Coastal Watershed Council Staff
Get to know the Coastal Watershed Council staff and contact us today! Read below for staff bios, email addresses and phone numbers.
Laurie Egan
Executive Director
Laurie leads the Coastal Watershed Council to transform the lower San Lorenzo River into a thriving urban riverfront where all Santa Cruzans can connect to nature in their daily lives. Since joining the team in 2013, Laurie has shaped CWC’s strategy, launched trademark programs, forged deep relationships with funders and decision-makers, led staff through significant challenges, and fundraised some of the most transformational investments in CWC’s work to date. Prior to joining CWC, Laurie worked on statewide campaigns to reduce ineffective toxic chemicals in consumer products with Physicians for Social Responsibility Los Angeles and the Center for Environmental Health. Laurie serves on the City of Santa Cruz Climate Action Task Force, the Board of Directors at United Way of Santa Cruz County, and was recognized as Santa Cruz County’s 2016 Emerging Leader of the Year. She earned a B.S. in Environmental Analysis from Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, CA.
Contact: legan@coastal-watershed.org, (831) 464-9200
Sam Adelson
Education Coordinator
Since joining CWC in 2018, Sam has worked with Santa Cruz County schools and community organizations to educate youth on water conservation, nature exploration, stormwater management, pollution prevention and water quality. Sam supports the development of the CWC Watershed Rangers education curriculum. He leads in-class lessons, field trips, after-school activities and summer environmental education programs. After graduating from California State University, Monterey Bay with a degree in Environmental Science, Technology, and Policy, Sam has worked to implement salmon education, habitat restoration and population monitoring projects along California’s Lost Coast region and as a naturalist and science educator with an outdoor science school based in Santa Cruz County.
Contact: sadelson@coastal-watershed.org, (831) 464-9200
Erin Loury
Communications Manager
Erin helps tell the stories of the San Lorenzo River and the people who interact with it. She leads the development of CWC’s communication materials and strategy, facilitates engagement with diverse audiences, and oversees collaborations with partners such as CWC’s Artist-In-Residence. Prior to joining CWC, Erin worked for ten years as the communications director and a fish biologist for the fisheries consulting company FISHBIO, where part of her work focused on establishing freshwater fish conservation zones with communities in Southeast Asia’s Mekong River. Erin holds a B.S. in Biological Sciences from the University of California, Davis; an M.S. in Marine Science from Moss Landing Marine Laboratories via San Jose State University; and a graduate certificate in Science Communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Contact: eloury@coastal-watershed.org
Kaiya Giuliano-Monroy
River Ecologist
Kaiya works to revitalize and connect the community to the San Lorenzo River. She leads volunteer events, outreach and education, planting new native plants, removing invasive species and increasing biodiversity and habitat complexity along the Santa Cruz Riverwalk. Kaiya’s connection to nature began in the San Lorenzo River watershed in childhood, growing up in the Santa Cruz Mountains and Beach Flats communities, and was carried into her career after graduating from Humboldt State with a B.S. in Wildlife Biology. Kaiya’s work has included conducting bird surveys in Nevada’s sagebrush, monitoring avian survival in Humboldt’s redwood forests, managing volunteer habitat restoration activities at The Presidio Native Plant Nursery, and teaching students to identify, love, and appreciate nature through NatureBridge programs near Washington D.C., Yosemite and Marin counties.
Contact: kgiuliano@coastal-watershed.org, (831) 464-9200
Maria Rocha
Environmental Educator
Maria leads classroom instruction as part of the Coastal Watershed Council’s Watershed Rangers youth education programs in school classrooms, afterschool programs, and summer camp programs in Santa Cruz County. She collaborates with CWC staff and classroom teachers to teach youth in grades K-5 about the importance of rivers, creeks, and watersheds in our daily lives. Maria’s passion for the conservation of the environment stems from her experience as a Watsonville Area Teens Conserving Habitats participant with the Monterey Bay Aquarium and continued throughout her educational career. She graduated from Cal State Monterey Bay with her B.S. in Marine Science and a minor in Biology.
Contact: mrocha@coastal-watershed.org, (831) 464-9200
Coastal Watershed Council Board of Directors
Click the plus sign (+) next to each Board of Directors member’s name to read their bio!
Jonathan Hicken, Chair
Jonathan currently serves as the Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. He is the former Director of Development of Housing Matter and former Director of Development & Partnerships at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History (MAH) and was previously an executive at a successful Silicon Valley tech business as well as an academic who wrote about undocumented migration along the U.S.-Mexico border.
He brings a unique approach to development and marketing: one part traditional fundraising, two parts Silicon Valley with an academic’s twist. Also an avid recreational outdoorsman and passionate community builder, Jonathan says, “CWC is poised to transform how our community connects with the San Lorenzo River.”
Eva Salas, Secretary
Eva is a Costa Rican biologist that moved to Santa Cruz around 2011. She spent many years working in marine ecosystems and has witnessed firsthand the critical influence that rivers have on the ocean. She feels lucky to be living in Monterey Bay, a very unique place in the Pacific Ocean with a deep underwater canyon and lush kelp forests, and she knows that it is fundamental to take care of watersheds to keep that beauty going. She joined the CWC board because she believes in the importance of involving herself and the local neighbors in the vision for our San Lorenzo River.
She feels quite privileged to live right next to the Santa Cruz Riverwalk, a place to meditate, walk, admire nature, and her main biking route to get anywhere in this amazing community. She particularly loves to see the changing faces of the San Lorenzo River throughout the year.
She has a PhD in ecology and Evolutionary Biology from UC Santa Cruz, is married, and has one child. Works at FISHBIO doing research and monitoring of fish in California, SE Asia, and Costa Rica. Loves mountain biking, scuba diving, paddle boarding, and hanging out with friends and family.
Megan Goddard
Megan is a long time resident of Santa Cruz County and she grew up in Aptos and currently lives in the City of Santa Cruz. Megan has always had a passion for water resources. She has an educational background of Water Resources, Watershed Science and GIS mapping to the CWC Board. She obtained a Masters and PhD from Clemson University with research specifically examining the impacts of land use change on water quality in small urban watersheds. She also has a BS from UC Davis in Environmental Resources with an emphasis on freshwater aquatic chemistry.
Megan brings years of work experience as a mapping expert and program manager to the CWC. She has been an employee of Google since 2006 with roles ranging from GIS mapping, Accessibility and creating accessible products for people with disabilities. She currently is a program manager for Google Maps.
Megan is a lifelong explorer and has traveled to 60+ countries for work, tourism, and scuba diving. She has lived and worked in Europe and Africa as an environmental consultant to water projects. Megan also graduated from the Leadership Santa Cruz County program in 2022 as part of class 35.
Emily Chung, Vice Chair
Emily is a proud resident of the Lower Ocean neighborhood. She truly embraces her love of the San Lorenzo River – you’ll find her walking, running, or skateboarding the Riverwalk with her dog nearly every day. She earned her Master in Public Health at UCLA and undergraduate degree at UC Berkeley. Emily brings to the CWC Board nearly a decade of experience working for government health agencies, promoting public and population health. She shares her breadth of experience working for and supporting non-profits through grant-writing, policy advocacy, fundraising, and community organizing. She currently works for the County of Santa Cruz, Health Services Agency. Emily is passionate about contributing positively to this community that she’s proud to call “home”. She has a great love of nature and outdoor adventures, from local hikes to backpacking mountains and jungles of foreign countries. Serving on the CWC Board is a culmination of her commitment to service and the environment.
Richard Beach
Richard, a resident of Santa Cruz County for 45 years, has worked in Silicon Valley startups, multinational companies and local real estate, utilizing his knowledge and experience in engineering, marketing and sales, finance and business management. He holds a BS in Engineering from SF State University, MSEE and MBA from Stanford University. Now mostly retired, Richard enjoys time focusing on his interests in environment, education and water projects and “paying it forward” to the next generation as they embark on their careers. CWC combines these interests and as a Board member, Richard uses his business background and love of community to sustain and grow the organization as it works to transform the lower San Lorenzo River. Richard also serves as the Chairman of the Scholarship Committee for the Santa Cruz Rotary and supports projects with Cabrillo College through the Presidents Circle and the Engineering Abroad Programs, the Ventana Wilderness Alliance and water and educational projects in Uganda.
Drew Meyer
Drew leads cloud storage product marketing for Amazon Web Services, a subsidiary of Amazon.com that makes cloud computing services. An Idaho native and former professional whitewater guide in the US, Central and South America, Drew has lived firsthand the impacts of ecotourism, resource extraction and seen the delicate balance between use and abuse of river communities. He was appointed to two terms on the Santa Cruz Historic Preservation Commission, where he advised on the controversial La Bahia project, numerous private development projects and advocated the City adopt a Mills Act ordinance.
Drew holds a BA in Political Science with minors in French and English from the University of Puget Sound, and lives in a historic house with his wife (wedding confection artist Edith Meyer) and their twin boys in Santa Cruz, California.
Stuart White, Treasurer
Stuart is an active Certified Public Accountant licensed in California with over 25 years of experience in the areas of corporate treasury and tax. Stuart is eager to help revitalize the San Lorenzo River in an effort to increase its use for recreation and public education, as well as improve the quality of the main water source for the city of Santa Cruz. He holds a Master in Professional Accounting from the University of Texas in Austin and Bachelor’s Degree from Rice University. Stuart lives in the Happy Valley area of Santa Cruz with his wife and two children. One of his favorite activities is to go for a run along the Riverwalk.
Linda Cover
Artist, Educator, Community organizer, Environmentalist and Friend of the river Linda Cover lives and works at the Tannery Arts Center, located on the banks of the San Lorenzo River. She is a photographer/artist focused on community and the natural world. At the Tannery, she is a board member of ARTU the tenant’s union. She is the founder of Camp Tannery Arts, a summer camp for young artists and Art Outside, a nature-based summer camp. Linda is a SPECTRA teaching artist, through the Arts Council Santa Cruz County, teaching “Watershed Art” in schools throughout the county. As a city of Santa Cruz Arts Commissioner, she is honored to serve both the city and artist communities. Linda has organized clean-ups with kids and families in Watsonville & Santa Cruz for 20 years. You may see Linda on her yellow bike riding on the river walkway where she socializes with folks along the way, photographs the ever-changing landscape, and creates “sand doodles” and mandalas at the river mouth beach.
Cindy Rubin, Immediate Past Chair
Cindy has extensive experience as a public affairs professional in government and in the high technology industry. A good part of her career was spent at IBM San Jose as the manager of the company’s California state and local government affairs programs. In 2003, Cindy established a public affairs consulting business advising government organizations on community outreach, economic development, and campaign communications.
Cindy’s passion for the environment was inspired by living in Los Angeles for 15 years and returning to the SF Bay Area where she experienced the joy of being able to hike among thousands of acres of protected open space within easy access of the metropolitan area. This inspiration led to decades of volunteer work in leadership roles with regional environmental organizations including the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County, Committee for Green Foothills and Greenbelt Alliance. Cindy views the Coastal Watershed Council as a critical player in ensuring the overall health of the region.
Cindy has a B.A. from UCLA in Political Science and a Masters from USC in public administration.
Jonathan Hicken, Chair
Jonathan currently serves as the Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. He is the former Director of Development of Housing Matter and former Director of Development & Partnerships at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History (MAH) and was previously an executive at a successful Silicon Valley tech business as well as an academic who wrote about undocumented migration along the U.S.-Mexico border.
He brings a unique approach to development and marketing: one part traditional fundraising, two parts Silicon Valley with an academic’s twist. Also an avid recreational outdoorsman and passionate community builder, Jonathan says, “CWC is poised to transform how our community connects with the San Lorenzo River.”
Emily Chung, Vice Chair
Emily is a proud resident of the Lower Ocean neighborhood. She truly embraces her love of the San Lorenzo River – you’ll find her walking, running, or skateboarding the Riverwalk with her dog nearly every day. She earned her Master in Public Health at UCLA and undergraduate degree at UC Berkeley. Emily brings to the CWC Board nearly a decade of experience working for government health agencies, promoting public and population health. She shares her breadth of experience working for and supporting non-profits through grant-writing, policy advocacy, fundraising, and community organizing. She currently works for the County of Santa Cruz, Health Services Agency. Emily is passionate about contributing positively to this community that she’s proud to call “home”. She has a great love of nature and outdoor adventures, from local hikes to backpacking mountains and jungles of foreign countries. Serving on the CWC Board is a culmination of her commitment to service and the environment.
Stuart White, Treasurer
Stuart is an active Certified Public Accountant licensed in California with over 25 years of experience in the areas of corporate treasury and tax. Stuart is eager to help revitalize the San Lorenzo River in an effort to increase its use for recreation and public education, as well as improve the quality of the main water source for the city of Santa Cruz. He holds a Master in Professional Accounting from the University of Texas in Austin and Bachelor’s Degree from Rice University. Stuart lives in the Happy Valley area of Santa Cruz with his wife and two children. One of his favorite activities is to go for a run along the Riverwalk.
Eva Salas, Secretary
Eva is a Costa Rican biologist that moved to Santa Cruz around 2011. She spent many years working in marine ecosystems and has witnessed firsthand the critical influence that rivers have on the ocean. She feels lucky to be living in Monterey Bay, a very unique place in the Pacific Ocean with a deep underwater canyon and lush kelp forests, and she knows that it is fundamental to take care of watersheds to keep that beauty going. She joined the CWC board because she believes in the importance of involving herself and the local neighbors in the vision for our San Lorenzo River.
She feels quite privileged to live right next to the Santa Cruz Riverwalk, a place to meditate, walk, admire nature, and her main biking route to get anywhere in this amazing community. She particularly loves to see the changing faces of the San Lorenzo River throughout the year.
She has a PhD in ecology and Evolutionary Biology from UC Santa Cruz, is married, and has one child. Works at FISHBIO doing research and monitoring of fish in California, SE Asia, and Costa Rica. Loves mountain biking, scuba diving, paddle boarding, and hanging out with friends and family.
Richard Beach
Richard, a resident of Santa Cruz County for 45 years, has worked in Silicon Valley startups, multinational companies and local real estate, utilizing his knowledge and experience in engineering, marketing and sales, finance and business management. He holds a BS in Engineering from SF State University, MSEE and MBA from Stanford University. Now mostly retired, Richard enjoys time focusing on his interests in environment, education and water projects and “paying it forward” to the next generation as they embark on their careers. CWC combines these interests and as a Board member, Richard uses his business background and love of community to sustain and grow the organization as it works to transform the lower San Lorenzo River. Richard also serves as the Chairman of the Scholarship Committee for the Santa Cruz Rotary and supports projects with Cabrillo College through the Presidents Circle and the Engineering Abroad Programs, the Ventana Wilderness Alliance and water and educational projects in Uganda.
Linda Cover
Artist, Educator, Community organizer, Environmentalist and Friend of the river Linda Cover lives and works at the Tannery Arts Center, located on the banks of the San Lorenzo River. She is a photographer/artist focused on community and the natural world. At the Tannery, she is a board member of ARTU the tenant’s union. She is the founder of Camp Tannery Arts, a summer camp for young artists and Art Outside, a nature-based summer camp. Linda is a SPECTRA teaching artist, through the Arts Council Santa Cruz County, teaching “Watershed Art” in schools throughout the county. As a city of Santa Cruz Arts Commissioner, she is honored to serve both the city and artist communities. Linda has organized clean-ups with kids and families in Watsonville & Santa Cruz for 20 years. You may see Linda on her yellow bike riding on the river walkway where she socializes with folks along the way, photographs the ever-changing landscape, and creates “sand doodles” and mandalas at the river mouth beach.
Megan Goddard
Megan is a long time resident of Santa Cruz County and she grew up in Aptos and currently lives in the City of Santa Cruz. Megan has always had a passion for water resources. She has an educational background of Water Resources, Watershed Science and GIS mapping to the CWC Board. She obtained a Masters and PhD from Clemson University with research specifically examining the impacts of land use change on water quality in small urban watersheds. She also has a BS from UC Davis in Environmental Resources with an emphasis on freshwater aquatic chemistry.
Megan brings years of work experience as a mapping expert and program manager to the CWC. She has been an employee of Google since 2006 with roles ranging from GIS mapping, Accessibility and creating accessible products for people with disabilities. She currently is a program manager for Google Maps.
Megan is a lifelong explorer and has traveled to 60+ countries for work, tourism, and scuba diving. She has lived and worked in Europe and Africa as an environmental consultant to water projects. Megan also graduated from the Leadership Santa Cruz County program in 2022 as part of class 35.
Drew Meyer
Drew leads cloud storage product marketing for Amazon Web Services, a subsidiary of Amazon.com that makes cloud computing services. An Idaho native and former professional whitewater guide in the US, Central and South America, Drew has lived firsthand the impacts of ecotourism, resource extraction and seen the delicate balance between use and abuse of river communities. He was appointed to two terms on the Santa Cruz Historic Preservation Commission, where he advised on the controversial La Bahia project, numerous private development projects and advocated the City adopt a Mills Act ordinance.
Drew holds a BA in Political Science with minors in French and English from the University of Puget Sound, and lives in a historic house with his wife (wedding confection artist Edith Meyer) and their twin boys in Santa Cruz, California.
Cindy Rubin, Immediate Past Chair
Cindy has extensive experience as a public affairs professional in government and in the high technology industry. A good part of her career was spent at IBM San Jose as the manager of the company’s California state and local government affairs programs. In 2003, Cindy established a public affairs consulting business advising government organizations on community outreach, economic development, and campaign communications.
Cindy’s passion for the environment was inspired by living in Los Angeles for 15 years and returning to the SF Bay Area where she experienced the joy of being able to hike among thousands of acres of protected open space within easy access of the metropolitan area. This inspiration led to decades of volunteer work in leadership roles with regional environmental organizations including the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County, Committee for Green Foothills and Greenbelt Alliance. Cindy views the Coastal Watershed Council as a critical player in ensuring the overall health of the region.
Cindy has a B.A. from UCLA in Political Science and a Masters from USC in public administration.