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Program Areas:

Environment
Economics
Justice
Education
Public Partnership
War & the Environment

Projects:

San Francisco Bay Area:

San Francisco
 • Hunters Point Shipyard
 • Yosemite Slough
 • Treasure Island
 • Presidio
Alameda
 • Alameda Naval Air Station
 • FISC Annex
East Bay Housing
Oakland
 • Chinatown
Vallejo
 • Mare Island Naval Shipyard
Contra Costa County
 • Concord Naval Weapons Station
Suisun Bay
 • Mothball Fleet

National:

Military & the Environment
RABS

International:

Philippines
Okinawa
Hidden Casualties of War

Arc Ecology: Our Staff

Combining experience in toxic cleanup, environmental restoration, and economic development

Saul Bloom, Executive Director (Ext. 306), is Arc Ecology's founder and has been its Executive Director since 1983. Before founding Arc, Mr. Bloom worked for Greenpeace, serving on its Pacific Southwest Regional Board of Directors, as Alternative U.S. representative to Greenpeace's International Board of Trustees and for six years in various campaign coordinator capacities including U.S. National Nuclear Issues Coordinator and Southwest Regional Campaign Coordinator. Since leaving Greenpeace and founding Arc Ecology, Mr. Bloom has served on a number of official and quasi-official entities, including the California State Base Closures Environmental Advisory Committee, the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Citizens Advisory Committee, and the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Restoration Advisory Board. Mr. Bloom edited Arc Ecology's compendium on the 1991 Persian Gulf War "Hidden Casualties - the Environmental, Economic and Political Impacts of the Persian Gulf War" and has authored various white papers including several on California's base closures. Opinion pieces and articles by Mr. Bloom have been published in the Christian Science Monitor, San Francisco Examiner and San Francisco Bay Guardian. In 2000, Mr. Bloom authored San Francisco's successful voter resolution on the toxic waste cleanup of the Hunters Point Shipyard. In 2002, he chaired a blue ribbon panel reviewing the terms of the Conveyance Agreement between the City of San Francisco and the Navy regarding the transfer of the Hunters Point Shipyard. Mr. Bloom has lectured at the University of California Berkeley, San Francisco State University, University of Okinawa, University of the Philippines, and University of Bristol in England. He has been quoted in numerous articles internationally.

Nerminda Sagum, Office Manager and Program Director (Ext. 301), holds a degree in Civil Engineering from the Holy Angel University in Angeles City, Pampanga Philippines. She has more than six years experience in military base closure issues. Nerminda worked as a community organizer for the Central Luzon Alliance for a Sovereign Philippines which investigated the contamination of Clark Airfield. In 1994, she worked for the Nuclear Free Philippines People's Task Force for Bases Cleanup.

Inna Volynskaya, Education Programs Coordinator/ Special Assistant to Executive Director (Ext. 304), is an experienced community organizer specializing in environmental and environmental justice issues. Inna has worked with nonprofit organizations all over California and nationwide including TreePeople, GreenPeace, Coalition for Clean Air, Touchable Stories and Sierra Club and with EJ communities in the city of Richmond, Oakland, and Bayview Hunters Point. She was involved in starting and facilitating a state-wide University-level program called Education for Sustainable Living through which students learn about the many facets of sustainability and implement tangible change on their campuses. Inna also conducted a study on the effects of mining and mining reclamation on indigenous communities in Arctic Alaska. She holds a B.S. in Conservation and Resource Studies from the University of California, Berkeley.

Eve Bach, Economist/Planner (Ext. 303), helps disadvantaged communities articulate their needs and present their ideas for the sustainable redevelopment of military bases and other communities affected by the redevelopment of closed military bases. Prior to her position at Arc Ecology, Ms. Bach was Assistant City Manager for Planning and Community Development for the City of Berkeley, where she was responsible for Planning, Building Codes, the Housing Authority, Housing Rehabilitation, and Federal Community Development Programs. She has written extensively about the role of local government and public assets in creating new forms of community-based development. She is President of the Public Trust Group and is on the Board of Directors of East Bay Housing Organizations.

Mike McGowan, Staff Scientist (Ext. 308), is a restoration ecologist with 20 years experience in research, teaching, and community-based ecological restoration. An authority on the ecology of San Francisco Bay environments, he has monitored the impacts of dredge spoil disposal, assessed potential impacts to fishes of runway expansion into the bay, analyzed data on spread of invasive wetlands plants, and evaluated the habitat benefits of native oyster restoration. He is the author of numerous scientific publications and technical reports, and he contributed chapters on fishes for the San Francisco Estuary Wetlands Habitat Goals Project. Mike has a B.A. in Biology and an M.A. in Marine Biology from San Francisco State University, and a Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography from the University of Miami.

Angelo P. King, Community Outreach Coordinator (Ext. 311), is generally recognized as an emerging leader in the Southeast communities. An entrepreneur and administrator, he has owned businesses and currently directs a workforce development program, Southeast Neighborhood Jobs Initiative Roundtable. In this capacity, he has bridged meaningful relationships with UCSF that has led to employment, contracting, and other crucial partnering opportunities. Most notably, he worked to help organize AIMCO tenant Associations to stop illegal evictions and improve the habitability of the dwellings. This process led to the Lawsuit filed by the City and County of San Francisco against AIMCO to improve and repair units deemed in poor condition. Mr. King is committed to serving the community.

Kevin Casey, Controller (Ext. 302), focuses primarily on the design of Arc Ecology's accounting system, end-of-period closings, and financial-statement preparation. He also assists on management issues surrounding government grants, personnel policies, fiscal sponsorship, and contracts. After working as a bookkeeper for small businesses for a decade, he completed several years of graduate business coursework with a focus on nonprofit accounting. He's worked as an auditor of nonprofits and as a Finance Specialist for the Tides Center.