| 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.
Lisa Cisneros grew up in Salinas, California
and joined California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA) as an
attorney in fall of 2007. She leads Proyecto Poderoso—Powerful
Project—a collaborative effort by CRLA and the National Center
for Lesbian Rights to improve legal services for low-income
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents of rural
California.
Lisa received her J.D. from UC Berkeley School of Law (Boalt
Hall) in 2007. During law school, she worked as a judicial
extern in federal court, and served as a law clerk at Lieff
Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein. She was a member of Boalt Hall’s
prestigious Death Penalty Clinic, and a senior editor for the
California Law Review. Upon graduation, Lisa received the
Francine Diaz Memorial Award for her contributions to the Boalt
community and public service.
Jose Luis Fernandez
Bio coming soon...
Krysten Hommel
Krysten is the principal of two tons per acre,
a strategy and communications consultancy.
Krysten has twenty years experience in marketing, market
research, brand development and creative strategy in the
food & beverage and agriculture industries. She began her
career at Leo J. Shapiro & Associates, a retail market
research consultancy in Chicago, Illinois. After moving to
California, she handled foodservice marketing for a culinary
herb company and in 1998 joined the marketing team at
Artisans & Estates, the fine wine division of
Kendall-Jackson. At A&E, she became director of creative
strategy, responsible for brand strategy and all facets of
its implementation—from positioning and packaging to
communications. Most recently, Krysten worked on marketing
strategy for Markon Cooperative, Inc., a purchasing,
marketing, and logistics cooperative serving North America’s
leading independent foodservice distributors.
Krysten has a B.A. in English from Columbia University, and
received her M.A. in History from the University of Chicago.
A Michigan native, she lives in San Jose, California.
Paul Moncrief
A 1989 graduate of Salinas High School, Paul attended the
University of California, Santa Barbara, where he obtained
bachelor’s degrees in Spanish and Law and Society. He
also obtained a master’s degree from UCSB in Latin American
Studies, with emphases in Mexican history and political science.
While in graduate school Paul studied politics in the Mexican
state of Guanajuato, focusing on the administration of then-governor
Vicente Fox. His master’s thesis, published in 1997,
predicted Fox’s victory in the 2000 Mexican presidential
election.
Paul earned his law degree from UC Davis in 1999. During
law school, he clerked in the legal department of the California
Department of Food & Agriculture and served as Editor
in Chief of the UC Davis Journal of International Law &
Policy and as a member of the UC Davis Law Review. Following
law school, he clerked for Judge Michael S. McManus in the
U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Eastern District of California, before
returning to Salinas.
Paul is a partner in the law firm of Johnson & Moncrief,
where his practice emphasizes business and agricultural law.
Paul is a member of the Salinas Rotary and an advisor to the
Hartnell College Ag Program.
Alfred Navarro
Alfred was raised in a migrant farm worker environment and was
the first member of his family to graduate from a university.
After receiving a BS in Business Administration from Fresno
State University, and an MS in Education from USC, as well as a
Lifetime Teachers Credential, in 1970, he was hired by the then
newly formed CCCDC as their first Executive Director. He was
instrumental in organizing and funding with bank financing, the
first strawberry cooperative, Cooperativa Campesina, which broke
many socio-economic barriers and even today has led to new
opportunities for Hispanic family farmers. He conceptualized and
led the effort to establish an agriculturally based small farm
development center and obtained funding to purchase the Bardin
Ranch, now known as ALBA’s RDC. In 1979, after directing CCCDC
in pioneering many diversified community development projects
such as housing, training, and even developing a bilingual FM
radio station, as well as serving as a Commissioner of Santa
Cruz Housing Authority, he left the Central Coast to Washington
D.C. to form the National Rural Development Finance Corporation.
NRDFC pioneered many of the now established mechanisms now used
by the US Treasury’s Community Development Finance Institutions
Fund (CDFI). In 1981, Mr. Navarro went into the private sector
as a high tech start up manager. He was instrumental in building
the world renowned sales channel for Novell during their IPO
period. In 1996, with more start up experience, he moved back to
California to work for Sun Microsystems for a newly established
Java Enterprise Unit and later another start up in wireless
data. Mr. Navarro is now a consultant to both high tech start
ups and non-profit sectors and recently promoted a well known
local artist to develop an international presence.
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.
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