Kelly Quirke, Board Chair
Kelly Quirke joins the NPC board after four and a half years as the Executive Director of Friends of the Urban Forest (FUF) in San Francisco. FUF is a community-building organization that has planted more than 42,000 trees along the streets of every San Francisco neighborhood since 1981.
Kelly is also the former Executive Director of Rainforest Action Network (RAN). For over seven years prior to joining RAN, Kelly campaigned at Greenpeace, finishing his tenure there as the national coordinator of Greenpeace's U.S. Temperate Forest campaign. Before that, he worked on Greenpeace's Offshore Oil, Energy and Climate campaigns. As the national coordinator of Greenpeace’s public outreach and scientific area of the USA Climate Campaign, Kelly's work included educating and politicizing the insurance industry regarding the economic and environmental risks and realities of global climate change.
Kelly has served on numerous non-profit boards over the years, and is currently also on the board of directors of the Hunters Point Family, a community organization working with at-risk youth in San Francisco’s diverse and underserved Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood. Kelly is active in the San Francisco Bay Area non-violence community, and has been a non-violence trainer for over 20 years. His activism has also included military non-intervention, needle exchange and AIDS-related issues.
Most importantly, he’s the father of 18 year old Casey, 3 year old Calliope, and 1 year old Charlotte.
Jim Sutton, Board Vice-Chair
The Sutton Law Firm
Jim Sutton has practiced law in San Francisco for over 15 years, specializing in political and election law, representing clients such as Mayor Gavin Newsom and District Attorney Kamala Harris. He graduated from Pomona College and Stanford Law School, and is a former Board member of the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library and Enterprise for High School Students, and is a member of the Olympic Club. Jim and his wife Victoria are raising three children in the Richmond District.
Jonathan Rewers Board Vice Chair
Isabel Wade, Board Secretary
Founder of Neighborhood Parks Council
Dr. Isabel Wade, is the founder and former Executive Director of Neighborhood Parks Council. Wade created NPC in 1996 in an effort to "take back" the parks, which have suffered decline due to budget cuts. In 1993, Dr. Wade received one of the first national awards for excellence in the environmental field from Good HouseKeeping Magazine. She founded the State of California's Urban Forestry Program in 1977 under Governor Jerry Brown; was the first President of San Francisco Friends of the Urban Forest; founder of the California ReLeaf Program at the Trust for Public Land and a co-founder of the National AIDS Memorial Grove in Golden Gate Park. Dr. Wade served on the Commission on the Environment for the City of San Francisco from 1994-1996. She has a doctorate in Environmental Planning from the University of California at Berkeley. For more information about Isabel's career, click here.
Christopher Guillard, Board Treasurer
Partner, CMG Landscape Architecture
Christopher Guillard is a founding partner of CMG landscape architecture, serving as the firm’s managing principal and directing many of the firm’s projects. Prior to founding CMG landscape architecture, he worked with Hargreaves Associates, serving as a project manager and designer on many of the firm’s award winning public open space and waterfront park projects. Chris’s passion and commitment to vibrant public space and sustainable environmental design has benefited projects such as Crissy Field, Treasure Island and the Crocker Amazon Playground, which he completed in collaboration with NPC. In 2001 he received the outstanding alumni award from the College of Architecture and Urban Studies at Virginia Tech. He lectures and teaches on landscape urbanism and design.
Jan Chernoff
Casa Buena Vista Rentals
Jan served on the Board of Directors of Morrisania West (1985-2006), and the Board of Directors of Urban Resource Systems (1981-2007) which was the launch pad for Friends of the Urban Forest, the AIDS Memorial Grove, and the Neighborhood Parks Council. He is a member of the San Francisco Biodiesel Collaborative.
Anne Halsted
Anne Halsted is a devoted advocate for San Francisco’s waterfront, neighborhoods and social well-being. Through appointed civic positions and nonprofit leadership work, Anne has worked to safeguard San Francisco’s public spaces and improve the quality of life in the city. In addition to serving as a Trustee for the San Francisco Maritime National Park Association, Anne currently serves on the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, SF Bay Conservation and Development Commission, City Club of San Francisco Board, San Francisco Planning and Urban Research (SPUR) Board, Chinatown Community Development Corporation Board, North Beach Citizens Board, and the Goldman Institute on Aging Board. Anne has been honored with the Silver Spur Award by SPUR, the Women Who Could Be President Award by the League of Women Voters, the Eisenhower Award by Business Executives for National Security, and the Environmentalist Award by San Francisco Tomorrow. Anne holds a BA in Political Science from Duke University and is married to Wells Whitney, Ph.D. Anne and Wells live in the Telegraph Hill Neighborhood in San Francisco.
Mindelle Kershner
Tower Properties
Mindelle Kershner is a real estate agent with Tower Properties, President of Resourceful Systems, Ltd. Property Management, Board Member of the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, Board Member of the Friends of Noe Valley, and Chair of the Noe Valley Emergency Preparedness Group.
Alfredo Pedroza
Alfredo Pedroza, is a San Francisco Native, born and raised in both the Mission and the Excelsior neighborhoods of San Francisco. Alfredo has spent his life building community to effectively address the issues most important to these diverse communities. Most recently, Alfredo served in the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Services as the Liaison to Districts 9, 11 and the Latino Community. In his tenure as Liaison, Alfredo was steadfast in his support of economic, social and environmental justice, public safety, community based planning, health access, traffic calming and pedestrian safety, homelessness, and cultural representation through his work with over fifty-five neighborhood, merchant, and park groups, over seventy non-profit and community based organizations, as well as individual constituents.
Prior to joining the Mayor's Office, Alfredo Pedroza worked for The Trust for Public Land (TPL) as a Senior Project Associate working with a team of talented individuals who worked to preserve large landscapes throughout California, Nevada and Hawaii. He soon realized in the heat of the real estate building boom that the only way to effectively save and take development pressures off our large wilderness expanses, was to provide quality, safe, clean and green parks in our urban cores. It was that realization that brought Alfredo to the Neighborhood Parks Council, where he began organizing and training neighborhood residents all over San Francisco to become park stewards and advocates. Following his passion for environmental and social justice, Alfredo worked with communities of color and traditionally underrepresented groups to take back their communities and reinvigorate their neighborhood parks by becoming active stakeholders in the process. In his spare time, Alfredo chaired the 24th and York Streets Mini Park revitalization efforts to rebuild this pocket park into an oasis for neighborhood children to play and learn about their community.
Alfredo is a strong believer that "it takes dedication, determination and an ability to dream to make positive change happen in a community and through hard work, community service and service learning we can harness the power of the community to bring about something good".
Alfredo, a product of City College of San Francisco, transferred to the University of San Francisco, where he earned a Bachelors Degree in International Business and Advertising.
Alfredo currently also sits on the Board of the Mission Learning Center and the Executive Board of Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club.
Patty-Jo Rutland, Esq.
Associate, The Rutland Group
Patty-Jo Rutland is an acknowledged expert in project advocacy, strategic planning, and public policy development. She began her career in the California State Assembly, serving under then-Speaker Willie L. Brown, Jr. As the Deputy Administrative Officer of the Assembly Rules Committee, she oversaw the development of the Member Orientation Program, handled legislative bill assignments, and developed member and committee budget recommendations. In 1997, after 15 years of legislative service, Ms. Rutland accepted a position as the Regional Vice President for PRWT Services where she lead in winning for PRWT a public/private partnership with the City of San Francisco's Department of Parking and Traffic. In 2005, she was invited to join forces with The Rutland Group, where she focuses on client issues within San Francisco and neighboring Bay Area counties. Patty-Jo holds a BA from Fisk University and a JD from Lincoln Law School. She served on the San Francisco Child Abuse Council from 1997-2000, and as a member of the Mayor’s Fiscal Advisory Council from 1998-2002.
Marcel Wilson
Founder, Bionic Landscape Architecture
Marcel Wilson is a licensed landscape architect. His design practice Bionic, is based in San Francisco, Ca. He teaches graduate level studios at the University of California at Berkeley, and is a former principal at the internationally renowned landscape architecture firm Hargreaves Associates. Marcel graduated with distinction from The Harvard Design School where he was awarded the prestigious Weidenman Prize for design excellence.
He has worked for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, and has lead the design and management of landscape projects and exhibitions in Europe, Asia, and the United States. As a designer he has distinguished himself as a creative force in even the most complex projects by proposing compelling designed relationships between land, people, and technology. His project design and management experience includes, the Los Angeles State Historic Park, the Stanford Science and Engineering Quad, and the Vision Plan for Hunters Point Waterfront Park in San Francisco, which was given an award of excellence by the American Society of Landscape Architects in 2007. Marcel is an active participant in the San Francisco planning and design community where he contributes his time to the Mayor's Open Space Task Force, and non profit open space organizations.
