LSA Team summer 2023 comings + goings
Summer 2023 marks a few transitions for the LSA team. We’re excited to welcome two new staff: Alan Ruiz Berman, Manager of Marketing & Development, and Sofía Moraga Franco, Bicycle Initiatives Coordinator. Scroll down to learn more about each of them and what drew them to Living Streets Alliance.
Longtime Manager of Operations, Valerie Sipp, will be moving on to serve as Finance and Administration Coordinator with the University of Arizona’s Department of Diversity and Inclusion. We’re sad to see Valerie go and are also really excited for the next chapter in her journey doing powerful and meaningful work in the Tucson community.
From Valerie:
"While I'm excited to begin my next adventure, I am heartbroken to be leaving a place that has taught me so much. Thanks to LSA I have learned how to be a better advocate, leader, and community member. Some of the proudest moments of my career have been with LSA and I look forward to seeing them continue to build community and help Tucson become the equitable, safe, and sustainable city that I know it can be."
This Fall we anticipate one more exciting addition to the LSA team: a Director of Advocacy & Policy. Visit our Jobs & Internships page for an overview of the position as well as the soon-to-be-vacant Manager of Operations position.
Meet Sofía
“I was born in Antofagasta, Chile which lies nestled in the Atacama Desert, the driest in the world. I remember coming to the States at the age of five and being told we would be living in the Sonoran Desert… I imagined something like my former home. I could not have been more wrong. “This isn’t a desert”, I said. “What is an apple tree doing in my yard?” “What are all these bushes and wildflowers and bunnies running around?” Since then, I’ve been fascinated by the abundance and diversity of life in the Southwest. I attended the University of Arizona and graduated in 2021 with a double major in journalism and French. That summer I received a grant from the journalism school to create ‘Portrait of Our Parks’, a project aimed at showcasing National Park rangers and visitors from underrepresented communities through portraiture and storytelling. It felt incredible to be doing that work, to listen to the stories and share them. That advocacy and on-the-ground storytelling is something that fuels my work, and I hope to continue doing more of it with LSA. Biking is a passion of mine, but when I’m not rolling around town on those wheels, you can find me cooking, painting, taking a random class, attempting to write a book, enjoying time with family and friends, or like a lizard in the sun, taking in the beauty of the Sonoran Desert.”
Meet Alan
Alan joined LSA in the summer of 2023, and has lived and worked in Tucson for more than four years, including for the Intercultural Center for the Study of Deserts and Oceans (CEDO), a binational NGO in Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, Mexico. As a Mexican & American conservation professional and nonprofit marketing and development specialist, Alan has over a decade of experience helping grow grassroots environmental organizations and programs internationally, including collaborating on-the-ground with academics, students, artisanal fisherfolk, and Indigenous communities in several US cities, Mexico, the Caribbean, Costa Rica, and New Zealand - where he lived for five years and earned a M.A. in conservation from Victoria University of Wellington. Alan also holds a BA in the visual arts from Prescott College, AZ, and he maintains a local painting and photo practice in Tucson’s Warehouse Arts District. Alan most enjoys being in the ocean and exploring the Sonoran Desert and Sky Islands with a naturalist's eye for biodiversity, and his local rescue dog - Bone. In his new role at LSA, Alan believes in thinking globally while acting locally and in centering the experiences of under-represented communities.