+ Paula Saenghoi, Lessee Representative

Paula Saenghoi is a resident at Solano Ave in Berkeley and has lived there since June 2023 with her teenage children. She is a Bay Area native and lives and works in Berkeley. During the day she works for Truiit and White, a family run business that is a staple of the community. During her free time she is an avid home gardener and volunteer at her local animal shelter. She is proud to help represent her community and neighbors in an effort to continuously make BACLT a great place to be a part of and live in.

+ Arianne Senten, Alternate Lessee Member

Arianne Senten and her family moved to California 6 years ago and has lived in Alameda County for the last 4 years. She has lived with family and friends up until June 2023 when her luck changed and landed her and family a place of their own at Solano Ave in Berkeley through BACLT. Arianne, as well as the rest of the Solano Ave residents, continue to work hard towards their goal of co-op partnership with BACLT at Solano Ave. Arianne is part of her buildings maintenance committee, she is the host of the monthly resident's meetings, and she recently attended the 2024 CLT conference in Los Angeles. Arianne feels that learning all she can about CLT's will help her relay important information to the other residents at Solano Ave so that they can all work together in building a strong and everlasting foundation for their co-op for current and future residents.

+ Bridgette Cooper, Lessee Representative

Bridgette has been a resident of Berkeley’s California Street Apartments since 2013. She works as an IT Support Specialist for a global corporate law firm. She enjoys participating in Marathons as a speed walker. Her experience as a panelist for Ballots and Beyond: Building Power for Affordable Housing in the East Bay strengthened her passion for expanding cooperative housing models and ensuring tenants have pathways to remain in their homes. She serves on the finance committee for California St and works with the other co-op members to meet the goals of co-op partnership. Bridgette is excited to represent California St co-op on the BACLT Board to amplify resident voices, collaborate with community leaders, and help create more thriving co-ops throughout the East Bay.

+ Will Adams, Lessee Representative

Bio coming soon

+ Aja Fasah, General Representative

Aja Fasah is a resident, Generation's Cultural Strategist, Impact Producer for 'The North Pole Show' Season Two, on the creative team for PBS POV series creator Marc weiss' new project, as well as sits on the advisory committee for Climate Justice Alliance. Most of all Fasah is very passionate about the environment, zero waste and loves working with artists as well as with frontline communities. Current 2019 YBCA 100 honoree for their work with Climate Woke alongside Greta Thunberg and Shonda Rhimes.

+ Jasmine Sozi, President & General Representative

Jasmine Sozi is dedicated to working alongside organizations striving to address systemic issues and allocate resources to people in need. As the Project Manager of the Community Economic Justice Clinic (CEJ) at the East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC), Jasmine passionately advocates for the preservation of affordable housing, community ownership of the land, land stewardship, and directing resources to organizations actively involved in furthering these causes, such as community land trusts and cooperatives.

+ Beth Youhn, General Representative

Beth Youhn, Executive Director of Tradeswomen Inc., began her career over 25 years ago as a crane and heavy equipment operator with Operating Engineers Local 3 in the San Francisco Bay Area. Since her retirement from construction in 1999, Beth has worked extensively to promote construction careers to women and men, including positions with Laney Community College and the City and Port of Oakland, where she developed a local hire recruiting program to place women and minorities on the Port’s $1.2 billion expansion and other major public works projects.

+ Mary Lucas McDonald, Vice President & General Representative

Mary Lucas McDonald is a founder of the BACLT Hibiscus Commons project, a model for affordable elder housing cooperatives, which will help seniors of all incomes to retire comfortably and affordably in community. Mary served on the steering committee for United in Action, the community organization that developed the 2020 Vision to close the achievement gap in Berkeley schools. She volunteered for Ashby Village which helps seniors live independently. Mary is an avid dragon boater and recently began their work in the club's non-profit board of directors as the outreach director.

+ Sal Smyth, Public Representative

Bio coming soon

+ Kori Saika Chen, Public Representative & Treasurer

Kori Saika Chen is the Co-Owner of two businesses, Alkali Rye (a retail shop in Oakland that aims to promote Black, Indigenous, People of Color, Women, LGTBQ+, and progressive artisans) and The Matcha Factory (a tea business partnered with Japanese farms and cooperatives focused on zero waste and thoughtful hospitality). He was born in Berkeley, raised in Oakland, and of the firm belief that housing is a human right. He is honored to have served on the BACLT Board since 2023 and as Board Treasurer since 2024. In his free time, Kori enjoys spending time with friends and family, reading, and trail running and hiking in the East Bay Hills.

+ Alberto Benejam, Public Representative

Originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico, Alberto has lived in the Bay Area for the past 12 years. After graduating from UC Berkeley with an MCP/MArch, Alberto has been working at the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation. At TNDC, Alberto has worked on a wide range of complex projects, including new construction, occupied rehabs, acquisition-preservation work, and business development opportunities. Additionally, Alberto leads the department’s training series, preparing staff with the skills they need to be successful in current and future work. Together with previous architecture and public sector experience, Alberto is passionate about sharing his skillset in service of creating more affordable housing across the Bay Area.

+ Stephen Barton, Public Representative

Stephen Barton retired from the City of Berkeley after serving as Housing Director, Deputy Director of the Rent Stabilization Board and as a housing planner. He has a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley and is the author of numerous articles on housing policy and economics. He received an Affordable Housing Leadership award from the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California in 2006 and a National Planning Award from the American Planning Association in 1997.

+ Dustin Tranberg, Alternate Lessee Member

Dustin Tranberg is an IT professional who first experienced cooperative living in the Berkeley student co-ops. For more than two decades he has been an active resident of Brown Shingle, a self-managed housing collective in South Berkeley. He serves on Brown Shingles' maintenance and rules committees, and operates as its liaison to BACLT.

+ Londi Gamedze, Alternate Lessee Member

Bio coming soon

+ Inti Fernandez, Alternate Lessee Member

Inti Fernandez has been a resident of Berkeley’s California Street Apartments since 2014 and was born in San Francisco. As a long-term resident and parent, he is deeply rooted in the Berkeley community and committed to helping create stable, affordable housing where families can put down roots and thrive. He is a father of two teenagers attending Berkeley public schools and understands firsthand how housing stability impacts children, families, and neighborhood strength. Outside of work, he enjoys photography and videography, hiking, and staying active—creative outlets that keep him connected to people, place, and story. Raised in Nicaragua from infancy through age nine by socially conscious parents, Inti grew up with a strong sense of collective care, shared responsibility, and social justice. These early experiences shaped his belief that housing should be a human right and that communities are strongest when residents have a real voice in decision-making. Inti is motivated to learn, contribute, and serve within community land trust and cooperative housing models that prioritize resident leadership, long-term affordability, and mutual support. As a board member, he hopes to bring a grounded, resident-focused perspective and to help expand opportunities for working families and single parents to participate in stable, community-owned housing.

+ Vacant, Alternate Lessee Member

+ Matt Gustafson, Organizational Director

Matt joined the BACLT team in May 2024 to support with fundraising, policy & coalition work, project development, and organizational strategy. As a community organizer with SOMOS Mayfair in East San José for nearly five years, he helped lead grassroots initiatives for citywide anti-displacement policies, advance a community-designed urban village plan, and create a cooperative housing strategy. Through 15 years of nonprofit work he brings deep experience in communications, facilitation, program design & implementation, strategy, policy, and community building. Most importantly, he has seen the deep power and leadership of community members advocating their own solutions for the liberation of everyone. Matt holds a Masters in Urban Planning with honors from SJSU and enjoys playing soccer, roasting coffee from Sweet Maria's in West Oakland, and biking around Berkeley with his son.

+ Yuri Sadiki-Torres, Communications Consultant

Yuri was born and raised in the Bronx, NYC and currently resides in Oakland. She is a third generation Community Organizer with a BA in Public Policy/ History at Mills College and is the Goddaughter of Yuri Kochiyama. Before joining BACLT, Yuri was the Director of Policy/ Community Engagement for the Mayor Thao’s administration. She has also organized with organizations in Oakland and New York City including Faith in Action East Bay, Northern California Land Trust, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, and created the first Youth Roundtable at the Community Service Society of New York. Throughout Yuri's 13 years of community organizing experience; she has organized around housing policies, economic equity, community safety, and environmental justice. Yuri enjoys traveling, hiking, and baking.

+ Noah Compo, Cooperative Stewardship Director

Noah Compo joined the BACLT team in April 2024 as its Stewardship Manager. Noah has been working with housing cooperatives since 2011, including student cooperatives in Lawrence, KS, Santa Barabara, CA, and Berkeley, CA. He is an ardent supportive of all housing models that center people over profit and empower communities in their right to self-determination. Noah has served on the board of directors for a number of community and housing nonprofit organizations, including NASCO Properties and NASCO Development Services, and has provided technical consulting and training on collective decision-making for housing and worker cooperatives. Noah is a lifelong musician, and he hopes you have a great day.

+ Regina Mouton, Stewardship Coordinator

Regina Mouton, is a native of San Francisco, but has lived in the East Bay for decades. Her diverse background spans the arts, activism and education. She has a BFA in Painting/Printmaking, and began as an artist-in-residence at East Oakland Youth Development Center. She has worked with many Bay Area museums, art commissions and organizations, later studying art history at UC Berkeley and teaching modern and contemporary art history at San Francisco State University and Mills College.

Regina later worked in K-12 special education in Oakland public schools and with San Francisco's incarcerated youth until her retirement, and is now a content creator for her tarot and astrology channel. Her Brown Shingle home of the past decade where she lives with her adult son, has been charting a conversion path to a Resident-Operated Nonprofit (RON). She values the opportunity and stability they continue to create through shared community in alignment with BACLT's mission of building rooted and resilient communities.

+ Rebecca Orozco, Co-op Program Manager

Rebecca Orozco (they/she/rebe) joined BACLT as a property resident in January 2020, and BACLT staff as a Co-op Program Manager July 2024. They have over a decade of experience in social justice organizing with focus areas intersecting at reproductive rights, aging in place, racial justice, abolition, food justice, gender inclusivity, and death and dying issues. An original organizing member of Roots of Labor Birth Collective, Rebe is a queer full-spectrum doula who believes strongly in working collectively to heal, learn, remember ancestral traditions, and radically revision our meanings of community. They are excited to join the BACLT team with a dual perspective, and serve as a bridge between the resident community and the organizational leadership. When not organizing, Rebe enjoys cumbia, yoga, walks with their senior dog, thrifting, camping with partner and friends, and being a community doula.