RCD Directors

Barbara Kossy

Barbara Kossy

President

January 2013 – December 2026

Ms. Kossy is a devoted conservationist who has worked with organizations such as Friends of the River, the Northern California Recyclers Association and as an editor and writer for Bay Area environmental engineering firms. She also served more than ten years on the San Mateo County Weed Management Area Committee- most recently as Chair, on the City of Richmond Citizen’s Advisory Committee on Recycling, and on a committee overseeing the US Navy’s Cleanup of the Pt. Molate Fuel Depot.  Ms. Kossy is also an avid sea kayaker and regularly leads kayaking tours in Italy.

Adrienne Etherton

Adrienne Etherton

Chair, Personnel Committee

May 2019 – December 2027

Ms. Etherton is the City of Brisbane’s Sustainability Manager, supporting the Open Space and Ecology Committee and implementing the City’s Climate Action Plan and other sustainability initiatives. She previously served as Executive Director of Sustainable San Mateo County, a grassroots nonprofit organization, and has also worked in design, construction and logistics. Ms. Etherton has a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and has studied architecture, green buildings, energy efficiency and renewables. She lives in Half Moon Bay and is the Vice Chair of the city’s Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee.

Steve Stielstra

Steve Stielstra

Chair, Finance Committee

April 2022 – December 2024

Steve Stielstra has held senior leadership positions in the field of environmental management, with a focus on energy and other large infrastructure planning and development. His expertise includes strategy development, planning, negotiation and conflict resolution, contract oversight, and multi-party collaboration.  His interests include music, photography, gardening, puttering around fixing things, travel, and hiking. He has an inherent love of natural history, particularly animal behavior.

Michelle Weil

Michelle Weil

Member, Finance Committee

October 2022 – December 2024

Ms. Weil is a marketing executive who is passionate about the intersection of business and the environment. She has held leadership positions in multiple conservation-focused companies, including her current role as CMO of NatureEye. She holds an MBA degree from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and a B.A. in Business Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Ms. Weil currently serves on the Midcoast Community Council and lives in Moss Beach with her husband and two daughters, Kalia and Sadie.

Troy Guy

Troy Guy

Member

August 2024 – December 2026

Troy Guy is a retired fisheries biologist and the current caretaker of his family’s third-generation plumbing business. He studied marine and freshwater fishes across the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, and collaborated with the commercial fishing industry to reduce bycatch of albatrosses and other seabirds in the northern and southern hemispheres. When he is not screwing pipes together, he can be found collecting data as a volunteer on local studies or exploring patterns of biogeography and natural history with his family. He is proud to live and stay connected to conservation efforts around Pescadero where his great-great grandparents emigrated from the Azores in the early 1900s.

Associate Directors

Denise Phillips

Denise Phillips

Denise Phillips is passionate about community organizing with decades of experience with nonprofits in environmental activism, education and social work. She chaired and served on numerous boards for local educational programs, environmental protection and recreation, and sexual and reproductive health. As a Master Food Preserver, she teaches classes about safe food preservation. Originally from St. Louis, Denise earned her degree in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University and then studied restaurant management at The Restaurant School in Philadelphia. She’s lived on the San Mateo County Coast for over 30 years where she and her husband have raised both of their children.

Zahra Kassam

Zahra Kassam

Zahra is an entrepreneur, educator and Chief Steward of The Mushroom Farm in Pescadero, CA. Zahra previously founded Monti Kids, an ed-tech start-up which launched a global movement and a new industry of Montessori education for babies and toddlers. Zahra holds a BA in Psychology from Harvard and a Master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. As a local land steward, Zahra is focused on regenerative agriculture, ecological restoration and on helping to educate children and adults on these powerful climate solutions. Zahra has received support from the RCD on invasive plant management and water resource management. In the process of working with the organization, Zahra discovered that the RCD is a team of environmental superheros! She jumped at the chance to support them as an Associate Director.

Recent Directors

Rudy Espinoza-Murray

Rudy Espinoza-Murray

Member, Personnel Committee

September 2021 – December 2022

Mr. Espinoza-Murray has held executive, board, and founding member positions in multiple organizations. He has a strong background in agriculture that includes an undergraduate degree from Cornell University in Agriculture and Rural Development, a fellowship with AgriCorps in Nicaragua, working for the US Department of Agriculture, co-founding, and leading the San Mateo County Farmworker Affairs Coalition. Rudy and his husband have a daughter, Avery Elena, and their kitty, Leia.

TJ Glauthier

TJ Glauthier

Board of Directors

June 2006 – October 2022

Mr. Glauthier is a prominent energy industry leader with a long list of accomplishments in business, government, and technology. He served in the White House as the Associate Director for Natural Resources, Energy and Science in the Office of Management and Budget, where his work included negotiation of the 1997 Farm Bill. Mr. Glauthier has also served as the second highest official within the U.S. Department of Energy and as the Director of Energy and Climate Change for the World Wildlife Fund.

Jim Reynolds

Jim Reynolds

Board of Directors

December 2004 – December 2020

Mr. Reynolds owns and manages a Pescadero farm that has been in the family for nearly 150 years. He brings over 30 years of experience as a management consultant, communicating in several languages to help diverse industries nationally and internationally manage organizational change, business process, and reengineering.