Who We Are

Executive Director / Publisher
wes@baynature.org
(510) 528-8550 x101

As the leader of our efforts connecting Bay Area people to their natural world, Wes is a community builder passionate about environmental stewardship. Before arriving at Bay Nature, Wes was the Director of Development and Marketing for the Oakland Parks and Recreation Foundation, managing and investing assets in partnership with community and civic groups. Wes has more than 15 years of management, business development and marketing experience, drawing on experiences as varied as growing a national wireless brand, leading a venture-backed startup and building an international ecommerce business. Wes has an MBA from the Yale School of Management and a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Stanford University. His passions outside of work include travel, live music and nurturing reluctant vegetables to maturity.

Editor in Chief
victoria@baynature.org

Victoria joined the organization as editor in chief in spring 2015. Growing up in the Bay Area, her first overnight hiking trip was from the oak-covered Peninsula School campus in Menlo Park through the redwoods in Huddart Park and down to the sands of Tunitas Beach along with a gaggle of 40 other third and fourth graders. She’s been hooked on the outdoors ever since. Victoria worked as a raft guide in Colorado, a backpacking counselor in the Trinity Alps, and spent the better part of her 20s researching and writing a book about ecology in Central America. Her journalism career began at California Wild magazine and the Point Reyes Light newspaper, and she has since earned two master’s degrees from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Her articles have appeared in Harper’s Magazine, Mother Jones, Audubon and The New York Times, among many other outlets, and she’s been on staff with Discover, PBS Frontline, Plenty, and California Lawyer. Victoria lives in Berkeley with her husband and daughter.

Senior Editor
kate@baynature.org
(510) 528-8550 x108

Kate started at Bay Nature in 2022; she commissions, edits and writes stories for print and online, but is mainly responsible for Bay Nature‘s online presence. She studied anthropology at Stanford University. After a yearlong field assistantship studying gorillas in the Central African Republic, she turned from primatology to small-town newspapering in Alaska. This eventually turned into a somewhat respectable career in journalism. Kate has a master’s degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied under Lowell Bergman. She spent six years as the multimedia director for Wisconsin Watch, a leader among nonprofit news watchdogs, producing award-winning investigations mostly on environmental topics. She has particular expertise in data-driven investigations and an abiding interest in audio. Her reporting has taken her from rural Australia to the Bering Sea, and has appeared in media including KQED, The Atlantic online, Sierra, the Washington Post, and Hakai. She is also an artist, a keen sailor who spent two years living aboard in the South Pacific, and a breast cancer survivor.

Events Coordinator
lia@baynature.org

Lia brings Bay Nature stories to life as our events coordinator, after joining our team as an assistant editor in June 2022 and later serving as our inaugural outreach fellow. She grew up in Bend, Oregon and graduated from UC Berkeley with a major in environmental biology and minors in journalism and Chinese language. She started freelancing for Bay Nature in July 2021, and joined staff part-time for her last semester of college. She developed a love of nature through watching nature documentaries as a child (Cloud: Wild Stallion of the Rockies and Living With Wolves) and through quitting running after high school and taking up walking instead. In her free time, Lia loves making art and searching for organisms of all kinds in the Bay Area, Bend, and Portland.

Senior Reporter
tanvi@baynature.org

For 2025-26, Tanvi Dutta Gupta is a second-year editorial fellow at Bay Nature, having previously reported on Wild Billions (funding from the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for Bay Area nature-based solutions). She graduated in June 2024 from Stanford University with her master’s and undergraduate degrees in earth systems and biology. Before reaching California, she grew up wandering around forests across Singapore, London, Hong Kong, and India. She enjoys unraveling the intersections of people and nature, cool animal facts, long runs, and new scone flavors.

Documentary Photographer
amir@baynature.org

Amir is a 2025-2026 editorial fellow at Bay Nature. He is a documentary photographer and filmmaker whose visual work explores culture, community, and the environments they shape. Born and raised in Oakland, California, he has documented community stories across the Bay Area, France, and Hong Kong, often finding connections to his hometown along the way. His work has appeared in The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and The Globe & Mail. Amir developed a love for nature on Bay Area school field trips. In his free time, he enjoys road trips and exploring family archives.

Membership Manager
patrick@baynature.org

Patrick was born in Lake Tahoe and grew up in the Bay Area, shaping a lifelong connection to the outdoors. He spent over two decades in the video game industry leading global digital strategy and marketing before a 2015 trip to the Arctic Circle, where seeing the accelerating impacts of climate change convinced him it was time to move from supporting conservation and animal welfare to actively taking part. He began fostering and rescuing Huskies through Northern California Sled Dog Rescue (NorSled) and joined the board of International Veterinary Outreach (IVO), working to improve animal welfare in under-resourced communities worldwide. Moved by Bay Nature’s storytelling and its work connecting people to the Bay Area’s natural spaces, he joined in mid-2025. Outside of work, he is an exhibiting photographer, avid rock climber, coffee enthusiast, and enjoys exploring the outdoors with his wife, young son, and two rescue Huskies, Dave and Juniper.

Development Manager
barbara@baynature.org
(510) 528-8550 x105

Barbara was introduced to Bay Nature magazine 20 years ago when her mother became a subscriber. She joins us with a wide range of development experience working at local nonprofits, including the Amah Mutsun Land Trust, Save Mount Diablo and Beyond Differences. Barbara also served as board president for the Albany Music Fund. An Oakland native, she’s spent most of her life enjoying the natural and urban landscapes of the Bay Area but has also traveled and lived abroad. In her free time, you might find her salsa dancing, hiking with her daughters, or drumming in a samba-reggae band.

Development Assistant
sheila@baynature.org

Sheila is an Oakland native, enthusiastic birder and lover of the outdoors. She found her passion for nature while hiking the many open spaces and parks in the Bay Area and through her volunteer efforts with local community groups that help children experience the joy of being outside. Prior to joining Bay Nature, Sheila provided administrative support in the financial and legal fields. She was drawn to Bay Nature’s commitment to connecting people with nature and is excited to be part of the team. Sheila enjoys cooking, music, and spending time with friends and family. She is devoted to exploring new landscapes while happily observing all the incredible wildlife within them.

Finance Director
jenny@baynature.org
(510) 528-8550 x100

Jenny joined Bay Nature in 2005 and has the most tenure of our staff. She is a Berkeley native, a UC Santa Barbara graduate, and has worked in the nonprofit sector for more than 30 years. A volunteer stint at Berkeley’s Shorebird Nature Center helped propel her fascination with the birds and marine wildlife of the Bay. In her spare time, Jenny loves exploring the Bay Area and the Sonoma coast to find hideaways where she can recharge her inner light.

Web Development / Information Technology Manager
laurence@baynature.org

Laurence has always enjoyed working at the intersection of technology and culture. Laurence produced and published the award winning “P.O.V. Mount Diablo” An Interactive documentary about naturalist photographer Stephen Joseph; worked with Mexican photographer Pedro Meyer on his interactive work “Truths & Fictions” a Voyager CD-ROM that premiered at California Museum of Photography at the University of California, Riverside; worked with Carroll Parrott Blue to create her award winning “The Dawn at My Back: Memoir of a Black Texas Upbringing,” and other non-fiction interactive projects at The Labyrinth Project , a research initiative on interactive narrative at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. Laurence has taught interaction design and development at the America Film Institute, UCLA Film School and California State University at Northridge , Film School.