SVTC STAFF & BOARD

SVTC Staff

Sheila Davis 
Executive Director
Over the past 10 years, Sheila Davis has played a valuable role at SVTC and in shaping environmental policy in the high-tech industry. She is one of the co-founders of the Computer TakeBack Campaign and sits on its steering committee. In 1996 she researched and developed the first electronic recycling legislation to reach the California Governor’s desk and in 1999 spearheaded the first pilot programs in the country to collect and recycle electronic waste from the residential curbside. Before becoming SVTC’s executive director, she served as program director of SVTC's Sustainable Technologies Program (formerly the Clean Computer Campaign). Sheila's research, advocacy and policy development led to a successful ban on hazardous electronic waste from the California municipal landfills and the subsequent passage of the first electronic recycling legislation in the nation. Sheila holds a Bachelor's Degree from the University of California and served as a journalist, state legislative aide and community development specialist before joining the staff of SVTC.


Maureen Cane
Development Director
Maureen brings her experience as a student and community organizer to her new role in SVTC’s Development Department. Previously at SVTC, she successfully organized students at the University of California to demand responsible electronic purchasing and recycling practices. Prior to this work, Maureen was the National Student Organizer for Greenpeace USA where she coordinated student clean energy campaigns and built a successful national student movement involving over 300 campuses. Maureen co-founded the California Student Sustainability Coalition and Energy Action. Outside of the office, Maureen has traveled extensively in India and its neighboring countries and volunteered with local environmental justice groups along the way. She also boosts such accomplishments as having climbed El Capitan in Yosemite and hiking the entire length of the Sierra crest off-trail. Maureen completed her studies in International Development at the University of California at Berkeley in 2002.


Monica Cendejas
Project Manager
Monica joined the SVTC team as Project Manager in 2008. She previously worked with Communities for Clean Ports, an organization that seeks to reduce port related pollution, as a research intern. While attending Stanford University, Monica held an outreach position with El Centro Chicano and served as a research assistant for a member of the economics department. She received a B.A. in Spanish and Economics with a focus in Environmental and Labor economics.



Corinna Dixon
Associate Director
Corinna joined the SVTC staff in 2003 and has served as Executive Assistant, Operations Manager, and Development Associate. She is currently serving as SVTC’s Associate Director. Corinna was previously the Collections Registrar and Office Manager at the Cupertino Historical Society & Museum (CHS). Prior to joining CHS, Corinna served as an Executive Administrator at such companies as Apple, Sony, Palm, and Newbridge Networks. She has also volunteered on several archaeological research projects on location in Hawaii , Bali, and Cyprus. She received a B.A. in Liberal Studies from the California State University, Chico.


lauren Ornelas
Campaign Director
lauren has been active in the animal rights movement for over 20 years. Before joining SVTC, lauren was the executive director of Viva!USA, a national nonprofit vegan advocacy organization. After spending four years as National Campaign Coordinator for In Defense of Animals, lauren was asked by Viva!UK to start and run Viva!USA in 1999. In cooperation with activists across the country, she worked and achieved corporate changes within Whole Foods Market, Trader Joe's, and Pier 1 Imports, among others. In 2006 lauren founded the Food Empowerment Project a nonprofit organization which seeks to create a more just and sustainable world by recognizing the power of one's food choices. lauren joined SVTC in 2007 and currently serves as a Campaign Director with SVTC.

Jacob Conroy
Web/Design Manager

Jacob has been involved in a wide range of activism since 1995. After graduating from art school in 1996, he became actively involved with local groups working on a variety of important issues. Jacob's passion for positive change led him to volunteer with and organize various campaigns on local, regional, national and international levels with great success.

His dedication to change is almost matched for his desire to make it look good. Over the last decade, Jacob has honed his skills in the fine arts, print and web design in order to better convey messages to the general public in an exciting, appealing and educational way.

Jacob joined SVTC in 2010 with an enthusiasm to bring a fresh look to an already exciting and accomplished organization.

Dustin Mulvaney
Lead Technical Advisor
Dustin is the technical advisor on SVTC's Just and Sustainable Solar Industry campaign. His work is supported by an Environmental Leadership grant from the Switzer Foundation. He is currently a Science, Technology, and Society postdoctoral scholar at the University of California Berkeley in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management. Dustin holds a Ph.D in Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz, a Master of Science in Environmental Policy, and a Bachelor's Degree in Chemical Engineering. Dustin's previous work experience includes time with a Fortune 500 chemical company working on sulfur dioxide emissions reduction, and for a bioremediation startup that developed technology to clean groundwater pollutants like benzene and MTBE.


Heather
Nanotechnology Technical Advisor
Heather joined SVTC as the nanotechnology technical advisor in 2009. Heather is currently an Environmental Health Sciences doctoral student at the University of California, Berkeley in the School of Public Health. Heather holds a Masters of Public Health (MPH) degree, and Bachelor's degrees in Environmental Resource Management, and Economics. Heather's nanotech research includes developing methods to measure and analyze nanoparticles in occupational settings. Heather’s ongoing occupational health experience includes research collaborations with University of California, San Francisco and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Heather also works with pregnant women who wish to reduce hazardous exposures to protect the overall health of their future families.



SVTC Board

Bruce Olszewski
President
Bruce has enjoyed a diverse career in the environmental field. He has been a member of the Environmental Studies faculty at San Jose State University (SJSU) since 1989. He has twice served the Department as interim chair and teaches courses on Environmental Issues, Integrated Waste Management, and Globalization and World Trade. Bruce is the founder and Director of the Center for Development of Recycling (CDR) at SJSU which established the Santa Clara County Recycling Hotline and specializes in providing service-learning opportunities for students who work on community and environmental projects such as water and energy conservation programs with consultants, government agencies, and associates at SJSU.

Bruce’s community work includes two terms of service to the City of Campbell as a Planning Commissioner and Chairperson in 1989. He established the first city-wide water conservation program in San Jose, revised state plumbing standards to improve energy conservation, and established Santa Clara County’s recycling website www.RecycleStuff.org.

Bruce has served as a Board Member with the Silicon Valley Industry Education Advisory Board, the Walden West Environmental Education Program, the South Bay Water Recycling Project, the Technical Advisory Committee to the Recycling and Waste Reduction Commission of Santa Clara County, Sustainable Silicon Valley, and is a board member with the Michael Lee Environmental Education Foundation.

Richard Keady
Vice President
For the past 34 years Richard Keady has been an instructor in the Comparative Religious Studies Program at San Jose State University. He graduated from Amherst College, Collegio di Sant’ Anselmo in Rome Italy, and holds a Ph. D. from the Claremont Graduate University (1974) in Religion and Society, with a special focus on Process Theology. For most of the years since 1991 he has been coordinator of the Comparative Religious Studies Program at San Jose State. His teaching/research interests have focused on three interrelated areas: Death, Dying and Religions, Religion and the Environment, and Religion and Conflict Resolution. The three foci, death, the environment and conflict were the subject of his most recent sabbatical in Findhorn, Scotland, where he spent a month at the Eco-Village Training in February and March of 2005. The primary focus of this intensive workshop was the search for ways to understand and enhance local and global sustainability. This concern naturally involves conflict of various interests, most notably the frequently dismissed factor of religious conflict. He is one of two principal investigators in the San Jose State University Difficult Dialogues Initiative (Fall, 2006 to Spring 2008) which focuses on difficult issues at the local level (SJSU and Santa Clara County) to global issues and the use of dialogue to resolve those issues.

Veronica Estrella Murillo
Treasurer
Veronica is the Director of Health Education for the EPA Division of the California Family Health Council. Veronica is nationally recognized for her expertise in the areas of cultural competency and health literacy. She is actively involved in the development and translation of numerous materials for public health clients, as well as the evaluation of health education resources nationwide. She has trained hundreds of professionals in the art of evaluating and developing materials that are sensitively written and designed for the intended population; in the area of cultural competency and cross-cultural communication. In addition to serving on the SVTC board, Veronica provides consultation services in the areas of program planning and evaluation, organizational development, staff diversity, strategic planning, budgeting, conducting needs assessments, materials development, translation, cultural & linguistic competency, product marketing and distribution, and on designing effective trainings.

Pooja Chakravarti
Secretary
Bio Coming Soon!

Sheila Davis
Executive Director, SVTC
Please see the SVTC staff information to read more about Sheila Davis.

Susan Gladwin
Bio Coming Soon!

Michael Jennings
Bio Coming Soon!

Kirsten Malone
Bio Coming Soon!

Debbie Mytels
Debbie Mytels has 20 years in the environmental field and is the Associate Director at Acterra: Action for a Sustainable Earth, a Palo Alto-based organization dedicated to finding solutions to environmental problems at the local level. Her accomplishments include creation of the "Be the Change" program, an environmental leadership training program, "Cool It!," a project aiming to reduce global warming, and the establishment of the first commercial recycling program for the downtown Palo Alto business district. Debbie has served as Special Projects Facilitator for SVTC, she was on the Executive Committee of the Sierra Club's Loma Prieta Chapter, and was board president of the Collective Roots Garden Project which supports a school garden at the East Palo Alto Charter School. She was also a co-founder of the Midtown Residents Association in Palo Alto, and initiated a city -wide campaign that resulted in a successful utility tax that supports schools and open space.

Karen Simmons
Bio Coming Soon!