How do we protect the natural beauty of Carmel Valley while sharing it with the visitors who contribute to our economy? How can we promote the vitality of locally-owned small businesses, while at the same time preserving the Valley’s rural character? How can we encourage the addition of affordable housing for those who work in this community while maintaining our quiet neighborhoods? Marianne became a CVA member many years ago because she realized that CVA is where Valley residents work together to find solutions to these challenges. 

As CVA president, Marianne believes that the CVA should serve as a resource for Valley residents, whether by helping to convey their collective concerns to county government, informing them about simple steps to protect our natural environment (root out that invasive genista!) or sharing best practices for fire risk reduction (again--get rid of genista!). Marianne hopes that the CVA can increasingly collaborate with other organizations that are working to support the cultural vibrancy of the Valley, the well-being of its residents, and the ecological health of the Carmel River watershed.

Marianne looks down on the Carmel River from her hillside home in mid-Valley, a house that has been in the family for seventy years. The river’s resilient cottonwoods, once stressed by overpumping from the river but now showing renewed vigor, provide Marianne with inspiration for her advocacy work. Marianne is a proud alumna of York School and holds degrees from Stanford and UC Berkeley as well as Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. She has worked as a public utility regulator and serves on several non-profit boards. Marianne aspires to have a beautiful waterwise garden; so far, the gophers, voles, raccoons, rats, squirrels, deer and rabbits are winning.  Marianne’s two adult children live on the East Coast but consider Carmel Valley a home for their hearts.

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Rick Manning, from Albany, NY, graduated from Yale College in 1968, where he majored in history and enjoyed playing tennis as well as singing with the Yale Glee Club and the Whiffenpoofs. He then served three years in the US Army, which included an assignment at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey to study Korean.  It was at that time that Rick discovered the extraordinary beauty of the Peninsula, so after his tour of duty in Inchon and Seoul, he returned to Carmel Valley.  

A summer job in 1971 at John Gardiner's Tennis Ranch stretched into a thirty-three year career at the resort. In addition to teaching and administrative responsibilities in Carmel Valley, Rick was the Tennis Director at The Tennis Ranch on Camelback, Scottsdale, Arizona, from 1979 - 1986.  For several years he was secretary for John Gardiner's Tennis Clinics, a company which provided professionals for programs at resorts and clubs around the US.  In 1995, Rick joined the Peter Burwash International tennis staff at Carmel Valley Ranch Resort.  He retired from full-time teaching in 2014, but still plays on a regular basis.

Rick has lived with his wife, Ruth Carter, in mid valley since 1976.  Now, without a full-time work schedule, he is able to get out into our wonderful parks for more hiking, to spend more time reading, and to take more advantage of the many cultural events available in the area.   Rick looks forward to the opportunity to serve on the Carmel Valley Association board.

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Sandra Schachter first moved to Carmel Valley in 1970 after living in northern Ohio and New York City.  She left to teach in Switzerland in 1983 and returned in 1999.   She has a BA in English from Oberlin College (junior year at the University of Edinburgh in Scoland) and an MA in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University with a specialization in History of the English Language.  She did further graduate work in Applied Linguistics and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages at Columbia Teachers College. She has taught English as a Second/Foreign Language, English composition, and language teaching methodology  at Columbia, Harvard, the American College or Switzerland, and the Monterey Institute of International Studies, where she helped to establish the American Language and MATESOL programs. She was also a Fulbright instructor in Constanta, Romania. She retired from part-time teaching at Monterey Peninsula College several years ago.

Sandy was a founding member of the Friends of the Carmel Valley Library and served on that board as secretary in the 1980's and as organizer of the First Saturday lecture series from 2000 to 2006.  She has also served on the board of the Carmel Valley Angel Project since 2013, currently as secretary, and has been in charge of the Holiday Store.  She is currently secretary of Carmel Valley Save Open Space.  She has also volunteered at Tularcitos School and for Pacific Repertory Theatre.  She has been secretary of the CVA Board since 2008, served on the Outreach Committee and the editorial committee for the Carmel Valley Voice, and coordinated the Carmel Valley Voices program.  

She is married to David Burbidge, retired from CSUMB.  Her son Jason attended Tularcitos and Carmel Middle School and is currently working for the United States Census Department.  Her hobbies include walking and otherwise spoiling her dog, watercolor painting,  reading, and hunting for misused apostrophes.

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Andy brings to CVA a rich history of relationship building and fundraising in the arts, education and healthcare having served as the development director for Stanford University’s performing arts program, Stanford Live (formerly Stanford Lively Arts). Previously he was the chief development officer at the iconic Monterey Jazz Festival. He has also been a leader in development at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business, and the University of California, Los Angeles, his alma mater. Andy also worked for Warner Bros. in Burbank, California and Warsaw, Poland, the United Nations Secretariat in New York, and taught English at Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia. His latest project is owning StretchLab on Carmel Rancho Boulevard.

In addition to his professional experience, Andy enjoys singing, tennis, yoga and meditation. He served on the board of Carmel High School Padre Parents and has volunteered with the Alzheimer’s Association, Carmel Bach Festival, Pt. Lobos Foundation, and the International Association for Human Values. He earned a BA degree at UCLA double majoring in Political Science and Russian Civilization. He resides in sunny Carmel Valley Village with his three rescued pets.

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Priscilla graduated from California State College Northridge and received her M.A. in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas and her Ph.D. from Northwestern. She was raised in Peru, and was a volunteer in the Peace Corps in 1962-1963 during its beginning stages.

She was a professor in the Department of Education at the University of California Santa Cruz from 1998 to 2005, and a Principal Investigator with the Center for Research on Education, Diversity and Excellence (CREDE). Prior to that she was a consultant for 14 years with the California Commission for Teacher Credentialing and the consultant assigned to develop the Multiple Subjects Bilingual Cross-cultural Academic Development Emphasis Teacher Training Credential Program in 1994 at California State University, Monterey Bay. She also was Statewide Consultant and Coordinator of the Bilingual Teacher Training Programs and worked on Class Size Reduction under California Superintendent for Public Schools, Delaine Eastin. She was the editor of Multicultural Perspectives, The Magazine of the National Association for Multicultural Education and the founding editor of Multicultural Education Magazine.

Priscilla has lived in the Village since 1987, and has been president of the White Oaks Home Owner's Association since 2001. She was President, Democratic Women of Monterey County 2008-2012, and is a current member of the County Democratic Central Committee and the League of Women Voters. In Davis, her community activities included the Board of Directors of the Davis Rural Land Trust and a three year term as a Planning Commissioner for the City of Davis. She is married to John Walton a Sociologist retired from the University of California at Davis.

The Walton's have two grandchildren who live with their daughter Casey and her husband Eric in Sacramento.  They have a fourteen year old golden retriever named Murphy who was born and raised in Carmel Valley. You can catch them walking through the village every morning.

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Paola Berthoin is an artist with a deep commitment to living in the Carmel River Watershed over the past fifty-two years. She was born in London, England and came to Carmel Valley in 1965 with her mother and three sisters. Paola is a graduate of Carmel High School and California College of the Arts where she specialized in printmaking, handmade paper and animal drawing. Additionally, Paola has studied ecological design and permaculture at Schumacher College in England and at the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center in Northern California.

Tending the land on which she has lived for forty-three years and joining in multiple efforts to preserve wildlands has infused Paola’s visionary ways of interpreting the land through painting, writing, and advocacy for all the watersheds of the Earth. Working as pastry chef, Paola owned and operated the Coco La Fleur restaurant with her mother in Carmel Valley in the late 1980s. She served as Education Chair for the Carmel River Watershed Council in the late 1990s. She co-established RisingLeaf Watershed Arts, a non-profit organization, in 2001and taught her Watershed Arts curriculum in Monterey County schools. Paola completed the award-winning book Passion for Place: Community Reflections on the Carmel River Watershed in 2012. Through twenty years of co-organizing community arts events and projects focused on the Carmel River Watershed, Paola has planted many seeds of local and global ecological awareness.

Additionally, Paola has been involved in traffic-related issues including the preservation of Hatton Canyon, getting the first “Share the Road” bicycle sign installed on Carmel Valley Road, and being involved in the early days of the Monterey County Bicycle and Pedestrian Facilities Advisory Committee. Paola also served as secretary for the CVA in the 1990s.

Paola’s most recent project was to document the historic San Clemente Dam and Chinese Dam Removal and Carmel River Reroute Project through plein air paintings, photography and video. She is currently collaborating with blacksmith Richard Schrader to create a sculpture that will be made from rebar from the San Clemente Dam. It will be installed at the new MPRPD offices at Palo Corona Ranch/Rancho Cañada in Fall of 2017.

Through all Paola’s endeavors, she strives to inspire, educate and protect what she can through active caring for the land. Being on the CVA board is an opportunity to help fulfill the organization’s mission to preserve the natural beauty, resources and rural quality of the Carmel River Watershed.

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John Heyl was raised in southern New Hampshire; his father was the school doctor at Phillips Exeter Academy. After earning his BA at Hamilton College, John worked as a woodworker and building contractor in the Boston area through the 1980s.

He relocated to Tsaile, AZ, where he developed a JTPA-funded carpentry training program for the Navajo Nation at their Dine Community College. John moved to Flagstaff, AZ to attend Northern Arizona University, where he earned his Masters in Educational Leadership and did doctoral work in Curriculum and Instruction. John then began teaching, and settled into eighteen years of teaching high school AP English Language, mostly in Flagstaff, but most recently in Gilroy, CA. John retired from his teaching career in 2017.

John met his wife Kathy Greenwald in Flagstaff. They both taught in public schools there until Kathy, who grew up in Monterey, suggested moving from the Colorado Plateau back to the Central Coast. In 2010 they found their current home in Carmel Valley, and settled into their new communities quickly.

Kathy is active in the arts community and shows her work at the Carmel Art Association. John sings with several local choirs. Through his own church, Unity of Monterey Bay, John provides logistical support with COPA, a local IAF community organizing group promoting local issues effecting member institutions’ people. Currently the work focuses on Covid relief for farmworkers, police / citizen relations, and affordable housing and rent relief.

John enjoys the area’s outdoor joys:  hiking with the Haasis Hikers, kayaking, and sailing, or working on the house and gardens. John and Kathy chose the Carmel Valley area for its rural nature: the quiet, the village ambience, the screech of the hawks, a small deer family sliding through the oaks, or the bobcat lounging in the sun. All these joys of living here are well worth preserving. So John finally arrives at the CVA Board, knowing that it takes vigilance and persistent effort to preserve a place and community like the Carmel Valley.

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Marlene has lived in Monterey County since 1969 and in Carmel Valley since 1980. During her forty-one years of teaching at MPC, she served as English Department Chair, Teachers' Association president, and Academic Senate president.

Her involvement with the marine science community began in 1969 when her late husband was a professor at Hopkins Marine Station. He was director at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories for eighteen years and served on the boards of the Aquarium and Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.

She was  a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras and had two Fulbrights and three National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships. She wrote four college composition textbooks and many articles for newspapers and magazines.

Marlene is concerned about the traffic load on Carmel Valley Road and water availability and is grateful for those who have been vigilant in trying to protect the valley from exploitation. She hopes to help protect our very special part of the universe and promote its residential and environmental ambience.

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Mibs grew up in San Francisco and Oakland and attended the University of California, Berkeley for two years. She received her bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of Missouri. She also received a master’s degree in Journalism from the University of Missouri specializing in science writing. She has been an owner-manager of a tennis club, a pre-school director, and a middle school science teacher.

Mibs has been on the board of Carmel Valley Association since 2010 and serves on the Land Use Committee. She has been the leader of Sustainable Carmel Valley, and currently leads the Social Justice Committee of the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Monterey Peninsula, and is a board member of the Monterey Peninsula Chapter of the ACLU.

A “late bloomer” in following her own goals, around the year 2000, Mibs realized the people she most admired were community activists for environmental, social, and economic justice. She enjoys learning about issues and then acting in accordance with her values.

She also enjoys tennis, hiking with her dog, birding, fly fishing, and reading. She lives in the Garzas Canyon area of Carmel Valley with her husband, Joe.

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Eric Sand’s family has lived on the Monterey Peninsula, Big Sur and the Carmel Valley since the 1870s and members of his family have included Realtors, Mayors, ranchers, painters, writers, publishers and authors here on the Monterey Peninsula.

Eric spent his early years in Carmel, California. As Eric’s father was a career diplomat, the family moved to Washington DC. but also spent many years residing overseas. Eric lived in Taipei, Taiwan and later in Athens, Greece. He and his brothers attended their High School years at the American Academy in Athens.

Eric attended MPC in the mid 1960’s before attending UCLA majoring in Computer Science and later worked as a software engineer for Hewlett-Packard in Palo Alto before moving back to the Monterey Peninsula and taking a position at the NPS. In 1985 he was appointed as the first Management Information Systems Director at the Monterey County Office of Education.

Eric has always had a particular attraction to the Carmel Valley as both sets of grandparents lived there and he has lived in Los Tulares for 12 years with his wife Patricia. Eric is currently a Realtor in the Carmel Valley Village, working in the building his grandfather Harold O. Sand built as his brokerage in 1946. Eric has also been active with the Monterey History and Art Association since 1985, having held the positions of President and Secretary on the Executive Committee. Eric has been Chair and Co-Chair since 2003 of La Merienda, a MHAA event held the first Saturday every June celebrating Monterey’s birthday.

Eric has five sons, three grandsons and three granddaughters who live nearby. Eric’s passion is keeping the Carmel Valley as close as possible to the magical place he knew as a child roaming the hills and exploring the Carmel River behind his grandfather Donald Hale’s ranch by the Farm Center and preserving the very rich sense of community that people in the Carmel Valley share.

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Bob has a B.A. in history from Fresno State College and a Master of Science in soil science from UC-Davis. From 1973 to 2001 he worked in vineyard management, viticultural research, and viticultural consulting. From 2001 to 2011 he was agricultural engineer (civil) at the Santa Clara Valley Water District with responsibilities in recycled water application, agricultural water use efficiency, and evapotranspiration estimation.

Bob is a past member of the California Department of Water Resources Agricultural Stakeholder Advisory Committee for the implementation of California Water Conservation Requirements (SBX7 7).

He is presently a member of the Department’s California Water Plan Update Citizens' Advisory Committee and a board member of the Carmel Area Wastewater District.

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Dick and his wife Teri have lived in the Carmel/Carmel Valley area since 1968, and in the lower valley since 1987. He received his B.A. in Economics/Engineering from Pomona College in 1962 and his Masters in Education from Chapman University in 1992. After graduation, he spent 3 years in Army Intelligence and 2 years studying flamenco guitar in Spain. Dick and Teri owned and operated Fourtane's Jewelry in Carmel from 1970 to 1988. From 1988 until he retired in 2005, he taught Mathematics and Computer Science at Monterey High. While at Monterey High, he wrote classroom management software and founded CalEd Software.

His sons, Will and Alex, attended Carmel schools beginning as pre-schoolers at Bay School and graduating from Carmel High. Dick was active in Carmel school affairs, serving on the District Budget Advisory Committee and as a board member and fund raising chair of the Friends of the Carmel Schools (FOCUS). In the 1970's, he was treasurer of the Carmel Rotary Club and more recently served for seven years on the board of directors and as treasurer of Riverwood Community Association. When he's not trying to keep this web site up to date, Dick spends his afternoons practicing his guitar.

Charlie’s life and career reflect a life-long passion for the ocean’s wonders and for safeguarding its legacy for future generations.  He studied marine biology, ecology and evolution in college and grad school and earned a BA from UC Santa Barbara and a PhD from the Johns Hopkins University.  His field research in the Caribbean included over 2,000 scuba dives, 4,000 hours spent underwater, 1000’ submersible dives, and a week-long saturation dive in an underwater research habitat in St. Croix.

After grad school, Charlie ran Lehigh University’s Stone Harbor Marine Lab in New Jersey.  Seeking to make a more direct impact on ocean conservation, he joined the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in 1991 and never looked back.  At NOAA, he led a variety of science, education and conservation policy programs for the Natl. Marine Sanctuaries and Natl. Estuarine Research Reserves System, and later helped shape important national initiatives on the US national ocean policy, coral reef conservation, and marine protected areas like our local Monterey Bay Sanctuary and Elkhorn Slough Reserve.

In 2000, Charlie worked with the White House to found NOAA’s Natl. Marine Protected Areas Center, where he led its Monterey office as Senior Scientist until his retirement in 2020.  An elected Fellow of the American Assn. for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Charlie has been awarded four federal Bronze medals (3 NOAA/1 EPA), for his work on ecosystem conservation – the agencies’ highest civilian award.

Growing up in a military family, Charlie lived in many places in the US and abroad: some interesting, some not so much.  His family has lived in the same Carmel Views house for over 50 years.  Charlie bought his parents’ house in 2000 after transferring his NOAA job to Monterey.  He and his wife, Liz, raised two sons here, as they progressed through CUSD from Carmello to Carmel High, learning, swimming, playing water polo, and making music and mischief. 

Charlie has volunteered in Carmel schools and has served several terms on the Carmel Views Community Association (HOA).  He currently serves as the Chair of Monterey County’s CSA-47 Advisory Committee, advising the county on infrastructure and public safety issues.  Charlie enjoys sailing, swimming at CVAC, working outside, and experiencing nature, ideally underwater.  By joining forces with CVA, Charlie hopes to bring an ecosystem conservation perspective to their invaluable work to preserve our treasured way of life.

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Lamont Wiltsee was born in Minot, North Dakota but was dragged kicking and screaming to Southern California, after a two-year sojourn in Dallas, Texas where his father was on the staff of an orthopaedic clinic. Growing up in Long Beach, in 1968 he graduated from Northwestern University; he then “regretted” President Lyndon Johnson’s kind invitation to serve in an entry level position in the president’s Reelection Campaign (Vietnam division). Entering the School of Theology at Claremont he took degrees in religion, divinity, and ministry and was ordained in the Episcopal Church in 1974.

Having served congregations in California and New Jersey, in 1987, an invitation to start a church at Stevenson School’s Erdmann Chapel was accepted. Lamont served as minister of Church in the Forest for six years enjoying almost every minute of it. In 1996, he moved from a “Carmel Charmer” to Carmel Valley, first to a home on Middle Canyon Road and then in 2017 to his current Vlliage residence that he shares with his wife, Edie Wiltsee.

Lamont brings a passion for quality of life issues to CVA’s board being concerned with population density issues such as the growing danger of Carmel Valley Road in the Village, the problem of noise pollution, and the possibility of a green burial sight in the Valley. Lamont Wiltsee accepts with pleasure the kind invitation to serve on the board of CVA.

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Jeff, originally from New England, received a BA in History (US & European) from Lake Forest College (IL) and a Master’s degree in Organization and Management (nonprofit) from Antioch University New England (NH). He spent 40 years in higher educational admissions, career counseling and alumni work at Bennington, Williams & Occidental Colleges, UCLA, and the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS – formerly the Monterey Institute of International Studies) before retiring in July of 2015. Immediately after his BA, Jeff ran a drug abuse center in New Britain, CT and was on the first management team of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group in the 1970’s.

Jeff moved to Carmel Valley in 1985 and lived in Carmel Valley Village for nine years before moving to Mid-Valley 22 years ago. As a 2007 graduate of Leadership Monterey, Jeff is ready to serve the needs of CVA related to membership and outreach. He is the Past-President of the Los Cimientos Alliance, helping Kiche Maya in Guatemala (related to land, health, and employment issues), and the Ranch House Place Homeowners Association. He currently serves on the Board as Treasurer of Ranch House Place.

Jeff’s wife Kate retired in June 2015 from 25 years of teaching elementary grades in the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District most recently in Marina. She has also taught at the All Saints Day School and volunteered at Tularcitos Elementary School in the Village.

The Woods have two children. Daughter Jory lives in New York City and works in the fashion industry while son Tyler works in the art world in New York with stints in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The Woods just adopted a rescue puppy (Maltese Mix) from the SPCA as the newest family member.

Jeff recently joined Kate by singing Bass in the Monterey Peninsula Voices Fall 2015 Holiday show. He also enjoys politics, tennis, golf, woodworking and fixing anything that is broken. He looks forward to working with CVA to defend the Valley from over-development. He is very interested in issues related to the Camel River (lives 100 yards from it), traffic on Carmel Valley Road, and maintaining the rural nature of the Valley as so many of us moved here for a rural ambiance.