GRID Alternatives - Bay Area
1171 Ocean Avenue, Suite 200
Oakland, CA 94608
Phone: (510) 652-4730
Fax: (510) 225-2585
Email: infoba@gridalternatives.org
Click here for a map and directions to our offices. Our Bay Area office is located in North Oakland, just South of Ashby Avenue and West of San Pablo and Alcatraz, about a 20 minute walk from the Ashby BART station.
Staff Bios
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.
Mary Biasotti, Regional Director
Mary has a Bioresource Science degree from UC Berkeley and over two decades of experience in organizational and program management, especially in economic development and community outreach. Her passion is to enable low-income people to overcome socio-economic barriers by helping to combine their talents and vision with outside resources. Mary’s greatest challenge is to convince her husband and children to go hiking and camping with her more often. She would also love to play more soccer, and do more gardening and home construction projects.
Colin Bright, Outreach Manager
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.
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.
Johannes Copeland, Solar Installation Supervisor
Johannes comes to GRID Alternatives from Habitat for Humanity East Bay, where he served as a crew leader building green, affordable homes. Prior to joining Habitat he served in the US Marine Corps, including two tours in Iraq, and is passionate about ending the world's dependence on oil while also building stronger and more empowered communities here at home. Johannes holds a degree in Economics from the University of Chicago.
Christin Eales, Construction Manager
Christin began her career in the energy efficient technology industry at Habitat for Humanity East Bay where she worked first as an Americorps volunteer for one year, then as a Site-Superintendent for 5 years. She studied architecture and zero energy building, earning a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Carnegie Mellon University. She hails from the Philadelphia area but her passion for energy efficiency brought her to the Bay Area for its progressive building techniques. An avid hiker and cyclist, she also enjoys working on her 1890 Victorian home.
Maura Fallon-McKnight, Development Officer
Maura has a background in wildlife conservation biology, business development and non-profit capacity building. She is passionate about effecting powerful environmental and social change while also having fun! Prior to GRID, Maura worked as a biologist for the National Park Service, was an independent entrepreneur, and contracted with Bay Area non-profits to help them build capacity. She also volunteered for 5 years as a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) serving as a mentor for at-risk youth in low-income communities in northern California. She has an M.S. in Wildlife Biology from Humboldt State University, and graduated magna cum laude from U.C. Berkeley with a degree in Conservation and Resource Studies and a minor in Forestry and Resource Management.
Ron Griffin, Construction Assistant
Ron brings his electrical training to GRID and has combined this contribution with assisting solar installation and improving our warehouse management. A Berkeley High grad, Ron then attended a vocational trade school in Colinga. His favorite hobby is fishing which he fulfills every chance that he gets. He also loves to spend time with his wife, two daughters and a son, going on family field trips and camping. Ron also loves his hobby of rebuilding car motors.
Dave Lee, Solar Installation Supervisor
Dave is a native of the Bay Area, a Cal Poly grad and is a Silicon Valley engineering and marketing veteran of well-known hardware and software corporations, including Intel and Silicon Graphics. He is a proponent of solar photovoltaic energy systems, starting with an installation of a 5 kW system on his home in 2004, volunteering over 200 hours with Grid Alternatives in 2010 as a team leader and finally joining the company in 2011. Also a Certified Sommelier and a Certified Specialist of Wine, Dave continues his long love of viticulture and enology and teaches wine appreciation courses at UC Berkeley Extension.
Bruce Leininger, Design 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).
Ronnie Matatquin, Outreach Assistant
Originally from So Cal (Ventura County), Ronnie has lived the Bay Area for the last 16 years. Ronnie was inspired to join the renewable energy industry after 3 years as a gardener and working for a summer in the Sierras. He has a BA in Broadcast Electronic Communication Arts from SFSU. In his spare time he enjoys spending time with his family, music, sports, riding his bike, and movies/documentaries. Ronnie assists the Outreach department in offering the savings of solar to low-income families.
Emily McGuire, Outreach Volunteer Program Associate
Emily comes to GRID from just up the hill at UC Berkeley, where her curiosity about urban social and environmental issues led her to double major in Urban Studies and Conservation and Resource Studies. As a recent intern with SPUR (San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association), Emily was exposed to the incredibly prickly nature of urban politics while working to promote a transportation reform ballot initiative. She is now looking forward to affecting positive change through a more hands-on, community level approach with GRID Alternatives. In her spare time, Emily enjoys engaging in ambitious upcycling projects, recreational botanizing, and soaring through cities on her trusty mixte bicycle.
Mara Meaney-Ervin, Development Assistant
Mara joins GRID's Bay Area Development team from a background of social equity nonprofit work, most recently as the development intern with San Francisco-based Breast Cancer Action. Though originally from Colorado, Mara last lived in Massachusetts where she pursued her deep commitment to equality of opportunity as the paralegal for a free legal clinic serving low-income clients. She graduated magna cum laude with a BA in Government from Smith College and was the recipient of Smith’s Social Justice Advocate Award. She is incredibly inspired by GRID's mission and is excited to be bringing together her skills and passions. When not at work, you can find her hiking and biking around the Bay Area, cultivating latent crossword puzzle talents, attempting to play bluegrass music on the guitar, cooking with made up recipes, and making mediocre puns (though rarely at the same time).
Leah Pimentel, Outreach Coordinator
Leah brings a passion for educating and outreaching to the community about how to make positive changes toward sustainability and solar energy. She has completed an MBA in Sustainable Enterprise at the Dominican University of CA. Leah has previous environmental justice experience with Greenaction and developing community empowerment plans and with the Lee Institute, both in San Francisco. She has also serves on the board of the Women’s Environment Network.
Jasmine Shepard, Volunteer and Training Associate
In between Americorps assignments, Jasmine spent a year "running nerdy hustles", from writing building science experiments to teaching Facebook to baby-boomers. To date her greatest achievement is earning her B.S in Electrical Engineering Technology from Georgia Southern University. She's also a Laney College Green Jobs graduate. Fun fact, she's worked as a pastry chef and loves to bake.
Sarah Shimmin, Outreach Coordinator
Sarah is a Bay Area native and graduate of California State University, East Bay with B.A. degrees in Environmental Studies and Spanish. Previous to joining GRID Alternatives, she worked as a Spanish tutor with high school students while interning with various Bay Area nonprofits advocating for smart growth, organic farming, and food justice. After serving as an AmeriCorps VISTA member with GRID for one year, Sarah stayed on as an Outreach Coordinator, and currently assists low-income families in the North Bay and North Coast regions to go solar and learn about energy efficiency. She loves helping make a difference in our clients' lives and communities while also addressing global environmental issues."
