The Environmental Volunteers Board of Directors welcomes 5 new members and a change in leadership. John Armstrong is continuing, and Hazel Watson is stepping up as co-chair and providing leadership of the board. Two new members joined us in June, Michael Patrick and Kimberly McMorrow. In September, Maya Watts, Rodrigo Alfaro, and Rupesh Shah were voted in as new members. We are excited to have such talented and strong leadership for the Environmental Volunteers.
The Board of Directors of Environmental Volunteers is a talented team who come from a variety of professional backgrounds and bring diverse talent and opinions to the leadership of the organizations. The board provides long term strategic direction as well as fiscal oversight and support for the staff. Many of the board members participate in classroom services or tabling events although most of their work is done on the committees that supports the staff with the direction and implementation of education, development and volunteer recruitment projects.
Michael Patrick is a former corporate attorney at Fenwick & West. He has supported many local organizations by volunteering and mentoring. He continues to serve as Co-President of the Board of Directors of La Comida, a Palo Alto nonprofit serving meals to seniors. He also remains active in mentoring and serving on San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury. Some other activities that he enjoys are wooden model shipbuilding, studying history and traveling.
Kimberly McMorrow practiced environmental law for 28 years and has been an active community volunteer, including founding the Outdoor Program at Eastside College Preparatory in East Palo Alto, where she organizes and leads outdoor education programs that introduce students to the wonders of nature through hiking, camping, backpacking, rafting, and kayaking. She is excited to help EV continue its important work educating students about the environment through hands-on learning opportunities.
Maya Watts is excited to lend her expertise in operations, people leadership, communications and marketing to EV. Her career has spanned professional services, customer experience & success (both in high tech) and most recently, early childhood development. With two young daughters as her daily inspiration, Maya is passionate about children, education and our environment. She holds a BA in Communications from UCLA and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Rupesh Shah has been a Wealth Advisor with Morgan Stanley in the Menlo Park/Palo Alto area for over a decade. He has worked in the Financial Services Industry for over 2 decades. He was born in Beautiful Mombasa, Kenya, located on the Indian Ocean and moved to the Bay Area when he was a young child. He went to the University of Oregon for an Economics Degree. Currently, he lives in Palo Alto with his two boys who are at Gunn High School. He has had “Volunteering” in his DNA for decades and gets a great sense of pleasure from giving back to the community. Outside of family time and work, he enjoys meditation, traveling and being a foodie.
Rodrigo Alfaro worked with the EV as a Community Programs Coordinator for several years. He brings his experience in the nonprofit space working for BUILD as the Director of Strategic partnerships were he, amongst other things, is the Scrum Master for the region’s development and program teams and has set and implemented the strategy to identify, secure, cultivate, and/or maintain corporate partnerships.
Jan Hustler and Larry Spivak will be leaving the board on term limits but they are staying involved in the organization by working on committees.