Staff and Board of Directors

Michael DeLapa serves as executive director of LandWatch Monterey County, which he founded with Rebecca Shaw and Bradley Zeve in 1997 to promote land conservation, housing equity, and sustainable, climate-friendly growth. Michael has held the position of executive director since 2016. Previously, from 1997-2009 he served on the LandWatch Board of Directors.

Over a 40-year career of social and private entrepreneurship, Michael has founded or helped launch a variety of ventures, including the California Fisheries Fund; the California National Marine Sanctuary Foundation; Sea Studios Foundation; Arena Solutions, FotoNotes, and CBVA Monterey. He has held interim executive roles as director of the California Ocean Science Trust, chief operating officer for New Leaf Paper and vice president of marketing for the Cleantech Group. He has also consulted with many other organizations on strategy and marketing. Michael’s experiences range from coastal management to natural history filmmaking to high tech startups to political campaigns to applied ocean science. He is an avid beach volleyball enthusiast, hiker, river runner, and Stanford sports fan.

Michael received his Master of Business Administration degree and Public Management credential from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and its Public Management Program. He also holds Master of Science and Bachelor of Science degrees in biology from Stanford University.

Laura has lived in Monterey County for over a decade, first on a farm in North County, and now in the City of Monterey. Though originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, she appreciates being near the ocean and open spaces of Monterey. Laura recently served as Assistant General Counsel at Santa Clara University. During her time there she participated as a working group member in Sustainable SCU: Leading Through Laudato Si, an initiative to implement the tenets of the Pope’s encyclical on care for the environment within a university context. She currently teaches an advanced writing seminar in the law school. Prior to her role as Assistant General Counsel, Laura worked at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati as a Conflicts Attorney.

While in law school, Laura founded the student Association for the Protection of Cultural Property. She spent a semester at UNESCO in Paris, working as an extern in the Cultural Heritage Protection Treaties Section.  In her final year of law school, she researched legal protections for endangered domesticated livestock breeds. Following law school, Laura completed a graduate fellowship in environmental justice. From 2017-2019, she served on the board of LandWatch Monterey County. She considers sound land use policy essential as a means of maintaining and preserving our natural and cultural heritage for present and future generations. Laura holds a BA in English from Stanford University, a Masters in Comparative Studies in Literature, Art, and Thought from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, and a JD from Santa Clara University School of Law.

Chris Flescher came to LandWatch initially as a volunteer interested in the pedestrian and bicycle friendly policies of “Traditional Neighborhood Development.” Although his duties at LandWatch are primarily administrative, he has been actively involved in substantive transportation and land use issues since 1995. He has worked as a volunteer with the Southern California Transit Advocates, the Rail Passenger Association of California, and the National Association of Rail Passengers.

For the last several years, Chris has attended the monthly meetings of the Rail Policy Committee for the Transportation Agency of Monterey County (TAMC), and the monthly TAMC meetings of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee, for which he is an official alternate member. Chris also attends the monthly meetings of the City of Salinas Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory. Chris serves as an associate director of the Rail Passenger Association of California (Railpac).

Ann Notthoff was a senior advisor to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) Action Fund. She served as the director of western advocacy at NRDC where she has worked for over three decades. She provided strategic direction for a broad range of campaigns in California and throughout the west to promote climate action, public health, and environmental protection. She led NRDC’s efforts to get many of California’s nationally significant environmental laws enacted, including the Marine Life Protection Act, the Clean Car Act, the Global Warming Solutions Act, the Sustainable Communities Act, as well as climate and water policy reforms. She led efforts on several statewide ballot campaigns including the successful bipartisan campaign to defeat Prop 23 to defend California’s climate program. She is a member of the board of the State Coastal Conservancy and held leadership positions on the board of the California League of Conservation Voters (CLCV) for more than 20 years. She has served on several state ocean and water-related state and federal advisory committees. In 2015, she was honored with CLCV’s Environmental Leadership Award. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Oregon and a master’s degree in city and regional planning from the University of California, Berkeley. She has two grown children and lives with her husband and dogs in Carmel Valley.

Hetty Eddy has lived in the Salinas Toro Park area for 45 years. She is a graduate of the University of Oregon with a degree in Education.  Her family moved to Salinas in 1977 and chose this area to live in because they appreciated its uniqueness and beauty. She has been active in Toro Area land use issues since the late 70s when she helped establish the Highway 68 Coalition. During that time, Hetty became involved with the Salinas Child Abuse Prevention Council and Planned Parenthood. She continued her volunteer work until she returned to teaching in 1983 with the Salinas City Elementary School District. Even though she was raising a family and working full time, she continued her community activity as a Washington Union School District Board Trustee member for 20 years.

After retiring from teaching, Hetty resumed her interest in the Toro Area land use issues. She was and still is, very concerned about future potential developments, water usage issues, and housing in Monterey County. She became an active member of the Toro Area Sewer Coalition and joined LandWatch as a board member.

She was on the board of DWMC (Democratic Women of Monterey County) and active in the League of Women Voters. She presently serves President of the Board for Girls, Inc. of the Central Coast.  One of her many hobbies is playing and teaching bridge. Presently she serves on the Monterey Bridge Educational Foundation Board of Directors.

Tom Ward, a native of Chicago, moved to Northern California in 1975. He and his wife Leslie lived in Los Altos for 30 years raising a family. They then move their primary residence to Pebble Beach in 2012. Tom has retired after 25 years in the computer hardware business holding executive positions in Global Business Development, Product Marketing, and Warranty Services. He is also a small business owner having operated Snap Fitness franchises in Monterey, Salinas, and Gilroy.

Both he and Leslie devote considerable time to a number of volunteer organizations on the Monterey peninsula. Tom volunteers as a docent at the Point Sur Light Station and the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. He volunteers with the Ventana Wilderness Alliance and finds time to coach soccer with the Marina Youth Soccer League. He is an avid hiker throughout Monterey County and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Tom received a BFA from Drake University and an MBA in Management from Golden Gate University.

His primary concern is land use policy and future development in Monterey County and, in particular, the Monterey Peninsula, making the best choices to achieve important economic, environmental, and social equity goals.

Janet Brennan is an environmental planner with 40 years of experience working for local and regional governments and non-profits. Her experience includes air quality, land use, water quality, infrastructure, and hazardous waste planning and environmental review. She has been active in public interest and community groups since the 1960s. Janet is past-president of the Board of Directors of the League of Women Voters of the Monterey County and currently on the Board, a land use consultant for the California League of Women Voters, a founding member and current Board member of LandWatch Monterey County, Chair of the Carmel Valley Land Use Advisory Committee, secretary of Chamber Music Monterey Bay, a Board member of the Salinas Valley Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency, and chair of the Monterey Bay Region Air District Advisory Committee. She also does environmental consulting for non-profit organizations. In 2013, Janet was one of the Monterey County Commission on Women “Women of the Year,” received the 2011 Clean Air Award for Leadership from Breathe California, and received the 2016 Visionary Leadership Award from the Democratic Women of Monterey County. She was a member of 2005 Monterey County Grand Jury. Janet has a BA in Political Science from UC Berkeley.

Tyler Sullivan is a public interest attorney who has worked on Monterey County water pollution and water supply issues, and currently represents low-income Monterey County residents in housing, education, and labor matters.

Tyler has a deep connection to Monterey County, having visited often as a kid, and having spent off-days as an adult exploring its nooks and crannies looking for surf. Tyler’s first career was as a recreational therapist and baseball coach by day, and as an emergency room unit coordinator at the San Mateo County Hospital by night. He shifted gears in 2014, went to law school and started a family. Tyler, his wife and two children live in Pacific Grove.

Since becoming an attorney, Tyler’s practice has included representing Monterey County based non-profit organizations during his fellowship at Golden Gate University’s Environmental Law and Justice Clinic, and working for the California Coastkeeper Alliance as a staff attorney focused on the Monterey Bay region. He currently works for California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc., based out of their Salinas office.

John grew up in Montana and received a Juris Doctor degree in 1977 from the University of California Berkeley School of Law. His area of expertise is public finance law, which involves advising state and local governments about financing major capital projects (e.g., schools, highways, water, and sewer systems). John retired from the active full-time practice of law at the end of 2016. He and his family relocated from Reno to the Monterey area after his and his wife’s retirement. Together they have four children and two dogs and a cat who loves the Monterey area—the dogs especially enjoy the Carmel beach.

Despina and John are avid walkers/hikers and also enjoy gardening, fix-up projects at home, traveling, reading, lectures, movies, dining, volunteering in various organizations and at various events in the area, and meeting people. Both also very much appreciate the natural beauty of Monterey County and its wonderful inhabitants and are committed to participating in organizations like LandWatch that seek to maintain and enhance the qualities of Monterey County that make it such a great location.

Chelsea Tu is a public interest attorney with a passion for the environment and environmental justice. She currently works as a senior attorney at the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment (CRPE), where she advocates for sustainable land use and infrastructure investments in low-income communities and communities of color. Prior to CRPE, Chelsea Tu led statewide climate justice advocacy at Public Advocates. She also worked to protect freshwater resources, curb sprawl, and reduce toxins and pesticides at the Center for Biological Diversity. Ms. Tu received her law degree from the American University Washington College of Law and completed her undergraduate work in environmental sciences at the University of California, Berkeley. Chelsea lives in Seaside and enjoys kayaking, diving, and backpacking.