Board of Directors

Maricela Morales is Bank Climate Advocates' President. Maricela co-founded CAUSE (Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy) and served as its Executive Director from 2015-2022, where she worked on a variety of issues ranging from living wage, health coverage for the uninsured, women’s economic justice, green economy and local hire projects. Grateful to her Mexican immigrant parents, she was raised in Ventura County, attended Fillmore public schools, as a teenager volunteered to translate public health education materials to farmworker communities, and went on to earn a BA in Human Biology at Stanford University and an MA in Counseling Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. Responding to the need for public officials that prioritize social, economic and environmental justice, she worked with the local community to be the first Latina elected to the Port Hueneme City Council in 2002. By 2007 she became the City’s first Latina Mayor, and served on the Port Hueneme City Counsel for 8 years. Her commitment to work collaboratively on issues of local, regional and state concern has been recognized by the California Association of Leadership Programs, Senate and Assembly Districts' Women of the Year,  National Farmworker Justice Award,  and SEIU Latino Caucus Lifetime Achievement Award. Her boldness of thinking and action was recognized with the Inaugeral 2019 Visionary Leader Award by the Santa Barbara Foundation. She is co-founder of the Climate Justice Network, and co-founded the 805Undocufund in the aftermath of the Thomas Fire and 1/19 Debris Flow. She has also served as Chair of the Board of Directors of CalNonprofits and has served as an Alternate Commissioner for the California Coastal Commission.

Adam Keats is Bank Climate Advocates' Secretary and has practiced public interest law since 1997. From 2003–2015 he served as General Counsel, Senior Counsel, and the Urban Wildlands Program Director at the Center for Biological Diversity where he spearheaded and actively fought to secure numerous substantial legal and advocacy victories to protect the environment and endangered species. From 2015–2020 he served as Senior Counsel at the Center for Food Safety (CFS) where he fought to protect the earth from the harmful impacts of industrial agriculture, including water privatization and supply shortages, land use impacts, pesticide pollution, and impacts from genetically modified foods. At CFS, he was also featured in the National Geographic documentary “Water and Power: A California Heist”, that follows him along CFS's intensive legal battle exposing the severe impact of corporate greed and its manipulation of water allocation in California. At the Law Office of Adam Keats, he continues to dedicate himself to the practice of public interest law, and represents local and national environmental organizations as well as individual activists in environmental litigation, civil rights, criminal defense, and nonprofit organization matters. He is a 1997 graduate of UC Davis School of Law, and is licensed to practice in California and Massachusetts, along with the federal courts in both states and the District of Columbia. In 2019 he was awarded a Delta Advocate Award by Restore the Delta, and in 2016 was named a California Lawyer of the Year by California Lawyer Magazine and the Daily Journal. 

Dr. Donald Rodriguez is Bank Climate Advocates' Treasurer, and is a Professor and the Founding Chair of Environmental Science and Resource Management program at California State University Channel Islands (CSUCI), where he has taught since 2003. He earned a Ph.D. in the Human Dimensions of Natural Resource Management from Colorado State University, a M.S. Environmental Education from California State University, Hayward, and a B.S. in Wildlife Zoology from San Jose State University. Prior to his time at CSUCI he was a Professor at the College of Natural Resources at Colorado State University from 1997-2003, and served as the University’s Director of Environmental Studies during this time for 3 years. His research interests are divided between urban wildland interface issues, coastal management problems, ecological assessment and monitoring in the U.S. and abroad. Dr. Rodriguez was recently appointed to the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA). Professor Rodriguez is part of a working specialist group within the WCPA focused on the interrelationship between protected areas and urban centers. In 2019, Dr. Rodriquez was a founding Board Member of California Coastal Conservancy Explore The Coast Program Founding Board Member, where he served on the Board for 2 years.  

 Caryn (rhymes w/marine) Mandelbaum is a Director of Bank Climate Advocates who has dedicated her career to public interest work. She brings a rich background in environmental and water law and policy to BCA, and currently works at the California Public Utilities Commission where she represents water ratemaking and energy efficiency teams from the Public Advocate's Office in administrative and legal proceedings. Before entering state government, she spent a dozen years advising decision-makers on sustainable water management practices, while litigating against wasteful practices. From January 2018–July 2019, she directed the Water Program at the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, which was dedicated to 21st Century water management policies that protect source waters, green infrastructure, and advance the human right to drinking water. At Environment Now, where she served as Staff Attorney & Freshwater Program Director from March 2007–December 2017, amongst other achievements, she worked closely with advocates to secure the adoption and implementation of California’s first-ever groundwater regulation and launched an expansive water efficiency workforce training program in Los Angeles. While serving on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's National Drinking Water Advisory Council from June 2012–December 2015, she contributed to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (USEPA) revised Lead & Copper Rule to the Safe Drinking Water Act requiring water utilities to expedite the replacement of lead service lines. Her leadership has been recognized by USEPA Administrator Gina McCarthy and the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power for breakthroughs in innovative urban water use. Caryn grew up in Southern California with a community of effusive South Americans. She holds a master’s in Urban Planning and a J.D. from UCLA School of Law.