Marin County co-chairs
- Norman Solomon, mediabeat@igc.org
- Ginger Souders-Mason, ginger@seajay.org
Sonoma County co-chairs
- Lisa Maldonado, lisaclc@sonic.net
- Will Pier, willspier@gmail.com
Members of the Commission on a Green New Deal for the North Bay
Caroline Bañuelos is an administrator for The Living Room, a daytime drop-in center for homeless women and children in Sonoma County. For 12 years, Caroline served as president of the Sonoma County Latino Democratic Club. She is a fellow of the Leadership Institute for the Ecology & the Economy and vice-chair of the Santa Rosa Planning Commission.
Stephen Burdo is advocacy and campaigns director for Kathleen Russell Consulting, a Marin County-based consulting firm serving nonprofit organizations, Native Tribes and progressive candidates and causes. He was previously director of Connecticut ACORN, organizing in low-income communities for living wages, adequate healthcare, affordable housing and community empowerment.
Jonathan Frieman is a social entrepreneur who co-founded several nonprofits and has served on several grant-making boards. He helped initiate Transition Towns in Marin County and is a board member of Marin City’s health clinic. He has a law degree and an MPA and is an autodidact in human prehistory.
Rue Furch is former executive director of the Sonoma County Business Education Roundtable and co-founder of Citizens for Responsible Water Use. She served as a county planning commissioner for 18 years. Furch was named “California Woman of the Year” by the State Assembly and “Environmentalist of the Year” by the Sonoma County Conservation Council.
Lisa Maldonado is executive director of the North Bay Labor Council, AFL-CIO where she directs the coordinated efforts of local unions in Marin, Sonoma, Mendocino and Lake counties to work collectively on issues that affect working families. She is an attorney and previously worked as field director of the ACLU of Northern California.
Judith Newton started Transition Cotati, the first initiative in the global Transition Movement to be officially recognized in California. She is also a founding member of the FrogSong cohousing community and a fellow of the Leadership Institute for Ecology and the Economy.
Will Pier is a board member of the Salmonid Restoration Federation. A resident of Sonoma Valley for 21 years, he has served on the AB 939 Local Task Force to increase recycling for 11 years. He worked for the Sonoma Ecology Center for seven years doing salmonid research and habitat enhancement.
Peter Richardson is editorial director of PoliPointPress in Sausalito, a lecturer in humanities at San Francisco State University, and chair of the California Studies Association. His books include A Bomb in Every Issue: How the Short, Unruly Life of Ramparts Magazine Changed America and American Prophet: The Life and Work of Carey McWilliams.
Norman Solomon is the founder and president of the Institute for Public Accuracy, a consortium of policy researchers and analysts. He is national co-chair of the Healthcare Not Warfare campaign and the author of a dozen books on media, political discourse and public policy.
Ginger Souders-Mason, a retired medical technologist, has participated in community-based health research and is a founder and director of Pesticide Free Zone, Inc.
