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Our Staff
At TreePeople, one of our hallmarks is outstanding leadership. Our passionate staff of environmental stewards provides the inspiration and hard work needed for our programs to make a difference to the future of Los Angeles.
Meet some of the staff leaders who have dedicated their careers to healing the environmental challenges of the Los Angeles region:
Founder and President
Andy Lipkis
In 1970 Andy Lipkis began planting trees in Los Angeles as a fifteen-year-old and founded TreePeople in 1973. He continues to serve as TreePeople’s President. Andy is a practical visionary who has dedicated his life to healing the environment and improving the lives of individuals and communities. He has spearheaded an approach using trees and forest-inspired technologies to make cities sustainable while mitigating floods, drought, pollution, and global warming. Called “Functioning Community Forests,” it is being demonstrated in L.A. as a model for cities everywhere.
Executive Director
Tom Hansen
With more than 20 years of successful executive experience in corporate operations, finance, technical processes, general management and fundraising, Tom Hansen sought to use his skills more meaningfully by bringing them to the non-profit world. He joined us as Executive Director in 2004 to lead the organization to focus on its competencies of thought leadership and community action, and work towards building a sustainable Los Angeles.
Prior to joining TreePeople, Tom served as Director of Operations for St. Anne’s Home. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a B.A. in Business Administration and earned a J.D. from Loyola University in Chicago. Away from work, Tom is an avid hiker and enjoys cooking Saturday night dinners for his wife Maureen.
Management Team
Caryn Bosson
Senior Manager, President's Initiatives
Caryn Bosson first took up a shovel when she volunteered in TreePeople's campaign to plant a million trees in time for the 1984 Summer Olympics in L.A. She found this experience so satisfying that she left her job in Hollywood to join the organization's young staff, becoming our first managing director. After a hiatus of twenty years, Caryn returned in 2007 to work in partnership with Andy Lipkis, managing his strategic initiatives that promote the use of smart green infrastructure -- based on nature's systems, especially the forest -- to create truly sustainable cities.
During her time away from TreePeople, Caryn served for a decade as founding Executive Director of the Ojai Valley Youth Foundation. With a B.A. in Literature from UC Santa Barbara, she still surprises herself at the joy she finds working on technical issues at an environmental organization. Caryn telecommutes from Ojai where she lives with her husband Charlie, son Miles, and daughter Julia.
Mary Dotson
Director of Secondary Education
Mary Dotson joined TreePeople in 2000 when she was inspired to take on a more hands-on role to tackle our urban urgencies and create healthy communities. As our Director of Secondary Education she is able to realize this vision by overseeing Generation Earth – our secondary education program that operates under contract with the County of Los Angeles – to support 100,000 students each year to carry out greening projects for their schools and communities.
With more than 15 years of experience in civil engineering and urban planning, Mary is responsible for program planning, implementation and assessment, along with special projects such as a waste reduction, recycling and water pollution prevention workshops.
Mary enjoys spending time in the urban forest, believing that nature can help heal our cities and help inspire us to become better environmental stewards. She graduated with a B.S. in Community Health from California State University, Los Angeles and is a member of the North American Association for Environmental Education, the California Science Teachers Association and the Los Angeles Unified School District Service Learning Task Force.
Rebecca J. Drayse
Director, Natural Urban Systems Group
Originally from Port Townsend, Washington, Rebecca Drayse grew up in a green environment where rainfall was more than plentiful. Moving to Southern California’s arid climate, with its drought and water shortages, she decided to join TreePeople to help develop sustainable solutions to these issues. As director of the Natural Urban Systems Group, Rebecca leads our efforts to engage in research and policy activities that advance our vision for a “Functioning Community Forest” in every neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Since 2000, she has applied her strategic planning and project management skills to oversee the completion of a number of the group’s demonstration projects and our recently-completed watershed education garden and environmental learning center, which help illustrate the power of tree-mimicking technologies to help solve urban environmental problems.
Currently serving as our liaison for the multiphase Sun Valley Watershed Project, Rebecca is also president of the board of the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers Watershed Council, a steering committee member of the California Urban Water Conservation Council and an advisory board member of University of California’s Sustainable Cities Program.
Rebecca graduated Summa Cum Laude from Cal State, Dominguez Hills, with a B.A. in Environmental Studies. She and her husband Mark enjoy traveling - especially to Africa - cooking ethnic foods and any activity that involves being in or on the water.
Jim Hardie
Director of Park Operations
Jim Hardie was a full-time actor when he became interested in TreePeople after reading about our weekend plantings in the newspaper. While he had donated to a number of environmental organizations, Jim also had a growing desire to get out and do something tangible to make L.A. a better place. Shortly after he started volunteering, Jim took TreepPeople’s first-ever Citizen Forestry training in 1986 and began leading and training our growing volunteer base.
In 1992, Jim came onboard as Marketing Director of Earth Share/Environmental Federation of California, which raised money for TreePeople through workplace donations. In 1994, he became our Director of Forestry Programs for two years. And in 2006 he rejoined our staff as Director of Park Operations. In this current role, Jim oversees the strategic planning for our park’s future and the daily operations of our newly-opened Center for Community Forestry and 45 acres of trails and parkland. A TreePeople board member since 1994, Jim has also donated his time to produce our summer benefit entertainment series for the past decade.
Jim’s acting and entertainment career spans 32 years and has more than 90 television and film credits. Away from work, Jim enjoys cooking, organic gardening, reading, writing and spending time at home with his wife and son.
Christyne (Chris) Imhoff
Director of Education and Program Development
As a college intern working at TreePeople in the late 1970s, Chris Imhoff led school groups on environmental educational tours around our park and worked as a summer camp counselor. With a staff turnover happening at that time, Chris and another intern proposed to Andy Lipkis a restructuring of the education program to engage thousands of students through on-site Eco-tours and at assemblies across the city to join in the Million Tree goal prior to the 1984 Olympics.
Chris went on to assist Andy and wore many hats during this exciting period that included the beginnings of our fruit tree program and Citizen Forestry. Chris left on a year hiatus in 1984 to get married, travel and start her family. She rejoined TreePeople first as an educational consultant and in 2001 as a full time director of our elementary education programs. Since 2004, Chris took on an expanded strategic role and became Director of Education and Program Development where she continues to develop innovative programs to inspire L.A.’s adults, schoolchildren and teens to become responsible environmental stewards.
Chris holds a B.S. in Outdoor Recreation/Environmental Education from California State University Northridge. She is an ardent supporter of the Scouts and has heavily involved her son Weston (age 21) and Kayla (age 18) in TreePeople plantings, training and community organizing since they were young. Chris’ passions remain her family, travel and making an impact in her environment.
Laurie Kaufman
Director of Communications
Laurie Kaufman joined her first community planting in 1993 in the Guatemalan highlands and went on to teach tree planting on Hawaii’s Big Island. She has worked for more than twelve years with non-profit organizations on issues as diverse as community self-reliance, organic farming, sustainable cities and youth-at-risk.
In 2003 Laurie joined TreePeople to lead our branding and communications efforts and oversee our public relations, website and publications. As a key spokesperson for TreePeople, she helps to educate and inspire the public about our work to help nature heal our cities.
Laurie graduated with a B.A. in Mass Media Communications and English Writing from the University of Hartford and an M.A. in Cultural Anthropology from the California Institute of Integral Studies. She worked on the award-winning "Hawaii in Transition: Vision for A Sustainable Future" and is currently producing a series of videos about TreePeople. Away from the Yurt Village, Laurie enjoys hiking the beautiful Santa Monica Mountains with her husband Stephen Readmond and their family.
Peter Massey
Director of Grant Funding
With a live performing arts background Peter Massey has always been interested in inspiring people through his work. Leveraging his 15 years of experience running small non-profit organizations and grants management, Peter was drawn to TreePeople because he wanted to make a greater impact in his community by working with a larger organization.
As Director of Grant Funding, Peter oversees all funding requests to foundations, corporations and government agencies that generously support our programs and fund our progress toward a sustainable Los Angeles. He also plays an instrumental role in TreePeople’s ongoing strategic planning efforts.
Peter graduated from the University of Missouri, Kansas City with a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master of Fine Arts from Florida State. Pursuing his passion since childhood, Peter continues to practice the craft of playwriting and researching his family ancestry though he hasn’t found any royal blood lines yet.
Craig Prizant
Senior Director of Development and Marketing
Craig Prizant first came to Los Angeles in the early 1960s and immediately fell in love with the climate and people. He has worked tirelessly through the years to maintain and preserve our region’s intrinsic beauty.
Craig comes to TreePeople with over 28 years of business experience in the for-profit and not-for-profit worlds. He spent the first 19 years of his career in advertising and technology, working in collaboration with global firms such as Saatchi & Saatchi and Bozell Advertising before creating a dynamic business partnership with Apple Computer. Craig then decided to take his advertising and sales background and apply them to charitable organizations. He spent the last nine years fundraising and branding for several organizations in Los Angeles including The Jewish Federation and Kidspace Children's Museum. Craig received his bachelor degree in Marketing from The University of Southern California.
Jim Summers
Director of Reforestation Initiative
Jim Summers started volunteering regularly for TreePeople in 1989 when he decided it was time to give back to Southern California’s forests where he enjoyed hiking and camping. He joined us in 1995 to manage our urban forestry program and was promoted to Director of Forestry in 1999. In 2007, Jim relocated to the Midwest with his family and became a consultant for our forest restoration initiative. He rejoined our staff in 2008 to manage our restoration efforts in local state parks, mountains and surrounding national forests.
As Director of Forest Restoration Initiative, Jim is instrumental in bringing together our various programs in mountain forestry, tree care, public education, volunteer and community engagement to tackle our deforestation issues. His responsibilities also include developing local partnerships in our targeted areas and directing the recruitment and training of volunteers.
Graduated with a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma, Jim enjoyed a career in entertainment reporting and advertising before transitioning to management in the environmental field. He, his wife Tina and three young children are still enjoying the wonders of snow fall in Kansas.
Jodi Toubes
Senior Manager, Human Resources
Jodi Toubes has been a long-time fan of TreePeople – first as a place to get closer to nature, then as a place to hike with her kids and more recently as a parent volunteer when TreePeople’s Campus Forestry team arrived at her son’s school for a tree planting event – before joining us as our Human Resources Manager in 2008.
As TreePeople works to heal the city of Los Angeles, Jodi works to make our office environment a better place for each individual. After almost ten years of experience in human resources at a large Los Angeles law firm doing personnel, and benefits administration, Jodi traded the corporate offices for the Yurts. The venue may have changed, but Jodi’s goal remains the same: fostering a healthy work community for TreePeople – from those newly-arrived to the veteran employees of our close-knit team.
In addition to receiving a B.S. in Communication Arts from New York University Jodi is a former dancer and a certified Shiatsu practitioner. Married to writer Guy Toubes, with two sons, Max and Jack, her family is a constant inspiration.
Paige Van Riper
Director of Engagement & Technology
As a Colorado native who grew up with the great outdoors in her backyard, Paige Van Riper became interested in a non-profit career when she served on the board of a non-profit organization. Attracted by the opportunity to wear a number of hats and make a positive impact in the world, Paige was first introduced to TreePeople through her tenure at L.A. Works where she collaborated with us on many tree planting projects. The experience left such a favorable impression on her that she joined us as Director of Volunteer and Community Engagement in 2005 to fulfill her passion for working with volunteers and the environment.
Paige is instrumental in leading our ambitious efforts to engage the people of Los Angeles to take personal responsibility for their environment and become agents of change for our city. She brings more than 15 years of nonprofit management experience.
Having graduated with a dual degree in International Relations and East Asian studies from the University of Southern California, Paige enjoys hiking, camping, bicycling, kayaking and planting trees with her husband Rick Staba and son Nate.
Deborah Weinstein
Senior Manager, Natural Urban Systems Group
Growing up in Southern California, Deborah Weinstein loved the ocean and the mountains but it wasn’t until college that she developed a passion for protecting our natural resources for future generations. Since that time Deborah’s work experience has been devoted to this cause. She brings a wealth of national and international environmental policy experience from her tenure as a Presidential Management Fellow at the U.S. Department of Interior in Washington, D.C. and local knowledge from her experience working for the L.A. City Council.
In 2008 Deborah joined TreePeople’s Natural Urban Systems Group to engage in strategic planning and to cultivate partnerships with agencies, policymakers and the broader environmental community to promote our integrated approach to greening Los Angeles. She also leads specific projects that put this approach into action to create functioning community forests in our city.
Deborah holds a B.A. in Business/Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara and an M.A. in Public Policy from the University of California, Los Angeles. In her leisure time, she continues to enjoy outdoor sports and time at the beach.
Click here to read Andy's full bio.
