Staff

CCCD Staff and Interns

CCCD Staff and Interns

E. Kim Coontz, Executive Director

Kim has been working with cooperatives for more than 30 years. She was executive Director of Yolo Mutual Housing Association for four years. and held academic position with the Center for Cooperatives at the University of California at Davis for 14 years. Kim's experience includes assisting groups in the start-up of cooperatives, teaching cooperative board governance seminars, providing technical assistance to cooperatives, conducting research, writing and endeavoring to find new ways to grow and strengthen the cooperative movement. She has authored and co-authored more than 12 publications about cooperatives and written numerous articles. These include a 2021 report on the Landscape of California Cooperatives, Cooperative Start-up manuals, and a book on child care cooperatives called Bringing Families Together: A Guide to Parent Cooperatives. In 2011 Cooperative Preschools International presented Kim with their National Award for Demonstrated Leadership. She has also published articles on housing cooperatives. In 2004 she was awarded Author of the Year by the National Association of Housing Cooperatives. Kim has as an MA degree in Sociology from the University of California, Davis.

Jennifer Attridge, Bookkeeper

Jennifer joined CCCD in July 2022 with more than 30 years of bookkeeping and HR experience. She is integral in managing CCCD’s accounts, including supporting grant budgeting, management and financial compliance. Jennifer’s professional experience includes employment with for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, both nationally and internationally. She has a BA in Organizational Studies from the University of California at Davis and a Cambridge English Language Teaching Accreditation (CELTA) from Holmes College in Melbourne, Australia.

Vinita Domier, Office Manager

Vinita has over twelve years of office administrative experience and over twenty-five years of experience in planning and organizing social, cultural, educational, and fundraising events. Her administrative and event organizing has encompassed wide ranging non-profits, including Sahaya International, Davis Astronomy Club, Explorit Science Center, International House Davis, India Association of Davis, Davis Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, and many others. She is also a volunteer NASA Solar System Ambassador. In 2019, US Rep. John Garamendi honored Vinita with a Congressional commendation as Woman of the Year for volunteerism. Her cooperative experience began as a member of a student housing cooperative at UCLA, where she met her husband. Vinita has a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Rafael Flores-Jones, IT Support Specialist and Systems / Network Administrator

 

Rafael has provided a wide range of technical support to CCCD for more than 12 years. He has over twenty years of experience providing technical services to multiple non-profits, and residential and commercial clients. He migrated CCCD’s infrastructure to a cloud-based platform to facilitate staff working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic, and he continues to provide ongoing support for data management, security, analytics, and user account management. Rafael has been instrumental in CCCD’s ongoing efforts to provide workshops as webinars, which have been viewed live by thousands of individuals. He manages behind-the-scenes aspects of deployment, monitors events, and conducts post seminar outreach, including graphic design and video editing of recordings for upload to media platforms. Rafael holds degrees in Computer Science, Graphic Communication, and Fine Art, as well as multiple industry certifications. He is also bilingual in English and Spanish.

Megan Krekorian, MHP Marketing & Acquisitions Manager

Megan is a Manufactured Housing Marketing Acquisitions Manager in CCCD's CaliROC program. Megan brings a unique perspective blended from past experience in both the private and nonprofit sectors. Since 2006, she was involved in private real estate investment and asset management, strategic planning, and operations management. She was responsible for managing capital improvement projects, annual operating budgets, market studies, park owned home remodels, public agency inspections and relations, as well as tenant relations. Prior to real estate Megan was the Executive Director at locally based nonprofit in Placer County California where she was active in program development, marketing, management, budgeting, grant writing and fundraising.

Pedro Maturana, Cooperative Specialist / Facilitator

Pedro specializes in worker cooperatives. He serves as the “Cooperative Facilitator” for Co-op Home Care and generally supports CCCD’s worker cooperative initiatives. Pedro’s experience includes seven years as a worker member with Arizmendi Bakery and Pizzaria Emeryville where he was involved in member recruitment, orientation, training, and scheduling. For two years he worked with the Arizmendi Association, the entity that provides development support and technical assistance to the member bakeries. In this capacity he developed procedures, systems of accountability, as well as coordination and facilitation support. Pedro has a BS in Philosophy, and a double minor in professional writing and sociology from the University of California, Davis. He is also bilingual in English and Spanish.

 

Aldo de la Mora, Cooperative Development Agriculture Specialist

Aldo has extensive experience in pest management and working with small farmers. He worked with coffee farmers in Chiapas, Mexico for more than ten years, during which time he completed his PhD. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at University of Vermont with work associated with small coffee farmer associations “ejidos”, including forming informal cooperatives and developing technical farming resources. The post-doctoral project focused on building resilient communities in the face of climate change and unpredictable coffee markets. Aldo has successfully led collaborations between farmers and researchers for numerous research projects, and has effectively overseen budget management for projects he has participated in. One of these projects was the CONACYT-UC MEXUS binational grant, which included professors and students from both Mexico and California. He is currently working with underserved farming communities in California.

 

Deborah Yashar, Cooperative Development Agriculture Specialist

Deborah has dedicated her career to supporting the resiliency of regenerative farmers and the organizations that support them. She has worked with the Ecological Farming Association (EcoFarm), Agriculture & Land-Based Training Association (ALBA), Multinational Exchange for Sustainable Agriculture (MESA), Community Agroecology Network (CAN), and Awe Sum Organics. Projects included the development of farmers markets, business and marketing education, and increasing access to healthy, organically-produced foods both on the ground and through policy advocacy. She has launched a variety of creative campaigns and events, such as the annual EcoFarm Conference–the largest sustainable agriculture conference west of the Mississippi. Deborah holds a BA in Agroecology & Sustainable Agriculture from UC Santa Cruz and enjoys any opportunity to put her Spanish or Portuguese speaking ability to use. Deborah serves on the board of directors of her local BriarPatch Food Co-op.

Tahnisha Crooks, Outreach & Communications Associate

 

 

Miranda Duncan, Co-op Home Care Communications Associate

Miranda received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of California at Berkeley, her law degree from San Francisco Law School and her master’s degree in sociology from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. From 1986 to 1999 she directed the University’s dispute resolution program, offering neighborhood mediation, meeting facilitation and consensus-building training. In 1999, Miranda became a community development specialist with University of Missouri Extension. After retirement from the University, Miranda worked in local government, nonprofit administration and social services. In 2013, she joined the Peace Corps and taught English for two years in Ecuador. When she returned to the United States, she signed up as an AmeriCorps VISTA member, and assists CCCD as the Communication Associate for Co-op Home Care.

Dominic Nicoletti, Cooperative Communications Associate

Dominic supports CCCD with Communications and Outreach as an AmeriCorps VISTA member. He is currently working on CCCD's CaliROC project, assisting resident-owned communities with buying their mobile home parks. He provides technical and governance support for cooperatives and their board meetings, conducts preliminary research, and helps write CaliROC's pre-development loan applications. He has a BA in History from the University of San Francisco.

 

Harrison Fitch, Systems and Funds Development Associate

Harrison assists CCCD’s CaliROC program as an AmeriCorps VISTA member. He works on generating & reviewing financial documents, conducting research on Mobile Home available funding, preparing loan applications, and other various tasks as needed. His interest in affordable housing cooperatives began with his time volunteering at Facing Homelessness in Seattle, a local non-profit that distributes essential resources to people experiencing houselessness and poverty. He was struck by the short list of available options for people without homes or on the brink of eviction, and from there became aware of Mobile Home cooperatives and their ability to empower residents. Harrison has a BA in Economics and Philosophy (with Honors) from the University of Washington. 

Jordan Trujillo, Systems and Funds Development Associate

Jordan assists CCCD’s Co-op Home Care program as an AmeriCorps VISTA member. He works on developing systems and strategies that streamline operations, conducting research on available funding and market trends, documenting model policies, and generally assisting project supervisors. He first became aware of cooperatives while writing a profile on his late grandfather, who had established a cooperative in his small hometown in Mexico. Jordan has a BA in International Relations from the University of California, Davis. He is bilingual in English and Spanish.

Judith Mora, Agriculture and Administrative Assistant

Judith assists CCCD’s agricultural cooperative specialists and helps with general administation as a work study intern. She is a third year econ major with an accounting minor at University of California, Davis. She is bilingual in English and Spanish.