TBI Board of Directors

TBI has a Board of Directors in the United States which guides TBI policy and financial decisions. A Board of Advisors in the Russian Federation advises relative to program elements in Russia.

TBI-USA Board of Directors

Bruce Ledesma, Chair
General Counsel, SunPower Corporation

Bruce Ledesma currently serves as general counsel for SunPower Corporation, a leading renewable energy company. SunPower manufactures and installs solar panels around the world on rooftops of homes, businesses and government buildings. SunPower also builds solar power plants, some several square miles in size, and connects these plants to the utility grid to provide green energy to the public.

Prior to joining the solar industry Bruce spent several years practicing as a corporate lawyer for the law firm Latham & Watkins, where he represented private and public companies involved in domestic and international transactions. He writes, “fortunately, I did not practice environmental law at Latham, or I may have found myself on the losing end of several skirmishes with [former Board member] Clem Shute.” Bruce attended Stanford as an undergraduate with Bryan von Lossberg, and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1993. After several years of toiling away as a corporate lawyer at a law firm (and later a financial software company), he says that he feels much more at home advancing the cause of clean energy and addressing our climate crisis. “For that I give significant credit to Bryan, who through years of casual education ultimately inspired me and others in our close circle of friends to embrace the environmental mission and take action. Bryan also facilitated my first foray into the nonprofit world, and for that I’m so grateful I’ve decided to keep all the outrageous stories from his past years under lock and key from the Tahoe-Baikal team. Well, mostly, anyway – just ask and see
what happens.” Bruce concludes by writing; “I’m very honored to become a part of the TBI board. I look forward to working with the organization and building on the success and momentum created in no small measure by my best friend.”

Thomas Mertens, Vice Chair
Krause Taylor Associates
League to Save Lake Tahoe

Tom Mertens is a native Californian who began visiting Lake Tahoe as a child in the 1950s. A communications and media specialist, he has worked in professional sports, publishing, film and video production, television news and public relations. In recent years he has developed or honed corporate and environmental messaging for multiple high tech and renewable resource entities, and is affiliated with Krause Taylor Associates.

Tom joined the board of directors of the League to Save Lake Tahoe (Keep Tahoe Blue) in 1991, and has served as chair and president of the League board as well as chaired League committees on forest health and communications. Mertens has served on the board of the Tahoe Baikal Institute since 2001, and was a presenter at a conference of environmental non-government organizations spawned by TBI alumni in Ulan Ude, Russia in late 2007.

Tom is very familiar with the smart grid, and studies legislation associated with the California utility Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) and proposed energy and environmental initiatives. He is considered a lay authority on municipal election statutes after 10 years as commissioner and chair of the San Jose Elections Commission. He also served on and chaired the board of the San Jose Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Tom's personal green energy is spent in outdoor activities with his family at Tahoe, and playing ice hockey, officiating soccer, and trout fishing.

Darcie Goodman Collins, Treasurer
Habitat Restoriation Director for Save the Bay

Darcie Goodman Collins has a PhD in Environmental Science and Management focusing on estuarine systems. With 12 years of environmental policy experience and 12 years of coastal ecosystem monitoring and management, Darcie has participated in environmental advocacy in both California and Washington D.C.. Darcie was the former Executive Director of Shorelines and Watersheds, a nonprofit organization dedicated to coastal watershed issues in the Santa Barbara area. A Lake Tahoe native, Darcie has studied watershed ecology and human impacts on these systems in both the Sierra Nevada and coastal regions. Darcie was a TBI participant in 2001 and fell in love with her "sister" lake in Siberia as well as with TBI! She is currently the Director for Habitat Restoration at Save The Bay in
San Francisco, CA. At Save The Bay, Darcie is working to strengthen restoration goals and develop a comprehensive long term monitoring program for numerous restoration sites throughout the Bay Area.

Robert Harris, Secretary
Retired Forest Supervisor, LTBMU

Bob completed a 30 year career with the US Forest Service at the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit retiring from the position of Forest Supervisor, which he had held for over 8 years. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a BS in Civil Engineering and University of Southern California with a Masters of Public Administration. He is a California Licensed Civil Engineer. During his tenure at the LTBMU, TBI began its Summer Exchange Program (1991) with a camp on National Forest Lands, and he immediately became an Advisory Board Member. In 1994 he made Fredericks available for TBI’s use.

After retiring in 1997, he became a full TBI Board Member serving as chair of the Board in 2000/2001 and presently as its Secretary. He travelled to Lake Baikal in 1998 as part of the Policy Maker Exchange, and again to both Mongolia and Lake Baikal in 2001 and 2005 accompanying California Secretary of Resources to secure Memorandums of Agreement with partner agencies and universities in Russia and Mongolia. He also travelled to both countries in 2009 with his wife, Colleen, visiting many alumni, partners and friends. He has initiated a close relationship with the Mongolian Community of Sacramento bringing their leader to become a TBI Board Member and organizing a youth environmental education weekend at Fredericks for the Community. He also hosts Rotarians from Irkutsk and other exchanges, such as the Buryat-Washoe exchange (2010) and Open World exchanges sponsored by TBI.

Nazir Ansari
Professor Emeritus, University of Nevada, Reno

For 28 years, Dr. Nazir Ansari was a Professor of Business at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). He is widely respected as an expert in the field of strategic management and international business, and has mentored or taught many students who have gone on to become prominent leaders in their chosen fields. In addition to influencing thousands of students’ lives through his teaching, Dr. Ansari’s contributions to the university and the greater community are considerable. His gifts to UNR include the endowment of the Mary B. Ansari Map Library, establishment of the Business & Government Information Center, and the support of University scholarships. The UNR College of Business building was named for him in 1995. On several occasions, Dr. Ansari has been an expert witness before the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee on issues of national economic policy. He serves as a board member for numerous non-profit organizations and consultant to many U.S. and foreign public companies. He is President and Trustee of the Nazir and Mary Ansari Foundation, a charitable foundation seeking to improve lives through support of human services, education, the arts and culture in northern Nevada. He is a Professor Emeritus of Business at UNR and currently acts as the University Marshal. Dr. Ansari also supports the use of environmental science research to improve people's lives as a Fellow for the Desert Research Institute (DRI) Foundation. For his dedicated service to the community, Dr. Ansari has received many awards and honors. In 2007, he and his wife, Mary, were recognized by the University of Nevada Board of Regents as “Distinguished Nevadans” and as “Outstanding Philanthropists” by the Sierra Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals.
Dr. Ansari and his wife reside in Incline Village, Nevada. Over the years, he has been a strong supporter of research at Lake Tahoe. Dr. Ansari’s renowned dedication to education, science and philanthropy prompted Dr. Charles Goldman to invite Nazir to join TBI’s Board of Directors.

K. C. Bishop
Chevron Corporation

Blaise Carrig
Executive VP, Vail Resorts
COO Heavenly Mountain Resort

Richard M. Frank
UC Berkeley Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment

Richard M. Frank is Executive Director of the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment (CLEE) at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law. Before coming to CLEE and UC Berkeley, Mr. Frank practiced law with federal and state agencies for 32 years. Immediately prior to joining Berkeley Law in 2006, he served as California’s Chief Deputy Attorney General for Legal Affairs. At Berkeley Law, Mr. Frank is also a Lecturer in Residence; he teaches courses in environmental law, climate change and public interest litigation. His research interests include climate change, water supply and allocation, and California environmental law and policy. In addition to his duties at Berkeley Law, Mr. Frank is Counsel to the Resources Law Group in Sacramento, and he advises the State of California on environmental issues. In 2006, Governor Schwarzenegger appointed Mr. Frank to the Delta Vision Task Force – an advisory body that is developing policy recommendations for the Governor and Legislature with respect to the environmental problems of the California Delta – he served on the Task Force until 2008.
In May 2009, the Chair of the California Air Resources Board appointed Mr. Frank to the Economic Allocation& Advisory Committee, an advisory group that assists the Air Resources Board in implementing California’s landmark Global Warming Solutions Act. As California’s Chief Deputy Attorney General for Legal Affairs, Mr. Frank was a gracious supporter of TBI’s programs and met with many SEE participants. Over the years, SEE participants have benefitted from his knowledge of the Tahoe region and his insights into California’s environmental issues.

Charles Goldman
Professor, U.C. Davis

John Gussman
Attorney, California Tahoe Conservancy

Susan Kocher
University of California Agric. and Nat. Res.

Susie Kocher has worked for the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) for the past fourteen years, and has been based in South Lake Tahoe for the past four. The mission of UCCE in El Dorado County is to provide science-based information and educational programs to solve local issues in the areas of agriculture, natural resources and youth development. Susie, who is a registered professional forester, has run programs focusing on forestry and water quality including monitoring recovery of the Angora burn area, leading a planning process with homeowners to develop revegetation guidelines in the burn area, coordinating Snapshot Day (a citizen water quality monitoring
event), and facilitating public involvement in the Sierra Nevada Adaptive Management Project (see http://snamp.cnr.berkeley.edu/). Susie also co-led field projects for TBI's SEE program in Lake Tahoe in both 2007 and 2008 with partners at the Tahoe Conservancy. Susie is glad to be involved in international education again, since her first job out of college was with the Experiment in International Living administering educational aide to Pakistan. She holds a Masters of Science in Forestry from the University of Washington in Seattle and a Bachelor’s of Arts in Anthropology from the University of Iowa in Iowa City. She is fluent in French (mostly) due to having lived in France until she was seven years old and is has been working hard on learning Spanish.

Gary Litton
Professor, University of the Pacific

Gary Litton is a professor in the Civil Engineering Department at the University of the Pacific where he teaches courses and conducts research in environmental engineering. Dr. Litton has over 25 years of water quality experience with specialization in water quality investigations. The first six years of his career were spent with the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board, where he worked on water rights and quality projects in the Lake Tahoe Basin. As a researcher and professional engineer he has been responsible for water quality monitoring and modeling investigations, water quality planning, pollution impact studies, and subsurface remediation efforts. Dr. Litton has recently been the principal investigator of two studies focused on understanding the algae-induced depletion of dissolved oxygen in the San Joaquin River Delta. Some years TBI has been fortunate enough to have Gary spend many days and nights out at Fredericks’ with the SEE group as an engaged Board member and a great project leader. In 2008, Gary and his group; Anna Filipushkova, Odsuren Batdelger and Savannah Kestrel studied the algal productivity of the Upper Truckee Watershed. The trip was a lot of fun for everyone, as it entailed numerous rides on the water, in rafts, canoes and a boat named the Nerpa. Gary is a valuable addition to TBI!

Glenn C. Miller
Professor, University of Nevada, Reno

Bill Morgan
Former Dir., Tahoe Regional Planning Agency   
Retired Forest Supervisor, LTBMU

William (Bill) Morgan was born in Sault Ste. Marie, MI. He attended Bay City J.C. for one year, Central Michigan University for two semesters and finished his bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering at Michigan State University. Bill and his wife, Carole, live in Woodfords, CA and raised three children together: Craig, Eric and Stacey.

Bill served in US Army two years, worked for the US Forest Service for 26 years (16 years as an engineer andmore than 9 years as the Forest Supervisor of the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit. He also served 4 ½ years as Executive Director of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (1985-1989). Following retirement from TRPA, he worked part time as a consultant. He haswritten several short stories, some published, and three novels, all published.

Bill joined the TBI board in 2003, after being talked into it by Bob Harris. He also knew of TBI and their programs, and additionally already had some Russian connections--so he though it would be a pretty good fit! Other community organization he has been involved in include: Alpine County Planning Commission, 1987 to Dec 2010 and the Tahoe Rim Trail, 1981 to present.

In his free time Bill enjoys hunting, fishing, canoeing, x-country skiing, hiking, tennis, golf, snorkeingl and scuba-diving. He also loves reading fiction and non-fiction, following the NFL and traveling.

David Muraki
Director, California Conservation Corps

David Muraki was appointed by Governor Schwarzenegger to the post of Director of the California Conservation Corps in May 2007. This appointment represented a return for David to the CCC where he had served in many field and administrative positions from 1978 through 1996. The closely related missions of the CCC and Tahoe-Baikal Institute and the long mutually beneficial relationship between the organizations are just two of the reasons David chose to serve on the TBI Board. Elements of the TBI mission including community, environment, the development of young leaders, and building multicultural understanding, have always been at the foundation of the CCC. David’s focus during his first tenure in the CCC also has much in common with TBI.

David founded the Backcountry Trails project that has, over the past 30 years, sent 148 crews of young women and men from all ackgrounds into the High Sierra, Trinity Alps, and other wilderness areas for six months of hard work, low pay, miserable conditions, and the adventure of a lifetime. These crews have built and maintained 8,709 miles of trail to some of California’s most treasured landmarks and have restored innumerable mountain meadows. In 1991, the fisheries programs David helped start on California’s North Coast received the Robert Rodale National Environmental Achievement Award as the top fisheries conservation program in the nation for the watershed and in-stream habitat restoration work done by the CCC and partnering organizations.

In preparing for a major family event recently, the earliest photo he found of his father and himself was taken on a 1953 camping trip to Lake Tahoe. David remembers the joy his family experienced at Lake Tahoe and the concern his father expressed for the basin’s future. David is proud to support TBI.

J.T. Ravize
Photographer

John Thomas Ravize is one of Tahoe’s finest photographers; his well-known images are prominently displayed in many establishments around the Tahoe region. Mr. Ravize’s love of Lake Tahoe dates back to his early childhood, when he first visited the lake and learned to ski. Summer adventures at Tahoe left strong impressions in his mind as well. Mr. Ravize moved to the Tahoe area in his early twenties to pursue his art as a photographer. By relocating to the lake, Mr. Ravize apprenticed himself to the alchemy of light and weather, the texture and color, and the rhythms and patterns that make Lake Tahoe the singular and significant site that it is. Mr. Ravize. writes, “Almost 20 years later, I feel that I have barely scratched the surface of the complexity of Lake Tahoe, and I look forward to manifesting ever more quintessential and exquisite photographs of the region as my own ability to perceive matures and improves.” He says that his life’s work has become "treasure hunting for light," and sharing his findings through his images in order to inspire and teach others to love and care as deeply about Lake Tahoe as he does. Mr. Ravize and his wife, Linde, reside in South Lake Tahoe. Mr. Ravize’s most recent book, “Hearts of Light: Impressions of Lake Tahoe,” is an exquisite collection of his work, accompanied by poetic verse penned by Linde. Since joining the Board of Directors, Mr. Ravize has assisted with fundraising efforts by making hard and soft cover versions of his book available to TBI as a gift for donors. TBI is grateful for his extremely generous contributions.

Geoffrey Schladow
Director, U.C. Davis Tahoe Env. Research Center

Larry Sevison
Chair, California Tahoe Conservancy

Bud Sheble
Former Dir., California Conservation Corps
Former CEO, CA YMCA Youth & Government

Jeremy Sokulsky
President, Environmental Incentives (TBI ’95)

Lester Snow
Secretary of Resources, State of California

Lkhagva “Lucky” Tundev
President, Sacramento Mongolian Community Association

_____________________________________________

• Ryan Davis (Support Member)
  California Tahoe Conservancy
• Tony Brunello (Advisor)
  Deputy Secretary for Energy and Climate Change
  California Resources Agency
  
• Gary Cook (Advisor)
  Baikal Watch
  Earth Island Institute
  
• Frankie Sue Del Papa (Advisor)
  Former Attorney General of Nevada
  
• Terri Marceron (Advisor)
  Forest Supervisor
  USDA Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Mgmt. Unit
  
• Patricia Ronald (Advisor)
  League to Save Lake Tahoe
  
• Helen Pickering (Advisor)
  Tahoe Community Activist
  
• Harold Singer (Advisor)
  Executive Officer
  Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board
  Tahoe Regional Planning Agency
• Patrick Wright (Advisor)
  Executive Director
  California Tahoe Conservancy
  
• Jennifer C. Smith-Lee
  TBI Executive Director

TBI-Russia Board of Advisors

• Zaituna Y. Abdrashitova
• Maria P. Safonova
• Vyacheslov V. Tokarev
• Victor B. Vorotintsev
• Andrey A. Lyapin
• Alexsey I. Shekhovtsoe
• Tatyana A. Strizhova
• Vladimir A. Fialkov
• Elina A. Rjepka
• Tatyana A. Bakshaeva
• Erjen Xamaganova
• Olga A. Bakshaeva
• Elena Zelenskaya
• Svetlana Filinskaya
• Leonid Markusovich Koritny