2025 David Brower Awards

The Sierra Club San Francisco Bay Chapter is once again honoring our region's most influential local activists who have been working hard all year (or for decades) to make the Bay Area a better place.

The 2025 David Brower Awards will recognize those who were outstanding in their work tackling our most pressing environmental issues and building healthier, happier communities.

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2025 Awardees:

The following honorees have made powerful contributions to our local environment and communities:

Ed Bennett Lifetime Achievement Award

Recognizes a committed individual who has devoted their entire career to our shared mission and whose work makes a lasting impact on our lives.

Awarded to David "Chicken" Nesmith

Posthumously, for his career and life devoted to protecting the health of the Bay and its inhabitants, and for introducing generations of young activists to the thrill of rafting our watersheds.

David “Chicken” Nesmith was a beloved ex-staff member of SF Bay Chapter, serving as the Chapter’s Conservation Director from 1983 to 2002. He fought to protect the health of the Bay, particularly its wetlands, which were threatened by development. He was also a widely respected rafting guide, and used rafting trips as a way to mentor and introduce youth to the outdoors through the Sierra Club’s ICO program (now Inspiring Connections Outdoors). David was a life-changing mentor to those he worked with, and helped shape our watersheds, local agencies, and Oakland and Alameda county political campaigns. For his untiring work with the Sierra Club, he received the Sierra Club California Staff Excellence Award, formerly the Mary Ferguson Award.

David passed away on March 26th, 2025. Read the memorial on our blog.

Community Defender Award

Recognizes exceptional work on behalf of environmental justice communities in the Bay Area.

Awarded to Doria Robinson

Leads Urban Tilth, an innovative model of food justice, restoration, youth empowerment, resiliency, and community organizing to advance environmental justice in the Bay Area.

Doria is a 3rd generation resident of Richmond, California, and the Executive Director of Urban Tilth, and a co-founder and steering committee member of Cooperation Richmond, a worker-owned cooperative developer, and local loan fund. Raised in a strong church community where her grandfather was the minister, Doria spent weekends and summers on the church’s 350-acre ranch in Fairfield California. It was on the ATOT ranch where she was taught her first strong lessons on the power of cooperative economics by her grandfather. Doria has also worked on organic farms in Western Massachusetts where she attended Hampshire College, at Veritable Vegetable a women-owned organic produce distribution company, Real Food Company, and Mixed Nuts Food Co-op. Doria is also a Certified Permaculture Designer.

In 2014 she led the charge to develop Urban Tilth’s 3-acre urban farm in Richmond. And in 2016 she relaunched the Farm to Table CSA social entrepreneurial venture which now serves hyper-local and sustainably grown produce to 440 West County families each week. In 2022 she became the first Urban Agriculture practitioner to be appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom to the California Board of Food and Agriculture. In November 2022 she was elected to the Richmond City Council representing District 3 where she grew up and currently lives in Richmond where she is championing a progressive Just Transition city-wide agenda.

Emerging Voices Award

Recognizes young people advocating for the environmental needs of their communities, as well as individuals or organizations that lift up youth voices calling for stronger, healthier, and cleaner communities.

Awarded to Rishi Gurjar

For his work advocating for an implementing climate literacy in his school district of Fremont and beyond.

Rishi Gurjar is a sophomore at Cornell University studying ecology and computer science. While in high school in Fremont, Rishi served as Chair of the Sierra Club Southern Alameda County Group Conservation Committee. He also co-wrote and organized the passage of a groundbreaking Climate Literacy Resolution in Fremont Unified School District, and went on to serve on its implementation task force. Rishi co-founded Beyond Terra, a nonprofit aimed at restoring and protecting biodiversity, and now is building Verdus Labs, a company aimed at making farmers omniscient.

Phil Burton Badge of Courage Award

Bestowed upon elected officials who fight for social justice and environmental protections.

Awarded to Myrna Melgar

For her courage leading the fight against the SF v EPA lawsuit, working to protect clean water for all.

Myrna Melgar was elected District 7 Supervisor in November 2020 and re-elected in 2024. She is also now the chair of the Board of Supervisors Land Use and Transportation Committee, the chair of the County Transportation Authority and represents San Francisco on the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. As Supervisor, she represents District 7’s diverse communities, including 40 distinct neighborhoods. Myrna is an urban planner, economic development and housing policy expert, and has served in City government in several different capacities.

Myrna’s family immigrated to San Francisco from El Salvador when she was a child during the 1980s, fleeing that country’s civil war. As for so many others before and since, San Francisco provided Myrna’s family with refuge and economic opportunity. She attended San Francisco State University and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts from Excelsior College. She holds a Master’s degree in Urban Planning with a concentration in housing development from Columbia University.

Myrna formerly worked as the Executive Director of the Jamestown Community Center, Deputy Director of the Mission Economic Development Agency, Director of Homeownership Programs at the Mayor’s Office of Housing during the Newsom Administration, and served as President of the City Planning Commission and Vice President of the Building Inspection Commission. Myrna, her husband Sean Donahue, and three daughters have made their home in Ingleside Terraces for the past decade.

David McCoard Visionary Award

Established in honor of the late Chapter leader David McCoard, who exemplified a life of service and activism on behalf of environmental and humanitarian causes.

Awarded to Chance Cutrano

For his service to the SF Bay Chapter and his demonstrated leadership on the Executive Committee and Sierra Club California.

Chance Cutrano's journey with the Sierra Club began in 2014 as a volunteer intern with the Beyond Coal Campaign's Eastern Region. In the decade since, he has emerged as a transformative leader whose vision and dedication have advanced both the Sierra Club and the broader environmental movement throughout the Bay Area.

Chance's professional work centers around large landscape conservation, from the preservation of wildlife in National Parks to the restoration of biodiversity in agricultural ecosystems. As the Director of Programs for the Resource Renewal Institute, Chance has developed regionally, nationally, and internationally recognized campaigns and coalitions to safeguard public lands, deploy nature-based solutions to societal problems, and improve the resilience of frontline communities to extreme weather. Notably, Chance spearheaded the coalition to restore Point Reyes National Seashore—a coastal treasure established with Sierra Club advocacy in 1962—culminating in a landmark agreement that will restore nearly 17,000 acres of the coastal national park for wildlife conservation, native habitat recovery, and enhanced public recreation opportunities. And, during his recent tenure as Mayor and town councilmember of Fairfax, California, Chance worked to pass ambitious climate action plans for carbon neutrality by 2030.

Now a seasoned conservation leader and public servant at 31, has helped steer the SF Bay Chapter to prioritize intersectional coalition building and increased solidarity with frontline communities, social justice and labor organizations, and tribal nations to achieve durable environmental victories. Chance leads with humility and deep expertise. He combines a deep respect for tradition with his openness to innovation and a nuanced system-level understanding with practical action. He has modelled a generative, open, respectful leadership style that has contributed to a more welcoming and democratic Sierra Club and a path forward for the next generation of environmental advocates.