Board of Directors

Marissa LaMagna, Founder & Board President

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Known by some as the “Queen of Green,'' Marissa is an environmental activist and a passionate educator. Because of her love for the environment, Marissa started Bay Area Green Tours in 2008 to showcase local green changemakers in green businesses and initiatives including agriculture, food, water, green building, alternative transportation, renewable energy, and zero waste. She has led participants on experiential tours and events focused on sustainability, and environmental justice and responsibility ever since. She has served on the Sustainable Business Alliance board and The Berkeley Food Policy Council. She helped launch The Berkeley Climate Action Coalition, The California Food Policy Council, and Slow Money Northern California where she now serves on the Board of Directors. She has also worked as an auditor for the Alameda Green Business Program. She has spoken at UC Davis’ agritourism conferences, The Heirloom Festival, The Sustainable Enterprise Conference, and the Green Festival. She is also a Sonoma County Tourism Ambassador.

ROBERT GIRLING, INTERIM BOARD TREASURER

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​Robert Girling is Professor Emeritus in the School of Business and Economics at Sonoma State University. Dr. Girling received his Ph. D. from Stanford University and has taught and consulted in 20 countries. His previous professional experience includes Director of Regional Development for the Government of Jamaica and teaching at the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil, the University of the West Indies, and American University in Washington D.C.  Dr. Girling has consulted with the World Bank, the United Nations, the Pan American Health Organization, and the International Center for Research on Women. He serves on the boards of several non-profits including Youth Impact Hub and Bay Area Green Tours. A Fulbright Senior Scholar (2016-2021), he is the author of The Good Company (2012) as well as many articles and monographs. His most recent book The Good Company: Sustainability in Tourism, Wine and Hospitality was published by the Business Expert Press in 2016.

LINDSEY FRISCHER, BOARD SECRETARY

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Lindsey (she/her) has built a career as an advocate and development strategist. She was an attorney in New York before moving to Oakland, where she supported early stage development of social enterprise and community organizations focused on sustainability, access to justice, and diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace. She is currently practicing as a personal development coach, offering her clients guidance through life transitions on their journeys of self-discovery. She enjoys staying active with yoga, soccer, and running, as well as adventuring into nature as often as possible.

CLAUDIA BRENNER, BOARD MEMBER

Founder – Atomic Strategic Design

Claudia Brenner's work experience combines life sciences, business, technology, and design. She has an MBA in Marketing and International Business, as well as an undergraduate degree in Life Sciences and International Studies. Claudia enjoys creating or improving businesses by leveraging technology, providing easy to use information systems (software, portals, applications and websites), and the necessary infrastructure to successfully run and scale a business. She has worked with start-up, medium-sized, and Fortune 500 businesses, including IBM, Oracle, and Kaiser Permanente. She is currently working on a Global Land Regeneration project with a focus on designing and visualizing [eco]systems to help solve complex global challenges. Claudia started and maintains the Food Adventurers Meet-Up, with a growing membership of over 3,200 folks. You can often spot her at local farmers markets, including CUESA's (Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture) market at San Francisco’s Ferry Building, where she has been a customer for over 15 years. Claudia is also a gourmet cook and healthy food advocate.

SHIMA MOTOYAMA, BOARD MEMBER

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Shima discovered Bay Area Green Tours (BAGT) in 2018 while re-evaluating her career. She fell in love with BAGT’s mission and Marissa’s passion for the causes and joined the team. Since then, Shima has worn many hats: volunteer management, partnership development, tour planning, marketing, Salesforce training, and recently became an Advisory Board Member. Shima has a Masters’ degree in Computer Information Systems from Eastern Michigan University. She has helped mission-driven, Bay Area organizations achieve their goals with technologies for over a decade. Shima also has an Interior Architecture certification from UC Berkeley Extension with an emphasis on sustainable design. She has helped design beautiful and sustainable hotels and restaurants in the United States and Japan. Shima currently works at Kaiser Permanente as a Sr. Consultant, helping the organization make the right decisions with big data. She also participates in Kaiser-sponsored community support programs including the fight against childhood hunger and raising awareness about how mental health will affect you. On a nice day, you will find Shima running around Lake Merritt, cross-country skiing in Tahoe with her husband and dog, Bella, or bartending at one of the BAGT fundraising events.

TAMARA L. DIAMOND, LEED GA, BOARD MEMBER

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Tamara’s passion for environmental sustainability and wellness compelled her to study Environmental Design (BS at SDSU), Environmental Health, Recycling and Waste Management (Certification from UCLA program), well ahead of the current wave. Her work has included Acterra’s (PCCF) Business Environmental Awards Program, Regional Director for San Francisco Green Festival, and Associate Producer for San Francisco Sustainable Fashion Week International. She has also assisted with Bay Area Green Tours strategy. She is a strategic thinker, connector and bridge-builder, who enjoys meeting people across multiple industries, while growing the green (and socially responsible) economy by educating people about how their purchasing decisions can affect one’s personal health, the planet, and all of its inhabitants.  She is currently based in Greater Palm Springs in Southern California as Principal of Green Diamond Consulting, though stays connected with her Bay Area network.

​SARI HALE-ALPER, BOARD MEMBER

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Sari hails from South Jersey (the beautiful part of the Garden State) but loves living in her adopted home of California. In her former life, she was an anthropology professor in Arizona, teaching at community colleges and Arizona State University. She was previously the Program Manager at Bay Area Green Tours. She’s also worked in external affairs at several nonprofits, including a conservancy group (South Yuba River Citizens League) and an edtech organization, DonorsChoose. An alumna of Wellesley College, she has also studied at the Jewish Theological Seminary in NY, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Arizona State University, and the Universidad de Cordoba in Spain. Her sustainability passion is permaculture, and her long term plan is to move to the Sierra Nevada foothills and live in an intentional farming community. Her hobbies are learning languages (Spanish, French, Hebrew), writing fiction, and exploring the outdoors.

SHIVANNI MAHARAJ, DEVELOPMENT TEAM, GRANT WRITER

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​Shivanni is a grant writer for Outdoor Afro and Bay Area Green Tours and has 3+ years of experience in fundraising, event planning and donor stewardship. She graduated from UC Riverside in 2018 with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology. She enjoys cooking new recipes, riding bikes, traveling and painting.

Patricia Hunting, program Manager, Virtual Team Building, Grants/fundraising, content manager

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A Bay Area resident for 25 years, the “green current” swept Patricia in. Working as a local guide in San Francisco and as an international tour director for Tauck World Discovery since 1997, she was fortunate to hear Marissa La Magna speak at an event. Since that day in 2015, Patricia started assisting BAGT with tours for high school students and special events. After a move to Madrid, Spain in 2018 and then COVID forced her to pause, Patricia has been able to reconnect, virtually, with BAGT. She is a Project Manager for Virtual Tour Development, Solutionaries Speak, as well as a writer and editor. Additionally she is part of the core management team. ​

SHARLEEN BINNER, BOARD MEMBER AND TREASURER

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Sharleen discovered Bay Area Green Tours (BAGT) in 2020 while trying to find a way to get more involved with a non-profit that focuses on raising more awareness about the environmental challenges that we are facing today, while being part of an organization that is trying to make an impact. She decided to join the BAGT Advisory Board as a Board Member and Treasurer to combine her passions of working in finance and working with a non-profit. Her work experience combines financial advisory and consulting, as well as working in corporate finance within the consumer products and technology industries. She has an undergraduate degree in Business Administration and Financial Management. She has worked with medium-sized and Fortune 500 businesses. She enjoys painting, trying out new restaurants and traveling.

Bay Area Green Tours is about changing consciousness, changing society, and building a new network where we link up all these different organizations.

- Kevin Danaher, Co-Founder of Global Exchange and the Green Festivals