Participant Registration

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER AS A PARTICIPANT

Registration Fees:

Early Bird Registration (until April 15): $25

Regular Conference Registration: $35

Conference registration is limited and is offered on a first come, first serve basis. Online Registration closes on May 10th, 2026. 

Sponsorship Opportunities

Sponsorship opportunities are available. Please contact REI Director Dr. Hamed Ghoddusi for details

Jason Cater

After graduating from Cal Poly with a bachelor’s degree in city and regional planning, Jason Cater has worked as a consultant, an executive director and a Realtor. Cater is currently the economic and community development manager for the city of Bakersfield. In that role since 2016, he has overseen the city’s tourism and marketing, affordable housing, community development and homeless services in order to raise the standard of living for its residents.

Michael Delbar

Michael Delbar is the chief executive officer for California Rangeland Trust, where he has worked for ten years.

A former elected official, he served as first district supervisor for Mendocino County for 12 years.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in agricultural business from Cal State Chico and was a part of the California Agricultural Leadership Program, Class XXIV.

Delbar was the state chair of California Young Farmers and Ranchers, a past director of Mendocino County Farm Bureau and a current member of the Potter Valley Rodeo Association's board of directors.

Dana Eady

After graduating with a Bachelors in Environmental Studies from UC Santa Barbara in 2003, Dana Eady serves as the Planning Manager for the City of Santa Maria. Dana currently is a board member of both Joint Technical Advisory Committee (JTAC) and Technical Planning Advisory Committee (TPAC).

Rob Fitzroy

Rob Fitzroy is the executive director of the San Luis Obispo Local Agency Formation Commission, which discourages urban sprawl and encourages the efficient and orderly formation and growth of local agencies.

Fitzroy studied environmental science and political science at Cal Poly, where he also earned a master’s degree in natural resource management and environmental planning & public policy.

He previously worked for San Luis Obispo County as assistant director of planning and building.

His experience includes general plan and ordinance development, water supply analysis, air quality and noise technical modeling, budget and contract management, the California Environmental Quality Act and organization administration and management.

Ben Humphrey

Humphrey is currently the development director for Solomon Hills, which pursues attainable homes for families and sustainable living in Santa Barbara County. Solomon Hills encourages affordability without giving up a sense of community or quality. It also encourages walkability and preserves 63 percent of the land for open space, recreation and nature.

Humphrey earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Chapman University and a master’s

degree in real estate and design from UC Berkeley.

In addition to his work with Solomon Hills, he serves on the Government Affairs Committee for Santa Barbara and the Builder’s Council for Home Builders Association of the Central Coast.

Jamie Jones

Jaime Jones is the founder and owner of Kirk Consulting, a woman-owned land use and entitlement planning firm based in San Luis Obispo County. With over 30 years of experience in both the public and private sectors, she specializes in navigating complex regulatory frameworks and securing land use approvals for a wide range of development projects. Since founding Kirk Consulting in 2003, Ms. Jones has grown the firm to serve more than 200 clients, providing expertise in land use strategy, environmental review coordination, and project entitlement management. Her work spans agricultural, residential, commercial, and mixed-use projects, with a strong emphasis on collaboration between agencies, stakeholders, and community members.

She has particular expertise in addressing the challenges of agricultural land conversion for housing, working at the rural–urban interface to balance the need for growth with the long-term protection of productive agricultural lands and community character.

Known for her deep institutional knowledge of local planning processes and long-standing relationships with regulatory agencies and community leaders, Ms. Jones brings a practical, solutions-oriented approach to addressing land use challenges, particularly in balancing development needs with community and environmental priorities.

Erik Justesen

Erik Justesen has worked for RRM Design Group since 1998, becoming president and CEO in 2006. Originally a landscape architect, he now practices as an urban planner and development entitlement specialist. His advocacy for environmental sustainability and endless hours of volunteering for the betterment of the community led to being honored as 2019 Citizen of the Year in San Luis Obispo.

Lauren D. Layne

A Shareholder at Baker Manock & Jensen, PC, where she serves as Chair of the firm’s Business Department and leads its Water Law and Public Agency practice groups. Her practice spans water and environmental law—including CEQA and NEPA compliance—along with transactions involving water rights and quality, public agency matters, agribusiness, and real property, and she regularly advises on land acquisitions and eminent domain. She represents private agricultural clients and serves as general counsel to irrigation and water districts, flood control districts, and multiple Groundwater Sustainability Agencies. A Cal Poly San Luis Obispo alumna (B.S., Soil Science) and McGeorge School of Law graduate (J.D., with distinction), Layne brings a lifelong agricultural background from Porterville and extensive public-service leadership, including Past President of the Cal Poly Alumni Association Board, Chair of the Dean’s Advisory Council for Cal Poly’s College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences, and Chair of the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) State Legislative Committee.

Todd Murphy

Todd Murphy is a senior appraiser in San Luis Obispo County with Schenberger, Taylor & Assocs. He also teaches in the Agribusiness Department of Cal Poly, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1979. He has worked as a farm and ranch real estate appraiser for more than 40 years and is eager to share the knowledge he has gained.

Wil Smith

Mr. Smith is the CEO, President and Founder of Greenlaw Partners, a California-based full service real estate development and operating company. He oversees all aspects of Greenlaw Partners’ acquisition, operations and investment development/redevelopment programs. Under Wil’s leadership Greenlaw Partners has completed in excess of $5 billion in acquisitions and dispositions of 150 properties, many in joint venture with leading global institutional groups including Walton Street, Westbrook, Cigna, UBS, Guggenheim and Cross Harbor. Greenlaw Partners owns and manages a portfolio approaching $3 billion in value that has approximately 10 million square feet of commercial buildings, and over 4,000 acres of land. Wil serves as an Independent Director of the Griffin-American Healthcare REIT IV and sits on the executive board of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate and the USC Price School Board of Counselors.

Nick Tompkins

Nick Tompkins is the director of People’s Self-Help Housing, the longest-serving nonprofit housing organization on California’s Central Coast, serving over 10,000 residents in four counties. A Fresno State University alumnus and fifth-generation Central Coast local, he has over 40 years of business experience. Tompkins co-founded Apio, Inc. in 1979, and the company eventually expanded to become the nation's biggest producer

and distributor of pre-cut vegetables. He currently owns NKT Commercial, where he manages a portfolio of over 30 Central Coast properties.

Ginger Anderson

Ginger Anderson is a senior and land use project manager for Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, a nationwide lobbying and law firm.

She earned a bachelor’s degree from UC Santa Barbara and a master’s degree from Cal Poly.

Anderson is a certified planner with the American Institute of Certified Planners and is on the City and Regional Planning Alumni Committee at Cal Poly. She has more than 20 years of experience with inland and coastal land development projects.

Kevin MacKenzie

Kevin is President of JLL Capital Markets, Americas, and serves on the JLL Executive Committee, where he oversees the strategic direction of the firm’s 30 Capital Markets offices. With more than 22 years of commercial real estate investment banking experience, he has completed over 980 transactions totaling more than $38 billion across property types and regions in the United States. He joined JLL through the HFF acquisition, where he began in 2004, and focuses on expanding the firm’s capital markets platform while advising institutional and private owners of institutional-quality real estate. Earlier in his career, he held strategic finance and business development roles at venture-backed technology companies in Silicon Valley. A magna cum laude graduate of Cal Poly with a B.S. in Business, he remains active with the university and broader real estate industry through the Real Estate Founders Circle, ULI councils, and the GCU Dean’s Advisory Board.

Amy Steinfeld

Amy is a California land use and water lawyer who advises water districts, cities, agricultural clients, and developers on complex permitting, water strategy, land development, and environmental compliance matters. She is especially known for combining deep expertise in water law and land use with strong relationships across state and local agencies, which helps her move contentious projects forward, reduce permitting delays, and manage issues ranging from site due diligence and groundwater sustainability planning to CEQA litigation and settlement. She is also a leader in the water field as co-founder and co-chair of the California H2O Women Conference, which supports and connects women in the industry.

Chris Guillen

Chris advises clients on complex natural-resource, land use, and development matters, with a practical focus on risk assessment, regulatory strategy, and long-term business objectives. His work centers on the intersection of real estate and water, especially in areas such as California housing law, CEQA, and SGMA, and he represents a broad mix of developers, landowners, farmers, wineries, public agencies, and nonprofits. His experience spans due diligence for housing and resource investments, water-rights disputes, land use and permit appeals, flood- and erosion-related conflicts, and project entitlement and litigation support for land transitions and renewable energy development.