Advisors
The individuals mentioned on this page have supported the work of the Ojai Valley Green Coalition and continue to provide advice and guidance.
Tressa Berman, Board Advisor
Tressa Berman, Ph.D., is a cultural anthropologist whose multi-sectoral work spans disciplinary practices, including community curation projects, Indigenous sovereignty, and systems-based resilience.
Related to the work of the OVGC, she is former Director of Strategic Partnerships for Bay Localize (formerly a project of Earth Island Institute), and has contributed to a range of international forums and policy documents on cultural resilience and diversity, including an international policy climate change forum held at the Nordland Research Institute, Tromso, Norway; UNESCO Document on the Protection of Cultural Heritage; the International Association for the Study of the Commons.
After leaving a university career, Tressa has devoted her work to the transformational possibilities of global change through the combined teachings of traditional knowledge, scientific theory and artistic expression. She brings these interdisciplinary passions together through her consulting and transformational coaching work of the Institute for Inter-Cultural Practice.
As a new resident of Ojai, she hopes to contribute to projects rooted in local wisdom of sustainability and equity. When not focused on the problems of the world, she restores her body/mind/spirit through meditation, yoga and the pursuit of poetry.
Severo Lara, Board Advisor
Severo was born and raised in the Ojai Valley, the middle of five siblings. His parents were born in Mexico and he always remembers his father taking him and his brothers to work and teaching them discipline, hard work, and responsibility. He grew up deeply involved in church activities, and as a teenager, he was one of the youth founders for the Ojai Valley Youth Foundation.
Severo received a BA for Crime, Law and Justice at Pennsylvania State University as well as a double minor in Spanish and Conflict Dispute Management, while also being involved in the Second Mile program which focused on helping at-risk youth.
Coming back to Ojai after graduating, he took over the family landscape business. Since that time, he has worked on making the business stronger and more efficient working with a wide variety of clients and employees.
From 2012 to 2016 Severo was an Ojai City Council member and sat as the Mayor of Ojai from 2014 to 2015. During that time, he also sat on local, county and regional boards and agencies.
Currently, Severo sits on the HELP of Ojai Board, Ojai Valley Hospital Foundation Board, Ojai Valley Green Coalition Board, and the Ojai Valley Democratic Board, as well as being the proud father of two daughters, Elise 7 and Chloe 10.
Jonathan Reinbold, Board Advisor
Sustainability Manager, Lopez Foods
Jonathan has worked in sustainability, agriculture and climate action for eleven years. His experience spans sustainability strategy, CSR reporting, non‐profit management, food systems policy, renewable energy and green design.
Before working for Lopez Foods, he served as the Sustainability, Research & Grant Manager for Organic Valley, America’s largest cooperative of organic farmers and one of the nation’s leading organic brands. His work there focused at the nexus of energy, water and food systems. He led Organic Valley’s efforts in natural resource conservation, renewable energy production, environmental research and employee engagement.
He has served on the Board of the Sustainable Food Trade Association. Jonathan earned his MA in Environment & Community from Antioch University Seattle. Linkedin profile
Tara Saylor, Board Advisor
Tara Saylor is an Ojai, CA native who spent her childhood training to be an environmental leader. She spent many hours volunteering in the community and learning through nature-based education programs. Between 2005 and 2012, she helped develop the historic town of Lakeview, MT into the Taft Nicholson Environmental Humanities Center. She ran forklifts during the day and help host fundraisers at night for land and animal-based nonprofits such as Wildlife Land Trust, HSUS, and Greater Yellowstone Coalition.
In 2013, she began working as a project manager for various industries. These include eco-friendly design firms and music and arts festivals, for which she ran install crews. In 2016 she returned to her roots of Ojai, CA. She currently splits her time between teaching woodwork at Oak Grove School and serving as a project manager for the Ojai Valley Green Coalition. She holds a BS in Interior Architecture from Dunwoody College of Technology.
Kit Stolz
Board Advisor
Kit moved to Upper Ojai in 1991 with his family, after living in Los Angeles and working for many years for Paramount Pictures as a story analyst. In 2013 he helped organize a panel discussion on drought at the Ojai Retreat, and in 2014 he helped the Ojai Chautauqua organize panel discussions on fracking, immigration, and income inequality. When not working or visiting with friends, Stolz likes backpacking and is currently about halfway through section-hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, which he hopes to finish this decade.
Kit has been reporting on science, the environment, health, and a variety of other topics in and around Ventura County for nearly twenty years. He has written hundreds of newspaper stories for the Ventura County Star, the Ventura County Reporter, the Santa Barbara Independent, and the Ojai Valley News, as well as for publications such as the California Health Report, Civil Eats, High Country Times, and essays, reviews, and profiles for the likes of the Los Angeles Times, Sierra, the Georgia Review, and Wild Earth. He won a Climate Action award in 2012 from the Ventura County Board of Supervisors for his reporting on climate issues, and a Best Investigative Reporting award, in 2015, 2nd place, from the California Newspapers Publishers Association for his story on, “The Hazardous Truth,” about the explosion in November 2014 at Santa Clara Waste Water in Santa Paula.
Guidance
Caryn Bosson – Organizational Development & Training
Chris Cohen – Sustainable Law
Dulanie Ellis – Media & Filmmaking, Sustainability Issues
Ched Myers – Social Change Activist
Tim Nafziger – Technology
Deborah Pendrey – Sustainable Building
David White – Center for Regenerative Agriculture
City Liaison
Leslie Rule, City of Ojai Liaison
