Erika leads our Accelerating Restoration Initiative and is responsible for helping to acquire large regional and statewide programmatic permits and encourage other incentives to promote widespread implementation of restoration projects across California.

She has more than 20 years of experience working collaboratively with government agencies, the private sector and public interest groups on resolving environmental problems through both voluntary and policy solutions. Prior to joining Sustainable Conservation, Erika gained substantial policy and technical experience in habitat restoration and water quality protection while serving as an Environmental Scientist/Planner for California’s Water Boards, Coastal Commission, and Department of Water Resources, and for San Francisco County. Erika has also managed a major watershed planning effort for the South San Francisco Bay, leading environmental programs, mediating stakeholder conflicts, managing grants, and developing policy.

Erika acquired her BS in environmental policy analysis and planning from UC Davis.

Katie has more than 10 years of experience supporting the development and implementation of new expedited permitting pathways for restoration. Prior to Sustainable Conservation, Katie worked for Resource Conservation Districts on the Central Coast helping to steward natural and working lands. In the early 2000’s she implemented composting at an auto manufacturing facility as part of a “zero-waste to landfill” goal.

Katie earned her BA in Integrative Biology from the University of California, Berkeley. She also conducted graduate work in Ocean Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, studying photosynthetic bacteria in the tropical Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

In her free time, Katie enjoys surfing along the California coast and finding ways to build accessory dwelling units (ADUs).

Stephanie grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and received a B.S. in Environmental Science with a minor in Conservation Biology from UCLA before working as an outdoor educator in Ohio for two years. Stephanie then gained hands-on habitat restoration experience through an internship with Students and Teachers Restoring a Watershed (STRAW), a project of Point Blue Conservation Science.

Before joining Sustainable Conservation, she earned a master’s degree from the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at UCSB with a specialization in Conservation Planning and a focus in Strategic Environmental Communication and Media. She started working at Sustainable Conservation in 2016 on the PlantRight program, and since 2018 she has been applying her project management and communications skills to the Accelerating Restoration program. She manages much of our outreach, including this website.

In her free time, Stephanie takes care of her many houseplants and carnivorous plants and does a lot of gardening.