Members of the Advisory Board

Brent Howell became Chair of CMC’s Roberts Environmental Center (REC) Advisory Board soon after its inception in 1984.

He is a graduate of CMC Class of ‘’62, and UCLA graduate with MBA in Managerial Finance. After serving in U.S. Coast Guard, and stationed in Alaska, he joined Coldwell Banker & Co. as a commercial real estate broker, where he enjoyed a storied career lasting 58 years!

CBRE is now a Global Commercial Real Estate Company with over 115,000 Associates.

Before retiring CBRE in 2022, Brent served as Executive Director of National Accounts/Marketing for the Retail Specialty, and member of Board of Director for CBRE, Inc.

Brent’s affiliations include past Chair of Intl Council of Shopping Centers, Urban Land Institute, Chair of California Business Properties Assoc., and Trustee of PV Peninsula Education Foundation.

Brent and his wife Beth, have lived in Rolling Hills, CA for 40 years. Their family includes 3 grown children, spouses and 5 grandchildren.

Thomas McHenry served as Dean and President of Vermont Law School from 2017 to 2021 where he directed a variety of initiatives to make the school financially stronger and enhance its educational programs.  Tom previously worked as an attorney in Los Angeles for thirty years, the last twenty as a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher where he practiced general environmental law.  Tom also served as an Adjunct Professor at Claremont McKenna College from 1992 to 2017 where he taught environmental law and policy and environmental leadership. He served as a law clerk to the Honorable Lawrence Karlton, Chief United States District Judge of the Eastern District of California, in Sacramento in 1984-86 and as a research fellow in the National Park Department of Taiwan in 1983-1984. Tom continues to teach environmental classes at Claremont McKenna and Pomona Colleges.  He currently serves as the chair of the Leadership Council at the Yale School of the Environment, as vice-chair of the Advisory Council for the Roberts Environmental Center at Claremont McKenna College, as chair of the Conservation Committee of the National Forest Foundation, as chair of the finance committee on the board of the Open Space Institute and on the board of the Center for Large Landscape Conservation in Bozeman, Montana. He is researching and drafting a book on environmental leadership, a chapter on forest law in the United States and consulting to several environmental organizations. Tom graduated from New York University Law School in 1983 where he served on the Journal of International Law and Politics. He received a Master of Forest Science Degree from the Yale School of the Environment (formerly the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies) in 1980 and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in history from Yale College in 1977.

Sedina Banks is a 2000 graduate of Claremont McKenna College, majoring in Environment, Economics and Politics (EEP). During her time at Claremont McKenna College, she had the pleasure of spending a summer at the Roberts Environmental Center Burger Sierra Research Station in the Eastern Sierra and received a Roberts Environmental Center Summer Fellowship to spend a summer in Alaska. She was also a runner on the Athena’s cross country team all four years and a recipient of Claremont Colleges’ Scholar Athlete Award. She is happy to give back in her role as an Advisory Board member.

She is currently a partner in the environmental group at Greenberg Glusker LLP, a full-service law firm in Los Angeles. With two decades of experience in environmental compliance and litigation, Sedina possesses the unique ability to craft innovative solutions to the most complex of environmental challenges.

 She counsels and represents a broad array of clients including property owners, municipalities, and companies in a wide range of environmental matters related to regulatory compliance, contaminated properties, CEQA, water quality, and air quality issues, and real estate transactional support. Sedina has represented clients in investigation, enforcement, and remedial matters involving the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the California Regional Water Quality Control Boards, California air districts and state board, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, and the California UST Fund. Sedina extends her expertise into consumer product and labeling matters, navigating intricate regulations set forth by state and federal agencies.

 One of Sedina’s standout achievements is her knack for negotiating settlements that significantly reduce penalties in cases involving water quality, air quality, and other regulatory violations and coming up with creative solutions to her client’s problems.

 Sedina’s dedication to environmental advocacy goes beyond her expertise in the field. In addition to proudly serving on the Advisory Board of the Roberts Environmental Center, she is a member of the Environmental Law Section of the California State Bar and serves on the Executive Committee of the Nevada State Bar Environmental & Natural Resources Section. She also frequently writes and speaks on environmental law topics.

 When not immersed in the world of environmental law, she cherishes quality time with her husband, three children, and her bloodhound.

https://www.sig-ssi.com/

David Ossentjuk focuses his law practice on natural resources transactions, including asset acquisitions and dispositions, leasing, operations, title issues, joint ventures and operating agreements, and compliance with federal, state, and local regulations. He is one of a limited number of attorneys in California with significant experience in the litigation of oil and gas disputes, including lease termination/preservation issues, unit and joint operations disputes, royalty and title matters, and post-operation environmental clean-up and abandonment issues. David also represents clients in the burgeoning carbon capture and sequestration industry in California. He also handles general business, real estate, and environmental litigation, and has successfully litigated and tried numerous business disputes involving claims for breach of contract, trespass, nuisance, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, business interference, corporate and partnership ownership and governance, and insurance coverage.

David also has significant experience in the purchase, sale, and development of environmentally impacted properties, including the negotiation and litigation of environmental aspects of purchase and sale agreements; leases; joint ventures and partnerships; oil field development and abandonment agreements; environmental insurance policies; land use entitlements; and prospective purchaser agreements.

Liz Thomas is a professional hiker, adventure conservationist, and outdoor writer who held the women’s unsupported speed record on the 2,181-mile long Appalachian Trail. A guest editor and regular contributor to Backpacker, Thomas has been featured on Good Morning America and has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Yahoo! News, Men’s Journal, Women’s Health, and Outside, among other publications. Her book Long Trails: Mastering the Art of the Thru-Hike received the 2017 National Outdoor Book Award for Best Instructional book with judges calling in the “Bible of the Sport.”

Thomas has served on the board of the Partnership for the National Trail System and the American Long Distance Hiking Association and as ambassador to American Hiking Society. A former staff writer at Wirecutter/New York Times, Thomas is currently editor-in-chief at Treeline Review, an outdoor digital media company dedicated to creating outdoors for all.

A 2007 graduate of Claremont McKenna College where she majored in EEP (Environment, Economics, and Politics) and was the Athenaeum student manager, Thomas holds a masters in Environmental Science from the Yale School of the Environment, where she held a Doris Duke Conservation Fellowship for her research on trails, conservation, and trail-side communities.

Megan has devoted more than 20 years to professional service in conservation, landscape protection, project management, coalition building, and team leadership roles.  Throughout her career, she has acquired and permanently conserved over 81,500 acres. She started at Pacific Crest Trail Association (PCTA) in 2015 as the organization’s first Director of Land Protection, after serving at the Pacific Forest Trust, Trust for Public Land, and Piedmont Land Conservancy. During her earlier work at PCTA, Megan managed the acquisition and permanent protection of more than 30 miles of the PCT and was awarded the U.S. Forest Service Region 5 Partnership of the Year Award in 2018. Megan was named PCTA’s CEO in May 2022. She has led the organization’s significant progress on diversity, equity, and inclusion, including the restructuring of hiring processes, board recruitment, and the development of more inclusive communications. Megan holds a Master of Environmental Management from Duke University and a B.A. in Environmental Studies, Economics, and Politics from Claremont McKenna College.