Speaker Information
Steve Schwartz
Non-Profit Executive, Organic Farmer, Advocate
Steve Schwartz has been a lifelong champion for family farmers, public education, and climate-resilient communities. He has spent his career advancing a more sustainable and just food system, protecting local landscapes, and ensuring every child has access to strong public schools.
Now he’s running for the California State Assembly to bring those values—and his proven advocacy—to Sacramento.
Jackie Elward
Rohnert Park City Councilwoman
Jackie Elward is a Rohnert Park Councilwoman, educator, and labor organizer who immigrated to America for a better life and wound up making her community better.
Born and raised in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, she met her husband in 2000 in Kinshasa. A few years later, they came to the United States to start a family.
Jackie rose to the challenges of adapting to a new culture by volunteering and starting a new community for herself. Whether it was at church, supporting a local organization, or simply participating in community activities; finding a way to give back paved the way for Jackie to get started in politics and community service.
She also founded Les Enfants Baobab in 2015, a non-profit that supports children in Kinshasa providing them with a home, clothing, and schooling.
Jackie became the first Black woman elected to the Rohnert Park Council in 2020 by defeating a six-term incumbent. During her tenure on the Council and as Mayor, Jackie has focused on building more homes that Rohnert Park residents can afford, helping the unhoused get off the streets, expanding access to open space and parks, improving water quality and efficiency, and making public investments in transportation, sustainable agriculture, and clean energy, all while maintaining a balanced budget.
Jackie long served as an educator at the French immersion school in the Santa Rosa City Schools District and is a proud member and the site representative of the California School Employees Association, Local 75.
Jackie also concentrated on regional issues by serving on the Mayors’ and Councilmembers’ Association of Sonoma County, Sonoma County Transportation Authority/Regional Climate Protection Authority, and Sonoma Clean Power.
For her efforts to keep Rohnert Park safe during the unprecedented challenges of the COVID pandemic, Assemblymember Aguiar-Curry named Jackie the 2022 Woman of the Year.
Jackie graduated from Chico State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice from Central State University.
Jackie and her husband are raising three kids in Sonoma County. All three are bilingual in French and English, Jackie speaks six languages.
Eric Lucan
Marin County Supervisor, District 5
Supervisor Eric Lucan is a lifelong public servant with a strong business background. Until his election to Supervisor, he served as the Chief Marketing Officer for Mike's Bikes, a North Bay-grown business. Born and raised in Marin, Eric and his wife, Kiley, are proud parents to a young growing family.
Eric’s commitment to community has deep roots and began early in life, supporting local youth. He began his local government engagement as a Novato Parks and Recreation Commissioner. From there he served three terms on the Novato City Council before being overwhelmingly elected to the Marin County Board of Supervisors in 2022 to represent District 5.
As County Supervisor, Eric Lucan has championed lasting solutions to homelessness, helping reduce the population of Marin’s largest encampment through permanent housing efforts. In partnership with Homeward Bound, Eric supported the successful placement of unhoused veterans into 24 dedicated units, effectively ending veteran homelessness in the county. He has also successfully worked to secure housing for foster youth and expand critical housing initiatives for our older adults.
As a current Marin First 5 Commissioner, Eric has focused on building a solid foundation for local families. He also serves as Board Chair of the Transportation Authority of Marin, where he has helped to guide major investments in transportation and Marin's infrastructure future, including the long-awaited Marin-Sonoma Narrows Highway 101 improvement, set to open in the summer of 2025.
Eryn Cervantes
San Quentin Correctional Counselor
Eryn Cervantes Bio to follow
Holli P. Thier
Tiburon Councilmember
Mayor Holli Thier has been a strong progressive voice for thirty years. She is best known for her work defending our environment, ensuring public health, protecting open space, and her ability to work with differing viewpoints to pass good legislation for our community.
As an elected official in Marin County, Holli’s work has been influential throughout AD 12. As Mayor, she protected children by banning toxic Round-Up from our parks and playgrounds. She wrote legislation to reduce greenhouse gases, created 110 acres of new open space, and protected our clean air and water. Holli fought back against Trump’s agenda and ensured the police in her community did not cooperate with ICE. Holli has fought for access to broadband, and championed small business. And she recently stood up to Big Tobacco by passing the nation’s first tobacco ban without exemptions.
Mayor Holli was chosen by the eleven Mayors from each of Marin's cities and towns to serve as their representative on the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District Board of Directors. She is one of the most pro-labor voices fighting for better benefits, wages, retirement, and pensions for workers. Holli currently serves as Chair of the Diversity Inclusion Task Force, a Director for Marin Clean Energy, on the Joint Disaster Advisory Council, Chair of the Sierra Club Marin Group, and is a member of the Marin County Bar Association.
Holli is a Past President of The League of Women Voters, a civil rights and environmental attorney, and founder of the non-profit organization Voting Counts, dedicated to getting youth between the ages of 18-24 to the polls. Holli traveled to Africa on behalf of the U.S. State Department Bureau of Cultural Affairs, educating women and non-governmental organizations on grassroots democracy, political participation, and women’s rights.
As a Deputy City Attorney in the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office early in her career, Holli spearheaded a program that took excess land parcels that were being used for drug dealing and prostitution in low-income neighborhoods and created community gardens. While in private practice, she represented the State of Alaska against oil companies. She was the Statewide Spokesperson against Proposition 227, a ballot measure to abolish bilingual education. She also served as a spokesperson in support of affirmative action and against Proposition 209, and has always fought for reproductive freedom and a woman’s right to choose. These early career experiences informed her life-long support of immigrant communities and disadvantaged workers.
Holli was elected four times to represent the 13th Assembly District on the Democratic County Central Committee in San Francisco, and served on the California Democratic Party State Resolutions Committee. She has served on several political boards, including the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Club, the National Women’s Political Caucus, and the Democratic Women’s Forum.
Holli is the proud grandchild of immigrants. Her grandfather was a leader of the New York Waiters Union. Her mother taught public school for over thirty years. As a little girl, Holli attended School Board meetings, and organizing meetings in her parent's living room. When Holli’s mother started teaching, she was paid hourly without benefits and without a contract. She organized all the special education
teachers and fought for a contract, health benefits, and a living wage. When the district retaliated
against Holli’s mother, Holli represented her in a civil rights lawsuit. Just as Holli fought for her mother, she will fight for the things we all care about most.
Mayor Holli is proud to have the support of State Treasurer Fiona Ma, Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, Equality California, the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) Action, the National Union of Healthcare Workers, Amalgamated Transit Union, International Longshore and Warehouse Union, UA Local 38 Plumbers and Pipefitters, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1245, International Union of Elevator Constructors Local 8, California Jewish Democrats, and hundreds more.
Mayor Holli is a single mother of two children. Holli earned her Juris Doctorate degree from U.C. College of the Law, San Francisco, and is a graduate of University of California, Davis. She will be the first woman in 25 years to be elected to the State Assembly 12th AD.
Eli Beckman
Councilmember, Town of Corte Madera
As a two-term Mayor, Eli Beckman is an energized, engaged, and experienced leader who has established Corte Madera as a leader on climate resilience, responsible housing policy, and good governance.
Eli is the founder & CEO of HAUS+, a full-service provider of sustainable prefab backyard homes in the Bay Area. As a small business owner who is also helping address our housing shortage, Eli understands the challenges small businesses face, from high costs to constantly changing regulations.
Eli represents a generational change in Sacramento, bringing fresh energy, new ideas, and a refreshing clarity of vision to a political culture that sometimes feels like it’s teetering on the brink of bureaucratic absurdity. From lowering permit fees to repealing outdated or redundant laws, Eli believes in a streamlined government that actually works for you when you need it.
Eli’s experience in local government—where the rubber truly meets the road, and where the effect of government decisions on our lives is immediate and personal—is exactly what we need.
California is facing the biggest challenges of our lifetime. Flooding and fire threaten our homes and infrastructure. The cost of living climbs ever higher for families trying to make ends meet. A historic budget surplus has become a yawning deficit. To turn this situation around, we must fix the broken systems that got us here and make bold moves that will put our state on a path to finally address our climate, housing, and cost of living challenges.
That’s exactly what Eli’s done in Corte Madera, positioning the town as a leader on climate resilience, responsible housing policy, and good governance—even while guiding his community through the depths of the pandemic. Under his leadership, Corte Madera became the first city in Marin to adopt a long-range blueprint for protecting homes and businesses from flooding and wildfire. He helped champion a sensible pro-housing plan that provides for new affordable housing while preserving the community’s small-town charm, and which went on to win statewide awards. And he helped turn around the town’s finances, creating a rainy day fund while reining in the government’s pension debt.
On a regional scale, he’s helped bring the price of green energy below PG&E’s price for dirty energy as a board member of MCE Clean Energy. He helped lead the push for central Marin’s wastewater treatment plant to become a national leader in generating renewable energy to power its own operations, saving taxpayers more than a million dollars a year in energy costs, all while recycling water to reduce waste. And he's stood up for Marin & Sonoma communities as the North Bay Division president of CalCities, making our voices heard in Sacramento.
Over his 7+ years in public service, Eli has earned a reputation beyond Corte Madera for leadership that’s thoughtful, honest, straightforward, and collaborative. But more than that, he brings a compassionate and positive approach to his service that can feel increasingly absent from today's politics—as he calls it, public service with a smile.
04/22/2026 11:30 AM
04/22/2026 1:15 PM
America/Los_Angeles
General Membership Meeting (in person)
MCBA Hosts Assembly Candidate Forum
San Rafael Joe's, 931 Fourth Street, San Rafael, CA, 94901
Marin County Bar Association
info@marinbar.org
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