WHO WE ARE

Manager of Advancement

Robin Aube

Robin Aube is the Manager of Advancement at AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles. She grew up in San Pedro and has been a member of the innovative ocean and marine science campus for two years managing the UrgentSEA annual campaign and educational programming. She is also responsible for planning and implementing special events at AltaSea, such as, Quarterly Open Houses.  Robin has played a key role in the capital campaign and with donor prospects. She is a graduate of CSUDH holding a Bachelor of Science degree in Clinical Science with an emphasis in Nuclear Medicine and a Master’s degree in Business Administration.

Communications Strategy Consultant

Jack Baric

Jack Baric is an Emmy Award winning filmmaker who has produced a wide range of documentary films and short form videos. In addition to filmmaking, Baric spent numerous years working in magazine publishing and marketing.

Born and raised in the seaside town of San Pedro, California, Baric has deep family roots in the Los Angeles Harbor, which inspired two of his documentary films. His inaugural film, Port Town weaves together seven inspiring stories from San Pedro and Bloody Thursday takes viewers back to the waterfront docks of the Great Depression. It is Bloody Thursday, a documentary chronicling an epic labor struggle that won West Coast longshoremen their union, which garnered Baric his Emmy.

A graduate of the University of Southern California, Baric also made A City Divided, a documentary about the history of the USC vs. UCLA football rivalry. Baric used the film to launch Rivals United for a Kure, an annual philanthropic campaign, which has netted over $2 million for the cancer research hospitals at both universities. Baric also helmed the documentary, Searching for a Storm, about the 1990’s war in Croatia and Bosnia. The film premiered at the Zagreb Dox Film Festival where it received widespread coverage in European media. This project later earned Baric the opportunity to helm a four-part primetime documentary series about the war for HRT.

In addition to feature length projects, Baric produces short form videos and marketing strategies for clients with his company, Gopher Crow Entertainment. Prior to filmmaking, Baric spent fifteen years in magazine publishing and was the founding publisher of San Pedro Magazine. In addition, Baric spent nearly ten years on the board of the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce where he served as the director of both the economic and marketing committees.

Senior Manager of Communications

Natasha Berendzen

Natasha Berendzen is senior manager of communications at AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles. Prior to joining AltaSea, she was development manager at the Ocean Institute in Dana Point, California and a prospect manager at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, playing an integral role in capital campaign efforts. She was also part of a mother-daughter team that created the nonprofit networking groups Women of Los Angeles, Women of Orange County and Women of Pasadena. Natasha received her M.B.A. from California State University, Long Beach and a B.A. with honors in anthropology from Boston University.

Leasing Counsel

Daniel Brumer

Daniel Brumer is a partner at Brumer Law Group where he represents public and private companies, real estate developers, equity investors and lenders in a variety of transactions involving acquisitions and dispositions, leasing, development, joint ventures, land title, and debt and equity financings. He regularly advises clients on local government and public affairs, providing strategic counsel on complex political, regulatory, land use, and other matters involving state and local government in California.

Daniel was previously a senior advisor to Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Krekorian, responsible for all land use and economic development matters, and a planning and land use deputy to former Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge. He started his legal career as an attorney at O’Melveny & Myers LLP, the oldest law firm in Los Angeles, where he represented public and private companies in mergers, acquisitions, dispositions, financings, and other corporate transactions.

Daniel received his Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School in 2007, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and a James Kent Scholar for high academic honors, and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from the University of Maryland in 2002, where he was named to the Distinguished Dean’s List and a member of the University’s Burns Academy of Leadership. He is also a past founding Director and Corporate Secretary of Crown Preparatory Academy, a Los Angeles Unified School District public charter school, and a licensed California real estate broker.

Strategic Grants and Special Projects Manager (Consultant)

Meredith Brooks

Meredith Brooks is the Strategic Grants and Special Projects Manager (Consultant) at AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles. She is developing the AltaSea Marine Grants program to expand the portfolio of government grants, with a focus on STEM education, aquaculture and growing the Blue Economy in Los Angeles.

Originally from Rancho Palos Verdes, Meredith now splits her time between the Olympic Peninsula, RPV, and Hawai’i, where she has spent the last decade helping manage one of the USDA Regional Aquaculture Centers. She has fifteen years of management and communication experience in the fields of sustainable aquaculture R&D and conservation, and has authored two K-12 STEM curriculums for Hawai’i schools. Meredith graduated from the University of Southern California with Bachelors Degrees in Political Science and Journalism, and is a member of the Lambda Pi Eta honor society of the National Communication Association.

Manager of Strategic Partnerships and Fund Development

Karl I. Muller

Karl I. Muller is the Manager of Strategic Partnership and Fund Development at AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles.  Prior to joining AltaSea, Karl worked as the Senior Conference Planner for the Air National Guard in Washington, DC.  He received his Master’s degree in Higher Education Administration from The George Washington University and his Bachelor’s degree in English from University of California, Los Angeles.

Facilities Coordinator

Andrés Sanchez-Perez

Andrés “Andrew” Sanchez Perez is an Facilities Coordinator at AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles. Prior to his role at AltaSea, he researched the social structure and contaminant load comparison of inshore and offshore bottlenose dolphins in the Southern California Bight. He also analyzed coastal pollution in the waters surrounding Los Angeles. Andrew is currently working towards a B.S. in biology with an emphasis in marine ecology from California State University, Dominguez Hills.

Administrative Coordinator

Lara Michelle Silber

Lara Michelle Silber is Administrative Coordinator at AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles.  Prior to AltaSea, she spent two years volunteering for Sprout-Up, a Santa Barbara non-profit that educates second and third grade students on the importance of the environment.

She received her bachelor’s degree in environmental studies with a focus in political science from the University of California, Santa Barbara.