Board of Directors
Susan Ellis, Chair, is a retired software engineer who worked for Silicon Graphics, Inc. and Amdahl Corp. She currently serves on two committees of the Pajaro Dunes Homeowners Association: Seawall Advisory and Landscaping. A life long plant lover, she includes landscape design, investing, and fabric dyeing among her hobbies. Susan is a resident of Menlo Park.
Elizabeth Schwerer, Vice-Chair, lives in Palo Alto, where she focuses most of her attention on her home and family. Her interests include literature, nonviolent communication, and the local ecology, and she works on traffic issues for the Ohlone Elementary School PTA. Having grown up in Pennsylvania, she is enthusiastic about trees.
Roy Leggitt, Secretary, is the owner and founder of Tree Management Experts. Roy is a plant scientist in ornamental horticulture, a consulting arborist, a certified arborist, and a certified tree risk assessor. Roy is a resident of San Francisco.
Beth Lim, Treasurer, is a finance and program management professional. She serves as the Director of Practice Development for CLASS Consulting Group, and mentors/volunteers with Girl Ventures in San Francisco. She spends her spare time rock climbing, mountain biking, hiking, and generally enjoying the great outdoors. Beth is a resident of Palo Alto.
Marty Deggeller is a former engineering manager with a large aerospace company. He is a long-time member of the Canopy Board and former Canopy Chair. He is a board member of the Palo Alto Kiwanis Club and the Palo Alto High School Gold Star Scholarship Foundation. Marty is a resident of Palo Alto.
Matthew Bahls is Associate Director of Class Giving for Stanford University. He serves on the board of directors for InnVision and Downtown Streets Team. He is also a docent for Stanford's Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve and holds a B.A. in European Intellectual History and Theory from Wesleyan University and an M.A. in Philosophy from Boston University. Matthew is a resident of Menlo Park.
Marilyn Keller was elected to the Canopy Board in October 2011. Formerly a biologist working on health, environmental and saftety issues associated with utilities at PG&E, Marilyn now devotes a lot of her time to working in the community. She was appointed to the The City of Palo Alto Utilities Advisory Commission in October 2005. She is an active member of the Palo Alto Unified School District Sustainable Schools Committee and of the Fairmeadow Elementary School Site Council/Committee.
Carole Langston is an ISA-Certified Arborist who has worked in the horticulture industry for the past twenty years. She managed a small residential horticultural consulting firm on the Peninsula and was the tree buyer for Roger Reynolds Nursery in Menlo Park. She is an avid student of many sciences, earning a Bachelors Degree in Engineering and working five years at Hewlett Packard in technical product sales. She enjoys mentoring children as a parent, coach, and teacher. Carole and her family live in Palo Alto.
Sairus Patel has a passion for trees and ornamental gardening, and for how both contribute to a neighborhood. Bark, fall color, eucalypts, and eucalyptus-like trees are his current points of interest. He has volunteered for Canopy for several years, most recently as a contributing photographer for the online Tree Library. Canopy’s tree walks, Ron Bracewell’s Trees of Stanford and Environs, and, more recently, Matt Ritter’s A Californian's Guide to the Trees among Us have been particular inspirations. He works in font technology, and lives in College Terrace with his partner and their Melaleuca quinquenervia.
Jeffrey Snyder is a shareholder (partner) with the Palo Alto law firm of Thoits, Love, Hershberger & McLean. As an employment lawyer, he represents companies and executives in litigation as well as strategic HR operations and counseling, contract formation and claims involving terminations, compensation disputes, sexual harassment charges, and related issues. Jeff enjoys helping clients find creative solutions to the most difficult workplace problems. He lives in Palo Alto with his family, and enjoys tennis, bicycling, books and movies.
Wen Shu Tang is a software engineer working in a technology startup company in Palo Alto. Previously, he was a software engineer in Cisco Systems for four years. He volunteered as a project lead in a nonprofit consulting organization where he helped several bay area organizations achieve sustainability. Wen Shu has an M.S. in Electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. In his spare time, he enjoys a wide range of activities from tennis, running, biking, traveling to reading and learning about biodiversity and environmental sustainability. In the summer time, he enjoys hiking and exploring the high Sierra of California. Wen Shu is a resident of Mountain View.
