Dean's Council

The Dean’s Council was created to support, promote, and guide the Bren School in its quest to become the most outstanding school of its kind in the nation, while also serving as the primary conduit between the School and the local community. The Council holds three informative, action-oriented meetings per year, one each during the fall, winter, and spring academic quarters. It also sponsors the Breakfast Club, which meets quarterly at the University Club in Santa Barbara for sessions that are open to the invited public.

Back row, from left: Charlie Eckberg, Das Williams, Jim Dehlsen, Dana Severy, Dan Secord (past member), Kim Kimbell, Jim Boyden
Front row, from left: Paul Campbell, Maria Wilhelm, John Melack (Acting Dean), Naomi Schwartz, Dennis Allen
Not shown: Richard Rogers, Lynn Scarlett, Tom Umenhofer

Photo: Jim Boyden

Dean's Council

Dennis Allen
Dennis Allen is president of Allen Associates, a general contracting firm specializing in environmentally friendly custom residential building. The company has won 27 awards from the Santa Barbara Contractors Association for the quality and beauty of its projects, and is the only firm to have received has received the Builder of the Year Award multiple times, in 2000, 2003, and 2004. It has also received the Green Builder of the Year Award six times, and has earned a Green Business Award from the County of Santa Barbara.

A number of its projects have been featured in national publications, and two have earned National Chrysalis Awards. Several years ago, Remodeling magazine honored Allen Associates as one of the top 50 remodeling companies in the country.

Mr. Allen is active in community organizations, including The Sustainability Project, the Green Building Alliance, and the Santa Barbara Contractors Association. For the past five years, he has served as a consultant on the County of Santa Barbara’s Innovative Building Review Committee, which encourages energy efficiency and sustainable practices in building projects within the county.

Jim Boyden

Jim Boyden, a management consultant for energy projects and investments, served as Director of Energy and Environment Programs within the Technology R&D group at Vulcan, Inc, the investment and project-management company founded by Paul G. Allen. In that role from 2000 to 2009, Mr. Boyden proposed, evaluated, and managed environment- and energy-related projects.

He also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of a Vulcan investment company dedicated to producing clean, low-cost energy without greenhouse gas emissions. Before joining Vulcan, Dr. Boyden was senior vice president at Interval Research Corp., an independent R&D firm financed by Allen, and prior to that, he made significant contributions to computing technology as Laboratory Director at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, where he headed the innovation of the inkjet and laser printers. Boyden received his BS and MS degrees in Physics from Carnegie-Mellon University and his PhD in Physics from Caltech. He has more than 25 patents to his name. Mr. Boyden divides his time between residences in Seattle, Wash., and Ojai, Calif.

Paul Campbell

Paul Campbell has spent his professional life as a digital media executive and entrepreneur, gaining 17 years of experience working with rapidly changing Internet technologies and emerging business models.

He is the founder and principal of PAC Digital, which provides digital-media-strategy and business-development advisory services from its offices in Los Angeles and Toronto. Mr. Campbell provides services to both early-stage and large media and technology companies.

From 2006 to 2008, Paul was president and COO of QD3 Entertainment, a multi-platform media and entertainment company he cofounded with Quincy D. Jones III. As one of the largest independent owners of urban content, QD3 produced, aggregated, and distributed original urban programming across television, VOD, online, mobile, home video/DVD, and theatrical platforms.

Prior to joining QD3, Mr. Campbell spent four years as Director of Business Development at the Microsoft Corporation, where he was responsible for the firm's digital-media strategy and partnerships with major media companies and the creative community. In 1998, Mr. Campbell was part of the three-person Network24 start-up team, a venture-backed technology pioneer in broadband video management and content delivery. Network24 was acquired by Akamai Technologies in January 2000, where Paul served as a vice president of Akamai, running the product management and marketing team.

Prior to moving to the United States in 1994 to join a series of early Internet start-ups, Mr. Campbell had begun his career in Toronto in 1992, holding various sales, marketing, and product-management positions.

He is a also member of the Board of Trustee of the African Wildlife Foundation and a volunteer with the United Nations–recognized International Committee of Artists for Peace (ICAP). He graduated with honors from the University of Toronto in 1990 with a BA in Industrial Relations and a minor in Economics.

Jim Dehlsen
Jim Dehlsen is on the Board of Directors of Clipper Windpower Inc., which he founded in Carpinteria, California, in 2001. Previously, he had founded Zond Corporation in 1980 and served as Chairman of the Board until its partial acquisition by Enron Corporation in 1997. A pioneer in windpower technology, Zond has grown rapidly to become one of the largest global companies in wind turbine manufacturing, windpower project development, and windpower plant operation.

In recognition of his work, Mr. Dehlsen has been awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Wind Energy Association, and the Danish Medal of Honour for the advancement of the windpower industry. Mr. Dehlsen is an advisor to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Wind Program, he established the Wind Power Institute, and he has served as a delegate to the Conference on Climate Change in Kyoto, Japan.

Prior to founding Zond, Mr. Dehlsen was the founder and Chairman of the Board of Triflon Company, Inc. (now Triflow). The company achieved wide commercial success by using micronized Teflon particles to create a state-of-the-art lubrication technology.

Charles Eckberg
Currently an independent renewable-energy consultant, Charles Eckberg previously planned new residential and commercial development as vice president of Investec Real Estate Companies in Santa Barbara. During his tenure, the company built several hundred new homes on the Central Coast, as well as significant plazas and shopping centers. In recognition of its commitment to “green” building, Investec received the Green Award and the Builder of the Year Award in 1998, and was the California Integrated Waste Management Board’s Waste Reduction Winner of the Year in 1999.

Ecological conservation and regional planning issues are of special interest to Mr. Eckberg. He has served on the board of directors of the Community Environmental Council, and was the organization’s president for three years. He has also worked on The Sustainability Project, Get Oil Out!, and the Youth Wilderness Project. Additionally, he has provided years of leadership to Santa Barbara’s Earth Day celebration. For those efforts, he was recognized as a “Local Hero” in 1992 by the Santa Barbara Independent newspaper.

Mr. Eckberg has been a participant in Gaviota Common Ground and the Gaviota Study Group, a consortium of representatives working to protect the Gaviota Coast. He was previously a state officer for two financial institutions and the manager of the 15,000-acre Hollister Ranch. He received his bachelor’s degree in economics and political science from UCSB in 1970.

Kim Kimbell
Charles D. (Kim) Kimbell is a founding partner of the Santa Barbara law firm of Allen & Kimbell, LLP, a medium-size firm specializing in real estate matters, estate planning, general business, and litigation relating to those fields. He has been active in many civic organizations that are involved with improving the local environment.

He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Community Environmental Council and its president for five years; he has served on the Santa Barbara City Downtown Waterfront Visioning Process, and was co-chair of the Committee for Santa Barbara, an ad hoc group formed to help implement the vision for the waterfront. He was also acting chairman of the Gaviota Coast Study Group, a group of diverse local residents working on a locally controlled plan for the long-term preservation of the Gaviota Coast.

Mr. Kimbell received his bachelor of arts degree from Washington and Lee University in 1964 and his juris doctorate degree from Indiana University in 1967. His service in the U.S. Army Military Police Corps included one year of active duty in Vietnam. He is married and has three sons.

Richard Rogers
Richard Rogers is president of the State of California Fish and Game Commission, having been appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in February 2005. He is chair of the Marine Resources Committee and of the State of California Wildlife Conservation Board. He maintains his roles as chairman of the board at Pacific Earth Resources, a diversified environmental horticulture services company, and as a general partner of the Pacific Ranch Company, a farming and real estate company that deals with farming and investment operations in California, Hawaii, and Utah.

Previously. he served as executive vice president of Davis Pacific Corporation, a diversified farming, ranching, and land development company, and as executive vice president of Davis Cablevision. He has an extensive history of community service, having chaired both the Forest Practice Committee and the Resource Protection Committee of the California State Board of Forestry. He is president of the Council for a Green Environment, an organization of CEOs of the largest environmental horticulture companies in California. He is also vice chair and a member of the Board of Trustees for the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden. He served on the National Board of Trustees of The Center for Plant Conservation.

Richard's three tours of duty in the Western Pacific from 1963-67, included service in Vietnam, and he rose to the rank of lieutenant in the U.S. Navy. He received his BS in electrical engineering from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1963 and his MBA in finance from the University of Southern California in 1969.

Lynn Scarlett
Lynn Scarlett served as Deputy Secretary of the Department of the Interior. As President George W. Bush's Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget, she was responsible for providing policy guidance and administrative and fiscal oversight of Interior. While in Washington, D.C., Ms. Scarlett was on leave from active participation on the Dean’s Council.

She is the former President of the Reason Foundation, a Los Angeles–based policy research organization. Her research focuses primarily on environmental issues, with an emphasis on industrial ecology and incentive-based environmental policy tools.

In 1994, Ms. Scarlett was appointed by former Governor Pete Wilson to chair the California Inspection and Maintenance Review Committee, a position she still holds. From 1993-1996, she chaired the “How Clean is Clean” Working Group of the Washington, D.C.–based National Environmental Policy Institute and also served as a member of the Enterprise for Environment Task Force from 1995-1997. In 1995, she was an expert panelist for the Environmental Protection Agency's "Pay-as-You-Throw" and "Full-Cost Accounting" projects.

Ms. Scarlett also served as Advisor to the Houghton-Mifflin "Encyclopedia of the Environment" project from 1992-1994. She has authored numerous articles in academic publications, and has written for general audiences in major newspapers and magazines. She discussed environmental issues as a guest on such national television news shows as ABC's "Good Morning, America", PBS's "Crossfire," and “The News Hour with Jim Lehrer.”

Ms. Scarlett received her BA and MA from the University of California, Santa Barbara in political science.

Naomi Schwartz
Naomi Schwartz was elected to the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors in November 1992, re-elected in March 1996, and re-elected for her third term in March 2000. In January 2005 she concluded her service as Supervisor for the First District, which extends from Carpinteria through the city of Santa Barbara. Ms. Schwartz was also the Board's representative to the California State Association of Counties, chairperson of the Families and Children First Commission, and a member of the National Association of Counties' (NACo) Environment, Energy and Land Use Steering Committee. She is a former chairperson of the KIDS Policy Council.

Ms. Schwartz has served as member and chairperson of the California Coastal Commission, and from 1982 to 1992 she was Administrative Assistant to State Senator Gary K. Hart. She is a founding member of Coastwatch, the Fund for Santa Barbara, and the Santa Barbara Women's Political Committee. She has received awards for her public service from the County Commission on Women, the Santa Barbara Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the community organization Network, and the Democratic Women of Santa Barbara County. In 2001, she was honored by the Tres Condados Girl Scout Council as a Woman of Distinction, and by the League for Coastal Protection for her long-standing and unwavering commitment to preserving the coast. She received the Community Service Award from the UCSB Environmental Studies Program in 2004.

Ms. Schwartz received a bachelor of arts degree from Queens College in New York, and a doctor of jurisprudence degree from Santa Barbara College of Law. A former elementary school teacher and social psychology researcher, she has four children and has been a Santa Barbara resident since 1967.

Dana Severy
An industry veteran who is president of the Severy Realty Group, Dana Severy has almost 30 years of hands-on experience and proven success in the acquisition, planning, design, governmental processing, construction, marketing, sales/leasing, and management of real estate projects of lasting value and quality throughout North America. With a singular focus on resort properties, his portfolio comprises mainly large-scale master-planned projects that were entitled in highly politicized environments. These projects generated sales revenues exceeding $300 million and achieved outstanding acceptance in the marketplace, as evidenced by their strong absorption levels and appreciation in asset value. No less importantly, these projects garnered significant support from environmental constituencies and other project stakeholders for their substantive embrace of land-stewardship values and best-land-use management practices.  

Tom Umenhofer
Tom Umenhofer is a principal of Natural Resource Group, LLC (NRG). NRG provides public-affairs support and environmental permitting and compliance services for natural-gas, crude-oil, and refined-products pipelines. NRG also provides environmental and public-affairs services for new and expanded gas storage facilities, including LNG terminals; the electric generation, transmission, and utilities sector; and all aspects of renewable energy.

An environmental engineer and applied meteorologist for more than 30 years, Mr. Umenhofer has served as an air- and water-quality consultant to industry and government, with expertise in pollution control and local/federal environmental policy development. He has been an instructor in air-pollution meteorology at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal for his severe-storm seminars while serving in the Air National Guard.

Mr. Umenhofer began his career in the mid-1970s as a research meteorologist working with famed tornado expert Dr. T. T. Fujita at the University of Chicago. A former municipal planning commissioner, he served for more than a decade on the Santa Barbara County Agency Formation Commission. He has leadership roles with the Calleguas Creek Watershed Management Plan, the County of Santa Barbara Industrial Association, Ventura County Regional Energy Alliance, and the Ventura County Economic Development Association.

In 1993, he founded and served as President and CEO of Sierra-Pacific Environmental, Inc., which merged with another environmental consulting firm in 1999. Under Mr. Umenhofer's stewardship, these firms received two environmental leadership awards, including recognition for a project associated with the Bren School MESM Program in 1999. Mr. Umenhofer is a Certified Consulting Meteorologist (CCM) and California Registered Environmental Assessor (REA). He received his BS from Western Illinois University in geography, an MS in meteorology from Northern Illinois University, and another MS in environmental engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology. He completed his PhD coursework at the University of Chicago, focusing on environmental geomorphology.

Maria Wilhelm
Maria Wilhelm heads the Advisory Board of The Multiverse Network, Inc., a technology platform and network of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) and 3D virtual worlds. Prior to joining Multiverse, Ms. Wilhelm was Executive Vice President of Sorenson Media, the global leader in video compression. She is the former Chief Executive Officer of Breakpoint, a media technologies company; a former Senior Vice President at Netscape Communications; and, post acquisition, a Senior Vice President at AOL.

Prior to joining Netscape, Ms. Wilhelm was President of The Well, the seminal Internet community, and its spin-off software company, Well Engaged. Earlier, as an editorial executive at Time Inc., Ms. Wilhelm launched some of the company’s first new-media properties, functioning as Editor of New Media on products that ranged from CD-ROMs to proprietary networks to the Web.

She is a founding managing director of Inflexion Point, an intellectual property investment bank, and an advisor to Charles River Capital Partners. She is also a member of the Los Angeles advisory board of Pacific Community Ventures. Ms. Wilhelm has a BA in Philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MBA from Columbia University.

Das Williams
Over the past 14 years, Santa Barbara Councilmember Das Williams has dedicated his life to protecting the coastal environment and working families. He has spent six years as a legislative aide, four years as a teacher, and four years on the City Council, and has worked for environmental and slow-growth candidates in more than 21 elections.

Inspired by the first democratic elections in South Africa while in his late teens, he traveled to South Africa to work for Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress. During that time, he witnessed the masses of people engaged in civic action and experienced the transformational power of grassroots political movements.

He has gained knowledge and experience from working on a variety of policy issues but has a particular interest in environmental policy. He has advocated strongly for clean water and against the development of open space, and is particularly proud of his part in the City of Santa Barbara's decision to use alternative energy sources. He led a successful push to reduce traffic and pollution in Santa Barbara by improving the city’s public transport system and has earned a reputation for independent thinking and enthusiastic representation of new ideas.

He received his undergraduate degree in Political Science from UC Berkeley in 1996. He earned his Master's of Environmental Science & Management degree from the Bren School in 2005. In 2002 and 2003, he received Dozier Fellowships in recognition of his outstanding academic achievement and promise of continued success.