Community Focus staff members have extensive and varied experience in civic engagement processes, public policy analysis, communications and public outreach, mediation and group facilitation.

Stephanie Anderson, Executive Director

Stephanie assumed her role as Executive Director of Community Focus in June 2011 after seven years with the organization. Stephanie’s primary focus is to keep the organization true to its mission of “bringing people together to create solutions.” Community Focus takes on projects that enhance the way government and the community work together through civic engagement — creating active partnerships that lead to sustainable results. Community Focus has helped facilitate change on a wide range of challenging environmental and social issues.
 
In addition to directing the day-to-day operations of the organization Stephanie manages programs including the Spare the Air Employer Program, the Great Race for Clean Air and Spare the Air Resource Teams for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.

Stephanie joined Community Focus in 2003, bringing with her over 20 years of administrative experience in both non-profit and corporate environments.  Prior to joining Community Focus Stephanie served as Director of Human Resources and Director of Quality at Rucker Fuller in San Francisco. In those positions, Stephanie did extensive strategic planning, meeting facilitation and team problem-solving. Stephanie also worked for the Salvation Army in a variety of roles.

A native of Chicago, Stephanie majored in communications at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Malka Kopell, Founder and Senior Advisor

Malka has 30 years of experience in civic engagement and collaboration. She has worked throughout California to set up collaborative working partnerships between government, business and the civic sector, dedicated to neighborhood revitalization, downtown redevelopment, air quality, transportation, recycling, youth development, and public health. Malka also provides training and technical assistance to government agencies and nonprofit organizations, increasing community involvement through recruitment, bringing in non-traditional partners, and building and facilitating productive coalitions.
In 1990, Malka founded Community Focus as a way to facilitate public policy implementation by increasing community participation. She has also served as a program officer for the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, developing and managing grants in the areas of conflict resolution and California governance reform, and was the founding managing director of the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society at Stanford University.  She currently serves on the advisory council of the Brainerd Foundation

Ariel Ambruster, Senior Program Associate

Ariel Ambruster joined Community Focus in 2011 and brings five years of experience in public engagement, public outreach, facilitation and project management in the field of environmental planning and policy, in areas such as wetlands restoration, water resources policy, species conservation and public facilities development.

Ariel facilitates Spare the Air Resource Teams for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District in Alameda, San Francisco, San Mateo and Sonoma counties. The Teams, celebrating their 20th anniversary this year, develop and implement air pollution reduction projects at the local level.
Ariel received her Master's degree from the University of California, Berkeley in City and Regional Planning with a concentration in Environmental Planning. Prior to entering the planning field, she worked for many years as a newspaper reporter in the Bay Area covering local government, land-use and environmental issues.

Julia McQuoid, Program Associate

Julia joined our team in 2011 after receiving an MSc in Human Geography and Planning from Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Her professional experience includes participation in a cross-sector neighborhood revitalization initiative, equitable and transit-oriented urban development projects, data analysis for community initiatives, direct-service provision for homeless families, and social service and public engagement programs development and operations.

Julia is trained in advanced quantitative and qualitative research methods, including Geographic Information Systems. She recently presented her study regarding daily life organization of low-income single mothers at the American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting (2011) and is co-author of a forthcoming publication on this topic in Journal of Transport Geography. Julia’s social research background and interest in the behavior choices people make within the fabric of everyday life is well-suited for Community Focus’s work engaging people of various backgrounds in the implementation of sustainable solutions for communities.

Emma Fujii, Administrative Assistant

Emma joined Community Focus in 2010 after graduating from the University of California, Santa Barbara, with BA degrees in Environmental Studies and Psychology.  At UCSB she was active in the students’ Environmental Affairs Board, serving in a variety of administrative and community organizing roles.  Emma worked as an intern for the San Francisco Department of the Environment from June 2010 through November 2011.

Emma manages day-to-day office functions and provides extensive administrative support to projects, including the Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s Spare the Air Resource Teams, Employer Program, and the Great Race for Clean Air.