GRID Alternatives Staff

Jahahara Alkebulan-Ma'at, Outreach Coordinator
Jahahara has over 30 years of experience in organizing community residents and workers for collective power, justice and improvements in the daily lives of their families. From Chicago to New York to the Bay Area, Jahahara has played a part in building a number of diverse coalitions to address common human and environmental needs. As a member of the GRID Alternatives' team, Jahahara's role is focused on helping overcome the "green gap": through outreach and education to low-income communities and homeowners; and by involving more residents in the benefits of solar electric installation and job training opportunities.

Recheal Allamby, Volunteer and Training Coordinator - Bay Area
Recheal has over five years of experience working in the fields of environmental justice, creative services, and community advocacy, including working at Literacy for Environmental Justice in San Francisco's Bayview/Hunter's Point neighborhood. She has focused on speaking out on improving the environmental quality for people in different communities. Recheal has deep ties to the communities we serve, having grown up in the Bayview and currently living in East Oakland.

Michelle Andry, Program Assistant - Greater Los Angeles
Michelle has volunteered extensively with public school community members to provide instructional support in classrooms and fundraising through public events. She also coordinated a communication and resource referral network for military family members in Okinawa, Japan. Michelle graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in Accounting.

Anna Bautista, Volunteer and Training Coordinator - Greater Los Angeles
Anna has four years of experience in the solar industry as a project manager, design and installation technician, and renewable energy educator. She has worked on RE projects and environmental justice campaigns in the Philippines, Haiti, and Costa Rica and co-founded a youth mentorship program in San Diego. Anna has a degree in Electrical Engineering from MIT and is certified in Advanced Photovoltaics by SEI.

Colin Bright, Program Assistant - Bay Area
Colin is a native Hoosier who found GRID Alternatives due to his passions in environmental science, entrepreneurship, community development, sustainability, and volunteerism. Colin started his career working part time for the family business, helping support biological science consultants with fieldwork. After a stint with a local bank, Colin joined the Peace Corps and spent two years serving a small community in Nicaragua where he inspired youth to set goals of entrepreneurship and community involvement. Colin is an alumnus of Hanover College and holds a degree in Business Administration.

Susie Chang, Regional Director - Greater Los Angeles
Susie has a professional background in non-profit management focusing on community building, environmental, cultural and education programs. She has served low-income communities in Los Angeles as an educator and project manager, and in Afghanistan, China and Tajikistan as a program officer and country director. Susie graduated Magna Cum Laude from UCLA with a degree in International Development Studies.

Shamir Chauhan, Project Manager
Shamir has six years of experience in the affordable housing industry, with experience developing housing for diverse populations including farmworkers in rural Santa Cruz County, homeless individuals in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco, and low-income senior citizens in the greater East Bay.

Faisal El-Azzouzi, Construction Manager
Faisal has been installing and designing solar electric systems for four years, most recently with Sun Light & Power, one of the oldest and largest solar installers in California. He has a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Arizona and is certified by Solar Energy International. Faisal is certified by the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP) and is a certified electrician, and is also a training coordinator with Engineers Without Borders and a part-time solar thermal design engineer for SunWater Solar.

Zach Franklin, Development Director
Zach has eleven years of experience in the affordable housing industry, including starting and operating a Community Technology Center at a multifamily affordable housing development in the Iron Triangle neighborhood of Richmond, CA, working for five years at a local nonprofit housing developer, and providing technical assistance to a Richmond-based homeless services agency.

Bruce Leininger, Construction Manager
Bruce has been installing solar electric systems for six years with two of the Bay Area’s largest solar electric contractors, installing over 100 systems completed ranging from 1 to 80 kW. He is also certified by the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP).

Erica Mackie, P.E., Executive Director and Co-Founder
Erica has a professional background both in social work and in renewable energy and energy efficiency consulting and sales, and has overseen the installation of solar electric systems and energy efficiency retrofits ranging in construction cost from $10,000 to $1.7 million. She holds two bachelor’s degrees from Southern Illinois University, one in Mechanical Engineering and the other in Physics.

Sherroy Moore, Solar Installer Trainee
Sherroy comes to GRID Alternatives through Richmond BUILD, a rigorous nine-week pre-apprenticeship training program operated by the City of Richmond. Mr. Moore is a Richmond native and has a background in the general construction and painting industries.

Carla Rodriguez, Bookkeeper
Carla has a professional background in administration, accounting, and database work, for the last six years in the legal industry, and prior to that with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.

Tim Sears, P.E., Program Director and Co-Founder
Tim is a graduate of Stanford University with a degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering, has a technical background in the design and installation of solar electric systems, wind turbines, micro-hydro systems and bio-diesel reactors, and has managed consulting teams of engineers providing comprehensive energy efficiency retrofit recommendations and construction management of projects totaling over $3 million.

Tracie Troxler, Development Assistant
Tracie has a background in occupational therapy working predominantly in under-served communities in the Bay Area. Her deep-rooted commitment to connecting human service work with environmental protection, as well as her inspirational experiences as a solar volunteer brought her to her Americorps*VISTA position with GRID Alternatives.