California Coastal Commission

COLUMN 3

Commissioner Biographies

Steve Blank

Steve Blank has spent the last 29 years in California as a successful businessman, conservationist and passionate teacher.

As a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, Steve was part of/and founded eight startups. After he retired, he applied the same pragmatic decision-making to a new career in conservation and teaching. He is Chairman of Audubon California, and is a member of the Audubon National board. Steve teaches at both U.C. Berkeley Haas Business School, and at Stanford in the Graduate School of Engineering.

Along with the Audubon boards, Steve sits on several private company boards.

He lives in Menlo Park with his wife and two daughters who attend public school in Redwood City.

Additional biographies are available at:

http://ca.audubon.org/board.php

http://www.stanford.edu/class/msande273/team/blank.html

http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/faculty/blank.html.

Dr. William A. Burke

Dr. William Burke comes to the California Coastal Commission with an exemplary commitment to both public service and the environment. He served two terms as Chairman of the California Fish and Game Commission and two terms as Chairman of the California Wildlife Conservation Board. At present, he is Vice Chair of the board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, following his two-term tenure as its Chairman. He has also been a board member of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and was appointed by Governor Gray Davis to the California Air Resources Board in April 2000.

Dr. Burke earned a bachelor's degree from Miami University. While serving in the United States Air Force, he attended Boston University and Harvard. He went on to receive a doctorate of education from the University of Massachusetts. He is married to Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke and lives in Los Angeles. He is the President of the City of Los Angeles Marathon, which he co-founded in 1986.

William Patrick Kruer

Pat has a long and distinguished service in the real estate industry and is recognized as a leader in communications between the business industry and government.

Between 1978 and 1985, Pat served on the California Housing Finance Agency (a statewide agency that issues bonds to finance low- and moderate- income housing) and served as Vice Chairman and Chairman of its lending committee. From 1981 to 1988, Pat was a director of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, which regulates the savings and loan industry. He was first appointed under President Jimmy Carter in 1981 and then re-appointed under President Ronald Reagan. Between 1984 and 1986, he also served on the Federal Savings and Loan Advisory Council, which acts as a special counselor to the Federal Home Loan Bank in Washington, D.C. Locally, Pat served on the first Housing Commission for the City of San Diego between 1979 and 1982. The County of San Diego selected him to serve as First Chairman of the Housing Bond Finance Review Committee between 1984 and 1986. He was also the First Chairman of the Regional Growth and Planning Review Task Force for San Diego County. Pat served a six year term as a Board Director at Centre City Development Corporation, which is responsible for all development activities in the redevelopment area of downtown San Diego. Currently, Pat is a Commissioner on the California Coastal Commission, which regulates 1,100 miles of California coastline.

Dave Potter

Originally from Hingham, Massachusetts, Dave Potter has been a resident of Monterey County since 1970, and is dedicated to actively serving the community. Besides owning and operating Potter Construction since 1974, Dave has also served the local community in many capacities including: the City of Monterey Architectural Review Committee (‘86 to ‘90), the Monterey City Planning Commission (‘90 to ‘92), the Monterey City Council (‘92 to ‘96), the Transportation Agency of Monterey County (‘93 to present), and as Chairman of the Transportation Agency of Monterey County (‘95 and ‘96), the Fort Ord Reuse Authority (‘93 to present), Chairman of the Monterey City Youth and Family Task Force (‘96 to present), the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District (‘97 to present), and was elected to the Monterey County Board of Supervisors for the Fifth District , representing Big Sur, Carmel, Carmel Valley, Monterey, Pacific Grove, and Pebble Beach in November of 1996. He was elected Vice-Chairperson for the Board of Supervisors in January of 1997, and was appointed to the California Coastal Commission in March of 1997.

In addition to serving as Supervisor to the constituents of the Fifth District of the County of Monterey, Dave also serves on numerous committees including: the Legislative Committee, Health Committee, Affirmative Action Committee, Mental Health Commission, Law Library Board of Trustees, the Monterey County Travel and Tourism Alliance, and the Health Insurance Review Committee.

Mary K. Shallenberger

Mary Shallenberger grew up on a dairy farm in northern Ohio. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts with a B.S. in Biological Sciences and headed to California.

Ms. Shallenberger worked for several years as a research assistant in the Biology Department at Stanford University and Stanford Research Institute before returning to school for an M.S. in Engineering from Stanford University. Upon graduation Ms. Shallenberger moved to Sacramento and began a long public service career in environmental and natural resource protection. She began as a Planner at the California Air Resources Board during the development of the first non-attainment plans and the creation of the Air Conservation Program. She moved to the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research where she developed administration policies on natural resource issues and programs. Ms. Shallenberger began work for the California State Senate in 1987 and was the Principal Consultant to the Senate Natural Resources and Wildlife Committee and then the Senate Agriculture and Water Resources Committee. From 1994 until 2005 she was the special advisor to the Senate Pro Tem on policy and political issues related to natural resource and environment. During her tenure in the Senate she was instrumental in nearly every major environmental bill that passed the Legislature

Ms. Shallenberger has balanced her work on natural resource protection with volunteer work with non-profit organizations dedicated to reproductive heath care for women, locally and around the world. She served as the Chair of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and of her local Planned Parenthood affiliate. She is currently on the Board of Directors of the Guttmacher Institute, the Planned Parenthood of Mar Monte, and the Pacific Institute for Women’s Health. Ms. Shallenberger is Senior Fellow of the American Leadership Forum.

Sara Wan

Sara Wan was married in 1962 to Dr. Lawrence A. Wan. They have two sons, Mark, married to Lisa, and Eric, married to Michele. Mrs. Wan has a B.A. in Zoology from Vassar College, an M.S. in Biology from Yale University, and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Irvine. She and her husband live in Malibu where Dr. Wan was formerly the Mayor. Mrs. Wan taught Electrical engineering at California State University, Long Beach, and was founder and chief executive officer of Maric, Inc. Maric is an engineering firm that manufactures electronic timing devices for sports. Mrs. Wan sold Maric in 1992 to devote full time to environmental causes.

Prior to joining the Commission, Mrs. Wan had been a long time environmental activist. She worked extensively on land use, energy, oil, marine mammals and other environmental issues affecting the Coast of California. Mrs. Wan sat on the boards of numerous environmental organizations and was Vice Chair of the League for Coastal Protection.

In 1996, Mrs. Wan co-founded Vote the Coast, which is a Political Action Committee dedicated to helping the election of coastal friendly candidates.

Ex-Officio Commissioners (Non-Voting)

Commissioner Alternates

Suja Lowenthal (for Larry Clark)

Councilmember Suja Lowenthal was born in Madras, India in 1970. When Suja was five years old, her mother came to the United States under a federal nurse recruitment program which provided green card residency status to qualified nurses. To join her mother, Suja and her father immigrated to America two years later. Suja grew up in Los Angeles County and earned a Bachelor's degree in Economics from UCLA, a Master's in Business Administration from California State University, Los Angeles and a Doctorate in Policy, Planning and Development from USC.

In 1993, Suja joined the City of Los Angeles Department of Aging. She coordinated the Meals-on-Wheels program, prepared the departmental budget and administered its grant dollars. Two years later, she joined the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office as the Coordinator of its Domestic Violence Unit, providing domestic violence education and training to thousands of students and officials in Los Angeles schools, city agencies, community organizations and law enforcement divisions. In 1998, she joined the Central Basin Municipal Water District and West Basin Municipal Water District as the agencies' Government Affairs Manager. For the past two years, Suja served as the Chief of Strategic Planning & Initiatives for the Water Replenishment District of Southern California.

In 2001, Suja was elected to represent the 3rd District of the Board of Education in Long Beach Unified School District. During Suja’s tenure as President of the District in 2003-04, Long Beach Unified School District was recognized as the best urban school district in the nation by the Broad Foundation. The award is given annually to a school district that has made the greatest strides in narrowing educational achievement gaps across ethnic groups and between high and low-income students.

Councilmember Suja Lowenthal was sworn in as Second District Councilmember on June 27, 2006. She is currently serving the remaining two years of former Councilmember Dan Baker’s term. In May 2007, Suja was appointed as an alternate to the California Coastal Commission. The Coastal Commission plans and regulates land and water use in the state’s coastal zone. It issues permits for building construction, divisions of land and activities that change the intensity of land use or access to coastline by the public.

Suja has been active in several local community organizations including the Long Beach Affordable Housing Commission, YMCA of Long Beach, Long Beach Area Domestic Violence and Child Abuse Council, Long Beach Downtown Development Task Force, Los Angeles & San Gabriel Rivers Watershed Council, Aquarium of the Pacific Watershed Curriculum Steering Committee, Lambda Long Beach, Long Beach Human Relations Project and the National Conference for Community and Justice.

Councilmember Lowenthal lives in the Rose Park Historic District with her husband Dan Lowenthal and son Avi.

Peter M. Douglas, Executive Director

Mr. Douglas is the third executive director in the Commission’s history. He was appointed in July 1985 after having served as Chief Deputy Director since 1977. Mr. Douglas co-authored Proposition 20 (The California Coastal Zone Conservation Act of 1972), a successful citizens’ initiative that established the California Coastal Commission. As a consultant to the Legislature, he was a principal author of the 1976 Coastal Act that made permanent California’s coastal management program. He also participated in drafting the first regulations implementing the Federal Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972.

Born in Berlin, Germany, Mr. Douglas immigrated to the United States in 1950. He earned a law degree from UCLA in 1969, with an undergraduate degree in psychology. Mr. Douglas has been a guest lecturer, presented University of California extension programs, written numerous articles dealing with coastal management, land rights, and environmental stewardship. He has provided technical assistance on coastal management issues to other countries and serves on the China-U.S. panel on integrated coastal management. He is a member of the first NOAA Science Advisory Board and previously served on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Science and Policy for the Coastal Ocean. A former local school board member, he also co-founded and chaired two successful non-profit community organizations. In 1984, he led a successful grassroots campaign to enact a special parcel tax to support public schools.

Mr. Douglas was the first recipient of the national Julius A. Stratton "Champion of the Coast" award for leadership in coastal management at Coastal Zone ‘95, an international, biennial symposium on coastal zone management.