Florentino Collazo, RDC Farm Manager: Florentino comes from the Mexican State of Guanajuato. He worked for eleven years as a farm worker in Salinas, California, and Yuma, Arizona – nine of which were spent cutting and packing iceberg lettuce. In 1995, he discovered the Rural Development Center and enrolled in the PEPA course. That same year he was promoted to foreman at his job in the Salinas Valley. He held this position for two years until 1998 when he decided to dedicate himself full-time to farming. Florentino farmed independently for three years, cultivating five acres of organic produce at the RDC until 2001 when he formally joined the ALBA staff as the RDC Farm Manager. Florentino has been with ALBA for almost four years, bringing with him a wealth of first-hand experience and farming expertise.
Craig Ficenec, Watershed Outreach Coordinator: Craig joined the ALBA staff in August 2005. He came to ALBA from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, where he worked as a bilingual agricultural engineer on the Central Coast. He has a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Iowa State University and a master’s degree in land management from the University of Wisconsin. Craig also served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras, developing water supply and sanitation projects, and as a consultant to local non-governmental organizations in Peru, helping with small watershed resource planning.
Juan Hernández, FTRC Farm Manager: Juan
comes from the Distrito Federal of Mexico. He worked for several years
as a foreman in berry and row crop production before enrolling in the PEPA
course in 1999. After completing the program and producing organic
produce independently for 2 years, Juan accepted the position of Farm Manager
at ALBA’s Farm Training and Research Center. Juan celebrated
his three-year anniversary with ALBA in November 2004, and has brought a wealth
of knowledge and experience to ALBA’s farming and land management
operations.
Dina Izzo, Marketing Coordinator: Dina has been active in the produce industry for twenty seven years, twenty two of which have been dedicated to sustainable agriculture. Starting her career in 1979, Dina has been the owner of a retail store that delivered produce to local restaurants in the Bay Area of California.Dina stepped toward sustainable agriculture in 1982 working in all aspects of the wholesale business, procurement, sales, delivery and management with Veritable Vegetable, one of the most successful wholesale businesses selling produce from organic farmers. Dina returned to retail in 1992 as the produce department manager and buyer for three stores over the next eight years. In 2000 Dina joined the non profit sector as the Marketing Coordinator for ALBA. In addition to the marketing education program geared for the success of small farmers, Dina manages ALBA's produce distribution company, ALBA Organics, who’s primary vendors are the limited resource immigrant farmers ALBA serves. Throughout her career, Dina has spoken at the following conferences and notable events; the Ecological Farming Conference, Natural Foods Expo, Food as Medicine Conference, University of California Santa Barbara’s Sustainability Conference, Society for Nutrition Education, and Stanford University.
Brett Melone, Executive Director: Brett began as ALBA’s Executive Diretor in May of 2002, arriving directly from Chile, where he was the executive director of an organization dedicated to promoting citizen participation and leadership development in limited-resource communities in Chile and Latin America. In this position, Brett co-coordinated the global Community Biodiversity Development and Conservation Programme, as well as the Chile-based Transition to Sustainable Cities program, which focuses on building community capacity and leadership around the issue of recycling and microenterprise development. During Brett’s three years in Chile, he also had the opportunity to work as a Rotary Foundation Vocational Scholar on an operating organic farm for one year, as well as one year as Project Officer at the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), an international association of local governments, coordinating ten pilot projects throughout Latin America which focused on the Local Agenda 21 stakeholder process to address environmental and sustainability issues. Prior to his work in Chile, Brett was awarded a Knauss/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Sea Grant Fellowship, which took him to the EPA’s Washington, DC Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds, where he worked on Tribal wetland programs, constructed wetlands and biological assessment of wetlands. Brett is a graduate of the University of San Diego with a degree in International Relations, Business Administration and Spanish, and holds a Masters Degree in International Environmental Policy and Spanish from the Monterey Institute of International Studies. During his graduate studies he worked as an intern with the Elkhorn Slough Watershed Project, supporting local farmer conservation efforts. He is happy to have been able to return home to work with ALBA and apply his experience to this unique organization.
Gary Peterson, Communications and Development Director: Gary joined ALBA in May 2004 with ten years' experience in family farm and sustainable agriculture adcvocacy. Before joining ALBA, Gary worked at the Community Alliance with Family Farmers in Davis, California, where he diversified its funding sources and program strategies throughout California. Previously, he was at the Center for Rural Affairs in Nebraska, where he helped grow its donor base by 50% and organized a $7 million endowment campaign. Gary has a BA in Political Science from Moorhead (MN) State University and a Masters of Public Administration from the Monterey Institute for International Studies. At ALBA, Gary is working to diversify sources of support, build new partnerships and programs and broaden public recognition for its work. Currently he also serves on the advisory committee of the Monterey County Farm-to-School Partnership and the policy committee of the California Coalition for Food and Farming.
Rebecca Thistlethwaite, Director of Programs Rebecca began at ALBA in 2001, coming directly from anthropological research in Copán, Honduras. Before that, Rebecca was finishing up her Master's Degree at UC Davis in International Agricultural Development, with an emphasis in Agroecology. Her master's research took her to Guatemala to study the plant diversity of Mayan home gardens in the mountainous highlands there. Previous to that, Rebecca worked on a number of organic farms around the Pacific Northwest, including managing a five-acre organic vegetable farm in Washington for a year. Her bachelors degree is in Natural Resources Management from Colorado State University. In her current position with ALBA, Rebecca acts as Director of Programs, and manages the Rural Development Center and the Farm Training & Research Center at ALBA's Triple M Ranch.
Deborah Yashar, Food Systems & Communications Coordinator: Deborah Yashar joined ALBA in March of 2003 with non-profit experience in sustainable agriculture. Before ALBA, Deborah helped fuel the beginnings of the Community Agroecology Network (CAN), an international network committed to sustaining rural livelihoods and environments by integrating research, education, and trade innovations. Deborah has worked with the Multinational Exchange for Sustainable Agriculture (MESA), an international organic- farming apprenticeship program, as a program liason, and served as volunteer coordinator at the Homeless Garden Project in Santa Cruz. Deborah is a graduate of UC Santa Cruz’s Environmental Studies program in Sustainable Agriculture. At ALBA, Deborah is working to develop community food security approaches to achieving a healthier food system on the Central Coast, through research, marketing, outreach, and education.
Tomasa, The ALBA Dog Tomasa has been on the RDC farm near Salinas for about seven years. She has the uncanny ability to alert us to any new vehicle entering the property, and is always friendly to well-meaning visitors. Meet Tomasa at the Our Mission and History page.