Santa Cruz Land Trust Conservation Blueprint: Content: Project Team

About Us > Project Team

Tour the Site:

page 2 of 22

Project Team

The Project Team engages in day-to-day development of the Conservation Blueprint.

Andrea MacKenzie: Project Director
Andrea oversees the overall development of the Blueprint.

Jodi McGraw: Science Team Lead
Jodi coordinates the science-based planning process, including biodiversity technical advisor workshops and development of the biodiversity conservation targets.

Matt Freeman: Conservation Plan Lead
Matt oversees data gathering and prioritization of the non-biological values, as well as development of the overall regional conservation blueprint.

Stephen Slade: Communications and Outreach Lead
Stephen is in charge of communications and outreach for the Conservation Blueprint.

Bay Area Open Space Council’s Upland Habitat Goals Project
Staff from the Bay Area Open Space Council’s Upland Habitat Goals Project and GreenInfo Network are playing key supporting roles on the Project Team in collecting, analyzing, and modeling data; assisting with developing conservation priorities for County; advising the team on inclusion of climate change scenarios for open space networks; and developing preliminary maps for analysis and community visioning workshops.
Nancy Schaefer, Ryan Branciforte, Stuart Weiss, Tim Sinott

Moore, Iacofano and Goltsman (MIG) Inc., developed the design of this website and will facilitate the Community Workshops and assist the Project Team in writing and editing the final Blueprint document. www.migcom.com

Andrea Mackenzie, Consulting Project Director, Land Trust of Santa Cruz County

Andrea Mackenzie has over 25 years of experience working for regional parks, open space and conservation agencies, specializing in developing collaborative land conservation strategies, programs and projects. From 2000-2009, Andrea was the General Manager of the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District, where she administered a countywide land conservation program and dedicated sales tax that protected over 50,000 acres of agricultural and open space lands through conservation easement and fee title acquisition. In November, 2006, Andrea led a successful effort to reauthorize the District’s ¼ percent sales tax, with by 76 percent positive vote. Andrea is incoming Chair of the Bay Area Open Space Council and has been appointed to serve on a number of regional and statewide committees. Andrea is a fellow with the National Conservation Leadership Institute in Shepherdstown, W. VA. Andrea has a B.A. in Environmental Studies from U.C. Santa Barbara and a Master’s Degree in Urban Planning and Natural Resources from U.C.L.A.

Matt Freeman oversees a variety of land acquisition, regional conservation planning, and stewardship projects. Matt’s prior professional experience included twelve years with the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, where he was responsible for planning, design, and construction of park facilities and restoration projects for the District’s 57,000 acres. Matt’s areas of specialization include watershed restoration, landscape-scale conservation planning, GIS applications in natural resources planning, and CEQA documentation. Matt serves as the Vice President of the Santa Cruz Mountains Bioregional Council and as an Advisory Board member of NextSpace. Matt is also active with the Society for Conservation GIS and the Association of Environmental Professionals. Matt lives in Ben Lomond with his family and can often be found on nearby trails or in his kayak on Monterey Bay. Matt has a B.A. in Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a Masters in Community and Regional Planning from the University of Oregon.

Jodi McGraw is a conservation biologist who has worked on research and conservation projects in Santa Cruz County for more than 15 years. Her specialties include developing and implementing conservation plans, management plans, and monitoring and research programs, particularly those designed to conserve rare species and sensitive habitats on California’s Central Coast. In her work with the Land Trust, Jodi collaborated with Matt Freeman to develop a conservation plan for the endemic Santa Cruz Sandhills ecosystem and has facilitated the Land Trust’s Sandhills protection and management efforts. As Science Team Lead for the Conservation Blueprint, Jodi is overseeing the science-based planning process. Jodi received her doctoral degree in Integrative Biology from the University of California at Berkeley in 2004, and bachelor or arts degrees in both Biology and Environmental Studies from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1995.

Stephen Slade served as the Director of Development and Communications for the Land Trust from August 2006 to June 2009, when he became Deputy Director. Stephen has thirty-six years of experience in communications and fundraising, including serving as the Director of Development and Communications at the Elkhorn Slough Foundation and nine years as a public radio reporter and producer. Stephen will oversee the Conservation Blueprint website, the Community Workshops, the drafting of the Conservation Blueprint, and media relations. Stephen received his MA in Communications from the University of the Pacific in 1973.

Nancy Schaefer has been the Consulting Project Director for the Bay Area Open Space Council’s San Francisco Bay Area Upland Habitat Goals Project since March 2004. Nancy has twenty-one years of experience in land conservation transactions and planning with The Trust for Public Land, The Conservation Fund, Muir Heritage Land Trust, Coastal Conservancy and several other public and private organizations. Nancy established the San Francisco Bay Joint Venture in 1995, bringing together diverse entities to focus on wetland conservation issues. In April 2003, Nancy started Land Conservation Services, a sole proprietorship providing consulting services to public agencies and nonprofits on land conservation planning and acquisition projects. Nancy holds a Masters of Business Administration from California State University, Sacramento, and a BS in Forest Science from the University of New Hampshire.

Ryan Branciforte has over 10 years experience working in the conservation, environmental and resource management fields. He supports conservation priority analysis for the San Francisco Bay Area Upland Goals Project and develops and manages Bay Area Open Space Database and statewide GreenInfo Network Protected Lands Inventory. Prior to the Open Space Council, Ryan worked with GreenInfo Network as a GIS Specialist managing regional conservation projects including data analysis and management, compilation and oversight of the Bay Area and California statewide protected lands database; development of regional land information system for Greenbelt Alliance; and management of the Bay Area Ridge Trail GIS system. Prior to GreenInfo, Ryan worked at the Sonoma Ecology Center on fisheries management, restoration, policy, and historical ecology programs while running a fee for service GIS mapping program for outside agencies. Ryan’s skills include a full range of GIS data and analysis, conservation planning, presentation mapping, project management, GPS and other field data approaches. Ryan received his BS degree in International Relations and Environmental Studies from the University of Wisconsin Madison.

Back to Top

Stuart B. Weiss, Ph.D. Creekside Center for Earth Observation, Science Advisor to Upland Habitat Goals Project.

Stuart B. Weiss is a freelance ecologist working on many conservation problems in the Bay Area, Western North America, and Latin America for more than two decades. Stu received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1996, and his areas of expertise include microclimatology, population biology, atmospheric nitrogen deposition impacts on ecosystems, rigorous experimental and survey design, practical ecological restoration, invasive species control, and advanced conservation GIS. Stu recently formed the Creekside Center for Earth Observation to provide advanced scientific services to the greater conservation community, and brings his broad ecological interests to bear on the challenges of the Upland Habitat Goals Project.

Tim Sinnott has worked for GreenInfo Network since the Summer, 2006. GreenInfo Network is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization that assists public and private clients in the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and related information technologies. Prior to living and working in the Bay Area, Tim was a GIS educator with the Community Mapping Program at the Vermont Institute of Natural Science. In his current role as GIS manager at GreenInfo, Tim works with conservation agencies and non-profits on cartography, design and data visualization projects. Tim holds a B.A. in Geography and Environmental Studies from Middlebury College, VT.