CEQA Reform: How will 2025 legislative reforms to CEQA and other laws affect my community?

This webinar series is sponsored by:

Erik de Kok, AICP

Erik de Kok, AICP, is a planner with over 25 years of experience in the public and
private sectors. He currently serves as Director of Interdisciplinary Planning at Ascent
where he works across the firm’s practices and market sectors to offer holistic,
innovative, and integrated approaches to address evolving and complex planning
challenges. Prior to his return to Ascent in 2022, he served as Deputy Director at OPR
where he led statewide planning, policy, and technical assistance programs. He also
served on the APA California Chapter Board of Directors as Vice President for Policy
and Legislation from 2023-2024.

Chad Beckstrom

Chad Beckstrom, AICP, is a principal with Ascent with over 25 years of experience in
the environmental consulting industry. He leads Ascent’s Southern California
Environmental Practice, focusing on delivering exceptional client service and a
steadfast dedication to technical excellence in compliance with CEQA and NEPA. Chad
works to provide his clients with the best professional advice to complex environmental
planning challenges, including the most up-to-date legislation related to housing,
development streamlining, and other planning projects. In addition to leading projects
and teams, he regularly teaches professional courses on CEQA environmental review
processes through university extension programs, professional seminars, and client-
tailored training programs.

Greta Brownlow

Greta Brownlow joined Ascent in March 2023 as a Senior Environmental Director. Based in the Berkeley
office, she is leading Ascent’s environmental planning team members in the Bay Area and directing
significant projects in the region and beyond. With more than 20 years of experience preparing CEQA
and NEPA documentation, Greta has amassed a diverse array of project experience, ranging from
programmatic documents for projects such as general plans and specific plans to project-specific
documents for development and infrastructure projects throughout California. Having completed a
doctoral dissertation on community involvement and activism around new school development, Greta is
particularly interested in the opportunities provided by the CEQA process for public education and
engagement.

Greta enjoys the interdisciplinary nature of planning and environmental assessment and loves to learn
new things. She also likes to share her knowledge and experience about best practices in the
environmental and planning field with others. She has created and facilitated numerous professional
development courses for UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education, such as CEQA: A Step-by-
Step Approach; CEQA Update, Issues and Trends; and most recently, CEQA Project Management and
Overview of California Environmental Regulations. She is also lecturer of Environmental Planning in the
Urban and Regional Planning Department at San Jose State University. There she has also taught
Private Development and Urban Planning, advised graduate students embarking on their master’s thesis
projects, and more.

Greta’s publications include Practical CEQA: A Stepwise Guide to California Environmental Quality Act
Compliance, which she co-authored with Terry Rivasplata, and a chapter in Schools and Urban
Revitalization: Rethinking Institutions and Community Development titled Building Schools and
Community Connections: Outreach and Activism for New Schools in Southeast L.A.
Prior to joining Ascent, Greta led WRA’s environmental planning team and was a Principal at ICF, where
she led the firm’s internal environmental education initiative.

Ali Pezeshkpour, AICP

Ali Pezeshkpour, AICP serves as the Executive Director of the Planning and Building Agency for the City of Santa Ana and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP). He has been working for Santa Ana since February 2011, where for the majority of his career in the Planning Division he oversaw efforts in long-range and advance planning, development processing, public counter, historic preservation and urban design, neighborhood initiatives, environmental justice efforts, and cannabis programs. His environmental experiences include environmental impact reports of various sub-types, mitigated negative declarations, complex exemptions, and various addenda, including a successful addendum to a 1983 EIR. As Director, Ali now oversees the Planning, Building Safety, Code Enforcement, and Administrative Services divisions, which are in place to ensure the highest standards of development and neighborhood quality in the City. In addition to working for the City, Ali served as a part-time adjunct professor for the Rancho Santiago Community College District where he taught courses on urban planning and ordinance writing to aspiring code enforcement professionals. Ali holds bachelor’s degrees in Community & Regional Development and French from UC Davis and a Master of Urban and Regional Planning from UC Irvine. Outside of work, he enjoys playing the piano, writing Wikipedia articles, traveling and camping, and cooking.