Citizens for a Strawberry Creek Plaza Steering Committee

SYLVIA MCLAUGHLIN, Civic and Environmental Activist

Sylvia McLaughlin was at the forefront to save the bay and its East Bay shoreline. In 1961 Mrs. McLaughlin, together with Kay Kerr, and Esther Gulick, founded Save San Francisco Bay Association (Save the Bay) to protect the bay from fill.

Mrs. McLaughlin’s focus was not only on the bay, but also on the waterfront. In 1985, Sylvia McLaughlin, Save the Bay, Sierra Club and other individuals and groups working together founded Citizens for the Eastshore State Park (CESP) to preserve open space along the waterfront and to establish a shoreline park.

For nearly 50 years Mrs. McLaughlin has worked with city officials and university administrators to preserve and improve both the natural and architectural beauty of the area. She is a local institution, her energy and influence legendary.

ROBERT HASS, Former US Poet Laureate, UC Berkeley Professor of English

Robert Hass is a Professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1995 he was selected by the Library of Congress as Poet Laureate of the United States.

Mr. Hass co-edited The Addison Street Anthology (2004) and together with David Lance Goines, design Berkeley’s Poetry Walk on Addison Street in downtown Berkeley. The walk displays the City of Berkeley’s rich poetic tradition, from an Ohlone song fragment to early European settlement to contemporary stanzas from such Berkeley-connected luminaries as Czeslaw Milosz, Alan Ginsberg, Ursula Kroeber LeGuin, Jim Powell, Malvina Reynolds, and June Jordan. More than 100 poems line the sidewalks along Addison Street, between Shattuck Avenue and Milvia Street.  The Addison Street Anthology includes them all, along with information about each poet.   

Mr. Hass is the author of three books of poems, Field Guide (1973), Praise (1979), and Human Wishes, (1989). He has co-translated several volumes of poetry by Czeslaw Milosz, including Unattainable Earth and Provinces, edited Selected Poems: 1954-1986 by Tomas Transtromer, and contributed to Dante's Inferno: Translations by Twenty Contemporary Poets. A book of his essays, Twentieth Century Pleasures, received the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1984. His many honors include a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship.

DR. JULIET LAMONT, Ph.D. Environmental Planning

Dr. Lamont is an independent environmental consultant, with a wide range of experience in environmental planning, management and research. Recent projects have included developing a communications strategy for the CALFED Science Program (state program within the California Bay Delta Authority), and overseeing public and political outreach for a watershed assessment and fisheries restoration program on Codornices Creek in Berkeley, California.  Additional projects have included water quality research and review for the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, analysis of forestry policies and global climate change for the University of California (Berkeley), and development of environmental policy recommendations for the Thailand Development Research Institute, the major research advisory organization for Thailand’s national government.

Dr. Lamont has written several successful major grant applications, including funding for the Codornices Creek Watershed Restoration Action Plan and its first implementation phase. Extensive pro-bono work has included participation in the state’s California Watershed Council, the current position of Vice-Chair of the San Francisco Bay Chapter of the Sierra Club, creek advisor to the Live Oak Codornices Creek Neighborhood Association in Berkeley, and continuing work with the Urban Creeks Council, a non-profit organization focused on creek restoration.

Dr. Lamont’s academic qualifications include a Ph.D. (Environmental Planning) and M.S. (Wildland Resource Science), both from the University of California at Berkeley, and an A.B. from Harvard University (History of Science, ecology emphasis).  Academic specialties included water ecology, environmental policy, and ecologically-sensitive urban planning and design.

ROB WRENN, City of Berkeley Transportation Commissioner

Rob Wrenn is a Berkeley resident interested in transportation and land use issues, locally and globally. Rob was a member of the City of Berkeley Planning Commission from 1997 to 2005 and served as the Chair of the Planning Commission from 2000-2002. He is also Chair of the Transportation Commission, 2004 to present. Rob is an advocate of “car free” housing and has helped develop an initial draft Car Free Housing Ordinance for Berkeley, working with several other local transportation and land use specialists.

RICHARD REGISTER, President, Ecocity Builders

Mr. Register is one of the world's great theorists and authors in ecological city design and planning. He is also a practitioner with three decades of experience activating local projects, pushing establishment buttons and working with environmentalists and developers to get a better city built and running.

Register is a frequent guest of organizations and conference hosts large and small--in his home town, which he calls the Bay Area, California (San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland)--and around the world. He has traveled the equivalent of 27 times around the Earth speaking on behalf of the pedestrian city to save the world--by avoiding cars, global warming, massive sprawl, natural habitat displacement, air and water pollution and other harms. More important, he believes, is the kind of city that can contribute to humanity's creative and compassionate evolution on a healthy Earth, in an exciting and rewarding built community from village to town and city scale. Register is the author of Ecocities: Building Cities In Balance With Nature, (2002), editor of Village Wisdom / Future Cities (1997), author of Ecocity Berkeley: Building Cities For A Healthy Future (1987) and Another Beginning (1978).

Mr. Register was founding president of Urban Ecology (1975) and founder and current president of Ecocity Builders (1992), both non-profit educational organizations. He convened the First International Ecocity Conference (1990); was advisor to the second in Adelaide, Australia (1992); the third in Yoff, Senegal (1996); the fourth in Curitiba, 2000 and co-convener of the fifth in Shenzhen, China (August 2002) where he was also the Keynote Speaker. These events have involved approximately 1,800 people and 325 speakers to date.

DAVID A. KOEHN, Founder, TailWind Solutions Inc.

Mr. Koehn is founder of TailWind Solutions Inc., based in San Mateo, California, which provides a browser-based, managed delivery software solution that improves the effectiveness of the mobile workforce in regulated industries where compliance is mandatory.

David Koehn's background as entrepreneur, information developer, Web developer, and director of educational services provides a well-rounded foundation for leadership. David has worked for Remedy Corporation, Aurigin Systems, AvantGo, and has been on the faculty at San Francisco State University, Eastern Oregon State College, and the University of Alaska. He earned a Masters degree in Education from the University of Alaska, a Masters degree in English from the University of Florida, and a Bachelors degree in Technical Writing from Carnegie Mellon University. He has received fellowships from the Annenberg Foundation and was a member of the Breadloaf Rural Teacher Network and the Breadloaf School of English at Middlebury College.

ELYCE JUDITH, Committee to Restore Strawberry Creek

Ms. Judith is a long-time Berkeley resident, business owner and environmental activist. She has participated in the following City sponsored planning groups; Downtown Berkeley Plan subcommittee; Downtown Transportation Subcommittee of the Berkeley Planning Department; North Berkeley Area Plan; Berkeley Planning Subcommittee on MLK Jr. Civic Center Park.  She is also the cofounder of East Bay Citizens for Creek Restoration and The Committee to Restore Strawberry Creek. She has worked toward the restoration of Strawberry Creek since 1981 and continues to be involved in moving this effort forward.