Natzieli Alvarez

Natzieli (she/they) is an artist, mother, farmer and practitioner of Curanderismo devoted to the healing of self and supporting community in reconnecting to land and spirit.

Meadow Carder-Vindel

Meadow is a plant whisperer, birthkeeper, minister and community builder practicing Relational Land Wisdom on her family's urban farm.

Nkem Ndefo

Nkem is foremost an alchemist and also a disabled Black midwife, facilitator, coach, and strategist. She is the founder of Lumos Transforms and creator of the Resilience Toolkit, vehicles for healing and liberatory change across borders and at all scales. Her work builds embodied capacity to stabilize the impacts of personal and collective trauma and catalyze structural transformation. Nkem has led multi-year initiatives in embodied antiracism, healing justice, and resilience capacity building for organizations and systems in the U.S., the UK, and Palestine, and directs several certification and professional training programs internationally.

Masha Vernik

Masha is a researcher, writer, and grower focused on sustainable agriculture, climate change, and seeds. For her PhD at the University of Washington, she is studying how farmers experience and adapt to climate change, with special interest in the role that seeds and land access play in resilience. Her learning extends beyond the classroom and into the field as a community gardener and previously, a farmworker. She is also a co-organizer of the Jewish Seed Project, exploring cultural connections with seedkeeping and stewarding seed stories. Before graduate school, she did communications at a non-profit focused on building a more just food system.

Cheyenne Reynoso

Cheyenne (Choctaw, Cherokee, Muscogee, and Mexican descent, she/her) is the TTPC's Administrative Coordinator. She recently obtained her Master's in American Indian Studies from UCLA. Her thesis focuses on the creation and transformational work of The Tongva Taraxat Paxaava Conservancy and Sogorea Te' Land Trust.

Ian Schiffer

Ian is a kuuy/ger (meaning guest in Tongva/Hebrew) ritualist and resource mobilizer of Ashkenazi descent born and raised in Tovaangar/LA. He also collaborates with Eyaa' Paar (same waters/mayim hayim) and the Owens Valley Indian Water Commission. Ian supported the first land back to Tongvetam and is part of shomeret shalom, a Jewish decolonial pilgrimage order where he is learning the role of the inn-keeper practicing radical hospitality. He loves water, embodiment, play, shabbat, and is breathing in and sharing embodied belonging.

Anastasia Maier

Grounded in the work of thought leaders, earth-based practices and her mentors, Anastasia (she/her) is exploring how to use the legal system to support both humans and ecology, while serving as the Land Clinic Director. Movement is her first language. She draws from her years of formative dance-training to translate concept into form. Her drive for the clinic comes from her transition into motherhood, connecting with her people's relationship to land as well as living in the forested foothills of the Snoqualmie Valley. She is admitted to practice law in California and Washington and is a certified facilitator of the Resilience Toolkit.

Chris Cohen

Chris (he/him) is the CEO of Sustainable Law Group Inc. (SLG), the sponsoring law firm that supports the clinic's operations. Chris is passionate about helping forward-thinking leaders and activists use business, cooperation and creative projects to drive positive social and environmental change. Chris also provides estate planning services with a particular emphasis on succession planning for US Forest Service Recreation Residence cabins. Prior to practicing law, Chris was a government relations professional for Scripps Institution of Oceanography, where he advocated for earth and ocean science programs and acquired an in-depth knowledge of environmental science and policy issues. He is admitted to practice law in California.