James Fiedler

James Fiedler is the Chief Operating Officer for the Santa Clara Valley Water District’s Water Utility Enterprise. He has served in this capacity since 2007. A member of the district staff since 1982, he has over 29 years of leadership and engineering experience in the area of water supply, flood control and watershed stewardship. His management and technical experience includes regional water resources, flood and environmental planning, design, construction, operations and maintenance of water supply and flood protection infrastructure.

Mr. Fiedler is a registered civil engineer in California. He is a graduate of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles with a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering, and graduate of Stanford University with a Master's degree in Civil Engineering.

Barbara Salzman

Barbara Salzman has lived in California since 1968 with her periodontist husband, Jay. One son, Noah, is a Veterinarian in San Jose. She received her BA from Rosemont College and Master of Social Work from University of Pennsylvania. Prior to moving to California, Barbara was employed as a Psychiatric Social Worker in a state psychiatric hospital in Pennsylvania and at a private Child Guidance Clinic and school for disturbed children, Devereaux. She began conservation work in 1974 with Marin Audubon’s Conservation Committee which advocates for the protection of birds, wetlands and other habitats. For more than 20 years, Marin Audubon Society has been a sponsor of habitat restoration and habitat acquisition projects, and Ms. Salzman has managed most of these projects.

David Tucker

David W. Tucker is a Program Manager with the City of San Jose’s Environmental Services Department, leading the department’s South Bay Water Recycling Program. Mr. Tucker possesses over 20 years of environmental experience developing environmental policy and programs; implementing water quality attainment strategies; managing environmental research initiatives; and leading legislative and regulatory advocacy efforts.

Phil Stevens

Phil Stevens is the executive director of the Urban Creeks Council where he leads operations and the implementation of the organization's vision to create healthy urban streams that are assets to both people and other living things. He joined the organization in 2007 and has managed the completion of multiple significant restoration projects. He is currently leading the development of one of the largest restoration projects ever undertaken in the Bay Area. He is especially interested in using hard science, metrics and measures to improve the practice of urban habitat restoration. Stevens has more than two decades of non-profit management experience. Prior to joining UCC, he spent seven years at The Nature Conservancy's California and Alaska chapters, where he initiated the development of the Conservancy’s range-wide Pacific salmon program, and secured more than $13 million from private funding sources. He holds an undergraduate degree from Williams College and a graduate degree from Columbia University. He is a member of the advisory committee of the Center for Urban Environmental Law at Golden Gate University.

Adam Olivieri, Ph.D.

Adam Olivieri has over 30 years of experience in the technical and regulatory aspects of water
recycling, groundwater contamination by hazardous materials, water quality and public health
risk assessments, water quality planning, wastewater facility planning, urban runoff management,
and on-site waste treatment systems. He acts as project manager, principal engineer, and technical advisor on a wide variety of environmental projects. He is a Registered Civil Engineer and a Registered Environmental Assessor with the State of California. He gained this experience
working as a staff engineer with the California Regional Water Quality Control Board (San
Francisco Bay Region), as a post doc and staff specialist with the School of Public Health at the
University of California, Berkeley, and as a consulting engineer.

He is currently the Vice president of EOA, Inc., where he manages a variety of projects, including
serving as Santa Clara County Urban Runoff Program’s Manager. Adam formed EOA, Inc. in
1985 with his business partner Don Eisenberg and has successfully managed the company for the past 25 years. Adam’s educational background is in civil/sanitary engineering and public health. He received his B.S. in Civil Engineering and his M.S. in Civil/Environmental engineering from the University of Connecticut. In addition, he received his M.P.H. and Doctor of Public Health (Dr.PH) in Environmental Health Sciences from the University of California at Berkeley as well as a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the School of Public Health.

Alan Ramo

Alan Ramo is a Professor of Law at Golden Gate University. He received his BA from Stanford University; JD from Boalt Hall School of Law; and MJ from University California, Berkeley. Areas of interest include Environmental Law, clinical legal education, and toxics in the urban environment.

Bruce Wolfe, ex officio (non-voting)

Bruce Wolfe has been the Executive Officer of the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board since 2003. He oversees the 120 staff of the Water Board in carrying out the Board’s mission of understanding, protecting, enhancing, and restoring the Bay and the Region’s waters. Prior to his appointment, Bruce had been the Board’s division chief for implementing watershed management programs, including control and restoration of impacts to wetlands and streams, stormwater pollution control, nonpoint source control, implementation of wastewater reuse, and control of discharges of waste to land.

Bruce started with the Water Board in 1977, and, in addition to his watershed management oversight, has overseen the Board’s drinking water well investigation program and its Superfund and fuel leak cleanup programs, has had direct responsibility for permitting wastewater treatment plants and landfills, and developed the Board’s initial program to oversee wastewater treatment plant operations and maintenance. Bruce is a registered professional engineer in California, and holds a B.S in Civil Engineering and an M.S. in Civil/Environmental Engineering from Stanford University.

John Callaway, Ph.D.

Dr. Callaway is a Professor at the University of San Francisco in the Department of Environmental Science. Dr. Callaway's research focuses on wetland plant and soil ecology, restoration ecology, exotic species invasions, sediment processes, and potential impacts of sea-level rise. His recent work has focused on wetland restoration in San Francisco Bay and the Tijuana Estuary on the border of Mexico and California.

Mitch Avalon

Mitch Avalon is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley where he received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engineering. He joined Contra Costa County Public Works Department in 1979. Mr. Avalon has worked in many areas of Public Works, including transportation engineering, development engineering, design, and construction.

Currently Mr. Avalon is Deputy Public Works Director and Deputy Chief Engineer for the Flood Control and Water Conservation District, where he oversees the development of regional management plans for flood protection and enhancement of the environmental resource in the District’s 72 miles of creeks. He is also responsible for overseeing the County's Clean Water Program. Mr. Avalon spent one year as Acting Deputy Director at the Community Development Department, managing their current planning program. Mitch has been chair of the Alhambra Watershed Council since 1997. The Council produced a Watershed Management Plan in 2004 through a community based planning process and is now working on implementation projects. Mitch is also on the Board of Directors of the Friends of the San Francisco Estuary, first Chair of the Bay Area Flood Protection Agencies Association, and Chair of the Flood Control and Water Resources Policy Committee for the County Engineers Association of California.

Tim Vendlinski

Tim Vendlinski currently serves as EPA’s Bay Delta Program Manager; and from 1989-1995, worked under the auspices of the San Francisco Estuary Project to establish the scientific basis for the ‘X2’ salinity standards that underpinned the Bay Delta Accord. In 2007, EPA sent Tim on a unique four-year detail to the non-profit Sustainable Conservation where he directed their Restoration on Private Lands Program. Previously, he spent seven years supervising the Wetlands Regulatory Program for EPA’s Pacific Southwest Region; and before that, he collaborated with agencies, landowners, and NGOs under the Interagency Vernal Pool Stewardship Initiative to protect rangelands, untilled landscapes, and oak woodlands across California (1995-2000). Tim was raised in Sacramento, attended American River College, graduated from UC Davis, and resides with his wife and daughter in Oakland.

Recommended Hotel

The DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel at the Berkeley Marina offers special rates for SFEI visitors!
Make reservations by going to this website.
SFEI visitors will receive the reduced rate of $129/night.

DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Berkeley Marina
200 Marina Blvd.
Berkeley, California, 94710, USA

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Job Openings

SFEI currently has a number of openings for qualified candidates:

Program Director for Environmental Data, Information, and Technology