Steering Committee

Stuart Cohen, TransForm
Stuart is co-founder and Executive Director of TransForm, ClimatePlan's fiscal sponsor. By combining high-quality policy analysis with coalition building and strategic media efforts, TransForm has become a powerful and effective voice for world class transit and walkable communities in the Bay Area and beyond.

TransForm's campaigns on transportation sales taxes and other funding measures have brought together diverse coalitions and helped raise over $6 billion for sustainable and socially-just transportation. Stuart has spearheaded a number of these efforts, as well as the successful effort to initiate the Bay Area's Regional Smart Growth Strategy. Stuart has been the primary author of eight TransForm reports, including the 120-page World Class Transit for the Bay Area. 

Previously, Stuart worked with ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability as a researcher on the climate impacts of alternative transportation policies and fuels, and at NYPIRG (New York Public Interest Research Group) as a toxics campaign coordinator and Statewide Canvass Director.  Stuart received a Master's Degree in Public Policy (MPP) from the Goldman School of Public Policy at U.C. Berkeley.

Judy Corbett, Local Government Commission
Judy is the founder and for the past 25 years has served as Executive Director of the Local Government Commission.  She holds an MS in Ecology from the University of California and was co-developer of the highly acclaimed Village Homes, a model for sustainable development located in Davis, CA.  Corbett has coauthored three books on resource efficient land use and building design, most recently Designing Sustainable Communities:  Learning from Village Homes.  With the Local Government Commission, she has published over 50 policy guidebooks for local government officials on topics including community water sustainability, hazardous waste reduction, recycling, energy conservation and alternative energy, sustainable economic development, and resource-efficient land use patterns.  The Ahwahnee Land Use Principles, spearheaded by Corbett, forecast the Smart Growth movement.  She has served as a featured speaker at conferences throughout the United States, Mexico, and Europe. She was named by Time Magazine as a "Hero for the Planet" and in 2005 received the National Leadership in Planning Award from the American Planning Association.  She serves as a Boardmember for the Rail-Volution Conference and was a member of the Board of Directors of the Congress for the New Urbanism for the past 15 years.

Amanda Eaken, Natural Resources Defense Council
Amanda Eaken is a Policy Analyst with NRDC’s energy program. Ms. Eaken’s primary focus is reducing transportation sector greenhouse gas emissions through improved land use and transportation planning and policy. Her recent work has focused on implementing California’s landmark Global Warming Solutions Act through administrative and legislative advocacy. Aiming to create a model for state involvement in land use planning, Ms. Eaken has worked recently on SB 375, a bill that will provide state transportation funding and regulatory incentives for implementation of regional growth plans that achieve state-assigned emissions reductions targets. Ms. Eaken received her Master’s Degree in Transportation and Land Use Planning from U.C. Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design, and her B.A. in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology from Dartmouth College.

Chione L. Flegal, PolicyLink
Chione, a Senior Associate at PolicyLink, works to ensure that infrastructure policy promotes social, economic, and environmental equity. She leads PolicyLink efforts to address infrastructure disparities in low-income unincorporated communities in California’s San Joaquin Valley and to promote equitable solutions to climate change. Prior to joining PolicyLink, Flegal managed Latino Issues Forum’s Sustainable Development program and directed the organization’s environmental health and justice work. Flegal advises the California Air Resources Board on the implementation of climate policy by serving on the AB 32 Environmental Justice Advisory Committee. She holds a Masters in City Planning and a BS in environmental science, policy, and management from the University of California, Berkeley.

Bonnie Holmes-Gen, American Lung Association in California
Bonnie has been the Senior Policy Director for the American Lung Association of California (ALAC) in Sacramento since January 2000. In her role at ALAC, Ms. Holmes-Gen is responsible for advocating the public policy concerns of ALAC and the California Thoracic Society before the California Legislature and state agencies such as the California Air Resources Board and the California Energy Commission. In her advocacy work at the lung association, she has specialized in air quality and environmental health issues including: global warming and AB 32 (Nunez/Pavley) implementation; heavy-duty diesel pollution; alternative fuel and zero emission vehicle programs; electricity generation and air pollution; indoor air pollution; and statewide and local air pollution control programs. Ms. Holmes-Gen also provides information and resources on ALAC public policy positions and priority issues to staff and volunteers in the 10 local lung association offices throughout California.

Prior to her work with the American Lung Association of California, Ms Holmes-Gen was the Senior Legislative Representative for Sierra Club California (1/96-1/2000) in Sacramento and the Senior Consultant for the consulting firm of V. John White Associates (9/89-9/95). Ms. Holmes-Gen has a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning from the University of California at Davis (June, 1982) and a Master of Arts degree from New College Berkeley (August, 1993).

Stephanie Reyes, Greenbelt Alliance
As a Policy Director with Greenbelt Alliance, Stephanie is responsible for coordinating efforts to protect open space and create livable communities on a regional and state level.  She works with citizens, elected officials, and diverse groups to protect the greenbelt of open space and improve the livability of existing communities through grassroots organizing, coalition building, policy analysis, political strategizing and local advocacy.  Stephanie holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Brown University.

Julie Snyder, Housing California
Julie Snyder has served as Policy Director for Housing California since 2000. As director, Julie designs and implements Housing California's legislative strategy and response for its 1,000 members across California. This includes building and maintaining strong alliances with developers (market-rate and non-profit), environmentalists, land-use reformers, local governments and labor unions.

In 2002, she helped win the Proposition 46 campaign as an Executive Committee member and Treasurer, in which 58% of voters approved a $2.1 billion bond to build places to live for people of low and moderate incomes. From 1993 - 2000, Julie held a variety of positions in California's Assembly including assembly fellow for Assembly member Richard Katz; legislative director for former Assemblymember Hannah Beth Jackson; and consultant to the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee under former Assemblymember Tom Torlakson. Julie received her bachelor's degree in American Studies from Occidental College in Los Angeles. She grew up in Ventura County, California.

Elizabeth Tan, Urban Habitat
Elizabeth, Urban Habitat's Director of Development and Planning, received a Masters in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana in 1995. She spent the next three years as the Director of the San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners’ Environmental Justice Department. She then joined the San Francisco Foundation’s Multicultural Fellowship Program where she spent two years supporting the work of environmental and social justice groups throughout the Bay Area. After leaving the San Francisco Foundation, she became a Program Officer at the French American Charitable Trust, a progressive family foundation that supports social and economic justice groups throughout the country. Elizabeth has been working with Urban Habitat since 2002. As a member of Urban Habitat’s Management Team she is the lead staff on development, strategic planning, and program design.

Ed Thompson, American Farmland Trust
During his time at American Farmland Trust, beginning in 1981, Ed has served in a number of different capacities. Most recently he held the positions of general counsel and senior vice president before becoming AFT's California State Director in the fall of 2003.

Although he lived on the east coast until moving to California in early 2005, Thompson has long been active in California. He helped draft the state’s right-to-farm law and legislation establishing the California Farmland Conservancy Program. He orchestrated AFT’s 1995 study Alternatives for Future Urban Growth in California’s Central Valley, which helped put farmland preservation on the map in the state’s most important agricultural region. And he collaborated with the late Marc Reisner, author of Cadillac Desert, on a study of how more secure water rights for California farmers could encourage farmland preservation.

He brings to California extensive experience with farmland preservation from coast to coast and from the nation’s capital to the local level. He and his wife, Ann, live in Davis.

Michael Woo, Smart Growth America
Michael Woo joins the ClimatePlan Steering Committee after previously working as a consultant for our Southern California campaign.  He is Chairman of the Board for Smart Growth America, the national coalition advocating compact urban development and sustainable transportation alternatives.

Michael was the first Asian American elected to the Los Angeles City Council, on which he served eight years as a representative of Hollywood and surrounding neighborhoods.  While on the Council, he helped guide major planning, redevelopment and transportation decisions, including the Hollywood Redevelopment Plan, Metro Red Line subway route and station locations, as well as major residential and commercial development projects. He gave up his Council seat in 1993 to enter the race for Mayor of Los Angeles, ultimately receiving 46 percent of the citywide vote.

For the past five years, Michael has served as a Member of the Los Angeles City Planning Commission where he is helping to draft new land use and transportation policies to promote more sustainable future development.  In addition, in July 2009 he accepted a post as the Dean of the College of Environmental Design at Cal Poly Pomona.

Michael also serves on the board of directors for several organizations in Southern California, including Sustainable Economic Enterprises of Los Angeles (chairman), KCRW Foundation, Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center (chairman), California Food Policy Advocates, Mural Conservancy, and the American Institute of Architects, Los Angeles Chapter.  He received his master’s degree in city planning from the University of California, Berkeley and completed his undergraduate studies in politics and urban studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz.