This session will give an overview of the Guadalupe-Lompoc Initiative (GLI), a multi-year partner-driven effort to advance community resilience in some of the most under-resourced communities in Northern Santa Barbara County and across the Central Coast. Through the GLI, 14 community-serving organizations and local governments are leading coordinated planning, project development, and implementation, and community engagement to address climate challenges such as air quality, extreme heat, water supply, food security, and wildfire risk.

The presentation will highlight how these organizations came together to identify local priorities, build partnerships, and co-develop projects for joint funding opportunities. We’ll share strategies that enabled this multi-stakeholder initiative to take shape emphasizing practical approaches that local agencies and organizations can use to initiate or deepen their partnerships.

We’ll explore how this initiative fosters resilience through a regional collaboration approach that centers peer-to-peer learning and resource exchange. The GLI is structured to enable partners to work together across jurisdictional and sectoral boundaries to address place-based issues. We hope to inspire attendees with ideas and resources for how to coordinate their priorities at a regional scale to expand capacity and leverage funding.

The session will include reflections from several GLI partners, who will share their project details, opportunities for partnership, and how participating in this initiative has strengthened their project implementation. We will highlight some of the GLI projects, including:

  • The Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes Center and Guadalupe Business Association’s Ecotourism Feasibility Study and expansion of the Guadalupe Farmers Market;
  • The City of Guadalupe’s Climate Action Plan;
  • Collective Cultures Creating Change – Lompoc’s home garden and gardening education program;
  • The Wildfire Resilience Collaborative’s Wildfire and Climate Adaptation Project in Lompoc; and
  • The City of Lompoc’s water percolation basin feasibility study.

Speakers

Malia Josephine, Climate Program Specialist, Sustainability Division, County of Santa Barbara

Malia Josephine is a collaboration facilitator dedicated to bringing Multi-stakeholder groups together to co-create and implement sustainable plans, projects, policies, and initiatives at the urban and regional scale. She has over 10 years of experience in local democracy, stakeholder engagement, environmental planning, and strategic facilitation. Malia holds a Master of Urban and Regional Planning degree from Portland State University, where she specialized in designing engagement strategies for land use change and co-developed an award-winning Anti-Displacement Plan for the City of Vancouver, Washington. In her current role with the County of Santa Barbara, she co-leads network management for the Santa Barbara County Regional Climate Collaborative and helps drive the implementation of the County’s 2030 Climate Action Plan.

Garret Matsuura, Owner, Arclight Media, Founding Member of Guadalupe Coalition of Non-Profits, Guadalupe Business Association

Originally hailing from Huntington Beach, California, Garret has been a Central Coast resident since 1994. He has a BA in Social Ecology from UC Irvine with a concentration in Criminology, Law and Society. While an MBA student at Cal Poly, he started working with a local sporting goods company in partnership with America Online. Cutting his teeth in the web, graphic design, e-commerce, and online marketing while web browsers were in their infancy, he founded his company, Arclight Media, and has served the Central Coast with web/graphic design and business consulting services ever since. He’s actively involved with other non-profit and philanthropic organizations like the Assistance League of San Luis Obispo County, Awakening Giantz, Central Coast Masonic Lodge #237, and the Guadalupe Business Association. He was part-time faculty with Allan Hancock College in the Fine Arts department from 2018 - 2022 and is a resident of Santa Maria.

Joey Nichols, Director of Education, Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes Center

Joey is a resident and outdoor enthusiast of the Central Coast. As a Girl Scout, she learned about native plants and animals and protected our dune ecosystem through service projects involving coastal preservation and clean-up. Her exploration led to a passion for geology, and she currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Orcutt Mineral Society. Before joining the Dunes Center team, she was a K-12 teacher. She worked in Guadalupe for 8 years, supporting underserved students in the Guadalupe Union School District. Joey designs curriculum and oversees classes in Earth, Life, and Environmental Sciences, as well as programs in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math (STEAM) for K-12 students in northern Santa Barbara County and southern San Luis Obispo County. Her team of seven teachers leads hands-on educational activities and outdoor experiences that enrich lessons, foster connections with nature, and spark interest in science-related careers.

Steven Valle, Senior Administrative Analyst, City Manager's Office/City Administration, City of Lompoc

Steven Valle is a dedicated public servant with the City of Lompoc, where he currently serves as a Senior Administrative Analyst in the City Administration Department. He began his career with the City in 2020 as the Utility Conservation Coordinator, overseeing water and energy efficiency programs and spearheading the expansion of public EV charging infrastructure. A graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara, Steven brings a strong foundation in sustainability and public policy to his work, helping to enhance Lompoc’s long-term water reliability and utility resilience. With a focus on community engagement and program improvement, he continues to advance initiatives that support both residents and the environment.

Kristin Worthley, Senior Administrative Analyst, Utility Administration, City of Lompoc

Kristin E. Worthley is a Senior Administrative Analyst with the City of Lompoc’s Utilities Department, where she plays a pivotal role in managing projects to support groundwater sustainability. Notably, in early 2024, she supported the Santa Ynez River Water Conservation District in securing over $5.5 million in funding for the Santa Ynez River Valley Groundwater Basin—key to improving water management across the region. Since joining the City in 2019, Kristin has also served as the Acting Alternate for Lompoc on the Western Management Area Groundwater Sustainability Agency (WMA GSA),  contributing to advances in local water-use planning. With a background that includes an MBA and SPHR certification, she combines strong analytical skills with strategic program development to strengthen Lompoc’s utility services and environmental stewardship.

Cornelius Nuworsoo, Professor of City and Regional Planning, College of Architecture and Environmental Design, California Polytechnic State University

Dr. Nuworsoo is a Professor of Planning at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. With graduate degrees in engineering and planning, he has a broad and versatile background in transportation and land use planning, as well as traffic engineering. He has two decades of field experience partially as a transportation and land use planner and partially as a traffic engineer. Since joining Cal Poly in 2005, he has served as an instructor, academic senator, and graduate program coordinator. Dr. Nuworsoo teaches courses and conducts research in the areas of: emergency evacuation planning; community plan, housing element, and climate action plan preparation, including extensive public outreach; applications of demographic information in planning; transportation safety and impact analyses; and multi-modal accessibility, emphasizing network connectivity and station area treatments to facilitate connections among walkers, bikers, transit riders, as well and auto drivers, and train riders. He serves on the GLI team preparing the Guadalupe Climate Action Plan.