Offices
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Huntington Park, CA
Address: 6325 Pacific Blvd. Ste 300; Huntington Park, CA 90255
Telephone: 323 826 9771
Fax: 323 588 7079
Conference Room: ext 118
(In alphabetical order by first name)
Ana Haney
URSELA Coordinator – x120
Angee Zavala
Youth Organizer - x102
Angee Zavala first began working with CBE as a member of Youth For Environmental Justice (Youth EJ), Youth Action at Huntington Park High School, and Womyns Collective. From 2008-2009, Angee interned at CBE as Youth EJ organizing intern. In 2010, Angee worked with Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice. In late 2011, Angee returned to CBE as an organizer for CBE’s youth program.
Bahram Fazeli
Policy Director – x100
Bahram Fazeli is Research & Policy Analyst for the Southern California Office of CBE. In his twelve years at CBE, he has managed a number of research, policy, and planning projects and has worked closely with CBE community members, organizers and attorneys, providing technical assistance for various campaigns and projects. Bahram has served on many advisory groups including those at the US Environmental Protection Agency, the California Air Resources Board, and the South Coast Air Quality Management District. He has also been guest speaker at various universities and schools and a panelist at numerous conferences. Working with CBE staff and academic partners from different disciplines on collaborative projects, Bahram has authored, coauthored, and contributed to reports, articles, and academic papers covering wide range of topics. He attended UCLA for his undergraduate and graduate training in Environmental Studies and Urban Planning. In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with his family, walking by the Pacific Ocean, and reading poetry.
Bill Gallegos
Executive Director – x109
“I have been a social justice activist since the late 1960s when I became involved in Colorado with the Crusade for Justice. When I came to CBE I was aware that the fight for environmental justice is a really important component of social justice: for the basic human right to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and work and play on clean earth.”
Bill Gallegos has more than thirty years of experience as a social justice organizer. He has organized in factories, on campuses, and in the community. He is the proud father of two sons, Maceo and Ramon, and a wonderful nieto (grandson) Nikita. Bill has helped to lead campaigns to strengthen California’s pioneering greenhouse gas legislation, and is currently involved in helping to shape the State’s growing renewable energy infrastructure in a way that is equitable, democratic, de-centralized, efficient, and affordable.
Cassie Perez
CBE Youth Intern – x108
Darryl Molina Sarmiento
Southern California Program Director – x105
“As a daughter of Pilipino immigrants, I saw my parents were afraid to teach their children their own dialect. As I learned my history, I understood the struggles in the Philippines and in the US as rooted in the same oppressive system that puts humanity in ecological crisis. We must work for the survival of the future of the earth and our people.”
Darryl Molina Sarmiento is the Southern California Program Director for CBE. Before she became Program Director, she spent six years as Youth Program Coordinator, and organized youth in the successful campaign to defeat plans to site a polluting power plant in the City of Vernon near downtown Los Angeles. Darryl has served on the board of several environmental justice and youth organizations: the California Fund for Youth Organizing; the Coordinating Council of the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice (as Co-Chair for the Youth Leadership Development Campaign); and, for Southern Californians for Youth.
Darryl graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles, where she was a student organizer, with a degree in Asian American Studies, and Political Science and Urban Planning minors. She has been a labor organizer with AFSCME 3299, and has done community organizing work with the Pilipino Workers Center of Los Angeles.
Janeth Lopez
CBE Youth Intern – x108
Jose Camarena
Housing and Urban Development Associate – x123
“I grew up in South Gate and graduated from South Gate High School in 2009. Growing up in a low- income working class region has developed me and given me strong political consciences; joining CBE was a place where I can talk to folks about local and worldly issues.”
Jose Camarena joined CBE in the summer of 2011 to reach out to neighbors whose homes may be affected by high levels of lead. Jose conducts community education and provides workshops to teach residents in LA County’s southeastern cities about preventing child lead poisoning and safe practices and standards when lead is present in the in the workplace He is involved in film making and wants to help tell his community’s story. He videotaped CBE’s August 2011 protest in Sacramento against cap and trade as a solution to climate change and is eager to tell the many stories in our communities via film.
Julia May
Senior Scientist
“My parents taught us we must pay attention to our world and financial system–that we should work for justice for everybody and a healthy environment. My dad was an engineer who encouraged me in science. My mom was a feisty woman who believed women, regular folks can change the world.”
Julia May joined CBE staff in the late 1980s after years in the electronics industry. It was a perfect match for someone who wanted to use her engineering degree to do environmental work. She and her seven siblings grew up in the Detroit area with a strong sense of social justice and parents who had protested during the Depression and raised their kids as vegetarians—unheard of at the time. Julia is moved by CBE’s long-term continuity as a magnet for great people doing strategic environmental and justice work, science analysis, public interest law, and skilled grassroots organizing. She has worked with CBE and other nonprofits for over two decades.
Julia specializes in technical analysis and policy to clean up oil refineries, power plants, and other industrial pollution, and on expanding clean, alternative energy. She loves working with organizers, community members and youth identifying emissions, impacts and clean-up options. Julia also loves getting her hands dirty in the garden, and has very eclectic musical interests.
Marissa Elena Garcia
Development Associate – x113
Maya Golden-Krasner
Southern California Staff Attorney – x121
“Ever since I was young, I’ve felt that helping those most vulnerable was what made life most meaningful. So I studied history to understand why the system works for some people and not for others. I went to law school to change that system.”
Maya works on legal cases and policy matters that help advance CBE’s mission of empowering communities and pushing for systemic change to achieve environmental justice. She provides legal support for CBE’s campaigns in Southeast Los Angeles (including the Huntington Park area, where her father grew up) and Wilmington. Her work engages her in local and statewide policy issues. Maya litigates cases in state and federal court—her primary areas of expertise include air pollution (in one of the nation’s most polluted air basins) and the California Air Quality Act, but she enthusiastically pursues any cases or policies that will improve the environment and public health, particularly in California’s most vulnerable communities.
Maya graduated in history from the University of Washington in 1998, and from the UCLA School of Law in 2001. In addition, she holds a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2005), where she studied U.S. legal and environmental/public health history. Maya has worked at Chatten-Brown & Associates (now Chatten-Brown & Carstons), and at the South Coast Air Quality Management District. In her spare time, Maya enjoys spending time with her family, SCUBA diving, and has recently taken up beginning ballet classes.
Milton Hernandez Nimatuj
Youth Co-ordinator – x112
“Youth for Environmental Justice gave me the tools and space to challenge and create in my own community, but most importantly, it proved to me that ‘Youth are the leaders of today not just tomorrow.’ I am excited to have the opportunity to work as the Youth Organizer in Wilmington because I strive to offer a similar if not better space than the one that welcomed me 12 years ago.”
Milton Hernandez Nimatuj is Maya-Cakchiquel, born in Guatemala and rooted in Southeast Los Angeles. He was 16 in 2000 when he became involved in environmental justice work with CBE’s youth program (Youth EJ) as part of the successful organizing effort to defeat the proposed power plant, Nueva Azalea, in South Gate, in southeast Los Angeles County. That campaign, along with involvement in conferences, workshops, actions and presentations, developed Milton’s sense of his own empowerment as an activist and organizer.
CBE/Youth EJ allowed Milton to grow as and interact with a variety of people and movements. He became active with Wise Up!, an immigrant youth group that helped pass AB540 (now a California state law), which allows undocumented students to pay in-state tuition at public California colleges. Milton also helped establish Qteam, a queer and transgender youth of color collective that creates change through multi-issue organizing. As youth coordinator at the Southern California Library, he developed curriculum for high school students about south L.A. history, community issues and organizing efforts. Currently, Milton is CBE’s Youth Co-ordinator.
Roberto Cabrales
Organizer – x107
“I have made a personal commitment to work in and with my community to improve the conditions surrounding contaminated areas so that one day our future leaders (our children and their children) can raise their young in a safe and clean environment.”
Robert Cabrales is a community organizer for Communities for a Better Environment (CBE) in Southern California. Robert was born and raised in the unincorporated Florence District of L.A. County adjacent to South Los Angeles, growing up with poverty and environmental injustice in neighborhoods surrounded by factories and metal scrappers. The experience led Robert to join CBE’s “Youth for Environmental Justice” (Youth EJ). Prior to joining CBE staff in 2002 as the community organizer for South East Los Angeles (SELA), Robert played a key role in defeating the proposed 550 MW Power Plant in South Gate during the 2001 “energy crisis.” He continues to organize in the Southeast LA community, which saw him grow to a leader he is today.
Robert studied music at Pasadena Community College and he and his band Soul Conference play occasionally at such landmark occasions as CBE’s first Southern California Earth Day Celebration and the 10 year anniversary of CBE’s Youth EJ program.
Robin Sanders
Southern California Office Manager & Finance Assistant – x101
Yadira Hernandez Herrera
Financial Director - x110
Yana Garcia
2012 -2013 Legal Fellow - x117
Yana is a Bay Area native, a State Bar member and a 2011 graduate of Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, Massachusetts. After working for a year as a research Attorney at the San Francisco Superior Court, Yana came to CBE to re-engage in the work that inspired her to be an attorney.
Prior to law school Yana worked with various indigenous communities throughout the country and into parts of Mexico as a Pilot Project Coordinator for Honor the Earth Foundation based in Minneapolis Minnesota, and as a Development and Programs Associate at La Plazita Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In law school her practice experiences were focused on Environmental Justice and Civil Rights. She was a law student fellow at the Texas Civil Rights Project in El Paso, Texas and a Legal Intern at Alternatives for Community and Environment based in Boston. Back in the Bay Area she also externed for now retired Justice Carlos Moreno at the Supreme Court of California. She now works in CBE’s Huntington Park office where she works on CBE’s current cases and supports CBE’s legal staff in the development of new cases. She also provides legal support for CBE’s statewide and local campaigns in Southeast Los Angeles and Wilmington.
Wilmington, CA
Address: 116 E Pacific Coast Highway. Ste 200; Wilmington, CA 90744
Telephone: 310 952 9097
Fax: 310 952 4924
Alicia Rivera
Community Organizer - 310-952-9097
“To help people evolve from being passive and inactive into concerned individuals who feel the responsibility to participate in the fight for environmental justice rewards my spirit, and it helps me to continue the long and hard struggle to fight for our planet.“
Alicia fled the civil war in El Salvador in 1980. Trying to cross the border, she and her siblings were deported several times to Mexico and, after being mistreated by INS agents, they were deported back to El Salvador. After they finally made it to the US, Alicia became involved in educating Americans about the human rights abuses by the government of El Salvador and to end the US military aid. Despite her “illegal” status she debated the then INS director, and then US Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams. She appeared in numerous media outlets including 60 Minutes with Mike Wallace. She was co-founder and director of El Rescate, the first social and legal aid program for Central American refugees in Los Angeles.
Alicia transitioned into environmental organizing in the campaign to make Texaco accountable for their pollution in Wilmington CA and in the Ecuador rainforest. Her work at CBE since 1995 has included successfully organizing against “La Montana” as well as several other campaigns and opening the first CBE pilot office in Huntington Park. More recently, she was featured in a column by Steve Lopez of the LA Times as well as in its Spanish Hoy edition for her work on Prop 23. She currently works in the Clean Up Green Up campaign to address the cumulative impact of multiple sources of pollution in Wilmington, CA. Alicia got a BA in interdisciplinary studies from Cal State Dominguez Hills. She has three children.
Ashley Hernandez
Youth Organizer - 310-952-9097
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Oakland, CA
Address: 1904 Franklin Street, Ste 600 Oakland, CA 94612
Telephone: 510 302 0430
Fax: 510 302 0437
Conference Room: ext 25
(In alphabetical order by first name)
Andres Soto
Richmond Community Organizer - Cell: 510-282-5363
Richmond office address: 1021 MacDonald Avenue
Richmond, CA 94801
Diana Camarena
East Oakland Organizer – x24
Diana began her work with CBE as a Community Advocate in East Oakland. Through this experience, she has gained greater awareness and understanding of the environmental inequalities and health disparities throughout Oakland’s communities. As part of her job, she collaborated in a successful campaign dedicated to enrolling Alameda County residents in affordable health care programs.
As a Community Organizer for CBE, she looks forward to continue working within East Oakland communities by helping residents mobilize to fight for access to healthy foods, cleaner air and a sustainable local economy.
Diana’s prior community work centered around immigrant rights. She has worked alongside various youth groups, advocating for the passage of the DREAM ACT- a piece of federal legislation that, if made into law, would grant students who have lived in the U.S. since childhood the opportunity to legalize their immigrant status. Diana has a B.S. degree in Marketing and International business from San Francisco State University.
Greg Karras
Senior Scientist – x19
Greg has extensive environmental science and policy experience, and expertise in the fields of industrial investigation, pollution prevention engineering, energy system planning and exposure assessment. In his 30 years with CBE he has led research in campaigns on water quality, air quality and food chain contamination; participated in pollution prevention audits of more than 100 industrial facilities; and, authored or co-authored 20 major scientific publications including CBE reports and formal peer reviewed work. He serves as an expert for CBE and other community-based groups and nonprofits on pollution prevention and sustainable energy projects in the oil and electricity sectors. Greg is committed to community participation in environmental science.
Kristen Cashmore
Director of Development – x14
“Knowledge is power and CBE has a tremendous track record of empowering people to achieve significant changes in their communities and beyond. I’m proud to be part of CBE, as both a donor and a staff member.”
Kristen Cashmore is CBE’s development director. Kristen has more than 13 years of professional fundraising experience, primarily for social justice organizations. She has written for the Grassroots Fundraising Journal and has led fundraising trainings at Fundraising Day San Francisco, Raising Change/Money for Our Movements and the Ms. Foundation 10th Institute on Women and Economic Development. Kristen has a bachelor’s degree in Peace and Conflict Studies from UC Berkeley.
Nehanda Imara
East Oakland Community Organizer - x21
Nehanda Imara is an Oakland, resident, dedicated activist, organizer, educator and adjunct teacher for African American and Environmental Studies at Merritt College. Nehanda created the first Environmental Racism/Justice course at the Peralta Community College District. Read more about Nehanda’s accomplishments in the Examiner.com article: ”Nehanda Imara, Oakland’s mother of environmental justice.”
She is a member of the Board of Directors of Leadership Excellence, a non-profit African American youth organization in Oakland and member of the East Oakland Building Healthy Community initiative. Nehanda also serves as Co-coordinator of Merritt’s “Black Consciousness Raising Tours of Africa and the African Diaspora.
Nehanda has traveled to over 10 African countries as well as the Caribbean and Central America. As a freelance writer, she has contributed book reviews and written for the San Jose Metro, “Nkrumaist Review” (journal of Africa and Pan African topics) and various online media.
As an organizer for CBE, her outreach and recruitment work has built a strong core membership and broad support base of youth, students, residents and community partners in the Oakland area. She organized the first CBE ‘Love Yo Mama Earth Day’ in 2007 in collaboration with community partners in deep East Oakland, a community suffering deeply from the present global ecological crisis, bringing information and resources to youth and residents that typically lack access.
As an activist-educator, Nehanda’s philosophy is to “put activism” into everything. Whether leading youth/student groups to Ghana or working on communities gardens in East Oakland, Nehanda is inspired by these local and global exchanges.
Nile Malloy
Northern California Program Director – x11
“Growing up in Flint, MI, I felt the suffering of the black community resulting from disinvestment, deindustrialization, outsourcing, crime, pollution, and the loss of thousands of jobs when General Motors left the city. Though my dad had seniority in the union and maintained a job, I heard the vivid struggles of racism at his work and in union politics. I have worked to find solutions to these issues through advocating and supporting community-based solutions that benefit working class people and people of color.”
Nile Malloy is the Northern California Program Director for Communities for a Better Environment. His work is focused on local land use, environmental, health, and climate programs and policies that support local resilience—a community’s ability to resist or rapidly recover from extreme circumstances–in Oakland, Richmond and the rest of the Bay Area.
Nile is interested in social entrepreneurship and innovative projects that address solutions to community problems. He has taught and lectured at the collegiate level at the New College of California and was a high school teacher in San Francisco for four years. Nile served on the Cumulative Impacts Working Group for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. He holds a B.A. in Urban Anthropology and African American Studies from the University of Michigan, and an M.A. in Social and Cultural Anthropology with a focus on local and global economic and environmental projects.
Roger Lin
Staff Attorney - x16
“Growing up in a rural and conservative town in England shaped my desire to fight for social justice. The law provides me with a means to do so; I am proud to be a part of the Environmental Justice movement and a member of CBE.”
Roger Lin is a Staff Attorney at Communities for a Better Environment. He provides legal advocacy to achieve environmental health and justice by preventing and reducing pollution and promoting green, healthy and sustainable communities and environments. He has previously worked with the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment, the United States Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division, and most recently advocated for the rights of low-income and disabled residents of Alameda County at the Homeless Action Center. Roger graduated from Stanford University in 2001 and from Golden Gate University School of Law in 2006, with a Specialization in Public Interest/Environmental Law. When not in the office, Roger is usually playing soccer, boxing or hanging out with his family.
Shana Lazerow
Staff Attorney – x18
“I went to law school because I knew the system was broken. It was there that I first met community members fighting for environmental justice in Southeast LA, working to move a toxic waste transfer facility, working to move La Montana, working to make a livable world. I immediately saw that community empowerment was the way to bring about change, and that environmental laws could play a crucial role. Fifteen years later, I still believe this is the way to bring about a just, sustainable world.”
Shana Lazerow is the Chief of Litigation at Communities for a Better Environment. She is committed to providing the legal assistance needed to bring about CBE’s vision of empowered communities and an environmentally just society. Shana brings the legal perspective to CBE’s campaign teams, develops and pursues lawsuits using federal and state environmental statutes, and coordinates the organization’s litigation docket. She also engages in regional and statewide policy issues including transition to clean energy.
Shana graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1993, and from University of California, Los Angeles School of Law in 1997. Prior to joining CBE, she was the program director for San Francisco Baykeeper and a staff attorney at Waterkeepers Northern California, where she ran a small legal clinic to train public interest lawyers. In her dozen years of legal practice, Shana has also made brief forays into academia, and cherishes the prospect of helping the next generation of activists and lawyers develop strategies to bring about social change.
Steven Low
Communications Coordinator / Web Master – x20
Steven has dedicated his professional career to the social and environmental justice fields, focusing on communications and fundraising. He brings an extensive knowledge of online communications, event coordination and individual and institutional fundraising to Communities for a Better Environment. Steven is a performance artist and a public speaking coach. He’s also a former college lecturer in the Communications Department at San Francisco State University where his curriculum focused on rhetoric, public relations and small group communication. He holds a Bachelors degree in Creative Writing and a Master’s degree in Communication Studies.