Working for lands, people, and communities
Mission and Vision
Our mission is to be a champion of and a regional voice for the resilient lands and watersheds that are integral to a thriving Bay Area and all people who live here.
Our vision is a Bay Area that is home to healthy lands, people, and communities where we address the impacts of the climate and biodiversity crises through collaboration. We live in a just and equitable society where we live in right relations with the lands that sustain us now and will sustain future generations.
Our Strategic Direction
We invite you to read our 2024-2028 Strategic Direction. In it we recommit to our mission and vision, and we elucidate our principles and values. And with input from our members, we identified five priorities that will serve as our north stars in the coming years.
Values
Our values guide how TOGETHER Bay Area’s team – including the board of directors, committees, and the team of staff and contractors – sets annual goals, designs and plans projects, fosters a thriving organization, and engages with members and partners.
Trust
We constantly work to build and maintain trust in all of our relationships by leading with heart and doing what we say we’re going to do.
Joy
We create opportunities for joy, play, creativity, and fun in order to create space for connection between people and ideas.
Belonging
We aim to create a sense of belonging for everyone on our team and everyone who participates in our programs.
Equity
We center equity in everything we do by asking who benefits from our work, who is not involved and should be, and how we can change culture and systems to be more just and equitable.
Learning
We build a culture of learning in which we honor whole and complex human beings in our pursuit of the organization’s mission and priorities. We solicit feedback regularly, support experimentation, acknowledge mistakes, and work to adapt and grow as a team.
Hope
We seek out and elevate hope and positivity as the driving forces for the work we do.
Board of Directors
Melanie Parker
President
Sonoma County Regional Parks
Deputy Director
Yakuta Poonawalla
Vice President
Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy
Director, Community Stewardship and Engagement
Shaun Horne
Secretary
Marin Municipal Water District
Director of Watershed Resources
Lisa Baldinger
Treasurer
East Bay Regional Park District
Legislative and Policy Management Analyst
Steven Addison
Civicorps
Conservation Program Manager
Annie Burke
TOGETHER Bay Area
Executive Director
Nicholas Calderon
San Mateo County Parks
Director
Tosha Comendant, Ph.D
Land Trust of Napa County
Senior Stewardship Program Manager
Rebecca Johnson, Ph.D
California Academy of Sciences
Director, Center for Biodiversity and Community Science
Sapna Khandwala
Stillwater Sciences
President and CEO
Lauren Korth
Peninsula Open Space Trust
Institutional Engagement Officer
Valerie Lee
Grassroots Ecology
Director of Community Engagement
Andrea Mackenzie
Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority
General Manager
Team
Annie Burke
Executive Director
Annie was born and raised in the Bay Area, and is raising her kids on the same trails and at the same burrito shop she enjoyed as a kid. Annie’s passion is bringing people together to celebrate differences and achieve shared goals. Over the years she has successfully advocated for regional funding, co-designed a first-of-its-kind program called Right Relations which focuses on Native American Tribal relations in conservation, raised millions of dollars, produced films, led coalitions to coordinate solutions to complex challenges, and hosted inclusive and joyful and productive events of all sizes.
Annie has a Masters in Organization Development from University of San Francisco and a B.A. in Psychology from Denison University. She serves as co-chair of California’s 30×30 Partnership Coordination Committee and on the management board of the San Francisco Bay Joint Venture. She was named a 2025 Local Hero by Bay Nature magazine.
She loves listening to the Giants on the radio, camping with her kids, and dark chocolate.
Jessica Little
Policy Lead
Jessica established Conservation Collaborators and leads facilitation of collaborative decision making, coalition management, and government affairs strategies for the firm. She has extensive experience engaging diverse stakeholders in pursuit of common interest policies and funding for conservation, water, and climate objectives.
Jessica has the perspective of both a consultant and consumer of similar consulting services enabling her to understand the constraints and demands of the firm’s clients. Jessica is is heavily invested in the mission and success of each group she supports.
Outside of work Jessica coaches and plays soccer (accounting for the team-oriented approach she embodies) and nurtures her vegetable and flower garden with tender loving care.
Born and raised in San Francisco, Sonia developed a strong connection to the parks surrounding the San Francisco Bay. Spending elementary school field trips in the Marin Headlands and then volunteering at The Marine Mammal Center in high school, she was always drawn to work in open spaces. Earning a bachelor’s degree from UC Davis in Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology, Sonia continued to solidify her connection to the Bay Area through conducting research on the fish population of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. She feels particularly drawn to this line of work to be able help preserve these open spaces for future generations of elementary school field trips. She hopes that city kids can continue to connect to nature in the way that she did growing up.
In her free time, Sonia volunteers as a tutor for students at a school in the Mission District of San Francisco, helping these students gain confidence and feel empowered through developing their writing skills. She is an avid reader, as well as baker, participating in a book club and cookbook club. Sonia continues to connect with the Bay by swimming in Aquatic Park near Fisherman’s Wharf.
Michaela Nee
Convening Coordinator
Michaela is a gatherer in every part of her life. She deeply believes in the magic that can happen when people thoughtfully come together, and takes joy in organizing all the puzzle pieces that make those connections spark. Michaela has produced events of many shapes and sizes in the nonprofit sector, including anniversary celebrations, webinars, storytelling events, team retreats, and other relationship-focused spaces. Michaela holds her Masters of Nonprofit Administration from the University of San Francisco and B.A. in international development and French from the University of Denver.
Beyond convenings at TOGETHER Bay Area, you can catch Michaela hosting storytelling shows with The Moth, experimenting with recipes and throwing corresponding taste-testing parties, and trying to read as many books as possible.
Tom Robinson
Director of Conservation Strategy
Tom is passionate about increasing the pace and scale of solutions to environmental and societal challenges. Tom directs the Conservation Lands Network project and other TOGETHER Bay Area efforts to coordinate conservation strategy for the region. Among many projects with agencies and nonprofits around the region, he led the creation of the Sonoma Veg Map and the Conservation Lands Network 2.0. He is on the team that developed the Bay Area Greenprint.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in ecology from U.C. San Diego, a master’s degree in geographic information science from San Francisco State University. He is a Switzer Environmental Leadership Fellow.
Laura is passionate about building community through storytelling and engaging communications. She has focused her career in the nonprofit world, developing skills in writing for newsletters, emails, blogs, and social media and in web and graphic design. She also gained experience supporting membership in mission-driven programs, including many social justice initiatives.
Outside of her professional storytelling, Laura is also a fiction writer. She earned her MFA in creative writing from Emerson College in Boston, her hometown. Her favorite activities include wandering through local bookstores, libraries, and coffee shops, struggling through the crossword, and exploring the Bay Area.
History
This coalition stands on the shoulders of the Bay Area Open Space Council. The Council was formed in 1990 by a group of visionary leaders who believed we could achieve more if we worked together. The Council:
- Helped form the Bay Area Program of the California Coastal Conservancy in 1997 and shape and pass state-wide bond measures which resulted in almost $400 million in funding for 700+ projects and programs in the region.
- Led the creation of the regional conservation strategy called the Conservation Lands Network, first version 1.0 in 2011, a progress update in 2014, and version 2.0 in 2019.
- Incubated Transit and Trails, a trip planning app that encourages the use of public transit to get outdoors.
- Convened the annual Open Space Conference and quarterly Gatherings. See photos.
- Facilitated relationship-building and information-sharing across the region which resulted in increased capacity, innovation, and impact.
- And so much more.
The Council went through a significant transition in 2018-2019 which you can read about here and here. Aleta George from the Bay Area Monitor wrote this article in May 2021. Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, East Bay Regional Park District, Peninsula Open Space Trust, Marin County Parks, Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority, and Sonoma Ag and Open Space District provided critical funding for the transition. A 16-member Planning Committee provided visionary leadership and critical thinking at five meetings and in countless emails. And hundreds of Bay Area leaders participated in the planning process through input sessions, surveys, and interviews.
We are grateful to everyone’s contributions to this regional coalition in the past and today.
Board of Directors and team, August 2023