We’re a small team with big ideas and a passion for doing things well.
MEET THE TEAM!Our Team
Kathleen Mitchell
Kathleen is the owner of Rancho Encinalito. She and her husband Scott Landis purchased the rancho in 2004. Scott immediately embarked on the ambitious project of fencing the entire property to exclude free-ranging livestock and restore biodiversity. The effort took 2 years and 15 kilometers of fencing!!! Scott’s untimely death in 2020 motivated Kathleen to seek partners to help protect the property’s high conservation values. Her fortuitous introduction to Tom Dudley in 2022 proved to be the catalyst for launching the rancho’s current conservation effort and budding UCAS alliance. Kathleen lives in Washington state, but continues to inhabit the rancho seasonally, maintaining fence lines, dwellings and orchards and enjoying its rich biodiversity. Her background is in environmental studies, land and wildlife conservation and commercial fishing
encinalito1@gmail.com
Founding Board Member/Owner Rancho Encinalito
Gerardo Marrón
Gerardo Marrón is a marine biologist graduated from the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California Sur (UABCS). Although his career has included research on various taxonomic groups — including dragonflies, mammals, and reptiles — birds have become the central focus of his scientific and personal passion.
Born and raised in La Paz, Baja California Sur, he grew up exploring the peninsula’s oasis, mangroves, deserts, and mountains, which sparked his early fascination with nature. He actively contributes to citizen science through platforms like eBird and coordinates Christmas Bird Counts for the National Audubon Society. Deeply committed to environmental education, Gerardo has taught workshops on birding and avitourism for rural communities, students, and the general public, inspiring new generations to engage in biodiversity monitoring and conservation.
With field experience across northwestern Mexico, he combines scientific research, community engagement, and outreach. He currently serves as Managing Director of UCAS, convinced that collaborative efforts between local communities, specialists, academics, and authorities will establish this program as a successful conservation model for the region.
atakamara@gmail.com
Managing Director
Founding Board MemberTom Dudley
Tom is an aquatic ecologist at the Univ. of California, Santa Barbara who specializes in the impacts and control of invasive plants, including biological control, and restoration of riparian ecosystems. His family has been farming in southern California since a few years after it was called Alta California, also from a long line of conservationists and, well, trout fisher-persons. His interest in UCAS and BCD stems from riverine research across western North America, including Costa Rica and Panama, and from serendipitous conversation w/ friends of Kathleen's when thinking the Sierra de la Laguna would be a nice place for a field station...and from wanting to someday re-trace the path for the full length of Baja California that his father took when doing stories for Sunset Magazine in the early 50's
tdudley@ucsb.edu
Enrique Flores García
He graduated in 2009 as a Veterinarian and Zootechnician from the Universidad Autónoma Agraria Antonio Narro, Laguna Unit. Since then, he has worked as a technical advisor on numerous projects, including Payment for Environmental Services, Environmental Compensation, Reforestation and Soil Restoration, Community Territorial Planning, Wildlife Monitoring, Monitoring and Control of Invasive Exotic Species, Rangeland Management and Grazing Capacity, Rural Extension, and Support for Goat Farmers.
He currently serves as a Tutor for the iNaturalistMx platform in Baja California Sur.
Enrique has a particular interest in wild animals — especially birds, mammals, and reptiles. Thanks to the platform, he has developed a broader interest in Mexico’s wildlife in general.
He fondly remembers that as a young man, he wanted to learn which species lived in his community, but at the time, there was almost no accessible information available. Today, thanks to platforms like iNaturalist, people themselves can actively contribute to building that knowledge.
Biodiversity and soil conservation specialist
Augusto Olmos Mercado
Augusto Olmos Mercado is an engineer from La Paz whose work focuses on rural communities, conservation, and restoration efforts across Loreto and the Sierra La Laguna region. He has collaborated with ranchers, conservation organizations, and biodiversity specialists on projects involving native plant propagation, habitat restoration, and sustainable resource management in arid ecosystems. His interest in this work stems from a close connection to the landscapes and communities of Baja California Sur, and from the belief that conservation efforts are strongest when local knowledge and participation remain at the center of the process.
Projects and Operations Coordinator
Management AssistantVianney Barajas
Vianney is a candidate for Ph.D. in Marine Sciences with over a decade of experience in trophic ecology and conservation genetics of marine species. Her career combines scientific research with operational management of conservation projects in Mexico. Her interest in the Unión de Conservación Agua de la Sierra (UCAS) stems from a deep belief in the value of building bridges between science, ecosystem restoration, and sustainable rural development in Baja California Sur. This commitment to community based conservation, combined with her years of experience working with fishing communities and now her desire to put that knowledge into practice alongside the rural communities of the Sierra de la Laguna has led her to actively engage in projects that protect the unique biodiversity of the region. Vianney is convinced that conservation, whether marine or terrestrial, with a vision of environmental and gender justice, is a powerful tool for transformation in communities.
vianney.barajasc@gmail.com
Lucio Brayan Espinoza
Lucio Brayan Espinoza Ruiz is a communicator and audiovisual producer from Baja California Sur, founder of Lumina and collaborator with UCAS, focused on territorial documentation, community storytelling, and environmental communication. Through his work, he collaborates with ranching communities in the Sierra de la Laguna region to document community processes, conservation efforts, water retention projects, nurseries, and everyday life in the Sierra.
He has participated in the follow-up and documentation of community and conservation projects in ranches such as Encinalito and other rural communities in southern Baja California Sur, developing documentary production processes and audiovisual continuity focused on territory, biodiversity, and community memory.
His work focuses on documentary production, audiovisual process documentation, and the development of narratives that strengthen the connection between communities, territory, and conservation. His interest in these projects comes from having grown up closely connected to the landscapes and communities of Baja California Sur, as well as from a desire to preserve and share the stories and ongoing processes taking place throughout the region.
luciobrayane@gmail.com
Audiovisual Producer 
Samson Grunwald
Samson Grunwald is the Ecotourism and Outreach Coordinator for UCAS, where he works to develop community-based conservation and sustainable tourism initiatives alongside ranching families in the Sierra de la Laguna of Baja California Sur. His involvement with UCAS began as a graduate student and project manager for a master’s thesis initiative focused on identifying sustainable economic alternatives to traditional cattle ranching that could strengthen climate resilience and ecological restoration for local ranchers.
Through extensive fieldwork and collaboration with ranching communities, Samson helped assess opportunities including ecotourism, conservation partnerships, agroforestry, and value-added agricultural products. What began as an academic project evolved into a long-term commitment to the region and its people. Recognizing the Sierra’s extraordinary biodiversity and birdlife, he went on to spearhead a bird-focused, community-based tourism program designed to create new economic opportunities while supporting habitat conservation and environmental stewardship.
samsongrunwald@bren.ucsb.edu
Community Development and Liaison Coordinator
Sula Vanderplank
Botanist & Conservation Biologist Sula is a botanist and conservation biologist who lives in Loreto and has worked on the Baja California peninsula for more than 20 years. She teaches at UABCS Loreto and is the Director of Conserva Loreto, a non-profit program dedicated to the biodiversity of the mid-peninsula region. As the leader of the 2023 expedition to Rancho Encinalito, UCAS has a special place in her heart.