FOLAR - Key Persons
Alejandro Ortiz is an Architect / Entrepreneur based in Westwood CA. After completing his undergraduate studies at Berkeley, he interned for Steven Lerner, AIA in Providence, RI where we acted as Project Designer on several buildings at Brown University. In 1989, he moved to Los Angeles where he worked for Architects Frank Gehry, AIA and Frank Israel, AIA. After attending the UCLA Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning, he founded Alejandro Ortiz Architects, Inc. which he ran successfully for 20 years. He has since been engaged in Real Estate Management and is spearheading various Tech ventures as Founder and President of BulletNBoard, llc.
In addition to his diverse business activities, Alejandro has pursued his passion for the City of Los Angeles by actively contributing to a number of local organizations such as the LA County and the City of LA Departments of Parks and Recreation. He served on the Executive Board of the Music Center Fraternity of Friends and various Neighborhood Associations. He was appointed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as Commissioner at the LA Community Redevelopment Agency. He has served on the board of FOLAR since 2011, occupying the position of Chair for 5 years.n.
Job Titles:
- Architect
- Administrative Assistant for Friends of the LA River
Alexandra is an administrative assistant for Friends of the LA River. She was one of many Angelenos who didn't know a Los Angeles River existed, but as soon as she was introduced she fell in love with the beauty of it. Inspired by all of the dedication and passion from Friends of the LA River, she made her way into the family and now proudly works hand in hand with founder Lewis MacAdams and the rest of the FOLAR to continue the artwork that Lewis began.
Alex Ward is an architect with over thirty-five years of experience designing projects from Tokyo and Beijing to Hong Kong and London, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, including airports, churches, private homes, office towers, stage sets and bridges. He has lectured and taught design at schools from the Rhode Island School of Design to Cal Poly Pomona. He has installed solar panels on roofs in underserved neighborhoods for Grid Alternatives. A hiker and bird-watcher and avid student of urban design, he believes that a restored Los Angeles River is a vital part of the future of the city of Los Angeles and region.
Antoinette Magee brings over 15 years of college access, educational equity, fund development, grant writing, strategic planning and program development experience. She has been working in the non-profit and education field in and around the Southern California area for most of this time and brings a deep commitment to ensuring all students, especially students furthest from opportunity, have access to quality education ultimately leading to successful college and/or career pathways. Antoinette has worked for the past 10 years as a fund development consultant for Success in Challenges, helping them bring vital resources to their educational and social justice programs serving the greater Long Beach area. In addition, she has worked in program management, educational outreach, and academic and student affairs at Calbright College, the Foundation for California Community Colleges, San Francisco State, San Diego State, Cal State Fullerton and Stanford University. In addition to her experience as a college administrator, she also worked for Young Black Scholars, with the 100 Black Men of Los Angeles, and the Gates Millennium Scholars program.
Antoinette was a Presidential Scholar at San Francisco State University, where she earned her bachelor's degree in Political Science. She also earned a master's degree in Multicultural Education from California State University, Dominguez Hills, as well as a master's degree in Counseling from University of Texas, Tyler.
Antoinette lives in southern California with her husband, two kids, and dog, Sebastian.
Brenda has been a coach specializing in senior executive leadership development for more than 30 years. She is known especially for her work with officers facing large new responsibilities at the enterprise level. She often works with non-traditional leaders who were originally trained in other arenas like law, medicine, engineering or media production.. or those never really trained at all, just natural leaders. She helps these officers learn to lead organizational units amid the complexities of global, multi-functional, multi- cultural organizations. She has also founded and run 3 successful start-ups and understands first-hand the difficulty of stewarding small organizations. Brenda is also interested in non-profits and the educational sphere. She has coached extensively with leaders from universities, charter schools and charities.
Job Titles:
- CEO
- Leader
- Senior Program Associate
As a native of the Lower LA River, Candice is a leader in sustainability, equity, and education across the State of California. She has been working in the nonprofit sector for over 20 years, with experience working with school districts, government agencies, utilities, and municipalities on sustainability and environmental education. As a leader in equity and environmental justice, Candice has guided several organizations in their equity strategic planning. Candice lives along the Rio Hondo in a hidden eco cottage with her husband and ten year old daughter.
Candice Dickens-Russell is the Senior Program Associate Center for Diversity & the Environment where she leads a national team focused on designing and delivering equity, diversity and inclusion activities for environmental organizations, agencies, teams and leaders in the environmental and conservation movement across the U.S. Candice has been the regional lead for the California Regional Environmental Education Community (CREEC) for Los Angeles County for over a decade. She has developed and managed high quality environmental education programs for Los Angeles area students and teachers. Candice is a member of the Los Angeles Area Women's Environmental Coalition, and serves on the Los Angeles Environmental Education Fair steering committee. She majored in Environmental Studies at San Francisco State University, with an emphasis in Environmental Sustainability and Social Justice. Candice's current work centers around creating diverse and equitable spaces in the US environmental movement. Candice has a passion for equity and inclusion in all things, but especially in environmental education. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, daughter, and pet rabbit, Buddy.
Job Titles:
- Senior Attorney and Director of NRDC 's Southern
Damon Nagami is a Senior Attorney and director of NRDC's Southern California Ecosystems Project, which focuses on wildlife preservation, parkland protection, and sustainable land-use planning. Most recently, he has been fighting to prevent a toll road from paving over California's San Onofre State Beach and working with communities to evaluate potential routes for a proposed high-speed rail line through downtown Los Angeles. Nagami also codirects NRDC's Community Fracking Defense Project, which helps local residents and elected officials across the country exercise their democratic voice to protect their communities from the harms of industrial fracking. He holds a bachelor's degree in environmental science from the University of California, Berkeley, and a J.D. from the University of California's Hastings College of the Law. He works in NRDC's Santa Monica office.
Dan Rosenfeld is a real estate investor who alternates between private and public-sector service.
In the private-sector, Mr. Rosenfeld served as a senior officer with The Cadillac Fairview Corporation, Tishman-Speyer Properties, and Jones Lang LaSalle. He was a founding member of Urban Partners, LLC, a nationally recognized developer of urban infill, mixed-use and transit-oriented real estate. Among the firm's major projects are Del Mar Station, Wilshire/Vermont Station and the Caltrans District 7 Headquarters. Mr. Rosenfeld is currently developing and managing real estate in Los Angeles and Seattle.
In the public sector, Mr. Rosenfeld served as Director of Real Estate for the State of California and City of Los Angeles, and as a Senior Deputy for Economic Development with Los Angeles County.
Mr. Rosenfeld is a graduate of Stanford University and the Harvard Business School. He is married to noted choreographer Heidi Duckler and lives in Los Angeles. The couple have three grown children Anya, Austen and Ellery.
Dennis Mabasa (they/them) is a passionate environmentalist from Kalibo, Philippines, currently working as the COO at Friends of the Los Angeles River. Through their 9 years of experience in youth workforce development, instructional design, and community engagement, they have built a proven track record of managing and evaluating high quality internships and educational programs and developing strong and inclusive communities. Former roles include Program Manager of Youth Engagement at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco and Education Manager at the National Audubon Society in Dallas, Texas. Dennis is a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community and they joyfully include their culture, identity, and values into their work.
Hi everyone! My name is Kevin (he/him). I am a banana slug graduate in Earth Science with a passion in education. I love talking about rocks, plants, birds, and pretty much anything outdoors. Starting off in seasonal camps, coaching sports, then as an intern with NPS leading educational camps and tours, I found myself here as the Sr. Education Programs Manager. I enjoy being outside, hiking, riding my bike, running along the beach, or inside playing video games or reading.
Having grown up living all over Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley, the one thing that remained constant for Oni was having access to nature to escape to. Having witnessed environmental inequality firsthand, growing up in some of the poorest neighborhoods, she became propelled to do something about it and studied environmental science and wildlife conservation in college. However, she began to realize that the sustainable change we needed was not only in our parks but in our cities as well. Shifting the way she viewed environmental conservation, Oni obtained a minor in regenerative studies and a business degree tailored towards working in nonprofits and social impact. With her knowledge and experience, Oni hopes to educate and inspire people to restore their relationship with nature and improve the quality of life in the community for seven generations to come. In her free time, you can find Oni on the golf course or out hiking with her family and their dog, Dazey.
Job Titles:
- Chief Operating Officer at Lunya
Jaime Carlson is Chief Operating Officer at Lunya. Lunya is a luxury lifestyle brand focused on building meaningful leisure. Lunya is disrupting traditional fashion in terms of sustainable supply chains, sales channels and online community.
Previously, Jaime has specialized in alternative asset investment, with a focus on energy, in the Americas. Jaime works on Strategy and Investments for Softbank Energy in North and South America. Prior to Softbank, Jaime was head of Operations at Cypress Creek Renewables, the largest private integrated solar platform in the US with 3 gigawatt of operating assets, and Global Director of Finance at TerraForm Group, a $2B publicly traded renewable energy operating company. She also led mergers & acquisitions in US, Asia, and South America for Rentech, Inc., a Blackstone-backed $550MM revenue natural resource company. Jaime served in President Obama's first term as a senior advisor to former Secretary of Energy Steven Chu. During her three years, Jaime advised on financial instruments to expand US energy innovation and directly oversaw the deployment of over $35B in Recovery Act funds. Bloomberg New Energy Finance named her one of the country's thought-leaders in Alternative Energy.
Jaime was a founding member of international award-winning production firm Apertura Films in Panama. Jaime received an MBA and MEM from Yale University and a BS from Tufts University.
Job Titles:
- Chief Development Officer
Job Titles:
- Director of Strategic Communications
Jessica is a Cuban-American communications professional with a background in biology, environmental studies, and science communications research. She has worked extensively as a strategic communicator, writer, and communications researcher in both higher education and non-profit spaces. She also reported on science stories as a AAAS Mass Media Fellow with the Dallas Morning News. With a passion for finding creative, meaningful, and data-driven ways to connect audiences with the world around them, Jessica is excited to work with the FoLAR team to advocate for the LA River and the diverse communities that surround it.
Job Titles:
- Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Institute of the Environment
Jon Christensen is an adjunct assistant professor in the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, the Department of History, and the Center for Digital Humanities at UCLA. He is a founder of the Laboratory for Environmental Narrative Strategies in the IoES, and a senior fellow in UCLA's cityLAB. He is editor of LENS Magazine, and a consulting producer for KCET/LinkTV's "Earth Focus" programming, produced in collaboration with the Thomson Reuters Foundation. He is also a partner and strategic adviser at Stamen Design, a National Design Award-winning interactive design and technology firm specializing in mapping, data visualization, and strategic communications.
Jon was executive director of the Bill Lane Center for the American West, an interdisciplinary center for research, teaching, new media, and journalism at Stanford University before coming to UCLA. He has been an environmental journalist and science writer for more than 30 years. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Nature, High Country News, and many other newspapers, magazines, journals, and radio and television shows. He was a Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford in 2002-2003 and a Steinbeck Fellow at San Jose State University in 2003-2004, before returning to Stanford to work on a Ph.D. in environmental history and the history of science.
He also serves on the board of directors of the Liberty Hill Foundation and the Los Angeles River State Park Partners.
Job Titles:
- Education Programs Manager
Job Titles:
- Development and Fundraising Projects Manager
Kristen Brown (she/her) grew up in the Crescenta Valley and later attended Pitzer College, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Environmental Analysis and Critical Global Studies. As an undergraduate, she studied abroad in Ecuador and welcomed new students to the campus community with New Student Orientation. Kristen has a few years of experience with environmental nonprofits, most recently completing a fellowship focused on green workforce development and streamlining weatherization custom data reporting. She looks forward to interfacing with supporters of Friends of the Los Angeles River and ensuring the organization's continued impact with the Development team. In her free time, you can find Kristen going on her daily walk, cheering at Angel City home games, and cat-sitting for local friends and family.
Lewis P. MacAdams - FoLAR founder, poet, teacher, activist - is known as the modern-day father of the LA River Movement. In the spirit of this visionary dedication, the Lewis P. MacAdams Giving Society builds a community around donors committed to FoLAR's mission and dedicated to a vibrant future for the River, its watershed, and the millions of people it connects throughout our region.
Liliana Griego has a passion for weaving science, art, and policy together for the betterment of people and the planet. She currently serves as Director of Policy, Advocacy, and Engagement for Friends of the LA River. As an Angelino who grew up along the Arroyo Seco, she has had an intimate relationship with LA's living waterways and uses her story and scientific background to advocate for a healthy, resilient, and equitably accessible LA River. In addition to being a river advocate, Liliana is also a public lands advocate. She serves as a member on the Executive Committee for the Sierra Club Angeles Chapter and the National Park Conservation Association's Young Leaders Council. Liliana has a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science and an International Master of Science in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation.
Manny Gonez is the Senior Policy & Advocacy Manager of Friends of the Los Angeles River (FoLAR). As a native Angeleno, raised in the Boyle Heights neighborhood, he knows firsthand how environmental factors impact historically undeserved communities. He has over a decade of nonprofit, local and federal government experience, and is thrilled to bring that wealth of knowledge to FoLAR. An organizer at heart, he is an Obama 2012 Nevada alum and spearheaded numerous successful municipal campaigns.
Manny earned his Master's in Public Administration from the University of La Verne and BA in Philosophy from UCLA.
Mareshah "MJ" Jackson has built a career expanding community networks with local nonprofits through outreach and public activation. She's passionate about the connection between community wellbeing and access to nature, physical recreation, and open community space. When she's not cultivating the relationships that enable FoLAR to increase every Angeleno's access to green space, she's looking for ways to stay active. You can find MJ practicing samba, training for long-distance runs, and learning about LA by taking Metro to new destinations.
Marissa is a career advocate, a mom, and a feminists who has spent the last 16 years working towards a better world in spaces that mitigate our impact on health and nature. Her interest is the connection between natural climate solutions and human health and her mission is a safe, habitable future for the girls who will lead it.
Mia Lehrer leads Studio-MLA through the design and development of a diverse range of ambitious public and private projects that include urban revitalization developments such as Hollywood Park and San Pedro Waterfront, large urban parks such as Vista Hermosa Park in Los Angeles and Orange County Great Park at the El Toro Marine Base, and complex commercial projects like a Bio-tech Corporate Campus in Thousand Oaks. In recent years, several interesting historic renovation projects have been added to her repertoire; these include Union Station in downtown Los Angeles, the glamorous Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, and Santee Court, an urban housing development that pays tribute to its interesting context - L.A.'s fashion district. Studio-MLA is a consultant for the Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan, leading efforts to identify and plan a comprehensive open space network that interfaces with channel restoration and urbanism.
Job Titles:
- Director of Communications
Mike has spent his career in finance - in his role as Senior Vice President for Cascadia Capital, he leads the aerospace and defense investment banking practice for the firm, advising executives and business owners in mergers and acquisitions. Mike holds a masters in business from Stanford University where he was a Sloan Fellow and a bachelors in finance from the University of Missouri.
Michael serves as Director of Communications and Impact with FoLAR to broadcast the organization's vision to present projects, actions, policies, and events to grow the River community. For the past 7 years Michael has worked to improve the public health and environment within his neighborhood and city as an advocate committed to facilitating community-based climate change solutions.
Mike understands the intersection of nature and cities from an unusual perspective - he grew up on a farm in rural Missouri with nature stretching for countless miles in every direction, but since graduating from university he has lived either years or months in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York City, Seattle, Moscow, Sydney and Florence. Seeking out the best examples of overlapping nature and urban landscape has been a pleasure for many years now.
Natasha Keefer has spent her career in energy and water sustainability, with experience working with public and private stakeholders to implement measurable environmental and social outcomes. Natasha is the Head of Origination and Power Marketing within Prologis's Energy and Sustainability offering, where she leads in front of the meter solar and storage offerings to utilities, community choice aggregators, and grid communities. Natasha's prior experience includes sustainable infrastructure development, energy finance, and strategic planning impacting Southern California communities within her past positions at Clean Power Alliance, Renewable Resources Group, Berkshire Hathaway Energy Renewables, and Southern California Edison. She earned an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School and a B.S. from the University of Southern California. Natasha, her husband, two children, and two dogs, are Elysian Valley residents and love to spend the weekend enjoying everything the LA River has to offer.
As a recent transplant from New York City, Marissa understands the importance of green space to a city and its inhabitants' wellbeing and prosperity. In learning about her new city, she was led to the River and its diverse and vibrant communities. Marissa has extensive experience in the business world, specializing in media, education, and operations, and has always been drawn to organizations with a mission of empowerment through education at its core.
With a degree in Geology, and a specialization in Paleontology, Marissa loves thinking about how environments impact the creatures that inhabit them. It was kismet when she found FoLAR and the River Movement and was able to marry her passions for people and nature. She's thrilled to be part of the work to build a future on the River that respects and supports both.
Nestor Enrique Valencia is a champion of social causes, including health care quality, the environment, public safety, and youth and senior programs. Endorsed by the Los Angeles County Democratic Party, he served as Bell's Mayor and as a member of the Bell City Council until his retirement from public service in 2020. He is also a full time health care administrator.
Job Titles:
- Member of ULI ( Urban Land Institute ) Los Angeles Advisory Board
Paul Keller has over thirty years of experience in real estate and construction industries and is a founding Principal of Mack Urban, LLC. He is involved with the firms' strategic direction, capital market relationships and tactical management of all Mack Urban investments.
Mr. Keller formerly led Urban Partners, Keller Equity Group, Keller CMS and Keller Construction Company. Mr. Keller and Keller-related entities have been responsible for over 2,000 projects in the continental United States and Hawaii and have provided program development, project and construction management oversight services to a variety of clients on projects valued in excess of seven billion dollars.
Mr. Keller is highly regarded in the industry for his comprehensive grasp of asset and project management details and his ability to match leasing, construction and financing requirements.
Among his activities, Mr. Keller is a member of ULI (Urban Land Institute) Los Angeles Advisory Board; ULI Los Angeles Land Use Leadership Committee; member of The Los Angeles Coalition for the Economy and Jobs; board member of the L.A. Streetcar Initiative (LASI); board member of FOLAR (Friends of the L.A. River) and a member of the Central City Association of Los Angeles and a board member of Friends of Waterfront Seattle.
Pauline Louie served as the Watershed Ambassador for the Los Angeles River from 2012-2016 as part of the Urban Waters Federal Partnership, a national program started in 2011 to coordinate and accelerate a variety of sustainability, economic and community development projects connecting communities with their urban waterways.
Ms. Louie has coordinated local and federal engagement for the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development for nearly 20 years on issues of sustainability, housing, economic development and community resiliency. Ms. Louie has managed projects involving Federal Empowerment Zones, Brownfields Redevelopment, Homelessness, farmworker housing, and grant-writing training. She is recognized as one of HUD's key field staff in disaster recovery, having coordinated long term recovery planning, and served as the lead Housing official in FEMA long-term community recovery efforts following devastating events in Florida and California.
Before coming to HUD, Ms. Louie worked for Keyser Marston Associates, Inc., where she consulted on redevelopment and BRAC reuse issues to cities and developers in California and Nevada. Prior to that, she was a Contracts and Grants Administrator for the University of California during which she coordinated several job retraining grants and fundraising efforts.
Ms. Louie attended UCLA where she earned Bachelor's degrees in Political Science, and in Geography/ Environmental Studies. Also from UCLA, she completed her Master's degree in Urban Planning, with a focus on environmental and transportation policy and planning. She has also completed an executive program in Community Building at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Both Pauline and her husband Tim have fond memories of being raised near the Los Angeles River; they continue to make their home in the area.
Ruth Coleman has held positions in the public and nonprofit sector for twenty-six years. Currently, Ms. Coleman serves as the Executive Director of the Relationship Coffee Institute (RCI), the non-profit affiliate of Sustainable Harvest Coffee Importers. In this capacity, she is responsible for overseeing the organization's operations and managing strategic relationships. In 2013 The Relationship Coffee Institute was selected by Bloomberg Philanthropies to bring its innovative economic Relationship Model of development to low-income rural women based in Rwanda. Ms. Coleman manages multi-year project to improve the livelihoods of 25,000 low-income Rwandan women coffee farmers through training and connecting the farmers to the international market.
Prior to joining RCI, she served for ten years as Director of the California Department of Parks and Recreation. Earlier in her career she worked for the California Legislature as a fiscal analyst as well as a natural resources policy advisor.
Ruth was a Peace Corps volunteer in Swaziland, Africa. She is a graduate of Occidental College and has a Master in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School.
Job Titles:
- Policy & Advocacy Manager
As Policy & Advocacy Manager, Stephen helps support and lead the execution of FOLAR's policy and advocacy initiatives. As a native Angeleno, Stephen places special emphasis on the inclusion of underserved communities in environmental discourse. For the past 5 years he's worked throughout LA County building watershed literacy, inspiring local stewardship and empowering community voices of all ages in local watershed planning efforts. He's pretty stubborn about the connection between social and environmental health, the importance of acknowledging injustice, and the strength of optimism and hope. When he's not being dramatic, you can find him riding his bike, exploring the city or some hidden park. He's also a sucker for board games, maps, street art, food, and good company.
Steve Veres served the Los Angeles Community College District as a member of the board of Trustees from 2011-2015. After a 2-year hiatus, he returns to the board for a new 5 year term beginning July 2017. He has served as President and Vice President of the Board as well as chair of the Board's Institutional Effectiveness Committee and Facilities Management Committees.
As Deputy Chief of Staff to State Senate Leader Kevin de León, Steve works hard every day to protect and empower middle class families. Working with local lawmakers, he helped clean up the LA River, expanded access to higher education, and secured funding to build 17 new parks in Los Angeles. In 2014, Steve helped lead the effort to triple California's Film and Television Tax Credit and make it more accountable to taxpayers. The bill was praised as one of the most significant steps to protect California's film industry jobs in the past 100 years.
He is appointed to Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and has been active on the redevelopment and restoration of the Los Angeles River.
Steve's long record of public service includes elections to the San Fernando City Council, where he served as Mayor, and appointments to the Metropolitan Transit Authority's San Fernando Valley Service Sector Governance Council, the Mobile Source Air Pollution Reduction Review Committee, and the Metropolitan Water District.
He has been an Adjunct Instructor at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College and is a former public school teacher. He has also taught various college courses at UCLA. A Los Angeles native, Steve attended Loyola High School and earned his undergraduate degree from UCLA. He was a graduate student and teaching assistant in UCLA's History department. Additionally, he worked as a journalist and news editor.
Steve and his family live in Sherman Oaks.