WHO WE ARE
STAFF
DR. RONNIE D. LIPSCHUTZ (Santa Cruz), Co-founder & President, is Emeritus Professor of Politics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He holds an MS in Physics from MIT and a PhD in Energy & Resources from UC Berkeley. He has been engaged in energy and resource-related work since 1978. You can view his CV here.
KEVIN BELL (Santa Cruz) is Co-founder and Vice President. He holds an MPA from the Kennedy School at Harvard University. He has over thirty-five years of deep experience in the areas of low-income advocacy, energy efficiency program design, education, and sustainable infrastructure, in the public, private, entrepreneurial, academic, and non-profit sectors, as well as energy regulatory policy, hydrology and resource modeling. You can view his CV here.
JOSEFINA LARA CHAVEZ is Director of Regeneration-LA, currently a fiscally-sponsored project of SSRF. Previously, she was a Farm-to-Market specialist and Senior Manager, Latinx Farmer Program for the Community Alliance with Family Farmers in Davis, California. She has a graduate degree in Public Administration, from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.
RICHARD E. MATHIS (PE) is Staff Project Engineer & Farmer. He is the cofounder and Executive Director of Rancho Nextia, a sustainable farm in Colima Mexico and specializes in energy, water, solar and control systems. He has worked for the Bonneville Power Administration and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He hold a BS in Computer and Electrical Engineering from Oregon State University.
VALERIA GALINDO-EGUIARTE is an SSRF Staff Scientist working on the Compost Project. She holds a BS in Earth Science from UC Santa Cruz and has worked at the USGS and in the Paytan Lab at UCSC. She wrote her Senior Thesis on “Spatial and Temporal Variability of Carbon and Nitrogen in Salt Marsh Ecosystems of Elkhorn Slough, California.”
ROBERT STAYTON is an SSRF Research Associate. He is a physicist, author, teacher, programmer, inventor, technical writer, typesetter, bread baker, and worm farmer. He has degrees in physics and science communication. He is the author of two books on solar energy, including Solar Dividends—How Solar Energy can Generate a Basic Income for Everyone on Earth (Santa Cruz, Calif.: Sandstone, 2019)
SSRF PARTNERS AND COLLABORATORS
KATHRYN MILUN is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota, Duluth and founder of the Solar Commons Research Project. She works in emerging field of investigation into governance models for common property/ “commons”–gifts of nature (air, water, wildlife, food) and community that are peer-governed for the common good with tools of public trust and community trust law. reservations in Minnesota.
CHARLOTTE DECOCK is Assistant Professor in the Department of Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences, California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. Her work on carbon and nutrient cycling aims to contribute to the development and assessment of soil and nutrient management practices that protect water and air resources, while maintaining agronomic productivity and economic viability.
LAURA MURPHY is a Soil Scientist at the Resource Conservation District of Monterey County. She provides technical assistance to small-scale, new and Spanish speaking farmers, helping them to test and implement both proven and innovative practices to build healthy soil and create thriving and sustainable farms. Laura holds an MS in Soil Science from UC Davis and completed the PEPA organic farmer educational program at ALBA in Salinas.
MIREYA GOMEZ-CONTRERAS is the co-leader of Esperanza Community Farms, a non-profit in Watsonville, California, with a mission to localize the food system and address inequality. Its two acres of farmland have become a means to not only address food insecurity, but also nourish the souls of farmworker families like the one in which she was raised.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
SHIELA DAVIS (San Jose) is an SSRF Research Associate, overseeing the Solar Scorecard project. For many years, she was Executive Director of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. Davis holds a BA in American Studies from UC Santa Cruz. Sheila Davis has played a valuable role in shaping environmental policy in the high-tech industry.
MARISHA FARNSWORTH (Oakland) is an artist whose large-scale public space interventions explore future ecosystems, infrastructural utopias and the social and ecological implications of materiality in the built environment. Her work has been exhibited at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Venice Biennale and is in the collection of the Nevada Museum of Art. She was the lead artist for the 2017 Temple at Burning Man.
DR. DUSTIN MULVANEY (Santa Cruz) is Professor of Environmental Studies, San Jose State University. He holds a PhD in Environmental Studies from UC Santa Cruz, an MS in Environmental Policy, and a BS in Chemical Engineering. Since 2008, his primary focus has been on energy commodity chains, with an emphasis on the solar industry. He is the author of Solar Power, Innovation, Sustainability, Environmental Justice (UC Press, 2019) and Sustainable Energy Strategies: Socio-Ecological Dimensions of Decarbonization (London, Palgrave MacMillan, 2020) .
DR. ANN LOPEZ (Watsonville) is Executive Director, Center for Farmworker Families in Watsonville, California. She is an emerita professor and taught courses in biology, environmental science, ecology and botany in the biology department at San José City College for many years. Her book entitled The Farmworkers’ Journey summarizes the results, arguments and conclusions of her research and was published by UC Press in June 2007. She has been recognized for her work by The U.S. Congress and many organizations. In 2019, Ann was chosen as Woman of the Year by the 29th Assembly District of California. In March 2018, she was chosen for a 16th Annual Cesar E. Chavez Community Award in Watsonville.
DR. ADINA PAYTAN (Santa Cruz) is Treasurer and Research Professor in the Institute of Marine Sciences, UC Santa Cruz. She received her PhD in Oceanography from the Scripps Institute in 1995, was a professor of Geological and Environmental Sciences at Stanford for eight years, and moved to Santa Cruz in 2007. Her research is focused on marine biogeochemical cycles and dynamics in the present and past, and on their connection to the Earth system as a whole. She has received numerous awards and grants in support of her research and graduate students.
THOMAS RETTENWENDER (Carmel) is Principal Architect at Ecologic Design Lab in Seaside, California. He holds an MA and M Arch and the LEED AP, and has spent the past 20 years in the areas of architecture / urban design, education, and non-profit management. He led a team of local student interns to win first prize for the 2015 Mock Firms International Design Competition with a design of the Core Tower and masterplan for a site in Seoul, South Korea.
DR. STEVEN MENTOR (Santa Cruz) is Professor of English at Evergreen Valley College in San Jose. He holds an MA from San Francisco State University and a PhD from the University of Washington. He has taught writing, critical thinking, and English and American Literature full time since 1996. He has been involved in large scale direct action campaigns, done many nonviolence trainings, and helped edit The Cyborg Handbook.
BEATRIZ SMITH (Sacramento) was an intern and research analyst at SSRF from 2019 to 2021, doing the work of Executive Director, webmaster, and intern supervisor. She holds a BS in Environmental Studies from San Francisco State University and an AS with an emphasis in Mathematics, Engineering, and Sciences from De Anza College. She now works for the Rural Community Assistance Corporation in Sacramento.