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About the Solana Center
The Solana Center for Environmental Innovation (SCEI) was founded in 1983. Known as Solana Recyclers in
the early days, we pioneered the first comprehensive curbside recycling program in San Diego County and one
of the first community-based recycling programs in the State of California. In 1996, we left the recycling collection
business to focus our energies on community outreach, public education and creating new markets for recycled
products. The word Solana has remained and is symbolic of our work in the broader community. In Spanish,
Solana means "place where the light shines." Carrying the torch of environmental awareness is something that
we take very seriously, finding ways to illuminate problems, create solutions and inspire change.
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Steve Padilla, CEO
steve@solanacenter.org |
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Rachel Borgatti, Composting Program Manager
rachel@solanacenter.org
Rachel Borgatti joined the Solana Center for Environmental Innovation in January 2008. As Compost Program Manager, Rachel works with the Master Composter volunteers to educate adults and children throughout San Diego. Rachel also speaks at events throughout Southern California about the importance of composting and its links to waste stream reduction, clean water, and a sustainable future. Rachel brings to the Solana Center her multidiscplinary background as a scientist, an educator and a regulator. Rachel holds a Bachelors of Science in Biological and Environmental Sciences, a Masters of Science in Marine, Estuarine, Environmental Sciences, and is currently enrolled in the graduate program in Nonprofit Leadership and Management at University of San Diego.
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Tara Fuad, School Recycling Project Manager
tara@solanacenter.org
Tara began her career in the environmental field as a Forester in the Peace Corps in Niger, West Africa. Upon returning to the States, Tara settled in Washington DC where she received an MS in Biology from George Mason University and worked in the Public Affairs Office of the Ecological Society of America. After several years of environmental research and policy, Tara returned to working at the grassroots level and served as Volunteer Coordinator for the Audubon Naturalist Society, a non-profit environmental and education organization. She moved to San Diego in 2003 and is very pleased to continue her work in the environmental field with the Solana Center.
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Laura McIntire, Education Program Manager
laura@solanacenter.org
Laura hails from the East Coast. For the past six years she has lived in Portsmouth, NH teaching yoga and elementary school while attending the University of New Hampshire.
Prior to life in Portsmouth, Laura studied Human Ecology at a small liberal arts college in Maine and sustainable agriculture in Mexico and Spain. Laura believes that to really make a difference we can’t just hang back and wait for change; that we should teach what we most want to learn. |
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Michael Murphy, Program Assistant
mike@solanacenter.org
Michael joined the Solana Center after working for over 20 years in the industrial fabric industry as a contractor, designer, and business owner. He is a native Californian. He volunteers in the community for a variety of environmental causes.
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Leslie Barnes, Compost Program Coordinator
Leslie Barnes joined the Solana Center for Environmental Innovation inMay 2008. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from the Universityof California, Santa Cruz. Prior to college she lived in a small town in Northern California. For the past seven years Leslie has worked fornonprofit child care organizations. She has joined the Solana Center tofurther her involvement in improving the environment. Leslie enjoys traveling, surfing, and photography.
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Carlie Peck, Pollution Prevention Intern
carlie@solanacenter.org
Carlie is a 4th year Environmental Systems: Earth Science major at UC San Diego, planning to graduate in June. She began at the Solana Center in 2007 as part of an internship requirement for her major. Prior to college, she grew up in the Bay Area. She loves playing soccer and field hockey, sewing and crocheting, watching football, and coercing her roommates and friends to reduce, reuse, and recycle. |
Solana Center Board of Directors
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Sandy Atkinson, President
Sandy has served on the Solana board of directors since the early curbside recycling days. She is a residential realtor with Coldwell Banker. Sandy has served on many boards and is a past president of the San Diego County National Organization For Women, board member of Planned Parenthood of San Diego & Riverside Counties, and board member of the Cardiff Town Council. |
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Pamela Yates Boynton, Vice President
Pamela is a retired educator from the public and private school systems and has degrees from Florida Southern College in education and biology. She has served on the boards of the Burnham Institute and La Jolla Shores Association and has volunteered for Junior League projects and Mentorship of San Diego. She is currently a member of the San Diego Women’s Foundation and Project Concern International. In the early 1990s she and a colleague started an innovative reusable lunch bag company to help reduce the use of paper lunch bags on school campuses. She has been influenced and enlightened by her daughters, who have “green” careers, and through her extensive travels to remote regions of the world.
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Denis E. Bohlman, Treasurer
Denis earned his BS degree from the University of North Dakota and MBA from the University of Chicago. He served as officer in the United States Air Force and has 34 years diversified experience in the defense industry, 19 years of which as a corporate officer and 10 years of serving on corporate boards of directors. Denis has been a board member and treasurer of the Solana Center for 9 years. |
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Amy Moser, Secretary
As TriStaff Group’s VP, Amy has recruited and placed software professionals for over 24 years for a wide variety of clients in areas such as real time systems, satellite communications, graphics, GUI, database, Internet, bioinformatics, and IT financial and business applications. Born and raised in Hawaii, Amy studied at the University of Hawaii and CSU, Sacramento, where she completed her B.A. degree in Political Science. She received her M.S. degree in Social Sciences & Education from State University of New York at Plattsburgh. |
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Margaret “Wootsie” Stockton, President Emeritus
The Solana Center has been the center of Wootsie’s volunteer life since 1983 when she introduced curbside recycling to her 152 unit condominium complex. Early on, when the executive director left the organization temporarily, she and her husband managed the day to day operations of Solana Recyclers for one year, including curbside recycling collection and taking recyclables to market . Wootsie helped guide the organization through the transition out of recycling collection while broadening our community education programs and developing the Recycled Products Cooperative. |
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