About Us

Lance grew up in the fire service with a father who was Fire Chief for a small community in Mendocino County before becoming a firefighter for the City of Healdsburg, where he has lived for nearly two decades. His career path led him to work as a Fire Inspector and Investigator at Novato Fire District, developing skills in fire investigations and emergency operations. Lance has contributed to wildfire mitigation and served as a technical advisor for the Marin Wildfire Protection Authority.

Lance’s diverse background in finance and the wine industry has equipped him with strong analytical and project planning skills. His training and experience in the fire service, specifically in wildfire mitigation and fire prevention, further enhance his capabilities. As a COPE board member, he aims to enhance community preparedness and collaboration with local fire agencies.

Cindy is dedicated to helping people live more independent and connected lives. In her role with COPE Northern Sonoma County, she helps foster neighborhood preparedness by encouraging collaboration, resource sharing, and relationship building.

Cindy believes strongly in the power of community. She has seen firsthand how COPE brings neighbors together to connect, share knowledge, and support their neighborhood, allowing them to be a more self-sufficient community.

Her work is made possible through her AmeriCorps service, for which she is deeply grateful. She also values the collaboration of the COPE Board, community leaders, and many partnering organizations whose expertise helps her best support the region in being better prepared and resilient.

Now rooted in the area, Cindy is wildly in love with Northern Sonoma County. Not only for its natural beauty but for the spirit of the people who call it home. She finds joy in meeting with and seeing neighborhoods come together with purpose and compassion to face challenges as one. Originally from the East Coast, she holds a degree in health sciences and has a background in community work and event coordination.

Kerri is a partner with Linkenheimer, LLP CPA’s and Advisors.  She has been working in public accounting since her graduation from Sonoma State in 2004.

Throughout her career, Kerri has been able to gain experience in tax, assurance and consulting services for clients in a variety of industries. She enjoys working with clients in closely held businesses in the construction, real estate and wine industries where she can provide a proactive approach to their financial needs, ultimately becoming one of their trusted advisors.

Kerri is a member of the AICPA and the Cal Society of CPA’s. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her husband Andy and children, Claire and Dylan.  You can usually find her cheering on her kids in the stands at basketball, baseball, softball and tennis matches.  She also enjoys traveling, reading, hiking and other outdoor activities.  She has been an active parent volunteer at Alexander Valley School, Saint John’s School and presently at Healdsburg High and has previously been a treasurer with School Garden Network and Alexander Valley Girl Scouts.  Kerri is also the Treasurer for Community Foundation Sonoma County.

Born and raised in Chicago, Judie began her hospital and nursing career in 1971 as a volunteer candy striper at Cook County Hospital’s ER. Two years later, she became a CNA while also working in the hospital cafeteria and at the Lutheran Home in Arlington Heights, Illinois.

In 1977, Judie moved to Reno with her young son. After remarrying, she and her husband Gary settled in Cloverdale in 1984. She became a Dialysis Technician in 1986 and began her RN prerequisites at SRJC. Over the years, Judie worked for Fresenius Dialysis in Santa Rosa for eight years and another six in Ukiah, serving as Charge RN for five of those years. She also worked intermittently in dialysis and nursing, including three years with Kaiser Advice, and later with DCI Dialysis in Fort Bragg before retiring in 2013.

Judie began her CERT training and COPE involvement in Palomino Lakes, though the pandemic temporarily interrupted that work. From 2019 to 2022, she served as a Volunteer Ombudsman. She currently serves as a COPE Board Member, MedOps Coordinator for NoSoCoCERT, and is a certified CERT Instructor, CPR/BLS/Severe Trauma HSI Instructor, and is in the process of becoming a certified Red Cross Instructor.

Kalei’s professional career was focused on the medical device industry in marketing and
medical education and moved to Sonoma County in 2023. He and his wife live on the Russian
River on Fitch Mountain they both appreciate the many hazards that come with living in this
amazing environment. Having slept through the Tubbs Fire has made him hyper aware of the
need for more grassroots support with “neighbor helping neighbor”. Kalei is active with his local
COPE group, GMRS, and recently completed his CERT training.

Dyan is a Marketing specialist who advises large corporations, such as Citibank, FedEx and Nabisco. Dyan earned her BA from UC Berkeley and her MBA from the Harvard Business School. She recently moved back to Northern California from Boston where she and her husband, Roger, lived for 35 years. While in Boston she was a Board Member of the local United Way organization where she ran special events and other fundraising activities. Having moved to Sonoma County, Dyan was impressed by the constructiveness and positiveness of this community. Dyan decided to join COPE because it so embodied these values; specifically, she was inspired by the faith that COPE places on “Neighbors helping Neighbors” responsibilities.

Marshall Turbeville is currently the Fire Chief of the Northern Sonoma County Fire District and a Battalion Chief with CAL FIRE. He feels that what we do in prevention and preparedness is much more important than what we do during an emergency response. Working together before an emergency, we may be able to prevent the emergency and if the emergency does occur, we are able to reduce the damages and losses. This opinion comes from his experience of being a responder for over 25 years and being a member of the Northern Sonoma County community. COPE provides a model to support grassroots individual and neighborhood level preparedness and helping each other during an emergency where they may not be enough responders to properly help everyone. COPE NoSoCo supports collaboration and coordination between neighborhoods and communities. Chief Turbeville was awarded the 2021 national Wildfire Mitigation Award by the National Association of State Foresters (NASF), the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), and the USDA Forest Service (USFS).

Nancy Brown, PhD, is the Community Preparedness Program Manager for the Sonoma County Department of Emergency Management. Originally from Southern California she previously served as Emergency Preparedness Coordinator for The Hotels at the Disneyland Resort® in Anaheim, California. In this capacity their power of community to fill in response gaps and move preparedness forward was demonstrated daily by Cast Member commitment to support emergency preparedness to keep staff and guests safe in disaster. Nancy began attending COPE meetings in her professional capacity, to support community preparedness. Once again the power of community was being leveraged to get communities ready to stay safe in disaster. NoSoCo COPE has been her model for other areas of the County, demonstrating what local leadership and involvement can accomplish in both mitigation and preparedness efforts for neighborhoods across the County.

Donna Schafer, PhD, CPG, has spent her career as an academic, with a practical bent focused on the elderly community. At Kansas University’s Gerontology Center, Donna worked on applied research to understand conditions that contribute to the life satisfaction of elderly people in the community (one of which is the “ability to COPE with problems”). As a faculty member in the Gerontology Program at San Francisco State University, her favorite responsibility was helping students with thesis projects, many of which developed and/or evaluated community programs for older adults. As Dean of Research and Graduate Studies at Humboldt State University, she focused on enhancing graduate and professional education.

Donna is currently the Executive Director of the National Association for Professional Gerontologists, which she became upon retiring and moving to Healdsburg. To satisfy her desire to be involved with community projects, she joined COPE after a neighbor introduced her to the program. Donna and her neighbors formed the Borel COPE group to help look out for each other and create a safer community.