Our team
Meet the Earth Team Staff
Manuel Alonso
Executive director
Born in Spain, Manuel is an anthropologist and archaeologist interested in the protection of cultural and biological diversity. He has been working with environmental non-profit organizations for more than 25 years in Europe, Central, and South America and the United States. Manuel has been with EarthTeam since 2013.
Little Known Fact: Manuel loves to hike in the wilderness with his two (or three!) big golden retrievers. He was the founder of the TUVA Foundation, (United Lands of Neighbors for the Environment) and acted as its Executive Director for 11 years, from 1990 to 2001. As a local nonprofit headquartered in the town of Puerto Jimenez, TUVA launched collaborative community-conservation initiatives in a highly conflictive area that in 1989 had the highest deforestation rate in the world, finally saving over 5 million trees in a 20,000-acre buffer zone around Corcovado National Park, in southern Costa Rica. TUVA’s pioneering “working landscapes” approach built a coalition of stakeholders including local residents, landowners, government agencies, eco-tourism operators, illegal loggers, gold miners, indigenous groups and a wide network of over 50 local, regional and international organizations. TUVA also played a key role in the Stone Container campaign in 1990, a transnational industrial forestry project that threatened the integrity of local forest ecosystems. In 1990 TUVA also started the Osa Sea Turtle Study, a community-based effort to protect several endangered species of sea turtles. TUVA’s story was featured in NPR’s Living on Earth Top Story in 1998.
This 10- year effort resulted in groundbreaking agreements that successfully protected cultural and biological diversity in an extensive “working buffer zone” around Corcovado National Park, conserving landscapes and providing new economic alternatives to local residents, including the beginnings of the Smart Wood certification program to support sustainable local communities. According to National Geographic, Corcovado National Park’s 150,000 acres contains the richest rainforests in the world and is the “most biologically intense place on Earth”. Today, TUVA’s legacy continues and has expanded under the management of a new organization, Osa Conservation, that took over operations in 2005.
Noah Slager
Program Director
Noah graduated from Columbia University with a degree in Earth Science and Anthropology. As an undergraduate, he performed research on paleoclimate variability in the Italian Dolomites and led an outreach project which provided resources and supplies to those struggling with housing in the Morningside Heights community. During his sophomore year, he joined The Farmlink Project, an organization founded during the pandemic to connect farms with surplus produce to food banks in need.Noah spent the past two summers leading backpacking and service trips for high school students in Maine and Alaska. These experiences brought him to the frontlines of some of the world’s most pressing climate and conservation challenges and led him to seek out ways to use outdoor education to inspire young people to become environmentally conscious leaders. He is committed to fostering resilience, self reliance, and a passion for conservation in students by bringing them into contact with the power and potential of the great outdoors.
Darius Roffee
Campus Coordinator
Darius Roffe graduated from San Francisco State University with a B.A. in International Relations, with plans to pursue a Master’s degree in International War Studies.
Born and raised in the Bay Area, Darius fell in love with the outdoors, hiking in Tilden regional park and exploring California’s national parks.
This passion was supported by the courses he was able to take throughout his elementary and middle school with the edible schoolyard programs run in the Berkeley public schools. There, he got a hands-on education in how we interact with our environment and what we as people can give and take from and our planet.
Darius went through Environmental Traveling Companions (ETC) youth leadership training and volunteered as a kayak guide on countless trips for people with disabilities and at-risk youth.
With ETC, he learned how to guide and follow leave-no-trace and mindfulness practices in the outdoors.
While attending university, he continued to pursue a passion for the outdoors by working at REI, gaining knowledge and experience and a love for sharing the outdoors with others. His favorite thing to do when not working is getting outdoors, hiking, backpacking, kayaking and sharing those experiences with others.
After completing his undergraduate studies, he wanted to find a way to combine his love for the outdoors and a desire to make a positive impact on his community, and found the perfect place to start at Earth Team.
Jamie Skillen
Campus Coordinator
Jamie is an environmental educator originally from the East Bay. Though her environmental career is only just beginning, her love of nature started at a very young age, spending summers camping in the Stanislaus National Forest.
She attended college at CSU Monterey Bay. There, Jamie fell in love with ocean conservation and sustainability, volunteering at environmental education center, MEarth, and taking up a part time job at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. After graduating with a degree in Environmental Education in 2020, Jamie joined the Aquarium’s Interpretive Programs department as a Naturalist. She delivered public programs and lead private tours all while inspiring ocean conservation to a diverse range of guests, donors, volunteers, and staff.
Jamie is excited to be joining EarthTeam and bring her passion for sustainability and environmental education back to her home in the East Bay. She stands by fostering a positive, healthy learning environment for all students to explore their own passions, and hopes to inspire the students today to protect our planet for generations to come.
Mina Boozarpour
Campus Coordinator
Mina Boozarpour grew up in Moraga in the East Bay area where she was surrounded by nature trails with many opportunities to explore the surrounding environment. Attending the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB), Mina earned her bachelor’s degree in both Environmental Studies and Global Studies. At UCSB, Mina developed a passion for sustainable living: eating a plant-based diet, collecting home food waste for composting, biking for low-carbon transportation, gardening in community raised beds, buying local produce and products, and minimizing her consumer habits.
Mina spent some time at UCSB volunteering as a Snowy Plover Docent with Coal Oil Point Reserve. Here, she patrolled the beach as both a protector of the Plovers’ vulnerable sand dune habitat and as a figure to teach public beachgoers about this threatened bird species. Mina also held a few internships, most recently working as a Science Communications Fellow with the Environmental Markets Lab (emLab). This position greatly expanded Mina’s understanding of the effort needed to translate highly technical scientific research into accessible language and visuals for the general public. Mina seeks to connect the educational skills that she has gained from school and work with her broad environmental interests in water conservation, food systems, and resource circularity.
Mina loves being active and spending time outdoors whether it be camping, hiking, surfing, diving, or simply having a nice picnic. When indoors, however, she enjoys reading, cooking, and crafting. After traveling Asia for almost eight months straight, Mina hopes to continue exploring the world and learning about people, culture, and the environment.
Isa Mattioli
Campus Coordinator
Isa was raised in the Bay Area, and was always passionate about helping animals and the environment. They went on to complete a Bachelor’s in Animal Science with minors in Environmental Science, Biology, and Spanish at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. While in college, they served as a Field Team Leader in research labs focused on Pismo clams and Northern elephant seal population ecology, as well as being elected the President of Wildlife Club. These experiences led them to gain a true passion for mentoring students and helping them explore their passions for helping the environment. After graduating, they completed an internship with the Sea Otter Program at the Monterey Bay Aquarium where they worked with rescued and rehabilitated sea otters. Following the completion of this internship, they began working with EarthTeam as an OVTA coordinator, leading student interns with trash monitoring, and with Headwaters Science Institute, helping elementary students create their own environmental research projects. When Isa is not working, they love to go to the movies, crochet, and play board games. Isa is excited to continue on with EarthTeam as a Campus Coordinator to share their passions for teaching, mentorship, and environmental science with students in their community.
Manuel Smythe
Systems Engineer
Manuel joined Earth Team in 2017 as Logistics Coordinator and in 2019 he was promoted to Information Technology Manager, in charge of hardware and software. A certified Salesforce Administrator, he manages our Salesforce system, Form Assembly forms, this webpage, and our office network and servers. He coordinates the internship registration and Outdoor explorers trip reservation systems, and helps managing our office.
Manuel is also a Communications and Development Advisor at The Watershed Project. Before joining Earth Team he was running his own business, and prior to that he worked with Dobl, a software technology company.
Jenna Topper
Wilderness Leadership Consultant
Jenna graduated from Sonoma State majoring in Environmental Studies with an emphasis on conservation and restoration with a minor in Biology. She has been interested in wildlife from a young age and has worked along side a variety of animal rehabilitation and protection agencies. Throughout college her love for wildlife uncovered deeper intrinsic values she holds for nature and all it has to offer. She is inspired to use her background and experiences to promote environmental awareness throughout the community and to provide opportunities for youth to engage in environmental pursuits and sustainable actions.