Audubon California Board of Directors

MARSHA ANDERSON grew up on her family's farm in Marin County. She and her husband, John, have lived in Yolo County for thirty-three years. Together they own and operate Hedgerow Farms. Hedgerow Farms is a major producer of native grassland seed and is actively involved in grassland restoration. Since 1998, Marsha has bred and raised Hanoverian and Oldenburg horses. She has produced the licensed Hanoverian stallion 'Warcloud' and numerous horses competing in dressage and the hunter jumper ring. Ms. Anderson has a Bachelor of Science degree in Bacteriology from U.C. Davis and a Certificate in Financial Planning from U.C. Extension. She is currently on the board of the Yolo Land Trust and serves as treasurer. She is a past member of the Winters Joint Unified School District Board, serving terms as President and Clerk. She is currently a member of Soroptimist International of Winters and California Native Grasslands Association. Ms. Anderson joined the Audubon California board in 2007.

DON BRANSFORD is a partner in Bransford Farms with his wife Diane, a diversified farming operation growing rice, prunes and almonds in the Sacramento Valley. Bransford is Chair of the California Rice Producers' Group, President of the Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District and past Chair of the California Rice Commission and the Northern California Water Association (NCWA). He was appointed to the State Board of Food and Agriculture in 2006 by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Don was appointed to the Bay Delta Advisory Council of CALFED by Governor Pete Wilson in 1995 and was appointed to the State of California, Governor's Advisory Drought Planning Panel in 2000 by Governor Gray Davis. Don was named the USA Rice Federation's Rice Farmer of the Year in 1999 and awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award in the U.S. rice industry in 2005. In 2005 he was recognized by the California Cooperative Rice Research Foundation for distinguished contributions to the advancement of the California rice industry. Don also serves on the Colusa Unified School District Board of Trustees. Bransford earned a Bachelor's Degree in General Science from Oregon State University, a Master's Degree in Exercise Physiology from CSU Sonoma and a Doctorate of Education in Exercise Physiology from University of Tennessee. Mr. Bransford joined the Audubon California Board in August 2010.

GIGI BRISSON is a founder and partner of Attractor Investment Management, Inc., a hedge fund focused on long term investments in technology companies. Gigi has been active in numerous nature projects and is currently developing a program with Sylvia Earle regarding ocean conservation and preservation. She and her husband own a ranch in Hollister that has become home to many rescued farm animals, including 32 horses. Gigi enjoys hiking, exploring, cooking, gardening, birding and flying her antique biplane. Gigi also keeps a home in Cape May, New Jersey and returns several times a year to watch the remarkable bird migrations through the area. Ms. Brisson joined the board in 2011.

WES CRAVEN is a Los Angeles based filmmaker recognized for his genre-bending and innovative horror films. Craven has been challenging audiences since 1972 when he wrote, directed and edited his controversial first film, Last House on the Left. Best known for creating the iconic Freddy Kreuger in Nightmare on Elm Street and for directing the record breaking Scream franchise, Craven has directed 29 feature films, over 20 television shows & movies of the week and has published one novel, The Fountain Society (1999). Craven's work has earned acclaim at festivals and award shows worldwide. In 1994 his film Wes Craven's New Nightmare earned a nomination for Best Feature at the Independent Spirit Awards and introduced the concept of self-reflexive genre films to the world. Craven departed from the genre in 1999 with Music of the Heart, a film that earned Meryl Streep an Academy Award nomination. Craven was born and raised in the mid-western suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio. He earned undergraduate degrees in English and Psychology from Wheaton College in Illinois and a masters degree in Philosophy and Writing from John Hopkins University. Prior to pursuing his film career, Craven taught humanities at Clarkson University in Potsdam, NY. Craven's most recent feature films, My Soul To Take (2010) and Scream 4 (2011) have been collaborations with his wife, producer Iya Labunka. Both Craven and Labunka are supporters of Debs Park. Wes is a lifelong bird lover and has been an Audubon Board Member since 2010.

A. SIDNEY ENGLAND, PH.D. , of Davis is an ornithologist and the Director of Environmental Planning for the University of California, Davis. Dr. England is an expert on the ecology of the Swainson's Hawk, a species listed as threatened in California. In 1997 he co-authored an account on the species in the American Ornithologists' Union project, The Birds of North America - Life Histories for the 21st Century. Dr. England routinely faces the issues of resource management and regional planning by serving on the boards of directors for the Conaway Ranch Joint Powers Authority, Water Resources Association of Yolo County, the Lower Putah Creek Coordinating Committee, and the Swainson's Hawk Technical Advisory Committee. He was the president of the Yolo Audubon Society 2001-03, and has been on the board of the chapter for over a decade. An avid birder, he has traveled widely in Central and South America, and teaches introductory field ornithology through the University Extension at UC Davis. (Board Emeritus)

BELINDA FAUSTINOS was appointed as the Executive Officer of the San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy (RMC), a California State Agency, in June of 2002. The primary charge of the Rivers and Mountains Conservancy is to acquire and manage public lands within the watersheds, provide open space, low impact recreational and educational uses, water conservation, watershed improvements, wildlife and habitat restoration and protection. In addition to serving as the Executive Officer of the RMC she was also the Executive Officer of three joint powers authorities, the Watershed Conservation Authority, the San Gabriel River Discovery Center Authority and the Los Cerritos Wetlands Authority. Ms. Faustinos' environmental experience includes seventeen years with the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy (SMMC) where she served as the Deputy Director from 1991 to 2002. Cumulatively she administered well over $300 million in capital outlay funds which were used for the acquisition and improvement of over 45,000 acres of parkland and educational interpretation programs during her career with the SMMC and RMC. A native of southern California, Ms. Faustinos was born and raised in East Los Angeles, California. She obtained her bachelor's degree from Pitzer College in Claremont, CA in 1973. Post graduate education has included completion of courses offered by EPA and Harvard Graduate School of Design. Over the years she has received honors and certificates of recognition from several federal, state and local legislators and has participated in many civic and professional organizations. Her current interests are focused on policy issues related to integrated resource management and equitable access to parks and natural open space for impacted communities. She is a member of the National Park System Advisory Board, State Audubon Governing Board, State Watershed Program Advisory Committee, Land Trust Alliance Board of Directors and the Amigos De Los Rios Governing Board.

STEVE FERRY has been a member of Audubon Society since 1977, a member of the Santa Barbara Audubon Society (SBAS) since 1983, and a member of the Board of Directors of SBAS since 2003, serving as Membership Chair. Mr. Ferry is a snowy plover docent at University of California's Coal Oil Point Reserve (COPR) as well as a board member of the Friends of COPR. He has served as a volunteer condor nest watcher for US Fish and Wildlife Service at Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge. Mr. Ferry has had a successful career of 35 years in the aerospace industry as a design engineer, systems engineer, and program manager. He last held the position of program manager for Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing in Goleta, CA where he directed development teams in multimillion-dollar projects to develop complex space sensors used to produce infrared images of the earth and planets. Three of these sensors are currently operating on Mars.

SUSAN GOTTLIEB is the co-founder and co-owner of The G2 Gallery (www.theg2gallery.com) in Venice, California, a philanthropic art gallery which features wildlife and nature art exclusively. All proceeds from sales of work at the gallery are donated to conservation organizations.

Ms. Gottlieb is dedicated to conservation and passionate about birds and wildlife. Both she and her husband, Mr. Dan Gottlieb, are talented wildlife photographers who travel around the world to capture photos of wildlife and nature. She also began a native garden in Beverly Hills in 1990 to save water with drought tolerant plants and attract birds. The garden has been designated as official Backyard Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation and featured in various newspaper and magazine articles. Ms. Gottlieb serves on the board of The Friends of the Ballona Wetlands and supports many conservation organizations. She lives with her husband and four rescued cats, which are able to roam their property and enjoy the outdoors safely and without threatening birds or other animals thanks to a special open air cat run they constructed on their property. Ms. Gottlieb has been a member of the board since 2009.

KABERI KAR GUPTA is an ecologist with training in conservation biology, animal behavior, habitat ecology, and physical anthropology. She has studied behavioral ecology and conservation of mammals and birds in the New and the Old World. Her graduate work focused on nonhuman primate behavioral ecology in India. She got her first Masters in wildlife biology from Wildlife Institute of India and studied common langurs in the Himalayan forests. As a part of her Ph.D. work at the Arizona State University she studied ecology and conservation strategies of a nocturnal primate (slender loris) in a human dominated landscape in southern India where she conducted part of her fieldwork with a toddler in her back. In the past 15 years she has worked as a consultant biologist and educator developing management policies for a Tiger Reserve in India and in the US, and taught undergraduate and graduate students in India and in CSU Fresno. Currently, she is coordinating Fresno Bird Count, a citizen science project focusing on the effect of urbanization, human socioeconomics and urban water use on the biodiversity especially birds and plants in Fresno-Clovis Metropolitan Area. She has recently received a Together Green Leadership Fellowship to develop a collaborative project on sustainable and biodiversity rich urban residential landscapes in Fresno. Her other interests include understanding the effect of ecological development programs on local communities, especially their women using local and traditional ecological knowledge, local common-pool resource use and its role in conservation of natural resources. She has been a board member and education chair of Fresno Audubon Society since 2009. She lives in Fresno with her two daughters and her ornithologist husband.

SCOTT HUBER is the President and Education chair of Altacal Audubon Society of Chico and is active in local land use issues and nature advocacy. A successful Real Estate agent for many years, Scott also works as a field biologist conducting bird surveys throughout the state and as a birding tour guide. A graduate of California State University Chico with a degree in Geography, Scott and his wife, Kathleen, are proud to be raising two young naturalists, ages 11 and 13.

GERALD D. "JERRY" KARR is the Conservation Chair for the Napa Solano Audubon Society. Mr. Karr has served multiple terms as president of his chapter. A United States Army veteran, Mr. Karr worked for a major oil refining company for 36 years. He was the Marine Terminal Superintendent responsible for safe tanker operations as well as all oil spill training and response. He was one of two Wildlife Liaison team leaders for a West Coast Regional Response Team. He also serves as president of the board of directors of The Friends of The San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Born and raised in Vallejo, Mr. Karr has spent many recreational hours in the Napa River Delta, San Pablo Bay, Suisun Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Married for forty years to wife and best friend Theresa, Jerry has two grown sons, Clifford and Kevin and two grandchildren. He joined the Audubon California Board in January 2006.

BARBARA KUS is a research ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey's Western Ecological Research Center at the San Diego Field Station. One of her key study areas is birds inhabiting coastal drainages of southern California, and she has played an important role in addressing the recovery of two riparian-dependent endangered species, the Least Bell's Vireo and the Southwestern Willow Flycatcher. Kus holds a Ph.D. in Ecology and a Master's in Ecology from the University of California, Davis, and has taught courses in Ornithology, Conservation of Wildlife, and Ecology and Evolution. She joined the Audubon California Board in May 2010.

PEDRO NAVA is currently of Counsel to Huskinson Brown Heidenreich & Carlin LLP
Mr. Nava is a former member of the California State Assembly (November 2004-November 2010) and grew up and attended public schools in Southern California. He studied at San Bernardino Valley College, graduated from California State University, San Bernardino, and obtained his law degree from the University of California, Davis, Martin Luther King Jr. Hall, School of Law. Before attending law school, he managed a program for at-risk high school students at the Chaffey Unified School District. After graduation from law school, Mr. Nava worked in job training programs for the economically disadvantaged in Fresno. Mr. Nava later became a Deputy District Attorney in the Fresno County DA's Office, involved in Targeted Narcotics Prosecution; headed up the county-wide Drug Crime Task Force; was a Board member of the Fresno Rape Crisis Center; and was President of the Fresno Community College President's EOP&S Advisory Committee. In 1985, he joined the Santa Barbara DA's office where, for a time, he was assigned to the Consumer/Business Law Section. From 1987 until his election in 2004 Mr. Nava was a civil litigator, primarily representing nurses and health care practitioners. Mr. Nava also served on the California Coastal Commission from 1997 until 2004, appointed by then California State Assembly Speaker Cruz Bustamante, where he earned the highest environmental protection vote awarded by the Sierra Club.

KRISTI PATTERSON has managed the Western region product implementation group of Kana Communications, a software company. She also created and led the education and training division for Kana's training of employees, customers, and partners since 1998. Prior to joining Kana, she worked with Bain Consulting in San Francisco and let the design and implementation of Bain's first technology networking and communication system. In 1996 she joined Netscape Communications and oversaw building an internal product knowledge system and managed the ales and training for the northern California channel sales group. Ms. Patterson received her Master's degree in Organizational Communication and Learning from Arizona State University. Growing up in Santa Cruz and spending summers on the ocean or backpacking in the Sierra Nevada, Ms. Patterson continues to enjoy exploring Northern California, Western Colorado and Montana with her husband, Tom, and their two children. They reside in Portola Valley. Ms. Patterson joined the Audubon California board in 2007.

WENDY PULLING is the Director of Conservation Programs for the California chapter of The Nature Conservancy, a position she assumed in September, 2011. Previously, she served as the Director of Environmental Policy at Pacific Gas and Electric Company for eleven years. Ms. Pulling practiced law for ten years, as a Senior Attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council and as an Assistant Regional Counsel for the United States Environmental Protection Agency in San Francisco. Ms. Pulling's varied personal interests include birdwatching, hiking, and tending her fruit orchard at home in Berkeley, California. Ms. Pulling has served as Board Chair since September 2009.

CHRIS REDFERN is executive director of the San Diego Audubon Society (SDAS). Since joining SDAS in 2005, he has established a number of new projects and programs, including community-based habitat restoration projects benefiting endangered birds (including California Least Tern and Western Snowy Plover), a collaborative outdoor nature program that reconnects school children to nature in their own neighborhoods, and a partnership with the National Wildlife Federation's Flyway Cities Coalition. Chris serves on the board of the San Diego Conservation Resources Network and is an active member of the Southern California Wetlands Recovery Project Task Force, the Rose Creek Watershed Alliance, and the San Diego Nature Education Network. Prior to joining SDAS, Chris had a successful career of 14 years in the software industry.

JACOB SCHUTT joined Parallel Advisors to help create a truly innovative wealth management firm founded on the principles of a disciplined planning process, an open architecture platform, and transparent reporting. Prior to joining Parallel, Jake worked for Morgan Stanley's Global Wealth Management Group. He achieved the Pace Setter's award and built his business providing advice to affluent individuals, families, and trusts. Prior to Morgan Stanley, Jake was a senior technology consultant for several web development firms serving the largest global non-profit organizations. Jake holds a B.A. in English from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He is also the trustee of several trusts, serves as Chairman of the Board for Wilmon Timberlands, a timber investment and management company. He serves on the Finance Committee of Marin Headlands Center for the Arts, a non-profit organization that provides artist residency programs in Marin. He is also a board member at the Richardson Bay Audubon Center in Tiburon.

ROBERT STEPHENS of Soquel founded the Elkhorn Native Plant Nursery in Moss Landing, a wholesale and retail nursery providing California native plants and seeds for landscaping and restoration. The nursery also offers botanical consultations, planning and implementing restoration, erosion control and landscaping projects, and seed collection and seed cleaning. Robert also operates a commercial apple orchard in Soquel and serves on the San Felipe Ranch Board of Directors, a cattle ranch in Central California. He is an advisory board member of the O'Neill Sea Odyssey and the Elkhorn Slough Foundation. He is the past chair of the Audubon California board of directors. He has twin daughters and enjoys horseback riding, biking, fishing, kayaking, nature photography and swimming. (Board Emeritus)

PHILIP SWAN serves on the boards of the Cygnet Foundation, a family foundation, based in South Pasadena, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, the Della Martin Foundation, and past board member of the Pasadena Humane Society and SPCA. He is a former trustee of his alma mater Colorado College. He is an avid hiker and enjoys introducing his son and daughter to the outdoors. He joined the Audubon California board of directors in June 2005.