ACRCD Board of Directors
Agriculture and conservation education, promotion and collaboration have been central to Karen Sweet’s numerous professional and volunteer roles. She helped establish the California Rangeland Conservation Coalition and now is the Executive Director. Karen is a former Executive Officer of the Alameda County Resource Conservation District. Darrel, her husband, and Karen own and operate a cattle ranch in Livermore. They are active in local, state and national cattle industry and rangeland conservation leadership. Karen served as President of the California CattleWomen and continues to be active. Spare time finds Karen tending the yard and watching the wildlife.
Biography coming soon!
Katie is a fifth-generation cattle rancher in Alameda, San Joaquin and Calaveras Counties along with her younger sister and parents. She has been active in rangeland conservation efforts for most of her life, and serves on the land committee of Save Mount Diablo. Katie is also an attorney practicing international arbitration and commercial litigation for Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP. Her practice focuses on complex cross-border disputes, including international commercial and investor-state arbitration, enforcement of international awards and judgments, and complex commercial litigation in both state and federal courts. She has also taught as an adjunct professor of Global Lawyering Skills at McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, California.
Carol has lived in Livermore since 1956 and has seen the dramatic change in the valley over the years. She is a retired registered dietitian, having taught nutrition at the local community colleges, and the WIC program, and as Wellness Services Director at a local non-profit senior support program after attending UC Davis and graduating from UC Berkeley. Through that work, she understands the importance of agriculture and urban agriculture to increase access to fresh produce in underserved communities. Conservation, habitat restoration, and preservation of open space, ranches, and farmlands have been key interests after watching so much of those areas covered by development. She is currently on the ACRCD board and is a lead for the Tri-Valley Native Plant Resource Team, through Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour, promoting and educating the importance of creating native habitat throughout the Bay Area to restore biodiversity and ecological balance.
Dick is a life-long conservationist. He helped write and pass numerous urban growth boundary initiatives in the Bay Area, including Alameda County’s Measure D, which protects the open lands of the county from urban sprawl and other harmful development. Dick served for 20 years as a Sierra Club representative on the Altamont Landfill Open Space Committee. He studied the nutrient cycles of high-altitude lakes at UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He holds B.A. and M.S. degrees from UCB and is co-author of Toxics A to Z: A Guide to Everyday Pollution Hazards (UC Press, 1991).
Merry Carter’s family has been farming and ranching in Alameda County since 1861. Merry, along with her sisters, own the 3 Calhoun Sisters Ranch in Livermore and have been actively implementing conservation improvement projects on the ranch since 2018. Some of the projects have included monarch butterfly restoration, healthy soils, and oak tree regeneration. Their ranch was the first ranch in Alameda County to be Audubon Certified. Merry is a retired IT Operations Manager from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, has a fun post retirement job at McGrail Vineyards, and loves to travel. She currently serves on the ACRCD, Alameda County Fair Foundation, and Alameda County CattleWomen Boards of Directors.