Arroyos & Foothills Conservancy

Board of Directors

Tim Wendler, President

Tim is a professional environmental engineer, and is currently managing a national program of projects for an international petroleum client. He is the former chair of both the Hahamongna Watershed Park Advisory Committee and the Pasadena Recreation and Parks Commission. He is also an Advisory Committee member for the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. He lives in Pasadena.

Lawren Markle, Vice President

Lawren lives in Altadena and works for Tech Image, where he concentrates on media relations and analyst relations for technology clients. He is a life-long hiker and has an interest in preserving wild, open lands. Lawren recently stepped down from a two year term on the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy Advisory Board, representing the unincorporated communities of Altadena and Crescenta Valley.

Paul Rabinov, Treasurer

Paul has resided in the Crescenta Valley for the past 25 years. He presently serves on the advisory board to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, representing both La Crescenta and Altadena. He is the founder of Crescenta Valley Clean and Green as well as the La Crescenta Trails Committee. Paul operates his own business, repairing flutes.

Laura Garrett, Secretary

A lifelong environmentalist, Laura serves on the City of Pasadena’s Open Space and Conservation Advisory Committee. She is also Conservation Chair for the Pasadena Audubon Society, having served on its board since 2002. Laura teaches Rhetoric and Composition at Cal State L.A. She lives in Pasadena.

Michelle Markman

Michelle is a California native and a resident of Altadena. She served as director of sales and marketing for Energy Efficiency Solar, a solar installation company. She has also worked as a multi-cultural marketing expert, creating custom publications for corporations.

Susana Reyes

Susana has had a wide range of experience working and volunteering in environmental fields. She managed the Los Angeles City Facilities Recycling Program, a citywide recycling and waste prevention initiative, from its creation in 1991 until 1999. She has been very involved in the Sierra Club at the local, state, and national levels, and now serves on the Sierra Club's national board of directors. In her professional life, she works as director of human resources for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the largest municipal utility in the nation. She enjoys hiking and outdoor photography.

Nancy Steele

Nancy co-founded AFC and served as president from its inception until 2011. She is the executive director of the Los Angeles-based Council for Watershed Health, a center for watershed research and analysis. In her career she has held a variety of positions in California state government focusing on environmental protection of land, air, and water. Nancy is a member of the Marine Conservation Research Institute of the Aquarium of the Pacific, and has served on the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy Advisory Committee. In 2010 she received a Women in Business award from State Senator Carol Liu and State Assemblyman Anthony Portantino in the Environment / Energy Efficiency category.

Nancy holds a Master of Science in Zoology from Arizona State University, and a doctorate in Environmental Science and Engineering from UCLA. She lives in Altadena.

Advisors

Lyle Hatridge

Lyle is a lifelong educator, specializing in the development of middle-school students. He is also an ardent outdoor enthusiast. Lyle's dilemma is best captured by E.B. White's quip: "I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day." He hopes his role with AFC will allow him to both save and savor life.

Ginny Heringer

Ginny is a longtime hike leader for the Sierra Club, and a longtime docent at the Eaton Canyon Nature Center. She has lived in Pasadena for 35 years and is retired from Pasadena City College, where she taught English and English as a Second Language classes.

Mickey Long

Mickey lives in Temple City. He recently retired from his position as natural areas administrator for the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation, where he operated 19 natural areas. He taught college environmental biology and human ecology courses, and currently teaches bird identification, botany and ecology classes for the county's nature centers. Mickey's research interests are in field ornithology, herpetology and botany. He continues to perform field biological assessments for environmental documents, and serves on the County Regional Planning Department's Significant Ecological Areas Technical Advisory Committee. He is also vice president and rare plant chair for the San Gabriel Mountains Chapter of the California Native Plant Society, as well as a past president of the Pasadena Audubon Society.

Marc Stirdivant

Marc is a senior administrative analyst for the City of Glendale's Community Services and Parks Department, where he serves as grants administrator and supervises trails and open space programs for the city's 5,000-plus acres of open space. Marc represents Glendale on the advisory committee to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, and sits on the board of directors of two nonprofit land-trust and land-advocacy organizations.

Staff

John Howell, Executive Director and General Counsel

A Pasadena area native, John is an attorney specializing in real estate, business, and contract law, including land conservation. John has represented The Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land in numerous transactions. He is a founding member of Open Space Now, an advocacy group for natural open space in Pasadena, a member of the Arlington Garden Advisory Committee, and has been a community activist for many years.
johnhowell@arroyosfoothills.org

Sean Howell, Operations and Communications Manager

In addition to working for the conservancy, Sean is a freelance writer and a former newspaper reporter. He has published journalism, essays, and short stories. He graduated from Stanford University in 2007.
seanhowell@arroyosfoothills.org