Names in the News

Berris to advise on water management, soil health in northern Bay Area 

Helaine Berris joined UC Agriculture and Natural Resources on Nov. 4 as the UC Cooperative Extension water and soil advisor for Sonoma, Marin, Napa and Mendocino counties. Berris will conduct research and extension activities that promote sustainable, innovative and economically viable on-farm water management. 

“My program will be shaped around practices that help agricultural producers improve water efficiency and soil health, meet local regulations, and adapt to environmental extremes,” Berris explained. “This may include soil health practices to improve water holding capacity, irrigation management, research around soil-plant-water dynamics and more.”

Originally from northern Nevada, Berris attained her bachelor's degree in eco-hydrology from University of Nevada, Reno. She went on to earn a master's in hydrologic sciences – and another master's in international agricultural development – from UC Davis, where she studied farmer needs in water-stressed basins and soil-water dynamics in cover-cropped rice systems.

Her career path included some time at an agricultural technology company and four years as a teacher in China and Spain. Most recently Berris worked as a soil conservationist for the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service in Seattle.

“I love working on applied projects that have tangible outcomes and working with passionate people,” Berris said. “I'm constantly inspired by the many incredible scientists, partners and producers working in this space – and it's a great feeling when we can all combine our strengths for a common goal.”  

Berris said she looks forward to developing collaborations with clientele and community members to solve challenges across Sonoma, Marin, Napa and Mendocino counties.

“My main career goal is that my work is relevant to the local community; for me, that's what being an advisor is all about – to live and work in a few counties, where I can focus my energy on really understanding the nitty-gritty of the water-agriculture challenges at a local scale,” Berris said. “These challenges will be continuously changing, which will require me to be constantly learning and adapting – but that's the fun of the job.”

Based in Santa Rosa at the UCCE office for Sonoma County, Berris can be reached at hmberris@ucanr.edu or (707) 565-2621.

Swain joins UC ANR as climate scientist 

Daniel Swain joined UC ANR on Nov. 1 as a climate scientist (associate professional researcher) in the California Institute for Water Resources. Swain studies the changing character, causes and impacts of extreme weather and climate events on a warming planet – with a particular focus on the physical processes leading to droughts, floods and wildfires.

Swain is known for his exceptional science communication skills, explaining weather and climate in terms easily understood by the public, and looks forward to sharing public communication strategies with UC ANR colleagues. 

“I spend a great deal of time engaging directly with the public in California and beyond on weather, climate and disaster-related topics, so I'm thrilled to be joining UC ANR—where broad dissemination of research-based information is a key part of the mission,” Swain said. I'm grateful for ANR's support for my unusual hybrid climate research and science communication role, and look forward to helping fulfill ANR's ‘21^st-century extension' goals in the years to come.”

On his widely read Weather West blog, Swain has been sharing his perspectives on California weather and climate since 2006. He hosts regular “virtual office hours” for the public on YouTube and is frequently joined by journalists, who often ask questions in the comments and quote his replies. On X/Twitter, he has more than 101,000 followers.

The “Weather whisperer” fields hundred calls from reporters every year and has been the single most quoted expert at UCLA in recent years, according to a profile in UCOP Link. Last year, when Swain was seeking institutional support that would allow him to do science communication as well as research, a Los Angeles Times columnist wrote, “I certainly rely on Swain and other scientists to tell environmental stories.”

The term "Ridiculously Resilient Ridge" was coined in 2013 by Swain on his Weather West blog to describe the large, formidable high-pressure mass that persisted over the West Coast during winter and diverted storms away from California, contributing to the state's 2013-2017 drought.

In 2023, he spoke to the UC Regents Public Engagement and Development Committee about the importance of how scientists communicate with the public and policymakers about the complex topic of climate change.

In November, Swain was named one of Vox's Future Perfect 50 – “the thinkers, activists and scholars working on solutions to today's (and tomorrow's) biggest problems.” Vox wrote: “Our communities and institutions are largely unequipped to fully understand, let alone deal with, the impacts of climate change. That's where climate experts should, theoretically, come in. But knowing the science is one thing — being able to effectively communicate it is a whole other ballpark. Climate scientist Daniel Swain is that desperately needed liaison.”

Before joining UC ANR, Swain, who grew up in the Bay Area, was a climate scientist in the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA and held a concurrent appointment as a research fellow in the Capacity Center for Climate and Weather Extremes at the NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research since 2018. While holding a 100% appointment with UC ANR, he will maintain his associations with UCLA and NSF NCAR.

Swain holds a Ph.D. in Earth system science from Stanford University and a bachelor's degree in atmospheric science from UC Davis.

Samuel Sandoval Solís met Swain when Swain was a student at UC Davis. “I am very excited to work with Daniel Swain, he is not only a great scientist, but also an amazing communicator and a great person,” said the UC Cooperative Extension specialist in water resources at UC Davis. “I look forward to collaborating and working side-by-side with Daniel." 

Swain will be the keynote speaker at the California Irrigation Institute's annual conference on Jan. 27 in Sacramento. His talk is titled “Drier and Wetter in 21st Century California? Managing Increasing Hydroclimate Whiplash in a Warming World.”

Swain is headquartered in the California Institute for Water Resources and can be reached at dlswain@ucanr.edu. In addition to posting on his blog at weatherwest.com, Swain is also on Twitter/X https://x.com/Weather_West, Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/weatherwest.bsky.social… YouTube https://youtube.com/@weatherwest, Threads https://threads.net/@weather.west and Mastodon https://mastodon.social/@weatherwest.  

Sung-Jereczek named UCCE's first beneficial burning and tribal land stewardship advisor 

Ally Sung-Jereczek joined UC Cooperative Extension on Oct. 1 as UC ANR's first beneficial burning and tribal land stewardship advisor. She will be serving in Mendocino and Lake counties.

In this new role, Sung-Jereczek will be working alongside tribes to help identify needs and build capacity towards long-term sustainable land stewardship goals that align with the tribes cultural, social, and economic priorities. She is currently working on connecting and listening to each of the tribes throughout the region and hoping to build relationships to provide tools, resources and funding opportunities for partnerships among tribes, state agencies, private landowners, organizations and policymakers to support beneficial burning, climate adaptation planning and resiliency projects. 

Born and raised on Muwekma Ohlone land in the East Bay Area, Sung-Jereczek always had an interest in humans and their connections to place and the environment. She earned a bachelor's degree in geography and conservation biology at UCLA.

Following graduation, she worked as an environmental planner and wildlife biologist. “I began to notice how our personal connections to the land shape our perspectives and define our decisionmaking,” she said.

Sung-Jereczek earned her master's degree at the University of Michigan, working on an interdisciplinary degree at the School for Environment and Sustainability specializing in environmental justice, behavior change, communication and ecosystem science management. Her graduate research primarily focused on community-based participatory research and strengthening university and tribal partnerships alongside the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, facilitating listening circles and developing an ecological assessment that would support the priorities of the tribe for stewardship of the Chase Osborn Preserve (~3,000 acres of hemiboreal forest) located in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. She also worked on the Western Forest Fire Initiative at Michigan studying the relationship between wildfire, forests and communities in a changing climate as a social-ecological system. 

“I am looking forward to going beyond checking the regulatory box set by federal and state regulators and working towards building reciprocal relationships rooted in cultural humility, respect and responsibility,” Sung-Jereczek said. “Although I understand the current fear and trauma of fire that climate change and fire suppression regimes have caused, I also hope to empower communities and shift the ways in which we currently think, interact and live with fire in the future.”

She will also be working alongside the UCANR Fire Network supporting the use of fire as a tool for land managers and climate resilience.  

Sung-Jereczek is based out of the UC Hopland Research and Extension Center on ancestral and unceded Shóqowa (Sho-Ka-Wah) territory and can be reached at asungjereczek@ucanr.edu.  

Miller joins UC ANR as UCCE director for Alameda, Contra Costa counties 

Andrew Miller joined UC Cooperative Extension on Sept. 16 as the area director for Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

While Miller grew up in the East Bay, he spent the greater part of the last 15 years overseas where, most recently, he co-founded a series of social businesses in Guatemala around tropical landscape restoration, in particular, Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood products and organic cocoa bean production. One project involved a large investment from LUSH Cosmetics to restore over 1,000 acres of degraded cattle pasture with agroforestry systems designed to feed LUSH's supply chain with cocoa butter and aromatic oils.

Previously, he worked in Panama on the management of large-scale tropical forestry and renewable energy projects. “I am particularly curious about bringing environmental finance and innovative technology to bear on seemingly intractable problems of deforestation, climate change, emigration and food systems,” Miller said. “I believe firmly in the importance of aligning social, environmental and economic interests to ensure long-term, sustainable outcomes.” 

Before shifting to social entrepreneurship, Miller worked in international development in the areas of food security, maternal and child health, and natural resources management. He served as a Leland Hunger Fellow with the Congressional Hunger Center and was assigned a monitoring and evaluation role on U.S. Agency for International Development-sponsored food security programs across Latin America and Africa. Before USAID, he worked as a consultant at a strategic planning firm in the San Francisco Bay Area, helping cities, counties and public universities to develop and carry out participatory planning initiatives.

As a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, he continues to celebrate the friendships formed during his service in a predominantly Mayan-speaking region of Guatemala's highlands.

Miller is an avid gardener and looks forward to absorbing know-how from his counties' UC Master Gardener programs and swapping experiences on orchard crops and urban landscapes with the local UCCE advisors.  

He holds dual master's degrees in public and international affairs as well as urban and regional planning from Princeton University, an MBA from IE Business School in Madrid with the support of a Fulbright Fellowship, and degree in international development studies from Brown University. 

Miller is based at the UCCE offices in Concord and Hayward and can be reached at ammil@ucanr.edu.

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