Staff

Michael Murphy, Executive Director

As the new executive director for the California Coastkeeper Alliance, Michael Murphy has 17 years of experience in protected area advocacy, environmental policy and strategic communications. As a native Californian who grew up on the beach in Southern California, he has a passion and strong commitment to ocean and coastal conservation.  Before joining the alliance, he was the communications and outreach director at Stanford University’s Woods Institute for the Environment. His work at the institute focused on infusing Stanford science into environmental policy making. Prior to joining Stanford in 2008, Michael worked for 14 years for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Washington D.C., mostly with NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. There, he developed national and regional coalitions to support NOAA legislative, regulatory and budget goals, including managing key relationships with private sector industries.  Michael joined NOAA in 1995 as a Knauss Marine Policy Fellow from Oregon State University where he received his masters of science in marine resource management. He graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1990 with a bachelors of science in aquatic biology. Michael’s career has been influenced by growing up on the Southern California coast and time spent on the water fishing, diving, sailing and kayaking.

Sara Aminzadeh, Program Manager

As Programs Manager Sara Aminzadeh oversees various programs to improve the health of the state's coastal and marine ecosystems, including work to implement the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative and CCKA's evolving climate change adaptation initiative. Ms. Aminzadeh directs CCKA’s communications, with a focus on cultivating and engaging coastal stewards through social media channels. During the transition period following the departure of CCKA’s Executive Director, Ms. Aminzadeh served as Interim Director, working to manage CCKA’s operation to ensure the healthy functioning of the organization.  Sara comes to CCKA with a wide range of relevant experience in field work, legislative advocacy, communications and media relations, and legal research and analysis.  She gained an appreciation for thriving ecosystems in Southern California, logging hours at the Santa Barbara Aquarium's touch tanks, tracking endangered foxes on Santa Cruz Island, and removing non-native species from Goleta Slough.  Sara also brings a robust body of climate change knowledge and experience to CCKA, having developed climate change coursework for UCSB's Institute for Computational Earth Studies and performed legal analysis for the Center for International Environmental Law.  Her student note, "A Moral Imperative: The Human Rights Impacts of Climate Change," was published by the Hastings International and Comparative Law Review and selected as a top student paper by the law school faculty.  Sara holds a B.A. in environmental studies and political science from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.

Sean Bothwell, Policy Analyst

Policy Analyst Sean Bothwell works to implement initiatives to enhance the quality and flows of California’s waterways. Mr. Bothwell provides oral and written comments on each of the State Water Board's statewide stormwater permits and sits on the State Water Board's Public Advisory Group for the Trash Policy. With particular expertise on industrial coastal facilities, Mr. Bothwell is developing and expanding CCKA's desalination program. He tracks and analyzes proposed bills during the state's legislative sessions, and is responsible for updating CCKA's website with new maps and website content.   Sean’s passion for environmental advocacy began at the local level, where he volunteered to help protect nearby beaches from a proposed toll road and halt a harmful dam in his local foothills. Sean provided legal expertise to the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission on permit requirements and enforcement, the public trust doctrine, and other tools to protect the area’s coast.  While there, he co-authored “Climate Change and the Public Trust Doctrine: Using an Ancient Doctrine to Adapt to Rising Sea Levels in San Francisco Bay,” since published in the Golden Gate University Environmental Law Review.  Sean’s experience extends as well to ocean protection issues such as marine spatial planning, thereby enhancing his skills at linking the health of California’s land and sea. Sean’s student note on wave energy and desalination was awarded top honors by Vermont Law School. Sean holds a B.A. in Criminal Justice and a J.D. from Vermont Law School.