Brendan Norton is one of the Northern California Regional Coordinators for the CivicSpark program. Brendan was previously a 2020-21 CivicSpark Fellow with the City of Cupertino. His work included the support of an update to the City’s Climate Action Plan and researching what SB 1000 & SB 1383 compliance would look like for the Cupertino.…

Lindsey McCandless started out in academia studying ancient Mediterranean history and archaeology. (Yes, she can read hieroglyphs; no, aliens did not build the pyramids.) But while on excavations she became more interested in foodways in modern Middle Eastern communities and spent her free time learning how to ethically grow, distribute, and consume food in arid…

Mariah Thomson serves as the Program Implementation Coordinator with CivicSpark, bringing expertise in leadership development, mentorship, and training facilitation. She strives to cultivate confidence in our Fellows as they embark on their climate career journeys. Mariah first joined the CivicSpark team as a Regional Coordinator for the Washington region in 2023. She is an alum…

Amanda McSwine serves as the CivicSpark AmeriCorps Grant Administrator. She was born and raised in Indianapolis, IN and began her professional journey as an AmeriCorps VISTA member in Newberry, South Carolina. As an AmeriCorps VISTA member, Amanda worked to build the capacity of local organizations to fight poverty. Falling in love with the work, Amanda…

Leila Shiblak is the Colorado and Washington Regional Coordinator for the CivicSpark program. She began as a 2020-2021 CivicSpark fellow serving with the City of Rancho Cucamonga. Her project work involved developing the City’s Electric Vehicle (EV) Readiness Plan, a document that serves to provide policy and strategy recommendations to support the future of EVs.…

Paulina is a California native who graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in History from Cal Poly Pomona and received a Master’s degree in Public Policy with a concentration in Environmental Policy from UC Irvine. She served as a previous CivicSpark Fellow for the 2020-2021 service year with the City of Riverside working on COVID-19 Recovery…

Daniel moved to Los Angeles in September of 2019. Before then he grew up and lived in Indianapolis, Indiana. He has gone through a couple of career changes (began his journey in education, then worked with youth), but most recently has enjoyed working in service with Americorps. He served as an Americorps VISTA from August…

Anne Shalamoff is a Regional Coordinator for the CivicSpark program on the National Service Team. Previously a CivicSpark Fellow herself, Anne worked to increase cross sectoral collaboration and environmental justice efforts by supporting the Inland Southern California Climate Collaborative (ISC3) and Partners Advancing Climate Equity (PACE) programs through her service at Climate Resolve, a downtown…