Current Council Members

Erika Lutz (she/they) is a founding council member with a focus in communication strategy, stewardship, and education. Erika brings professional experience leading outreach for Audubon Canyon Ranch’s Fire Forward program to cultivate social resilience by sharing meaningful information and restorative experiences with fire. Erika is a certified wildland firelighter/firefighter (FFT2), prescribed fire practitioner with the Good Fire Alliance, and Rx reporter for Watch Duty.  Erika holds a BFA in Communication Art & Design, certificates in Ecopsychology, Trauma Informed Care, Mindful Awareness, and is a certified UC California Naturalist, bringing a holistic approach to wildfire safety grounded in design thinking, mindfulness, and the natural sciences. She’s the founder of Lost in Forestville, offering community services designed to cultivate resilience that honors the complex effect fire carries in our hearts, minds, and sense of home in our more-than-human world.

Calvin Sandeen is our Fiscal Agent & Sponsor, bridging his gifts of community minded entrepreneurialism, strategic partnership, and grant writing. As the founder and president of our 501(c)3 sponsor, WiConduit, a non-profit on a mission to close the digital divide in rural and unserved communities. Calvin is training at the Volunteer Firefighter Academy with Sonoma County Fire Protection District and holds a degree in Economics & Financial Management from Cal Poly. He currently serves as a Broadband Analyst with the Sonoma County Economic Development Board and Manager of the North Bay/North Coast Broadband Consortium. Calvin is excited to promote public safety communications and infrastructure to improve cell service, fire cameras, and connective services throughout our area.

Sharon Smith is a founding council member who brings a diverse background as a creativity advocate, writer, event planner, promoter and producer with her creative studio, savorsmith. She has been an active member of the Canyon and brings experience organizing grant funding and partnership with local agencies around wildfire safety. Sharon is excited to extend her skills pulling various threads together within our broader community.

John McClain joined our fire council in 2022 to represent Upper Terrace and Icebox Canyon.

Former Council Members

The late Deborah Coy was a founding council member and group administrator from 2020-2024. With long a history of working as a nurse and mental health professional, Deb dedicated her time on the council establishing a community based forum for educational information, resources, and healthy discussion around wildfire prevention. Deb specialized in understanding special needs of our diverse community to identify community projects and potential grant sources to fund them. Deb led building community partnerships and the process of establishing our group as a nationally recognized Firewise USA® community.

Steve Finnegan served on our council between 2021-2022. Steve brought a deep professional history of fire prevention and land stewardship in the lower Russian River. Steve’s family has owned their summer home on Terrace Drive since 1935 and has served for two years as a volunteer with the Russian River Fire District. He worked as a seasonal firefighter for Cal Fire in the Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit for six summers where he also worked as a volunteer in prevention. Steve recently retired as a lieutenant for the San Francisco Fire Department and a Fire Academy Instructor at City College of San Francisco.