Our People
Staff
Jessica Tovar, Executive Director
Jessica initially joined the Local Clean Energy Alliance to become its Energy Democracy Organizer in 2015. After growing up in East Los Angeles, Jessica was called to social justice issues at a young age. She is a longtime environmental justice organizer in a variety of urban, rural, and indigenous communities throughout the southwest. Jessica interned in 2003 with the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative, a national network, to advance climate justice. As a former organizer for Communities for a Better Environment in Richmond, California, she campaigned against expansion of the Chevron Richmond oil refinery and PG&E’s Hunters Point gas power plant while working directly with fenceline community people and workers. She is grateful to have been part of several environmental and clean energy victories and has worked with major giants in our movement. While developing popular education and building new leadership for energy democracy, Jessica also enjoys comedy, art, traveling, gardening and spending time with family and friends.
Now hiring– Energy Democracy Campaign Organizer
Dohee Kim, Campaign Organizer
Dohee is focused on strengthening community resilience and implementing true systems change. Based in Huichin-Ohlone land in Berkeley, CA, she served as a Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) Commissioner for the City of Berkeley. There she dived into local housing advocacy to guide denser development and accessible housing. At the Greenlining Institute, she created an Embedding Equity Into Policy Toolkit for legislators and changemakers nationwide, and she lobbied for greener CA state policies that center environmental justice, anti-racism, and economic equity. Her intersectional work with Teamsters Local 2010; the Labor Center, Human Rights Center, and School of Law, UC Berkeley; City of Berkeley; and New Leaders Council has deepened her dedication to build people-based movements towards justice and equity in labor, clean energy, and housing. In addition, Dohee serves on the Board of Directors with the YWCA Berkeley/Oakland. During times of restoration, she enjoys aimless walks in her neighborhood, lively jam sessions, and political education with community organizers over warm tea.
Support Committee
June Brashares
June is an energy policy analyst, political strategist, and community organizer with over 40 years of experience working on social justice and environmental issues. She holds a BA in Political Science from University of California San Diego and a Certificate in Solar Design and Installation from Colorado-based Solar Energy International. June’s enthusiasm for clean energy started early in her life when she built a parabolic solar cooker for her 7th grade science project. She was the first person to receive a tax credit for an electric vehicle in San Diego County in 1990. June has served on the boards of several non-profit advocacy organizations, and has worked at CalPIRG, the Center for Public Interest Law, the San Diego Labor Council, and Global Exchange. June is now living in Sonoma County and working for a local company that specializes in efficient heating and cooling systems as well as solar and batteries for homes and small businesses.
Larry Chang
Larry earned his BSE from Princeton University, M. Arch. from Yale University and is a registered architect who has worked across the U.S. on commercial and residential projects. In 1999, he established his own practice committed to sustainability, accessibility, and healthy buildings. On the academic side, he has taught design at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Savannah College of Art & Design, and City College San Francisco. Currently, he is Director of the Building Efficiency for a Sustainable Tomorrow (BEST) Center at UC Berkeley, where he organizes trainings in high performance building operations and leads a national effort to develop commercial HVAC, building automation, and energy management programs at community colleges. Prior to joining the LCEA Support Committee in 2009, Larry was co-chair of the Oakland Small Business Task Force, contributor to the SF Urban Wind Power Task Force Report, and member of Habitat for Humanity-East Bay’s Green Building Team.
Ceyda Durmaz Dogan
Ceyda Durmaz Dogan is a clean energy advocate committed to advancing community-owned renewable energy and equitable access to climate solutions. She currently serves as the Operations Manager at People’s Solar Energy Fund, where she leads organizational systems and infrastructure that support community-owned renewable energy initiatives nationwide. Ceyda’s career has focused on community power and climate justice. She has organized local climate initiatives, facilitated partnerships, and supported research on equity and energy policy. Prior to joining PSEF, she worked with the Local Clean Energy Alliance in Oakland, advocating for community-controlled clean energy across California. She brings a collaborative, systems-based approach to her work and is passionate about building resilient models for a just energy transition.
Aaron Lehmer
Aaron is a communications specialist and sustainability advocate with 30 years of experience in the fields of community resilience and equitable development. As the Digital Communications Lead for City of Oakland’s Planning & Building Department, he helps make local government more accessible to the town’s many rich and diverse communities. Previously, he was an Outreach Consultant for Ava Community Energy and the Founding Director of the California Trade Justice Coalition. Besides co-founding the Local Clean Energy Alliance and Rooted in Resilience (formerly Bay Localize), he has also worked for Earth Island Institute, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Circle of Life, the Oakland Food Policy Council, and with the Student Environmental Action Coalition. Aaron holds an M.A. in Globalization and the Environment from Humboldt State University and a triple B.A. in Anthropology, Philosophy, and Environmental Studies from Iowa State. A longtime East Bay resident, he is also a gardener, singer, writer, and father of three.
Colin Andrew Logan
As the Energy Justice Organizer and Communications Lead for the Reclaim Our Power Campaign, Colin has over a decade of experience as a community organizer, coalition builder, and convener. His skills include community outreach and mobilization, real-time interpretation, and meeting facilitation. Previously, he was the Coordinator of the Oakland Climate Action Coalition, and he had provided interpretation for the Berta Cáceres International Feminist Organizing School. A graduate of Stanford University, he is fluent in Portuguese and Spanish and travels occasionally to Brazil where he once studied.
Jim Lutz
Formerly at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Jim is a mechanical engineer with significant experience researching hot water systems since 1990. In addition, he developed the method of test for rating the efficiency of residential water heaters. Since 2011, Jim has been active with LCEA, and he was appointed to the Community Advisory Committee (CAC) of Ava Community Energy in 2021. Currently Jim is the chair of the ad-hoc committee on the Local Development Business Plan of the CAC. In his spare time, he enjoys riding his bike to the Oakland Farmers’ Markets and other local destinations.
Steve Ongerth
Steve is a long time East Bay Area resident, union member, and environmental activist. He has been a member of one or more unions since 1995 and an environmental justice activist almost as long. Throughout that time he has worked to bring together both the labor and environmental movements. In 2013, he co-founded the IWW’s Environmental Unionism Caucus; he has co-organized campaigns to bring together railroad workers and communities fighting crude-by-rail to seek common ground on issues affecting both groups; he co-organized the No Coal in Oakland’s “Labor Committee” to take a stand against coal exports through a proposed bulk exports terminal in the Port of Oakland; and he helped co-found “Labor for Standing Rock,” a loose coalition of union members who stood in solidarity with the indigenous tribes fighting against the Dakota Access Pipeline. In each of these campaigns, he has sought to build bridges between the local front-line communities, union workers, and environmental movements.
Maria Stamas
Maria is a climate justice lawyer, policy strategist, and writer. Her work is dedicated to movement-aligned efforts to spark cultural change and redesign systems such that we all have the capacity to meet our basic needs and thrive together. Maria is the Power and Policy Anchor for the Ubuntu Climate Initiative, a U.S. based, global movement initiative working to weave Ubuntu values dedicated to the commons, restorative economies, and land regeneration into the climate movement. Founder of EnerGaia Consulting, Maria focuses on energy, water, and land justice and their intersections with democratic governance and economies grounded in solidarity. As co-founder of the People’s Utility Commons, she created a popular and political education curriculum on utility justice. Maria lives on unceded Chochenyo Ohlone land in present day Oakland, California, where she loves to hike, listen to and play live music, and be in community.
Barbara Stebbins
Barbara has a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from University of California at Berkeley and spent nine years in research science before deciding she would rather teach as a middle school science teacher, which she did for fifteen years. She has actively worked for social justice and environmental causes since she was 16 years old. Currently her efforts are focused on promoting local clean energy and other ways of addressing climate change. She feels that clean energy advocacy must be rooted in the understanding that social justice issues and environmental issues are inexorably linked. Looking back, Barbara says, “From the time I was 10 years old, I understood discrimination and its inequitable effect on people of color, immigrants and the “others” in our country. My adult background as a scientist and teacher has contributed to my efforts as an activist. Since retiring in 2011, I have been volunteering with LCEA which has informed and strengthened my commitment to fighting for equity. The many victories that this organization has achieved has contributed much satisfaction to my life.”
Will Wiltschko
Will is a graduate of UCLA with a B.A. and an M.A. in Political Science. At UCLA, he studied and engaged with the theory and philosophy behind nonviolence. He was a legal intern with the ACLU in Southern California, focusing on education equity. Will also was a staffer on Bernie Sanders’ 2016 Presidential campaign, where he was the lead field organizer in Southwest Virginia. Prior to serving as director of the California Trade Justice Coalition, Will was the Lead Organizer and in charge of the Coalition’s efforts to defeat the Trans-Pacific Partnership. As Director, Will led the Coalition’s statewide efforts in fighting the Trump Administration’s initial NAFTA 2.0 (USMCA) proposal. He also led efforts in California to support the TRIPS Waiver in order to combat lack of global access for vaccines, tests and treatments during the global pandemic. Currently, he is focused on critical minerals agreements and advocacy efforts for the upcoming USMCA review process.