Welcoming new staff and board members

December 17, 2013

As the year winds down I am thrilled to announce several important additions to the Resource Media team.

First, Marce Gutiérrez joins us as a Program Director in our San Francisco office. Marce Gutiérrez is the founder of Azul, a non-profit dedicated to building and empowering a Latino constituency for marine conservation. She has worked with Latino populations to protect California’s resources and foster environmental leadership in under-represented communities. She helped design a network of marine protected areas stretching from Santa Barbara to the Mexican border as part of California’s Marine Life Protection Act Initiative and served on the California Sustainable Seafood Advisory Panel, tasked with creating a sustainability program for California fisheries. Before working in conservation, Marce worked in the commercial aquaculture industry throughout Latin America. Long story short: she used to sell the fish, now she saves them! Marce will continue to direct the growth of Azul from her vantage point at Resource Media, while helping us build lasting relationships with new audiences on a wide variety of issues including energy, oceans and public lands protection.

We are also excited to add four new members to the Resource Media Board who will bring an important influx of new ideas, perspectives and experience.

Apollo Gonzales; Project Director at Echo Ditto, Washington D.C,

Apollo Gonzales is EchoDitto’s Project Principal in Washington, DC tasked with managing client relationships and developing high level digital strategy. Prior to joining the team he spent nearly 5 years innovating advocacy work at the Natural Resources Defense Council. During that time Apollo developed strategies and tactics that moved the environmental movement from the constraints of email into the burgeoning world of social advocacy resulting in significant victories in domestic and international policy. Apollo is a regular speaker on digital campaign strategy at gatherings like the annual Nonprofit Technology Conference, Netroots Nation and the New Organizing Institute. His work with some of the best policy and political operatives in Washington gives him a seasoned perspective on using Digital to influence decision makers. Apollo is a graduate of the American University in Washington, DC and holds a B.A. in Communications, Legal Institutions, Economics and Government.

Erin Barnes, Co-Founder of In Our Back Yard (IOBY), New York City

Erin Barnes helped found In Our Back Yard, a web-based initiative to generate crowd-sourced funding for community conservation and social change projects. IOBY started in New York but has since gone national. Erin and her co-founders at ioby were awarded the 2012 Jane Jacobs Medal for New Technology and Innovation.

Before ioby, Erin was an environmental writer with a background in water management. From 2007-2008, she was the environmental editor at Men’s Journal magazine, and was a freelance writer on climate change and other environmental issues. From 2003-2005, she worked as a community organizer and public information officer at the Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition in Portland, Oregon.

Mark Valentine, Independent Foundation Consultant, San Francisco

Mark Valentine is a longtime philanthropic consultant and former program officer at the Packard Foundation. Mark is a former chair of Resource Media’s Board. During his tenure and since he rotated off the Board, Mark was a tireless champion of Resource Media. In addition to his connections in the philanthropic and social change universe, Mark is an insightful strategist, evaluator and long term thinker.

Roy Temple, Partner at Groundswell Public Strategies, Kansas City, MO

Roy Temple is a veteran political, public affairs and social media strategist from Missouri and a partner with Groundswell. Temple is an innovator in the use of digital media in advocacy efforts. He is an original founder of Fired Up! Missouri, recognized by the Washington Post as an outstanding local political blog. In addition, Temple secured a pivotal FEC advisory opinion (FEC AO 2005-16) that offers guidance to bloggers about the intersection of blogging, advocacy, and campaign finance law. During the 2006 and 2008 election cycles, Temple was a principal in the Washington-based Democratic polling firm, The Feldman Group. At the Feldman Group, he worked primarily on U.S. Senate races, and in 2006, his work included Sen. Sherrod Brown’s effort in Ohio and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s independent expenditure efforts in Maryland, Montana and Rhode Island. During the 2008 cycle, Temple was heavily involved in Al Franken’s pursuit of the U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota, and worked closely on the DSCC independent expenditure efforts in the Oregon Senate race.

Scott Miller