Rhonda Farrar, Founder and President, Advocacy Program Director

Rhonda brings a wealth of experience to the Friends of Lake Hodges.  She is the founder and past president of the Friends of Stevens Creek Trail, a SF Bay Area non-profit which just celebrated its 30 year anniversary.  In the Bay Area, she also served as a Planning Commissioner for the City of Mountain View and a Parks Commissioner for Santa Clara County.  With her husband, Nigel Farrar, they built the Farrar Green Home, a LEED Platinum, carbon neutral, green home, overlooking Lake Hodges and was San Diego AIA Home of the Year in 2014.  She is currently president of Farrar Financials, a wealth management company in Escondido and has been a volunteer with Kayaking for the Birds for the past four years.

Jeffrey Pasek, Founding Board Member and Water Quality Program Director

Jeff’s work with San Diego’s water system spans six decades.  He served as Watershed Manager, was the Senior Biologist in the City’s Water Quality Laboratory, and has worked as a reservoir biologist, lake ranger, and resident reservoir keeper.  Until retirement in late 2021, Jeff served as Project Officer in the Pure Water San Diego Program, a suite of potable reuse projects that will provide one-half of San Diego’s water supply from recycled wastewater.  He guided the Program’s regulatory compliance, conducted public outreach, and led studies of Miramar, San Vicente, and Otay Reservoirs.   He recently returned part-time to assist the Pure Water program.  He has been involved potable reuse projects for twenty-five years.

At Hodges Reservoir, Jeff led projects to address water quality degradation, both within the reservoir and across the watershed.  He helped secure state and federal grant funding, totaling $6.4M, for planning studies and implementation projects at Hodges, including the Hypolimnetic Oxygenation System now operating near the dam.

Jeff is a graduate of San Diego State University where he studied geology and aquatic biology.

Brian Godfrey, Founding Board Member and Kayaking for the Birds Program Director

Growing up on a farm taught Brian about hard work and taking the long view of things.  Working on tugboats in the Aleutians taught him courage.  Rowing over 17,000 miles taught him perseverance.  Designing and troubleshooting big computers in a startup company taught him how to set a goal and achieve it.  In 1993, after a lifetime of loving nature, he put these characteristics to the test and started the Wild Bird Shop – a nature store in Cannon Beach, Oregon.  It was both financially successful and philosophically – becoming the city’s unofficial nature information center. 

Retiring in 2018, he started Kayaking For The Birds after repeatedly finding birds entangled or hooked in fishing gear at Lake Hodges.  The program grew from just Brian, his wife Janet, and one kayak to a group of volunteers who are able to scour the entire lake shore about once a week.  In the process many miles of fishing line have been removed from the environment along with their associated hooks and lures, and many dumpster loads of trash have been removed from the lake and the shore, making it the cleanest lakeshore in San Diego County.

Bill Hays, Founding Board Member, Board Secretary

Bill was an attorney for 35 years, practicing commercial and public finance law with several companies including Citigroup and Nissan. After retiring from the legal practice, Bill assisted with the formation and operation of Switch Energy Alliance, an Austin, Texas-based 501(c)(3) non-profit that provides film-based energy education. Bill continues to assist Switch Energy Alliance as needed, and volunteers with Kayaking for the Birds.

Beatrice Griffey, Founding Board Member, Treasurer

Beatrice Griffey is a retired licensed Professional Geologist with the State of California who has an B.S. and M.S. in Geology. Beatrice has over 25 years of experience working in the environmental field as a consultant, and a regulator for the State of California and San Diego County. Beatrice worked on Federal and State Superfund sites, underground storage tank sites, and agricultural sites. Additionally, Beatrice served as a technical advisor on State enforcement cases. Beatrice has served as a secretary, treasurer, and vice president of a 501c3 organization. Throughout Beatrice’s life she has been a member of various environmental organizations and has a desire to cleanup adverse impacts on the environment associated with human activities.

Brian Caldwell, Founding Board Member

Brian has been a resident of the Del Dios community, on the banks of Lake Hodges, for over 28 years, and ran the Lake Hodges Aquatic Center and Concession for 12 of those years.  He is an award winning photographer, avid outdoorsman, and nature enthusiast who is an expert on the local climate, seasons, weather, water management, Lake level and how these affect the flora and fauna in the area.  He is also a performing musician and front man for the Celtic Band Highland Way. He currently serves as treasurer of the Del Dios Town Council, a grass roots community organization dealing with local issues. He recently spearheaded a coalition of 10 environmental groups in 2019 to secure a full nesting cycle of Clark’s and Western Grebes nests which have been adversely affected by the addition of the Pumped Storage Facilities and continues to monitor the situation. He is currently exploring ways to ensure successful Grebe nesting cycles on the reservoir when the water levels and conditions present themselves.

Chelsea Huber, Founding Board Member

Chelsea grew up in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA but found home in San Diego 7 years ago. She has focused on her ecommerce mindset for over 14 years in making a digital impact on many different industries (makeup, eco-friendly skincare, premium denim, commercial roofing equipment and now TechEd). She excels in project managing the ecommerce funnel, technical implementation teams, migrations, re-platforming, digital marketing, and finding growth areas within ecom channels (Direct to Consumer, Omni, Organic, Email, Paid, Affiliate and Referral). She has provided her services, hours and contributions to The Palos Verdes Junior Women’s Club which supports the needs of women and children in crisis within surrounding communities.