WE MUST SHAPE A RESILIENT
L.A. COUNTY AND BEYOND
Creating Equitable
and Lasting Change
Accelerate Resilience L.A. (ARLA) envisions Los Angeles as a climate-resilient region that is safer, healthier, and more prepared for our increasingly dangerous climate reality.
We engage in capacity building, cross-sector collaboration, and community engagement to advance multi-benefit approaches that are key to developing individual and collective climate resilience.
Our Team
FOUNDER & PROJECT EXECUTIVE
Andy Lipkis
Founder and former President of TreePeople. Andy started planting trees to rehabilitate smog and fire damaged forests as a teenager. By age 18, he founded TreePeople, and served as its president from 1973 to 2019. Lipkis is a pioneer of Urban and Community Forestry and Urban Watershed Management. The Society of American Foresters and the American Society of Landscape Architects have, respectively, granted Lipkis the honorary titles of Forester and Landscape Architect in recognition of his life’s work.
PROJECT DIRECTOR
Jennifer Bravo
Jennifer has 20+ years’ experience in nonprofit advocacy and management, local governance, and technological and social innovation, including designing and operating open innovation programs for the National Geographic Society and NASA’s Centennial Challenges Program.
SENIOR POLICY DIRECTOR
Deborah Bloome
Deborah has 25+ years’ experience in creating international, national, and local environmental and natural resource policies. Bloome utilizes a watershed approach to address multiple environmental and social issues in a region, and her deep experience in, and commitment to, facilitating multi-agency and multi-sector collaborations has been a recurring theme throughout her career.
EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT
Zenya Prowell
Zenya has an extensive history of work within the creative arts as well as in human and social services, including crisis counseling, homeless services, and volunteer mobilization.
POLICY MANAGER
Devon Provo
Devon has 6+ years of experience as an urban planning land use policy consultant. Prior to joining ARLA, Devon managed complex projects related to sustainability, transportation, housing, and workforce development for diverse clientele throughout Southern California.