Staff

• Executive Director

Dr. Jacy Hyde is the Executive Director for the California Fire Safe Council. She grew up in the Santa Cruz mountains, and her love of the outdoors led her to pursue a BSc in Field and Wildlife Biology from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. After spending several years managing ecology field work all over the Western US and East Africa, Jacy went on to earn her PhD in Forest Resources and Conservation from the University of Florida, where she researched the impacts of energy infrastructure development on forest health. As a Science Fellow with the California Council on Science and Technology, Jacy developed and analyzed state policy with CA State Assembly Committee on Natural Resources. She then led mitigation efforts out of the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services as the Branch Chief for Hazard Mitigation Assistance and Deputy State Hazard Mitigation Officer, overseeing a portfolio of state and federal grant programs aimed at reducing risk from natural hazards and advancing equitable climate adaption approaches. In her free time, you can find her hiking, traveling, or curled up with a book.

• Deputy Director

Jessica is the Deputy Director for the California Fire Safe Council. She grew up on a small family farm in the Pacific Northwest where the seeds for her love of land stewardship and healthy practices for resilient communities were planted. Jessica holds a BA in Environmental Studies, with a minor in American Indian & Indigenous Studies, from UC Santa Barbara. Prior to her time at CFSC, Jessica worked in Urban Indian Health developing and directing programs to connect traditional and cultural practices to health and wellness for the wellbeing of American Indian/Alaska Native urban communities. Jessica’s background spans from sustainable food systems, to native habitat restoration, to traditional ecological knowledge, to cultural programs for resiliency. Jessica brings with her years of experience in leadership, program development, grants/contract management, project direction, partnership building, community engagement, and advocacy. Outside of work, Jessica enjoys gardening at home or hiking, camping, and exploring with her husband and their dog, Ozzy.

• Chief Financial and Administrative Officer

Joel holds a Masters degree from Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management and a CPA. He has over 30 years of experience in the non-profit sector. He grew up in Northern Minnesota and spent 20 years in Illinois raising a family and gathering his expertise. He has lived in California since 2012, and in the past decade started on the path of being a singer/songwriter.   He enjoys spending time with his family and his Maine Coon, Pizo.

• Chief Development Officer

Melanie has over 20 years of fundraising and development experience at a variety of non-profit organizations. She started as a development assistant with The Women’s Foundation of California. Later she worked at Women’s Initiative for Self Employment, raising funds from foundation, corporate, and government sources. As the Assistant Development Director at The Yosemite Fund she led individual giving campaigns for special projects in Yosemite National Park. Here Melanie discovered her passion for environmental causes. Since then, she has held Director of Development positions at As You Sow and Bay Area Open Space Council (now Together Bay Area) and most recently was the Chief Development Officer at John Muir Land Trust where she raised $6-8 million annually to acquire key conservation lands in the East Bay. She holds a BA in anthropology from San Francisco State University and lives in El Cerrito with her daughter, partner, and four adopted shelter cats. She is energized by the mission of California Fire Safe Council to create fire-resilient communities across the state.

• Chief Communications Officer

Armin Mahramzadeh is committed to helping address the climate crisis. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Armin has seen climate impacts worsen and the rate of climate emergencies dramatically increase in his own backyard, from extreme heat to wildfires to droughts.

With over ten years of experience working in communications and nonprofits, Armin is the Chief Communications Officer at California Fire Safe Council (CFSC). Prior to joining CFSC, Armin was the Media Relations Manager at The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in California, a nonprofit organization that focuses on nature-based solutions and conservation to combat climate change. Before joining TNC, Armin started his career in the climate space as the Communications Manager for Climate Resolve, a nonprofit that champions and implements equitable climate solutions in Los Angeles. Prior to Climate Resolve, Armin was the Communications Manager at CFA Society Los Angeles, a not-for-profit organization that promotes ethics in finance.

He graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz with a BA in Politics and minor in Legal Studies. Armin still lives in Los Angeles and enjoys watching sports and nearly all film and TV, playing basketball and tennis, eating good food with even better company, and spending quality time with family and friends.

• Senior Manager for Wildfire Programs & Grants

Julia grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and received her BA in History from Chatham University and her Master of Public Administration from the University of Pittsburgh. From there, she dove into the world of nonprofits and built a skill set that includes fundraising, grant writing, community outreach, strategic planning, advocacy, and digital marketing.
Julia is an avid outdoorswoman and has always been drawn to the mountains. A series of serendipitous events led her from Pittsburgh to a rural, California mountain community in 2019. She saw firsthand the looming threat of wildfire in her new home, inspiring her to join the local fire protection district’s board of directors and put her talents as a community advocate into action. She is thrilled to work within communities much like her own, helping to grow strong networks and unite people toward the common goal of building fire-resilient communities.

• GIS & Data Manager

Grant is the GIS and Data Manager for the California Fire Safe Council. After graduating with his B.A. in Geography and GIS from UC Santa Barbara, Grant managed research laboratories specializing in soil science and fire ecology, where he began using GIS at the professional level. Grant transitioned from research into a career in environmental consulting, where he honed his skills in GIS and data management to ultimately become the GIS manager for his previous role. Grant’s diverse background has allowed him to use his GIS and data management expertise to produce and manage spatial data sets for groundwater remediation, human health risk assessment, post fire damage mitigation, and many more projects. Outside of his career, Grant entertains his many hobbies, from backpacking to creating art or snowboarding, and spends any remaining time with his German Shepherd named Dug. Grant continues to expand his knowledge of the natural world and use of technological advances to study its complex systems to improve and better understand interactions between humans and the environment.

• Fire Safe Communities Program Manager

Jared joins us from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) with an extensive background in federal grant management, program management, financial regulations, data analysis, and data visualization. This was developed though work at JPMorgan Chase, The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES), and FEMA. At FEMA, Jared oversaw multiple mitigation grant programs including HMGP, BRIC, FMA, PDM, LPDM. He is a graduate of Sacramento State University where he earned his bachelor’s in business administration and MBA degrees. Most of his free time is spent wrangling his kids, but when he gets time to himself, he enjoys woodworking.

• Communications & Outreach Specialist

Megan Katich is a Communications and Outreach Specialist. Prior to joining the CFSC she worked as a wildland firefighter, NREMT, tour manager, and creative director. She studied Emergency Management at Northern Arizona University, with an emphasis on Incident Command Systems, interagency collaborations, and hazard mitigation. Her passions include outdoor advocacy, wilderness restoration, and community integration. She hopes that her creative background and hands-on experience as a wildland firefighter will help facilitate community collaboration and increased resiliency across all of California.

• Statewide Coordinator

Britney Munoz is an experienced, integral leader for Fire Safe Councils. For several years prior to her Resource Conservation District position as the San Diego Fire Safe Council Coordinator, she worked as a strategic outreach planner and spokesperson, so public relations and communications remain a natural, clear role for her.

Britney is a true Fire Safe Council ambassador who is always working to improve and disseminate FSC community wildfire protection plans (CWPPs) and fuel prevention and mitigation projects, as well as establishing local Fire Safe Councils, and transforming residents’ awareness though fire safety education.  She works tirelessly to ensure the safety of her community, especially through an always-active wildfire preparedness season and as fires worsen in intensity and frequency.

A respected leader with many wildfire agencies in San Diego, Britney is poised to continue that role and advance planning and partnerships at the statewide level.

• Development Coordinator

Eileen has decades of development experience, most recently as a nonprofit fundraising and communications consultant at home and abroad. Her philanthropic experience runs the gamut – she’s helped raise millions of dollars for affordable housing, education and the arts, and she’s also directed newly established nonprofits to create and implement their first-ever fundraising strategies for animal advocacy, preservation of indigenous culture and environmental protections (to name a few). Wherever she finds herself, she’s recognized for her adept communication and relationship-building skills.

Eileen was born in northern California and grew up in rural Elk Grove, spending lots of time on her family’s dairy farms. She earned her BA from San Francisco State University and her MA from Claremont Graduate University. After traveling internationally for years, she once again found herself in a rural community – the Sierra Nevada foothills of Northern California, a region known for fire risk. A consummate activist, her first love has always been for the environment. She is thrilled to apply her personal and professional talents to help further the mission of the California Fire Safe Council!

• Executive Assistant

Felicia grew up in the wildland–urban interface of rural Nevada County. Her passion for the natural world led her to pursue a degree in Environmental Science from Humboldt State University with a focus in Watershed Management and Wildland Soil Science. She has worked for multiple grassroots nonprofits in community outreach and fundraising roles and became a California Naturalist in 2019. In her spare time, Felicia enjoys going on adventures and reading a new book.

• Senior Grant Specialist

Dave worked for the California Fire Safe Council from 2009 to 2011 as the North Coast grant specialist and recently returned in April 2021 as a senior grant specialist.

Dave has more than 25 years of federal grants experience serving local governments, nonprofits, corporations, and governing boards. Prior to joining (and re-joining) the CFSC, he worked for a large California public school district as their grant compliance officer, managing the district’s discretionary federal grants; he was the director of grant management for a national education reform nonprofit; and, most recently, was a self-employed federal grants consultant, managing a team of independent professionals that secured $200 million in federal funding and managed over $350 million in federal grants.

Dave is a California native. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in public administration from the University of Southern California and Golden Gate University respectively. In his spare time, he enjoys gaming (poorly) with his nephew, attending classic car auctions and watching baseball games (his goal is to visit all 30 MLB parks).

• Senior Grant Specialist

Chris joins us from the California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) with an extensive background in data analysis, federal grant management, research support, GIS mapping and SOP development. This was developed through work with the hazard mitigation grants division and the Seismic Safety Commission. He is a a graduate of the University of the Pacific where he earned his bachelor’s in Organizational Sociology and MBA degrees and also served in student recruitment for many years. He has been lucky enough to travel throughout the state and the U.S. to see all the beauty and natural wonders both have to offer with his wonderful family by his side.

• Staff Grant Specialist

Nina was previously a California Climate Action Corps fellow serving with CFSC and is now a Staff Grant Specialist in the Grants Clearinghouse department. She received her B.A. in Environmental Studies with a Concentration in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is now currently pursuing a master’s degree at the University of Southern California in Geographic Information Science and Technology (GIST). Before joining CFSC, Nina conducted geospatial work on an Aerial Photo Project for UC Santa Cruz in their Digital Initiatives department and fieldwork in rocky intertidal zones across the Northern and Central Coasts of California. 

During her time as a fellow, Nina, along with her co-fellows, worked on a state-wide mapping project to identify communities most vulnerable to wildfire events to help direct targeted outreach in these areas. She also helped collect important information from past and current CFSC grantees about their impacts in communities and the sustainability of their CFSC-funded projects. In the last month of her fellowship, Nina assisted in planning a fuels reduction event with the Sierra Resource Conservation District at a property hoping to rebuild after the Creek Fire. 

She is excited to bring her passion and interests into her new role at CFSC. She looks forward to supporting local fire mitigation organizations to build their capacity and complete successful projects. 

• Staff Grant Specialist

I’m a Grants Specialist at CFSC, with a background in international development. I was born and raised in El Salvador, where I completed my bachelor’s degree in international relations at the University of El Salvador before advancing my studies in Sustainable Development at the University of Warsaw in Poland. My professional journey has taken me through various governmental and non-governmental organizations, focusing on development projects in my home country, addressing gender equality, justice system reform, environmental sustainability, and human rights issues. These experiences have strengthened my expertise in project management, financial and administrative oversight, and grants administration. Outside of work, I love hiking, traveling, biking, and spending quality time with friends and family. I’m excited to join CFSC and contribute to its mission of building fire-resilient communities in California, my new home.

• Accounting Specialist

Jamie is a nature loving, California raised accountant. Jamie spent her childhood years living in the Bay Area then moved to Sacramento with her family in 2001. She attended Sacramento State and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration: Accounting Concentration. Throughout her college years, Jamie was involved in youth programming through nonprofit events and various community services. Her passion for the community and nonprofits led to her experience with small business and nonprofit accounting. Having grown up in California, the preservation of nature is a priority to Jamie. Jamie’s happy place is camping with her family. A perfect day for her would be sitting out on the grass, having her feet in the sand, and enjoying a great view! On one of her nature getaways in 2020, Jamie experienced an evacuated from the Creek Fire area while on a trip visiting Mono Hot Springs. This experience, along with the rest of the 2020 wildfire season emergencies, contributed to Jamie’s desire to join California Fire Safe Council. She wants our future CA generations to be able to enjoy all the beautiful nature, as well as to have the ability to breathe in the fresh air.

• Financial Specialist

Financial Specialist