Staff
Mike Somers, State Director
Mike is the State Director of Pesticide Watch and Pesticide Watch Education Fund and manages the day-to-day operations of the organization. He graduated from the University of Illinois in 2004 with a degree in Cellular and Structural Biology. Mike has worked for a number of different organizations since graduating college including MoveOn, Environment America Voter Action, and most recently the Fund for the Public Interest. During his time with The Fund, Mike was the telephone outreach project director in Sacramento where he hired and trained a staff of 30 or more telephone activists and managed telephone campaigns for 23 state and national environmental and consumer organizations.
Dana Perls, Community Organizer
Dana is the Community Organizer for the Central Valley, Bay Area, and Central Coast region. She started working on environmental justice issues as Peace Corps Volunteer in Panama, and then received her Masters in City Planning at UC Berkeley where she focused on community development and environmental planning. Previously, Dana worked with various public, private and non-profit organizations working on climate change policy, water conservation, and sustainable development. In her spare time, Dana loves to hike, garden, and find great live music.
Asael Sala, Community Organizer
Asael, a native to Sacramento, has been working to bring communities together to find ways to hold our government and its leaders more accountable to the needs of our communities. He is actively involved in several health-related projects in the Sacramento Region, including The California Endowment’s Building Healthy Communities effort in South Sacramento. He was granted a Polanco Public Policy Fellowship in 2004, and has sought solutions to social and environmental justice issues on a statewide as well as a local level since. He previously worked in the State Legislature, including supporting the California Latino Legislative Caucus. Asael received his undergraduate degree in Philosophy from the University of California – Davis.