Staff and Board of Directors

Chief Operating Officer

Toby White, MBA
Chief Operating Officer

Toby White has been with CAPS for over five years, initially serving as the Public Affairs Director before being promoted to Chief Operating Officer. A marketing professional her entire career, her vast experience in the non and for-profit sectors spans traditional, grassroots to cutting-edge approaches to public awareness on issues that affect human impact, open space and wildlife preservation, the environment and quality of life. She is currently completing her MBA at Pepperdine University.
[email protected]

Board of Directors

Ben Zuckerman, Ph.D.
President

Professor Emeritus of Physics and Astronomy and Research Professor at UCLA, Dr. Zuckerman is an longtime environmentalist who was cited by Science in 2008 for obtaining the first-ever image of a new planetary system. He received undergraduate and graduate degrees from MIT and Harvard. His major scientific interests have been the birth and death of stars and planetary systems. He has maintained a continuing interest in life — especially intelligent life — in the Universe and developed a course on “Life in the Universe”. He also developed a UCLA Honors course entitled “The 21st Century: Society, Environment, Ethics”. He has co-edited six books including, “Extraterrestrials, Where Are They?” Cambridge University Press 1995, “The Origin and Evolution of the Universe” Jones & Bartlett 1996, and “Human Population and the Environmental Crisis” Jones & Bartlett 1995. He is or has been a member of the Board of Directors of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and the Sierra Club and is an Advisory Board member of the Wildlife Waystation.

Leon Kolankiewicz, M.S.
Vice President

Leon Kolankiewicz is a consulting environmental scientist and planner. He has managed Environmental Impact Statements (EIS’s under NEPA) and Environmental Impact Reports (EIR’s under CEQA) on projects including dams, flood control facilities, roads, parks, power plants and power lines, wind farms, oil drilling, and mines. He has assisted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in preparing long-term conservation plans at approximately 50 national wildlife refuges in many states. Receiving his B.S. at Virginia Tech and M.Sc. at the University of British Columbia, Leon has worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, National Marine Fisheries Service, Orange County (CA) Environmental Management Agency, the NGO Carrying Capacity Network, as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Honduras, and as an environmental consultant.

Kenneth Pasternack, J.D.
Treasurer

Mr. Pasternack is an investor. During the 1990s he was a technical writer of computer software manuals. During the 1970’s and 1980’s he practiced banking law in Los Angeles. Mr. Pasternack became concerned and active about overpopulation while attending college during the 1960’s, when he was also active in the anti-Vietnam War movement and volunteered in the civil rights movement in Mississippi. As a CAPS senior writing fellow he has published letters to the editor and newspaper guest columns. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from Brown University in Sociology, and received his law degree from the University of Arizona.

Dick Schneider, M.S.
Director

Environmental activist, writer, and policy analyst who lectures on the role of population growth in degrading natural ecosystems and eroding the quality of life. With expertise in the effects of acid rain and metals pollution on high altitude lakes, he helped establish the first acid rain monitoring station on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. A resident of the San Francisco Bay Area, he led passage of an Alameda County open space protection initiative in 2000 and currently advises citizens groups on local growth management policies. In 2012, he received the Excellence in Preservation Award from the Tri-Valley Conservancy, and in 2014, he received the Sierra Club Outstanding Achievement Award in Land Conservation. He co-authored Toxics A to Z: A Guide to Everyday Pollution Hazards (University of California Press). Dick received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of California at Berkeley.

Karen Shragg, Ed.D
Secretary

Karen is a lifelong environmentalist and naturalist who spent most of her career as a nature center director in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota. She is an author of 16 books, including children’s literature and nonfictional works. She is an environmental essayist, educator, poet, and has spoken around the world (China, Spain and England) on the topic of overpopulation. Karen received her doctorate in critical pedagogy from the University of St. Thomas in 2002, following two other degrees in outdoor and elementary education. She started the LLC, Move Upstream Environmental Consulting (MUSEC) upon retiring in 2019. In 2015, her book, Move Upstream, a Call to Solve Overpopulation, was met with great critical reviews and became a part of the Overpopulation Atlas by Dr. João LR Abegâo of Portugal. Her newest book—Change our Stories, Change our World—came out in 2020 and moves the discussion further upstream. In addition to serving as a director at CAPS, she is a member of the advisory board of the nonprofit, Earth Overshoot, and is a board member of SEPS, (Scientists and Environmentalists for Population Stabilization). She was on the advisory board of World Population Balance (1992-2021). Karen and her husband, John, live in Minnesota where they enjoy biking and kayaking. She can be reached at www.movingupstream.com

CAPS Advisory Board

  • Tim Aaronson, M.A., Retired Educator, El Cerrito, CA
  • Denice Spangler Adams, M.S., Community Activist, Santa Barbara, CA
  • Benny Chien, M.D., Physician, La Jolla, CA
  • Robert W. Gillespie, President of Population Communication, Pasadena, CA
  • Victor Davis Hanson, Ph.D., Senior Fellow, Hoover Institute, Selma, CA
  • Frank Morris, Sr., Ph.D., Former Executive Director Congressional Black Caucus Foundation
  • Karen Peus, Concerned Citizen, Santa Barbara, CA
  • Winifred W. Rhodes, Philanthropist, Corona del Mar, CA
  • Don Rosenberg, Co-founder Victims of Illegal Alien Crime, Founder of Fight Sanctuary State, Westlake Village, CA
  • Dario Sattui, MBA UC Berkeley, Wine Businessman, environment & population stabilization supporter, Napa, CA
  • Jacob Sigg, Environmental Activist, San Francisco, CA
  • Michael Tobias, Ph.D., Ecologist and Filmmaker, Santa Monica, CA
  • Charles Westoff, Ph.D.,  Emeritus Professor of Demographic Studies & Sociology, Princeton, NJ


    In Memoriam

    David Brower
    Linus Pauling, Ph.D.
    Richard D. Lamm, L.L.D., Former Governor of Colorado
    Dave Foreman, Founder Rewilding Institute

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