2026 Solano County Air Quality Summit

Schedule

9–10 am: Check-in and Resource Tables

Grab a coffee and pastry, explore resource tables from local organizations, check out youth-created projects, try California Air Resources Board’s interactive air quality mapping activity, and add your voice to our community vision board. Kids’ activities available throughout the day.

10 am-12:30 pm: Morning Program, Banquet Room

• Welcome & Grounding · 10:00–10:05 am
• Keynote: Jamiah Adams · 10:05–10:20 am
  • What motivates our advocacy? Is it personal? What skin do we have in the game? How do we bring more people in? This keynote is about public narrative, and how we, as concerned citizens and key stakeholders, make more people aware of what we’re facing in Solano County and work together to build a healthier and more sustainable environment for all to thrive.
• Clear the Air: Who’s at Risk and Why Every Breath Counts: Dr. Trina Mackie · 10:20–10:35 am
  • What does air pollution actually do to your health, and who’s most at risk? This presentation covers the health risks of air pollution in California, from short-term spikes to long-term exposure, with a focus on fine particulate matter. Distinctions will be made between impacts on individuals and community public health ramifications. Exposure and risk will be presented in the context of climate change, new emerging infectious respiratory diseases, environmental injustice, and groups with increased vulnerability.
• Break · 10:35–10:45 am
• Grounding Through the Breath: A Five-Minute Reset: Alex Yeates · 10:45 am
  • Join Alex Yeates of Breathe On Purpose and Breath Lab of Benicia for a brief, accessible grounding practice. Through body awareness and comfortable, unforced breathing, participants will explore the breath as both a signal of stress and a practical resource for steadiness, focus, and connection. No prior experience is needed.
• Solano County Emissions Inventory: Erika Trinidad (California Air Resources Board) · 10:50–11:10 am
• Community Group Updates · 11:10–11:45 am
  • Benicia Community Air  Monitoring Program · Fresh Air Vallejo · Vallejo Citizen Air Monitoring Network
• Break · 11:45 am–12:00 pm
• Air Monitoring Panel · 12:00–12:30pm
  • Dr. Kate Hoag (Bay Area Air Quality Management District) · Marilyn Bardet (BCAMP) · Erika Trinidad (CARB) · Ken Szutu (VCAMN)
    Moderated by Dr. Nicholas J. Spada

12:30-1:30 pm: Lunch

Enjoy lunch while connecting with fellow attendees and local organizations, exploring resource tables from local organizations, checking out youth-created projects, participating in CARB’s interactive air quality mapping activity, and adding your voice to our community vision board.

1:30-3:30 pm: Afternoon Program

• Skill-building Workshops (choose one) · 1:30–2:15 pm
  • Public Narrative Workshop — Jamiah Adams · Room TBD
  • Advocacy and organizing leaders aim to change hearts and minds when they pursue policy change. Stakeholders are swayed by authentic stories. In this workshop, we’ll use the “story of self, us, and now” framework, popularized by Harvard Professor and organizer Marshall Ganz, to hone your story into a one-minute introduction you can use to recruit volunteers, talk to decision-makers, fundraise, and spread the word via social media and traditional news outlets.
    
  • Breathe Easier: DIY for Cleaner Air (*kid friendly*) — Eva Bernardes, Charlotte Webb & Avis Webster · Room TBD
  • Learn how everyday products affect the air in your home, then get hands-on experience to make your home healthier. This workshop covers what’s really in the air you breathe indoors, how to build a self-watering planter from reclaimed materials to grow an air-purifying houseplant, and how to make your own natural DIY room spray with essential oils.
  • 3-Step Roadmap to a Healthy Home — Tyla Brown & Alejandro Castelan (MCE) · Room TBD
  • This interactive workshop will help participants understand the difference between energy efficiency and electrification, why efficiency upgrades should come first, and how proper sequencing can support healthier indoor air, better comfort, and long-term bill stability. Participants will learn a practical three-step roadmap for home upgrades and explore available rebates with MCE’s Home Energy Savings Program.

• Break · 2:15–2:30 pm
• Ask an Expert Q&A Sessions (choose one) · 2:30–3:15pm
  • Wildfires — Ashley Hansen, Sean Raffuse · Room TBD
  • Wildfire smoke is one of the biggest air quality concerns in Solano County, and it’s more dangerous than many people realize. This “Ask an Expert” session brings together expertise on the science of how smoke spreads and is forecasted with the physical and mental health impacts of exposure, who’s most at risk, and practical ways to protect yourself and your family. This session is primarily focused on audience Q&A, so bring your questions!
  • Land Use & Development — Duane Kromm, Dr. Nader Afzalan · Room TBD
  • “A new development is coming to my neighborhood, what do I need to know?” This “Ask an Expert” session unpacks how land use decisions actually get made in Solano County, from the county’s orderly growth framework to the planning process itself, and what real opportunities residents have to weigh in and get involved. We’ll also touch on newer development types, like data centers, and what residents should know as they emerge locally. This session is primarily focused on audience Q&A, so bring your questions!
  • Moving from Citizen Complaints to Regulatory Action — Ken Szutu · Room TBD
  • Communities often know when something is wrong, but turning years of complaints into regulatory action can be difficult. Using a Vallejo community’s five-year fight against recurring cement dust pollution as a case study, this session covers how the Citizen Air Monitoring Network worked with the Bay Area Air District to document the problem, build relationships, and ultimately secure enforcement action, offering practical lessons other community groups can apply in their own fights for accountability.

• Break · 3:15–3:30pm

3:30-3:45 pm: Closing, Banquet Room

Reflections on the day, key takeaways, and next steps for staying involved.

3:45-4:15 pm: Optional Connection Space, Banquet Room

Stick around to connect with fellow attendees, revisit the vision boards, and share your ideas, questions, and contact information with others working on air quality in your community.

Sign up for the Sustainable Solano newsletter or check back here to get the latest updates on the summit as they are announced.

Participant Stipends: Non-government affiliated participants who stay for the whole event will be eligible for participant compensation of $50 (limited to the first 50 arrivals).

Jamiah Aniece Adams: Born in San Francisco and a proud Vallejo resident, Adams has channeled her artistry and advocacy into digital storytelling to build stronger communities and more equitable systems for working people. That work has spanned climate and environmental justice, civil and human rights, immigration, criminal justice, and voting rights. Tenures at the NAACP, MoveOn.org, NextGen America, the Sierra Club, and the Democratic National Committee — and most recently, Al Gore’s climate education organization, The Climate Reality Project. She currently leads her own political consultancy, Believer’s Strategies, advising values-aligned organizations, foundations, and influencers. Adams was an inaugural fellow at the Center for American Progress’ 2050 Leadership Institute and served abroad as a cultural ambassador in Eastern Europe for the U.S. Department of State. Adams serves on the Vallejo City Design Commission. She has served as an advisor to the UC Davis Graduate Environmental Program and as an inaugural fellow at the World Forestry Center. Additionally, she served as a federal commissioner for the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House and the Federal Wildland Fire Commission. Currently, Adams is part of the 2026-2027 cohort of the Citizen Air Monitoring Network, Clean Air Ambassador Program. In her free time, Jamiah enjoys spending time with her parents and extended family and hiking the beautiful paths of South Vallejo. She is a certified Doubledutch Aerobics instructor and burgeoning soul line dancer.

Nader Afzalan focuses on one key question: Are our programs, plans, and policies making a difference for the communities they aim to serve? Too often, they sit on a shelf without clear impact. His work is about changing that.

Afzalan’s practice, teaching, and research combine data analytics and inclusive stakeholder engagement to tackle complex urban and regional challenges. His work focuses on the intersection of climate resilience, economic development, and environmental justice.

He is the founder and CEO of The Triangle, which helps public initiatives deliver for everyone they were promised to. He is also the program director of the Sustainable Environmental Design degree program at UC Berkeley.

Over the past 20 years, Afzalan has held leadership roles across the public, nonprofit, and private sectors. He served as senior advisor to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, where he helped design programs and systems to track the success of state efforts that connect climate policy with economic development for a just transition. He also led the development and launch of California’s first statewide data warehouse on homelessness.

As chair of the American Planning Association’s Technology Division, he created programs and advocated for policies that promote the ethical use of big data and emerging technologies in city planning and design. Most recently, he served as an advisor to The LINE project in Saudi Arabia, where he focused on humanizing the role of technology in shaping the future of urban development.

Afzalan’s work has spanned communities across the U.S., China, Central America, and the Middle East. He has authored over 30 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, with publications in leading journals such as JAPA, JPER, Cities, and the Journal of Urban Technology.

Marilyn Bardet is a 39-year resident of Benicia who has spent 30 years as a volunteer grassroots activist addressing city planning, land use, and industrial development in her community, including serving as a Valero refinery “watchdog” concerned about the refinery’s daily emissions. Her advocacy has included successfully challenging Koch Industries’ proposed petroleum coke terminal, winning emissions concessions from Valero, and defeating the company’s Crude-By-Rail project. In 2019, she co-founded the Benicia Community Air Monitoring Program (BCAMP), where she continues to serve on the board. Given the increasing rate of global warming, she believes it’s paramount to change our personal habits and our cities’ practices to reduce our collective carbon footprint, reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, and create a “green” energy future that protects and improves the places we live.

Her training and vocation as an artist informs all of her civic work. She is led by curiosity, paying close attention to the world around her, with a worldview that is wide-angled, compassionate, and guided by reflection and her moral compass.

Tyla Brown, MCE Senior Partnership Development Manager, collaborates with organizations throughout MCE’s service area to promote green jobs, climate education, and green technologies that build climate-resilient communities. She has over 15 years of nonprofit and government experience, working directly with underserved communities. Tyla holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from San Francisco State University.

Alejandro Castelan, MCE Senior Customer Programs Manager, works closely with MCE staff, external partners, and third-party implementers to oversee the day-to-day operations of MCE’s single-family energy efficiency, healthy homes, and electrification programs. Alejandro brings extensive experience in energy efficiency and sustainability program design and implementation, having worked previously at Rising Sun overseeing its residential energy efficiency and workforce development initiatives across the nine Bay Area counties. He holds a master’s degree in energy systems management, specializing in integrated resource planning, from the University of San Francisco and a bachelor’s degree in political science from UC Berkeley.

Ashley Hansen, MPH, is the Climate Resilience, Chronic Disease, and Built Environment Health Education Specialist for Solano County Public Health’s Health Promotion and Community Wellness Bureau. With a Master of Public Health specialized in Rural and Global Public Health Practice from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, her work is shaped by her background in case management, her overseas experience serving as a regional health coordinator in the Republic of Cameroon, and a longstanding passion for public health, environmental systems, and health equity. She has co-authored environmental health research on wildfire smoke exposure and now leads countywide initiatives that bridge climate impacts, chronic disease prevention, and healthier built environments to support community resilience.

Duane Kromm moved to Fairfield in 1975, following his wife, Marilyn Farley, who had been hired as the city’s Housing Officer. A CPA by training, he spent his career in auditing and systems consulting for local governments and nonprofits.

He joined the Solano County Orderly Growth Committee in 1984, shortly after its founding to oppose sprawl development between Vacaville and Winters, and has held several roles with the committee, including Chair and Treasurer.

Duane was elected to the Solano County Board of Supervisors, District 3, in 1998, serving two terms, during which he also served on the boards for the Yolo-Solano Air Quality Management District, the Solano Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), and Partnership HealthPlan of California.

Duane and his wife now live in Paradise Valley Estates, where they remain active in both county and community life.

Dr. Trina Mackie is an Associate Professor in the Public Health Program at Touro University California. Her research looks at spatial distribution of risk to identify and address environmental injustice, community partnerships to work for climate justice, environmental education to support youth power and action, and the contributions of citizen science to quantify and reduce environmental exposures. She has also worked on environmental health issues in the nonprofit, private, and governmental sectors looking at pesticide health risks, bioaccumulation of pollutants in the food chain, air pollution and water pollution.

Liat F. Meitzenheimer is a community advocate, environmental justice leader, and public servant based in Vallejo, best known for her grassroots environmental activism and extensive service on local civic boards.

She serves as President of Fresh Air Vallejo, where she led a six-year campaign that successfully prevented a major cement plant and marine terminal from being built in South Vallejo, earning the organization the Blue Rivet Award for grassroots activism. She also recently helped secure a $250,000 Environmental Justice Data Grant to help vulnerable local communities collect and analyze air quality and health data.

Liat has served over 12 years on the board of the Greater Vallejo Recreation District, 10 years on the City of Vallejo Human Relations Commission, and has also served on the Vallejo Alcohol and Tobacco Policy Coalition and the Police Chief Advisory Board. She is a former board president of the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum and frequently leads community discussions on local Black history.

A Vallejo resident for over 40 years, Liat often acts as a liaison between residents and government agencies, including helping coordinate U.S. Department of Justice community meetings on local police reform.

Sean Raffuse is the Associate Director of Software and Data at the UC Davis Air Quality Research Center. He oversees data management and software development for national air quality monitoring programs. His research focuses on understanding the air pollution and public health impacts of wildland fires through measurements and models.

Dr. Nicholas Spada is a research scientist with the UC Davis Air Quality Research Center and Crocker Nuclear Laboratory, where he studies the prevalence and effects of metallic aerosols. He is also a co-director of the Citizen Air Monitoring Network, working closely with front-line communities to address hyper-local air quality concerns.

Ken Szutu is the founder and Executive Director of the Citizen Air Monitoring Network (CAMN) and a member and former Co-Chair of the Bay Area Air District’s Community Advisory Council.

After retiring from a career in the computer industry, Ken became what he describes as an “accidental activist.” His involvement began with local air pollution concerns in Vallejo and grew into a broader effort to help communities understand air quality and work effectively with regulatory agencies. Through CAMN, Ken works with residents, government agencies, universities, and community organizations on community air monitoring, education, and environmental justice. His work focuses on bridging the gap between community experience, scientific data, and regulatory action — and on building community capacity to move from identifying environmental problems to pursuing practical solutions.

Charlotte Webb is a participant in Vallejo’s CAMN Clean Air Ambassador Program, dedicated to living, learning, and practicing a clean and healthy lifestyle for herself, her family, and her community. In her spare time, she enjoys preparing salves and tinctures, infusing oils, and brewing kombucha. At the Summit, she’ll help attendees eliminate aerosols from their living spaces so they can breathe deeply and enjoy an environment free from toxins.

Avis Webster is a Clean Air student and advocate with Vallejo’s CAMN Clean Air Ambassador Program. Through her work at Global Center for Success, she was introduced to the program by fellow employee ambassadors, and has since shared what she’s learned with clients and friends. She has a particular interest in indoor plants that support clean air, like the Snake Plant and English Ivy, both known for removing toxins from the air. At the Summit, she’ll share information about air-purifying plants and help attendees create their own planters.

Alex Yeates is a Respiratory Performance Specialist, Certified Breath Coach, and Breathing Behavior Specialist. As founder of Breathe On Purpose and Breath Lab of Benicia, he provides functional breathing assessments, personalized respiratory training, capnography, VO₂ max and resting metabolic testing, and practical workshops. His evidence-informed work helps athletes, professionals, and everyday people understand how their breathing affects stress resilience, recovery, health, and performance. Alex brings more than 15 years of experience across respiratory health, rehabilitation technology, sports medicine, and medical devices.