Edward Moncrief, Chairman
Mr. Moncrief is the Executive Director and Vice President of Real Estate of Neighborhood Housing Services Silicon Valley, located in San José. He is a long-time resident of Salinas. His career reflects thirty-five years of experience in the fields of non-profit housing, economic, and community development. Among his many accomplishments, he was the founding President and Executive Director of Community Housing Systems and Planning Association, Inc. (CHISPA), a public benefit housing and community development corporation operating in Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties that earned the 1988 HUD Award for Outstanding Achievement in Neighborhood Improvement. During his 15-year tenure with that organization, he obtained over one hundred eighty million dollars in construction and take-out financing to develop nearly one thousand units of low- and moderate-income housing.

From 1973 through late 1979, Mr. Moncrief acted as the Director of Community Development for Central Coast Counties Development Corporation. In 1972, CCCDC purchased and developed the land that is today known as the ALBA Rural Development Center. That organization initiated farmworker training programs at the RDC site. In his position with CCCDC, Mr. Moncrief was for the development and administration of various training program designed to assist farmworkers in learning cooperative farming practices. Also during the Seventies with CCCDC, Mr. Moncrief developed number farmworker housing projects in the Salinas Valley.

Mr. Moncrief earned a Master’s degree in Community Development from California State University San Diego (1970). In addition, he has completed numerous courses in real estate, finance, and law. He has completed courses toward a Masters in Business Administration through Golden Gate University. He also holds a Real Estate Broker’s License under the California Department of Real Estate, and is the Broker of Record for NHSSV lending and real estate activities.

Herb Aarons
Herb Aarons serves as the President of the California Coastal Rural Development Corporation, a position he has held the since 1982.  Cal Coastal, a small business and farm lender located in the Salinas Valley, serves the Central Coast region from Ventura to Morgan Hill. Additionally, Herb serves as a member of the California Economic Development Lending Initiative and on the Advisory Board for the Gavilan College Small Business Development Center in Gilroy.  

Herb is a graduate of Pacific Coast Banking School and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Clark University with an emphasis in geography.  Previous employment experience includes marketing specialist for an agricultural cooperative and manager of an agricultural cooling operation.

Hector De La Rosa
Hector was hired by California Rural Legal Assistance in 1966 as a Community Worker. And has been serving C.R.L.A. for the last 36 years.  Throughout that time, he has been involved in all aspects of housing, farmworkers advocacy, and legal representation including the formation of the Colonia Azteca, a 72 single home subdivision for low-income families and a farmers cooperative called Cooperativa Santa Elena (a farm worker owned and managed 100 unit mobile home park).  Likewise, Hector also assisted attorneys in many civil suits -one such involving the abolishment of the short handled hoe (which farm workers previously used to thin and weed row crops). Numerous related chemical exposure and worker rights cases have been defended to safeguard the health, dignity, and respect of farm workers.

Hector was born in Aguascalientes Ags, Mexico and entered the United States in 1957 and worked as a migrant farm worker.  His parents and three siblings traveled for years throughout the Northwestern United States following the harvest in the various states including Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Minnesota.

Jose Luis Fernandez

Jose grew up in a farmworker family, and is now the Dean of Occupational Instruction at Hartnell College in Salinas.

Lupe Y. Garcia

Lupe is Deputy Director of LandWatch Monterey County, and began her community advocacy work in Salinas as a member of the Violent Injury Prevention Coalition. As a Neighborhood Services Coordinator for the City of Salinas, Lupe worked with East Salinas residents to implement the “Ten Block Area.” This program was designed to increase and streamline services to the underserved community of East Salinas. As Community Coordinator for Partners for Peace, Lupe worked with local school districts to implement PeaceBuilders® and coordinated community events to increase the peace in Salinas. Lupe joined LandWatch Monterey County in September 2001 and helped them form “Lideres Communitarios de Salinas” (Community Leaders of Salinas), a group of farm workers from East Salinas, to increase resident participation in land use and affordable housing policy decisions in Monterey County.

Ana Ruvacaba
Ana is a diversified, small-scale farmer growing cut flowers and other crops in the Pajaro Valley near Watsonville.

Vivian L. Soffa
Vivian served on the Association for Community Based Education's (ACBE) Advisory Board to the Rural Development Center since 1995, the precursory organization to ALBA.  She currently oversees USDA Farm Service Agency in Salinas as the County Executive Director, a position she has held since 1990.  This office is responsible for providing financial assistance to farmers in the Monterey, Santa Cruz, and San Mateo county area.  Much of her time in the last five years has been spent reaching out to farmers that are historically underserved by the USDA.  The underserved groups in this area include Latino, Asian, Native American, women and organic farmers.  Her work has assisted USDA policy makers to recognize that there are diverse needs of farmers on the Central Coast (and within the State of California) that require new approaches to traditional farm program policy and implementation.

Vivian received her Masters of Public Administration from Golden Gate University and her Bachelor's of Science in Agricultural & Managerial Economics from UC Davis. She is a supporting member of California Certified Organic Farmers, California Women in Agriculture, and served as ALBA's Board Chair during the transition of administration from ACBE to ALBA.

Born in Los Angeles, California, Vivian has lived and worked in both urban and rural environments.  Her love of land and farming has enabled her to operate a small farm, shear sheep, and live/work overseas on a farm.  She has traveled extensively and has lived and worked in the Salinas area since 1990. 

John Zippert
As the Director of Program Operations for the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund at their Rural Training and Research Center in Epes, Alabama John has thirty five years experience in community organizing, cooperative and credit union development, community based economic development and rural development in distressed communities. Prior to working for the Federation, he was a fieldworker for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in Louisiana. He has a BA degree in history from the City College of New York and has participated in numerous training sessions and courses to enhance his skills in rural development.

John and his wife Carol are co-publishers of the Greene County Democrat, the weekly newspaper in their home rural community since1984. Additionally, he serves on the boards of many national, regional, state, and local organizations to support rural development activities. Among these boards are: The Rural Coalition, Association for Community Based Education, Rural Development Leadership Network, Southern Rural Development Initiative, Alabama Council on Human Relations, Alabama Organizing Project, Alabama New South Coalition, Greene County Industrial Board, Greene County Hospital and Nursing Home and Greene-Sumter Enterprise Community.