Celeste Cantú

Chair, San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board

Cantú is a Master Gardener in Riverside County focusing on drought tolerant landscaping. She previously served as general manager of the Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority (SAWPA). While there, she led the development of the Crest to Coast, Corner to Corner Integrated Regional Watershed Management Plan called One Water, One Watershed (OWOW) that integrated water-related issues, joined entities and hundreds of stakeholders seeking to create a new vision of sustainability for the Santa Ana River Watershed.

Prior to her tenure at SAWPA, Ms. Cantú served as the executive director for the California State Water Resources Control Board. During the Clinton Administration, she served as the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development State Director for California. She served as planning director for the city of Calexico and later as executive director for the Imperial Valley Housing Authority. She has a bachelor’s degree from Yale in urban planning and policy and a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

In addition to the Sustainable Conservation Board, Celeste Cantú serves on the following boards: San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, The Water Foundation, Water Policy Center Advisory Council, Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), Water Solutions Network Advisory Council, and UC President’s Advisory Council for Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Lauren B. Dachs

President and Founder, Laural Foundation

Lauren B. Dachs is president and founder of the Laural Foundation, reflecting her interest and focus on ensuring a productive, vibrant, and sustainable California. Prior to leading the Laural Foundation, Lauren was president and vice chair of the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation from 2006 until December 2020 when it completed its planned spend down. In addition to serving on Sustainable Conservation’s board of directors, Lauren is also currently on the Water Foundation’s board of directors and on the advisory council to PPIC Water Policy Center. Previously, she has served on the board of directors of the Land Trust Alliance and on the advisory council of Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment. Lauren has long experience as an advisor or board member for many environmental, education, and health organizations. Previously, she has served and advised Stanford University, The Nature Conservancy in California, Children’s Hospital and Research Center in Oakland, Head-Royce School, The Thacher School, Lawrence Hall of Science, and the Center for Underrepresented Students in the College of Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. She is also a founder of The Lake School, a nonprofit preschool located in Oakland. Lauren holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology from Stanford University and she is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Daniel M. Dooley

Chair

Principal, New Current Water and Land, LLC

Daniel M. Dooley is principal of New Current Water and Land, LLC, which provides strategic planning services for water supply and water management projects, as well as agricultural investments, in California. Prior to New Current, Dan served the University of California for seven years, first as Vice President – Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources and then as Senior Vice President External Relations. Dan’s External Relations responsibilities included directing the University offices of State and Federal Government Relations, Alumni Affairs and Institutional Advocacy, and Communications. He reported directly to the President of the University of California System.

Before his tenure with the University, Dan distinguished himself as an agricultural and environmental attorney with extensive experience in California. He was a partner at Dooley, Herr and Peltzer, LLP, a law firm emphasizing agricultural, environmental, business and water rights law, where he represented both public agencies and private parties on water-related matters. He was recognized for successfully bridging environmental and economic considerations in a number of controversial legal cases. Dan was also a partner from 1980-2002 in the family-owned Dooley Farms, a diversified San Joaquin Valley farming operation producing cotton, alfalfa and walnuts, which continues operation under next generation family management.

Dan previously served as Chief Deputy Director of the California Department of Food and Agriculture (1977-80) and Chair of the California Water Commission (1982-86). He has served on the National Academy of Sciences, Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources, the Western Rural Development Center Board, and the Board of Trustees of Children’s Hospital Central California, which he chaired. He currently serves on the Board of Sustainable Conservation.

In 2007, Dan was cited by California Lawyer magazine’s Lawyer of the Year publication for his work to achieve settlement of two-decades-old litigation relating to the San Joaquin River. In 2004, he was inducted into the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service Research Hall of Fame. He also received the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Award of Distinction in 2000.

He is married to Diana and has two grown children, Megan Hargraves and Katharine Dooley.

Michael Frantz

Co-owner, Frantz Wholesale Nursery

Michael Frantz is President & CEO of Frantz Wholesale Nursery, LLC. His family farm employs more than 250 people and is a premier supplier of containerized trees and shrubs to the landscape and retail nursery industry in the Western United States. Frantz Wholesale Nursery, LLC is a leader in conservation practices, including recycling all green waste generated on farm, capture and reuse of over 500,000 gallons of irrigation water per day, and on-farm solar generation that covers 90% of farm energy demand.

Mr. Frantz is active on local, statewide, and national boards ranging from the nursery industry to public power. He is past Chair and current board member of the Turlock Irrigation District, a publicly owned utility that provides irrigation water and retail electricity to 662 square miles in the Central Valley. He serves on the boards of the Stanislaus County Farm Bureau, Tuolumne River Tributaries Authority, Sustainable Conservation, and Dave Wilson Nursery.

Michael is a passionate advocate for agriculture. His collaborative perspective to water policy seeks to balance the needs of farms, communities, & ecosystems to maximize the benefits of California’s limited water supply.

Michael is married to Kristy Crow. They have three children, Landon, Braden, and Hailey.

Jennifer Hernandez

Secretary

Partner, Holland & Knight

Jennifer leads the West Coast Land Use and Environmental Group. She divides her time between the San Francisco and Los Angeles offices, and works on projects in Northern and Southern California, as well as the Central Valley. She has achieved national prominence in her work on brownfields redevelopment, wetlands and endangered species, as well as the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). She represents a broad variety of private, nonprofit and public sector clients, including real estate developers, public agencies and operating companies in numerous industries.

Ms. Hernandez serves on the firm’s Directors Committee and was the first West Coast lawyer and first Latina awarded the firm’s highest honor for her professional, pro bono and community achievements.

Ms. Hernandez chairs a conference on Climate Change Law in California and has written and spoken extensively on major California climate change laws (including AB 32, SB 375 and SB 97) as well as emerging climate change regulations and guidance documents. Her climate change practice includes integrating climate change requirements into the environmental analyses (relating to greenhouse gas emissions as well as water supply, flood and fire risk, and other topical areas) required by the CEQA for new and modified projects and plans. She also advises clients on legislative and regulatory proceedings pending in Sacramento, in various regional air districts, and in Climate Action Plans and other land use policies being developed by cities and counties. Ms. Hernandez has achieved a “Band 1” ranking from Chambers USA in the fields of environmental and zoning/land use law, and was recognized as the San Francisco Bay Area’s top environmental law litigator in 2015 by Best Lawyers.

She has written three books and more than 50 articles on environmental and land use law. She received several professional awards, including a California Lawyer of the Year award for a land use and conservation agreement between her client (the state’s largest private landowner) and several major environmental groups including the Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council. She also received the American Planning Association Award for her book, “A Practical Guide to the California Environmental Quality Act” and the Greenlining Institute’s “Big Brain Award” for developing a “New Paradigm that Intersects Environmental and Inner-City Economic and Health Goals.” Mayor Willie Brown proclaimed October 9, 2002, as “Jennifer Hernandez Day in San Francisco” for her work on sustainable land use and for being a “warrior on the brownfield.”

She has taught land use and environmental law for the University of California and Stanford Law School and frequently speaks for client and lawyer professional associations and continuing education seminars.

Ms. Hernandez was appointed by President Clinton to serve as a trustee for the San Francisco Presidio. She served as outside counsel to then-Mayor Jerry Brown in the successful no-cost conveyance of the former Naval Depot to the City of Oakland during the first term of President George W. Bush. Ms. Hernandez serves on the boards of directors of Sustainable Conservation and California Forward. She is a former board member of the California League of Conservation Voters (where her 20-year tenure as a board member overlapped with fellow board member Nick Josefowitz). She also co-founded a brownfields redevelopment company and served as board chair and general counsel until it was sold to an international environmental remediation firm. She is also a fellow at the Breakthrough Institute, and on the Board of Directors of the Conservation Fund.

Ms. Hernandez is a fourth generation Californian. She was raised in Pittsburg, California, where her father and both grandfathers spent their careers as steelworkers with U.S. Steel. She lives with her husband and son in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Jenny Hoang

Senior Manager, The Monitor Institute by Deloitte

Jenny Hoang is a Senior Manager at the Monitor Institute by Deloitte. She is focused on strategy consulting and working with social sector organizations and their stakeholders toward organizational transformation. She has experience in vision and strategy development and implementation and is dedicated to supporting purpose-driven organizations in effectively fulfilling their missions for scalable impact.

Jenny specializes in strategic foresight, social innovation, and equity-centered design and incorporates futures research and scenario planning in her work to ensure that her clients are prepared for continuously changing landscapes. Prior to joining Monitor Institute, she worked with clients ranging from large established institutions to early-stage startups across a variety of sectors including education, sustainability, nonprofit, local government, philanthropy, and technology.

Jenny received her MBA in Sustainable Management from Presidio Graduate School and her BA in Political Science with a minor in Sociology from University of California, San Diego. She is a community organizer promoting equity and advancement for historically marginalized and underinvested communities.

Leslie Friedman Johnson

Principal and Co-Founder, Conservation and Natural Resources Group

Conservation and Natural Resources Group (CNRG) Partner and founder, Leslie Friedman Johnson, is a government relations strategist who, for nearly 30 years, has advanced an ambitious policy agenda in California. She is a sought-after and respected consultant who specializes in working directly with clients to shape effective programs and projects. Throughout her career, Leslie has helped craft and pass landmark policy legislation, create new state and federal funding programs, run successful issue campaigns, and design and pass state and local bonds, making billions of dollars available for clean water, land conservation, fish and wildlife, parks, coastal protection, urban greening, clean energy, and climate programs. Prior to founding CNRG in 2014, she was co-founder and Partner at Sacramento-based advocacy and consulting firm Conservation Strategy Group (CSG) for 10 years, providing strategic consulting and advocacy services to non-profit and local government clients. From 1986–2002 she worked for The Nature Conservancy (TNC). At TNC, Leslie had responsibility for state and federal government affairs and established the first California Public Lands program and then the first TNC California Water Program. Leslie is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, and serves as vice-chair of the California League of Conservation Voters and is on the board of the Conservation Corps North Bay. She lives in Healdsburg, California.

Sally Liu

Environmental Philanthropist & Scientist

ally Liu is fund advisor to the Tundra Glacier Fund, with a particular focus on water, climate, and conservation. She is a volunteer scientist working at The Nature Conservancy California Chapter, primarily supporting the water program where she focuses on groundwater issues and supporting state-wide policy initiatives, on-the-ground projects and science research. She has worked on statewide strategies to restore the abundance and viability of California salmon, including development of a statewide environmental flows strategy. 

She previously worked in environmental consulting for 18 years at Tetra Tech, working on water resource projects with expertise in environmental modeling. Projects ranged from acid rain modeling of impacts to rivers, lakes, and forests; pollutant transport models in soil, groundwater, air and surface waters; watershed modeling for TMDLs. 

In addition to serving on Sustainable Conservation’s Board, Sally serves on the board of The Pacific Institute and is the co-chair of the California Leadership Council of The Nature Conservancy California Chapter. She leads the Donor Circle for the Environment at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. She formerly served on the Foster City’s Citizen Environmental Sustainability Task Force.  Sally has a B.S.E. from Princeton University and a M.S.E. from Stanford University in water resources engineering.

Jeff Loomans

President, Greater Farallones Association

Jeff dedicates his time to environmental and educational organizations. He currently serves as President of the Greater Farallones Association, which supports research, conservation and education programs in the offshore and estuarine waters of National Marine Sanctuaries along the Northern California coast.

He is active in fundraising, community organizing and project oversight for water-centric restoration efforts in Northern California, and is experienced working closely with local government agencies through his roles with the Bolinas Lagoon Advisory Council, Coastal Communities Working Group, and Alliance of Coastal Marin Villages in Marin County.

Jeff founded successful software startup firms in the 90s, followed by a seven year career as a venture capitalist, during which time he served on multiple boards. Jeff obtained his masters in Computer Science and bachelors in Symbolic Systems from Stanford University.

Mohsen Mortada

Chief of Staff, Metropolitan Water District

Mohsen’s 30-year career began with the government dealing with water issues, followed by 10 years of management consulting, followed by 14 years as CEO of two large engineering firms. Mohsen is now focused on climate resilience issues.

Mohsen is experienced in planning and development of infrastructure, institutional and business operations, as well as water and food security. Mohsen works closely with corporate boards, executive teams, and stakeholder to align objectives and develop consensus and create optimal organizational designs. Mohsen has done extensive work in smart infrastructure and climate resiliency.

Ginger Scheer Oros

MFT

Ginger Scheer Oros is a Marriage & Family Therapist, mindfulness meditation teacher and owner of Sea Bar Ranch Nursery, a 47 acre Protea Flower Farm on the Gaviota Coast. In addition to her strong interest in agriculture, environmental advocacy and philanthropy, she is passionate about mental health and bringing awareness practices to children and families.

Prior to becoming a full-time mother to her three children in 2012, Ginger worked to bring science-based meditation practices to all areas of family life, both through her work in community mental health and her private practice. Growing up in the San Joaquin Valley with a family in the agriculture industry, she recently co-developed a curriculum to combine her interests in children, meditation, gardening and sustainable agriculture for children ages K-5. Ginger’s latest passion is building a sustainable, direct-to-consumer flower business in Santa Barbara County.

Adán Ortega, Jr.

Principal, Ortega Strategies Group

Adán Ortega, Jr. is the founder of OSG (Ortega Strategies Group) which is a practice specializing in government, media, and public affairs statewide in California. He has over thirty years of experience and understanding of resource and environmental issues through senior leadership roles in Southern California, California, and U.S. government, business and environmental organizations. Recent accomplishments include successful formation and management of the California Association of Mutual Water Companies; legislative authorization of a Joint Powers Risk Insurance Management Authority for small water systems in California; and formation of the Community Water Systems Alliance representing water systems that serve disadvantaged communities in California.

Adan is former Chairman of the board of Mujeres De La Tierra where he now serves on the board; a member of the board of directors of Sustainable Conservation; and represents the City of San Fernando on the Board of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.  He is a former board member of the California Water Commission, the State Board of Food and Agriculture, Heal the Bay, the National Audubon Society, and Whittier College.

Before creating OSG, Adán was Managing Director of Rose & Kindel; Vice President of External Affairs at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California; Chief California Deputy Secretary of State; and Assistant General Manager of West and Central Basin Municipal Water Districts. He is a graduate of Whittier College.

Jon Reiter

Treasurer

Principal, Cavalrei

Jon Reiter is the founder of Cavalrei (pronounced ‘Cavalry’), a consultancy offering services in the agriculture, finance, solar and water/water storage industries.  From 2013-2019, Jon served as the CEO of Maricopa Orchards, a leading almond, pistachio and fresh produce grower with over 50,000 acres under management.  Jon led the company on, among many other things, a multi-pronged water strategy that included federal and state surface water, long term surface water contracts and underground water storage. Jon also founded Maricopa Sun in 2009, a utility scale solar development partnership with the principals of Maricopa Orchards.  

Jon sits on the boards of Wheeler Ridge Maricopa Water Storage District, White Wolf Groundwater Sustainability Agency, Arroyo Passajero Mutual Water Company, Nickel Family Farms, Dave Wilson Nursery and Sustainable Conservation. 

Jon is also the sole owner of McConnell Farms, an owner-operator of almond, blueberry and pistachio ranches in California’s San Joaquin Valley.

Prior to joining Maricopa Orchards, Jon was a finance attorney for Milbank where he represented developers, lenders and investors in the water and renewable energy industries. Prior to Milbank, Jon worked for British Telecommunications (BT), a Global Fortune 500 communications company, where he was responsible for global procurement and real estate transactions as well as leading BT’s renewable energy efforts in the Americas. Jon joined BT upon the sale of his prior technology company to BT in 2004. Prior to BT, Jon was a mergers and acquisitions attorney with O’Melveny.

Jon graduated from UC Berkeley with a Bachelor of Arts degree emphasizing in Political Science/Environmental Science Policy and Management. Jon went on to earn his JD/MBA from the University of Southern California.  Jon is a member of the California State Bar, a California real estate broker and a private pilot.

J. Miles Reiter

Chairman & CEO, Driscoll’s

Mr. Reiter is a fourth generation California berry farmer. He has carried on the family tradition of bringing innovation and growth to the production and marketing of fresh berries. He joined the family’s farming operation, a significant participant in Driscoll’s, immediately after graduating from Princeton University. A few years later, he launched the family’s raspberry and blackberry breeding and development effort. In 1988, he became Chairman of Driscoll’s, a position he still holds today. At that time, Driscoll’s was a California strawberry marketing and breeding company with a very strong trade brand. Under his leadership, the company expanded into blueberries and merged with the Reiters’ industry-leading raspberry and blackberry company. Driscoll’s developed year-round supply capability by expanding into Mexico, Florida, and South America. The company also developed the clamshell packaging that better protected the fruit, significantly improved merchandising opportunities and transformed Driscoll’s into a consumer brand. The company has since pursued a market-leading position globally in fresh berries with operations in six continents and 22 countries. He has been, and always will be, thoroughly dedicated to producing and marketing fruit with an eating quality that truly delights consumers.

Mr. Reiter was honored as Santa Cruz County’s Farmer of the Year in 1989, The Packer Global Produce Marketer of the Year in 2006, and received the Award of Honor from Western Growers in 2016. He currently serves on several non-profit and private company boards. As the current Chairman and CEO of Driscoll’s, he has been very involved in efforts to sustain groundwater resources in agricultural areas. He has also passionately committed much of his time and effort into transforming his home county of Santa Cruz, California from an auto congested mess into a leading active transportation community.