OUR TEAM
Staff
Bri Gonzalez
Community Partnerships Manager
Cody Dowdell
Program Assistant
Cynthia Ni
Director of Innovation Programs
Gehad Elhanafy
Program Associate
Gloriamar Gamez
Chief Program Officer
Jessica Hilboldt
Program Associate
Karen Warner
Founder, Chief Executive Officer
Krystal R. Acierto
VP of Public Policy & Development
Maria Olide
Chief Operating & Financial Officer
Monica Garcia
Director of Finance & Operations
Nancy Martinez
Community Prosperity Lead
Neal Best
VP of Business and Economic Development
Sadie Speer
Operations Associate
Board of Directors
Ann Veneman
Former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture & CA Secretary of Food & Agriculture
Blake Simmons, PhD
Director, Biological Systems and Engineering Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Harold Schmitz, PhD
General Partner, The March Group
Michelle Reimers
Former General Manager, Turlock Irrigation District
Richard Cummings
Infrastructure Advisory, KPMG LLP
Yamilet Valladolid, MPH
Director of Government and Community Affairs, Golden Valley Health Centers
Advisors
Adrienne McKee
Technical Advisor
Partner, Hawkwood Biotech Partners
Deepti Tanjore
Technical Advisor
Director, Advanced Biofuels & Bioproducts Process Development Unit, Berkeley Lab
Danny Bernstein
Venture Advisor
Managing Partner, HawkTower
Egon Terplan
Senior Advisor, Public Policy
Senior Fellow at UC Berkeley and Brookings Metro
Gerardo Diaz
Technical Advisor
Professor, UC Merced
James Gardner
Technical Advisor
Program Manager, Berkeley Lab
Jim DeKloe
Advisor, Workforce Development
Distinguished Professor & Founder, Industrial Biotechnology Program of Solano College
Josette Lewis
Advisor, Agriculture
Chief Scientific Officer, Almond Board of CA
Marek Gootman
Advisor, Economic Development
Nonresident Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution