WHO WE ARE

Seasonal Instructor

Frances Arrecis

I studied at Cal Poly Pomona and received a B.S. in Environmental Biology with a focus in biodiversity, conservation, and ecology. I am passionate about our environment and educating our youth to help support it. I worked at my campus’ ethnobotanical garden and rainforest throughout my entire college career where I became familiar with plants native to Southern California. I maintained these plants while educating school groups/visitors on how important these plants contributed to native’s daily life (specifically on Tongva land). I also worked at our vivarium, taking care of reptiles, amphibians, and fish. I currently work for a children’s science museum where I teach science enriched programs in a classroom, workshop, and assembly setting as well as write curriculum. I hope to always educate our youth on how important our ecosystems are and how we can support them.

Director of Advancement

Robin Aube

Robin Aube is the Director 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 six years managing Project Blue, AltaSea’s education program, serves as the foundation grant writer and as the Board of Trustees liaison. She is also responsible for planning and implementing special events at AltaSea, such as, the quarterly Open Houses.  Robin has played a key role in the capital campaign and with donor relations. 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.

Director of Advancement Services

Natasha Berendzen

Natasha Berendzen is Director of Advancement Services 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 Prospect Research 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 Washingon, 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.

Partner, Brumer Law Group and AltaSea Legal 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.

Senior Program and Grants Manager (Consultant)

Meredith Brooks

Meredith Brooks is the Senior Program and Grants 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.

Program and Community Outreach Coordinator

Dorothy Valerie Cardenas

Dorothy Cardenas is the Program and Community Outreach Coordinator at AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles. Prior to joining AltaSea, Dorothy provided crucial administrative support within the film and property management industries. Working in the film industry she coordinated and oversaw budget costs within multiple television series in ABC Studios, CBS Television, NBC Universal, and 20th Century Fox Studios. Dorothy has led the fundraising committees within grassroots community organizations and coordinated logistics for live events. She received her Bachelor’s degree from California State University, Long Beach in English Literature.

Director of BlueTech Strategies (Consultant)

Portia Cohen

Portia Cohen has extensive senior leadership experience in law, public policy, public affairs, advocacy and negotiations in the corporate, government and nonprofit sectors.

A former Mayor, Councilmember, and Attorney-at-Law, Ms. Cohen is a seasoned and accomplished communicator, aggregator and strategist for a myriad of interests and stakeholders.

Portia is and Advisor to 7th Generation.  She previously served as Senior Strategic Market Liaison to the Chief of Strategy for UCLA Health System.  Her previous positions include Executive Director of Global Los Angeles at the Pacific Council on International Policy; Mayor and Councilmember of the City of Manhattan Beach, California; Director of the Energy Independence & Petroleum Project for Environment Now Foundation; Senior Counsel for Gensler Architecture Worldwide; Corporate Counsel and Government Compliance Officer for Burns and Roe Enterprises, Inc.; Litigation Associate for Cole Schotz Meisel Forman & Leonard; and Researcher/Writer/Editor for the Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Portia serves on a myriad of advisory and working boards including Rutgers University Douglass College, the Cancer Support Community, Sustainable Conservation, Friendship Foundation, and was Founder of the Mayor’s Youth Council of Manhattan Beach.

Portia holds a B.A. in political science (Pi Sigma Alpha) from Douglass College, Rutgers University, and a J.D. from Widener University School of Law, where she was a member of the Delaware Law Review and is published on the issue of corporate governance.  She received the American Jurisprudence Award in Contracts.  Portia is licensed to practice law before the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, U.S. District Court of New Jersey, State of New Jersey, and State of Pennsylvania. Her full bio can be found at www.Linkedin.com/pub/dir/Portia/Cohen

Bookkeeper

Rosa Delgado

Rosa Delgado is the Bookkeeper at AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles. She is a Southern California native and has been working in the Nonprofit sector for over 20 years. During her time at the National Audubon Society, specifically The Audubon Center at Debs Park, her love for nature conservation blossomed. As an administrative assistant, she helped in the day-to-day duties while the nature center was being built, which was to be the first LEED Platinum certified building in the country. Rosa also held the roles of volunteer coordinator and office manager during her time at Audubon.  Most recently, as staff accountant at the Institute for Nonprofit News, she handled the fiscal sponsorship accounting for 20 plus small nonprofit newsrooms.

Database and Research Manager

Kim Ellis

Kim Ellis is the Database and Research Manager at AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles. With her experience in the non-profit and higher education sectors, she provides valuable research to support fundraising efforts and ensures data integrity within the database. Before joining AltaSea, she worked in development at Cal State LA, the Southern California Institute of Architecture, and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. She holds a master’s degree in Library and Information Science from San Jose State University and a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from the University of California, San Diego.

Facilities Manager

Walter Flores

Education Program Manager

Alan Hill

Alan Hill is the Education Program Manager at AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles. He is originally from Wales and has lived in the South Bay for 25 years. He has been an educator for 35 years. After completing B.Ed. degree at University of Wales, he began developing his teaching experience at schools and outdoor centers in the UK. A professional development scholarship took him to Prescott College in Arizona to learn more about experiential education. He moved to the US permanently in 1992 to work for Prescott College. He traveled to Anchorage, Alaska to take an adjunct faculty position at the University of Alaska and within a couple of years had assumed the position of Assistant Coordinator of the Alaska Wilderness Studies program at UAA. While at University of Alaska he completed his M.Ed. specializing in Curriculum Development. In 1997 he moved to Palos Verdes to take the position of Director, Outdoor Education at Chadwick School where he built and developed a robust curriculum for the Outdoor Education Program and assisted in developing the Outdoor Education Program at Chadwick International in Songdo, South Korea.

Operations Manager

Angie Reed

Angie Reed is the Operations Manager at AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles. She is a lifelong San Pedro resident and with that comes a natural connection to the ocean and marine life. Angie raised her college age son in San Pedro with the same deep connection to our coastal waters. She has 20+ years’ experience in the non-profit sector with roles both in finance and operations. She began her finance career in accounts payable and quickly expanded to roles including accounts receivable, grant revenue and staff accounting before moving into operations for organizations with $1 to 9 million budgets.

As Operations Manager, Angie led her organization through two natural disasters and served as project manager for a construction rebuild. She also managed the response to the recent pandemic for her organization, ensuring seamless transition to virtual operations. As well as spearheaded digitization efforts which allowed the organization to not miss a beat in serving their mission. She managed a 45-unit multi-family dwelling in Koreatown that served as transitional housing for the unhoused as well as women and children fleeing human trafficking.

Angie’s heart has remained with the non-profit sector as her main driving force is to be a conduit for good and to be part of the effort to enhance the lives of the communities in which she serves. Her key responsibilities at Alta Sea will allow her to serve that personal mission.

Communications and Development Coordinator

Emily Vidovich

Emily received her BA in Art History with a minor in Journalism & Mass Communications from George Washington University in 2019. During college, she was a correspondent for the environmental journalism platform PlanetForward. Prior to joining AltaSea in 2021, she completed internships at the Natural Resources Defense Council, where she specialized in internal sustainability and carbon pricing, and Heal the Bay, where she monitored Marine Protected Areas. She also served weekly as an animal care volunteer at the Marine Mammal Care Center Los Angeles. Emily is currently pursuing an MA in Global Environmental Studies at Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan.