Beth Vaughan
Executive Director
beth@cal-cca.org
Beth is CalCCA’s first executive director, a post she has held since 2017. Beth oversees the association’s advocacy, policy and communications efforts; coordinating a diverse and growing membership of community choice energy providers serving customers across California. She frequently presents CalCCA’s positions on various policy issues at the California Legislature and California Public Utilities Commission, and is a regular speaker at energy industry events. Prior to joining CalCCA, Beth served as executive director of the California Cogeneration Council where she advocated for companies operating combined heat and power facilities. She has worked extensively in both the public and private energy sectors, consulting with government agencies, non-profits, and private sector interests on energy, climate, and environmental public policy issues. Beth served five years as senior advisor to environment and conservation cabinet ministers in the New Zealand parliament. Beth earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Queen’s University in Canada, and Master of Science from Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand.
Evelyn Kahl
General Counsel
evelyn@cal-cca.org
Evie joined CaCCA as general counsel in 2020. She first worked with CalCCA in 2017, representing the association in the CPUC’s Power Charge Indifference Adjustment (PCIA) rulemaking. She has also represented CalCCA in the Resource Adequacy (RA) and Integrated Resource Planning (IRP) proceedings and worked to support the association’s legislative program. She brings to the General Counsel role more than three decades’ experience representing energy industry clients, including Community Choice Aggregators (CCAs), large electricity and natural gas customers, and self-generation developers. Prior to joining CalCCA, Kahl was Shareholder in Buchalter’s San Francisco office and part of the firm’s Energy & Natural Resources Practice Group. Before joining Buchalter, she was a founding partner of Alcantar & Kahl LLP from 1998-2018. Kahl is a member of the Conference of California Public Utility Counsel, the Association of Women in Water, Energy, and Environment, and is a certified mediator. She earned her J.D. magna cum laude from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law and her B.A. magna cum laude from Concordia College.
Leora Broydo Vestel
Director of Communications
leora@cal-cca.org
Leora joined CalCCA as director of communications in 2018 after a 20-plus-year career as a journalist covering energy, the environment, politics and culture. As editor and staff writer at the weekly business publication California Energy Markets, Leora reported on Community Choice Aggregation (CCA), publicly-owned utilities, power project development, and state energy policy. Leora’s articles have been published in The Boston Globe, International Herald Tribune, New York Times, New York Times Magazine, Mother Jones, Sacramento Bee, Salon, Spin, and Utne Reader, among others. She lived overseas for a time, working at ABC News in London and Prognosis newspaper in Prague. Leora is a proud CleanPowerSF “SuperGreen” customer and an avid windsurfer.
Martha Serianz
Director of Operations and Membership
martha@cal-cca.org
Though Martha formally joined CalCCA in 2018 as a staff member, she supported CalCCA’s launch and first year of operations in 2016 while working as Manager of Legal and Compliance Operations at MCE. Prior to her work with CCAs, Martha served as Major Gifts Development Officer at Earthjustice, Campaign and Public Outreach Director on behalf of groups such as the Democratic National Committee, the San Francisco Democratic Party, and the ACLU, and Office Manager and Volunteer Coordinator at Habitat for Humanity. Mission-based work for causes Martha believes in has always been the leading motivation in her professional career. Martha received her B.A. in Political Science from the University of Iowa in 2006 and an M.B.A. from Dominican University in 2014. She is a proud Iowa native, Richmond, California resident, and MCE Deep Green customer who in her free time enjoys volunteering with the Richmond local transportation advisory committee and Rubicon, a local agency working to break the cycle of poverty in the East Bay.
Sean MacNeil
Director of Legislative Affairs
sean@cal-cca.org
Sean is a public policy veteran with a strong background in energy, environmental, labor, and local government policies. He began his career as legislative aide for Assemblymember Helen Thomson, and subsequently served as chief of staff for the following California Senate and Assembly members: Patricia Wiggins, Noreen Evans, Michael Allen and, for the last six years, Richard Bloom. In Bloom’s office, Sean managed a staff of ten and served as liaison between Bloom and elected officials, lobbyists and advocacy groups.
Nick Pappas
Director of Strategic Initiatives and Outreach
nick@cal-cca.org
Nick began his career as a staffer in Assemblymember Nathan Fletcher’s office, focusing on energy and climate legislation and impacts to residential rate design, net energy metering, and cap and trade, among other issues. Nick subsequently worked as a senior legislative advocate at Southern California Edison where he developed and executed strategies on a broad suite of policy issues ranging from energy procurement and customer programs to emissions regulation and distribution reliability. Since 2016, Nick has been a dual MS student at UC Davis in the Energy Systems and Agricultural and Resource Economics programs.
Fred Taylor-Hochberg
Technical Manager, Regulatory and Modeling
fred@cal-cca.org
Fred serves as CalCCA’s technical subject matter expert on a range of mission-critical regulatory and data-specific projects. Prior to joining CalCCA in 2020, he worked at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) serving as lead analyst on the Integrated Resource Planning (IRP) process, which seeks to decarbonize the electric grid in California. In that role, Fred oversaw the running of grid simulations using the Strategic Energy and Risk Valuation Model (SERVM). He also created an end-to-end Python data pipeline that allows the CPUC to model many scenarios at once, and quickly derive data-driven insights about the grid’s cost, reliability, and emissions from the results. Additionally, Fred advised CPUC decision-makers on the most effective way to minimize criteria pollutant emissions from California’s power plants based on comprehensive research into air emissions standards and analyses of complex data from thousands of power plants. His previous positions include senior data analyst at WattzOn, and senior electric rates analyst at Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E). While at PG&E, Fred led the development of analytical reports supporting the company’s electric rates policy positions, directing the reports’ design, data collection, and analysis.
Sandra McCafferty
Administrative Coordinator
sandra@cal-cca.org
Sandra joined CalCCA as administrative coordinator in 2020. She brings to the position over 10 years of experience in customer service and administrative roles. Sandra’s work at CalCCA includes promoting staff and operational efficiencies, processing payments, providing organizational support for the CalCCA Board of Directors and its committees, and serving as a point of contact for the association’s members and partners. Prior to joining CalCCA, Sandra worked at MCE as administrative assistant for the public affairs team. Sandra has an associate degree in Liberal Arts and Human Development from Berkeley City College. Bilingual in English and Spanish, Sandra is a resident of Contra Costa County, where she loves to spend her free time painting, gardening, going to local antique stores, and exploring her passion for interior design.