons & Dunn in Sacramento. Ms. Dunham’s practice emphasizes water quality law including National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permitting, total maximum daily load issues, was discharge requirements, conditional waivers from waste discharge requirements for irrigated agriculture, and agricultural resources. Prior to joining Somach, Simmons & Dunn, Ms. Dunham provided environmental consulting services to public agencies and private entities, and was Director of Water Resources for the California Farm Bureau Federation, the state’s largest farm organization with more than 94,000 members in California. Ms. Dunham is a graduate of the California Agricultural Leadership Program (Class 29). She earned her J.D. from University of Pacific, McGeorge School of Law, in 1996, and is a member of the State Bar of California.

• Session: Addressing salinity--some solutions

• Session: Measuring Community Well-Being through Indicators

Jennifer Faughn formed an economic development consulting business in 1999 after identifying a need by cities and counties for assistance in strategic planning and marketing. Faughn brings over 17 years of ED experience to her company, Strategy One. She has been instrumental in setting up “award-winning” programs for recruitment, expansion and retention of business throughout California.

• Session: California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley

• Session: Dollars for education

• Session: Building coalitions around transportation

• Session: Culture and transportation--lessons for Highway 99

Arturo Flores was the third-youngest of 10 children, raised in the Valley and graduated from Atwater High School in 1968 He attended California State University, Stanislaus and earned his bachelor’s degree in social sciences in 1973. In 1976 he had a master’s degree in education with an emphasis in bilingual and cross cultural education from California State University, Sacramento.

Arturo has taught Spanish, History, Social Studies and Bilingual Science prior to becoming a principal, administrator and superintendent. He will be the Superintendent for Modesto City Schools when he completes his current role as Associate Superintendent of Sacramento City Schools.

He has been very active in his communities in a variety of roles such as board president for Center for Fathers and Families, and Boy Scouts of America. Arturo is married to his high school sweetheart, Olivia, and they have they have two children.

• Session: Preschool for all

Georgia Fong is the Assistant Bureau Chief in charge of the Criminal Justice Statistics Center at the California Department of Justice. Ms. Fong has over 30 years of civil service but has served in the Department for over 19 years, having held various management and policy assignments in the areas of human resources, program review, internal control and program compliance auditing, strategic planning, privacy and security of personally identifiable information. For eight years, she served as the Director of the Office of Program Review and Audits in the Attorney General’s Executive Office. In her current capacity as the Assistant Chief over the Criminal Justice Statistics Center for the past year, she has the overall responsibility for the collection and publication of criminal justice statistics from law enforcement agencies and probation departments.

• Session: Criminal justice: What are our available measures?

• Session: Gangs--enforcement and intervention strategies

Josh Franco was born in Mexico and raised in Bellflower, a city located in Southeast Los Angeles County. After graduating from high school in 2003, he attended Cerritos College where he studied Economics and Political Science. In fall 2005, Josh transferred with highest honors to UC Merced and is currently pursuing a BA in Public Policy. In spring 2006, Josh graduated from the Great Valley Center’s Institute for the Development of Emerging Area Leaders (IDEAL). At UC Merced, he serves as the Student Body President and Founder of Students for the Central Valley, a growing network of high school and college students who care about the social, economic and environmental well-being of the region. Moreover, Josh serves on the Merced County Association of Governments Citizen Advisory Committee and is involved in the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley.

• Session: Engage students today for a better tomorrow

Mr. Guido Franco is the technical lead on climate change research for the California Energy Commission’s Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) Program. Mr. Franco started working in climate change in 1995 when he was the principal author of the statewide inventory of greenhouse gases prepared by the Energy Commission under funding from the US Environmental Protection Agency. This inventory was very well received and resulted in the passage of a law requiring the Energy Commission to update this inventory periodically. He was the main author of the five-year climate change research plan released by PIER in 2003. Mr. Franco has conceived and managed numerous research projects on climate change and has been the main force behind the highly successful PIER annual conferences on climate change. Mr. Franco was one of the technical leaders of a scientific assessment prepared in support of the Climate Action Team. Currently, he chairs the Scenarios Subgroup formed by technical representatives from different state agencies working on the preparation of the 2008 scientific assessment which will be delivered to the Governor and the Legislature late next year. Mr. Franco is licensed to practice engineering in California and holds a master’s degree in engineering from the University of California at Berkeley in thermal sciences and fluid dynamics.

• Session: Is it the weather?

Jesse D. Frederick, Vice President of WZI Inc., is a Chemical Engineer and a Registered Engineer in the State of Texas. Mr. Frederick has thirty years professional experience as an engineer, project manager and department manager, having served as the Manager of Environmental Affairs for a Fortune 1000 company. Mr. Frederick has developed cost effective permitting and compliance strategies for various sized projects ranging from $50 million to $500 million, including international projects. He has extensive domestic experience in environmental compliance and permitting and has been involved in regulatory development and the public review process throughout the United States.

Mr. Frederick also holds patents for well abandonment, biodigestion, and noise-silencer designs.

• Session: Got breath?

A faculty at UCD for 35 years, Professor Fujimoto has created many Asian American programs on campus. For instance, he actively worked with the founding Students of the Asian American Studies Program, which was started by an on-campus organization, AAC _ Asian American Concern. He also helped create the Applied Behavioral Sciences Department. In addition, he organized the Graduate program in Community Development, in which his "students wrote up energy conservation ordinances" that helped Davis' reputation and started the Winds of Change newspaper. As a faculty member in ASA, Fujimoto feels that ASA has encouraged the formation of different coalitions and Asian American events. At press time, he is the project facilitator for the Central Valley Partnership for Citizenship, which is an organization that helps immigrants and poor communities in the Central Valley. CVP consists of 21 different organizations that help people build a civil society. He is currently working on a project called "Around the World in the Central Valley," which reflects the diversity in the people and culture. Being an emeriti faculty, Fujimoto teaches two Community and Regional Development courses off campus each year.

• Session: Immigrants--international becomes local

Steve Galeria is a senior manager in the Criminal Justice Statistics Center in the California Department of Justice. Mr. Galeria has more than 35 years of state government experience in a variety of criminal justice staff and management assignments. His management assignments have included statewide law enforcement communications networks, automated databases, emergency operations, and quality assurance programs.

As the current manager of the Attorney General’s Statistical Analysis Center, Steve is responsible for the development of numerous special and mandated annual reports for the Legislature. These include such notable reports as Crime in California, Homicide in California, the County Crime Profile Series, Juvenile Justice in California, and of special interest today Hate Crime in California.

• Session: Criminal justice: What are our available measures?

• Session: Dollars for education

James Goldstene is the Smog Check Program manager for the California Air Resources Board. He is also assisting with the implementation of AB 32.

Prior to coming to the Air Resources Board, Mr. Goldstene held several leadership positions at the California Department of Consumer Affairs. Most recently, he was Deputy Chief/Interim Chief of the California Bureau of Automotive Repair.

For nearly 8 years, Mr. Goldstene worked at the State Treasurer’s Office. He was the Director of Policy Research for the California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission at the State Treasurer’s Office. In this role Mr. Goldstene was responsible for monitoring trends in municipal finance and making policy recommendations to the Commission and the State Treasurer. Prior to that, Mr. Goldstene was a manager at the California Pollution Control Financing Authority (CPCFA), also in the State Treasurer's Office.

Before joining the Authority, Mr. Goldstene was a senior policy advisor to Lieutenant Governor Leo McCarthy, working on environmental and economic development issues, and a legislative aide to former Assemblyman Lloyd Connelly, where he worked on insurance, education, criminal justice and health issues.

Mr. Goldstene teaches part-time in the Government Department at California State University, Sacramento.

Mr. Goldstene has a bachelors and masters degree in Government from California State University, Sacramento. He completed graduate work in Politics at the University of Bristol in England.

• Session: Is it the weather?

Jose Gomez migrated to Stockton California from Mexico in 1978 at the age of ten, and at the age of twelve he joined a gang for protection.

During his teen age years he was incarcerate, stabbed near his heart by rival gang members and shot during a drive-by-shooting. With the help of a high school teacher and gang detective Dale Wagner he was able to graduate from Edison high school with honors and served four years in the United States Marines. Jose has an Associate in Arts degree in Sociology from Delta College.

During 1991 to 1998 Jose worked as a Probation Aide in the San Joaquin County Juvenile Probation Gang Unit, Intensive Supervision Unit and Project 654 unit. In April of 1998 he was hired by the City of Stockton Peacekeepers as a Youth Outreach worker in charge of the Latino gangs. Jose is currently the program’s coordinator.

In 1994 he was the recipient a $50,000 fellowship award from the California Wellness Foundation for his efforts to reduce gang violence.

• Session: Gangs--enforcement and intervention strategies

Jennifer Gong is the Executive Director of Youth In Focus, a nonprofit training and consulting organization that support youth-led action research, evaluation, and planning. Jennifer is an accomplished researcher and policy analyst with nearly two decades of experience working for education equity on the local, state, and national levels. She holds a doctorate in education from UCLA (working closely with Dr. Jeannie Oakes) and a Masters from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. She has honed her policy expertise working for the California State Assembly Education Committee, the California State Office of Research and the Los Angeles Educational Partnership, and most recently was a professor in the College of Education at the University of Georgia. Jennifer is passionate about participatory research and policy formation, liberatory education, and social justice.

• Session: Youth leadership

Ellen Greenberg is a city planner working at the complex intersection of land use, transportation, and urban design. Ms. Greenberg's practice is distinguished by her talent for synthesizing complex information with clarity and purpose, equipping communities with the tools needed to achieve their aspiration for mobility, place making, and environmental quality.

Ellen Greenberg earned the degrees of Master of Science in Transportaion Engineering and Master of City Planning at the University of California at Berkeley. She holds of Bachelor of Arts in Geography.

She currently has a specialized consulting practice focusing on implementing the goals of smart growth, sustainability and livable communities through an integrated approach to land use, transportation, and urban design.

• Session: Big Streets

Darla Guenzler is the Executive Director of the California Council of Land Trusts. She has led numerous policy, research and collaborative projects on improving the use and management of land protection and management tools, as well as developing regional conservation plans and funding strategies. She was previously Associate Director of the Bay Area Open Space Council, is a frequent instructor and member of national committees on land trust issues, and holds a PhD from University of California in the area of land conservation.

• Session: Ballot box conservation and preservation

Gerald W. Haslam's latest publication is a novel, Grace Period (University of Nevada Press, 2006). A Contributing Writer at the Los Angles TImes' magazine, West, he was born in Bakersfield and raised in Oildale. His father was a Texan, his mother a fourth-generation Hispanic Californian. He worked as a farm laborer, an oilfield roughneck, and a soldier, then matriculated to college. He holds a B.A. and M.A. from San Francisco State, plus a Ph.D. from Union Graduate School in Cincinnati. He taught for 30 years at Sonoma State University before retiring in 1997; he is now adjunct faculty at University of San Francisco and Sonoma State. He has one wife (plenty), two dogs (plenty), five kids (plenty), plus eight grandchildren (not nearly enough).
Haslam has published three novels, eight collections of short fiction, four non-fiction volumes, three essay collections, and ten booklets or monographs, as well as edited eight anthologies. His work has won numerous honors, including a Commonwealth Club Medal, a Bay Area Book Reviewers' Award, a Benjamin Franklin Award, and a Josephine Miles Prize. His Workin' Man Blues won Rolling Stone's Ralph J. Gleason Award in 2000, while his novel, Straight White Male won the Western States Book Award for Fiction that year. Coming of Age in California: Personal Essays (1990/ 2nd edition 2000), was selected by a San Francisco Chronicle reader's poll as one of the twentieth century's 100 most important non-fiction books from the West.

• Session: Valley writers read

Professor of Education, Co-Director, CANDEL at UC Davis. His expertise is in Curriculum theory and change; Educational Ecology of communities; Educational Leadership; School, curriculum and community change; School restructuring: Organizational arrangements and structures; School culture: change and cognition. He has a Ph.D., Curriculum and the Study of Schooling from UCLA.

• Session: Measuring Community Well-Being through Indicators

Mr. Hendrix is the primary author of the Association of Environmental Professionals (AEP) White Paper on Climate Change Impact Analysis in CEQA Documents. The White Paper was written as interim guidance in the analysis of climate change impacts associated with development projects.
With an education in Environmental Science and Air Quality Management, Michael Hendrix is one of the State’s leading air quality scientists. He is the recent recipient of AEP’s "Professional Achievement Award” for innovative Air Quality Mitigation Programs for projects that provide comprehensive air pollutant reduction measures throughout the life of a project. AEP specifically recognized that “his commitment to balancing the need for industrial, commercial and residential development projects in the State with the reduction of air pollution is evident through his dedication to air quality evaluations and mitigation that significantly reduce air pollution generated by the expansion of these markets.”

• Session: Is it the weather?

• Session: Dollars for education

• Session: Dollars for education

As Vice President for Commercial and Industrial Development at Tejon Ranch Company, Barry G. Hibbard is responsible for marketing, sales and leasing the 1450-acre Tejon Industrial Complex. Since he joined Tejon Ranch Company in 1998, Hibbard has sold, leased or developed 164 acres with 2.5 million square feet of industrial properties, and 40,000 square feet of freeway commercial/retail properties.

Hibbard graduated with his bachelor’s degree in finance from Michigan State University, and his MBA from California State University, Bakersfield. He has been appointed to the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP) Build-to-Suit Forum and is an active member of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals. He was appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to the California Economic Strategy Panel (CSCMP) and the San Joaquin Valley Partnership (SJVP). Hibbard is active in the community, supporting children’s charities through the Police Activities League and serving on the board of the Bakersfield Museum of Art.

• Session: Large scale planning, mitigation banking and habitat

• Session: Renewable energy and agriculture--partners for the future

Richard E. Howitt is professor and department chair of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California, Davis. He teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses in resource economics, economic theory, and operations research. His current research interests include constructing disaggregated economic modeling methods based on maximum entropy estimators, testing the allocation of water resources by market mechanisms, and developing empirical dynamic stochastic methods to analyze changes in investments and institutions. He serves on advisory boards for the California Department of Water Resources and the U.S. Academy of Sciences.

• Session: Envisioning futures for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta

President of the Association of Citizens and Friends of Liberia. Member of the Liberia Community Foundation. Have two children, Emmanuel and Teresa Hunter. I graduated with a AA degree in Business Administration from Consumer River College, Sacramento. Transferred to California State University, Sacramento, graduated with a Bachelor in Social Work, BSW, and currently attending California State University, Sacramento for my graduate degree in social worker, MSW. I will be graduating in May 2008.

A Board Member of the Sacramento Mutual Housing in Sacramento, (SMHA). A Board Member for EVOL in Sacramento. Employed with the Sacramento City Unified School District as ILP social worker and a MSW Intern student at Child Protective Services (CPS).

I am very active in the Sacramento community. An advocate for Africans Especially young people in our African Community. A member of South Sacramento Christian Center, Sacramento and a friend of the African Church in Sacramento. I volunteer in many charitable organizations in Sacramento. I have served on many committees in regards to bringing awareness to the African communities in Sacramento.

• Session: Immigrants--international becomes local

Bryan Jenkins, professor at UC Davis in biological and agricultural engineering, studies sources of biomass fuels (such as straw) in energy applications, including fuel cells. His research concentrates on understanding the role of inorganic materials in biomass when it is converted by combustion and gasification to heat and power. He hopes to increase the efficiency and reduce the cost of the process. He has laboratory and full-scale experiments at power plants and partners with industry and U.S. national laboratories.

• Session: Earth, wind and fire--the renewable energy connection

Patricia Johnson, California Council on Youth Relations Director at Pacific News Service.Patricia holds a BA in Political Science from UC Berkeley and an MBA from the Yale School of Management. Patricia has worked since 2001 with Pacific News Service/New America Media on program development, fundraising and financial management. Prior to joining PNS/NAM she worked and lived in the Czech Republic for three years, running the youth section of the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly, a European human rights NGO focused on creating space for cross-conflict dialogue in central and eastern Europe.

• Session: Valley youth discuss challenges facing their generation

• Session: 3000 megawatts in 10 years

• Session: Got breath?

• Session: The new bipartisanship in Sacramento--myth or reality

Stephen Kaffka is Director of the Center for Integrated Farming Systems and extension specialist in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of California, Davis. As Director he leads the development of current and new projects focusing on sustainable agriculture at the University’s Russell Ranch site, including the Long Term Research on Agricultural Systems project. His commodity assignments are sugar and oilseed crops. He is head of a new UC ANR work group on bioenergy. Since coming to U.C. Davis in 1992, he has also carried out research on water quality and agriculture in the Upper Klamath Basin, and the reuse of saline drainage water for crop, forage and livestock production in salt affected areas of the San Joaquin Valley. Prior to arriving at U. C. Davis, he worked in New England as head of a non-profit organization focused primarily on environmental issues related to dairy farming, particularly manure management, on intensive rotational grazing, and on innovative strategies for the survival of smaller-scale, family run dairy farms in that region. He received his MS and Ph.D. degrees from Cornell University and a B.S. from the University of California at Santa Cruz in biology. At Santa Cruz, he managed the student farm and garden project for five years, producing a wide range of horticultural products, and developed and initiated and taught the certificate program in organic gardening and small-scale farming. Dr. Kaffka is a member of a number of professional organizations including. He has traveled professionally to Europe, Central America, north Africa, South Africa, Jordan, China and Australia.

• Session: The carbon dioxide connection--alternatives to gasoline

• Session: Large scale planning, mitigation banking and habitat

Keith is the founding executive and responsible for the operation, administration and financial management of the Fresno West Coalition for Economic Development. Under his direction the organization has grown from one to eight employees that coordinate four programs. Keith is recognized both locally and nationally as a leader in community and economic development. He is currently a Board member of the National Congress of Community Economic Development based in Washington, D.C. and of Collaborative Regional Initiative's Innovative Culture Committee. Keith's accomplishments were recently recognized as recipient of the NAACP-Fresno Chapter 2005 Image Award for economic development. Keith's community activities include African American Historical and Cultural Museum of the San Joaquin Valley, past President; Fresno Chamber of Commerce's Leadership Fresno, past Vice President. He has been tapped locally as the Community Co-Chair for the City of Fresno's All-American City bids as well as part of Mayor Alan Autry's advisory committee.

• Session: Be the consummate community leader

• Session: The new bipartisanship in Sacramento--myth or reality

Marjorie Kirn is the Deputy Executive Director for Merced County Association of Governments She graduated from the University of California, San Diego. Marjie is responsible for Regional Transportation Planning in Merced County. In that capacity she has lead several major projects/programs including the Yosemite Area Traveler Information Pilot Project, the Yosemite Area Regional Transit System, Merced County’s Pavement Management System, Merced County’s One Voice Program, Regional Transportation Impact Fee Program and the Partnership for Integrated Planning Process. She is currently the project manager for the San Joaquin Valley Blueprint Planning Process.

• Session: San Joaquin Valley Blueprint process

I have worked at the California Energy Commission for 27 years, primarily in managing emerging energy technologies. I currently supervise technical staff our renewable energy, advanced generation, and geothermal programs. I have also managed demonstration programs for heavy duty vehicles and advanced transportation technologies. I chaired the transit bus demonstration subcommittee of the California Fuel Cell Partnership. I authored papers on fuel cell infrastructure issues for California, alternative fuel infrastructure networks, methanol supply and demand issues for California, and potential for low cost methanol to California. Prior to my stint with the alternative fuels program, I worked in the CEC's transportation energy conservation program and was involved with developing the CEC's transportation energy demand model. I received my bachelor's degree at the University of California, Davis and my master's at the University of California, Los Angeles.

• Session: Yesterday, today and tomorrow--renewable energy 2017

• Session: Special Arts and Awards luncheon

Rick Landon is a graduate of UCLA where he received a B.A. in Zoology and a Secondary Teaching Credential. He began his career as an agricultural biologist in Santa Barbara County. He then owned and operated wholesale nursery in San Luis Obispo County. In San Luis Obispo County he served as the Deputy Agricultural Commissioner. He was Assistant Agricultural Commissioner in Sutter County for 3 yeas and the Agricultural Commissioner in Yolo County for 6 years.

Landon has been married for 36 years and has three children and three grandchildren.

• Session: Puzzle pieces of a regional food system

At RCM Digesters Mr. Larsen coordinates the interconnection of biogas powered on-site generators with the distribution utility; negotiates contracts for power sales; reviews and interprets renewable energy policy for clients, and argues for equitable renewable energy policy. Mr. Larsen is also a project manager and oversees project development, including local and State agency permitting. Prior to working at RCM, Mr. Larsen held an internship with the process engineering group at East Bay Municipal Utility District’s main wastewater treatment plant (EBMUD). At EBMUD Mr. Larsen worked on bench-scale process optimization of co-digestion of fats, oils and grease, and full-scale source separated food waste reception issues. Mr. Larsen worked in the water quality lab at Post Point as a Laboratory Technician for three years while completing his studies at Western Washington University.

• Session: Renewable energy and agriculture--partners for the future

• Session: Empowering Customers

Rosa Lau-Staggs is the Chief of Wastewater Environmental Services for the City of Fresno Wastewater Management Division. She oversees the Division’s Laboratory Services and Environmental Services groups. She is the co-chair for the Fresno Regional Wastewater Advisory Committee and Chair of the Land Discharge/Groundwater Committee for the Central Valley Clean Water Association. She also participates in the Public Education and Outreach Committee for the Central Valley Salinity Policy Group.

Rosa was recognized by the California Water Environment Association as Supervisor of the Year in 2005 and by the US Environmental Protection Agency with the 2006 Clean Water Act Recognition Awards for Pretreatment Program Excellence.

She has over 22 years of experience in the wastewater industry, 10 of those years dedicated to oversee wastewater regulatory issues impacting the Division. She participated in the development of a number of public education campaigns to raise awareness of wastewater issues, including “Slow the Flow,” “Scrape It, Don’t Grind it,” “The Drain is not a Trash Can” and most recently “Salt is Serious” and “Use Less, Choose Wisely.”

• Session: Addressing salinity--some solutions

Naturalist, educator and artist John (Jack) Muir Laws delights in exploring the natural world and sharing this love with others. He has worked as an environmental educator for over 25 years in California, Wyoming, and Alaska. He teaches classes on natural history, conservation biology, scientific illustration, and field sketching. His most recent book, The Laws Guide to the Sierra Nevada, is an illustrated field guide to more than 1,700 species of plants and animals and is beautifully illustrated with 2,710 original watercolor paintings. This comprehensive and easy to use guide allows botanists to identify the insects that come to their flowers, birders to identify the trees in which the birds perch, or hikers to identify the stars overhead at night. He is trained as a wildlife biologist and is an associate of the California Academy of Sciences. His illustrations capture the feeling of the living plant or animal, while also including details critical for identification. In the summer of 2004, Laws published Sierra Birds: a Hiker's Guide. He is also a regular contributor to Bay Nature magazine with his "Naturalists Notebook" column. He is currently coordinating efforts to create a curriculum to tie the field guide to the State of California education standards and secure funding to donate sets of field guides to every elementary and high school in the Sierra Nevada and teaching field sketching and natural history classes throughout the state.

• Session: Valley writers read

Mary Lester is the Executive Director of the Alliance for Technology Access (ATA), a national network of grassroots community-based technology organizations, companies and individuals enhancing the lives of people with disabilities through technology. Mary’s knowledge of assistive technology and creating networks is based on 20 years in the field and a great deal of personal experience. She helped found the Alliance for Technology Access and edited "Computer Resources for People with Disabilities," authored by the ATA (now in its fourth edition). Mary co-authored "Access Aware: Extending Your Reach to People with Disabilities," a planning manual for community technology organizations and has trained many community-based organizations in accessibility and inclusion. Mary has served on boards of directors and advisory panels for several organizations and projects including: Community Technology Centers’ Network (CTCNet); the Independent Living Network; CompassPoint Nonprofit Services; Policy Council for the California Association of Nonprofits; and SBC’s Disability Advisory Committee.

• Session: Rural technology access--narrowing the gap

A graduate of Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY with a B.A. in Religion, Dave found himself studying the various ways that organic agriculture and Jewish agricultural law intersect after a life changing summer working on a small CSA in Poughkeepsie, NY. Dave has also worked at a small-scale organic dairy in Poughkeepsie, run an after-school teen center in San Francisco, and continued to get his hands dirty working on Eatwell Farm, a 65 acre fruit and vegetable CSA in Dixon. Deeply concerned with local food production and the communities it supports, Dave continues to marvel at the ways in which food can act as a common denominator for all of us. Acting as the regional manager for the Growers Collaborative in Sacramento Valley, Dave coordinates the delivery of local produce into hospitals, universities, corporate cafés, and school districts in the Sacramento area.

• Session: Puzzle pieces of a regional food system

• Session: Be the consummate community leader

R. Kirk Lindsey is President of Brite Transport System, Inc. of Riverbank, California. He started the company in 1972 and has been involved in the transportation of agricultural products and products of preservation ever since. Since 1976 Mr. Lindsey has also been the Managing General Partner of B & P Bulk, another agricultural trucking company. Between the two companies, offices are operated in El Centro, Hanford, Riverbank, and Woodland, California.

Mr. Lindsey is currently the Chairman of the Stanislaus County Workforce Investment Board, a past Chairman of the Stanislaus County Private Industry Council, and a past President of the California Trucking Association. He serves on a number of boards dealing both with business and educational issues. He is the founder and President of the Beyer High School Educational Foundation and has served on the school accreditation committee. Mr. Lindsey is also on the board of Stanislaus Partners in Education a vehicle to link business and education through partnerships, internships, and mentoring.

Mr. Lindsey is a graduate of Abilene Christian University and went through the Pepperdine University MBA Program. Kirk was commissioned into the US Army in 1969 after completing ROTC at Hardin Simmons University in Abilene, Texas. A fourth generation Californian he came back to California after a short stint working on the waterfront in Washington.

• Session: Infrastructure bonds--transportation, water and housing

Diane Littlefield is a Program Consultant with Sierra Health Foundation. She manages the REACH Community Action Program, which supports seven youth development coalitions in the Sacramento region. These coalitions work to change community conditions to support young people to be successful. The engagement and leadership of youth are central to their work.

Prior to her current position, Diane worked in the non-profit community health sector as a strategic planner, trainer, facilitator, organizer and administrator for over twenty years. In 1992, she founded the Center for Collaborative Planning at the Public Health Institute and provided training and technical support on community health planning, leadership development, and asset-based community development. She directed technical assistance for Sierra Health Foundation’s Community Partnerships for Healthy Children. She is co-founder of Women’s Health Leadership, an award-winning program that provided leadership development to over 300 diverse grassroots women leaders across California. Previously, she worked for a county public health department, community health clinics and the Migrant Education and Head Start Programs in California’s central valley.

Diane holds a Masters Degree in Public Health from UC Berkeley. She is also a member of the national Asset Based Community Development Institute based at Northwestern University.

• Session: Grant makers roundtable

Senior Researcher, Human and Community Development and the Environmental Justice Project .London's research focuses on rural social movements, community participation in environmental and natural resource management, and questions of equity in rural development in the Central Valley. London currently represents UC Davis on the Community University Research and Action Alliance for Justice (CURAJ) Advisory Board. CURAJ is a coalition of researchers, legal advocates, and community activists dedicated to applying research to address issues of race, poverty and environmental justice in the Central Valley. Members represent the Center for Race, Poverty and the Environment, California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, Latino Issues Forum, Madera Coalition for Community Justice, Youth In Focus, UC Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law Center for Social Justice, UC Merced, UC Sacramento Center, and UC Davis. He has Ph.D from University of California, Berkeley in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management. Specialization in rural social science and natural resource policy.

• Session: Measuring Community Well-Being through Indicators

Dr. Karl E. Longley, a Member in ASCE, has more than 41 years of active participation with both ASCE and his community including service as president of the Fresno Branch and San Francisco Section. Longley served as the chairman of the ASCE's former Water Supply and Resource Management Committee. Longley has served for 13 years as a gubernatorial appointee on California's Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board. As an engineering dean, Longley championed equal opportunity programs to both recruit students into engineering programs. Longley also serves as a member of the Central Valley Business Incubator.

Longley's research experience has been focused primarily on development and application of engineering and scientific principles to environmental pollution control. His research history includes directing Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Defense funded research.

Longley earned a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the University of New Mexico, and master's and doctorate degrees from the Johns Hopkins University. He is a licensed professional engineer in California and Maryland.

• Session: Salinity--significant challenge for the Valley

• Session: Health Care: The Challenge

Jay Lund is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California - Davis. He specializes in the management of water and environmental systems, including system optimization studies for California and other systems and studies of climate change adaptation, water marketing, water conservation, water utility planning, and reservoir operations. He was on the Advisory Committee for the 1998 and 2005 California Water Plan Updates, is a past Editor of the Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, and author or co-author of over 200 publications. His website is http://cee.engr.ucdavis.edu/faculty/lund/.

• Session: Envisioning futures for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta

Malcolm Margolin is an independent publisher (founder owner of Heyday Books) and an author with a special interest in memoirs and diaries, the Native-American ethnic groups of the U.S. state of California, and the geographical territory that California covers.

Margolin founded Heyday Books in 1974 when he wrote, typeset, designed, and distributed East Bay Out, a quirky, personal, affectionate guide to the natural history of the hills and bay shore around Berkeley and Oakland. Today, Heyday’s fifteen employees work with zest, creativity, integrity, and a sense of adventure to produce about two dozen books a year. In these past thirty-plus years, Heyday has published over one hundred books and launched two successful magazines, News from Native California and Bay Nature, and the company has taken a lead role in dozens of prominent public education programs throughout the state.

• Session: Valley writers read

Born, raised and graduated High School in Sanger, California. CSU Fresno Bachelor's Degree, Teaching Credential and Master's Degree in Education. Have been in the field of Education for 30+ years: classroom, District office, University and California State Department of Education. Currently, Principal at Peter Burnett Elementary School enrollment of 700 students with 2 (soon to be 3 Pre-school classrooms). All Kindergarten and Pre-school staff have been trained and involved with E.I.S.S. Early Intervention for Student Success. E.I.S.S. is Early Childhood funding that stresses developmental instruction designed to introduce children to positive experiences with school and learning.

• Session: Preschool for all

JoAnna Martinez started volunteering with the Center for Multicultural Cooperation while in high school as a youth producer for the Latino Legacy Project during the summer of 2005. Since then, she has graduated from high school, and is attending college while working with after school programs to implement the Latino Legacy Project in Fresno. She is a part of the Digitally Abled Producers Project (D@PP), and as a D@PPer she is committed to volunteering 250 hours per year using technology to serve her community

• Session: Central Valley youth voice

Ms. Martinez's personal interest in design, and her expertise in business, marketing and program development, has made her an integral part of Seventh Surface. Melissa's experience spans well over 10 years in private, public, and non-profit sectors.

Prior to joining Seventh Surface, Melissa spent seven years as paid staff for the American Red Cross. As state Specialist of California, she was directly responsible for developing, marketing and implementing programs statewide and nationally. Melissa's technical expertise assisted over 50 officers, hundreds of volunteers, and leadership staff throughout the nation. California quickly became the leader in innovative Health, Safety and Community service practices. As a result, many chapters of the American Red Cross were able to increase their overall services and scholarship opportunities to the communities they served.

Prior to the American Red Cross, Melissa had extensive management and customer service experience and training in the private and public sector; managing and operating a local retail chain, a corporate big box specialty chain, and a recreation facility.

Ms. Martinez attended the University of California in Sacramento where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Program Management with a minor Marketing.

As Director of Business Development, Ms. Martinez is responsible for guiding our clients through business and branding development, strategy, positioning, market strategy and serves as project manager.

• Session: Branding your community

• Session: The new bipartisanship in Sacramento--myth or reality

Rod Mayer is Chief of the Division of Flood Management for the California Department of Water Resources, which has a staff of more than 200 engineers, environmental scientists, maintenance workers, and administrative professionals with statewide responsibilities for flood management and responsibilities for operation and maintenance of the federal flood control systems in the Central Valley. He has 30 years of experience with DWR in water resources planning; hydraulic and hydrologic modeling; dam safety; planning, operation, and maintenance of the State Water Project; and flood control project planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance. Since 1991, he has worked closely with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and local agencies on Central Valley flood issues and projects on behalf of The Reclamation Board and in operating and maintaining 300 miles of levees and the channels of the Sacramento River Flood Control Project. Mr. Mayer is a licensed civil engineer and geotechnical engineer in California. He holds a master’s degree in civil engineering from California State University, Sacramento.

• Session: Infrastructure bonds--transportation, water and housing

Kristine joined Valley Vision in 2004 and is project manager for the Partnership for Prosperity, a unique collaboration that unites 34 economic development organizations in an effort to develop a regional economic development strategy. She also manages Valley Vision's Open Space Project, which aims to create the first-ever inventory of permanently protected lands in the six-county region. In the past Kristine has managed the Valuing Agriculture Initiative and the Port of Sacramento Master Planning Project. Prior to her work for Valley Vision, she served as project manager for the Tri-Valley Business Council in Livermore and as a research and analysis consultant for the Truckee Tahoe Community Foundation on projects designed to protect open space. Kristine began her career as an analyst for a UC Berkeley research team that focused on evaluating land-conservation efforts in California. Kristine received her BS in biology from Bucknell University in Pennsylvania in 1997 and her MS in ecology from UC Davis.

• Session: Protecting open space lands

Mike McCoy, academic administrator, Information Center for the Environment, serves as principal investigator, co-principal investigator for contracts and grants involving the development aggregation and dissemination of environmental information. In this capacity he works with a variety of agencies, committees and funding sources and works to achieve consensus on the best strategies for integrating data and implementing strategy. Projects include studies of species distribution, impaired water bodies, land use and infrastructure planning policy, and data aggregation and distribution problems.

• Session: Plan, move prosper

Roderick J. Meade, Jr. established R. J. Meade Consulting in 1980 to serve private and public sector clients involved in large-scale development and/or resource conservation projects that require a combination of local, state and federal regulatory approvals. Consulting services focused on project management to identify, address and resolve local, state and federal regulatory issues, particularly management and development issues relating to conservation of coastal resources and natural communities, particularly communities supporting sensitive species and state/federally-listed species.

• Session: Large scale planning, mitigation banking and habitat

• Session: Be the consummate community leader

Liz Merry’s interest in renewable energy began during the 2001 energy "crisis" after she decided to invest in a PV system but found no one to answer her "simple" questions about installing PV. After educating herself about the technology, Liz went on to organize a group of homeowners in Davis to install PV systems. During the past 20 years Liz has advocated for the environment with groups like CalPIRG and the Sierra Club (currently vice-chair on the state executive committee). Liz has a philosophy degree from UCLA, an MBA from CSUS. After two years as the Marketing Director for the Valley Energy Efficiency Project, in November 2004 she went back to environmental consulting work through her firm Verve Enterprises.

• Session: Earth, wind and fire--the renewable energy connection

Chuck Mills is the Associate Director for the California Council of Land Trusts. Chuck brings over 15 years of resource conservation and environmental protection experience to the Council, having worked previously for numerous non-profits including Californians Against Waste, The Humane Society, and the California Biodiversity Alliance. Chuck most recently spent 12 years with the Trust for Public Land as their California grassroots organizer, legislative advocate and founding member liaison for TPL to the California Council of Land Trusts. Additionally, Chuck serves on the Board for California ReLeaf and holds varying degrees of degrees in communications, journalism, government and Canadian studies.

• Session: Ballot box conservation and preservation

John was a high school history/civics teacher for 26 years. He is author of Active Citizenship, Empowering America’s Youth, a curriculum on civic responsibility and service-learning and co-author, with Don Hill, of Teacher Tools for Civic Education and Service-Learning. John is Executive Director of the Center for Multicultural Cooperation, which engages high school students in digital storytelling projects, and the new California Youth Democracy Alliance.

• Session: Central Valley youth voice

Rick serves as Vice President for CoHousing Partners, a development firm based in Northern California. He is responsible for acquisition of new sites, group formation activities, and management of particular projects. He is based at the firm's Davis office.

Rick’s background is non-profit community organizing, mediation and association management. In the late 1980s, he created a nationally recognized victim-offender mediation program in the East Bay, training hundreds of volunteers and mediating high profile cases involving both non-violent and violent criminal offenses. He has also led a variety of neighborhood development initiatives.

Rick holds an MPA with an organizational development emphasis and has an MA focusing on liberation theology from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. He has a special interest in community empowerment, environmental sustainability and building healthy communities.

He lives with his wife and two daughters at Muir Commons, the nation's first cohousing community.

• Session: Co-housing and green architecture

David Mogavero, Senior Principal, has over 30 years experience in all areas of land use planning and building with special expertise in the areas of ecological building, environmental planning, infill development, urban design, energy efficient design and a unique and progressive perspective for community planning. His commitment to human-based architecture, the revitalization of existing neighborhoods, economic and ecological sustainability of communities, and participation in the planning and design process by end-users is well-known and recognized within professional and citizen communities.

As one of the most experienced advocates and practitioners in land use transit issues in the Central Valley, Mr. Mogavero has actively lectured, written and advocated for environmentally-sound urban development, including infill and higher density transit and pedestrian oriented development. Through his professional practice and tenure as a board member and President of the Environmental Council of Sacramento and The Planning and Conservation League, he has facilitated the widespread adoption of these principles in many projects and communities throughout Northern California.

• Session: Co-housing and green architecture

• Session: Culture and transportation--lessons for Highway 99

Scott Moore has fifteen years working in education policy and management, and currently serves as Senior Policy Advisor for Preschool California, a non-profit, non-partisan advocacy organization dedicated to ensuring all children have the opportunity to attend an effective preschool. Along with his wife, Natanya, he is co-o