Conference Host: Nate Miley

Nate Miley was first elected to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors representing District 4 in November 2000 and is currently serving his sixth term representing portions of the City of Oakland and the City of Pleasanton, as well as Ashland, Castro Valley, Cherryland, El Portal Ridge, Fairmont Terrace, Fairview and Hill Crest Knolls. In January 2023, he was appointed President by his colleagues on the Board of Supervisors, this is the second time that Supervisor Miley has served in this capacity during his tenure on the Board.

Throughout his time in elected office, Supervisor Miley has fought to protect open space, strengthen our healthcare system, and create more livable and safe neighborhoods, while improving transportation, agriculture and urban farming, air quality, healthcare, public safety, and social services. Supervisor Miley authored legislation to hold pharmaceutical companies accountable by creating nation’s first no-cost drug disposal ordinance, championed the successful passage of Measure A which raises $100 million annually to support vital health care programs within Alameda County and worked to ensure that communities have a voice within local government.

Conference Announcer: Erin Armstrong

Erin Armstrong has a successful track record of tackling the most complex and challenging problems facing the Bay Area, with experience in addressing illegal dumping, police oversight, housing, homelessness and more. She has an MBA/MPP from Mills College in Oakland and is the Senior Policy Advisor to Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley. In 2019 she helped to launch the Alameda County Illegal Dumping (ACID) Pilot; a cross-sector collaborative aimed at identifying and implementing best practices to address illegal dumping. Erin leads the Illegal Dumping Task Force, a State-wide coalition dedicated to elevating and disseminating best practices for addressing illegal dumping, on behalf of Supervisor Miley.

Erin lives and works in Oakland California wither her wife Morgan, daughter Matilda, and two very senior cats, Galileo and Guinevere.

Alex Oseguera

Alex has been with WM for 32 years, most recently as the Director of Government Affairs for California and Hawaii. His tenure at WM has been marked by a series of successful leadership positions in both national and international operational roles, including Area Vice President, Market Area General Manager, Director of Operations, and District Manager. Alex is committed to collaborative leadership and his teams have earned widespread recognition, including three prestigious “Circle of Excellence” awards for exemplary performance. An alumnus of Georgetown University, Alex holds a master’s degree in foreign service with a concentration in international trade and finance, which underpins his strategic approach to leadership. Alex will reside from the NCN Area office in Lodi, California.

Harold Duffey

Harold Duffey has over 30 years of experience working for cities and counties throughout California. His extensive tenure includes serving as chief executive officer for the cities of Grand Terrace, Compton, and Oroville. Mr. Duffey’s Public Works experience extends to Yolo County, the City of Sacramento, the City of Riverside, and San Bernardino County.

Cory Bytof

Cory is the Sustainability Program Manager for the City of San Rafael. He co-authored and is responsible for implementing the City’s Climate Action Plan, now being used as a model by the other cities in Marin. Cory approaches sustainability from an interdisciplinary lens with a focus on community + collaboration.

Walter Gonzalez Valdez

Walter Gonzalez Valdez is a Management Analyst at the City of San Rafael’s City Manager’s Office. Walter is passionate about ensuring that all communities, regardless of background and makeup, obtain equitable access to all public services. This has led Walter to co-design projects and services that tackle inequity in the distribution of resources. Walter graduated from the University of California San Diego in 2021 and hopes to continue his education to further his mission.

Holly Lawrence

Holly Lawrence is the SEI Climate Corps – Zero Waste Fellow for the City of San Rafael. Holly is working on projects related waste management and reduction including SB 1383 recycling and compost compliance, promoting the City’s Reusable Foodware Ordinance, and the Illegal Dumping Project. She graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 2022, and is excited to be working in local government.

Larry Sweetser

Larry Sweetser is Chair of the statewide Illegal Dumping Technical Advisory Committee since 2017 and a member since 2004. on behalf of the 26-member county Rural Counties’ Environmental Services Joint Powers Authority (ESJPA).  Larry Sweetser specializes in trying to bridge the gap between California’s strict regulatory requirements and reality for solid waste and household hazardous waste programs for over 30 years. Larry also serves on the Solid Waste Association of North America’s California Chapter’s Legislative Task Force.

Stephanie Becker

Stephanie Becker has worked in the environmental sector for over 10 years, officially analyzing illegal dumping impacts since 2018 at CalRecycle. Stephanie facilitates the statewide Illegal Dumping Technical Advisory Committee (IDTAC) that accesses illegal dumping/disposal issues, costs, and incidents, develops recommendations and resources, and supports regional/local efforts—endeavors to combat the problem. Stephanie has made her mark through a wide range of public health, safety, environmental, and social change campaigns. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Public Relations and Marketing from CSU Sacramento. She is adamant about “correct” materials management and joins community cleanups.

Doug Kobold

Doug Kobold Doug has been “talking trash” for over 30 years. Since August 2018 he has, and continues to serve, as the Executive Director for the California Product Stewardship Council (CPSC). Previously he spent over 18 years with Sacramento County managing contracts, procurement, new recycling programs development, HHW, and pending legislation.  He spent nearly 3 years with Edgar & Associates providing solid waste consulting services statewide and over 5 years with Yolo County managing the County’s landfill. He holds a Civil Engineering degree from California State University, Chico.

Doug is currently an appointed member of the California SB 54 Advisory Board, the Vice President of CRRA, the Past Chair and a Voting Member of the SWANA LTF, and a Board Member of the California Foundation for the Environment & Economy (CFEE).  Additionally, he has served as the Vice Chair of the CalRecycle Illegal Dumping Technical Advisory Committee (IDTAC), the Chair of CPSC, the Founder and President of National Stewardship Action Council (NSAC), Chair of the California Mattress Advisory Committee, and a member of the California Carpet Recycling Advisory Committee.

Jordan Wells

 Jordan joined the National Stewardship Action Council (NSAC) at its formation in 2015 and currently serves as the organization’s Director of Advocacy and Communications and registered lobbyist in California. She has navigated numerous bills from inception to passage and is skilled at building partnerships and developing strong coalitions to advance policy change. Jordan was appointed by the Director of CalRecycle to the Statewide Mattress Recycling Organization Advisory Committee in 2021 and serves on the North American Hazardous Materials Management Association’s (NAHMMA) Board of Directors. Jordan helps plan and attend the California Foundation on the Environment and the Economy’s annual “California’s Recycling Challenge” Study Trips which takes California elected officials and government appointees to other states and countries to see policies and programs first-hand.

Ed Ramirez

Ed Ramirez is the Supervising Environmental Service Specialist for the City of San Jose PRNS/BeautifySJ. He has over 25 years’ experience with the City of San Jose and he currently manages the program’s Neighborhood Blight Reduction efforts. Ed enjoys the opportunity to keep the city in which he was born and raised clean and beautiful. He believes great effort and determination come with great rewards, and that innovative partnerships can make a difference!

Alonzo Perez

Alonzo Perez Senior is a Senior Maintenance Worker for Parks, Recreation, and Neighborhood Services, BeautifySJ. Alonzo has 25 years of experience in public maintenance operations across multiple departments. Alonzo has a tremendous amount of pride in the work he delivers to make San Jose a beautiful city.

Tedd Ward

For nearly 30 years, Tedd Ward has promoted zero waste, ending welfare for wasting, and creating jobs from discards and environmental design.  He has taught in Kenya as a Peace Corps volunteer, been a manufacturing engineer, a recycling consultant and taught at university. For the last thirty years, Ward has worked for the Del Norte Solid Waste Management Authority where he is Director.  

Ward co-authored the Del Norte Zero Waste Plan in 2000, the first municipal Zero Waste Plan in the nation.  In 2020 Ward served on California’s Statewide Commission for Recycling Markets and Curbside Recycling, which made specific recommendations on how California can take steps to make recycling and composting more effective.  Ward serves as Vice President for the California Product Stewardship Council and has been appointed as the rural government representative to the SB 54 Advisory Group.  He also Chairs the Strategies subcommittee of CalRecycle’s Illegal Dumping Technical Advisory Group.

Daphne Cortese-Lambert

Daphne Cortese-Lambert is the Director of Del Norte Mission Possible, a non-profit providing services and support for unhoused persons and families living in Del Norte County

Kas Neteker

Kas Neteker has been with Gigantic since 2009 and advanced to the role of Principal in 2016. She is a dynamic leader who excels at forming strategic collaborations where results often exceed client goals. With over 28 years of experience, Kas applies her diverse skills in creative direction, marketing strategy, business development, design and photography to build innovative and effective marketing and outreach campaigns. Kas designs and facilitates meetings and workshops for building and strengthening communities, programs and organizations using Systems Thinking, Open Space Technology and Design Thinking techniques.

Nancy Roberts

Nancy Roberts has over 30 years of experience in marketing and public relations, communications and project management for mission-driven organizations. She focuses on strategic communications planning, metrics and integrating social media into traditional outreach campaigns for many of Gigantic’s clients, including Zero Waste Marin, Livermore Recycles, Carpet America Recovery Effort, Marin County Flood Control and Water Conservation District and Respect Wildlife.  A former blogger, Nancy also excels at content development, from social media posts to press releases and campaign copy.

Taylor Grimes

Before joining MRC as the California Special Projects Coordinator, Taylor worked in the private sector solid waste collection industry. She is passionate about working with local recycling and waste reduction resources to promote sustainable practices, product stewardship and diverse community engagement. Taylor has supported jurisdictions throughout California in their strategic planning and legislative compliance measures, assisting in diversion efforts for solid waste collection. In her role at MRC, Taylor’s areas of focus include the California annual report, illegally dumped mattresses, environmental justice and other special projects.

Timothy Burroughs

Timothy Burroughs is Executive Director of StopWaste, a public agency advancing sustainability in Alameda County. Timothy also serves on CalRecycle’s SB 54 Advisory Board, representing the interests of local governments as the state moves forward with developing and implementing SB 54 regulations. He has over 14 years of experience working within public, community-serving agencies, including serving successively as the Director of the Office of Energy & Sustainable Development, Chief Resilience Officer, and Director of the Department of Planning & Development at the City of Berkeley.

Timothy has a Master’s degree in Environmental Policy from American University in Washington, D.C. He also served in the Peace Corps in The Gambia, West Africa.

Charles Branas

Charles Branas leads one of the nation’s oldest and largest Departments of Epidemiology and is known for his focus on especially challenging health issues and interventions that improve basic determinants of health, such as access to green space, housing, and medical care. He led the first major NIH-funded gun violence research study, and is the founding PI/PI of two CDC-funded injury research centers. His research has been cited by landmark Supreme Court decisions, Congress, and major news outlets, and he has mentored scientists into leadership posts ranging from top universities to the White House. He has worked at multiple Schools of Public Health, Engineering, and Medicine, including Columbia, Johns Hopkins, Berkeley, Penn, the University of San Carlos in Guatemala, and the University of Otago in New Zealand, and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.

Ken Houston

Ken Houston, a subject matter expert on illegal dumping, graffiti vandalism, and homeless encampments is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Beautification Council a 501 (c)3 organization. The Beautification Council disrupts the cycle of blight and homelessness, through an innovative duplicable proven process collaborating with private-public partners and governmental agencies.  In 2012, Ken Houston declared homelessness and blight a state of emergency before it became an epidemic. As a life-long community advocate, he immersed himself amongst the homeless/unhoused population for 30 days to understand the cause, effects, and impacts.  The lived experience became the platform for efficacious programming and cross-sector collaborative partnerships. Passion, People, Projects are the driving force behind Ken Houston and the Beautification Council’s initiatives. The initiatives have a positive impact on blight and the unhoused along with the justice-involved through employment, economic stability, and housing.  One of Ken Houston’s strongest beliefs is that we must invest in our youth and children to create positive leaders of tomorrow. His fundamental approach is to take them back to the basics by engaging them with nature and early community involvement.

Cynthia Prieto-Diaz

Cynthia Prieto-Diaz (CPD), MPH, CPH is a biomedical engineer with a background in public health, working on implementing sustainability across the complete lifecycle of medical devices and the healthcare industry.

CPD is a member of 500 Women Scientists since 2022, where her punk rock roots brought her to seek out organizations engaging in Climate Action through the lens of equity and justice, while energizing the next generation of STEM leaders.

Most recently CPD formally joined ESAL (Engineers and Scientists Acting Locally), after meeting members of the leadership team at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2023, where she was presenting on her community impact projects, like reducing toxic litter from entering our waterways to advance public health by protecting community and wildlife. Cynthia is a huge cheerleader for those that ever felt like they did not belong in STEM!

Walter Yu

Walter Yu is a professional civil engineer who earned his B.S. in Civil Engineering from UC Berkeley, Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Data Science from the Harvard Extension School, and Post-Baccalaureate Certificates in Information Systems and Data Management from UC Berkeley Extension.

Walter began his Caltrans career in 2006 with District 4 as a Transportation Engineer. He joined the Division of Environmental Analysis (DEA) in 2016 as a Senior Transportation Engineer. Next, he joined the Planning and Modal Programs as Caltrans Enterprise Data and Geospatial Governance (CTDATA) Program Manager. During the course of his career, Walter has worked on a variety of new initiatives including the District 4 Construction Stormwater Inspection Program, Caltrans Statewide Trash Implementation Plan for the State Water Resources Control Board and Enterprise Data Governance Task Force. Since 2022, Walter has served as Clean California Program Director, responsible for program delivery and serving as the program focal point.

Jason Baker

Jason Baker is an Operations Supervisor at Sacramento County Department of Waste Management for nearly 7 years where I supervised the North Area Transfer Station and currently oversee bulky waste and illegal dump operations. He has been in the solid waste industry for 24 years, and earned a bachelor’s degree in business management and have been certified through The Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA).

Rebecca Richardson

Rebecca Richardson is a Waste Management Program Associate with the County of Sacramento, Department of Waste Management and Recycling, Technical Services Division with over 27 years of industry experience in collection truck operation, operational management, and commercial generator regulation. As Project Manager, I coordinate with contractors, public agencies, and local jurisdictions to address solid waste issues related to homeless encampments and illegal dumping within the Sacramento County Unincorporated areas.  

Elizabeth Robbins

Elizabeth Robbins is a Code Enforcement Officer II with the County of Sacramento. Elizabeth has a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from CSUS and has worked in code enforcement in some capacity for over 6 years. She started with the County of Sacramento 2 years ago and am the primary illegal dumping investigator for the south half of Sacramento County. I am also PC 832 certified and have taken additional Code Enforcement Officer training through the CA Association of Code Enforcement

Benjamin Lucha

Benjamin Lucha started with the City of Palmdale in May of 2007.  Ben has a Bachelors of Science degree from the University of California, Riverside in Environmental Sciences.  Prior to arriving to the City of Palmdale, he worked for the City of Santa Clarita for over six years, first as an Environmental Analyst and later as an Environmental Projects Development Coordinator working primarily on Solid Waste related issues.  Ben has almost twenty-five years of experience in the environmental field, with approximately twenty-three years working in the public sector. 

As part of his duties as Innovation and Environmental Manager for the City of Palmdale, Ben is involved with a variety of topics.  The Innovation and Environmental Division oversees solid waste compliance issues, such as SB 1383 implementation, household hazardous waste programs, and illegal dumping programs; energy efficiency projects; wireless communication facilities and 5G deployment; and the City of Palmdale’s citywide fiber deployment project. 

Ben is currently Vice Chair on the Utilities and Public Right of Way Technical Committee for the American Public Works Association and is also on Alternative Technology Advisory Subcommittee for the Los Angeles County Integrated Waste Management Task Force. He is also certified in Sustainable Behavior Change and as an Envision Sustainability Planner. 

Jim Madden

Jim Madden serves as a Grant Manager at CalRecycle for Local Conservation Corps, Tire Enforcement Grants and Local Enforcement Grants to cities and counties throughout California. Jim has 20 years’ experience in solid waste management, recycling, and source reduction consulting. He has conducted Litter Studies for the City of San Francisco since 2009. Jim also worked as a Natioal E-waste Compliance Manager for a consumer electronics manufacturer working with 25 states E-waste compliance regulations. Jim holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from San Jose State University, and a Dual Certificate in Environmental Safety and Health and Hazardous Materials Program Management from University of California Santa Cruz.

Garik Losilevsky

Garik Losilevsky is a Management Analyst for the County of Santa Clara in the Watershed Protection Division. He has worked for the County since 2017 and has a background in stormwater permit compliance. Garik was the lead on the Countywide Litter Abatement Program and worked with all entities involved to create and manage a successful cleanup program. Garik holds a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies from San Jose State University, and an MBA in sustainable enterprise from the Dominican University of California.

Zhenzhen Jiang

Zhenzhen Jiang is a management analyst for the County of Santa Clara in the Watershed Protection Division. She has worked for the County since 2018 and has a background in stormwater permit compliance. Zhenzhen played an important role in administering the Countywide Litter Abatement Program. Her focus in the program was to report grant data to the state, manage data, process invoices, and generate cleanup location assignments for the San Jose Conservation Corps. Zhenzhen holds a bachelor’s degree in public policy from the University of California San Diego.

Emin Israfil

Emin Israfil is the founder and CEO of Rubbish, a San Francisco-based tech company transforming waste management using data, AI, and delightful user experiences. The company’s unique approach to fostering clean and sustainable neighborhoods has gained recognition from organizations like NASA, Google, Apple, and Accenture.

Having started programming at the age of 10, Emin’s enthusiasm for technology is intrinsically linked with his dedication to environmental sustainability. His extensive experience living and working across five continents has fueled his commitment to addressing global environmental issues, particularly waste management and cleaning up our shared community spaces.

Emin earned a B.S. in Molecular and Cell Biology from SUNY Binghamton, complemented by further Risk Management and Organizational Behavior studies at RMIT University in Australia and Epithelial Cancer Research at UCLA.

Mike Feuer

Mike Feuer served as Los Angeles City Attorney, the Majority Policy Leader and Judiciary Committee Chair of the California Assembly, a member of the Los Angeles City Council, where he was Chair of the Budget and Finance Committee, and as Executive Director of Bet Tzedek Legal Services, the House of Justice, providing free legal services to more than 50,000 indigent clients. He has taught public policy at USC and UCLA and practiced law at two of California’s leading law firms.  Mike has led numerous initiatives focused on improving neighborhood quality of life, health and safety.