Fellow Profiles

2007 WEST BERKELEY KOSHLAND FELLOWS

Matt Crocker

Matt Crocker is a recent transplant to the West Berkeley neighborhood. After spending time doing missionary work in Argentina and Pasadena, he found his way to Berkeley at the call of The Church Without Walls, to serve as its associate pastor. His primary focus is to promote youth ministry and neighborhood partnerships, and has already collaborated with The Way Christian Center and Rosa Parks Elementary School. His passion is working with youth and families in the neighborhood—offering Bible studies, one-on-one discipleship, and organizing community events. 

Victor Q. Diaz

Victor Diaz knows first hand the challenges and rewards of being a student. His studies in higher education have spanned from community college in San Diego, a BA from UCLA, a law degree from the New College of California Law School, a Master's of Education from USF, to his current doctorate studies in Language, Literacy, Society, and Culture at the University of California at Berkeley. Throughout his studies he has always worked with at-risk high school students.  He has taught at the Real Alternatives Program in the Mission District of San Francisco and for the County Schools of San Francisco. He was the principal of Community Academy in Boston, before returning to the Bay Area as the principal of the Berkeley Technology Academy.

David Manson

David was first recruited to volunteer with the Berkeley Boosters Police Activities League 15 years ago when he met a Berkeley Police Officer while he was playing basketball. He eventually became executive director in 2001 after volunteering for nine years as a coach. David has also worked as a program director with the YMCA, managed his own consulting firm, worked for Berkeley Youth Alternatives, and coached high school basketball. In 2001, he was named Contra Costa Times Bay Area Coach of the Year. David is currently working for Senator Don Perata on violence prevention and youth employment and remains active with the Berkeley Boosters as president of its board. He also serves as a youth minister at McGee Baptist Church in West Berkeley. 

Gerardo Marin 

Gerardo, fondly known as “Gera,” came to Berkeley from Colorado with a background in teaching earth stewardship to youth and a passion for economic justice for low-income communities throughout the world. Gerardo is currently active in empowering Latino and African American communities through food justice work with the Farm Fresh Choice program of the Ecology Center in West Berkeley. As co-manager of this program, he works with youth leaders to educate and support shopping, cooking, and eating for better health. He also helps run the community farm stands where they sell local produce at afterschool and summer school program sites in West and South Berkeley.

Belén Pulido Martinez

Belén has lived and worked in the West Berkeley neighborhood for the past four years. She was born and raised in Guadalajara, Mexico, and began her involvement in social justice work creating documentary videos for farm workers and indigenous communities while in University. Through guidance from her aunt who was active in the Zapatista movement of Chiapas, Belén was introduced to the School for Chiapas, and in 1998 began volunteer work for them supporting Mayan communities through organizing fundraisers and coordinating trips to Chiapas. Through this work she met her husband and consequently made the move with him to his home in West Berkeley four years ago. Upon arriving in Berkeley, Belén was hired as a community organizer with Berkeley Organizing Congregations in Action (BOCA). She has worked diligently to coordinate local organizing committees in the congregations of BOCA’s member churches around issues of educational success for students of color, immigration, and community safety.

Michael McBride

Michael McBride, known as “Pastor Mike”, serves as the pastor of The Way Christian Center. Born and raised in the Bayview neighborhood of San Francisco, Pastor Mike has a strong heart for the Bay Area and urban communities throughout the world. He has actively participated in local, state, and national social justice organizations. His service includes leadership positions with the San Jose/Silicon Valley NAACP, the California State Conference of the NAACP, the ACLU’s Racial Justice Project, the California Racial Justice Coalition, and the Interfaith Council of San Jose. He has also participated in national workshops and dialogues surrounding racial profiling, police accountability, and young adult criminal justice. Pastor Mike serves as the director of Black Campus Ministries at UC Berkeley, a ministry of Intervarsity Christian Fellowship.  He is also an intervention specialist at Berkeley Youth Alternative and a crisis intervention counselor at Berkeley Technology Academy. 

Lamont Snaer

Lamont Snaer is the director of the Family Resource Center at Rosa Parks Elementary School and coordinator for the Rosa Parks Collaborative. Born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, Lamont came to the Bay Area to attend UC Berkeley and began to volunteer as a coach and mentor for low-income children in the neighborhood, which eventually led him to Rosa Parks Elementary.

He has worked for five years at the school, at first, designing afterschool programs for students and their parents, and then to direct the family resource center, which provides individual and family counseling, case management, and dental services. He works closely and tirelessly with the principal, the PTA, and counselors to address the issues of poverty, drug abuse, domestic violence, and immigration issues that the Rosa Parks’ families face.

Ana Traylor

Ana grew up in West Berkeley, attended Berkeley public schools, and completed both her BA in Social Welfare and Master's of Public Policy degrees at UC Berkeley. She is currently a doctoral student in Public Policy at UC Berkeley with research focusing on racial and ethnic disparities in education and health outcomes. Ana has remained involved in West Berkeley and passionate about the youth and families of the community she grew up in. She is currently board president of Stiles Hall and serves on the Alameda County Public Health Commission, in addition to her volunteer work with the West Berkeley Foundation.