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Staff Bios

Meredith Thomas, Executive Director

 
Meredith Thomas stepped in as Executive Director on July 1st, 2009, after spending two years running programs and operations at NPC. Meredith believes that collaboration between park advocates and the City is essential for driving improvement and maintaining high standards for our neighborhood parks.
 
Meredith is proud to have supported the total renovation of Balboa Park Playground and Franklin Square Playground, as well as enhancements to the Fillmore Turk Mini Park, Fallen Bridges/ 18th & Utah Mini Park, and Crocker Amazon Playground. She is also looking forward to the installation of Helen Diller Playground at Dolores Park in conjunction with the Friends of Dolores Park Playground, among many other exciting projects NPC’s park groups are working toward.

Meredith is excited to continue NPC’s efforts to leverage volunteerism and community-driven park improvements in addition to partnering with the City to implement innovative park financing tools, ensure long-term open space planning accounts for increased density and prioritizes parks, and to help realize the Blue Greenway.

Meredith has been an active participant on the 2008 Clean and Safe Neighborhood Parks Bond since June of 2007, providing input on the development of the bond, hosting community meetings prior to the passage of the bond to facilitate voter discussions with RPD, and now sits on the Opportunity Fund Task Force, Restroom Task Force, Trails Working Group, and is providing input on the Forestry portion of the bond. Under her direction, NPC is also tracking planning and design for the neighborhood parks with dedicated funding, and will continue to host public discussions related to the bond in conjunction with RPD.

Prior to joining NPC in 2007, Meredith was the Land Conservation Program Associate at the Pacific Forest and Watershed Lands Stewardship Council. In that position, she worked to preserve in perpetuity more than 140,000 acres of watershed lands in California through stakeholder engagement and policy development. Meredith was responsible for convening public and key stakeholder meetings to plan for the preservation and enhancement of existing uses of land owned by the Pacific Gas and Electric Company throughout California, and to facilitate consensus about how the land preservation should occur given conflicting uses and interests (such as existing cattle grazing occurring adjacent to streams with sensitive trout habitat). Meredith was also involved in the development and launch of the associated grant-making plan that is investing $30million in efforts to connect under-served youth to the outdoors.
 
Having begun her career in the Nature Trail Program at the San Francisco Zoo at the age of twelve, Meredith spent more than seventeen years as a volunteer, intern and staff member culminating in her position as an animal keeper, where she was most often caring for koalas and various birds. During her time at the zoo, Meredith participated in the 1993 transition from City to private management, the 1997 passage of the infrastructure bond, and was a member of the Teamsters union.

Meredith holds a Bachelors of Science in Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology from UC Davis and a Masters of Arts in Environmental Business Relations from San Francisco State University.

Hailing from a park family, Meredith’s parents met on a tennis court in San Francisco and her sister is a California State Park Ranger. Meredith lives in the Lower Haight and is excited to be so deeply connected to amazing community networks in neighborhoods across San Francisco.

Matt Silva, Outreach Coordinator

Matt Silva is NPC's Outreach Coordinator and runs the Playfields Stewardship Initiative, which engages community members in the stewardship of newly installed athletic fields.To date, the Initiative has worked with field users and neighbors at six different sites to host community-building events, playfield and park cleanup days, and meetings to discuss maintenance and safety issues. Most recently, Matt helped the Friends of Kimbell Park host a park planning meeting, in anticipation of their upcoming bond renovation project.

In addition to the Playfields Stewardship Initiative, Matt coordinates NPC's bi-monthly coalition meetings, which offer technical assistance and issue-based panel discussions to park group members. Also, Matt has been supporting NPC's steering committee, which helps NPC set advocacy priorities. Matt has a keen interest in social media and online networking, and has been developing ways to use these technologies in the park organizing world.
 
Matt first worked as a community organizer in Boston, where he  supported neighborhood and resident associations for an affordable housing developer. Originally from the east coast, Matt is enjoying his west coast home and particularly enjoys spending sunny weekends in the park, one of his favorites being Precita Park.
 
Sunya Ojure, Program Coordinator
 

Sunya Ojure is NPC's Program Coordinator and oversees the Playground Initiative, ParkScan, and Fiscal Sponsorship programs.  Under Sunya’s coordination, the Playground Initiative has engaged volunteers at over 20 needy playground sites from 2008 to 2010 and continually advocates for fun and safe playgrounds, using data from the Initiative’s bi-annual Playground Report Card.

As coordinator for NPC’s ParkScan.org park maintenance reporting website, Sunya ensures that everyday park users can easily communicate issues they observe in their parks to the appropriate City maintenance staff. She also produces monthly and annual data reports intended to inform park planning, funding, and advocacy citywide.

In her role as Fiscal Sponsorship Program Coordinator, Sunya actively supports all of NPC’s fiscally sponsored groups, helping them build  capacity, raise funds, and hold park workdays and social events.

Since joining NPC, Sunya has also been heavily involved in a number of special projects including the 2008 Quality of Life Supervisor Candidate Debates, Dig It!, the 2009 Open Space Workshop Series, and the Maccabi Games' DOCAS volunteer event.

Sunya grew up in rural Lexington, VA where she developed her love of the outdoors. She feels happiest walking the streets and parks of San Francisco and hopes to remain in the city indefinitely. Sunya has a BA in Latin American Studies from Brown University, and is an avid ultimate frisbee player. One of her favorite place to practice ultimate is Crocker Amazon Playground.

 
 Sam Vittoria, Operations and Finance Coordinator
 
Sam comes to NPC with several years of office management and volunteer experience in the nonprofit sector.  As a Bay Area native, his love for San Francisco and the outdoors makes working at NPC and supporting the city’s parks and open spaces especially rewarding. As the Operations and Finance Coordinator, Sam’s multi-faceted position includes supporting a wide range of operational issues, finance, human resources, and the Fiscal Sponsorship program.




 
Anita Chordia, Development Associate

Anita moved to San Francisco from New York after graduating from Boston University with a bachelor's degree in Rehabilitation Counseling. She immediately fell in love with the west coast lifestyle, as she could spend her days biking, going to yoga and spending time outside in parks and open spaces nearly every day of the year. Prior to joining NPC, Anita worked as a public relations professional for three years, where she had the opportunity to work with various nonprofits, technology and medical device companies. As the development associate, she will assist in NPC's fund development, including individual donor cultivation, corporate support, foundation research and grantwriting. Anita also provides support in coordinating NPC's events and oversees NPC’s Twitter and Facebook. One of Anita’s favorite parks in San Francisco is Dolores Park.