Marlow Bryd Ray
Watershed Technician
Marlow started on the Watershed’s Team as a Basin’s of Relations Apprentice in 2017. Since then he has become a leader and anchor of our watershed technician team.
Paola Casillas
Watershed Crew Co-Manager / NRF Chicken Care Manager
Paola joined the Urban Tilth team in 2019 after her exemplary work in our Basins of Relations Training Program. Paola leads our Watershed Restoration Field Crew, providing mentorship and support for our staff, and caring for creeks and natural spaces throughout West County. She is a bilingual Richmond native who graduated from Contra Costa College with a degree in Biological Science. With her scientific background and unique ability to connect across cultural boundaries, Paola has an incredible capacity to connect people to their watershed. Paola also cares for the chickens housed at the North Richmond Farm, distributing eggs to community members and ensuring the chickens are happy and healthy and living their best lives. In previous roles, Paola has served as a caretaker for the vulnerable and always strives to empower those she meets with compassion.
Solwazi Allah
Watershed Restoration Field Crew Manager
Solwazi was born and raised in Oakland, California. He is a Berkeley Community Fund Scholar and has an Environmental Studies degree from UC Santa Cruz…a Proud Banana Slug! Solwazi joined Urban Tilth as an apprentice through the Watersheds Basins of Relations Program in the Fall of 2019 and then later joined the Watersheds crew after completing the program, and became a Crew Manager in September 2020. As a crew manager, he plans out the workday, strategizes with contacts for numerous work contracts, schedules out equipment/tools, and completes managerial reports. He’s also an avid fisherman and environmental steward, passionate sports fan, food lover, and a loving brother and son.
Nathan Bickart
Director of Watershed and Water Conservation Programs
Nathan designs curriculum for and leads Urban Tilth’s Watershed Restoration Training Program. Nathan is an ecologist and educator who has worked in the North Richmond community since his graduation from UC Berkeley in 2013. At UCB, Nathan studied Conservation and Resource Studies, with a focus on Ecological Restoration and Education, and upon his graduation he received a Stronach Prize to plan and build a creek-side community garden in North Richmond (still under harvest as Urban Tilth’s 1st St. Garden). Prior to working at Urban Tilth, Nathan served as Lead Restoration Coordinator for the Strawberry Creek Restoration Program in Berkeley. Nathan has worked as an educator for over half of his life, in a diverse array of settings. Nathan’s pedagogy revolves around empowering young people to see their own potential- to build upon the knowledge they have already and start to make connections between the familiar and the unfamiliar in such a way that deepens their understanding of the world around them. He aims to work for justice in all aspects of his teaching and life, guided by the belief that all life is valuable and deserves to be cared for, conserved, and given a space in which it can reach its highest potential.
Jonah Landor-Yamagata
Nursery Manager
Jonah Landor-Yamagata grew up in Berkeley and Oakland. He has worked at Urban Tilth with the Basins of Relations Watersheds Program since 2018. Currently, he manages UT’s Native Plant Nursery to help make sure there are plenty of plants available for the sites that we steward and restore. Jonah has worked as an AmeriCorps volunteer at César Chávez Elementary School in Richmond, in school gardens in Berkeley and as environmental educator bringing hands-on stewardship programs to many schools in the East Bay. Before joining Urban Tilth, Jonah lived in Germany for five years, where he completed a master’s degree in Urban Ecosystem Sciences at the Technische Universität Berlin.