Jacqueline Flin, Executive Director of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, has recently agreed to join the Parks Alliance as Interim Blue Greenway Director. Jackie takes on this role as part of her ongoing leadership at APRI, and has already been partnering with the Parks Alliance in the extensive community engagement in support of the India Basin design. 

Jackie began her career in union labor with Service International Employees Union, Local 790 (now Local 1021), in 2000 as an administrative assistant supporting union activities within the local. She has several years of experience working at the California Labor Federation AFL-CIO, participating in legislative campaigns and grassroots organizing, promoting and defending the interests of working people and their families for the betterment of California’s communities. Over the past 11 years, Jackie has been a volunteer participant in the 1997 Youth Labor Study administered by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, designed to attain employment statistics and background information on United States youth. Jackie graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Cellular Biology from the University of California, Davis.

SF Parks Alliance Board Member and Blue Greenway Board Committee Chair Leah Pimentel is an environmentalist and champion to families living in San Francisco.  She was named one of the “Bay Area’s People to Watch in 2014” by the San Francisco Chronicle, describing her as “a young, politically active mother. . .”  She is also an Office of Community Infrastructure and Investment (OCII) commissioner.

She is a third-generation San Franciscan who has worked extensively to advance policies that help women and children thrive in the city.  She has received numerous awards for her work in these areas including Good Morning America’s “Hero Award” and KPIX’s “Jefferson Award for Public Service”.

She spent much of her career advocating for solar panels for low and moderate income families in the southeast neighborhoods.  

In 2013, Leah joined San Francisco Board of Supervisors President David Chiu and an extraordinary coalition of parents, advocates for working families, and community organizations to enact the Family Workplace Ordinance.  This is one of the most visionary policies in the country for parents and caregivers.  It ensures that every employee has a “right to request” a flexible work arrangement when caregiving responsibility arise for a child, family member or parent.  As a working parent, Leah knows that we need to do more to help families stay in San Francisco and believes that this groundbreaking legislation is great start.

Mrs. Pimentel’s past and current community and civic activities include: Saint Ignatius College Preparatory Alumni Board Member, San Francisco Women’s Political Committee Board Member; San Francisco Young Democrats’ Board Member; California Democratic Party, Voter Services Committee member, and San Francisco Parks Alliance Board Member.

Supervisor Malia Cohen was elected in November 2010 and re-elected in November 2014 to represent the residents of San Francisco’s 10th District, including the Bayview Hunters Point, Potrero Hill, Dogpatch, and Visitacion Valley neighborhoods.

She is a dedicated champion of the Blue Greenway.

Supervisor Cohen serves as Chair of the Board of Supervisors Land Use and Transportation Committee and as the President of the San Francisco Employee Retirement System (SFERS), which oversees a $20 billion fund. She is also a member of the Board of Supervisors Rules Committee, San Francisco County Transportation Authority and the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board.

Since being elected Supervisor for San Francisco’s tenth district in 2010, Supervisor Cohen has prioritized developing policies and legislation that keeps the residents of San Francisco’s Southeastern neighborhoods working, healthy and safe. Consistent with these principles Supervisor Cohen sponsored the Pregnancy Information Disclosure and Protection Ordinance prohibiting limited services pregnancy centers from making false or misleading statements about their services. After passage, this measure was challenged in court and upheld in its entirety.

In 2014, Supervisor Cohen authored the Fair Chance Ordinance, which regulates the use of commercial background checks by employers and affordable housing providers. The Ordinance removes any inquiry into a conviction history on a job or housing application and delay any background check until the employer or housing provider has determined that the individual’s qualifications meet the requirements for the position or the housing unit. The legislation will remove unnecessary barriers to employment and housing for qualified, skilled individuals seeking jobs and stable homes and will promote public safety by reducing obstacles to stabilizing factors for the nearly 7 million adult Californians with a conviction record.

Supervisor Cohen has also authored three ordinances regulating types of especially lethal ammunition, high capacity firearm magazines and giving law enforcement additional tools to combat gun violence. These ordinances increase San Francisco’s already tough stance on firearm regulation.

Most recently, Supervisor Cohen championed the efforts on the Neighborhood Preference legislation, which prioritizes 40 percent of all affordable housing in new development projects for those who live in the existing neighborhoods.

Supervisor Cohen was born and raised in San Francisco. She earned a BA in Political Science from Fisk University and a MS in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University.

Driven by the desire to improve the health of her family and community, Marie Harrison led the closure of an extremely old and dirty power plant.

Marie Harrison is a well-known and respected Bayview native. As a true leader, Marie inspires her community, by encouraging and empowering them to speak their voice. Her advocacy career began while working with public housing tenants. During that time she realized the importance of connecting her community to the surrounding environment. When her grandson began to suffer from chronic bloody noses and asthma, Marie knew the surrounding industrial factories were to blame. At the time, government policies failed to regulate the emissions of factories or monitor the air quality of San Francisco's southeast. For ten years, Marie and other Bayview Residents led a campaign for closure of the PG&E Power Plant. In 1999, Marie joined Greenaction, as a community organizer focusing on environmental justice in the Bayview. After years of conflict with city government, the community prevailed, and in 2006 the PG&E Power Plant finally closed.

Marie’s love for the community guides her work and she continues to advocate for their environmental justice. Today she serves on a variety of city committees, such as the Bay Area Environmental Health Collaborative and the Environmental Justice Air Quality Coalition. For the last two years, Marie, Greenaction, and SF Environment have spearheaded the Bayview Environmental Justice Task Force. This task force creates collaboration between multi agency stakeholders and empowers residents to take active roles in their community. She continues to invite and encourage new individuals to share their experiences, so city agencies can better understand the community's needs. She believes “Together they have the power. No one can speak for them, if they don’t talk.” Greenaction also recently created the Climate Justice Leadership Academy, a summit to educate and empower a series of Bayview residents.  Marie also continues to support the Blue Greenway, by providing a valuable environmental and local perspective to developers, leading city agencies, and project organizers. While her main focus may seem localized to Bayview-Hunters Point community, the environmental and social benefits are felt throughout the city.

Patrick has served as the Executive Director of Literacy for Environmental Justice (LEJ) for the past five years, but he has been with the organization since 1999, serving many roles. Perhaps most notably, he was instrumental in securing grants and managing the multi-year development of the award winning, LEED Platinum, Heron’s Head Park Eco-Center, also in Bayview Hunters Point.

In his time with LEJ, he has been the program manager for LEJ’s Heron’s Head Park Program, the Bay Youth Environment Program, and the Native Plant Nursery at the Candlestick Point State Recreation Area (CPSRA). 

Deeply passionate about their core mission and focus, and with a strong background in working with the land through an educational lens, Patrick has forged new and now enduring strategic partnerships for the organization. He is still very hands-on with all the LEJ programs, and will be the project manager working closely with staff to implement all field programs and assist with field leadership and team mentoring.

Under his guidance, in the coming months LEJ plans to expand their wildly successful native plant nursery, as well as roll out two new programs: one focused on eco-adventures and connecting folks to the beautiful natural environment that surrounds them, and another focused specifically on workforce development for young adults.

You can read more about Patrick and LEJ's work at www.lejyouth.org.

For decades, Literacy for Environmental Justice (LEJ) has engaged thousands of volunteers in community action projects that benefit Southeast San Francisco. From local and state level advocacy, to hands on restoration at Heron’s Head and Candlestick State Park Recreation Area (CPSRA), to environmental justice programming in schools, LEJ has consistently engaged residents of all backgrounds in relevant programming that promotes environmental justice and ecological health.

LEJ’s mission is to promote ecological health, environmental stewardship, and community development in Southeast San Francisco by creating urban greening, eco-literacy, community stewardship and workforce development opportunities that directly engage and support local residents in securing a healthier future.

Candlestick Point Eco-stewards (CPE) is a LEJ run project striving to undo the environmental degradation of the natural environment in Southeast San Francisco, and address the inequality in public access to open space. LEJ seeks to create a Southeast San Francisco where ecology and communities are connected, strong, healthy and thriving

The project is based out of CPSRA, with LEJ acting as a formal partner of California State Parks. The goal of (CPE) is to work through ecological restoration, community engagement and public education to restore the ecology of Southeast San Francisco parkland, and help residents both reconnect to their natural heritage and enjoy their right to a healthy and biologically diverse environment.

You can read more about LEJ's work at www.lejyouth.org.

Maya Rodgers is a native of San Francisco's Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood. She has been working with traditionally disenfranchised and vulnerable populations for over 17 years. She currently serves as the Program Coordinator for Bayview HEAL Zone, a community development program focused on increasing healthy eating and active living to decrease health disparities in the Bayview Hunters Point community. The program offers free exercise classes and cooking demos, helps stores to offer more fresh fruits and vegetables, and creates safer walkways and places for both adults and kids to play.

In addition to her social work in the community, in 2010, she helped found Parks 94124: a community advocacy and engagement group that focused on the creation and maintenance of great park spaces as well as park stewardship in the Bayview Hunters Point. Tied to that role, she is currently working with Andrea Baker Consulting to lead the community engagement and outreach surrounding the renovation of Northside Park.

Maya received her Masters in Social Work from San Francisco State University.

Parks 94124 was started in 2010 as a community park group representing the 94124 zip code. This unique group was founded by four mothers and natives of the Bayview Hunter's Point community, all of whom currently still reside and work there: Geoffrea Morris, Maya Rodgers, Chablis Scott, and Lena Miller. The Hunters Point Family, a grassroots, youth and community development agency, serves as the fiscal agent for Parks 94124.

The mission of the group is to build community, park usership and stewardship by creating innovative, engaging and fully accessible park and open space facilities throughout the 94124 zip code. Their goal is to ensure that parks are clean, safe, engaging, functional and enriching for the community to engage in healthy recreational activities. Recently they have launched a major campaign to redesign, rehabilitate, and secure funding for the many neglected and dilapidated parks. They hope to achieve this by encouraging community participation, partnership, and stewardship of the parks to enhance the overall quality of life for families living in the Bayview Hunters Point community. They strongly believe that healthy parks help build and sustain all communities, especially those that have been historically overlooked or neglected.

Their aim is to collaborate with as many community groups as possible to ensure interconnectedness is achieved. Parks 94124 is supported by Supervisor Malia Cohen's office, The Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Services, San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department, San Francisco Parks Alliance, Public Architecture’s 1% program, San Francisco Skateboarding Association, Dwayne Jones, Hunter’s Point Family, Habitat for Humanity Greater SF, SF Art Everywhere, and Bayview Magic.

You can read more about Parks 94124 on their website: www.parks94124.org.

Bayview-Hunters Point celebrates the legacy of Mama “E,” a community, environmental, and social justice advocate.

In early 2016, San Francisco lost a longtime community activist and leader. Known as “Mama E,” Espanola was a loved and respected Bayview resident. During her time as an activist, she shaped reform around low-income housing residents, education, and environmental justice. Espanola Jackson not only forced government officials and residents of the community to understand the environmental injustice occurring in the southeast, but she knew how to rally residents together for a cause.

When the City of San Francisco planned to expand the sewage plant in her neighborhood, Mama E opposed the expansion and encouraged community members to join her protest against the project. Although the expansion eventually took place, Mama E required the city to mitigate the plants harmful environmental effects. Today the City College of San Francisco's Southeast Campus and Southeast Facility Center stands as a tool for education and opportunity, because of Espanola Jackson.

Mama E also played a key role in the closure and remediation of the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. Previously, one of the most toxic military bases in the country, today is subject to an extensive ground and soil remediation project led by the United States Navy. The Shipyard is now a site along the Blue Greenway, connecting Hunters Point residents to their shoreline for the first time. The mixed-use development project, will soon become apartments, retail stores, with parks and open space surrounding the waterfront.

Espanola Jackson forced San Francisco to reconsider the way they thought about the southeast neighborhoods. Her memory and influence will never be forgotten.