We’re a dedicated team of local, passionate, and visionary community members entrusted to the guide the Foundation, and ensure that it operates with the highest levels of community trust and integrity. Our Board has a wide variety of expertise in the fields of law and finance, local business, agriculture, construction, nonprofit management, arts and culture bearers, and public service.
Board of Directors
Cristine Kelly, CEO
Cristine accepted the position of Chief Executive Officer in September, 2023. In this role, she will work alongside the Board of Directors to build the Foundation’s infrastructure and engage community support to advance its mission and vision. Her passion for the past two decades has been helping mission-driven organizations innovate, thrive and grow. Cristine is the Founder and Principal of Fix Creative- a management consultancy serving the cultural and social impact sectors. She has served on the Boards of the Friendship Club (now Bright Futures for Youth), and Child Advocates, and is the former executive director of Music in the Mountains and the Sierra Mentoring Partnership. She has lived in Nevada County for over 30 years, and is the mom to five awesome adults and a couple of very cute dogs.
Michelle Amador
Michelle Amador is a lifelong singer and songwriter whose love for Nevada County grew over two decades of summer visits before moving here permanently in 2017. Michelle contributes to the health and well-being of her communities as an artist, Director of Development for the Mark Morris Dance Group, 2023 grant recipient of the Upstate Creative Corps, participant in the 2022 Western States Center Inclusive Democracy Cohort, member of the Equity and Inclusion Alliance of Nevada County, board member for Nevada County Arts Council, Harvestworks, and the Community Foundation, organizing member of the Cultural Solidarity Fund, and as a co-founder for Hatfly Productions. She lives in Grass Valley with her husband and son.
Richard Alan Baker
Richard is a fifth generation native of Nevada City, recently living here for the past 25 years. He is a past president of the board of the Center for the Arts in Grass Valley, a past member of the board of the Miners Foundry, a Nevada Joint Union School District Trustee and was instrumental in the concept and creation of the Gateway Bike Park in Penn Valley. Richard was a founding partner of Siteline Architecture in Nevada City for 21 years and recently went out on his own to provide construction management services as Richard Baker Projects. He graduated with a BA in Art from UC Santa Cruz and a 1st professional degree in Architecture from Pratt Institute.
Richard is deeply engaged in his community and hopes to help create a place that is not only culturally rich for our current generation but begins to offer our children a hometown that they will consider moving back to with their families. He is a husband and father of three boys and a grandfather.
Scott Beesley
Scott Beesley is a community leader and serial volunteer in Nevada County. When not doing his day job providing comprehensive financial & tax planning and socially responsible investment advice, his goal is to give 1000 hours per year back to his community. Most of his volunteer work falls in the areas of disaster management and economic development. He is the former Incident Command Team Lead for Nevada Co Sheriff’s Office Search & Rescue, former Chair of the Coalition of Firewise Communities, founder of the local CA Disaster Airlift Response Team, Vice Chair of Center for Nonprofit Leadership, and a frequent guest on local grant panels. Scott holds a B.A. in Economics from University of Michigan, M.S. in Data Analytics & Policy from Johns Hopkins, and is a Certified Financial Planner® professional. In his spare time, Scott spends unreasonable amounts of time and energy thrashing his body as an ex-member of Team USA for off-road triathlon, is a 3-time Ironman, and can often be found on his gravel bike in the furthest corners of The Sierra.
Amy Cobden, PhD
Amy Cobden was born and raised in Nevada County, on a large property with a hobby farm and over 200 free ranging chickens. Chicken is her second language, which has been of negligible use while living and working in other countries, including Switzerland, Germany, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Costa Rica. Science is her third language, which was hard-won through degrees in Neuroscience and Evolutionary Anthropology. Amy holds a Ph.D. in the latter, having spent the better part of a decade studying bonobos in the wild, non-invasive endocrinology, gender-based violence, and ecology. Amy now applies her scientific and anthropological skills to her work as a funding and strategy consultant in Nevada County, working to connect our communities’ many organizations, local governments, and myriad needs to funding sources through cooperative alliances. She also acts as a planning commissioner for Nevada City.
Sienna Crawford
Sienna Crawford was raised in Nevada County surrounded by her large Italian family. Her childhood was filled with exploring this beautiful county, alongside her brother and many cousins. Sienna earned a full ride scholarship to USF directly following high school, which started her scholastic and world journeys. She has since completed a BS in Business Management with a focus in Organizational Behavior and an MBA with a focus in Leadership and Change Management. Her career has spanned the sectors from private business owner, startup investor to now, where she focuses her passions in the Nonprofit Bright Futures for Youth as a Director of Development.
When she returned to Nevada County in 2006, she married her junior high sweetheart, also a native Nevada County resident. Besides her endeavors her days are filled with her most important job of all, being a Mama to her three year old little girl, Isabelle.
She is passionate about community, collaboration and impact and looks to serve these initiatives as a founding board member of the Community Foundation of Nevada County.
Jason Danielson
After graduating from Stanford, Jason co-founded two Silicon Valley start-ups and then spent two decades in Fortune 500 companies. He won a Technical Emmy for the Development of the Digital Workstation and partnered with over 100 software companies to bring to market countless digital solutions for broadcast and film. Since the mid-nineties Jason and his wife have owned property on the Ridge and today live in Nevada City. He has written two books of poetry and recently completed editing The Ridge Tapestries book for the North Columbia Schoolhouse Cultural Center. Jason maintains a conservation easement for BYLT and is active with SYRCL. He looks forward to giving back to the Nevada County community.
Daniela Fernández
Daniela Fernández works as a Consultant with local and regional organizations, agencies, and municipalities to educate and build more equitable and sustainable programming and policy. With a diverse lived experience and a master’s degree in Counseling Psychology, she has a deep social, racial, and gender analysis and understands the psychosocial effects of marginalization and systems of oppression. She’s dedicated the last two plus decades to social service, working with and advocating for myriad communities: seniors, adults and teens with disabilities, LGBTQIA+ youth, incarcerated women and their families, and communities of color.
Daniela also serves as Mayor of Nevada City on unceded Nisenan land. As the youngest person on the City Council, she brings a much needed fresh perspective and social justice lens to the work of the City. When not busy advocating for communities, she enjoys growing pretty and tasty things in the dirt, buying (and reading) all the good books, riding her Harley Davidson, and swimming in warm bodies of water.
Jesse Hicks
Jesse Hicks is a Nevada County native, creative director, and entrepreneur working at the intersection of culture, storytelling, and climate infrastructure. He has led brand, content, and experiential work for global companies, building campaigns and experiences designed to engage broad audiences and shape cultural conversation.
Previously, Jesse served as COO of a multi-state cannabis company and works as a VP focused on brand and communications, developing narrative systems that translate complex ideas into compelling, human stories.
He studied at Columbia University and spent over a decade living and working in New York City and Los Angeles before returning home to Nevada County with his family.
Today, he is working to develop climate-positive infrastructure in Nevada County, with a focus on strengthening local systems and advancing long-term economic and ecological prosperity in the region.
Tom Ivy
Tom runs a small, efficiency-minded, general and plumbing contracting business out of Grass Valley, originally started by his father. Born and raised in Nevada County, with some years spent at UC Santa Cruz and working in Seattle, he’s still taken with our home in western Nevada County. He was appointed to the Grass Valley Planning Commission in 2018 and then elected to the Grass Valley City Council in 2020. As a Council member, his most recent efforts are bringing Pioneer Community Energy to town and expanding and preserving the Loma Rica Trail Network.
His wife and young child, their garden, walking or biking through their local natural areas and parks and more are some of the things that have brought joy to his life lately.
Shane Johnson, MD
Shane Johnson, MD, is an entrepreneur and strategic advisor with over two decades of experience building and guiding early-stage companies in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare. He currently serves as Senior Vice President of InMed Pharmaceuticals and is the General Manager of its BayMedica subsidiary, which he co-founded in 2016 to develop scalable manufacturing for pharmaceutical-grade cannabinoids.
Shane earned his M.D. from Stanford University and holds a B.A. in Studio Art and B.S. in Neuroscience from Brown University. He was a Fulbright Scholar in Colombia. His community service includes nine years on the board of the Incline Village Community Hospital Foundation, as well as multiple other non-profit and for-profit board roles. Shane grew up in Nevada City, and after three decades elsewhere, moved back to Nevada City with his family, where he enjoys the Sierra foothills, skiing, trail running, pickleball, and outdoor adventures.
Megan Joseph
Megan Joseph, MA is the CEO of Impact Launch, a collective of social impact professionals that support individuals, teams and collaboratives to work effectively for equitable and sustainable outcomes in policy, systems and community change. Megan has worked for two decades with community based organizations to design and facilitate leadership development, organizational capacity building and project design. As Executive Director of Rise Together, she implemented a 250-member coalition for policy and systems change, addressing issues of employment, affordable housing and early childhood education for critical populations. Megan has practiced Radical Transformational Leadership for a decade with Dr. Monica Sharma, and over the last 10 years launched several leadership programs that have trained over 1,500 change makers to design and implement change in their organizations and communities. She has served as faculty at JFK University, and as an advisor for One of Us Foundation. Megan earned an MA in Consciousness Studies from JFK University and an MA in Criminology, Law and Society from UC Irvine.
Shana Maziarz
Shana Maziarz moved to Nevada County in high school and fell immediately and deeply in love with the Sierra Foothills. She has had a rambling career, including stints as a high school principal, film festival creative director, nonprofit manager, farmer, river guide, college professor and outdoor educator. A decade ago, Shana started a farm-to-table restaurant, bakery and brewery in downtown Nevada City called Three Forks Bakery & Brewing Co, which she recently sold to a group of her former employees. The common thread in all of her pursuits is a desire to build thriving and diverse communities, support a healthy planet and foster engaged democracy. She holds a BA from Prescott College and an Ed.M. from Harvard University. Read Spotlight
Jennifer Singer
Jennifer Litton Singer is the Executive Director of Bright Futures for Youth and Board President of the Center for Nonprofit Leadership. Jennifer co-founded The Friendship Club in 1995. The Friendship Club has evolved into Bright Futures for Youth with the merger of NEO in 2020 and the creation of SAFE, a program that helps youth experiencing housing instability. A native of Nevada County, Jennifer is a Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE). She is a Board member of the Nevada County Community Foundation and the Nevada County Continuum of Care and serves on the Nevada City School District Board.
Wendy Willoughby
Wendy began working with the Center for Nonprofit Leadership (CNL) in late 2009 and over the many years since has had the pleasure and honor to learn from some of the most dedicated and passionate leaders in Nevada County’s nonprofit sector and beyond. Wendy is the Director for the Center for Nonprofit Leadership and has for 10 years been the lead trainer for CNL’s flagship training, Board Essentials: Getting Great.
Prior to CNL, Wendy served as the Development and Education Director at the Foothill Theatre Company in Nevada City. She holds a BA in Theatre and Dance from UC Irvine. After earning her degree, she spent 10 years in the television industry, as both an Executive Assistant and Affiliate Relations & Promotions Manager.
Wendy also works at the Nevada County Fair as their Community Involvement Coordinator, managing several key areas of the annual Fair’s activities. Wendy’s newest adventure in service began in 2022 when she was elected to the Nevada Joint Union High School District’s Board; she is currently serving in her second term there.