Board and Staff

Mickey Kantor
Founder of the LA Conservation Corps
Mickey received a Bachelor's degree from Vanderbilt University in 1961. After four years of service as a naval officer, he went on to study law at Georgetown University's Law Center. He practiced for 17 years at the law firm of Manatt, Phelps, Phillips & Kantor in Los Angeles, where he was instrumental in building a relationship between the LA Conservation Corps and Manatt, Phelps and Phillips, which, to date, has provided countless hours of pro bono assistance to the LA Corps, and also valuable board members and financial support. Mickey continues to remain actively involved with the Corps and its fundraising and public outreach efforts.

Helenann Hirsch
Board of Directors President
Helenann is an attorney with the California Women's Law Center in Los Angeles, which is a non-profit legal center that works to secure the rights of women and girls in California through litigation, policy advocacy and education. After graduating from the University of California, Davis School of Law, Ms. Hirsch was a clerk for the Ninth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals. Ms. Hirsch has worked extensively in local and state politics, as well as in Washington D.C. with the Clinton Administration. She also worked as an attorney in private practice, with an emphasis in employment law. She has made a variety of presentations on employment and legislative issues affecting women and girls.

Bruce Saito
Executive Director
Bruce has a long history of outstanding service to Los Angeles and California. In 1976, he joined the California Conservation Corps (CCC), working with youth at various locations throughout the state, where he served for 10 years. He is recognized both locally and nationally as an expert in procuring and managing conservation corps projects. Bruce was also instrumental in coordinating emergency efforts during the Los Angeles floods and fires in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, the 1992 Los Angeles Civil Unrest and the 1994 Northridge Earthquake.
In 1985, Bruce was hired by former U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Mickey Kantor, to be part of a team to start the LA Conservation Corps. Since 1995, Bruce has served as the organization’s Executive Director.
In addition to his work at the LA Conservation Corps, Bruce has served as President of the National Association of Service and Conservation Corps (now known as The Corps Network). He is also the current president of the California Association of Local Conservation Corps (CALCC), the organization that represents the 12 certified conservation corps covering most of the state’s urban areas from San Diego to Marin. He also serves on the Boards of the Los Angeles Community Garden Council, Infrastructure Academy, LA Neighborhood Land Trust and the Little Tokyo Senior Nutrition Program. In 2003, Governor Schwarzenegger appointed Bruce to serve on the Board of the State Board of Forestry and this year will become Bruce became a founding Board member of the Los Angeles River Revitalization Corporation. He has been recognized for his service by the City and County of Los Angeles, the State of California and the federal government, and has been honored with a National Philanthropy Day Outstanding Professional Award. Bruce received his bachelor’s degree from San Francisco State University.
Recently, Bruce was awarded a Durfee Sabbatical Award in the summer of 2006 to honor his many years of dedicated service to the youth of Los Angeles.

Dan Knapp
Deputy Director
Dan was promoted to his current position in January 2008 after 11 years of outstanding service to the Corps. For nine (9) years, Dan served as the Corps' Division Director of our conservation programs and services, which engage youth between the ages of 13 and 24, and was responsible for over $13 million in project funds. His prior experience at the Corps also includes teaching environmental science to at-risk youth and managing the implementation of environmental service projects, including the Department of Water & Power's Trees for a Green LA program and Cool Schools project. He proves his dedication to environmental work by serving on the advisory boards for two (2) Corps program's EarthWorks Community Farm and the SEA Lab. He is an active volunteer with a local Girl Scout troop near his home in Huntington Beach. In addition to his conservation corps work, Dan sits on the Board of Directors of the National Forest Association, and serves on the advisory committee for Million Trees LA. Dan holds a bachelor's and a master's degree in Geography from California State University, Long Beach. He is also an ISA-certified arborist (WE-6295-A) and a Master Gardener.

Cheryl Petersen
Director of Finance
Cheryl is currently the Director of Finance for the Los Angeles Conservation Corps. She joined the Corps in February 2008 with 20 years of accounting experience, including more than 15 years experience in nonprofit fiscal and organizational management. Prior to the Corps, Cheryl was Director of Finance and Operations at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, and Controller at both the Loma Linda Veterans Association for Research and Education and the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles. During her career she has worked for organizations with annual budgets of 2 million to 25 million dollars in diverse funding, including all levels of government funding, corporations, foundations and private support and is versed on all levels of required reporting for contracts and grants internally and externally, as well as all required state and federal reporting including informational returns. She works closely with the management and the Board to insure that the organizations’ financial best practices and operations develop with the growth of the organization and continue to support the mission. Cheryl has also managed IT at each organization and is proficient in the installation, development and implementation of nonprofit software that supports fund accounting, and other technology resources to best manage the organizations’ assets to insure streamlined processes and accurate and efficient financial reporting. Cheryl also serves as a consultant for several emerging nonprofit organizations insuring that they develop proper financial reporting practices as they grow their organizations. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, a certificate in Nonprofit Management from Duke University, a Certificate in Federal Grants Management from Management Concepts in Washington DC and is currently participating in continued professional development with the Deloitte Center for Leadership and Community.

Cheryl with corpsmember mentee Ocie Williamson.

Wendy Butts
Contract Compliance Officer
Wendy is a member of the Executive Team and is responsible for ensuring the Corps complies with all legal and contractual requirements associated with the 80-100 funding sources that support our youth, conservation and education programs each year. She works extensively with senior level program staff to ensure that they understand the requirements of each of the contracts/projects they manage/direct for the young people who implement them. She is also responsible for communicating programmatic changes to funders and resolving any corrective actions that may result from issues raised during programmatic monitoring. Wendy performs follow up with funders to ensure projects are completed as proposed and to seek feedback on our work products.
Wendy joined the Corps in August 1998 as an Environmental Skills Instructor. Wendy also served as the Corps' Development Director and was responsible for grant proposal, directing the Corps' annual fundraising luncheon and managing donor relations. Her desire to work in community development was spurred by her Peace Corps service in Ecuador, where she served as a Health and Environmental Educator from 1994-96. Wendy received her bachelor's in Journalism from Northern Arizona University and her master's in Business.

Bo Savage
Division Director, Conservation Programs
Bo is responsible for overseeing a staff of 80 spread throughout 5 sites across, West, Northeast, East, and South Central Los Angeles who implement the Corps’ numerous conservation programs. His primary responsibility within the organization is to develop and oversee the nearly 4-dozen contracts that the Corps typically undertakes on a yearly basis in order to employ over 1500 corpsmember participants that plant trees, build parks, recycle renewable resources, and many other projects. These urban forestry, habitat restoration, and other conservation-related contracts total in excess of $15 million annually.
Bo has worked at the LA Conservation Corps since 1992, where he has managed a wide variety of projects throughout the years and has worked closely with the Corps’ junior high participants on up through its adult participants. In addition to his responsibilities and experiences at the Corps, Bo also serves as the Vice President for Legislation for the California YouthBuild Collaborative (a statewide youth employment and education consortium), and he serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the Los Angeles Education Corps (a charter high school that educates the participants of the LA Conservation Corps). Bo holds a bachelor’s degree in Recreation and Leisure Studies from California State University, Long Beach.

Rick Stroup
Division Director for Corpsmember Development
Rick joined the Corps in January 2008 with 13 years experience working with California nonprofit local conservation corps. His primary responsibilities at the Corps include overseeing the Corps’ Support and Transitions Services Department, After School Programs, Education Program, identifying program development opportunities, overseeing grant writing strategy development and implementation, and initiating new programs. He also provides staff development as a certified trainer for the Building Exemplary Systems of Training (BEST) for Youth Development. Rick was formerly with the Orange County Conservation Corps for 11 years during which time he served as the organization’s Executive Director for nine (9) years. He has also worked as a consultant for nonprofit and for profit organizations and spent 17 years in education as a teacher, counselor and administrator. Rick earned a bachelor’s degree in Music and a secondary teaching credential from California State University, Long Beach. He also holds a master’s degree in Education and a school administrative credential from California State University, Fullerton and a pupil personnel credential from the University of California, Irvine.

Irene Lopez
Senior Director of Conservation Programs
Irene joined the Corps in 1990 and has served in her current position for the past 10 years. She provides program oversight to four (4) Corps programs and is responsible for an annual $4.5 million budget and for the work and safety of thousands of youth participants each year. These programs include the following: Clean & Green, one of our longest-running youth and workforce development programs that employs 14 to 17 year olds to perform community beautification work throughout the City of Los Angeles; Community Enhancement Teams, which provides clean-up services in various Business Improvement Districts throughout Los Angeles County. She also has responsibility for 44 Young Adult Corps members that work on crew such at the City of LA River Keepers project and the National Emergency Grant . Irene reports to senior management on program activities and evaluates program outcomes. She is a Los Angeles native who has held a number of different positions at the Corps, including Team Leader, Assistant Regional Coordinator and Crew Supervisor. Irene attended East Los Angeles College and is also a Citizen Forester, a program of Tree People. Irene has also served as a volunteer t-ball and softball youth coach in the East Los Angeles community for 20 years.

Brent Scheiwe
SEA Lab Director
Brent has worked with the LA Conservation Corps since January 2005. After serving as the SEA Lab Facility Manager for two years, Brent was promoted to SEA Lab Director in November 2007. He will continue to be the lead project manager on facility improvements, program implementations and federal grant contracts. He will also be responsible for cultivating and maintaining partnerships with government agencies at all levels, local marine science groups, community organizations and environmental educators. Brent is an experienced mentor to the young adults in our internship program as well as a responsible coordinator of all volunteer activities related to facility maintenance and animal care. He has logged over 1200 work-related SCUBA dives and participated in numerous work and marine research-related projects. Since 2005 he has been directly managing the SEA Lab’s public aquarium; marine husbandry research; and animal rehabilitation program. Brent completed a bachelor’s degree from Southern Cross University in New South Wales, Australia majoring in fisheries and aquaculture management. He has eight years of experience in operating and maintaining aquatic systems and caring for a variety of marine organisms.

Reyna Albizures, MSW
Senior Director for Corpsmember Development
Reyna has 13 years of experience providing direct services to multiple-needs clients at the LA Conservation Corps and is the first director of our Support & Transition Services Department. Previously at the Corps, she served as a case manager and teacher for four years. She currently oversees the six case managers who are responsible for delivering services to the at-risk youth populations we serve—those who are out of school and/or work, were gang-affiliated, are low-income and/or homeless, are parenting youth, are on probation or parole and/or are foster or emancipated youth. Her prior professional experience includes work with Edelman Family Court and a shelter for runaway youth, Angel’s Flight. She is certified in family violence and child maltreatment prevention, and has served as a volunteer with the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women and suicide hotlines. Reyna earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work from California State University, Long Beach.

Tiffany Alexander Aldridge
Director of Fundraising
Tiffany brings more than 16 years of foundation and philanthropic expertise and political expertise to the LA Conservation Corps. As Director of Fundraising her responsibilities include managing the unrestricted fundraising and marketing efforts and special events of the Corps. She also acts as the main liaison for the Board of Directors and Senior Management on fundraising matters. Prior to joining the Corps, she served as Managing Director for Stewart Partners where she provided foundation/philanthropic services to professional athletes, celebrities and high profile individuals. Before Stewart Partners, Tiffany served as the National Director for Development at Rock the Vote and Development Officer at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation where she created new AIDS awareness and education programs that sought to engage minorities and young people. An active member of her community, Tiffany’s charity involvement includes serving on the Advisory Committee of the Cedars Sinai Hospital’s Sports Spectacular and A-MAN, Inc. Additionally, she serves as the Legislative Chair of the Los Angeles Chapter of Jack and Jill of America, Inc. A native of Los Angeles, Ms. Alexander Aldridge attended the University of California, Berkeley.

Lynda Via
Senior Director for After School Program
Lynda joined the Corps nearly 13 years ago, first as a volunteer who helped write the program's initial planning grant, then as a staff member, and then as Program Director. Currently, as Senior Director, she provides program oversight to the After School Program, which operates on a $4.5 million budget, and is responsible for the services delivered to over 4,000 elementary and middle school students everyday. Her program provides homework assistance, mentoring, and academic enrichment and recreation activities for students at 21 of Los Angeles Unified School District's neediest and lowest performing schools. The Afterschool Program serves approximately 15,000 students annually. Presently, Lynda serves on the Los Angeles County of Education's After School Training and Technical Assistance Committee, and on the LAUSD After-School Executive Team. She earned her bachelor's degree in Sociology from California State University, Long Beach.

Raynetta Winston
Human Resources Director
Raynetta joined the Corps in November 2004. Her primary responsibility involves providing strategic director of the Human Resources Division at the Corps. This includes, but is not limited to the following: compensation, health and welfare benefits, retirement plan, recruitment, performance standards, policies, safety and fleet operations. She is a member of several professional organizations including Professional in Human Resources (PIHRA) and Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and is a founding member of the Covey Coaching Innovation Advisory Board. Raynetta holds a Master’s in Business Administration from Azusa Pacific University. She is also a Certified Coach (issued by Franklin Covey LLC) and completed the Advanced Program in Human Resources at the University of California, Los Angeles’ Anderson Graduate School of Management.

Noel Trout
Executive Director of the Los Angeles Education Corps
Noel is the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Education Corps, the charter school that operates in collaboration with the LA Conservation Corps.
In 1996 he helped found the charter school and served as one of its two original teachers, which at that time operated only in conjunction with the LA Conservation Corps' South Los Angeles site and about 60 students. Since that time the charter school has grown to include two other sites shared by the LA Conservation Corps--a location in Watts called Youth Opportunities High School and a location in the Pico-Union neighborhood known as EcoAcademy High School--and now serves over 600 students annually with a teaching staff of 20.
Noel has an MA in Administration, a BA in Psychology, and teaching credential in English. Prior to working for the charter school, he taught in the Inglewood Unified School District and coached for the Los Angeles Unified School District, and between 1991 to 1996 he worked for the LA Conservation Corps in a variety of capacities.

Board of Directors

Mickey Kantor
Founder

Helenann Hirsch
President and Chair of the Board

Albert Chavez
Vice Chair and Treasurer

Mercedes Morton, Esq.
Vice Chair and Secretary

Ari Swiller
Vice Chair
Renewable Resources Group, Inc.

Scott Budnick
Executive Vice President of Production
Green Hat Films

Teresa Cisneros Burton, Esq.
Local Coordinator
Academica California

James Carlo Cascone
Principal
Deloitte & Touche LLP

Tina N. Castro
Director, Mission Related Investments
The California Endowment

Janet Dreisen Rappaport

Laura Hartigan
President
Hartigan & Associates

Ann Hollister

Stuart Laff
Associate Principal
Rottet Studio

Bryan LeRoy
Partner
Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP

Mary Leslie
President
Los Angeles Business Council

Andy Lipkis
President
TreePeople

Chris Modrzejewski
Principal
Sage Advisors, Inc.

Joseph Rakauskas
Chief Financial Officer
Alliance Inspection Management LLC

Phil Recht, Esq.
Partner
Mayer Brown LLP

Jack Sahl, Ph.D.
Director, Environmental & Resource Sustainability
Southern California Edison

Heidi Schulman
Adjunct Professor of Journalism
Annenberg School of Communication & Journalism
University of Southern California

Miya Sumii
Psychiatric Social Worker
LA County Public Defender's Office

Janet Teague

Dana S. Treister, Esq.
Attorney
Munger, Tolles & Olson

Dahni Tsuboi, Esq.
Deputy General Counsel
City of Hope

Jason Turner
Managing Partner
Venbrook

John Van de Kamp, Esq.
Partner and Of Counsel
Dewey and LeBoeuf

Renee E. Becker, Esq.
Legal Counsel
Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP