San Diego Coastkeeper
How You Can Help
San Diego Coastkeeper Staff
The SD Coastkeeper Team
Bruce Reznik, Executive Director
bruce@sdcoastkeeper.org
Bruce Reznik, a California licensed attorney specializing in environmental law, joined San Diego Coastkeeper as Executive Director in August 1999. Under Bruce’s direction, Coastkeeper has grown from two people to a full-time staff of eleven, making it the largest clean water advocacy organization in the region. During his tenure, Coastkeeper has launched its successful Environmental Law & Policy Clinic, Watershed Monitoring Program, Project SWELL curricula, Marine Conservation Initiative, and many other programs and campaigns. Under his direction, Coastkeeper has played a key role in helping reduce sewage spills and beach advisories throughout the region and require local agencies to adopt some of the nation’s most protective clean water regulations.
Megan Baehrens, Development Coordinator
meganb@sdcoastkeeper.org
Megan Baehrens joined San Diego Coastkeeper in April 2009. In her role as Development Coordinator, she supports the organization’s array of programs and initiatives by generating funding through corporate and foundation relations, grant proposal and report writing, individual and major gifts, and Coastkeeper’s annual Ocean Gala. Megan comes to Coastkeeper with grant writing, special events management, and finance and administration experience at Teach For America and the National Geographic Society.
Rachel Bartels, Controller
rachel@sdcoastkeeper.org
Rachel Bartels joined Coastkeeper in October of 2007 to serve as the organization's Controller. She is responsible for the effective management of Coastkeeper’s finances, accounting and human resources functions. Before joining Coastkeeper, Rachel served as the Associate Director for the local nonprofit Outdoor Outreach and as a Senior Tax Accountant at the local public accounting firm, Lindsay & Brownell.
Jennifer Black, Education Director
jennifer@sdcoastkeeper.org
Jennifer Black joined San Diego Coastkeeper in June 2007 to manage Coastkeeper’s education programs and Project SWELL (Stewardship: Water Education for Lifelong Leadership), a K-12 water quality and pollution prevention program that enhances the existing science curriculum in San Diego schools. Jennifer also oversees Coastkeeper’s Education and Outreach Campaign. Before joining Coastkeeper, Jennifer served as Outreach Coordinator for the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation headquartered in the Washington, DC area. Jennifer raised awareness about protecting and preserving the marine environment, specifically our national marine sanctuaries. Jennifer also oversees Coastkeeper's Education and Outreach Campaign, marketing efforts and coordinates media relations.
Soumya Chennapragada, Watershed Program Analyst
soumya@sdcoastkeeper.org
Soumya joined San Diego Coastkeeper in September 2008 as a GIS intern and is currently the Watershed Program Analyst. She manages our GIS program and the watershed wiki. Her current work involves analyzing water-quality data, developing watershed reports and managing the extensive databases of our water quality monitoring program.
Sarah Blakeslee, Outreach Coordinator
sarah@sdcoastkeeper.org
Sarah Blakeslee is Coastkeeper’s Outreach Coordinator. She joined Coastkeeper in August 2008 to manage Coastkeeper’s volunteer program, focusing on the Watershed Monitoring Program and Community Based Social Marketing Program. Sarah will continue to manage the volunteer program as well as outreach events for the organization. Sarah is also the official Captain of "Clean Sweep", Coastkeeper's pollution monitoring boat. She is extremely passionate about conservation, ecology and ocean science, and her people skills and citizen volunteer cultivation methods are invaluable to Coastkeeper as we work to achieve community-driven water conservation.
Clay Clifton, Watershed Monitoring Program Manager
clay@sdcoastkeeper.org
Clay Clifton joined San Diego Coastkeeper in March 2010 as the Watershed Monitoring Program Manager. The Watershed Monitoring Program supports the Coastkeeper campaigns by collecting samples and providing water quality data used to track the health of streams and rivers in the County’s watersheds. Clay brings his knowledge of the county's beaches, watersheds, water quality regulations and over 10 years of experience in water quality monitoring to San Diego Coastkeeper to bolster the organization’s role as an environmental 'watchdog'. Woof, woof.
Alicia Glassco, , Marine Debris Coordinator
alicia@sdcoastkeeper.org
In June of 2009, Alicia Glassco joined San Diego Coastkeeper to manage the Marine Debris Campaign and assist with Outreach & Development to support this important cause. She manages Coastkeeper’s Beach Cleanup Programs, including the Beach Cleanup in a Box and Corporate Cleanup Programs, and acts as a liaison to the Clean Seas, Clean Beach, and Plastic Reduction Coalitions. She also co-coordinates the annual California Coastal Cleanup Day, organizing over 4,000 volunteers at 30 coastal sites throughout San Diego County. Before coming to Coastkeeper, Alicia earned her Master’s degree from the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management (UCSB), where she specialized in Coastal Marine and Water Resource Management.
Kate Hanley, Director of Operations and Development Director
kate@sdcoastkeeper.org
In January 2005, Kate Hanley joined San Diego Coastkeeper as Education Director. She worked to develop and implement Project SWELL, a K-12 pollution prevention and water quality education curriculum that now reaches more than 40,000 students countywide. Kate helped to expand the curriculum into three additional grade levels in San Diego and introduced SWELL in North County. Kate is currently Coastkeeper’s Director of Operations. In this role, she is responsible for overseeing all of Coastkeeper’s environmental programs and program staff. In addition to making sure the organization is on track with programmatic initiatives, she acts as the Development Director and is responsible for raising funds from Foundation, Corporate, Government and Individual sources to support the organization’s vital work.
Jen Kovecses, Staff Scientist
jenlk@sdcoastkeeper.org
Jen Kovecses joined San Diego Coastkeeper in January 2010 as Staff Scientist. Her work focuses on the scientific and technical aspects of water policy and enforcement issues. She comes to Coastkeeper with more than eight years of scientific research, monitoring and water-related management work.
Jamie Ortiz, Director of Marketing & Communications
jamie@sdcoastkeeper.org
Jamie Ortiz joined Coastkeeper in October 2009 as the Director of Marketing and Communications. She oversees the organization's overall communication strategy as well as its public relations, marketing and online programs. After volunteering in Coastkeeper's marketing department for nearly two years, Jamie left her position as an account supervisor at a public relations and advertising agency so she could employ her super marketing powers to help Coastkeeper protect San Diego's oceans.
Kym Raines, Office Manager
kym@sdcoastkeeper.org
Kym Raines joined San Diego Coastkeeper in February 2010 as the Office Manager. Before joining Coastkeeper she had a successful career in education. Kym became interested in sustainable business practices while working at the University of San Diego. During her time there, she helped to implement the Sustainability Task Force.
Gabriel Solmer, Legal Director
gabe@sdcoastkeeper.org
Gabriel Solmer joined Coastkeeper in January 2004, working on litigation, legislation, and policy issues. She also directs the Environmental Law & Policy Clinic, Coastkeeper's independent legal intern program and coordinates the organization’s legal docket. Gabe leads the Urban Runoff and Toxic Waterways Campaigns, seeking to prevent pollution at its source and remediate hot spots where they occur.
Victor Vazquez, Accountant
victor@sdcoastkeeper.org
Victor Vazquez became a member of the Coastkeeper staff in October of 2008. His role is to serve as the organization's staff accountant. A native of New York City, Victor graduated from the College of Staten Island with a Bachelor's degree in Accounting. Just before he became a Coastkeeper, Victor served as an auditor for the public accounting firm Berdon LLP.
Jill Witkowski, Staff Attorney
jill@sdcoastkeeper.org
Jill Witkowski joined San Diego Coastkeeper in January 2010 as Staff Attorney. Jill works Environmental Law & Policy Clinic on Coastkeeper’s Toxic Waterways and Urban Runoff campaigns, working to stem pollution sources and clean-up polluted waterways.
Meagan Wylie, Marine Conservation Coordinator
meaganw@sdcoastkeeper.org
Meagan joined the Coastkeeper team in January 2008 as Marine Conservation Coordinator as part of Coastkeeper’s new Marine Conservation Campaign. SD Coastkeeper is working diligently with stakeholders and an array of other non-profit groups to increase the number, size and protections of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in Southern California through the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative in order to preserve our special and unique biological resources. She helps to coordinate outreach, research, education and marine monitoring efforts related to this campaign. In addition, she is helping to oversee the coordination of Coastkeeper’s Areas of Special Biological Significance project, which focuses on protecting water quality in La Jolla’s marine reserves.
SD Coastkeeper Special Projects
Justin Hohn, Water Quality Lab and Data Manager
Justin@sdcoastkeeper.org
Justin Hohn joined San Diego Coastkeeper in June 2008 to manage Coastkeeper’s Water Quality Laboratory, as well as assisting in Watershed Monitoring activities and Community Based Social Marketing efforts. He is also responsible for coordinating collaborations with state, academic, and non-profit organizations to increase our extensive database covering San Diego County’s diverse watersheds.
Karlee Simek, Ocean Gala Coordinator
oceangala@sdcoastkeeper.org
Prior to joining Coastkeeper, she spent 11 years as a nonprofit arts administrator in Los Angeles where she worked to provide theatre education and free performing arts to underserved communities. Karlee also volunteers at nonprofit Global Energy Network International in San Diego.
Adam Taylor, Water Monitoring
Adam is an Environmental Science major with an emphasis in watershed technology at SDSU. He has been interning and volunteering at San Diego Coastkeeper for about two years, working in the lab. With his degree he plans on working with issues in sustainability and water conservation and is grateful for his experiences with Coastkeeper.