Kathy Nolan
Board Director, President
Kathy is passionate about the planet and all that it holds – including the resilience of our local community, by working together. Kathy brings her design and planning skills as a licensed landscape architect along with a science background as a horticulturist. She presently serves as a planning commissioner for the City of Ojai and is actively involved with Complete Streets and the Tree Committee. She holds two certificates in Permaculture – Urban and International and in addition certification from the National Charrette Institute.
Betsy Vanleit
Board Director, Vice President, Secretary
Betsy Vanleit has a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Education, and she worked for the US Forest Service early in her career. Eventually she became an occupational therapist, and received a doctoral degree in community health education. As a professor and administrator at the University of New Mexico, Betsy co-developed, directed, and taught in a wide range of higher education programs, and she also worked with communities around the state to address health needs. Realizing the complex, interconnected nature of health, environment, and economy, her work has focused on helping individuals, groups and communities to gather, explore important issues, and collaborate to improve health and well-being.
More recently, Betsy retired from academia and came to Ojai to be closer to her parents. She is grateful for having time to volunteer in a variety of ways. She is a Master Gardener, picks fruit and gleans farmer’s markets for Food Forward, and helps with food distribution for Help of Ojai. She assists ecosystem restoration projects with the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy, volunteers as an advisor to the C.R.E.W, and serves as Board Vice-President for Ojai Trees.
Betsy continues to deepen her understanding of ecology, and how to live in mutually beneficial ways with living beings. She feels that all of her interests and activities meet in the work of the Ojai Valley Green Coalition. How do we collaborate effectively with our human and more-than-human kin to address complex issues in the place we call home? How do we take care of our bio region? These questions have brought her to her current board position with the Ojai Valley Green Coalition.
