Claremont Canyon Conservancy

Jon Kaufman, President of the Board, was executive vice president and a partner at Solem & Associates, a San Francisco-based public relations before retiring in 2015. Jon's work involved working with public officials and advising clients on public policy issues, including public utilities and transportation, land use, and energy, throughout the Bay Area. His interest in wildlife conservation and the environment date from his childhood growing up in Cleveland, Ohio where his father was a city planner and worked to save local parkland. Jon oversees the stewardship program for the Conservancy and is a leader in the effort to form a Joint Powers Agency for wildfire prevention and vegetation management in the East Bay.

Marilyn Goldhaber, Vice President of the Board, is a native of Oakland and a graduate from UC Berkeley with degrees in mathematics and biostatistics. Before joining the Claremont Canyon Conservancy board she worked in epidemiology at Kaiser Permanente and in two State Health Departments. After the 1991 Oakland Fire, she and 11 other members of the community formed a task group to educate themselves in fire ecology and learn how to live in an wildland-urban interface. The group incorporated as a nonprofit in 2001 and the Claremont Canyon Conservancy was born. Ms. Goldhaber was website manager and newsletter editor for many years and is training others to take over these duties soon. She now lives in Texas and functions in an advisory capacity to the Conservancy.

Nancy Mueller, Secretary of the Board, is a native Californian and has lived in East Bay since coming to study at UC in 1967. After graduating in humanities, she taught sixth grade for a while, then went on to become one of the area's leading realtors. A resident of Alvarado Road since the late 1970s, Nancy was always curious about the overgrown park, we now fondly know as John Garber Park, and thought it would be a wonderful place for her two young boys to play—if only it was more safe and accessible.

Fast forward to the 1991 great fire. Nancy’s husband Robert fought along side firemen saving their house at the very edge of the burn zone. After the fire, Nancy had a further desire to see Garber Park developed and the whole canyon made more fire safe. In conversation with other neighbors, the concept of a Claremont Canyon Conservancy was hatched and Nancy became one of the 12 founding board members. Nancy’s concern about reducing critical fuel loads and her years negotiating real estate transactions encouraged her to rejoin the board in 2016 to work for the safety of all.

Rick Marcus serves as Treasurer of the Conservancy, in addition to being a board member. He has been living in the Claremont since 1990, but his roots in Berkeley go back a good deal farther. His father entered the university as a freshman in 1924, and his mother graduated in 1939 (and had a crush while an undergrad on a classmate -- Eldred G. Peck, who went off to Hollywood and made quite a name for himself using his middle name Gregory). Rick's brother and daughter both graduated from Berkeley High, and both have UC Berkeley degrees, as does Rick and as did his late wife Andrea Saltzman. Rick spent the 1970s as a litigating lawyer in San Francisco. Rick's job now is training future litigators at UC Hastings in San Francisco, but roaming the trails and roads in the hills is his hobby, particularly since the onset of the pandemic. He was delighted to return to Berkeley in 1989 after spending the 1980s in Illinois, where the difference in elevation between the lowest and highest point in the entire state is about half the difference in elevation between the lowest and highest points (sea level and Vollmer Peak) in the city of Berkeley. He had not previously appreciated how important hills are.

Josh Borkowsk is a GIS specialist with former training trail building and landscape management. Josh lives in Oakland and can be found often on the trails in Claremont Canyon as an avid hiker and weekend volunteer.

Greg Call has been hiking and living in the Oakland/Berkeley hills since coming to UC Berkeley in 1981 to attend graduate school. After graduating in 1985 with a law degree and a graduate economics degree, Greg was a commercial trial lawyer for 39 years and successfully represented a diverse range of clients including UC, cities and other government entities, corporations large and small, partnerships and individuals. Greg has served on boards for law firms, non-profits and alumni organizations as well as advising boards in various disputes. Greg and his wife Carolyn enjoy going on hiking adventures near and far. Claremont Canyon is an out the front door resource they, like many others, enjoy and are excited to help protect through participation in the Claremont Canyon Conservancy. 

Derek McGreal was born and grew up in Sacramento, moving to Berkeley in 1979 for graduate school in Economics at UC Berkeley. He subsequently worked in finance for nearly 40 years, working with State Housing Finance Agencies to finance mortgages for first time homebuyers. He also worked briefly for the World Bank in Washington DC, and studied Spanish in Guadalajara, and is now fluent.

He closed escrow on the house where he currently lives, next to John Garber Park, a month before the 1991 firestorm. Because of that, he had a front row seat to the devastation that a firestorm in the hills can bring. The only reason that his house was saved was because Alvarado Road was determined to be the line of last resort to stop the fire from migrating down the hill and burning down the Claremont Hotel. A fire truck was stationed in front of his house, and helicopters dumped pink fire retardant on the 700 and 800 blocks of Alvarado Road. When it was all over, his house was the highest surviving house on the hill. He is very motivated to work together with the Conservancy to minimize the risk that this level of loss of property and lives will ever happen again. In the 35 years since the fire, the hills have evolved from a scorched moonscape to once again being covered with thick and thriving vegetation. The urgency to manage and maintain a firesafe environment in the hills is as urgent now as it has ever been.

Bob Strayer grew up on a farm in Ohio. As a true Renaissance man, Bob has worn many hats: computer consultant and part time actor in the 1980s, skilled carpenter in the 1990s, construction manager in the 2000s, and now a neuromuscular massage therapist. Throughout his many careers Bob has volunteered his time to the community, particularly regarding the environment. He was previously a consultant to the local chapter of the Sierra Club and served on the Conservancy board from 2013 through 2020. Bob returned to our board in 2026. As a regular Steward of Garber Park, both in the past and currently, Bob has led many work parties to build and maintain trails in the East Bay Hills.

Elizabeth Stage is a science educator who’s lived in Claremont Canyon for over forty years. She retired from the University of California, Berkeley in 2016 as Director Emerita of the Lawrence Hall of Science. Her past work includes leading professional learning and assessment programs for teachers, researching and evaluating programs for equity in math and science, and teaching students from middle school to graduate school. Having worked at the state, national, and international levels, she is delighted to work locally on the boards of the Claremont Canyon Conservancy as well as the North Hills Community Association, where she is Vice Chair of the Association and heads its public safety committee as liaison with police beat 13Y.