Executive Director of Comite Civico del Valle, Inc., Luis is a community advocate who advises on local, regional, and state environmental health programs and is a member of various state and national networks that focus on environmental policy, civic leadership, and environmental justice. Luis Olmedo has served as Executive Director for nearly two decades where he has led a team of local visionaries in development of evidence-based health interventions, sensor measurement engineering, programming, and crowdsourcing, designing new government frameworks and service programs, and crafting new multi-media collaborative models all with a goal of leveling the playing field for disadvantaged communities. Luis Olmedo values the power that comes from collaboration and is evident in his partnership with diverse expertise including academia, government, community-based organizations, business, youth, healthcare, and community.

Formerly Vice President of Student Services and Equity, Dr. Lennor M. Johnson now serves as the Superintendent/President for Imperial Valley College. His experience in higher education spans over 24 years, and he has dedicated his career to helping students achieve their educational goals and closing equity gaps. Since his arrival to Imperial Valley College as Dean of Student Services in 2016, he has played an integral role in the growth and development of the prison program, dual enrollment, food pantry, student housing, and other programs designed to address the unique needs of students who are considered foster youth, disabled, formerly-incarcerated, homeless and other disproportionately impacted populations. He has also successfully secured millions of dollars in grant funding to expand services for IVC students. Dr. Johnson has an unwavering commitment to helping underserved students overcome barriers to achieve their academic and career goals, which is evident throughout his career.

"Ricardo Martinez is a retired executive leader offering 30-plus years of experience building and maintaining effective relationships at all levels of government. His experience includes developing first-ever environmental programs; conducting complex environmental investigations; legislative and administrative analyses; forging procurement partnerships with over 100 California state department procurement officials; developing and implementing procurement policy and serving as chief advisor to three agency secretaries and one governor. While at the California Environmental Protection Agency, Ricardo developed and implemented the first-ever California-Mexico border environmental program, where he secured close to $1 billion in funding for environmental infrastructure projects. He also helped create and managed the California-Mexico Border Relations Council created under AB 3021 (Nuñez). Ricardo has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Animal Biology from California State University, Sacramento and is a graduate of the California Leadership Institute. Additionally, his work is widely published, and he has been the keynote speaker at several international venues. Ricardo is a seasoned proven leader and coalition builder across many fronts. His many accomplishments have led him to be the recipient of several awards. On April 1, 2020 Ricardo retired from state service."

John White is a legislative advocate and political consultant, and heads CEERT, a non-profit coalition of the nation’s leading public interest environmental groups and businesses working on energy efficiency and renewable technologies. Over the course of his more than 40-year career, he has been involved in the drafting, negotiation, and passage of landmark air quality and energy legislation and innovative regulatory programs to accelerate improvements in air quality, global warming, and renewable energy sources. John also is a legislative advocate and political consultant on behalf of public interest environmental groups, renewable technology companies, and local and regional environmental agencies. He has worked at the Statewide Air Pollution Research Center on the UCR campus; as an environmental analyst for Bechtel; and as a senior policy consultant on the staff of the California Assembly before starting his consulting and lobbying business in 1983. In the last 15 years, John’s efforts and those of his colleagues have resulted in more than $20 billion investment in energy conservation and renewable energy in California, and in the appropriation of significant funding for fuel cells, alternative transportation technologies, and the retrofit and retirement of high polluting school buses. In addition, he led collaborative efforts between renewable energy companies and conservation groups to ensure timely approval of more than 10,000 megawatts of new solar and wind projects, while protecting critical habitat and establishing innovative mitigation measures. John has served on the Board of Governors of the California Independent System Operator, which manages the state’s electricity transmission grid.

Cristina Marquez is a Journeyman Sound Technician achieving this through the apprenticeship program at Electrical Training Institute starting the apprenticeship in June of 2016. Born and raised in San Diego County, she graduated from San Diego State University on a full Softball Scholarship majoring in Criminal Justice and a minor in Sociology. After 3 years as the Outreach Coordinator at ETI, she is now the Environmental Organizer at IBEW Local 569 representing 3,600 members of Imperial and San Diego Counties. She looks forward to continuing to live in her beloved state of California, supporting her union, and advocating for working families in the years to come.

Maria is proud to be born in Brawley, raised in Niland and currently residing in Calipatria. She graduated from Calipatria High School in 1980 and Imperial Valley College in 1987 as a patient administration specialist. Her lifelong commitment to serving our underserved community, knowledge and understanding of the community, and her civic experience has strengthened her skills to be a strong community advocate in the Northend community. She is currently the mayor pro tempore of Calipatria and is Director-Coordinator of the Calipatria Unified School District's Calipatria-Niland Family Resource Center.

Sara takes care of the Equity & Access program, which includes Elemental’s investment track to leverage climate-positive startups for opportunities for social equity. Sara creates local partnerships and supports project development by creating frameworks and tools that help operationalize equity to benefit startups and California‘s frontline communities at the same time. Sara also helps facilitate community engagement and public convenings to align climate startups with the needs and priorities of communities most vulnerable to climate change.

Prior to Elemental Excelerator, Sara was at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission where she worked on local, state, and federal policy and managed special projects across the utility’s water, wastewater, and power enterprises. Sara is also a former Greenlining Institute Environmental Equity fellow.

A graduate of Howard University School of Law, she enjoys the unique opportunity Elemental has to be a bridge to make social equity operational and technological innovation culturally relevant. Sara is also a proud alum of Emory University where she studied English and concentrated on literature of marginalized people in fiction.

Daniela Flores, MPH, is one of the co-founders of the Imperial Valley Equity & Justice Coalition (IVEJC), a primarily volunteer-run community group advocating for civic engagement, health equity, and environmental and social justice. She graduated from Calexico High School in 2010 and received her master's in public health from UC Berkeley and dual BS degrees in public health and biology from UC San Diego. She is a member of Salud Sin Fronteras or Health Without Borders, a health initiative in Imperial Valley responding to the COVID-19 pandemic with COVID-19 vaccination education, coordination of clinics in partnership with health care providers, distribution of personal protective equipment, and registration of thousands of underserved community members to receive their COVID-19 vaccine. More recently, she has worked on campaigns that have focused on community education and advocacy for equity and justice in COVID-19 relief and recovery and lithium valley development. Daniela's organizing work with IVEJC is on a volunteer basis and brings complementary experience from her employment as a research and evaluation consultant for Harder+Company Community Research.

Dr. Paul English is the Director of Tracking California for the Public Health Institute. Tracking California works to make environmental health data and information publicly-available through the development of a web-based data query system, state-of-the-art data displays, and innovative web tools and services (trackingcalifornia.org), Tracking CA worked with local partners to develop the largest community-based air monitoring network in the country which was the model for novel legislation which has enabled similar statewide monitoring. Tracking CA’s seminal report, “Agricultural Pesticide Use Near Public Schools in California” was a direct influence on the development of new regulations which protect schoolchildren from pesticide exposure.

English’s articles and publications include: “From Crowdsourcing to Extreme Citizen Science: Participatory Research for Environmental Health”; “Associations between Ozone and Fine Particulate Matter and Respiratory Illness Found to Vary between Children and Adults: Implications for U.S. Air Quality Policy” and “Components of Population Vulnerability and Their Relationship With Climate-Sensitive Health Threats.” He has served as an advisor to the World Health Organization in developing climate-sensitive health indicators and was an invited expert for the Indian Institute of Public Health training South Asian nations on developing heat alert action plans. Dr. English received his Master’s in Public Health and Doctorate in Epidemiology at the University of California, Berkeley and was recognized as one of 75 Most Influential Alumni by the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health.

Based in Los Angeles, Candice Youngblood works on issues at the intersection of clean transportation and racial justice as a Legal Fellow for Earthjustice. An asthmatic from the Pomona Valley, Candice became motivated to protect the right to breathe clean air after realizing that the high rates of asthma and other respiratory diseases in low-income communities and communities of color are linked to their disproportionate traffic pollution exposure. Raised in a family of truck drivers, Candice is also committed to achieving a just transition for fossil fuel-dependent communities as we shift toward a clean energy economy.

Álvaro Alvarado is a Senior Toxicologist with the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. His team assesses the impacts of California’s climate policies on disadvantaged communities and communities of color, provides technical assistance to CARB in AB617 communities, and develops health-based guidance for biomethane standards. Before coming to OEHHA, Álvaro worked at CARB and USEPA, where he assessed the health impacts from regulations, oversaw environmental justice research, and formed collaborative partnerships to reduce pollution from ports. Álvaro has a Ph.D. from UC Riverside in Environmental Toxicology.

Dr. Manuel Pastor is Distinguished Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. Pastor holds an economics Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, is the inaugural holder of the Turpanjian Chair in Civil Society and Social Change, and he currently directs the Equity Research Institute (ERI). For the fullest and most up-to-date description of his work (as well as downloadable photos, a recent CV, and other material), go to his research center webpage.

Dr. Pastor’s research has generally focused on issues of the economic, environmental and social conditions facing low-income urban communities – and the social movements seeking to change those realities. 2021 saw the publication of two new books, South Central Dreams: Finding Home and Building Community in South L.A. (co-authored with Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo) and Solidarity Economics: Why Mutuality and Movements Matter (co-authored with Chris Benner). His previous 2018 boo, State of Resistance: What California's Dizzying Descent and Remarkable Resurgence Means for America's Future (New Press 2018) as lauded in a New York Times review as “concise, clear and convincing.”

Previous volumes include Equity, Growth, and Community: What the Nation Can Learn from America's Metro Areas, co-authored with Chris Benner (UC Press 2015), a text that argues how inequality stunts economic growth and how bringing together equity and growth requires concerted local action. He also co-edited the book, Unsettled Americans: Metropolitan Context and Civic Leadership for Immigrant Integration with John Mollenkopf (Cornell University Press 2016), which offers a comparative study and detailed analyses of immigrant incorporation efforts across seven different U.S. metro regions.

Dr. Pastor's prior volumes include: Just Growth: Inclusion and Prosperity in America’s Metropolitan Regions, co-authored with Chris Benner (Routledge 2012); Uncommon Common Ground: Race and America’s Future (W.W. Norton 2010; co-authored with Angela Glover Blackwell and Stewart Kwoh); Staircases or Treadmills: Labor Market Intermediaries and Economic Opportunity in a Changing Economy (Cornell University Press 2009; co-authored with Chris Benner and Martha Matsuoka); Staircases or Treadmills: Labor Market Intermediaries and Economic Opportunity in a Changing Economy (Russell Sage 2007, co-authored with Chris Benner and Laura Leete); and Regions That Work: How Cities and Suburbs Can Grow Together (University of Minnesota Press 2000; co-authored with Peter Dreier, Eugene Grigsby, and Marta Lopez-Garza).

Dr. Pastor was the founding director of the Center for Justice, Tolerance, and Community at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He has received fellowships from the Danforth, Guggenheim, and Kellogg foundations, and grants from the Irvine Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the California Environmental Protection Agency, the W.T. Grant Foundation, The California Endowment, the California Air Resources Board, and many others.

Dr. Pastor speaks frequently on issues of demographic change, economic inequality, and community empowerment and has contributed opinion pieces to such outlets as the Los Angeles Times, the San Jose Mercury News, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Sacramento Bee, the Huffington Post, and many others.

Pastor has served as a member of the Governor's Task Force on Jobs and Business Recovery and as a Public Member of the Strategic Growth Council in California. He also previously served as a member of the Commission on Regions appointed by California’s Speaker of the State Assembly, and as a member of the Regional Targets Advisory Committee for the California Air Resources Board.

In 2002, Pastor was awarded a Civic Entrepreneur of the Year award from the California Center for Regional Leadership. In 2012, he received the Liberty Hill Foundation’s Wally Marks Changemaker of the Year award for social justice research partnerships. In 2017, he received the Champion for Equity Award from the Advancement Project for his work with community-based organizations fighting for social change.

Esperanza is the City Manager for the city of Calexico in Southeastern California, which borders Mexico and the Mexican state of Baja California. During her 17 years of service, she has procured numerous state and federal grants in conjunction with public and private entities to facilitate new infrastructure and projects serving underserved localities. Esperanza worked in partnership with the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) and the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) after the 2010 Baja California earthquake, which affected communities on both sides of the border.

Shohreh Farzan, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Environmental Health at the Keck School of Medicine at University of Southern California. She co-leads the Children’s AIRE study with Dr. Jill Johnston, in collaboration with Imperial Valley-based community partner, Comite Civico del Valle. As part of the Children’s AIRE study, Dr. Farzan’s work focuses on the impacts of environmental contaminants, such as air pollution, on children’s cardiovascular and respiratory health.

Miguel Hernández is the Public Affairs Officer at the California Natural Resources Agency for the Salton Sea Management Program (SSMP). Working with SSMP leadership to continue prioritizing community involvement so local input can better shape the work of the SSMP. He leads the work with the Community Engagement Committee in collaboration with the Committee co-chairs. He works diligently on community engagement and oversees public information and community outreach.

Miguel is humbled to be part of a team that brings their leadership, expertise, and hearts to deliver on the commitments made for the Salton Sea.

Commissioner Kourtney Vaccaro is serving her first term on the California Energy Commission. Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Vaccaro in March 2022 to serve as the Energy Commission’s attorney member. She worked as an advisor to Commissioner Karen Douglas since 2019. Since 2009, Vaccaro has held multiple positions at the Energy Commission, including Chief Counsel, assistant executive director of compliance assistance and enforcement, attorney, and hearing advisor.

She was a partner at Vu Vaccaro LLP from 2012 to 2013. She worked at the Fair Political Practices Commission between 2006 and 2009, where she served as enforcement division chief, assistant chief of enforcement, and senior commission counsel. Vaccaro worked as an attorney at Best Best & Krieger LLP; Freeman, D’Aiuto, Pierce, Gurev & Keeling; and Kronick Moskovitz Tiedemann & Girard. She earned a Juris Doctor degree and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Southern California. She earned a bachelor of arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

José Carmona brings over two decades of policy and advocacy experience working at the local, regional, and state level. Most recently, Mr. Carmona served as California Program Director for the Energy Foundation, where he supported environmental, environmental justice, workforce development, and clean energy industry organizations in the establishment of some of the state’s most recent clean technology and climate initiatives, including the establishment of the state’s 2030 carbon reduction targets and the setting of California’s 100 percent clean energy goal. Prior to joining the foundation, Jose served as Chief of Staff to the Assembly Majority Leader and Vice Chair of the California Latino Legislative Caucus, Assemblymember Victor Manuel Perez. In that role, he advanced energy-related legislation, including a three-year extension of the Self-Generation Incentive Program; expedited permitting and siting of projects within the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan; and secured funding for renewable energy workforce training in low-income and high unemployment areas of California. Before this role, José was the Advocacy Director for the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies, the Clean Power Campaign, and V. John White & Associates, where he tracked, analyzed, and lobbied for clean energy and climate legislation on behalf of renewable energy affiliates and environmental nonprofit organizations. Jose has extensive legislative advocacy experience in the California State Senate and Assembly where he advocated for the passage of California’s landmark climate change law, AB 32, the Renewable Portfolio Standard, and the California Solar Initiative, in addition to regulatory implementation work at the California Air Resources Board, California Energy Commission, California Independent System Operator, and the California Public Utilities Commission. Jose also served as the lead energy advocate for the AB 32 Environmental Justice Advisory Committee from 2006-2008. Jose holds a B.A. in Social and Political Science with an emphasis in Pre-Law from California State University, Chico.

Jesus Eduardo Escobar attended local schools; Our Lady of Guadalupe Academy and Vincent Memorial High School in Calexico. He graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of San Diego in San Diego.

Mr. Escobar’s civic and community involvement includes being, board member of Border Communities Capital Company; a company that re-invests new market tax credits in low to moderate-income communities, past president of the Calexico Rotary Club and the Calexico Noontimer’s Lion’s Club. Mr. Escobar has also taught business and finance courses at Imperial Valley College and San Diego State University.

Jonathan Weisgall is Vice President for Government Relations for Berkshire Hathaway Energy Company, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway. He joined CalEnergy (Berkshire Hathaway Energy’s predecessor company) in 1993 as Vice President for Legislative and Regulatory Affairs. Weisgall also serves as Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Directors of the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies and vice chairman of the Geothermal Rising’s Policy Committee.

He is an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center, where he has taught a seminar on energy issues since 1990 and recently received the Charles Fahy Distinguished Adjunct Professor Award as outstanding adjunct professor of the year. He has also guest lectured on energy issues at Stanford Law School, Haverford, and the Johns Hopkins Environmental Science and Policy Program and its School of Advanced International Studies. He has been named one of the top Washington, D.C., corporate lobbyists by The Hill since 2004.

Weisgall graduated from Columbia College and from Stanford Law School. He previously practiced law in Washington, D.C. at Covington & Burling, has written several law review articles, and has published articles in Legal Times, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Foreign Policy, Johns Hopkins SAIS Review, and The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

Christian Torres is a Special Projects Manager at Comite Civico del Valle. Christian has worked extensively in environmental justice efforts across the Imperial Valley region. Recently, he has served on the leadership team for the Calexico, El Centro, and Heber AB 617 communities, is a member of the People’s Blueprint Writing Group, and provides technical assistance to Community Air Grant recipients implementing air quality monitoring at the community level. At Comite Civico, Christian works with his team to coordinate coalition efforts on climate change initiatives and incorporate community research into public health actions across the Imperial Valley & in partner communities. Christian is a member of the Partners Advancing Climate Equity (PACE) hosted by the CA Strategic Growth Council and an Environmental Justice Fellow at UC Davis.

David Hochschild was appointed chair of the California Energy Commission by Governor Gavin Newsom in February 2019. He fills the environmental position on the five-member Commission where four of the five members are required by law to have professional training in specific areas - engineering or physical science, environmental protection, economics, and law.

Chair Hochschild's career has spanned public service, environmental advocacy, and the private sector. He first got involved in the solar energy field in 2001 in San Francisco as a special assistant to Mayor Willie Brown where Chair Hochschild launched a citywide $100 million initiative to put solar panels on public buildings. He also cofounded the Vote Solar Initiative, a 60,000-member advocacy organization promoting solar policies at the local, state, and federal levels. He was executive director of a national consortium of leading solar manufacturers and worked for five years at Solaria, a solar company in Silicon Valley. From 2007 to 2008, he served as a commissioner at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.

For his work to advance clean energy, Chair Hochschild was awarded the Sierra Club's Trailblazer Award, the American Lung Association's Clean Air Hero Award, and the U.S. Department of Energy's Million Solar Roof True Champion Award. Chair Hochschild holds a bachelor of arts from Swarthmore College and a master of public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He also was a Coro Fellow in Public Affairs.

Frank is currently the Salton Sea Program Director for Audubon California, who advocates for a healthier and sustainable Salton Sea in partnerships with local communities and other entities from all sectors. He directs a program that includes four elements: policy, science, education, and community enfranchisement. Before joining Audubon, Frank co-founded "Por La Creacion: A faith-based alliance", an organization that seeks to educate and empower the Latino communities in environmental advocacy, protection of public lands, and public policy. Frank inherently understands the balance between economic progress and conservation efforts. He worked tirelessly in favor of the establishment of the three recently designated monuments in the California Desert.

In addition, Frank has been a mental health professional for over 14 years, served as clergy, police, and hospital chaplain for over 15 years, and has been an advisor to many public and private entities. He enjoys hiking, camping, and playing golf along with his two kids and wife

Mr. Valenzuela is an Air Quality Monitoring Technician for SCS’s Tracer division. With expertise in various types of air quality instrumentation, he performs operation and maintainenance of SCS’s expansive list of air monitoring projects . He is also knowledgable about local, state and federal regulations governing the collection of air monitoring data and quality control requirements. Mr. Valenzuela performs the maintenance, adjustments and/or operations of ambient particle monitors.

Mr. Valenzuela currently manages the field requirements for the Imperial Irrigation District’s (IID) Salton Sea Air Monitoring Project, which consist of a network of ambient air and meteorological stations, and he is a key respondent to the various IID Field-Scale Pilot studies.

My name is Ruben Rodriguez. I am the son of immigrant parents, a proud Xicano, the co-chair of HEAL (Healthy Environment for all lives) and a community organizer/Air monitoring specialist for CCEJN.

I have lived on occupied Yokut Land (westside of Fresno County) for the majority of my life and like many in similar communities have come to understand the need for immediate social, and Environmental action.

My experiences and interactions with the beautiful people of these communities has allowed me to witness the devastating effects that people face on a day-to-day basis. From dealing with the lack of clean water, exposure to dangerous pesticides and pollutants, and the Extreme heat waves that have hit the great valley.

I stand together with many that resist a system that has neglected its people and fight for a better future. Not just for those that understand what is happening but those that do not or refuse to see reality for what it is.

We must all do our part in society, assuring that we resist this nonsense and defend what is right! For our children, our elders, and all of our relations!!

Miguel Alatorre is a Community Organizer and Policy Advocate for Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice. Miguel is a third generation environmental activist who has been involved since he was a child in numerous battles against pollution and injustice in the San Joaquin Valley farmworker town of Kettleman City, California, where he has lived his whole life. Miguel helped found and mentor two Kettleman City youth groups KPOP, (Kids Protecting our Planet) and YPOP (Youth-Protecting our Planet) and he is currently leading our Kettleman City Youth Environmental Justice Leadership Academy program. Miguel is Greenaction’s lead organizer on our campaigns to bring clean drinking water to Kettleman City, to reduce diesel truck emissions in his town, reduce pesticide drift from agricultural fields near homes, and opposing new permits for the infamous Chemical Waste Management Kettleman Hills hazardous waste and PCB landfill – the largest such facility in the western US. Miguel is leading Greenaction’s effort to bring together Kettleman City youth and adults to start an organic community garden in his town where the closest grocery store is over 30 miles away. He is co-coordinator of Greenaction’s new Kettleman City Community Air Monitoring Project that is educating and empowering local residents on air quality issues and to conduct a pilot air monitoring project. Miguel is a local and state leader in engaging state agencies to comply with civil rights laws and to change their policies to stop polluters from ruining the health of residents in the Central Valley and across the state. Miguel represents Greenaction in the Central California Environmental Justice Network and Central Valley Air Quality Coalition. He is also an active member of El Pueblo Para el Aire y Agua Limpia/People for Clean Air and Water of Kettleman City.

Dr. Catherine Garoupa White (they/she) is the Executive Director of the Central Valley Air Quality Coalition (CVAQ), working to restore clean air to the San Joaquin Valley, the nation’s most polluted air basin for fine particles. Garoupa White grew up in Madera, in the heart of California’s San Joaquin Valley, and worked as a community organizer for the Central Valley Air Quality Coalition (CVAQ) from 2006 to 2009, then became CVAQ Director until 2011. While pursuing their PhD in Geography from University of California, Davis, they worked as a teaching assistant in the departments of Sociology, Religious Studies, and Science and Society, as a project manager assisting with online and hybrid courses at Academic Technology Services, and as a researcher with the Center for Regional Change on Sustainable Community Strategies in San Joaquin Valley and San Francisco bay area. After graduating in 2016, Garoupa White advanced efforts to end extreme extraction and plan a just transition off fossil fuels with Californians Against Fracking and Dangerous Drilling, and served on the CVAQ Steering Committee from 2018 to 2019 before returning as Director in 2020. Garoupa White has a Master of Social Work degree from California State University, Fresno and is currently a geography lecturer at CSU Stanislaus and Columbia College. As an activist scholar, Catherine seeks to ground truth data with the lived experiences of environmental justice communities to achieve health equity.

Gustavo Aguirre Jr is a California native whose parents were farmworkers and traveled from the coast to the desert following the seasonal crops. Gustavo engaged in grassroots community organizing and social justice in 2006 as a senior at Foothill High School in East Bakersfield. Gustavo helped organize a walk out in solidarity with high school students across the nation protesting aggressive immigration laws. Prior to joining CCEJN, Gustavo worked as an organizer in Arvin, CA with Global Community Monitoring. Since 2014 and with CCEJN, Gus has coordinated the IVAN Reporting Network in Kern County and has conducted environmental literacy workshops, as well as community science data gathering projects. Gustavo has participated in various state panels including California Air Resources Board- Office of Community Air Protections – AB 617 Consultation group and Department of Conservations SB 83- Underground Injection Control review panel representing environmental justice communities in the Central Valley.

Jared is the California Mining Organizer with Earthworks. He works to supports frontline communities impacted by existing and proposed mining projects throughout the state. Before joining Earthworks, Jared worked on environmental and human rights grantmaking with the 11th Hour Project, and on campaigns in solidarity with Indigenous rights organizations in Myanmar. He holds a BS in Earth Systems from Stanford University, and a Master of Environmental Science from the Yale School of the Environment.

Martha Guzman was sworn in as U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Regional Administrator for the nation’s Pacific Southwest Region (Region 9) on Dec. 20, 2021. In this role she is leading EPA efforts to protect public health and the environment for the region spanning Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, the U.S. Pacific Islands territories, and 148 Tribal Nations. Her focus is on advancing President Biden and Administrator Regan’s priorities in the areas of climate change, environmental justice and scientific integrity, and more broadly on achieving progress in making the air, land and water cleaner and safer for the residents of the Pacific Southwest. Notable in a region with a significant Hispanic/Latino population, Guzman is the first Latina to serve as Regional Administrator.

Martha Guzman came to this EPA position after having served as a Commissioner at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) for the previous five years. Her portfolio included fiscal oversight of utilities, broadband for all, water affordability, access to clean energy programs for disadvantaged communities, and prevention of disconnections of basic utilities. She spearheaded the Interagency Solar Consumer Protection Taskforce, the Tribal Land Policy, and Covid Arrears Response. She also represented the CPUC on the California Broadband Council and the Lithium Valley Commission.

Prior to joining the CPUC Guzman served as Deputy Legislative Affairs Secretary in the Office of the Governor of California, where she worked on the legislative passage of the Human Right to Water and the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, reorganized the Safe Drinking Water Program, and advanced climate goals related to short-lived climate pollutants and renewable energy legislation. Earlier in her career, she was Sustainable Communities program director for the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation. She also worked for Swanton Berry Farm on human resource issues, and before that, she was the legislative coordinator for United Farm Workers.

Guzman earned a Master of Science degree in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of California, Davis, and a Bachelor of Science in International Economics from Georgetown University.

Lauren Sanchez currently serves as Senior Advisor for Climate in the Office of the Governor, appointed by Gov. Newsom. Lauren Sanchez has served as Senior Advisor for the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate in the Biden-Harris Administration since 2021. She was Deputy Secretary for Climate Policy and Intergovernmental Relations at the California Environmental Protection Agency from 2019 to 2021 and International Policy Director at the California Air Resources Board from 2018 to 2019. Sanchez was a Climate Negotiator at the U.S. Department of State from 2015 to 2017, serving on the Paris Agreement negotiation team. Sanchez is a Fulbright Scholar and earned a Master of Science degree from Yale University.

Yana Garcia was appointed California Secretary for Environmental Protection by Gov. Gavin Newsom in August 2022. As Secretary, Yana oversees the state’s efforts to fight climate change, protect air and water quality, regulate pesticides and toxic substances, achieve the state’s recycling and waste reduction goals, and advance environmental justice. As a member of the Governor’s cabinet, she advises the Governor on environmental policy.

Yana is nationally recognized as a groundbreaking environmental leader who has worked hard to uplift the voices of those from disadvantaged communities.

Since 2021, Garcia has served as Special Assistant Attorney General advising California Attorney General Rob Bonta on the California Department of Justice’s legal and policy matters pertaining to the environment, land law and natural resources including climate, transportation, energy, and housing.

She was Deputy Secretary for Environmental Justice, Tribal Affairs and Border Relations at CalEPA from 2019 to 2021 and had been CalEPA’s Assistant Secretary for Environmental Justice and Tribal Affairs from 2017 to 2019. During her tenure at CalEPA, Garcia led three Environmental Justice Task Force Initiatives in the communities of Pomona, Imperial County, and Stockton. She also led the program that delivered more than $1 million in Environmental Justice Small Grants to 28 organizations to combat pollution, improve health outcomes and increase public engagement in some of California’s most pollution-burdened communities.

Prior to her state service, Garcia litigated environmental cases on behalf of several client groups across the state and across the country, as an attorney at Earthjustice in the California regional office in San Francisco. Garcia was also a staff attorney at Communities for a Better Environment, serving in Huntington Park and Oakland. Her legal practice areas have focused on environmental justice issues, civil rights, land use, toxics and chemical disclosure, oil and gas extraction, and crude transport. Between 2011 and 2012, Garcia served as a legal research attorney at the San Francisco Superior Court’s Civil Division, Office of the Presiding Judge.

Prior to practicing law, Yana worked on various environmental justice and civil rights projects aimed at achieving equitable access to clean air, clean water, and sustainable food and energy systems in the states of Texas, New Mexico and Massachusetts.

Garcia holds a degree in politics from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a law degree from Northeastern University School of Law.

In August 2022, Belen Leon was named Imperial County Air Pollution Control Officer, making her the first woman and the first Latina ever in the position.

Leon had been with the APCD for nearly 15 years, beginning as an APCD Specialist. She has experience in working nearly all facets and programs of the APCD including the U.S.-Mexico Border Environmental Program: Border 2025, AB 617 CAPP, FARMER Program to help our local agriculture industry reduce emissions, Targeted Air Shed Grants Program to reduce air pollution in highly polluted areas, and Lawn Equipment Exchange Program.

She earned a Bachelor of Business Administration through DeVry University and a Master of Science Degree in Environmental Policy through Kaplan University.

She is a Heber resident currently, living there with her husband and two children. She is a graduate of Central Union High School.

Jill Johnston, PhD is an Associate Professor and Director of Community Engagement in the Division of Environmental Health at University of Southern California.  Her research focuses on addressing unequal exposures to harmful contaminants that affect the health of working poor and communities of color.  Dr. Johnston engages in collaborations with grassroots organizations to conduct community-engaged action-oriented research at USC to support environmental justice. She works towards strong partnership with local organizations, community health promotores, policymakers and residents to address air pollution, upstream oil and gas extraction and incompatible land use. Previously she worked as a community organizer on issues of environmental and economic justice in South Texas.  Dr. Johnston received her PhD in environmental sciences and engineering from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she studied hazardous waste sites and industrial animal production.

Andrea Ambriz joined the California Natural Resources Agency in August 2020 as the Deputy Secretary of External Affairs. Andrea oversees engagements with community leaders, intergovernmental partners and cross-industry stakeholders. She previously served as Chief Operating Officer at non-profit River LA, and as Chief of Staff at SEIU Local 2015. She has also served in various roles in the U.S. federal government, including for 44th U.S. President Barack Obama as White House Deputy Director of Private Sector Engagement and at the U.S. Department of the Treasury in multiple positions. Andrea has also worked for both the California State Senate and Assembly, advising legislators on diverse policy areas, including helping champion the allocation of over $400 million equitably to park-poor neighborhoods across California and supporting landmark clean-air legislation. She is a Los Angeles native, and has earned undergraduate degrees from DePaul University and holds a Master of Public Policy degree from the University of California, Berkeley. Andrea can often be found visiting local beaches and dog parks with her pup.