Board Members

Jessica Block

Chair

Governor’s appointee

 Associate Director, WIFIRE Lab at UC San Diego

Expertise:

• Fire behavior and risk modeling
• Vegetation management’s impact on surrounding ecology
• Data governance
• Board management and strategic planning

Committees:

• Executive Committee
• Scientific Committee

Jessica Block has been a senior research associate and associate director of the WIFIRE Lab at the University of California, San Diego since 2011. In Jessica’s role at WIFIRE, she oversees the wildfire modeling team for the CalOES FIRIS program. She was a wildfire research officer at the University of Melbourne in 2010, a research associate at the University of Ballarat, Australia from 2008 to 2009, a research associate at San Diego State University in 2008, and a senior research developer at Arizona State University from 2005 to 2008. Block earned a Master of Science degree in geological sciences with an emphasis in urban ecology from Arizona State University.

Ralph M. Armstrong

Senate appointee

Senior Assistant Business Manager, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1245

Expertise:

• Worker Safety
• Vegetation management
• Utility infrastructure and emerging technologies
• Publicly-owned utilities

Committees:

• Lead, Vegetation Management and Inspections
• Grid Hardware and Technology

Ralph Armstrong Jr. has held several positions with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local Union 1245 since 2007, including senior business representative and senior assistant business manager. Armstrong held several positions with Western Area Power Administration from 1995 to 2007, including occupational safety and health specialist and journeyman lineman. He was a journeyman lineman for the Florida Power and Light Company from 1989 to 1995 and held various positions for IBEW Local 349 from 1983 to 1989.

Timothy Haines

Governor’s appointee

Grid & Power Symmetry, Principal

Expertise:

• Board and Executive Management
• Strategic Planning and Change Management
• Utility business models
• Publicly-owned utilities

Committees:

• Lead, Publicly Owned Utility Issues
• Policy and Utility Safety Culture Committee

Tim Haines has been Principal at Grid & Power Symmetry since 2021. He has held leadership positions in both public and private sectors where the organizations must adapt their management focus and day-to-day operations to changes in California energy and water policy. Throughout, Haines has been motivated by the obligation of utilities and regulators to ensure customers receive safe, reliable, economic, and environmentally sensitive services. He was the first General Manager for California Community Power; a Deputy General Manager for Energy, State Water Contractors; a Deputy Director at the Department of Water Resources; and was the Special Assistant to Chairman of the Board at the California ISO. Haines was a Consultant to the State of California during the 2000/01 energy crisis and began his career as an Engineer for the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. Haines earned a Master of Science degree in Engineering Management and a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from California State University, Sacramento.

Alexandra Syphard, Ph.D

Governor’s appointee

Senior Research Ecologist at the Conservation Biology Institute;  Adjunct Professor,  San Diego State 

Expertise:

• Geospatial, statistical and risk modeling approaches
• Fire ecology, climate and land use change, invasive species
• Vegetation management’s impact on wildfire patterns
• Data governance

Committees:

• Lead, Scientific Committee
• Vegetation Management & Inspections

Alexandra D. Syphard, Ph.D. is a research scientist who has spent more than two decades analyzing the drivers and impacts of landscape change, particularly focusing on wildfire in California and other Mediterranean ecosystems. She investigates how change has occurred in the past, how it is likely to occur in the future, and how different policy or management alternatives may impact human and ecological well-being. Alexandra has concentrated intensely on wildfire risk to communities and identifying the best approaches for balancing fire risk reduction with biodiversity conservation. She also developed a wildfire risk model to inform the cat pricing for a wildfire-focused homeowners insurance company. She further designed the company’s homeowner inspections program for wildfire safety. Her current research focuses on the interactions among wildfire patterns, fire-climate relationships, land use change and urban growth, vegetation dynamics, invasive species, and species’ range shifts.

Christopher Porter

Assembly appointee

Business Representative, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 47

Expertise:

• Worker qualifications
• Publicly-owned utilities
• Utility infrastructure
• Board management and strategic planning

Committees:

• Lead, Executive Committee
• Publicly Owned Utility Issues

Christopher Porter has held positions with IBEW Local Union 47, including business representative and assistant business manager.

John Mader

Governor’s appointee

Electric Distribution Engineer, PG&E; President, Engineers and Scientists of California, Local 20, IFPTE

Expertise:

• Utility infrastructure and design
• PSPS reduction through risk modeling leading to targeted grid hardening
• Resource allocation
• Public safety

Committees:

• Lead, Grid Hardware and Technology

John Mader has been an electrical distribution engineer for the Pacific Gas and Electric Company since 1998. He is president of the Engineers and Scientists of California, Local 20, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE).

Marybel Batjer

Governor’s appointee

Expertise:

Committees:

Marybel Batjer is a partner at California Strategies, LLC, a public policy, and advocacy firm. In 2019, Batjer was appointed as President of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). During her tenure at CPUC, President Batjer led the Commission through landmark clean energy, safety, and consumer protection initiatives by ordering procurement of unprecedented amounts of carbon-free resources, and the expansion of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, as well as advancing broadband deployment, and establishing consumer protections during Covid-19 pandemic. In addition, she led the CPUC in strengthening the policies and guidelines for Wildfire Mitigation and public safety power shutoffs (PSPS).

As the first Secretary of the California Government Operations Agency in 2013, an agency of eleven departments, Secretary Batjer streamlined the IT procurement processes; restructured the Board of Equalization by creating two new state entities and created the Civil Service Improvement project to modernize civil service policies and processes.

From 2005 through 2013, Batjer was the Vice President of Public Policy and Corporate Social Responsibility at Caesars Entertainment Corporation.

From 2000 to 2003, Batjer was Chief of Staff to Governor Kenny C. Guinn, and 2003 to 2005, she was Cabinet Secretary to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. She has served on the State of Nevada Colorado River Commission, the National Judicial College Board of Trustees, and the Board of Directors for the Nevada Museum of Art. Currently she serves on the boards of the Climate and Wildfire Institute, the Guinn Center for Policy Priorities, and the Desert Research Institute Foundation. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Administration Legal Processes from Mills College.

• Diane Fellman, 2019-2024
• Marcie Edwards, 2019-2021