Kelli McCune
Kelli (she/her) brings more than 15 years of conservation experience working in the nonprofit sector to build both stakeholders’ collaborative capacity and durable solutions to achieve landscape scale impact. Inspired by California’s nickname, “the Golden State,” and the Golden Gate Bridge, Kelli’s personal vision for the future is a world where all – nature and people – truly shine. She believes protecting, restoring, and enhancing wetlands and other habitats are a cornerstone to supporting birds, other wildlife, and people to shine across the Bay Area (her home since 2009), and beyond.
Prior to joining the SFBJV, Kelli led the World Wildlife Fund’s regenerative agriculture program to transform food systems to become nature positive. Prior to WWF, Kelli worked at Sustainable Conservation for about 13 years where she led innovations to create voluntary performance-based incentives for stewardship results. Specifically, she has worked in California’s San Joaquin Valley and Central Coast regions to advance riparian habitat restoration, groundwater recharge, and soil health practices.
Kelli lives in San Francisco with her partner, Ian. When she is not working, she likes spending time in nature, enjoying the Bay Area’s culinary culture with friends, and visiting her niece and nephew in southern California. Connect with Kelli HERE!
Nikki Roach, Ph.D.
Born and raised in Oakland, CA (Ramaytush Ohlone Lands) Nikki (she/her) has spent the last decade working in conservation across academia, NGOs, and international institutions. Nikki’s work has been at the intersection of biodiversity conservation and climate change. During her M.S. at Clemson University, Nikki led the first-ever state-wide surveys for Eastern Black Rails in South Carolina. While living in Colombia for her Ph.D., she worked with coffee farmers to enhance sustainability practices and with local practitioners to understand the vulnerability of amphibians to land use and climate change.
Nikki is excited to return home and dedicate her efforts toward strategic action for the SFBJV partnership. Nikki is a gregarious and adaptable person and loves to meet new people from all walks of life. She is a certified yoga instructor, heliophile, dancer, and music and animal lover.
She is a member of the Generative Council for Center for Nature and Leadership, three IUCN Species Survival Commission Specialist Groups (climate change, amphibian, small mammal), and associate scientist for NGO Re:wild. Nikki was a Fulbright Scholar (Colombia 2017-2018) and the Director of Communications for the Latin America and Caribbean Section of the Society for Conservation Biology (2018-2020). She is fiercely dedicated to improving equity across the conservation sector. Connect with Nikki HERE!
Jemma Williams
Over the past 11 years, Jemma (she/they) has managed, monitored, and helped to implement small to large-scale ecological restoration projects spanning from rangelands to tidal marshes. Jemma has worked in the public, private, and non-profit sectors supporting community-based stewardship, restoration planning and implementation, amphibian and fisheries biology, and biological monitoring. She is trained in basic wetland delineation and is a CRAM-certified practitioner.
She landed in the Bay Area seven years ago and has worked in ecological restoration, conservation, volunteer coordination, and environmental education at the Sonoma Ecology Center and the Napa Resource Conservation District. In her most recent role as a Biologist/Project Manager in environmental consulting, Jemma managed a variety of complex projects, performed regulatory permit application preparation and management, and mitigation site sourcing and planning.
Jemma enjoys reading, digging in her garden, pottery, traveling, hiking, photographing nature/wildlife, and working with herbs and fermented foods. She believes that sustainable systems can be achieved through collaboration, creativity, and implementing nature-based solutions. Connect with Jemma HERE!