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Contacting Green the Screen
Staff Biographies
Contact Green the Scene Sarah Diefendorf sarah@greenthescene.org Staff Directory
Co-directors:
Sarah Diefendorf, MS is the Executive Director of the Environmental Finance Center for Region IX (California, Arizona, Nevada and Hawaii) and serves as Adjunct Faculty at the Dominican University of California. She works closely with USEPA to promote cleaner business. In her position she helps launch and coordinate county and state Green Business Programs throughout the region. She has also worked with San Francisco African American hair salons to reduce dependency on toxic hair treatments, and developed a series of conferences and roundtables on the use of toxic chemicals in the electronics and furniture industries.
In 2000, Ms. Diefendorf founded the Women's Environmental Network, which now claims almost 1200 members in the Bay Area. Ms. Diefendorf is also an Expert Witness for the USEPA National Environmental Finance Advisory Board, and has been project reviewer for USEPA's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program. In addition, she is a member of the Steering Committee for the Western Regional Pollution Prevention Network and national vice president of the League of Women Voters.
Senior Staff:
Susan Blachman is the Associate Director of the Environmental Finance Center and has over 25 years experience working in the environmental field. She has overseen projects associated with pollution prevention and resource conservation in a variety of industries. Her project work has included collaborating with the US EPA and the California Integrated Waste Management Board to encourage the television industry to act environmentally and incorporate environmental messages in television shows, developing and expanding green business recognition programs in Arizona and California, promoting wetcleaning, an environmentally beneficial alternative to dry cleaning, helping establish the nation’s first vocational wetcleaning program in a state prison, and organizing Environmental Business Opportunities Conference
Jane Lorand, JD, MA is the Co-founder of the Green MBA and a core faculty member. She works as a consultant to large corporations and state agencies, developing programs for public education in fields such as electric deregulation and telecommunications. She is an entrepreneur, a tax attorney and has been instrumental in the design and development of the Green MBA. Her passion is for working with businesses to bring their products and practices into alignment with sustainability principles.
A graduate of Hastings College of the Law, University of California, San Francisco, she spent three years at the Center for Critical Thinking developing curriculum, doing research, writing articles and teaching college and high school faculties how to transform their curriculum so students think more and memorize less. She also holds an MA in education and a BA in History from UCLA. Jane works actively in her community bringing her analytical and facilitation skills to the benefit of environmental and educational organizations.
Virginia St Jean works for the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) and is the Pollution Prevention Coordinator for the San Francisco Green Business Program. She has a B.S. degree in Chemistry and is a Certified Industrial Hygienist. She has been a hazardous materials inspector for 17 years with the Hazardous Materials Program in the SFDPH. In addition to her work as an environmental regulator in San Francisco, she has acted as the SFDPH Pollution Prevention Coordinator. Ms. St. Jean also developed and still administers the SFDPH Clean and Green Program and jointly administers the San Francisco Green Business Program with the SF Department of the Environment and SF Public Utilities Commission. The Clean and Green Program is a business assistance program that awards businesses who demonstrate good compliance and pollution prevention efforts. The Green Business Program adds additional sustainability criteria in addition to the Clean and Green program requirements. Ms. St. Jean continues to work with other local, state and federal environmental and health agencies to assist businesses in other industry sectors in toxics reduction and pollution prevention issues.
