Northern California Team
Emily Adler
Partnership Coordinator
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Rebecca Anderson
Sierra Educator, Principal Science Guru
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Blakely Atherton
Co-Founder and Development Director
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John Bernhardt
Educator
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Ambessa Cantave
Educator
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AshEl Eldridge
Educator
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Alisha Fowler
Educator, Online Media Maven
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Ashlee Jensen
Program Developer
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Matt Lappé
Lead Educator
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Sam McKelvie
Office Manager
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Kara Muraki
Program Developer
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Christine Kennelly Nesbit
Director of Community Engagement
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Matt Stewart
Head of Marketing
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Ben Swift
Special Ops/Outreach Coordinator
Pic Walker
Executive Director
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Emily Adler, Partnership Coordinator
Emily moved to the Bay Area after graduating Middlebury College in February 2008 with a BA in International Studies and a minor in Education. Emily grew up running around the woods in New England, and there her love of the environment was born. She has spent the years since trying to find the perfect balance between enjoying nature (by skiing, road biking, hiking, camping, kayaking, gardening, and more) and working to protect it. In college, Emily worked as a whitewater kayak instructor, an Educator for Save Our Shores, a conservation organization in Santa Cruz, CA, and a Research Intern for Native Energy, a renewable energy and carbon offset company in Vermont.
Emily recently finished a year-long Fellowship through the Compton Foundation called the Compton Mentor Fellowship where she worked on two city-wide events with the same underlying theme: to open avenues of education for groups of underprivileged youth from the Bay Area to become active and involved in the youth climate movement. Emily works on national and local partners, as well as various components of ACE's Youth Empowerment Project, otherwise known as YEP!
Rebecca Anderson, Educator and Principal Science Guru
Rebecca comes to ACE from the National Park Service, where she has worked as an interpretive ranger at Rocky Mountain and Mt. Rainier National Parks. She completed her Master’s degree in geological sciences at the University of Colorado in 2007, studying ice caps on Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic. She has also worked in Antarctica as a member of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet ice-core drilling project, where she shoveled mountains of snow, enjoyed her “arctic oven” and conducted research. She has a degree in geosciences from Williams College and currently lives in Truckee, CA with her husband, Andy, and 13-year-old German Shepherd, Juniper.
Blakely Atherton, Co-Founder and Development Director
Blakely Atherton is the Development Director of Alliance for Climate Education. She is a marketing professional who has developed and managed effective programs for both for-profit and nonprofit organizations throughout her career. Blakely has worked with start-ups as well as Fortune 500 organizations to develop effective strategies, articulate corporate positioning and value, implement direct marketing programs and drive revenues through effective communications and marketing programs. Blakely is also an expert at analyzing and assessing customer experiences and developing marketing programs to optimize those experiences. Prior to joining Alliance for Climate Education, Blakely ran her own consulting practice. She also has held marketing and marketing-related positions at Princeton University, iPix, VitesseLearning, and GetActive Software.
Blakely holds a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Middlebury College, cum laude, and a Master of Science in Integrated Marketing Communications from Northwestern University. Blakely is active in community service organizations including the Taproot Foundation, and works with a variety of philanthropic organizations on their fundraising and marketing programs, including Head-Royce School and Middlebury College.
John Bernhardt, Educator
John received a B.A. in Environmental Thought and Practice from the University of Virginia in May of 2008. While in Charlottesville, he found enjoyment working for the Southern Environmental Law Center on smart growth initiatives and the Piedmont Environmental Council on a Buy Fresh Buy Local campaign. Shortly after graduating, the allure of San Francisco drew John West. He has happily landed in the Bay Area and is looking forward to working with youth to curb climate change. He also looks forward to seizing the title of ACE ping-pong champion with his Forest Gump-like precision. When not in ACE's Oakland office, you can find John exploring San Francisco, coaching a youth lacrosse team and honing his tennis skills.
Ambessa Cantave, Educator
Ambessa is a ten-year veteran of the Bay Area's art, non-profit and environmental justice community. As Co-Founder Co-Director of Grind for the Green, he brings aboard his experience in youth leadership and workforce development to create a fully cohesive professional learning atmosphere that assists in the creation of executive level youth leaders. He also facilitates job training modules using the medium of hip-hop culture to at risk Bay Area youth. As a local artist Ambessa has served as a vanguard for conscious expression and cultural diversity with his group FIYAWATA in which he continues to spread a message of spiritual liberation and self awareness. His passion for empowering young people to reach their greatest potential is unrelenting and serves as an inspiration to both his personal and professional colleagues. Ambessa holds a B.A. in Marketing from York College and has also served as a program manager for stellar Bay Area organizations such as Leadership Excellence and Telegraph Hill Neighborhood Center.
AshEl Eldridge, Educator
AshEl Eldridge, a native of Chicago, is currently an Oakland, California based artist, educator, organizer and spiritualist. He was Outreach Associate and a Cultural Director of Green For All's Public launch called Dream Reborn and Spotlight Events Coordinator for Green Jobs Now: A National Campaign to Build the New Green Economy.
He performs spoken word, rap and sings nationally with conscious Hip Hop, Dub, Reggae and Electronica bands including Wisdom and Bassnectar. He has shared stages with Steel Pulse, KRS-One, STS9, Michael Franti, Midnite, Ozomatli and more. In addition to being a music, poetry, and meditation facilitator with Art in Action, where he works to empower low-income youth from urban communities, AshEL also combines the world of art, music and community healing with ecological sustainability within the CommuniTree Movement.
His work aims to cultivate the links between both local and global movements for social justice, spiritual awakening and ecological healing through "edutainment" and other compelling ways to captivate youth and hard to reach populations.
Alisha Fowler, Educator and Social Media Maven
Alisha joined the ACE team in September 2008 as an Educator and Social Media Maven. Alisha delivers presentations about climate science and solutions to high school students and works to engage thousands of students online as she drives ACE's social networking and online video efforts.
Before joining ACE, Alisha worked in Communications with National Wildlife Federation in Washington, DC, where she performed media work around a massive global warming campaign. In the summer of 2008, she served as a Fellow with the Breakthrough Institute, a progressive think tank based in Oakland. Alisha also worked with the State PIRGs as a Campus Organizer in Massachusetts. A native of greater Philadelphia, PA, Alisha graduated with a B.A. in geoscience and environmental studies from Hamilton College. When not blogging at work, Alisha writes at Watthead and ItsGettingHotInHere. In her free time, she enjoys biking the hills of Berkeley, camping, baking, and answering the call of the mountains.
Ashlee Jensen, Program Developer
Ashlee began working with ACE shortly after its incorporation in late July. After filling various roles within the ambitious start-up, Ashlee currently serves as a Program Developer and heads up ACE's School Grant and Scholarship Programs. Prior to joining ACE, Ashlee worked with Kaiser Permanente, The Daniels Fund, The Fresh Air Foundation, New York Senator Chuck Schumer at the DSCC and Chez Panisse. A Colorado native and proud Daniels Fund Scholar, Ashlee flew the coop in 2003 to attend New York University. While at NYU, Ashlee spent time volunteering in Africa and studying abroad in South America. She graduated in 2007 with a B.A. in Sociology. When not hard at work, Ashlee enjoys rock climbing, adventure seeking, and cooking scrumptious delights.
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Matt Lappé, Lead Educator - Bay Area
Matt likes to think anything is possible. After receiving BS and MS degrees from Stanford University’s Earth Systems program, he studied paleoclimate and environmental hydrology throughout Patagonia, Vietnam and Cambodia. Upon his return to California, he taught at a small charter high school in Mendocino County where he headed the science and social studies departments, founded the Sustainable Energy Education program (SEED) and, by default, was the janitor.
Before joining ACE, Matt worked as a Policy Analyst for the Tomales Bay Institute where he helped Peter Barnes develop the Cap and Dividend climate policy framework now advocated for by politicians across the country. He is a presenter for Al Gore’s Climate Project, an amateur guitarist, and likes to spend time with his brilliant siblings. When he's not inspiring high school students to get involved with climate change action, he can often be found adventuring in the Sierras and surfing California's unreasonably cold, big waves.
Sam McKelvie, Office Manager
Sam comes to the Bay Area from West Central Illinois. She attended Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois where she received her BA in Communication and a Minor in Psychology. While in graduate school at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Sam helped organize SIUC’s first Graduate Assistant Union, GA United (part of the NEA/IEA). With her Master’s in Speech Communication, focused in Intercultural Communication/Whiteness Studies, and a lot of uncertainty about living the academic’s life, she decided to pursue a career in social action. Sam has run civil rights, environmental, and anti-poverty campaigns in the Bay Area with the organization Grassroots Campaigns, most recently working with the DNC to win the 2008 Election. She is super excited about being a part of the ACE team and can usually be found furiously typing office-wide emails in her cubicle while listening to 80s music. Her favorite things include hanging out with her unbelievable family, watching her ‘stories’ on TV and reading non-fiction books.
Kara Muraki, Program Developer
Kara Muraki joined ACE shortly after graduating from Middlebury College in Vermont in 2008. A Bay Area resident all her life, Kara ventured east for both a dramatic change of scenery as well as to pursue her undergraduate studies in economics and environmental studies. Her central efforts include expanding ACE’s social network, wrangling email and text message campaigns, serving as the resident doodler and being the best seed crystal ACE has ever seen. Before joining ACE, Kara worked with Lucid Design Group on real-time energy and resource use displays allowing people to better track and manage their consumption. When not expressing her passion about curbing global warming at ACE, Kara can be found climbing, snowboarding, swimming/floating, making weekend jaunts to Yosemite and of course: devouring donuts.
Christine Kennelly Nesbit, Director of Community Engagement
Christine Kennelly Nesbit has over ten years experience in the environmental sector, combining a scientific and educational background with collaborative planning and communications, particularly in the fields of water, natural resources and the environment. She has most recently designed, managed and facilitated complex collaborative processes, public participation programs and stakeholder outreach efforts in the Klamath River Basin and Lake Tahoe. Christine has worked as an environmental consultant for surface water quality and compliance issues in the San Francisco Bay and Delta region. In addition, she has worked with government and non-governmental organizations as a stakeholder facilitator and project manager on natural resource issues throughout North and Central America.
Christine holds a Master's Degree in environmental sciences from Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland and a B.A. in biology and environmental studies from Middlebury College.
Matt Stewart, Head of Marketing
As an Idea Man with a flair for the memorable catchphrase, Matt's committed to creating an exciting youth community that inspires action against global climate change.
Matt previously worked at a global marketing/PR/business development consultancy, where he led marketing, PR and social media campaigns for technology companies such as the Wikimedia Foundation, SanDisk, Ricoh Innovations, modu mobile and many more. Previously, he helped launch Adobe’s executive thought leadership initiative on engagement and launched Safe Harbor Certified Seafood, which tests and certifies seafood to be lower in mercury. Matt also served as a community IT educator in the Peace Corps (Guyana).
Matt has a BA in Ethics, Politics & Economics from Yale. He volunteers with his dog Otis in the SPCA’s animal assistant therapy program, and on weekends can be found taking down the house performing Axl Rose-related karaoke.
Ben Swift, Special Ops/Outreach Coordinator
Ben attended Occidental College in his native Los Angeles and received a B.A. in Religious Studies. While at Oxy, he facilitated an intergroup dialog program through the social psychology department and worked to raise awareness and build alliances across difference with the goal of creating a more open and conscious community. This experience solidified Ben's belief in the importance of maintaining open lines of communication to achieve positive change. After graduation, Ben worked as a director for Grassroots Campaigns, running campaign offices up and down the coast of California.
Ben moved to Oakland from San Diego and was introduced to ACE by his former colleague, Sam McKelvie. He currently helps oversee ACE's national outreach projects, office support and exciting development opportunities. In his spare time, Ben likes to run around Lake Merrit many times, eat yogurt, hang out in Maine or L.A., go to concerts and play music.
Pic Walker, Executive Director
Pic’s decade of experience in the environmental sector allows him to recognize emerging sustainability trends, research and evaluate needs in the movement and implement innovative strategies to align the organization’s environmental principles with potential for impact. He previously worked at Blu Skye, a consulting firm which assists clients in researching and developing sustainability and environmental programs. Prior to joining Blu Skye, Pic worked at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation leading research and development efforts for the Environment team. He was a charter member and co-developed the Wild Salmon Ecosystem Initiative, a $190 million effort to have a substantial and measurable impact on the long-term sustainability of wild Pacific Salmon.
As well as being a certified NOLS instructor, Pic has worked with several conservation organizations including Conservation International, CI-Guatemala and Rainforest Action Network. He was born and raised in New England, but now raises his three kids - Zelle, Kacy, and Mac - in Marin with his wife Heather - escaping to the mountains whenever possible. Pic holds a B.A. from Middlebury College in Vermont and an M.B.A in sustainable enterprise from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.