California Interfaith Power & Light (CIPL) is governed by a Board of Directors that is composed of individuals representing faith-based organizations throughout California. The Board of Directors provides general oversight and guidance to the staff and helps deliver CIPL’s mission of environmental stewardship throughout the state.
Current Board of Directors
Rabbi Marvin Goodman – Chairperson
Marvin Goodman was ordained as a rabbi by the Jewish Theological of America in 1975. He studied at the seminary after having earned his BA from Indiana University in 1970. From 1975-1988 he was the Executive Director of the Northern California Region of the United Synagogue of America as well as the Regional United Synagogue Youth Director. During that time, he was very instrumental in the development of Camp Arazim. From 1988-2007, he was the rabbi of Peninsula Sinai Congregation, a Conservative Congregation in Foster City, California. From 2007-2017 he was the Rabbi in Residence at the San Francisco based Jewish Community Federation and the Executive Director of the Northern CA Board of Rabbis. Since retiring in 2017, he has been actively involved in a variety of Social Justice volunteer efforts.
His recent involvement includes being on the Board of Directors of CA Interfaith Power & Light, serving on the Board of Faith in Action Bay Area and serving on the San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury from 2019-2020. He became a San Mateo/SF County Master Gardener in the spring of 2018 and has expanded his home garden while helping the Master Gardeners to focus more on those in our society who are hungry for enough healthy food.
Margaret Trezevant, Secretary
BIO coming soon.
David Chiu, Marketing & Communications Manager for The Braid
David Chiu, of Litvak and Cantonese heritage, is the Marketing & Communications Manager for The Braid, the go-to Jewish story company. He is a producer on its storytelling web-series, StoryNosh, as well as a frequent writer for its stage productions. David is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Temple Isaiah, a social-justice oriented West Los Angeles synagogue, where he co-founded its Young Professionals Group, is the Chair of its Voter Engagement Group, is a member of its Green Team and Social Justice Committee, and received its 2019 Emerging Leader Award. He is a Los Angeles Community Leader for The LUNAR Collective, a national organization of Asian Jews creating community and visibility, creating numerous events and having served on the creation committee of LUNAR’s Asian Jewish Haggadah. Together, LUNAR and The Braid are creating What Do I Do with All This Heritage? — the first theatre show to explore the lives of Asian Jews. David is the lead producer of that production. In his spare time he enjoys photography and reading history books.
Ector Olivares, Environmental Justice Program Manager, Catholic Charities – Catholic Diocese of Stockton
Ector grew up in Stockton but currently lives in Lodi. After high school, he served 6 years in the US Army where he was stationed in Missouri and South Korea. After his service, he attended San Joaquin Delta College where he received his AA in Criminal Justice. From there, he attended CSU Sacramento where he received his BS in Criminal Justice. He had worked for the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s office as a Victim Advocate for 10 years. Later, he worked at the Women’s Center- Youth and Family Services as the manager of the Safety Net program.
Throughout his career, Ector has had a strong passion to help those in our community who have been victimized, disenfranchised, and marginalized. During time off, he enjoys his family time and coaching youth baseball.
William Morris, Seminarian (Claremont School of Theology)
William is a climate activist located near a refinery in Torrance. He holds his degree in environmental science with an emphasis on ecological restoration and a minor in watershed management from Humboldt State University. William is a Faith Organizer with GreenFaith working on the People vs. Fossil Fuels campaign. He also works with Young Evangelicals for Climate Action (YECA) serving first as a field organizer and is now co-chair of the steering committee. He is founder and chair of the Creation Care Committee at Faith United Methodist Church, is part of the leadership team with Faiths4Future, and a member of the board at Circle Faith Future. William also has worked with faith organizations abroad spending time in Kenya, Chad and Mexico. He spends his time engaging with faith communities, schools, universities, and organizations around the topics of faith-based climate justice and education. His work has been featured in Rolling Stone Magazine, ABC News and BBC.
Diane Doucette
Diane Doucette is a climate advocate with 20+ years of experience building support to address the climate crisis. She is the co-founder of 2 climate advocacy organizations and created numerous coalitions nationally and in strategic states to support climate policies.
Diane is currently the President of Project 2030 which she co-founded in 2020 with alumni climate advocates to help accelerate California’s equitable decarbonization and carbon removal policies. In its first 3 years, Project 2030 sponsored 2 successful legislative efforts to decarbonize cement (SB
596) and to create rules for carbon sequestration (SB 905). Project 2030 is an active member of the new UC Berkeley-led direct air capture feasibility study (CALDAC) which received one of the DOE DAC hub awards.
Prior to her work at Project 2030, Diane co-founded Chambers for Innovation and Clean Energy (CICE), a national network of local chambers of commerce
focused on climate solutions and economic development. She led the organization for almost a decade and established an active CICE presence at the national level and in 20+ states.
In 2006, Diane was jointly hired by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Environmental Defense Fund, and Environmental Entrepreneurs to lead the effort to build business support for the successful passage of California’s landmark Global Warming Solutions Act. She then ran the Climate
Campaign at Environmental Entrepreneurs where she created and managed a coalition of business organizations that worked to advance climate policies in California for over a decade. She also organized business leaders and business organizations – nationally and in strategic states – to support federal campaigns for climate action. Her coalition campaign model was replicated in 11 states.
Prior to working in the climate and clean energy space, Diane spent the first 10 years of her policy career working internationally – first as an advisor to the new Russian government following the collapse of the Soviet Union and then as AT&T’s policy lead in several former Soviet and East European countries. After seven years in Moscow, Diane moved to London to run AT&T’s strategic planning for Europe, the Mid-East and Africa. Diane then returned to the US to work on climate solutions. Diane has PhD in Political Science from UC Berkeley.
Gerald Bernstein, Renewable Energy/Special Projects
jerry@interfaithpower.org
Gerald has volunteered at IPL since 2016 during which time he’s expanded IPL’s tracking of solar congregations and assisted congregations nationwide to assess the benefits of Solar Photovoltaic (PV) systems. Before his IPL involvement, he spent 10 years in the California Community College system establishing Solar PV-installer courses in California and Hawaii (managing a 5-year Department of Energy Solar Training grant) and upgrading automotive programs to include hybrid and electric vehicle maintenance training.
Prior to the community colleges, Gerald had a 30-year career focusing on product development for major corporations in the transportation and energy industries, first with 16 years of increasingly responsible positions at SRI International (formerly Stanford Research Institute) and subsequently 14 years as Managing Director at Stanford Transportation Group, a firm he co-founded. He holds a BS in Aeronautics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MS in Civil Engineering from Stanford University.
Gerald is on a joint environmental committee coordinating actions of several San Francisco synagogues, advisor to the San Francisco Zen Center on a variety of solar projects, an emeritus member of the National Academies, prior Board President or Board member of several non-profits, a Vietnam-era veteran, and the proud grandfather of 4 wonderful youngsters.
Regina Q. Banks, JD
Regina Q. Banks, JD serves as the Director of the Lutheran Office of Public Policy–CA, a ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. In this role, she advocates passionately for just and equitable climate policy in California, Washington, DC, and in international spaces focused on climate solutions. She is an M.Div. candidate (2027) at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in the Climate Justice and Faith program. She is a proud California native, and her work in environmental justice is grounded in the gospel of Jesus Christ, which proclaims God’s deep love for creation, God’s preferential concern for those most harmed by injustice, and Christ’s call to love our neighbors—especially those who bear the heaviest burdens of ecological degradation, pollution, and climate-driven displacement.
The Rev. Canon Sally Bingham
The Reverend Canon Sally Bingham, an Episcopal priest and Canon for the Environment in the Diocese of California, was one of the first faith leaders to fully recognize climate change as a moral issue. She is Founder and President Emeritus of The Regeneration Project and its Interfaith Power & Light campaign, which currently has 22,000 congregation members in forty states. Rev. Bingham recently retired from the national board of the Environmental Defense Fund. She is on the board of Pacific Forest Trust and on the advisory board of both the Union of Concerned Scientists and Climate One. She has received many awards including in 2012, the Rachel arson Women in Conservation Award from the Audubon Society and the LifeTime Achievement Award from the Festival of Faiths and in 2014, the Bishop of California Green Cross Award. Rev. Bingham is the lead author of Love God Heal Earth, a collection of 21 essays on environmental stewardship by religious leaders, published by St. Lynn’s Press.