Speaker Biographies

Sarah Christie is the Legislative Coordinator for the California Coastal Commission in Sacramento. Sarah fights for coastal protection and public access over private privilege. In her spare time, she fights for enlightened land use policy as a County Planning Commissioner in San Luis Obispo. In both capacities, she is routinely targeted by development interests for her insistence on upholding the Coastal Act, county land use policies, the Local Coastal Program, and the California Environmental Quality Act, despite the pressure to cut corners, build projects, and reap profits. Her presence at a Planning Commission meeting virtually guarantees a shift away from business as usual to an impromptu seminar in smart land use and the nature of the public interest. She is one of the strongest, smartest voices in California speaking on behalf of environmental protection.

Debra Garrison
spent most her life on her family’s farm in Nipomo, California. With the assistance of her father, she developed Farmers’ Markets in Santa Maria and Lompoc after participating in state level policy development of “California Certified” Farmers’ Markets. Debra helped to create a local label program “Central Coast Grown”, and works as an independent contractor to help local farms and ranches market their products. She serves on the board for SLO Ag Task Force, is president of Central Coast Ag Network, and her primary goal is to see a sustainable regional community food system.

Ken Haggard is a principal architect with San Luis Sustainability Group Architects, a green architecture firm with over thirty years of experience. He was the Architect for the first passive solar building in California in 1972 and the first permitted straw bale building in California in 1992. He is co-author of the Passive Solar Handbook for California (published in 1980) and Fractal Architecture- Design for Sustainability (published in 2007).

Pam Heatherington is a former Executive Director of ECOSLO and is currently the Treasurer of the San Luis Bay Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, an Atascadero Planning Commissioner, immediate past Chair of the Santa Lucia Sierra Club Conservation Committee, past Co-chair of the Sierra Club National Toxics Committee. She has tenaciously served the community through environmental and peace activism since 1994.

Deborah Hillyard has lived on the Central Coast for more than thirty years, and in SLO County since 1998. She works for the California Department of Fish & Game as a conservation planner, primarily focused on large-scale, long-range conservation strategies for San Luis Obispo and Monterey Counties. Her background is in biology and rangeland management, with a particular interest in arid ecosystems, their restoration and management. She is also an occasional guide on expedition-style cruises to the Alaskan arctic and the Russian Far East.

Anne McMahon has lived in SLO County for more than thirty years. Her environmental activism was born during the blockade of Diablo Canyon in 1981, when she was arrested along with hundreds of others protesting the licensing of the nuclear plant. She has since worked in the fields of journalism, conservation, and government. As a lover of the Earth, democracy, the power of information, and the goodness of the human spirit, her heart breaks almost daily about how each of those things has been compromised in our communities and our world.

Vicki Milledge, PhD is a project coach and consultant for The Collaborative Connection, specializing in developing leaders while getting the job done. She guides project leaders and teams in organizing complex projects into doable steps. To help the group move smoothly through complicated issues or projects she employs simultaneous training and coaching in collaborative skills. Her human resources management experience at Apple Computer and Coopers & Lybrand, coaching and consulting with over 500 managers from corporations and non-profits, and a PhD in Organizational Behavior from UC Berkeley provide solid qualifications for this work.

Pete Schwartz came to Cal Poly in 2000 to teach physics and conduct research in nanotechnology after teaching high school in the Fiji Islands and Bakersfield, and studying fusion energy and molecular order on surfaces at Princeton. After building sustainability measures into his house, he decided to switch his academic focus and took a sabbatical 2006 – 2007 with Berkeley’s Energy and Resource Group studying renewable energy, sustainability, and appropriate technology. Since then, he has revised and taught Energy, Society, and the Environment (PSC-320) as well as several classes dedicated to the development of appropriate technologies for impoverished communities (UNIV-391 and UNIV-X492). he is also conducting research with students on Concentrated Solar Power, Passive Solar Heating, Electric Transportation, and Financial Analysis of Energy Transitions.

Linda Seeley is a certified nurse-midwife, grandmother, and advanced facilitator of Joanna Macy’s Work that Reconnects. Linda has lived in San Luis Obispo for 26 years, during which time she has helped over a thousand babies come into the world. She is the president of the Terra Foundation, a local nonprofit that is dedicated to helping the people of San Luis Obispo County connect with each other and Earth through deep ecology retreats, permaculture design training, and community education.

Clint Slaughter, M.D. moved to San Luis Obispo in 2003 from the East Coast and has since developed interests in sustainability and alternative energy. In this time, he has decreased his own family's footprint significantly by continually auditing energy use, adding solar power to his home, and making biodiesel since 2006, now running both of their cars on biodiesel and vegetable oil. Outside of the home, he has also been working with French Hospital to improve recycling and decrease waste. He enjoys cycling, climbing, surfing, and other experiences that involve enjoying the wonders of our natural environment.

Pat Veesart is currently the California Coastal Commission Enforcement Supervisor for Southern California and serves on the board of directors for the Los Padres Forest Watch. A few of the positions Pat has held in the past include: SLO County Planning Commissioner, SLO County Bicycle Committee member, and SLO City Planning Commissioner. He has been the Chairman of the Santa Lucia Chapter of the Sierra Club, Executive Director of ECOSLO, Executive Director of the Sitka Conservation Society in Sitka, Alaska and was the State Chapter Liaison for Sierra Club California.