OUR TEAM

STAFF

Marissa Christiansen

Executive Director

Marissa Christiansen is the Executive Director of CWI. A well-known water leader across Southern California, Marissa brings a wealth of experience tackling complex climate issues to sustain a safe, habitable future for all Californians. Most recently serving as Water Table Director for The Water Foundation, she led a national funder collaborative to align and pool more than $500 million in philanthropic investments for an equitable and sustainable water future in the US. Prior to The Water Foundation, Marissa has also served as President and Chief Executive Officer at Friends of the Los Angeles River (FOLAR) and held various roles in policy, advocacy, and development at XPRIZE, City of Redondo Beach, and the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, among others. She currently sits on the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, where she has served since 2021. She earned a Master of Public Policy degree in Urban Planning from the University of Southern California.

Sarah Caldwell

Deputy Director of Collaborative Programs

Sarah is the Deputy Director of Collaborative Programs at the Climate & Wildfire Institute, bringing over a decade of experience in conservation and cross-sector collaboration. Sarah is originally from Reno, NV where she started her conservation career in the Tahoe Basin as a fisheries research technician at the University of Nevada. Her passion for the human dimensions of resource management led her to earn a graduate degree in Marine Resource Management from Oregon State University, followed by a dynamic early career spanning the coasts of Oregon, California, and Peru. Now back in northern Nevada, Sarah has shifted her focus to an issue close to home: wildfire resilience, bringing her expertise in program development, project management, and inclusive stakeholder engagement to CWI and its partnerships. Known for her strategic thinking and collaborative spirit, Sarah is committed to developing innovative solutions that address the complex challenges of climate change and wildfire management.

Helen Lahoda

Operations & Finance Manager

Helen is the Operations and Finance Manager at CWI. Helen has always found fulfillment in strengthening the behind-the-scenes operations of nonprofits, and her role as the Operations and Finance Manager at CWI is no exception. She is dedicated to supporting the internal team, enhancing the infrastructure of the remote organization, and strives to keep CWI well-organized.

Outside of work, Helen enjoys a variety of outdoor activities, such as hiking and paddleboarding. She loves exploring plant-based restaurants around Sacramento, finding the best drip coffee in the area, and occasionally dedicating her mornings to volunteering. Additionally, she enjoys planning (and executing) travel adventures and has recently enjoyed the challenge of learning to sew.

David Lawlor

Deputy Director, Development

David Lawlor is the Deputy Director of Development at the Climate and Wildfire Institute. He is a seasoned nonprofit executive, development professional, and strategic communicator with more than 15 years of experience advancing environmental causes through fundraising and advocacy. He possesses a thorough understanding of environmental law, policy, science, and ethics, as well as the history of the conservation movement and environmental justice. Prior to joining CWI, David served as Director of Philanthropy at the California Ocean Science Trust and as Director of Development at the Western Environmental Law Center. He holds an M.A. in Social Science from Cal Poly Humboldt and a B.A. in Journalism from San Francisco State University. He lives in the greater Sacramento region.

Scott Scherbinski

Program Manager

Scott Scherbinski is a Program Manager for CWI. Scott comes to CWI with over a decade of conservation and project management experience working with the National Park Service and NGOs. He brings his dedication to collaborative partnerships and a passion for developing novel approaches to conservation. Originally from Illinois, Scott received a B.S. focused on Biology from Western Illinois University and has continued his education while studying Resource Communication at Stephen F Austin State University and GIS at Utah State University. Based in the Lake Tahoe Basin, Scott enjoys exploring the Sierra Nevada and Great Basin landscapes with his family through snowboarding, mountain biking, hiking, hunting and paddling.

Evelyn Le

Communications Intern

Evelyn is going into her final year as an Environmental Studies (B.S.) major at UC Santa Barbara (UCSB) with a focus in marine science and sustainability. Throughout her studies at UCSB, Evelyn has completed a wide array of work across multiple disciplines of environmental science. She has also conducted extensive field work, ranging from habitat restoration -- planting eucalyptus trees for monarch butterflies migration at Ellwood Mesa, water monitoring across Santa Barbara’s MPAs, and community outreach projects. As a first-generation student with a background in ecological restoration and environmental education, she is passionate about using storytelling and science communication to make complex research accessible to broader audiences. At the Climate & Wildfire Institute, she is especially interested in how climate communication can inspire action and help bridge the gap between researchers, policymakers, and communities living on the frontlines of climate change and wildfire.

James Puerini

Deputy Director, Public Affairs

James Puerini is the Deputy Director of Public Affairs at the Climate & Wildfire Institute. James began his career as a wildland firefighter for a tribe in Oregon to help pay his college tuition. In this role, he travelled the U.S. fighting fire, conducting prescribed burns, and engaging on-the-ground in restoration fuel treatments. Witnessing the impact of catastrophic fire on local communities inspired James to move to Washington, D.C., where he supported the offices of U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley and U.S. Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici. After that, James spent over five years at The Nature Conservancy working to facilitate partnerships with community-based organizations and leading global policy initiatives focused on supporting vulnerable communities and upholding human rights. James holds a Masters degree in Forestry from Yale University, where he started a wildland fire labor rights organization and led several fire-focused research projects.

Sabrina Goodman

Communications Manager

Sabrina comes from the dynamic world of public affairs, where she has helped shape communications strategies for high-profile clients across water, climate, and clean energy. Skilled in thought leadership, media relations, messaging, and more, she is excited to apply her proven track record of communication skills to address critical climate and wildfire issues at CWI.

ADVISORS & CONSULTANTS

David Marvin

Advisor

Dr. David Marvin is a remote sensing scientist and forest ecologist working at the intersection of climate change, forest carbon, and wildfire. He co-founded and served as CEO of Salo Sciences, a climate technology company that pioneered new approaches to monitoring forest carbon and wildfire hazard from space. The company provided high-resolution analytics for mapping vegetation fuels and wildfire hazard, with a key focus on the Western US. After Salo Sciences was acquired by Planet Labs in 2023, Dr. Marvin now leads the company's Forests & Wildfire products. His team leverages Planet's unique satellite data to operate the world's first tree-scale global forest monitoring system, providing actionable insights for wildfire hazard assessment and sustainable forest management.

Chris Anthony

Senior Consultant

Chris Anthony seeks to connect innovative technologies to the wildfire community to protect lives, communities, ensure resilient landscapes, and end the disastrous impacts of destructive wildfires. He served California as the Chief Deputy Director of CAL FIRE where he was responsible for implementation of strategic initiatives and policies critical to ensuring operational readiness, wildfire resiliency, community preparedness, and deployment of innovative technological advancements into day-to-day operations. He was the Deputy Task Force Leader for the Governor's Tree Mortality Task Force, a member of the State Board of Fire Services, coordinated with numerous state agencies and the Administration during emergencies of statewide significance, served on local, state and federal Incident Management Teams in Command and General Staff positions, and responded to major incidents throughout California during his career. He is a Registered Professional Forester, honorably retired California Peace Officer, and earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Forestry from the University of California Berkeley.

Brian Fennessy

Advisor

As the Fire Chief of the Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA), Brian Fennessy leads more than 1,800 firefighters and non-sworn personnel who collectively serve 2 million residents across 23 cities and unincorporated county. Chief Fennessy began his career in 1978 with the US Department of Agriculture’s United States Forest Service and the US Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management working as a hotshot crewmember and ultimately crew superintendent. In 1990, Fennessy joined the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department and ultimately became Chief of Department in 2015. In 2018, he was appointed to Fire Chief of the OCFA. As Chair of the FIRESCOPE Board of Directors, Chief Fennessy is an advisor to the Director of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES), currently represents California as a member of the Western Fire Chiefs Association Wildland Fire Policy Committee; serves as the Sponsoring Agency Chiefs Representative for the nine West Division FEMA Urban Search & Rescue Task Forces; and President Elect of the California Fire Chiefs Association (CalChiefs). In 2022, Chief Fennessy was recognized as CalChiefs Fire Chief of the Year and in 2023, the International Association of Fire Chief’s (IAFC) Career Fire Chief of the Year.

Charles Camp

Consultant, Database Architect

Charles is a senior Data Architect with nine years of experience designing the scalable data infrastructure that powers intelligent systems. An AWS Certified Solutions Architect, he specializes in building robust, cloud-native pipelines and database schemas optimized for AI and machine learning workflows. His expertise lies in architecting the end-to-end data foundations that transform raw information into actionable, AI-driven insights.

Bethany Hannah

Senior Consultant

Bringing more than 25 years of expertise in wildland fire management, nonprofit leadership, and communications, Bethany Hannah started her career as a Hotshot (wildland firefighter) with the US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management most recently worked as Deputy Director of Operations and interim executive director at the Climate and Wildfire Institute. She also founded the nonprofit AWE (Wildfire International). She is a sought-after consultant, strategist, and community engagement expert. Her work is characterized by compassionate, decisive leadership and a relentless drive to empower and support the wildland fire community. Her career spans sectors and continents, underscoring her versatility and deep commitment to addressing the complex challenges of wildland fire.

Lisa Rosenthal

Consultant, Data Specialist

Dr. Lisa Rosenthal is a forest and fire ecologist with expertise in wrangling and modeling ecological and spatial datasets, and has held positions at both the federal and state levels. Her work centers on contributing to science-backed management and policy decisions to improve wildfire resilience and forest management. Specifically, she has focused on forest diseases, fuel dynamics, and wildfire emissions. In recent endeavors, Lisa has expanded her work to focus on the intersection between utilities and fire risk. She lives and plays in the North Lake Tahoe region and is committed to helping communities and surrounding landscapes live harmoniously with fire.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Ken Alex

President

Ken Alex is the director of Project Climate at the University of California at Berkeley Center for Law, Energy, & Environment, focusing on the most promising climate solutions and moving them more quickly to policy and scale. Projects include GrizzlyCorps and Climate Break. From 2011 to 2018, Ken was a Senior Policy Advisor to Governor Jerry Brown, the Director of the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research, and the Chair of the Strategic Growth Council, focusing on climate, energy, environment, and land use issues, where he initiated projects including CivicSpark and the Under2 Coalition. Ken is a graduate of Harvard Law School and holds a B.A. in political theory from the University of California at Santa Cruz.

Alex Hall

Secretary

Dr. Alex Hall is a professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at UCLA and Director of the UCLA Center for Climate Science. His research is aimed at simulating, predicting, and understanding climate change impacts at scales relevant to decision-makers, especially in California and the Western U.S. Dr. Hall’s research is focused on improving predictions of future changes in the physical climate system. His research group at UCLA is currently studying the future climate of California and the Western U.S., especially dimensions relating to water and fire. At UCLA, Dr. Hall teaches climate-related courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and recently launched a new major in Climate Science.

Lara Kueppers

Board Member

Lara Kueppers is a professor in the Energy and Resources group at UC Berkeley where she studies climate change effects on Rocky Mountain and Sierra Nevada forests. This includes field experiments that simulate future warmer conditions, as well as computer models of forest dynamics. She also is a scientist at Berkeley Lab, where she is a co-investigator of the Next Generation Ecosystem Experiments - Tropics project, leading studies of cyclone, fire and deforestation/reforestation effects in tropical forests.

Rick Martinez

Board Member

Rick Martinez has over forty years in public safety service. Rising through the ranks he
served in nearly every fire operational and administrative position to include twelve years
as fire chief. During his tenure as fire chief, he guided the consolidation of multiple fire
departments forming the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District, the seventh largest local fire department in the State of California and established the first local government
wildland helicopter program in northern California. Following his initial retirement in 2005 from the fire service he served as the Chief of
Emergency Services for the Sacramento City and County Office of Emergency Services
and the Yolo County Office of Emergency Services. From 2020 to 2025, he served as the Executive Director of the California Fire Foundation (CFF), a state-wide 501c3, that serves fallen firefighter’s families, ill or injured
firefighters and the communities they serve.

John Battles

Vice President

Dr. John J. Battles is a professor of Forest Ecology at UC Berkeley. The goal of his research program is to know how and why forests change. His efforts are guided by the conviction that our understanding must apply to specific forests with all the attendant complexities and idiosyncrasies. Thus robust, quantitative field studies form the core of his approach. Answering these questions is more than just an interesting academic puzzle. As a result of human enterprise (e.g., pollution, land transformations, biotic additions and losses), many forest ecosystems will experience fundamentally novel challenges. In the face of this uncertainty, we need to understand the dynamics well enough to anticipate the likely direction and magnitude of responses.

İlkay Altıntaş

Board Member

Dr. İlkay Altıntaş is a research scientist at the University of California San Diego, is the Chief Data Science Officer of the San Diego Supercomputer Center as well as a Founding Fellow of the Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute. She is the Founding Director of the Workflows for Data Science (WorDS) Center of Excellence and the WIFIRE Lab.The WoRDS Center specializes in the development of methods, cyberinfrastructure, and workflows for computational data science and its translation to practical applications. The WIFIRE Lab is focused on artificial intelligence methods for an all-hazards knowledge cyberinfrastructure, becoming a management layer from the data collection to modeling efforts, and has achieved significant success in helping to manage wildfires.

Scott Stephens

Board Member

Dr. Scott Stephens a professor at UC Berkeley Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management. He is interested in the interactions of wildland fire and ecosystems. This includes how prehistoric fires once interacted with ecosystems, how current wildland fires are affecting ecosystems, and how future fires, management, and climate change will impact the ecosystems of western North America. Dr. Stephens is also interested in wildland fire and forest policy and how it can be improved to meet the challenges of the next decades, both in the US and internationally.

Andrew Engler

Board Member

Andrew is an experienced executive with two decades working in insurtech. As the founder and ceo of RockRose Risk and Kettle Re, he has helped build one of the largest wildfire parametric insurers on the West Coast. Before Kettle, he was the Head of Digital for Argo Group and started his career at Allstate Insurance.

Jeff Meston

Treasurer

Jeff Meston currently serves as the Executive Director of the California Fire Chiefs Association (CFCA). He is also a third-generation firefighter and 45+ year veteran of the fire service, having served city, county, special district, private, Tribal, and statewide fire agencies, departments, and organizations. He holds an MPA and is a California Certified Fire Chief & National Fire Academy EFO. He has served in a number of roles, including President of the Marin County and Lake Tahoe Regional Fire Chiefs Associations, course developer and instructor for the National Fire Academy residency programs and CFSTES, Acting City Manager and Fire Chief for South Lake Tahoe, and Deputy Chief for CalOES Fire/Rescue. He has also served on the Board of Directors for FIRESCOPE and as the Executive Director for the CSFA.

David Saah

Board Member

Dr. David Saah has been broadly trained as an environmental scientist with expertise in a number of areas including: landscape ecology, ecosystem ecology, hydrology, geomorphology, ecosystem modeling, natural hazard modeling, remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS) and geospatial analysis. He has used these skills to conduct research primarily at the landscape level in a variety of systems. Dr. Saah has participated in research projects throughout the United States and internationally. His academic research uses integrated geospatial science for multi–scale mapping, monitoring and modeling of environmental spatial heterogeneity, particularly in riparian, savanna, and forest ecosystems. These efforts include quantification of change in landscape pattern, investigating the linkages between pattern and processes, and understanding the pattern–process dynamic within different environmental management regimes.

Marybel Batjer

Board Member

Marybel Batjer has an extensive background in helping clients and organizations develop solutions and strategies that solve problems and make public policy work more effectively for the private and public sectors. Most recently, through California Strategies LLC, she has worked across sectors to assist with client needs, primarily in policy areas in water, energy, and climate change, including decarbonizing the economy, wildfire mitigation, and much more. Her extensive budget experiences includes overseeing several entities with multi-billion-dollar budgets and providing key insights throughout government structures, from legislation to implementation. Her positions have spanned across private and public sectors - from the Pentagon to the White House to state houses in two states. She has deep knowledge in highly regulated industries like gaming and has served as chief regulator of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), overseeing privately held utilities in California.

Interested in joining our team?

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