Sydney was born in Chicago and grew up in Orange County! She spent most of my summers in Oakland, San Francisco, and Berkeley visiting family members that have been scattered across the bay area. While Sydney has been standuppaddleboarding for many years with her dad, she fell in love with surfing in particular while in […]
Naomi is a proud Chinese Indonesian American, born in Singapore but raised in California. She has always found the ocean as a healing&grounding space, and lends her love for the sea to her parents (who also find themselves in the ocean). Naomi completed her B.S. in Graphic Communications at Cal Poly SLO and soon after, […]
Growing up in the valleys of Tovaangar (Los Angeles Basin), Tricia relished every rare opportunity to touch the ocean on school field trips and boogie board during annual family beach camping trips. Access to the ocean expanded for her when she was a dance/theater arts student at UCSC (unceded territory of the Awaswas-speaking Uypi Tribe), […]
Anastasia was born and raised on Ohlone Land/San Francisco, and joins the Brown Girl Surf team with an immense love for playing in the ocean. She is the happiest when she is snuggling her fur babies, catching a wave, or eating a pickle. Anastasia was first introduced to surfing by her parent, but most recently […]
Stephanie is passionate about the intersection of the environment and health, and joins Brown Girl Surf after working as a physician, documentary filmmaker, and communications specialist in West Africa, the Middle East, and the United States. She holds degrees in social welfare, population health, and medicine from UC Berkeley and Brown University, and has studied […]
Kimiko was born and raised in Huchiun/Oakland, and has always been captivated by the pull of the ocean. She left the Bay Area to attend UCSB, where she studied Environmental Science and Education, fell in love with teaching, learned to surf and spent as much time as possible playing in the sea. Following graduation she […]
Sutara is a water child at heart and has a passion for building healthy relationships between humans and the sea. Sutara completed their B.A. in Environmental Studies at UCSB with a research focus on sustainable aquaculture and has a certificate in Marine Diving Technologies. They are interested in ocean food systems, increasing access to sustainable […]
Born in California, raised mostly in Japan and Europe, the ocean and nature was always a source of refuge and grounding for her as someone who grew up as a mixed-race, ethnically ambiguous and often culturally “confused” human. Madoka comes to Brown Girl Surf with a decade of experience in nonprofit organizing and development. She also […]
BIO INCOMING!!
Mira Manickam-Shirley is a Co-Founder of Brown Girl Surf and previous Executive Director. She is a long time environmental educator and artist in the San Francisco Bay area, former Youth Program Coordinator at NatureBridge, and a recipient of an Open Circle artist grant, and an Audobon Toyota TogetherGreen fellowship for her innovative work with youth […]
Adriana comes to Brown Girl Surf with over 13 years of experience in education and youth development. A common thread that weaves Adriana’s professional aspirations and beliefs together is her pursuit of social justice with a youth development-lens and community-based approach. Over the last decade, Adriana has worked in a variety of capacities in the […]