Board of Directors

Alexander Quinn is an urban economist and a long-time resident of Berkeley and Oakland. He grew up in the East Bay and went to graduate school at UC Berkeley. He has over ten years of planning and economic analysis experience and specializes in sustainable development, socio-economics and urban regeneration.

Emunah Hauser grew up flinging kitchen waste into the compost pit behind her family's earth coupled, energy efficient green home in Redding, California.

As a marketing advisor for Berkeley’s Saul's Restaurant and Delicatessen, she became passionate about promoting the significance of the restaurant’s socially and environmentally responsible food suppliers.

She is excited about ever-evolving definitions of sustainability and the challenges of green PR. Her professional background includes media monitoring, debate instruction, policy research, marketing – and vaudeville, western swing and old-time fiddle/vocal performance and instruction.

Erin Rhoades is a professional city planner, lifelong Berkeley resident and mother of two. Ms. Rhoades' planning interests are focused on making Berkeley a more sustainable city.

Erin is the Executive Director of Livable Berkeley.

Joe DiStefano has been a Berkeley resident for more than 15 years. His professional expertise is in the coordination of land use with transportation systems, with a focus on transit and pedestrian-oriented development that promotes automobile alternatives, housing choice, and community diversity. 

He is leading Vision California, an effort to explore the critical role of land use and transportation investments in meeting the environmental and fiscal challenges facing California over the coming decades. 

Joe is also an avid cyclist and grows much of his family's food in his small backyard.

Kim Marienthal is a realtor who has served on the board of the Berkeley Public Library Foundation and on the Local Government Relations Committee of the Berkeley Association of Realtors. He has an environmental planning degree from UC Berkeley and is a long-time Berkeley resident.

Mike Friedrich is a third-generation Berkleyan and a Berkeley resident himself for 23 years. He enjoys owning a home from where he can bicycle to work and walk to two dozen movies, while belonging to an active neighborhood association that's looking out for each other and preparing for our next big Quake.

He has been active in union political efforts at the state and federal level. Through his work on the "No on P" campaign in 2002, Mike became involved in "smart growth" issues.