SeaWeeders Solana Beach Garden Club
Award: Greening
The SeaWeeders Garden Club of Solana Beach traces their history to 1953, when a group of tenacious residents organized the Solana Beach Civic Women's Civic Club. Their objectives included Highway 101 beautification; their first project was to plant shrubs and trees alongside the coastal roadway, then called "advertising alley". Over the decades, the Club had obtained a lease of the western section of railroad right-of-way through Solana Beach. There, they planted 250 Torrey and Aleppo pines, hand-watering them with the help of Boy Scouts until funds could be raised for irrigation. Club members also were influential in the landscape plan for the Rail Trail. Gerri Retman-Opper and Donna Golich coined the SeaWeeders name for the Society's sister organization and they planted two "community gardens" along the linear parkway. They have sponsored annual native milkweed and nectar plant sales to area residents and teamed with the City to add hundreds more native nectar and milkweed plants in public parks and trails.
Tracy Tempest
Award: Water
Tracy Tempest is a Community Scientist focusing her efforts on sharing the presence of the endangered East Pacific Green Sea Turtles to those on and off the water. She collects data to emphasize the importance of protecting their foraging area in the San Diego Bay Wildlife Refuge. She collaborates with the Marine Turtle scientists of NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center. She is a member of the Field Team that conducts research on the resident population of turtles in the San Diego Bay. She enjoys introducing the turtles to someone new while kayaking throughout the Refuge. Her ultimate joy is observing the arrival of new recruits.
Luis Saenz
Award: Air
Luis Saenz is a veteran technology leader with a 25-year track record of building and scaling transformative products and organizations from zero to one and beyond. As Chief Technology Officer at Flock Freight, he joined as the company’s first employee and conceived, built, and led product and technology development that powered its evolution into a $350M-run-rate disruptor, pioneering the patented Shared Truckload model recognized by CNBC’s Disruptor 50 and TIME’s 100 Most Influential Companies. Luis has been involved in fundraising from seed through Series E, built high-performing technology.
Jim Peugh
Award: Wetlands
Jim has facilitated changes to and refinement of many governmental agencies policies with positive outcomes for the environment. Jim’s environmental work spans decades. Since 1988, Jim has been working with the Friends of Famosa Slough on the restoration of the Famosa Slough, which is now a productive wildlife habitat and a nature park. Jim worked with the City of San Diego to develop and adopt an Enhancement Plan that implemented remediation and restoration. Jim has also advocated for the preservation of many other unique, wildlife habitats and wetlands in the San Diego area, including the San Diego River, the Salt Ponds, Mariner’s Point, and more. He has mentored and inspired many others to become environmental stewards and advocates.
Dr. Vi Nguyen
Award: Environmental Justice
Vi Thuy Nguyen, MD, FAAP is a Fellow of Environmental Health as part of the American Academy of Pediatrics and serves as Co-Chair of San Diego’s AAP Climate Change and Health Committee, Chair of AAP California State Government Affairs Expert Committee on Environmental Health and Climate Change. She is Co-Founder of San Diego Pediatricians for Clean Air, a loose coalition of concerned pediatricians who advocate for pediatric asthmatic patients. She also now serves as Co-Chair of the Public Health Advisory Council for Climate Actions Campaign in San Diego. She completed her 5-year-term as Assistant Chief of Pediatrics at Kaiser Permanente San Diego. Vi has pivoted her extra-curricular physician time to being an advocate for physician wellness and joy and climate work. She actively blogs and Instagrams as an alternate eco-avatar plogger (jogger and beach cleaner) in the Pacific Beach area. She was able to successful orchestrate H3SD San Diego’s Heat and Human Health Summit, and mentors premedical and medical students at UCSD on environmental health work. Current projects include children's climate art project raising awareness regarding the public health effects of fast fashion, Tijuana Sewage Crisis, and helping the Environmental Health Coalition in National City. She has given over 65 presentation on environmental health, and enjoys being a media personality for Kaiser and the AAP regarding climate.
Carol Kerridge
Award: Unsung Hero
Carol has been a strong advocate for the environment for years. She has served on the Del Mar Lagoon committee for numerous years and is actively working to honor and recognize the Kumeyaay Indians land. She has worked with the City of Del Mar, River Valley and the Kumeyaay to erect a plaque acknowledging the Kumeyaay and protect the land they inhabited in Del Mar and beyond. Importantly, Carol has started the nonprofit Del Mar Climate which presents top environmental experts who speak on numerous issues about climate change. She coordinated a community committee that puts on biannual talks for residents in the area. These talks provide in-depth information on various environmental talks and a call to action.
Nathan Dappen
Award: Innovation
Nathan is a biologist-turned-filmmaker based in San Diego, CA. He studied evolutionary biology at the University of Miami, FL earning his Ph.D. in 2012. The same year, Nathan co-founded Day’s Edge Productions with Neil Losin where they specialize in science documentaries. Together with Princeton biologist and host, Shane Campbell-Staton, Nate and Neil co-created and directed the Emmy Nominated PBS science series, Human Footprint, which is now in its second season. Nate’s work centers on humanity's complex relationship with, and global impact on the natural world - a relationship where human culture and technology conspire with our basic biological needs to become the most powerful ecological and evolutionary force on the planet.
Taarika Sethee
Award: Rising Star
Taarika Sethee is a sophomore at Canyon Crest Academy and currently serves as a Youth4Climate Intern at SanDiego350. Growing up in San Diego, she developed a deep appreciation for the natural environment and is committed to preserving its beauty for future generations. In her role, Taarika has organized community events to educate youth on local environmental issues, contributed to planning school strikes across San Diego to demand legislative action, advocated for electrification and clean energy within her school district, and worked to increase climate literacy in classrooms. Through her activism, she has recognized the critical role of collective action in driving systemic change, noting that while individual choices such as adopting a vegan lifestyle and using public transportation are meaningful, it is communities of change makers that achieve large-scale transformation. She believes that the youth holds a vital responsibility in the climate movement: as the generation that will inherit the planet, they must hold previous generations accountable while shaping a more sustainable future.