Garry Brown is the Founder, President and Chief Executive
Officer of the Orange County Coastkeeper (OCCK). As
a native of Orange County, Garry has in-depth knowledge
of marine and water runoff issues as well as water supply
issues. Prior to opening OCCK in March 1999, Garry served
as an Assistant City Manager, an advocate and executive
director of trade associations in the real estate and
building industries, and twice as president of a chamber
of commerce. In 2001 he founded the Orange County League
of Conservation Voters. Mr. Brown graduated with
a degree in Government from the University of Redlands
and sits on the Board of Directors of numerous state
and local environmental organizations. Garry likes
to spend his rare free time travelling, and enjoying
fine wine and a great cigar.
Ellen, along with her husband Garry, is a co-founder
of Orange County Coastkeeper. Since Coastkeeper's
inception, Ellen has been responsible for the administration,
financial management, grant contract administration,
and fundraising. Ellen is from Greenburg, Pennsylvania.
Upon high school graduation, Ellen gained hands on experience
in hospital administration at Monsour Hospital.
In 1980, Ellen moved to Orange County.
For the next several years, Ellen gained a wealth of
experience both in business and financial management,
as well as public relations. As a resident of
Huntington Harbour, Ellen has become active in the community,
participating with the Huntington Harbour Property Owners
Association and the Huntington Harbour Philharmonic
Association. In her free time, Ellen loves pizza,
travelling, and boating (but don't ask her to swim!).
Ray
has a B.A. in Geography (1998) and a certificate in
Environmental Studies (2000) from California State University
Long Beach. Ray has been the Project Manager for
several projects contracted by the Regional Water Quality
Control Board, including:
Santa Ana
River Citizens Water Quality Project (319h) 2001-2004
Orange
County Watersheds Citizen Monitoring Project (Prop
13) 2004-2006
Newport
Bay Marinas Metals Study, 2006-2007
Newport
Bay Stormdrains Study, 2007-present
Orange
County Nurseries Water Quality Improvement Project,
2007-present
Ray participates as a Chairman
of the City of Huntington Beach Environmental Board,
and Board Member of the Port of Los Angeles Harbor Safety
Commission. He is a lifetime resident of Orange
County, and a 20-year resident of Huntington Beach.
Ray works hard and plays hard, whether he's riding motorcycles,
hiking, fishing or relaxing to the tunes of Jimmy Buffet.
Briana
graduated Summa Cum Laude from UC Santa Barbara in June
2004, with a B.A. degree in Comparative Literature-
Emphasis in Environmental Studies. Briana's responsibilities
at Coastkeeper include coordinating and leading high
school field trips, curriculum development, speaking
at community events, maintaining the Coastkeeper website
and writing grant proposals. As a guest scientist
for the monthly Marine Life Survey at Newport Bay, Briana
tests water quality, leads the mud sampling station,
and educates citizens on the connection between urban
runoff and health of marine life in the Bay. When
away from Coastkeeper, she also works at her family's
Irish Pub, Silky
Sullivan's. These are a few of Briana's favorite
things: surfing, SCUBA diving, books, concerts, dancing,
ice cream and Ireland.
Autumn received her Bachelor and Master of Science
degrees in Environmental Sciences from the University
of California Riverside (UCR) in 2003 and 2007,
respectively. Her thesis is titled, "Determining
net social benefits from optimal parcel-level
infiltration of urban runoff: a Los Angeles analysis."
Autumn is charged with coordinating all programs,
from field trips, stream clean-ups and investigations
to grant writing and providing technical expertise.
Co-author on 2008 publication in Policy Matters,
"Capturing urban stormwater runoff: A decentralized
market-based alternative". Co-author of 2006
publication for Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers
Watershed Council, "Costs and infiltration
benefits of the Water Augmentation Study Sites"
and co-author of 2009 Journal of Real Estate Economics
paper "Parking externalities in commercial
real estate". Autumn is a second generation
Riverside native. In her spare time, she
enjoys supporting her local chapters of Sigma
Kappa Sorority, the First Congregational Church
of Riverside and hiking or skiing with her husband
Jim.
Rachael recently moved back to her hometown
of Riverside after working as a naturalist in
the Cayman Islands where she led environmental
education programs for Jean-Michel Cousteau’s
Ambassadors of the Environment program at the
Ritz-Carlton. She graduated with a B.A. in Environmental
Studies from UC Santa Barbara in 2005, and continued
with graduate work at Cal State San Bernardino.
In 2006, she received her M.A. in Environmental
Education and completed her Master’s project,
titled “Interpretive Programs for Ecotourism.”
When not working at Inland Empire Waterkeeper
as a Project Manager, some of Rachael’s
favorite things to do are: watch funny movies
with her sisters, take walks with her husband
and their dog Spartacus, and summer barbecues
with friends and family.