mission | goals | board | staff | contact

Alina Bokde – Executive Director

Alina Bokde comes to LANLT with over 10 years of experience in the field of parks and open space.  Alina’s career and her public service demonstrate a strong commitment to increasing parks and open space as a key strategy to revitalize low-income neighborhoods and improve the quality of life in underserved communities.
 
Most recently, Alina served as Deputy Executive Officer for the River and Mountains Conservancy, preserving open space and habitat within its jurisdiction of 68 cities in LA and Orange counties.  Previously, Alina managed complex, conservation-focused real estate transactions for the Trust for Public Land, a national land conservation organization.
 
Alina serves on a number of community and civic organizations. She is currently President of the Los Angeles Environmental Affairs Commission; a Board member of Communities for a Better Environment, a statewide environmental justice organization; and a Board member of Latino Urban Forum, an organization dedicated to improving the quality of life and sustainability of Latino communities in the LA metro area.
 
Alina received her B.A. in Biology from Macalester College and her M.A. in Community and Regional Planning from the University of New Mexico.  Please join the Board and staff in welcoming Alina to the LANLT!  

Joel Jimenez – Park Supervisor

Joel Jimenez recently got promoted to full-time status as the Marsh Skate Park Supervisor.  Joel, who has lived in the neighborhood his whole life, has been looking forward to the opening of the skate park which was much needed for the kids in this area.  Ever since it’s grand opening in September 2007, Joel has been skating there daily and later hired to supervise the park.  Joel feels incredibly privileged to be doing what he loves, and has been a great mentor with the kids who skate there.  Together, they are working on fundraiser ideas in order to install additional equipment to further improve the skate park.

Hillary Larsen – Director of Operations

Hillary Larsen comes to LANLT with three years of administrative and management experience and the passion to make a difference in the communities that have shaped her diverse experiences as a native Angeleno.  Hillary's diverse employment background also includes experience in education and research.

Hillary graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in History from UCLA, where her participation in undergraduate research led to her interest in the development of urban centers and their inhabitants.  Her research focused on the immigrant experience in American cities, and the development of these communities.  She hopes to apply her historical understanding of the development of urban areas to her work at LANLT.

As Director of Operations for the organization, Hillary works to further the mission of the LANLT on many levels, from development to project management.      

Tanya Torres – Lead Community Organizer

Tanya Torres Mayahuel joins LANLT with more than twenty years of experience in grass roots organizing locally and globally.

As a teacher, graduated from Queretaro University in Mexico, she learned to organize in poor marginalized indigenous communities. There she contributed to the development of a solid community leadership base responsible for the creation of roads, schools, clinics, and community gardens.

In Los Angeles, she had been organizing for the past sixteen years around health, housing, economic development, education, environmental justice, culture and art with Canto Sin Fronteras KPFK radio, Comite Cultural Latino Americano, the International Coalition for Social Justice, Clinica Monsenor Romero, and Madison Neighborhood Partners.

In 2006 she received the Cesar Chavez Award “ the Spirit of the Heart” for her dedication to history, culture, and current social topics through music, via Canto Sin Fronteras KPFK a radio show she created in 1995, and her tireless work as a community organizer for more than twenty years.

Her commitment to environmental justice has led her to her work at LANLT where her goals are to help develop a leadership within community residents that will create environmental consciousness leading them to take ownership of current projects and expand green spaces in the city through collaboration with other organizations.

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