BOARD INFO
Teree Castanias recently retired from KPMG where she was the National Director for Cooperative Tax Services. Her professional accounting experience with KPMG spans over 32 years and 28 years serving cooperatives as a focus area. Her work with cooperatives includes all aspects of tax consulting and compliance at both the federal and state level, issues related to accounting for income taxes for cooperatives including FIN 48, working with management and boards on capital and bylaw issues, and working with cooperatives to change tax laws to include favorable provisions for cooperatives, such as Section 199.
Teree is a member of the Executive Committee and the in-coming Chair of the Legal, Tax and Accounting Committee of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives (NCFC). Teree is also the immediate past Chairman and a member of the Tax Committee of the National Society of Accountants for Cooperatives (NSAC). Teree is also past board member of NSAC’s National board and Far Western Chapter. Teree is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the California Society of Certified Public Accountants. Teree serves on several boards and committees with an agriculture focus, including California State Fair Ag Advisory Board, California 4-H Foundation, and Ag Council of California.
Lucas Frerichs has a significant amount of experience with various types of cooperatives, including food, housing and agriculture. For nine years he served on the Davis Food Co-op Board of Directors, including two years as Board President. He also served as a Board Member and President for Yolo Mutual Housing Association, a non-profit that builds affordable housing for the residents of Yolo County, California.
Lucas currently chairs the City of Davis' Social Services Commission, which advises the City Council on all matters relating to issues of social services which affect the citizens of Davis, including but not limited to the issues of social services in health, affordable housing, homelessness, hunger, transit, and low income needs. Additionally, the Social Services Commission advises the City Council on Community Development Block Grant, Home Investment Partnership Program and other social services-related Federal and State grant programs. In his professional life, Mr. Frerichs works in the California State Legislature, where he works as a consultant on various issues, including Housing and Community Development, Local Government, Transportation, Utilities and Commerce, and Water-related issues.
Tim Huet is one of three founders of the Association of Arizmendi Cooperatives, an enterprise dedicated to the development of successful worker cooperatives. In the last nine years, the association has launched three award-winning new bakery cooperatives. As part of the Association’s Development & Support Cooperative, Tim participates in writing business plans, raising start-up capital, negotiating leases, and training workers in democratic business management and also serves as in-house legal counsel. Tim has also served as a trainer and curriculum development advisory board member for CooperationWorks! and has been a featured speaker at cooperative conferences throughout the United States (including the Western Worker Cooperative Conference, Eastern Conference for Workplace Democracy, Midwest Worker Cooperative Conference, and conferences of the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives), in Canada (at conventions of the Canadian Worker Co-operative Federation), and at the annual meeting of CICOPA, the international federation of worker cooperatives. Tim completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan and his law degree from UC Hastings College in San Francisco.
Rafael Morales is the Public Affairs Officer & West Coast Program Officer for the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions. In September 2008, Rafael relocated to San Francisco to operate the Federation’s West Coast field office. Since moving to California, Rafael has served on the Bank on San Francisco Credit Union Subcommittee; the Coordinating Council for the California Credit Union Network for Community Development; and most recently, on the Board of Directors of Homeownership SF, a new non-profit that seeks to help diverse and underserved households achieve and sustain homeownership in San Francisco through a coordinated network of member agencies. He is a founding member of the Network of Latino Credit Unions and Professionals (NLCUP) a national association formed in 2005 by credit union leaders of Latino descent from across the country. He holds a B.A. in international studies from Middlebury College, with concentrations in political science and Spanish.
Jessica Nelson is the Executive Director of Golden State Power Cooperative. Golden State Power Co-op (GSPC) was established in 1999 through a joint effort of the state's three rural distribution cooperatives, Anza, Plumas-Sierra and Surprise Valley, plus two of the new electricity aggregation co-ops, California Oil Producers (COPE) and California Electric Users (CEUC). Golden State Power replaces the California Rural Electric Co-op Association, the former statewide association for electric cooperatives.
Each year, Jessica organizes the Golden State Power Cooperative's annual visit to Washington DC to lobby on national and statewide energy issues and to emphasize the importance of electric cooperatives to rural communities. She also serves on the board of directors for the Clean Power Cooperative and Cooperative Community Energy. Additionally, she sits on the AB 32 Blue Ribbon Advisory Committee for Lassen County, which provides input for the implementation of California’s landmark Global Warming Solutions Act.
Leland H. “Lee” Ruth* (CCCD Board Secretary) has more than 30 years of experience working with cooperatives. He is president of Lee Ruth & Associates, a firm specializing in assisting agricultural associations and cooperatives with problems related to governmental relations, organization development and public relations.
Lee, President Emeritus of the Agricultural Council of California, is highly regarded as a government relations strategist and adviser having worked the California legislative scene for some 30 years representing the interests of agricultural cooperatives.
Lee has served as spokesman for cooperatives at the state and national levels. He is a past board member of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, past chair of the National Conference of Cooperative Councils, former Policy Advisory Committee member to the California Center for Cooperatives and is currently on the board of directors of Agricultural Cooperatives Development International/ Volunteers in Cooperative Assistance ACDI/VOCA.
Between 1997 and 2002, Lee was the Principal Coordinator of a project which resulted in the formation of the California Electric Users Cooperative, and served as a consultant in the development of Clean Power Cooperative and Golden State Power Cooperative. In 2003 he was the Chair of the California Energy Co-Op Symposium, an activity funded by a USDA Cooperative Development Grant, administered by the UC Davis Center for Cooperatives. In 2004 he led the formation of the Synergetic Enterprise Development Group, whose purpose is to create new forms and models of cooperatives and to facilitate expansion and stabilization of existing cooperatives.
Karen Tiedemann, A.D., J.D., M.C.P., has extensive experience with cooperatives. She is a partner in Goldfarb and Lipman LLP with an emphasis of practice in affordable housing, redevelopment and environmental law. She has special expertise on both stock and limited equity cooperative housing structures, as well as with co-housing communities. Karen is co-author of Between the Lines: A Question & Answer Guide On Legal Issues In Supportive Housing and A Legal Guide to California Redevelopment.
Karen's education includes an A.B. from the University of California, Berkeley. J.D., Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley, Order of the Coif honors. She is Associate Editor for Ecology Law Quarterly. She also holds a Masters in City Planning from University of California, Berkeley.
Frank A. Van Konynenburg, JD is a partner in Tuttle & Van Konynenburg, LLP and has practiced law for more than 40 years. Frank's experiences growing up on a farm sparked a love of agriculture and his dual career as attorney and fruit farmer. His ability to balance these diverse roles is apparent by his successes in both arenas.
Frank has been involved with cooperative businesses for more than 30 years and is the author of A Home and A Price: 75 Years of History with the California Canning Peach Association. He has served on the boards of Allied Grape Growers, United Vintners, Diamond Walnut, California Freestone Peach Association, and California Freestone Peach Association. He also served on a number of related committees including Policy Advisory Committee for the U.C. Davis College of Agriculture and the Ag. Advisory Committee for the Great Valley Center, a futurist think tank for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley.
Teree is a member of the Executive Committee and the in-coming Chair of the Legal, Tax and Accounting Committee of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives (NCFC). Teree is also the immediate past Chairman and a member of the Tax Committee of the National Society of Accountants for Cooperatives (NSAC). Teree is also past board member of NSAC’s National board and Far Western Chapter. Teree is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the California Society of Certified Public Accountants. Teree serves on several boards and committees with an agriculture focus, including California State Fair Ag Advisory Board, California 4-H Foundation, and Ag Council of California.
Lucas Frerichs has a significant amount of experience with various types of cooperatives, including food, housing and agriculture. For nine years he served on the Davis Food Co-op Board of Directors, including two years as Board President. He also served as a Board Member and President for Yolo Mutual Housing Association, a non-profit that builds affordable housing for the residents of Yolo County, California.
Lucas currently chairs the City of Davis' Social Services Commission, which advises the City Council on all matters relating to issues of social services which affect the citizens of Davis, including but not limited to the issues of social services in health, affordable housing, homelessness, hunger, transit, and low income needs. Additionally, the Social Services Commission advises the City Council on Community Development Block Grant, Home Investment Partnership Program and other social services-related Federal and State grant programs. In his professional life, Mr. Frerichs works in the California State Legislature, where he works as a consultant on various issues, including Housing and Community Development, Local Government, Transportation, Utilities and Commerce, and Water-related issues.
Tim Huet is one of three founders of the Association of Arizmendi Cooperatives, an enterprise dedicated to the development of successful worker cooperatives. In the last nine years, the association has launched three award-winning new bakery cooperatives. As part of the Association’s Development & Support Cooperative, Tim participates in writing business plans, raising start-up capital, negotiating leases, and training workers in democratic business management and also serves as in-house legal counsel. Tim has also served as a trainer and curriculum development advisory board member for CooperationWorks! and has been a featured speaker at cooperative conferences throughout the United States (including the Western Worker Cooperative Conference, Eastern Conference for Workplace Democracy, Midwest Worker Cooperative Conference, and conferences of the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives), in Canada (at conventions of the Canadian Worker Co-operative Federation), and at the annual meeting of CICOPA, the international federation of worker cooperatives. Tim completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan and his law degree from UC Hastings College in San Francisco.
Rafael Morales is the Public Affairs Officer & West Coast Program Officer for the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions. In September 2008, Rafael relocated to San Francisco to operate the Federation’s West Coast field office. Since moving to California, Rafael has served on the Bank on San Francisco Credit Union Subcommittee; the Coordinating Council for the California Credit Union Network for Community Development; and most recently, on the Board of Directors of Homeownership SF, a new non-profit that seeks to help diverse and underserved households achieve and sustain homeownership in San Francisco through a coordinated network of member agencies. He is a founding member of the Network of Latino Credit Unions and Professionals (NLCUP) a national association formed in 2005 by credit union leaders of Latino descent from across the country. He holds a B.A. in international studies from Middlebury College, with concentrations in political science and Spanish.
Jessica Nelson is the Executive Director of Golden State Power Cooperative. Golden State Power Co-op (GSPC) was established in 1999 through a joint effort of the state's three rural distribution cooperatives, Anza, Plumas-Sierra and Surprise Valley, plus two of the new electricity aggregation co-ops, California Oil Producers (COPE) and California Electric Users (CEUC). Golden State Power replaces the California Rural Electric Co-op Association, the former statewide association for electric cooperatives.
Each year, Jessica organizes the Golden State Power Cooperative's annual visit to Washington DC to lobby on national and statewide energy issues and to emphasize the importance of electric cooperatives to rural communities. She also serves on the board of directors for the Clean Power Cooperative and Cooperative Community Energy. Additionally, she sits on the AB 32 Blue Ribbon Advisory Committee for Lassen County, which provides input for the implementation of California’s landmark Global Warming Solutions Act.
Leland H. “Lee” Ruth* (CCCD Board Secretary) has more than 30 years of experience working with cooperatives. He is president of Lee Ruth & Associates, a firm specializing in assisting agricultural associations and cooperatives with problems related to governmental relations, organization development and public relations.
Lee, President Emeritus of the Agricultural Council of California, is highly regarded as a government relations strategist and adviser having worked the California legislative scene for some 30 years representing the interests of agricultural cooperatives.
Lee has served as spokesman for cooperatives at the state and national levels. He is a past board member of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, past chair of the National Conference of Cooperative Councils, former Policy Advisory Committee member to the California Center for Cooperatives and is currently on the board of directors of Agricultural Cooperatives Development International/ Volunteers in Cooperative Assistance ACDI/VOCA.
Between 1997 and 2002, Lee was the Principal Coordinator of a project which resulted in the formation of the California Electric Users Cooperative, and served as a consultant in the development of Clean Power Cooperative and Golden State Power Cooperative. In 2003 he was the Chair of the California Energy Co-Op Symposium, an activity funded by a USDA Cooperative Development Grant, administered by the UC Davis Center for Cooperatives. In 2004 he led the formation of the Synergetic Enterprise Development Group, whose purpose is to create new forms and models of cooperatives and to facilitate expansion and stabilization of existing cooperatives.
Karen Tiedemann, A.D., J.D., M.C.P., has extensive experience with cooperatives. She is a partner in Goldfarb and Lipman LLP with an emphasis of practice in affordable housing, redevelopment and environmental law. She has special expertise on both stock and limited equity cooperative housing structures, as well as with co-housing communities. Karen is co-author of Between the Lines: A Question & Answer Guide On Legal Issues In Supportive Housing and A Legal Guide to California Redevelopment.
Karen's education includes an A.B. from the University of California, Berkeley. J.D., Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley, Order of the Coif honors. She is Associate Editor for Ecology Law Quarterly. She also holds a Masters in City Planning from University of California, Berkeley.
Frank A. Van Konynenburg, JD is a partner in Tuttle & Van Konynenburg, LLP and has practiced law for more than 40 years. Frank's experiences growing up on a farm sparked a love of agriculture and his dual career as attorney and fruit farmer. His ability to balance these diverse roles is apparent by his successes in both arenas.
Frank has been involved with cooperative businesses for more than 30 years and is the author of A Home and A Price: 75 Years of History with the California Canning Peach Association. He has served on the boards of Allied Grape Growers, United Vintners, Diamond Walnut, California Freestone Peach Association, and California Freestone Peach Association. He also served on a number of related committees including Policy Advisory Committee for the U.C. Davis College of Agriculture and the Ag. Advisory Committee for the Great Valley Center, a futurist think tank for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley.