Our Team

Margaret Gordon is a lifetime community activist. As a young single mother she worked her way off of welfare by attending commercial cooking school, after which she cooked for various institutions including Children’s Hospital and a UC Berkeley fraternity house. Ms. Gordon is a founding member of the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, having volunteered for the first three years of operation. She has work experience in mental health services, parent training in the public schools and community organizing.

Appointed by then-Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums to the Oakland Port Commission in 2007, she spent the next five years stridently promoting the interests of community health, workers health and fiscal responsibility in Port operations.

Ms. Gordon was the Community representative on the California Goods Movement Action Plan task force and is a 2010 National Purpose Prize winner.

Brian Beveridge has more than 30 years of experience in communications. Beginning as a technical writer, he earned a BA degree in Mass Communications from the University of South Florida. From 1987 to 2004, Mr. Beveridge owned and managed an independent video production company in the Bay Area. He has created marketing programs for Fortune 500 corporations, such as Shell Oil, produced TV programs for the Sports Channel and the San Francisco Giants and written and directed documentary videos for state and local non-profit groups including the California Child Care Resource and Referral Network and the East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation.

A resident of West Oakland since 1999, Mr. Beveridge joined the struggle for environmental justice in 2003 after personally experiencing the toxic emissions from  the Lesaffre Corporation’s Red Star Yeast factory in his neighborhood.

Janice was introduced to the fight for health and Environmental Justice while volunteering at West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project in 2016. After attending an Environmental Justice Coalition Conference, she began working with Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice managing the administrative work, assisting with Youth Leadership Academies and helping to lead the Bayview Hunters Point community campaign to reduce diesel emissions from trucks and buses in addition to working on AB617 and the Disadvantaged Community Tribal Involvement Program (DACTIP).

For over 31 years, Janice worked as a professional training manager in the telecommunications industry. Her additional community involvement and leadership includes Community NETwork Bay Area Chapter’s Executive Board of Directors; Co-founder of the African American Women for Social Justice, Environmental Justice Working Groups; and Host Committee Volunteer for Super Bowl 50.

Janice now supports Ms. Margaret’s day-to-day work as her Executive Assistant.

Originally from Mumbai, India, Meet holds an M.A. in Social Work from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, with a specialization in Livelihoods and Social Entrepreneurship. He has done academic fieldwork in various social science projects related to livelihood assessments, and economic and environmental justice, including water equity projects. He served as an AmeriCorps CivicSpark Fellow in the Borrego Water District, helping build the capacity of both local government agencies and its community allies by integrating water into their existing land use and climate adaptation plans. Previously, Meet has also worked as a Statewide Environmental Justice Project Manager working with various coalitions and connecting state level policy work with local projects.

At WOIEP Meet is excited to be on the forefront of Environmental Justice by developing and nurturing relationships with local community members and groups, helping them understand and interact with community resilience and green infrastructure projects in West Oakland.

In his free time, Meet can be found outdoors, biking, hiking and relaxing at any available water bodies.

Nicole brings over decade of experience in community development, education and program design to our team. She supports our project portfolio with a key focus on the Owning Our Air Steering Committee.

Aaron has been a science educator for over twenty years, including experience in adult education for the Alameda County Department of Public Health, high school teaching as an adjunct instructor with Merritt Community College, and many years teaching elementary school science.

Through his involvement with OTACA (Oakland Teachers Advancing Climate Action), Aaron incubated the Induction Cooktop Teaching Project (ICTP), which introduces 4th through 12th grade students – and their families – to induction cooktops, in a way that is linked to academic science standards.

At WOEIP, Aaron leads the effort to extend the ICTP to more OUSD Title One schools.

After years of volunteering and consulting with WOEIP, Jess is excited to be part of the team in an interim capacity, to support WOEIP through our next phase of growth. Jess focuses on digital engagement strategy to ensure that our online presence supports our community-centered programming and environmental justice mission.

Jess has been helping nonprofits build better digital experiences for nearly two decades. She facilitates one of the largest and most visible content communities in the tech industry, and strives to inspire people to embrace their own agency, uproot the status quo, and develop online experiences that fuel more just systems and practices.

Clara Weinstein is a communications professional passionate about community control and inclusive decision-making. As Communications Manager at WOEIP, she utilizes her skills in social media and content production to democratize knowledge and build power. She aims to create clear, engaging content to equip community members with the tools to affect change in their neighborhood.

Prior to joining WOEIP, she worked at UHAB (Urban Homesteading Assistance Board) supporting tenant-controlled housing in New York City. She sees deep connections between housing justice and environmental justice and is excited to keep fighting for safe, healthy homes. When she’s not working, she can be found exploring the East Bay by bike and building anti-zionist Jewish community.