Bill Mueller, CEO and Managing Partner
Kristine Mazzei, Managing Partner
Dale Ainsworth, Managing Partner
Julia Burrows , Managing Partner
Chris Aguirre, Senior Project Manager
Robyn Krock, Project Manager
Suzanne Mayes Linville, Project Manager
Jenifer Segar , Project Manager
Tara Thronson , Project Manager
Adriane Lepage, Project Associate
Jennifer Romero, Executive Assistant & Office Manager
Lula Falol,Valley Vision Fellow
Emerald Montgomery,Valley Vision Intern
Liz Salmi, New Media Manager
Sally Phonthachack, Next Economy Fellow
Bill Mueller, CEO and Managing Partner
 Bill joined Valley Vision as a Managing Partner in 2005 and became CEO in 2008. He is responsible for the day-to-day management and direction of the organization in partnership with the Board of Directors and fellow Managing Partners and consults with staff and volunteers on the many regional change projects Valley Vision has underway. He directly managed the Hmong Health Collaborative helping newly arriving refugees find success in America, imagined and designed an innovative online “health map” technology to spotlight where health care improvements are necessary in our region, and imagined and designed “CareerGPS.com” that matches a sophisticated regional jobs forecast to job seekers with real-time access to training and education openings. He currently manages the nationally-acclaimed Cleaner Air Partnership and oversees the Regional Food System Collaborative whose community partners are working to improve food access and Ag sustainability. Prior to Valley Vision, Bill was a global business manager for Intel Corporation based in Folsom, CA, the Vice President for Public Policy for the Sacramento Metro Chamber, and a policy consultant to federal and state office holders here and in Washington, D.C. He has worked in the Sacramento Region for the past 20 years. He is a Sacramento State graduate and a graduate of Class XII of the American Leadership Forum.
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Kristine Mazzei, Managing Partner
 Kristine joined Valley Vision in 2004 as the project manager for Partnership for Prosperity, a unique collaboration that united 34 economic development organizations to create a regional economic development strategy. She currently manages the Green Capital Alliance, an outgrowth of Partnership for Prosperity that focuses on making the Sacramento region a leader in sustainable energy and clean technology. In 2010 Kristine convened the Green Building Task Force, an expert-led process to identify ways to amplify green building in the City and County of Sacramento. Kristine has also managed Valley Vision’s work on the region’s Rural Urban Connections Strategy, led by the Sacramento Area Council of Governments. This work built on two of her previous project with Valley Vision-- the Open Space Project and the Valuing Agriculture Initiative. Prior to her work for Valley Vision, she served as a consultant to the Tri-Valley Business Council in Livermore and as a researcher and analyst for several private foundations that focused on increasing and evaluating land-conservation efforts in California. Kristine received her BS in Biology from Bucknell University in Pennsylvania in 1997 and her MS in Ecology from UC Davis in 2000.
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Dale Ainsworth, Managing Partner
Dale has worked in a variety of industries and non-profit settings in leadership and consultant roles focused on transition and change planning, implementation, and management. He is an accomplished team builder and group facilitator with experiences in a variety of cultural settings; including working with Katrina refugees in refining rebuilding strategies for the City of New Orleans, a government owned utility in Shenyeng, China, and various leadership teams across the United States. He has also served in leadership roles where he was involved in direct hands-on management of the transitions of several critically challenged organizations. He holds a Master of Science degree from Pepperdine University in Organization Development, and PhD degree from Saybrook University in Organizational Systems where his research focused on developing groups and teams to lead transitions in organizational and community settings. Dale continues to research and lead efforts to develop capacity within “collaborative structures,” where multiple organizations chose to work together to accomplish a common, large-scale goal. He also serves as an adjunct faculty member for Pepperdine University’s internationally acclaimed masters degree program in organization development.
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Julia Burrows, Managing Partner
 Julia joined the Valley Vision team in May 2010. She has worked for the City of Roseville for the past 22 years, most recently as Deputy City Manager and Economic Development Manager. Julia’s economic development efforts included a focus on sustainability at the local and regional levels and she was a charter member of the Green Capital Alliance when it first formed years ago. She has jointly led the Sacramento Metro Chamber’s “Clean Green Team” delegation to Washington, D.C. for four years running. She is an expert in local climate action planning and multi-hazard mitigation. Julia supervised the City’s media team and government access channel for many years and was the catalyst behind Roseville’s award-winning entry in the 2009 Rose Parade, celebrating Roseville’s Centennial. In 2000, Julia was named one of the Sacramento Business Journal’s “40 under 40 Young Professionals” and a year later was selected as one of five Sacramento area “Women Who Mean Business” by the Business Journal. In 2007, Julia received the Athena Award from the Roseville Chamber of Commerce, the highest award bestowed annually to a woman in the community. She received her Bachelor’s in Environmental Policy Analysis & Planning from UC Davis. Julia is a Class XII graduate of the American Leadership Forum, President of the St. Albans Country Day School Executive Board, and Secretary of the Placer Breast Cancer Endowment.
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Chris Aguirre, Senior Project Manager
 Chris joined Valley Vision in Jan 2006 and recently completed his master’s degree in community development from the University of California, Davis. His fields of study were economic development, affordable housing, urban design, community participation, labor and nonprofit organizations. Chris previously completed his BA in ethnic studies from Sacramento State University. He worked previously as a firefighter and squad boss for the US Forest Service, a graphic arts assistant, a guest teacher and a financial services associate for E*Trade Financial. Chris also completed internships with the Senate Office of Research and the California Legislature’s Select Committee on Economic Development. Chris supports the many facets of the Youth Development Project, the Community Needs Assessment, and manages fundraising and stakeholder outreach projects.
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Robyn Krock, Project Manager
 Robyn joined Valley Vision in 2006 as a consultant to the Open Space Project and, as a full-time employee, currently manages the Sacramento Region Food System Collaborative, a diverse coalition focused on connecting the economic viability of local agriculture with increasing access to healthy foods in underserved communities in our region. She also manages a strategic planning effort for the UC Davis School of Medicine’s student run clinics. Previously she supported Valley Vision’s partnership with the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) on the Rural Urban Connections Strategy (RUCS) by conducting stakeholder interviews for a Local Market Assessment of the Sacramento Region. She provided logistical and technical coordination for the Hmong Health Collaborative and has played roles on several other projects. Before joining Valley Vision, Robyn worked as a Research Assistant in the Pacific Regional Humanities Center at UC Davis, where she managed an oral history project with multi-generational landowner families in the Sutter Buttes, a geologically and culturally unique area in Northern California. She also worked in the public school system—where she helped create an innovative on campus-home study hybrid—and coordinated multi-million dollar contracts for a U.S. EPA contractor. Robyn earned a master's and bachelor's degree from UC Davis in cultural anthropology with graduate coursework in community development.
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Suzanne Mayes Linville, Project Manager
 Suzanne Mayes Linville has over 10 years experience in the nonprofit sector with an emphasis in youth development and philanthropy. She joined the Valley Vision staff in 2008 as a consultant to the Youth project, in addition to consulting for several nonprofits in the region. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts from Humboldt State University in 1999, Suzanne served as an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer in the Los Angeles Unified School District. A Sacramento native, Suzanne returned to the area in 2001 and served for six years as a Program Officer at the Sacramento Region Community Foundation managing their youth philanthropy and scholarship programs. Suzanne enjoys lending her talents to projects that strive to improve the quality of life throughout our region, such as the Green Capital Alliance.
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Jenifer Segar, Project Manager
 Jenifer Segar joined Valley Vision in February of 2011 to help manage the organization’s work on the Energy Upgrade California program in the Capital region (including Sacramento, Yolo, Solano, San Joaquin and Placer Counties). Over the past couple of years Jenifer has worked with the Valley Energy Efficiency Corporation and other groups to organize forums and events in Yolo County that emphasized every-day action citizens could take to promote energy efficiency and lower their carbon footprint. Jenifer also served as a City Council-appointed member of the City of Davis Climate Action Team. Her professional experience includes serving as a land planner with HOK, Inc., in San Francisco and a Consultant and Staff Analyst for the California State Coastal Conservancy. Jenifer has a BS in Biology from Earlham College. She has served on the board of directors of the Chamber Music Society of Sacramento, the Sacramento Youth Symphony, and the Valley Climate Action Center.
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Tara Thronson, Project Manager
 Tara joined Valley Vision in March 2009 and is supporting the Cleaner Air Partnership as well as future project opportunities in development. She joins Valley Vision after spending eight years in the high-tech industry at Freescale Semiconductor and Motorola in Austin, Texas. Tara received her BS in Mechanical Engineering from Tulane University in 2000, and began her career as a process engineer. She later served in project management roles and led problem-solving teams as a certified Six Sigma Black Belt. After moving to Sacramento in late 2008, she pursued a change in careers to apply her project management and leadership skills in a setting which has a more direct positive impact on her surrounding community.
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Adriane Lepage, Project Associate
 Adriane joined Valley Vision in January 2011 to assist with the Sacramento Regional Food Access Project. Originally from the Midwest, she received her BA in Political Science and History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2004. After four years working in staffing and human resources, she left to pursue her interests in local food advocacy. During this time, she worked at a natural foods co-op, volunteered on an organic farm, and helped organize local food cooking classes for low-income families. Adriane is also currently pursuing a Masters of Public Administration with a concentration in nonprofit management and policy at the University of Southern California's Sacramento campus.
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Jennifer Romero, Executive Asst. & Office Manager
 Jennifer joined Valley Vision in February 2011 as an Executive Assistant to the CEO and Office Manager. She came from a Bay Area company that is a key maker and supplier of highest-quality monoclonal anitbodies for human therapeutics development. Jennifer previously worked as a Human Resource Manager at previous companies in the Bay Area for 12 years. She left the H.R. field to pursue her culinary dreams of becoming a chef. She attended an 18 month Culinary Program in San Francisco where she earned her certificate in Culinary Arts in 2008. She moved from the Bay Area and currently resides in Sacramento since 2009.
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Lula Falol, Valley Vision Fellow
 Lula joined Valley Vision in March 2011. She graduated from UC Davis in 2010 with a BS in Community and Regional Development. During her time at UC Davis, she was heavily involved in student government, education access projects, and special events planning. Before working at Valley Vision, she was a field supervisor for a winning Assembly campaign. Lula moved to Sacramento in February 2011 in pursuit of community development projects within the city. She is originally from Fairfield, California.
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Emerald Montgomery, Valley Vision Intern
 Emerald joined Valley Vision in November 2011 as an intern for the Cleaner Air Partnership and Broadband Regional Consortia. She is originally from Louisiana, and graduated in 2003 from Tulane University in New Orleans with a BS in Psychology and Classical Studies. Before joining Valley Vision, Emerald worked as a high school science teacher, pre-health instructor, and public health researcher. Currently, Emerald is completing her Master of Public Health degree at Drexel
University.
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Liz Salmi, New Media Manager
 Liz Salmi joined Valley Vision in 2011 as the Greenwise Joint Venture new media manager, focusing on communications and community engagement. Before Valley Vision, Liz was a new media communicator and organizer for California's largest public employee union where she engaged and mobilized thousands of members across California using new media strategies in order to recharge a 100-year old movement. With a diverse communications background in new media, marketing, web and graphic design, she is passionate about using what she calls her "nerd skills" to tell stories of change and inspire engagement in communities. Liz is also a cancer survivor. Her diagnosis gives her special insight into health matters and efforts underway to battle disease. Liz volunteers with a number of cancer organizations and serves on the UC Davis Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Advisory Board.
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Sally Phonthachack, Next Economy Fellow
 Sally is a long-time resident of Sacramento. After graduating from Grant High School, she started traveling. She returned to Sacramento to work on her Bachelors in Business Administration at Sacramento State. While working on her degree, she worked for SMUD and became deeply involved in the community. As a former board member of North Sacramento Chamber of Commerce, Sally understands the importance of a community working together on multiple levels to make a positive impact. With the help of the Sacramento Asian-Pacific Chamber of Commerce Catalyst Scholarship, Sally is currently pursuing her Masters in Business Administration at Drexel University Center for Graduate Studies. Currently, she serves on the executive committee for the Hmong Lao Community Action Network, representing the Lao community. During her free time, she enjoys art, music, food, traveling, outdoor adventures, and spending time with family and friends.
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