Staff and Board

Shamar A. Bibbins is a Senior Political Associate for Green For All, where she helps manage the organization’s congressional relationships and steers a number of special projects. Prior to joining the organization's political team, Shamar was based in Los Angeles and served as project coordinator for the State and Local Initiatives team. Prior to joining Green For All, Shamar worked in the entertainment field for several years and ran a successful business providing administrative services to non-profits and small businesses.

Ms. Bibbins attended Vassar College, where she received distinction on her senior thesis, "Race, Class and Environmental Justice." Post graduation, she was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to Japan where she studied social movements surrounding unprecedented mercury dumping in southern Japan. A native both of Detroit, MI, and the Washington, D.C.-metropolitan area, Shamar is a strong advocate of social justice and social service. She has volunteered with numerous organizations that service and empower at-risk youth and homeless men and women.

Markese W. Bryant is nationally recognized as a strong advocate for clean energy, green jobs and energy efficiency. He began organizing his campus and his community as Green for All’s College Ambassador, educating students and faculty about energy efficiency and the opportunities presented by an inclusive green economy. He also served as Chair of the Morehouse College SGA Environmental Awareness. As a student leader, Mr. Bryant has developed advanced project management and communication skills, which enable him to lead, manage and motivate large groups of students. Mr. Bryant has been awarded scholarships from UNCF, AmeriCorps and the Bonner Foundation.

In May of 2010, Markese W. Bryant completed his undergraduate studies with a Bachelor of Arts in African American Studies from Morehouse College. His training in African American Studies has given him a clear perspective on the plight of the African American community, which enables him and his team to have a better understanding of what needs to be done to ensure that communities of color share the benefits of energy efficiency and the green economy.

Philip comes to Green For All from his consulting firm in New York City, where he focused on providing messaging and technological support to non-profits. He has worked in communications and politics in New York and California, including as the Political Director of the South Bay Labor Council, in the communications department of UNITE HERE and as a senior designer at Adobe Systems.

Mary Creasman, who directs Green For All’s education and movement building work, joined Green For All in 2009 from Working Partnerships USA and the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council where she worked as the Political and Organizing Director. She has led numerous winning public policy and organizing campaigns in Silicon Valley including a living wage expansion, large-scale retail and community benefits policies. Mary also served as the Political Director for the Democratic Party in Silicon Valley and managed many successful local and regional electoral and ballot initiative campaigns, including City Council races, Board of Supervisor races, county tax and bond initiatives, and the local 2008 presidential campaign. Mary graduated with honors from the University of San Francisco with a B.A. in Sociology.

Kat recently joined Green For All as the Communities of Practice Program Manager. She brings experience in working with governments and non-profit organizations to design and implement economic and community development strategies. She is skilled in data and policy analysis, defining and measuring outcomes, as well as facilitating public/private partnerships to accomplish community goals. As part of her work with ICF International, she performed policy analysis on federal and local initiatives related to affordable housing, economic revitalization, and energy efficiency as well as authored manuals on integrating energy efficiency guidelines into affordable housing development. More recently, Kat worked as Project Manager for Rubicon National Social Innovations. In her role there, she managed the creation of scalable social enterprises in both energy efficiency retrofits and mattress recycling. She received her Master’s in City and Regional Planning from UC Berkeley with a concentration in Regional Economic Development.

Cheryl Patrice Derricotte, AICP, has over 20 years experience in community economic development, building low-income housing and community-based arts facilities. Raising funds goes hand-in-hand with bricks and mortar projects, so she is delighted to apply her skills linking money to mission on the Strategic Growth Team at Green For All. Cheryl received the B.A. from Barnard College, Columbia University in Urban Affairs and the Masters of Regional Planning from Cornell University, with a specialty in housing and local economic development. She has been published in The Encyclopedia of Housing and the Howard University Law Journal. A native of Washington, D.C., and a licensed city planner, Cheryl has been a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) since 1995. In her free time, Cheryl enjoys making glass art, practicing yoga and writing/running an indie press.

Ryan's beliefs are deeply rooted in nature. He was born and raised in Humboldt County, California amidst the towering Redwoods, rocky coastlines, rivers and mountains. He is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Cruz where he received a B.A. in film/video production. Ryan has over 13 years experience making videos and short films. He has traveled over most of the continents of the world, filming and broadening his awareness of the needs of others. He volunteered in orphanages in Africa and Tibet and a refuge camp in Thailand. He made films to help these organizations gain support and to help enlighten others of their needs. It was while participating with the League of Young Voters in San Francisco, that he was truly inspired into political activism. Ryan is an avid long distance runner and is happiest when playing music with his family and friends. His favorite animal is the Narwhal. He channels his energy to video production so that he can communicate Green for All's dedication to build an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. Ryan is a servant warrior and his camera is his weapon against eco-apartheid.

Khary joined Green For All in 2011 as the Senior Associate for Business Engagement. He works nationally to develop the capacity of green businesses to grow and create good, green jobs. Khary brings close to 10 years of experience in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors. In 2010 he received an MBA from San Francisco State University where he focused on utilizing a business approach to accomplish financial, social and environmental objectives. While receiving his MBA he volunteered as a business consultant with multiple local and international non-profits. At Mama Hope and Operation Rainbow Khary was able to direct resources that enabled African and Dominican communities to become more self-sufficient and develop themselves out of poverty. He is also a recipient of the San Francisco Mayor’s Certificate of Honor for his work creating workforce opportunities for disenfranchised populations.

Diana is the Director of Finance and Administration for Green For All, as well as a founding member of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. Diana received her B.A. in Social Welfare and her J.D. at Hastings College of Law. While she is not focused on Green For All and the Ella Baker Center, she is operating a private community criminal defense practice, and serving on the boards of Bay Area non-profits Machen Center and TURF (Together United Recommitted Forever.) This San Francisco native is also a real estate broker, supporting activists and other members of her community to empower themselves through homeownership.

Rosa González is a lifelong educator, a visual and performing artist and the Director of Education and Outreach at Green For All. Before joining the team at Green for All, Rosa was program lead for PILA (the Partnership for Immigrant Leadership and Action), where she helped link political education and community organizing. She designs curriculum and facilitates theater-based workshops and townhall meetings for critical community dialogue. Rosa is also a member of headRush, a political performance and popular education crew dedicated to inspiring working class communities through original performances and participatory workshops. Rosa has a Masters in Latin American Studies from Stanford University and a Masters in Teaching from the Arts in Education program at the University of San Francisco. In her spare time, she organizes with her neighbors in East Oakland to reclaim empty lots for urban gardening and community-building.

Emily Gordon is a Senior Associate in the State and Local Initiatives Department at Green For All. As part of the State and Local Initiatives team, Emily works on policies and programs that create quality accessible jobs in the green economy. Her current work focuses on green job strategies in the water and energy efficiency sectors. Prior to coming to Green For All, Emily spent eight years working in the labor movement. She has worked on successful union organizing and contract campaigns across California as well as multiple public policy issues affecting low-wage workers. In addition to her work in the labor movement, Emily has also worked in the nonprofit sector on topics including affordable housing, food security, community development and criminal justice.

Jeremy leads Green For All's state and local work. His work focuses on the implementation and replication of green economic and workforce development initiatives at both local and national levels.

Jeremy joined Green For All early in 2008 as the National Field Director. Before that he was the National Organizing Director at the Apollo Alliance where he helped state and local coalitions of environmentalists, labor unions, civil rights groups, and businesses advocate for good jobs and clean energy. Jeremy has broad experience organizing multi-stakeholder efforts to address poverty, environmental issues, and economic development. He has worked a program director for Urban Strategies Council—a community building support and advocacy organization in Oakland, California; as a project manager for the Governor’s Oregon Solutions program; as a policy researcher for the Assistant Secretary of Environmental Justice at Cal/EPA; and as an organizer or technical assistant in a variety of other community development and environmental justice initiatives. He has master’s degrees in City Planning and in International Development from the University of California—Berkeley.

Christy Kincannon, Executive Aide to CEO Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, joined Green For All in 2009. Before coming to Green For All, Christy worked for Working Partnerships USA as a grants administrator and prior to that, she owned her own business. As a small business owner, she worked with several nonprofit organizations to help the underprivileged. Before venturing off on her own, Christy worked in the food and beverage industry for several years as a regional bookkeeper and restaurant manager.

Ken Lewis is excited and honored to be a part of Green For All’s Strategic Growth Team. With a background in finance and customer relations he looks forward to supporting Green For All’s development activities. He has volunteered with Habitat for Humanity, Sports 4 Kids, and the Alameda County Computer Resource Center. He is a graduate of Carleton College in Northfield, MN where he played football and studied abroad in Mexico and Spain. He lives in Oakland, loves riding BART, and enjoys exploring and discovering all of the great things the Bay Area has to offer.

Maritza Martinez was most recently the Program Manager at New York Needs You where she designed a career development curriculum for first-generation college students and managed professional volunteer engagement. Before joining NYNY, she was the Senior Associate for Fellow and Alumni Programs at Echoing Green, where she was responsible for providing training, coaching and technical support to social entrepreneurs from around the world. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from The University of the District of Columbia and a Master’s degree in Nonprofit Management from Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy. During graduate school, she was the Administrative Coordinator at AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps, a fellowship program that integrates work for social change, Jewish learning, and community-building. Maritza has also served as the Human Resources Generalist at the Whitman-Walker Clinic and an Inventory Specialist for Friends of the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.

Julian is an Oakland native raised behind the redwood curtain of Humboldt County. He is a graduate of San Francisco State University who came to Green For All through his organizing work with The League of Young Voters. Julian’s passion for saving our people and our planet finds a vehicle in his work as Green For All's Field Organizer.

Julian works with people around the country who are putting government investment dollars to work on a local level to build the green economy. He trains local leaders to build the green economy from the ground up by serving as the facilitator of the Green For All Academy. He trains leaders with the tools they need to communicate the promise of the green economy and to engage disadvantaged communities in support of green jobs and climate protection strategies. Julian works everyday to link local partners, lift those local best practices and models to national prominence, and leverage the success stories for large-scale change. Julian has been featured in The Nation, Wiretap magazine and The San Francisco Xpress, and has been recognized by the California Labor Archives for excellence in writing.

Brian Purchia is the Communications Director for Green For All. His recent successes include organizing the first mayoral forum on Gov 2.0, SFOpen 2011 and leading communications for Change.org. From 2006-10, Brian was San Francisco Mayor Newsom’s New Media Director. Mr. Purchia was described by the San Francisco Chronicle as Newsom’s “go-to guy for new, and especially social media” for his implementation of a groundbreaking new media strategy called “gutsy” and “brilliant” on NPR. Mr. Purchia’s work, described by Craigslist founder Craig Newmark as “genuinely innovative,” led to Newsom ranking as #1 mayor for his use of social media by the leading search engine for tracking consumer-generated opinions, Samepoint.

Prior to entering politics and government, Mr. Purchia worked in media, developing one of the first mobile TV networks for the US market while working for WeatherNews in Japan. From 2002-2005 he was a nightly news reporter for Voice of America in Washington, DC. He also worked in local news for KTXL in Sacramento. Brian lives in San Francisco with his environmental attorney wife, Robyn and dog, Axl Rose.

Julie is the Director of State and Local Initiatives for Green For All. In overseeing the State and Local Initiatives team, she helps local city partners realize model programs that create an inclusive green economy with pathways out of poverty. By working to leverage all of Green For All’s resources (business, policy, communications, education, and movement building) in a group of cities, she's helping local partners create model economies that will inspire the nation.

With ten years of city, state, and national organizing experience, Julie's work has included developing and passing a model Responsible Contractor Ordinance, shaping Project Labor Agreements to create opportunities for urban communities, helping to develop the City of Paterson, New Jersey’s first green and mixed-income housing development, and building volunteer networks in coal states to advocate for a strong clean energy and climate bill.

Julie holds a BUS Summa Cum Laude from the University of New Mexico, where she was a Regents Scholar. She also earned a Masters with Distinction in International Conflict Analysis from the University of Kent at Canterbury, where she was a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. When she takes a break from working with an excellent team of local and national leaders, she practices Kuk Sool, a Korean mixed martial art.

Seema Rupani grew up in the Bay Area and is a passionate activist and educator, who has organized on her campus and in her community around issues of building a healthier and more equitable food system, implementing sustainability efforts into campus planning at De Anza College, fighting for animal advocacy, and demanding the right to accessible quality public education for all. She graduated with a B.S. from UC Berkeley where she studied a combination of environmental justice and global poverty. Seema also led participatory education for a water and sanitation project in India and mobilized with small-scale farmers in South Africa for the right to agrarian reform and food sovereignty. She uses her cultural roots to take action in the U.S. within a transnational framework, in solidarity with peoples’ movements across borders. She brings experience mobilizing students, planning direct actions, using political education tools, and doing community outreach in working class communities of color around food justice. She is interested helping people to make connections between interlocking systems of oppression and move to creative action in their own backyards.

Sarah Shanley Hope is honored and excited to direct Green For All's strategic relationships with financial partners and stakeholders. Prior to joining Green For All in January 2009, Sarah managed customer insight research and corporate brand strategy for Cargill. In May 2007, Sarah received her MBA in social entrepreneurship and strategic marketing from the University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management. Since Fall 2005, Sarah has also led numerous consulting engagements on brand strategy, marketing communications and fundraising for a range of government and non-profit clients in Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN, Buffalo, NY and Oakland, CA. Before business school, Sarah worked as the Individual Gifts Manager for the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and as the Volunteer Coordinator for the Arianna Huffington Campaign for Governor during the California recall election.

Monet Zulpo-Dane helped launch Green For All in 2007. Trained as an attorney, Monet has overseen Green For All’s executive office, first as Assistant to the President and then as Assistant to the CEO. She now brings her management skills and her commitment to social and economic justice to her new role as Staff Director. Before Green For All, Monet worked at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights for many years, first as an Organizer and then as Development Director.

Donald Cohen is the co-founder and president of the Center on Policy Initiatives, a San Diego-based research and policy center. Cohen has over 25 years experience as an organizer and trainer in strategy, policy and organization. He is the former Political Director of the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council, AFL-CIO. He also has served on the Workforce Investment Board, the Legislative Committee of the San Diego Chamber of Commerce, the Mayor's Affordable Housing Task Force and the Mayor's Committee on Smart Growth. Currently, Cohen is a member of the advisory committee for the Helen Edison Endowed Lecture Series at UCSD. He serves on the Board of Directors of both the Partnership for Working Families and the Horizon Institute, a Los Angeles-based think tank.

Juliet Ellis is Assistant General Manager for External Affairs at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC). The SFPUC is a department of the City and County of San Francisco that provides water, wastewater, and municipal power services to San Francisco and supplies water to 1.6 million additional customers within three Bay Area counties. She oversees the Government and Legislative Affairs, Communications, Sustainability Planning, and Community Benefits aspects of the SFPUC. Prior to joining the SFPUC Juliet spent nine years as the Executive Director of Urban Habitat, a regional social and environmental justice organization. Urban Habitat works in partnership with low-income communities and communities of color to advance social, economic, and environmental justice in the Bay Area region. Before her role at Urban Habitat, Juliet was the Associate Program Officer for Neighborhood and Community Development at The San Francisco Foundation. She was responsible for all aspects of grantmaking in the areas of workforce development, housing, homelessness, economic development, community development, and neighborhood planning.

Juliet has served on numerous national, regional and local boards and committees, including the Oakland Homeless and Low-Income Taskforce, the San Francisco Asset Building Initiative, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s Transit Sustainability Project, the Alameda County Public Health Disparities Taskforce, the Community Capital Investment Initiative, Girls After School Academy, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Transform, the San Francisco School of Volunteers, the Partnership for Working Families, and the President’s White House Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Environment and Climate Change. She currently serves on the Boards of the David Brower Center and Green for All, and the Partnership for Working Families. Juliet also served two years as a Commissioner with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. During her tenure on SFPUC she championed the adoption of an Environmental Justice Policy, issues of local hire, and the development of an agency-wide Community Benefits Program.

Well known for his acting work as a star of Tyler Perry’s Meet the Brown's (The Series) as well as numerous films and plays, Mr. Rucker is an activist and spokesperson for several non-profit organizations and community action initiatives including A.H.E.A.D., Inc., Inner City Industry, BET's Rap-It-Up campaign, the Black AIDS Institute, The Magic Johnson Foundation and several grass-roots organizations across the country leading the way in uplifting families and mobilizing communities to encourage prevention, education and testing initiatives for HIV/AIDS and other issues.

Mr. Jones has over 25 years of experience in the technology industry as a securities lawyer, investment banker and senior business executive.

Prior to Aeris, Mr. Jones was the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Visionael, raising over $40M in capital to fund their rapid growth. Prior to Visionael, Mr. Jones was the President of Madge Networks, a company that grew during his tenure from $40M to $500M in revenue with a successful IPO.

Mr. Jones has a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Stanford University and a J.D. degree from Stanford Law School.

Mr. Jones is on several boards including serving as the Chairman and CEO of Aeris Communications, the Governing Board for Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT) and Board Member of Working Partnerships (WPUSA).