Ellen Concepcion – Executive Director
Ellen is the co-founder and President of New Leaf Collaborative and oversees the Community Science Workshop Program. She also teaches 7th & 8th grade science at Mare Island Technology Academy. Through New Leaf Collaborative’s programs, Ellen hopes to inspire youth to learn, act and think creatively, confidently and responsibly and to introduce them to career options that lead to sustainable prosperity. She also strives to eradicate single-use plastic.
Email: ellen@newleafcollaborative.org
Mary Peeff – NLC Business Director
Mary is responsible for the management and administration of New Leaf Collaborative (NLC) grants, budgets, contracts, invoices, bookkeeping and financial and corporate compliance.
Email: mary@newleafcollaborative.org
Tina Wong – Earth Ambassadors Program Manager
Tina inspires, informs, and enables responsible environmental decision-making and sustainable practices by providing leadership opportunities in education for high school and elementary students to become agents of sustainable change. She also works to further connect interested Empowering Educators participants to resources that renew a love of teaching, provides opportunities for reflection upon personal strengths, and ultimately re-envisions transformative learning environments for students.
Based on her work inspiring young people to become good stewards of the environment, Tina was named “2022 Contra Costa Woman of the Year”.
Email: tina@newleafcollaborative.org
Erica Thompson – Ecoliteracy Green Team Instructor
Erica Thompson is our lead instructor for our Earth Ambassadors program with almost 8 years experience in providing sustainable education to students TK through 5th grade. She tries her best to live a more sustainable lifestyle by swapping daily tasks and products for more sustainable/eco-friendly alternatives to reduce the effect we have on the environment. Fun fact: when she was young, she could not decide if she wanted to be an interior designer or a teacher. She ended up studying interior design, but is loving this phase in her life of empowering our younger generation in understanding why the environment is important.
Email: erica@newleafcollaborative.org
Amy Ross – Ecoliteracy Green Team Instructor
Amy strives to inspire, inform, and enable responsible environmental decision-making and sustainable practices by providing leadership opportunities in education for high school and elementary students to become agents of sustainable change.
Email: amy@newleafcollaborative.org
Workshop Instructors:
Community Science Workshop “CSW” Instructors provide hands-on tinkering with Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math (STEAM) in ways that foster curiosity, creativity, perseverance, and critical thinking. They engage students in grade-level appropriate hands-on science experiences.
- Nicola Elliot
- Julie Mullane
- Lauren Norse
- Paul Stroube
Community Garden Workshop “CGW” Instructors providing enhanced, hands-on, experiential, multi-disciplinary, curriculum based learning opportunities to MJHS students at the MUSD Community Garden.
- Chelsea Pickslay – Community Garden Program Manager
- Diamera Bach – Instructor