Staff and Board

Maria is proud and honored to serve as the Executive Director of the David Brower Center. Prior to joining the Center, Maria ran operations and talent for Magical Bridge Foundation, a Silicon Valley-based nonprofit that builds highly inclusive playgrounds around the world. For nearly a decade, she served as the program director for Alternative Ventures for At-Risk Youth, a Marin-based nonprofit dedicated to children with parents in prison. She has a BA in Psychology from Smith College and was the valedictorian of her MBA class at UC Davis. Maria loves hiking in the Oakland Hills and trips to Yosemite Valley with her family, where she enjoys watercolor painting.

Cristina holds BA degrees in Art Practice and Political Economy from UC Berkeley, where they began a rigorous investigation of diverse visual arts modes including painting, drawing, digital projection, and installation. Cristina was a UC Berkeley Art Practice Honors Studio Awardee and has participated in various exhibitions at the Worth Ryder Art Gallery. As the Communications and Exhibitions Coordinator, they bring their knowledge of art and commitment to social and environmental justice to the Brower Center’s gallery programs. Cristina spends their spare time practicing Muay Thai and tending houseplants.

Born and raised in Oakland, Miles went to Laney College and played sports. He is an entrepreneur in the making with a dessert business named Sweettoof and two clothing lines, A.C.E. (Athletic Creative Entrepreneurs) and City of Dope!

Topher hails from the Kern River Valley, California, but found his place in the Bay Area while attaining his BA in English with a concentration on Creative Writing at CSU East Bay. Topher greets everyone he meets with a friendly smile and a desire to be of service. His passions lie in finding common ground with the world around him through kindness and community. When he’s not at the Brower Center serving the tenants and guests of the building, Topher spends his spare time writing queer narratives, playing video games, and volunteering in the East Bay writing community.

Jackie is a lifelong Northern Californian who cut her professional teeth in the performing arts world while pursuing a degree in both environmental sustainability and gender/sexuality studies at UC Berkeley. Her diverse event production roster includes everything from symphonies to rock concerts to academic conferences. At the Brower Center, her work borrows from her entire background in order to support the events program with an eye towards equity for staff members and clients alike. Off the clock, Jackie spends her time dabbling in playwriting, dissecting horror films through a queer feminist lens, and keeping her cat Laurel from knocking things off of every available surface.

Tim has been a reporter, travel writer, advertising copywriter, and publicist. He graduated from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and lived in the Washington DC area before moving to California in 2000. When Tim and his wife aren’t entertaining three grandchildren, he loves live music of all kinds. He has been the volunteer coordinator at the local music venue Freight & Salvage for ten years. Tim says it’s a privilege to be working for two great organizations and the communities attached to them.

Sam is a Bay Area native, raised in Berkeley, California. He has always appreciated and respected the environment and nature. It was that appreciation that drew him to his first film camera to document and share our planet’s beauty. He continued to follow his lens and his heart to a degree in multimedia arts and production. His passion for the environment and love for film, photography, and production entwine seamlessly with the mission of the David Brower Center. When Sam isn’t keeping the Center’s AV systems at full strength, he spends his time hiking, playing basketball, and filming anytime a new idea takes hold.

Ellen is delighted to rejoin the amazing and dedicated Brower Center team as a Senior Advisor after spending several years as the Center’s first Director of Finance and Operations. Ellen came to the nonprofit sector following 20-year career in municipal government management. She served as the Assistant City Manager in Emeryville, managing the City’s financial and administrative functions, and also held positions in several other East Bay cities, including Oakland, Albany, Dublin and San Leandro. Originally from Birmingham, Alabama, Ellen has lived in the Bay Area since 1983. She holds a BA in Economics from the University of Michigan and a Master’s in Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley.

Michael Thomas Boyle, also known as Benet, is a talented audio engineer and sound designer with a passion for creating immersive auditory experiences. With his sights set on working at Pixar, he aspires to lend his expertise to the magical world of animation. Beyond his technical expertise, Mike is a versatile artist who channels his creativity into directing and shooting music videos and films. He finds joy in sharing his musical talents as a DJ at the Oakland Museum of California.

Lizzie Calogero comes to the Brower Center from a background in theatre. Born in Tehran, she grew up in Bedfordshire in the UK, and studied English and Theatre at Warwick University. Since moving to the US she has acted with companies around the Bay Area, and is a regular with the San Francisco Mime Troupe. She lives in Berkeley with her family and their highly emotional cat, and she escapes to the forest whenever she can.

​​Kerry Fiero is an accomplished Event Producer with a sterling track record of producing highly applauded small and large events for a wide array of clients, organizations, and companies in the San Francisco Bay Area. Kerry found her passion and focus on events while working as a music artist manager, a role that enabled her to hone her people and organization skills. After leaving the music industry, she parlayed her exceptional attention to detail and love of events into a full-time vocation that has included the production of numerous galas, conferences, music festivals, and corporate retreats/events.

Hanson is an exuberant soul with an undying passion for photography and filmmaking. He earned his AA in Humanistic Studies at Laney College and his BA in Film and Media Studies and Production at UC Berkeley. Currently, Hanson is an up-and-coming freelance Lifestyle and Landscapes Photographer drawing inspiration from documentary filmmaking to create inspiring and relatable works of art. He trusts and hopes to one day make his photo business full-time or be involved in Indie film production. Hanson also attends to AV duties at the Oakland Museum. In his free time, he can be found trying new restaurants, playing guitar, or chasing landscapes with his camera and an Indie playlist on shuffle.

Hannah came to the West Coast from Atlanta in 2019 and has worn many hats in the entertainment industry. She graduated from Auburn University in Visual Media and Communications while working in sustainability leadership and joined a Bay Area music and art collective which jumpstarted her freelance videography career. She bounces between festivals, shooting on media teams and for touring artists all across the country. Outside of her own projects, she’s handling props and set decor for commercial films, whipping up a trendy recipe, throwing underground music events in the wilderness with her friends… or curled up on the office couch.

In memoriam: Darshan Khalsa, a valued member of the Brower Center events team. We’ll keep her memory alive and forever miss her vibrant presence and warm yet no-nonsense acumen.

Garrett grew up in Orange County but has called the East Bay home since 2010 when he relocated to attend UC Berkeley. When not involved with behind-the-scenes event production, Garrett is on stage as a club, corporate, and special event DJ. His biggest passion, music, began at age five with piano lessons. He eventually launched an electronic music career after falling in love with underground dance DJing, music production, and studio recording. Garrett’s expertise behind the soundboard and upbeat personality keep his events running smoothly, and his love for progressive art keeps Berkeley his favorite place to be.

Pilar Mata, a seasoned sound engineer hailing from the Bay Area, brings a diverse skill set to her craft, encompassing live concert production, stagehand expertise, and a lifelong passion for music. Pilar is a proud alumna of UC Berkeley with a degree in music. Outside her career, she unwinds by playing guitar, attending concerts, and sharing moments with her feline companion, Diego.

April is an event and theatrical professional who has worked throughout the Bay Area for over twenty years. April is passionate about environmental awareness and considers it an integral part of her identity. She is thankful to work at the Brower Center, a place that unites these two passions: event production and environmental education/justice. April is also a devoted dance and theatre teaching artist who leads classes for families, young children, and K-12 students. She is a faculty member at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center and Yoga Alameda. April loves meeting new people and “hosting” events of all sizes: intimate dinner parties to multi-day weddings, parties or conferences. You can learn more about April at her website.

Ben Visini was born and raised in San Mateo, and has worked as a professional musician for the past decade throughout the Bay Area. Balancing his own music career with providing support for other musicians/musicals, he has filled in the gaps with lighting work and A/V work. Ben is also a working comedian, and currently hosts the Neck of the Woods open mic in San Francisco. Outside of music and tech, Ben is extremely passionate about filmmaking and cinematography. He resides in Berkeley, and spends his free time catching up with friends and going to live shows.

Melissa has been working as an art preparator since moving on from many years as an artist assistant for many years. She is also a practicing artist and mother who loves gardening and camping in her free time.

Margaretta has a BFA in fine arts and moved to the Bay Area to work at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2005. While there for over a decade, she honed the skills that led to a design and carpentry position for an art and music festival company. Margaretta continues to take on carpentry and upholstery projects in addition to installating exhibitions at the Brower Center. Although time is limited with the care of her young daughter, Margaretta enjoys her true passion in creating one of a kind pieces in the fiber arts.

Genevieve has a MFA from San Francisco State University where she studied Spatial Arts and New Practices. She is Director of the Art Ark Gallery in San Jose and loves adding educational and new media components to each exhibition. Her personal practice in art focuses on engagement, sound, and designing immersive environments. She loves hiking and paddle boarding with her son.

Virginia earned her BA in Art History with a focus on contemporary art from Emory University in Atlanta, GA, where she minored in fine art with a concentration in sculpture under the direction of Linda Armstrong. While a student at Emory, Virginia exhibited her mixed media installations throughout Atlanta and in Germany. After graduating, her work was featured in the exhibition, “Here Kitty Kitty” at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center (formerly Nexus) alongside renowned artists Carolee Schneemann and William Wegman.

Since 1999, she has worked as a fine art consultant for companies in Atlanta and the San Francisco Bay Area placing artwork for hospitality, corporate and health care clients throughout the United States and abroad. She brings her passion for and extensive knowledge of contemporary art to creative art sourcing, curation, and site-specific commissions, while applying her expertise to all aspects of project management.

She served as Managing Director for Chandra Cerrito Contemporary through 2018 and currently leads as Senior Art Advisor for Chandra Cerrito / Art Advisors. Virginia is Certified to teach yoga in the lineage of B.K.S Iyengar, and is also a Certified California Naturalist.

Adam is an organizational consultant who focuses on strategy, marketing and fundraising primarily for Jewish and environmental organizations. He is the Founder and former Executive Director of Urban Adamah, a community farm and environmental education center in West Berkeley. Prior to founding Urban Adamah, Adam served as the Executive Director of the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center (2002-2008), a progressive Jewish retreat center and community in the Connecticut Berkshires. For three years (1996 – 1999), Adam served as the Director of the Teva Learning Center, the leading Jewish environmental education program in the United States. He holds an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley and a B.A in Environmental Studies from Brown University. He currently lives in Berkeley with his wife Deena and daughters Shira and Maya.

Carlos is an Assistant Professional Researcher at the Center for the Built Environment (CBE) at UC Berkeley. His research interest includes radiant heating and cooling, occupant behavior impact on building energy consumption, and the development of tools that help various building stakeholders. He is currently working on a project aimed at standardizing semantic descriptions of equipment, control points, and locations along their relationships to make it easier to extract actionable information from the wealth of data that buildings’ systems produce. He has also contributed to a project aimed at reducing natural gas consumption in at the Brower Center that can serve as a model for other commercial building heating systems.

Sumona is the Chief Executive Officer of Earth Island Institute, and she brings a deep commitment to fostering a more just and sustainable planet where all beings can thrive. Prior to this role, she served as the organization’s general counsel and led groundbreaking lawsuits against plastic producers and corporate greenwashing. Sumona is also the mother of two young children, who are an endless source of joy and also fuel her dedication to this work. Sumona’s favorite form of transportation is a bicycle; she finds mental clarity by running through Oakland, California, and hiking on trails; and she is always trying to find more time in her schedule to enjoy live music and other performances. Before joining Earth Island, Sumona spent seven years enforcing federal environmental laws with the U.S. Department of Justice. Sumona holds a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, obtained a B.S. from the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan, and served as an Environment Sector Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco.

Alexa is the Executive Director of the Center for Ecoliteracy. She previously served as the organization’s Director of Programs, where she oversaw all program efforts across the organization, designing, developing, and directing some of the most successful programs in the Center for Ecoliteracy’s history. Her insight and compassion have nurtured our relationships with staff and partners to advance education for the sustainability of people and the planet. A Vassar graduate with a background in publications, she served in the corporate offices of Condé Nast Publications in New York, an experience that lends editorial excellence to the organization’s publications and communications work. A farming apprenticeship in Vermont left her with a deep appreciation of one’s food system and the importance of connecting to place.

David is Executive Director Emeritus of the Earth Island Institute. He has served as Executive Director of EII since its founding in 1982. David specializes in international marine wildlife conservation, directing the Institute’s International Marine Mammal Project, with staff in the US, Thailand, Mexico, Philippines, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ivory Coast and Italy. In 1995, David founded the Free Willy-Keiko Foundation, successfully overseeing an ambitious international campaign to attempt the first rescue, rehabilitation and release of an orca whale to its native habitat in Iceland. Mr. Phillips was a cum laude graduate in biology from Colorado College.