MEET THE STAFF

Mark started his career as a volunteer firefighter in 1986 in Sonoma County. He was hired by the Marin County Fire Department as a Firefighter/Paramedic in 1991 and retired as the Deputy Fire Chief. After serving for nearly 30 years with the Marin County Fire Department, Mark retired in order to assume the position as Executive Officer for the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority. Mark served on a CAL FIRE Incident Management Team for 15 years as a Type I Operations Section Chief and was qualified as a Type II Incident Commander. Chief Brown was a founding member of the North Bay Incident Management Team, a Type III All-Hazards IMT in the San Francisco Bay Area and was the Program Manager and one of the Incident Commanders. His deployments include floods, earthquakes, public health emergencies, hurricanes, oil spills, mud slides, civil unrest, wildland fires and planned events. Mark has a Bachelor of Arts in Applied Studies – Organizational Leadership. He is married and has three adult children.

For the last two decades, Anne has worked in environmental planning, wildlife biology, climate adaptation, and fire resilience. During her 18 years with Sonoma Water, she conducted environmental review under CEQA and NEPA; worked with regulatory agencies to secure permits; served as a wildlife biologist for capital projects and for vegetation management along streams in Sonoma County, specializing in nesting birds; worked toward climate adaptation for water resources and the landscapes that supply our water; and collaborated with many fantastic agencies, organizations, and landowners to lead efforts toward greater fire resilience to improve forest health, watershed health, public safety and protect water resources in Sonoma County. A case study describing her work in the Lake Sonoma watershed is featured by the Governor’s Office of Planning & Research as part of the Integrated Climate Adaptation & Resiliency Program’s Adaptation Clearinghouse. After the devastating fires of 2017, Anne trained to become a wildland fire fighter to help conduct prescribed burns across the North Bay. She has also helped acquire grant funding through CALFIRE and the Coastal Conservancy for fire risk reduction efforts in Sonoma County and secured PG&E settlement funds to develop a science-based decision-support tool for vegetation management for the County of Sonoma. Anne also led the County’s team for natural resources recovery after the Glass and Walbridge fires. Anne’s passion for fire resilience, natural resources management, and climate mitigation and adaptation eventually brought her to the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority, where she has been since May 2021. Anne holds a Bachelor of Science in Biological Studies and a Master of Science in Environmental Studies.

In May of 2021 Maria graduated from Purdue University with a Bachelors of Science in Natural Resources and Environmental Science with a concentration in Land Resources. She chose this career path because she feels passionately about resource conservation and is interested in learning more about the human dimensions of resource management. During the summer of 2018, Maria studied abroad in Costa Rica for two and a half months. While abroad she participated in a research project studying allometric variations in Socratea exorrhiza according to Phosphorus availability. She also took courses in Latin American culture, statistics, ecotourism, and agroforestry techniques. At Purdue, Maria stayed active by working as an Undergraduate Research Assistant for the Soybean Research and Extension lab. Here she learned how to analyze each part of the soybean plant to study the effects of sulfur treatments on plant yield. In addition to this, she also worked a part-time job off of campus and was an active member of the Climate Committee for the Purdue Student Sustainability Council where she helped advocate for Purdue’s commitment to carbon neutrality. Last summer, Maria experienced life in California for the first time as she worked as the Property Operation intern on Oakhill Ranch in Concord, CA. Having fallen in love with California and all that it has to offer, she decided to return after graduation to work here full time. Following her service term as a GrizzlyCorps fellow, Maria has accepted a position with the MWPA as our Grants Specialist. In her free time she loves to read, garden, hike, ski, and travel.

Josh graduated from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo in June, 2021, with a degree in Business; Marketing and the intent to use it for the promotion of sustainable practices. Considering the tools of marketing have historically been drivers of extensive social and environmental damage, there was a lot of dissonance surrounding his initial decision to pursue this degree. However, he also believes it is an essential piece of the "sustainability jigsaw puzzle," and must be used effectively to drive behavioral and systemic change. Through his experience and knowledge gained exercising this philosophy as a GrizzlyCorps fellow for Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority, Josh has accepted a position as a Representative with Fire Safe Marin. He hopes to use the tools of his degree to understand and overcome the obstacles to fire prevention work in Marin. He will be focused on projects to promote the idea that defensible space is beautiful and partnering with MWPA's member agencies as they work to execute core and local projects to protect their communities and shared coastal resources. These responsibilities excite him far more than any marketing objective or research he's worked on over the last four years, and he hopes to continue leveraging his experiences into a career filled with many more like it. When Josh isn't trying to justify his degree, he is climbing or cooking or hiking or surfing.

Bio to come

Martina Wilson is Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority’s Management Analyst. She is responsible for MWPA’s administrative functions which includes clerking for the Board of Directors and providing direct assistance to MWPA’s Executive Officer, Planning and Program Manager, office team, and its member agencies. Martina has served as an office manager, executive assistant, and as advisor to East Bay non-profit organizations dedicated to family and youth empowerment. Martina received her Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Human Development from California State University of the East Bay. Her passion for helping others and administrative experience lead her to MWPA following roles in the 0ffice of the General Manager, and the Office of Diversity, Equity and Culture at East Bay MUD. Martina’s interest in vegetation management comes from her love of hiking the Bay Area’s vast network of trails and regional parks. She is committed to MWPA’s fire resilience effort, made possible by Marin County voter support for Measure C and hopes to one day take the Candidate Physical Ability Test (CPAT). In her free time Martina loves to read, hike, and spend time with her fiancé, family, and friends.

Originally from Portland, Oregon, Alaina moved to the Bay Area for college. In 2020 she earned her Bachelor's degree in biological sciences from Santa Clara University with a minor in studio art. Before coming to MWPA she worked at a nonprofit involved in environmental education and organic farming. Her work with MWPA will focus on public outreach and project implementation. More specifically, she will organize public field trips to project sites, social media, set up systems for project documentation, and create webinars. She will be working closely with Fire Safe Marin (a non profit designated as the education and outreach arm of MWPA) to showcase MWPA projects. She is excited to be working with MWPA in wildfire prevention which she sees as important work that protects communities as well as addresses climate change. Her long term career goal is to work in the climate change or sustainability sector. This is why she chose to be a part of the GrizzlyCorps program. The GrizzlyCorps fellowship is an Americorps program through UC Berkeley focused on "promoting regenerative agri-food systems and fire and forest resilience" to combat climate change in California. She is happy to be giving her time and energy at MWPA for this year of service.

Andrea was born and raised in the tropical climate of El Salvador. She moved to the U.S. to further her education and in 2019 she earned a Bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences with an emphasis in Human Biology at the University of California, Merced. While in school, she formed part of various pre-med and environmental stewardship programs which led her to spend a season in Yosemite National Park (YNP) as part of the Search and Rescue team. During her season at YNP, Andrea experienced one of the major forest fires up to this date –The Ferguson Fire. Since then she became fascinated with forest restoration projects and all the novel research being conducted in the Sierra Nevadas. This opened the door to a new field and she decided to work as a Research Assistant for the Sierra Nevada Research Institute. She then transitioned into working on her research project after spending a season working for the U.S Forest Service in the state of Montana. She is currently finishing her Master’s degree in Quantitative Systems and Biology with a concentration in Microbial Ecology. Andrea will be working on various roles at the MWPA, from creating accessible material for Spanish-speaking communities in Marin to developing defensible space project plans.