Board and Staff — Amah Mutsun Land Trust

Executive Leadership

Valentin Lopez, President

Valentin Lopez has served as Chair of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band since 2003, and the President of the Amah Mutsun Land Trust since its inception. Valentin is a Native American Advisor to the University of California, Office of the President on issues related to repatriation. He is also a Native American Advisor to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and the Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology. Valentin is actively involved in efforts to restore tribal indigenous knowledge and ensure our history is accurately told.

Board of Directors

Valentin Lopez, President. Chair of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band.

Julie Pineida, Treasurer. Tribal member of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band.

Ed Ketchum. Tribal member, Tribal Historian and Vice Chair for the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band.

Catherine Luna. Tribal member of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and Tribal Elder.

Millie Bravo-Garris. Tribal Council Member of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band.

Steve Abbors. Former General Manager of the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District.

Susan True. CEO of Community Foundation Santa Cruz County.

Amanda Serenyi. Nonprofit Accounting Consulting.

Guillermo Rodriguez. California State Director of Trust for Public Land.

Robert ‘Perl’ Perlmutter. Partner at Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger LLP.

Staff

Alec Apodaca. Cultural Resources Program Manager.

Ally Arganbright. Administrative Assistant.

Marie Bonillas. (Tribal Member), Accounting | OPS Tech.

Lisa Carrier. (Tribal Member), Director of Operations.

Nathaniel Cruz Vasquez. (Tribal Member), Cultural Monitor.

Angelo Espinosa. (Tribal Member), Accountant/Bookkeeper.

Adam French. Special Programs Manager.

Jacob Harris. Coastal and Oceans Stewardship Program Manager.

Athena Hernandez. (Tribal Member), General Counsel.

Josh Higuera-Hood. (Tribal Member), Ethnobotany Specialist.

Marion Martinez. (Tribal Member), Cultural Resources Administrator.

Mohini Narasimhan. Communications Manager.

Aylara Odekova. Native Plant Program Manager.

Esak Ordoñez. (Tribal Member), Native Steward.

Zechariah Ordoñez (Tribal Member), Native Steward.

Maura Pratt (Tribal Member), Sunlit House Specialist.

Steven Pratt. (Tribal Member), Sunlit House Maintenance Specialist.

Jacob Sackin. Grants Manager.

Teresa Valles. (Tribal Member) Operations Coordinator.

Research Associates

Rob Cuthrell, Ph.D. Director of Archaeological Resource Management for the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and post-doctoral scholar in Archaeology at the University of California, Berkeley.

Rick Flores, M.A. Traditional Resource Management Specialist and Steward of the Amah Mutsun Relearning Program, University of California, Santa Cruz Arboretum.

Sara French, M.S. Tribal Ethnobotanist for the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band.

Gabriel M. Sanchez, Ph.D. Historical Ecology, Archaeology, and Climate Change Program. Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, and Curator of Zooarchaeology, Museum of Natural and Cultural History, University of Oregon.