Board of Directors
The Watershed Project is governed by a volunteer board of directors.
Briggs Nisbet, Chair
Environmental Writer
Briggs Nisbet has more than a decade of experience as an environmental analyst and program manager in the Bay Area, working with organizations such as the California Coastal Conservancy and Save The Bay. She has managed successful campaigns to clean up, protect and restore San Francisco Bay wetland habitat, working closely with local advocates, government agencies, and community volunteers.
Anne Jennings, Vice Chair/Secretary
Exploratorium
Anne Jennings is Relocation Program Manager at the Exploratorium, the museum of art, science and human perception in San Francisco. Previously, Anne co-founded and directed Community Resources for Science, an East Bay nonprofit that helps to build a community of educators working together to get kids engaged in learning through the scientific exploration of the world around them.
Ian Walker
California Department of Health Services
Ian Walker is a Community Participation and Education Coordinator with the Environmental Health Investigations Branch of the California Health Department. He has worked on fish contamination issues in the San Francisco Bay for the past seven years, developing, coordinating, and conducting education on fish consumption. He is also a playwright and co-founder of Second Wind Productions, a theatre company in San Francisco, and co-chair of the Leadership High School board of trustees.
John Curran
Environmental Attorney
John Curran joined the Board of Directors in February 2008, and brings with him law and finance expertise. Following his undergraduate education at UC Berkeley, John spent sixteen years in Europe where he earned an MBA and worked as an investment banker, as well as a corporate development officer for a communications start-up firm. He has a Juris Doctor degree from the University of San Francisco School of Law. After passing the California bar exam in July 2007, John recently began a new career as a plaintiff-side environmental lawyer.
Bill Walker
Earthjustice
Bill is a native Texan and a recovering newspaper reporter. Inspired by seeing so many special places that were threatened by development, angered by meetings with folks who were being poisoned with industrial chemicals, and tired of not taking sides in the fight against these crimes, he quit journalism and joined the environmental movement. After a variety of positions and assignments at Greenpeace and the California League of Conservation Voters, Bill opened the West Coast office of the Environmental Working Group, and in 12 years built a team of analysts who turn out a steady stream of headline-making reports on toxic chemicals in consumer products, pesticides, air and water pollution, farm subsidies and more. Currently, Bill is the campaign director for Earthjustice, responsible for grassroots and media campaigns to support litigation and legislative goals. Bill lives in Berkeley with his wife, mother-in-law, and three children.
Erik Vance
Science Writer
Erik is a freelance science writer who has written on topics as varied as math, geology, and ecology. He prefers to think of his science writing as describing "the way stuff works." Biology becomes "the way life works." Astronomy would be "the way really big stuff works." Molecular chemistry becomes "the way atoms have a high probability of working" and quantum physics "the way stuff probably doesn't work at all." In college Erik studied ecology and animal behavior and published in the Journal of Comparative Psychology. After that, he interned with several PhD and Master's projects at University of Cape Town in South Africa and is a graduate of the Science Communication program at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
