Board of Trustees
The Board of Trustees for San Francisco Parks Alliance are civic leaders who care deeply about the future of their city and its public spaces. They serve as active supporters and ambassadors for the organization.
Board of Trustees
Rey Arellano
Rey is a native of the SF Bay Area and has lived in San Francisco for 33 years. Rey strongly supports public, outdoor space and parks for the residents and visitors of San Francisco. He’s an avid outdoor and adventure person – has run eight marathons (including Boston), fifteen half-ironman triathlons as well as five Alcatraz triathlons, and has hiked portions of the JMT. Professionally he has been an actively licensed California CPA for nearly 30 years and owns and operates his own CPA firm. One of the firm’s industry specializations is non-profit organizations. He began his career at Coopers & Lybrand (now PwC), was the EVP Finance at BoostWorks (VC backed software company), and was the CFO and VP Administration for the Hispanic Scholarship Fund (501c3 nonprofit). Rey brings important CPA and CFO perspectives to the SFPA board.
Lateefah Gainey Baxter
Lateefah is a marketing professional who has provided her expertise to both Levi Strauss and Gap. Currently, she works as the Senior Global Marketing Manager at Walmart eCommerce. Lateefah lives near Golden Gate Park with her husband and two children, all of whom use the park “as their backyard.”
Shon Buford
Shon Buford is a 27-year veteran of the San Francisco Fire Department. Born and raised in San Francisco, he has worked across the entire city, including assignments on Rescue 2 and Engine 1. He also is a graduate of the University of San Francisco, where he earned his BS in Management with an emphasis in organizational behavior and leadership
In 2019, Shon was elected as Union President of San Francisco Firefighters Local 798, representing nearly 1700 uniformed service personnel who work to keep the city safe. Committed to public service and a lifetime of civic engagement, Shon has also served as a delegate to the California Democratic Party.
Juliana Bunim
Juliana is a seasoned public-affairs leader with deep experience in political strategy, communications, and media relations. As co-founder and managing partner at Progress Public Affairs, Juliana focuses on communications and reputation management for a large roster of industry-leading clients. Juliana has held leadership positions at the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, UC San Francisco and the San Francisco Examiner. Juliana currently lives in the Presidio with her husband and two daughters.
Rosemary Cameron
Rosemary Cameron has had a long career in the public sector, with management experience in regional and municipal parks and recreation, city management, legislative affairs, and communications. For 20 years, she served as East Bay Regional Park District’s Assistant General Manager, Public Affairs, leading integrated marketing communications programs for the largest local park agency in the United States. In addition, she served as Executive Director of the Regional Parks Foundation, a separate nonprofit organization that raises private support for Regional Park District programs. Since retiring in 2010, Rosemary has had an active consulting practice and various volunteer involvements, including serving as a member of Save the Redwoods League’s Board of Councillors. Rosemary was a founding member of SF Parks Alliance’s board of directors and served as its first chair.
Kanishka Cheng
Secretary
Kanishka is the Founder and Executive Director of TogetherSF, a civic engagement and education nonprofit based in San Francisco. The organization is the city’s largest network of informed doers connecting with each other to improve their communities.
Kanishka holds a Master’s degree in Urban Planning and has worked in the field of planning and public policy for nearly two decades. Kanishka served as San Francisco Mayor Breed’s Director of Commission Affairs and Liaison to the Board of Supervisors. Prior to that, she was a Legislative Aide to the Board of Supervisors and a Planner at San Francisco’s Planning Department. Kanishka is passionate about cities and urban life, and has dedicated her career to making San Francisco a city that provides opportunities for all and is a safe place for families to thrive.
Favorite Park
Golden Gate Park
Leah Culver
Leah Culver is a software engineer who has lived in San Francisco for nearly 20 years. She is a runner and bike commuter who frequents many parks in SF, though her favorite is Golden Gate Park and the JFK Promenade. Leah also loves public art and local festivals and is passionate about creating amazing open spaces for all. Leah lives with her husband, son, and pug in the Duboce Triangle neighborhood.
Aidan Dunne
Aidan is a native San Franciscan and likes spending his time cycling and hiking in the City and around the Bay Area. Aidan grew up next to Golden Gate Park and has enjoyed the parks of San Francisco for almost 50 years. Aidan is currently an audit partner with KPMG and has been with KPMG for over 25 years, primarily focused on financial services.
Bryan Duquette
Bryan is the Vice President of Concerts & Festivals and the Founder & President of Artist Management at Another Planet Entertainment. He is the cofounder of San Francisco music festivals Outside Lands and Treasure Island Music Festival. He co-founded Outside Lands Works, a charitable fund administered by Tides, in 2018. Outside Lands Works has granted nearly $1M since its inception to music and arts education non-profits in the SF Bay Area.
Bryan holds a BA from Hampden Sydney College. He is a 3-Time Tennis Division III Academic All-American and 3-Time Tennis Old Dominion Athletic Conference Player of the Year.
Born in Charlottesville, Virginia, raised in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and a resident of San Francisco since 2001, Bryan now lives in the Outer Sunset in San Francisco next to Golden Gate Park. He has been married 13 years to Morgan Clements Duquette and has two sons, Bayley Thomas Duquette and Marshall Duquette. He enjoys collecting vinyl, surfing, running, hiking, tennis and traveling with his family. Has traveled to 32 countries and has caught a wave in 14 of them.
Martha Ehrenfeld
When Martha first moved to San Francisco, the Golden Gate Park Tennis Center was one of the first places she went to find friends and a community. Now it is her turn to give back to the tennis community and her city. Martha has served on the board of the Golden Gate Tennis Club, the Gay and Lesbian Tennis Federation and the SF Recreation and Park Department’s Tennis Advisory Committee. She is currently a member of the USTA Northern California Diversity Inclusion Committee as well as a former board member of the Federation of Gay Games. She follows the work of many community tennis leaders who formed the Tennis Coalition; they spoke up and worked hard to be an advocate for public tennis in San Francisco. It is an honor to continue their work.
Cobie Everdell
Cobie is a native San Franciscan and currently resides on the North side of the city with his wife and two daughters. Growing up, he spent most of his free time in the outdoors, in either Julius Kahn Park or the Presidio. With his friends, he would explore the woods, turning over rocks and logs to discover the small creatures hiding all around us. This early interest in the outdoors expanded as he got older. Today, Cobie is an avid outdoorsman, a cyclist, hiker, birdwatcher, and fly fisherman. He’s hoping to instill his love of the outdoors in his daughter – they spend weekends together at Mountain Lake Park.
Professionally, Cobie has built a career as a product designer. He received a master’s degree in design from the Institute of Design in Chicago in 2005 and has worked with various design teams to create new products across industries. He worked on the Amazon Kindle, several medical devices, and on social impact initiatives for FEMA and UNICEF. Currently, he’s a design leader at Airbnb.
In addition to the Parks Alliance, Cobie and his wife are involved with the Rafael House, the San Francisco Symphony, and Hamlin.
Liz Farrell
Liz is passionate about parks and public spaces and loves sharing that passion with everyone she meets. She has played an active role as a co-chair for several years for SF Parks Alliance’s Party for the Parks. Liz is the founder of TechTalks, a consulting group aimed at helping schools and families have productive and healthy conversations around social media and technology. She also writes a monthly column “MomSense” for the Marina Times and lives in San Francisco with her husband Mark Farrell, former Mayor and District 2 Supervisor of San Francisco, and their three children.
Bob Gamble
Bob is a Managing Director in PFM’s San Francisco office. His major focus at PFM has been the development and implementation of public-private partnerships (P3) and the creation of public financing strategies in support of those partnerships. In this area, he has supported the development of Yerba Buena Gardens, Rincon Point South Beach, and AT & T ballpark in San Francisco. In addition to general policy and financial work, he also focuses on the financing of affordable housing and financing of non-profit facilities. With over 25 years in public finance and policy, Mr. Gamble previously served as Budget Director of the city and County of San Francisco under two Financial Officer of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, and Executive Director of the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund. His undergraduate degree is from Duke University and his Masters of Public Policy is from the Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley.
Thomas Gump
Thomas is a current partner at Pillsbury Law, where he has provided counseling, structuring,negotiating and deal management guidance to project sponsors, cash equity investors, tax equity investors and project finance lenders on energy project development and finance matters. He has served as the chair of the California State Bar’s Commercial Transactions Committee, and he previously worked at Siemens, A.G., headquartered in Munich, Germany.
Thomas is a proud graduate of Georgetown University and the University of Michigan Law School.
Mollie Gardner Hector
Mollie is Co-Founder and CEO of Earthbound.ai which is an AI platform to predict where the environment causes wear and tear on physical infrastructure. Prior to Earthbound.ai, Mollie worked for water-power companies, specifically in tidal energy and in-pipe hydropower, helping reform federal and state regulations for hydropower. Mollie is a 6th generation San Franciscan. She attended San Francisco Day School, The Thacher School, and Hamilton College where she studied Geology. She lives in Twin Peaks with her husband and two daughters.
Rick Hutchinson
Treasurer
Rick is former CEO of City CarShare, the largest not-for-profit car sharing organization in the country. During Rick’s decade-long tenure, City CarShare membership quadrupled and an estimated 16,000 fewer privately-owned vehicles were purchased. Prior to joining City CarShare, Rick ran his own strategic planning and interim management consultancy. Working with both start-ups and established companies, Rick helped senior executives accelerate the success of their marketing, new venture or business initiatives. Previously, Rick was President and Chief Executive Officer of StockPower, Inc. during their formation and market launch stages. From 1993 to 1998, Rick was President and Chief Operating Officer for BankLink Inc. He established the company as the market leader in outsourced treasury management and commercial e-banking technology services.
L. Jasmine Kim
L. Jasmine Kim has been actively involved with SF Parks Alliance for more than a decade, because hiking and spending time in parks and open spaces is part of her daily life practice. She and her family are long-time residents of San Francisco and avid lovers of outdoors. When she is not soaking up Vitamin N (nature), she serves as the Executive-in-Residence at DigitalDX Ventures and a Strategic Advisor to DigiTX Partners. She is a seasoned operator and leader, having held roles at Sutter Health, Walmart, Johnson&Johnson, and Yahoo. Jasmine is a graduate of Wellesley College and of the MBA/MA dual program at the Anderson Graduate School of Management, UCLA and UCLA School of Architecture and Urban Design. She is currently working on a Master’s in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University. She lives near Alta Plaza Park in San Francisco, with her family, and can often be found in-between, traveling far and wide, feeding her wanderlust.
Courtney Klinge
Vice Chair
Courtney has been a resident of San Francisco for over 20 years. She and her husband, Eric Prosnitz, own Sports Basement and are avid outdoor enthusiasts who frequent the city’s open spaces with their three daughters predominantly for soccer games, running, and hiking. Courtney is passionate about supporting the broader San Francisco community in embracing a healthy and active lifestyle with an emphasis on engaging under served youth. Past employment included product management in the internet industry and account management for advertising agencies. She is a graduate of Colgate University, BA, and Harvard Business School, MBA.
Jim Lazarus
Jim is a fourth generation San Franciscan and a ninth generation Californian whose roots go back to the founding of the Carmel Mission and the Ohlone people. An attorney by training, Jim served as a San Francisco Deputy City Attorney from 1975 to 1980, which included assignment as legal counsel to the Board of Supervisors. In 1980 he entered private practice, where his firm served as the City’s Employee Relations Office, overseeing the collective bargaining system. In 1983 Jim was appointed Deputy Mayor by Mayor Feinstein, a position he returned to for Mayor Jordan in 1992. During the interim period he served as Chief of Staff to the office of former Mayor Feinstein and as Vice President, Public Policy for the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.
Jim has served as Chief Operating Officer for the San Francisco Zoological Society, Executive Director of the San Francisco Historical Society and in 2006 through 2018 as Senior Vice President of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. In 2019 he returned to serve as State Director for Senator Feinstein, retiring in 2022.
Jim is married to Ann Blumlein Lazarus, a retired non-profit corporation executive, and they have two daughters and two sons, proud graduates of Lowell High School. Jim serves on the board of the Palace of Fine Arts Theater and has served as chair of the boards of the California Missions
Foundation, the San Francisco Parks Alliance, and the San Francisco Recreation and Park Commission.
Foundation, the San Francisco Parks Alliance, and the San Francisco Recreation and Park Commission.
Traci Lee
Traci is the Director of State and Local Government Affairs at Okta, a cloud-based cybersecurity company focused on identity and access management. She previously served as Director of Public Policy at Lyft and began her career as an Assistant District Attorney prosecuting serious and violent crime across various counties in California, including in her hometown at the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office.
A current resident of District 11, Traci grew up feeding the ducks and eating pink popcorn at Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park. She is the proud granddaughter of a Chinese immigrant who, in 1930, passed through Angel Island at the age of 9 by himself. Her grandfather eventually ran and owned Manor Coffee Shop, a small diner in San Francisco’s West Portal neighborhood. She is a graduate of Lowell High School, UC Berkeley, and Santa Clara University School of Law and spends her free time running at Ocean Beach, traveling, delving into real estate, and with her fiancé David and her multi-generational family, all of whom still live in the City.
Louise Mozingo
Board Chair
Louise is Professor and Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at the University of California Berkeley. A former Associate and senior landscape architect for Sasaki Associates, Prof. Mozingo joined the department after a decade of professional practice. In 2009 she became the founding director of a research interdisciplinary team at the College of Environmental Design, the Center for Resource Efficient Communities (CREC) dedicated to supporting resource efficiency goals through environmental planning and urban design. Professor Mozingo’s book, Pastoral Capitalism: A History of Suburban Corporate Landscapes (MIT Press), won 2011 American Publishers Award for Professional and Scholarly Excellence (PROSE Award) in the Architecture and Urban Planning category, the 2014 Elisabeth Blair MacDougall Prize from the Society of Architectural Historians for the best book in landscape history, and an American Society of Landscape Architects Honor Award for Communications in 2014. Prof. Mozingo has been the recipient of Harvard University’s Dumbarton Oaks Fellowship for Studies in Landscape Architecture, the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture Award of Recognition for Excellence in Teaching, Writing, and Service, and the University of California, Berkeley Chancellor’s Award of Recognition for University and Community Partnerships.
Kelly Nice
Kelly Nice is a Founding Partner at Nice & Company, a leading independent ad agency in San Francisco. He first got involved with San Francisco’s parks in 2002, helping on the campaign to restore the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park. As Vice President of San Francisco Parks Trust, Kelly served on the committee that initiated the merger between SFPT and Neighborhood Parks Council. He served as the Board Chair of SF Parks Alliance from 2013 to 2016. Kelly lives near Allyne Park and is a frequent cyclist and runner in Golden Gate Park.
Michael Ramirez
Michael has been a San Francisco resident for 16 years. He currently serves as Senior Vice President and Partner at an independent advertising agency, H&L Partners, where he oversees the management of all media strategy, planning, buying and performance for advertising campaigns for his clients. When not developing media strategies for top global brands, he enjoys lounging in San Francisco parks with his partner, or playing in softball and volleyball leagues.
Jonathan Rewers
Jonathan has many degrees and has worked in many different places. Despite all that, his one goal in life is being of service to his friends, family, community, and colleagues. Parks and Recreation is a pure expression of that goal, which is why he has promoted and supported it in all ways possible – as a volunteer, advocate, and professional. He currently works as the Manager of Capital Financial Planning and Analysis at the SFMTA, and is pursuing a graduate degree in Urban Planning. He grew up in San Francisco and played his childhood away at San Francisco’s world-class parks.
Melanie Sengupta
Melanie is a land use, environmental, and litigation attorney at Holland & Knight LLP. She graduated from University of California Davis School of Law in 2005 and was admitted to practice law in 2006. In 2013, 2014, and 2016 Melanie was selected as a Rising Star, a designation of top-rated practicing attorneys selected through extensive evaluation.
Timothy Seufert
Tim has enjoyed living in San Francisco for three decades. He previously served on the Board of Friends of the Urban Forest, the East Bay Center for Performing Arts, and the Haight-Divisadero Neighbors and Merchants Association. Professionally, he is a Managing Director at NBS, a public finance consulting firm helping communities fund tomorrow. He has also worked in Oakland for both the Clorox Company and Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream. Tim holds an MPA from SFSU and a Bachelor’s degree in Business and German language studies from USC.
Cyn Wang
Cyn Wang serves as San Francisco Entertainment Commissioner and the Chief Legal Officer of her family business, Wang Insurance. Cyn previously managed public policy at Airbnb and was a diplomat at the State Department, with tours abroad at U.S. Embassy San Jose, Costa Rica, and U.S. Consulate Toronto, Canada. Prior to that she served as Assistant City Attorney to several Bay Area cities. She is the recipient of several Meritorious Honor Awards from the U.S. Department of State, and the Key to Choice from Planned Parenthood Golden Gate. Cyn lives with her wife and daughter in the Sunset and speaks fluent Spanish and Mandarin.
John Ware
John has been active an active Board member of the Parks Alliance since 2004, initially as Board member and treasurer of the San Francisco Parks Trust, one of two predecessor organizations which came together to form the SF Parks Alliance in 2011.
Today, John co-leads the Friends of the Japanese Garden, which is working in partnership with the Recreation and Parks Department on a 4 year renovation of the tea garden, including a complete restoration of the 109 year-old pagoda which came to San Francisco for the Pan Pacific Exposition in 1915. He is also a longstanding member of the Parks Alliance’s Finance & Investment Committee.
Michael Yarne
A devoted urbanist, Michael is currently a strategic consultant, advising both startups and more well-established technology companies like Airbnb on how to tackle housing affordability. Prior to launching his consultancy, Michael was an executive at Lendlease Digital and cofounder of Social Construct, a venture-backed construction technology company, where he helped develop new systems for building apartments more affordably. While a partner at BUILD Inc., a San Francisco-based developer with over 2,000-units of housing in the pipeline, Michael founded Place Lab to innovate public place-making finance, development, stewardship and policy. Michael brings multiple perspectives to bear on public space development and stewardship, as a real estate developer, a former policy advisor to Mayor Newsom, and land use attorney. Prior to joining SFPA, he served on the board of City Carshare, Friends of City Planning, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and Urban Ecology. Michael lives and works in San Francisco, but is often hiking, cycling and running throughout the parks and open spaces of the Bay Area.