Board of Directors & Advisory Board
Rob Tadlock, President
Intellectual Property Counsel, Patagonia
Rob is Intellectual Property Counsel / Director of Brand Protection at Patagonia where he is responsible for Patagonia’s intellectual property portfolio, litigation, and legal support for marketing and advocacy. He is a member of Patagonia’s Grants Council and advises the company on its environmental advocacy programs. Prior to joining Patagonia he was a litigation partner in a San Francisco law firm. He and his family moved to Santa Barbara in 2014.
David Powdrell, Treasurer
CPA
A Certified Public Accountant by trade, David has served on a number of nonprofit boards, most recently as board chair for the Carpinteria Arts Center, 2009-2019. David was voted “Carpinterian of the Year” in 2014. Photography, playing music, writing books and adventure travel are his “happy places”. A former surfer, David spent decades photographing the Gaviota Coast. Zaniest adventure; David kayaked a plastic sit-on-top kayak from Oregon to Mexico with some surfing buddies. Environmental issues are paramount to David and his wife, Valerie. Preserving and protecting our incredible open spaces are among David’s greatest priorities.
Lauren Trujillo, Vice President
Foundation Director of Santa Barbara Public Library
Lauren Trujillo first came to Santa Barbara to attend UCSB where she received a B.A. in History. She received her Masters in Library and Information Science from UCLA and has worked with several nonprofits in Santa Barbara including the Isla Vista Memorial Project, the Santa Barbara Mission Archive-Library, the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation, and the Santa Barbara Historical Museum. She sits on the board for Santa Barbara Women’s Literary Voices, the Women’s Fund of Santa Barbara, United for Libraries, Association for Fundraising Professionals, Northside Optimist Club, and volunteers for the Junior League of Santa Barbara.
Gerardo Ayala
Health Advocate
Gerardo is a proud Santa Barbara native who has recently returned to social services after almost 20 years in the arts. He is a Health Advocate with the Santa Barbara County Education Office. Previously, he spent 10 years working with the homeless community in Santa Barbara as a School Liaison for homeless families. He has served on a broad range of non-profit boards in Santa Barbara including the Fund for Santa Barbara, The Children’s Creative Project, and Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA).
Toni Cordero
Toni is indigenous to Santa Barbara and descends from the local village of Syuxtun. She.is enrolled in the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation and is a paddler of a traditional plank canoe. Before retiring in 2020, Toni worked almost 25 years for the California Attorney General as Chief of Legal Affairs and in the civil rights and environment sections. Most recently, Toni taught part-time at the U.C. Berkeley Environmental Law Clinic. Toni serves on boards for the Sacred Places Institute for Indigenous Peoples and Surfrider Foundation. Before attending law school, she was a reporter with the Long Beach Press-Telegram.
Van Do-Reynoso
Van and her family moved to Santa Barbara County in 2017 when she was appointed as the County Public Health Director. She currently works at a local Medi-Cal Managed Care Plan serving members in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties. Van has over 25 years of policy and administrative work at the local, regional, state, and national level. She is committed to building community partnerships to advance health equity so everyone in our communities can thrive and achieve optimal health together. Van is also committed building healthy communities through the intersectionality of health equity and environmental justice.
Richard Francis
Attorney
Richard, appointed to the Board in September, 2012, has been a community activist for all of his 30+ years in Ventura. Richard co-founded and authored the SOAR initiatives which protect agriculture and open-space, putting him at the forefront of environmental protection issues throughout the county. As the former Mayor of Ventura, and the owner/director of his own multi-attorney law firm, he brings a unique skill set to the Board. Richard enjoys being with his wife, Nancy, a Planning Commissioner for the City of Ventura, traveling and being “empty nesters,” having raised their twins Hannah and Dillon, each currently attending different UC campuses.
Vijaya Jammalamadaka
Environmental Specialist
Vijaya joined the EDC Board in 2019. She comes with a wealth of environmental experience in local government as a planner and as both an air quality and energy specialist. Over the last several decades, she has served on boards and committees of local nonprofit organizations such as the League of Women Voters of Santa Barbara, the Fund for Santa Barbara, the Sustainability Project, the Community Environmental Council and many others. Vijaya has a strong interest in protecting the environment, sustainability, and adapting and building resilient communities. Vijaya has lived in Santa Barbara since 1976 and enjoys spending time with her family who live in Ventura County.
Linda Parks
Executive Director, SOAR
Linda Parks is credited with a series of major land-use wins serving as a Ventura County Supervisor and a Thousand Oaks Councilmember and Mayor. She helped stop development of the 3,000-acre Ahmanson Ranch, enacted a first-of-its-kind zone that protects wildlife corridors, and championed a wildlife bridge over the 101 freeway. She established Growing Works, a nonprofit nursery that provides horticultural therapy and job training for people with mental illness. She’s the Executive Director of SOAR an organization that preserves open space and farmland, and a Board member of San Luis Obispo’s Mothers for Peace dedicated to decommissioning Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant.
Jai Ranganathan
Ecologist
The most important thing you need to know about Jai is that he loves to write about himself in the third person. But he loves other things too – like running, swimming, and eating ice cream cones from Rori’s (the best ice cream place in town). He loves working on environmental things – so much so that he got a doctorate in ecology for some reason. And he uses that doctorate as a data scientist, focusing on the visualization of marine environmental data. He also loves mentoring kids with the Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, where he has been a mentor for over ten years and won Mentor of the Year in 2019.
Jim Salzman
Donald Bren Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law
Jim is the Donald Bren Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law with joint appointments at the Environment School at UCSB and the UCLA Law School. A graduate of Yale College and Harvard Law School, he has written more than eight books and eighty articles. He frequently appears as a media commentator and has lectured on environmental policy on every continent except Antarctica. Active in policy debates, he serves on EPA’s National Drinking Water Advisory Council and on the Trade and Environment Policy Advisory Committee. He has been a visiting law professor at Columbia, Harvard, Stanford, and Yale as well as at five foreign universities.
Leanne Schlinger
Environmental Activist, Owner of Full Moon Farms
A passionate environmental activist with a deep concern about climate change, Leanne joined EDC’s Board in 2018. Leanne founded Santa Ynez Vacation Rentals immediately after graduating UCSB and spent 15 years managing numerous agricultural ranch properties with prominent clients in Santa Barbara County. In 2016 Leanne was awarded “40 Under 40” by the Pacific Coast Business Times and in 2019 Women’s Economic Ventures named her Entrepreneur of the Year. Beyond EDC, Leanne serves on the board of MOXI, the Granada Theater, and on the President’s Council for the Community Environmental Council.
Sabrina Venskus
Attorney
Ms. Venskus’ is the principle of Venskus & Association APC, a litigation practice in Los Angeles and Ventura counties which includes environmental and natural resources, land use and zoning, housing rights, historic and archeological resources preservation, energy regulation, and open government law. Ms. Venskus graduated with honors from UCLA and received her law degree from Northwestern School of Law of Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, earning a certificate in Environmental and Natural Resources Law.
Advisory Board
Bruce Anticouni
Michael Behrman, M.D.
Yvon Chouinard
Neil Dipaola
Paul Franz
Joyce Howerton
Craig Madsen
Marc McGinnes
Lessie Nixon-Schontzler
Bob Ornstein
Pauline Abbe, In Memoriam
Susan Bower, In Memoriam
Harriet Miller, In Memoriam
Selma Rubin, In Memoriam
Herman Warsh, In Memoriam
