Board of Directors
SHANNON LARSUEL
Board President
Shannon Larsuel is the Altadena Organizing Lead at Essie Justice Group and a third-generation Altadena resident. Her family has long-standing ties to both Altadena and Pasadena, where they lived before moving to Altadena in the 1960s. In addition to serving as ACLT Board President, Shannon is a neighborhood captain with Altagether. Shannon holds a B.S. in Molecular, Cellular, & Developmental Biology from Yale University and an M.P.H. in Social and Behavioral Sciences from the Yale School of Public Health.
ALI RACHEL PEARL
Board Secretary
Ali Rachel Pearl is an Assistant Professor (Teaching) at the University of Southern California, where she previously earned a PhD from the Department of English. She is a writer, teacher, and community organizer whose work focuses on gentrification and place-making and she currently serves as a neighborhood captain with Altagether. She and her husband lost their home in the Eaton Fire.
DR. KATIE CLARK
Board Treasurer
Dr. Katie Clark is a 16+ year resident of Altadena, a renter who lost her home in the Eaton Fire, and co-founder of the Altadena Tenants Union. She has served as an elected member on the Altadena Library District Board of Trustees since 2018. Clark holds a PhD from Oxford University in history, where her research focused on how communities used and navigated space in the built environment. Having taught at both Oxford and Caltech, since 2013 she has served as Founder & Principal Consultant at The Applied Humanities, a consulting practice serving nonprofits both regionally and nationwide.
Technical Experts & CLT Advisors
SIMON WINDELL
Community Land Trust Strategic Advisor
Simon Windell comes to ACLT via our comrades in disaster recovery at the Lahaina Community Land Trust, where he serves as interim Director of Finance. He is a leading expert in the development of community land trusts and has firsthand experience working to ensure that public investment in non-market housing pays community dividends. Simon’s work focuses on building operational processes, financial models, and mechanisms for permanence that inspire confidence in the community return of large capital investments into housing infrastructure. Prior to working in the community land trust space, he spent 14 years in corporate operations at a large consulting firm, solving complex, multi-disciplinary problems and leading large teams across the globe. He has also served as a Winthrop Planning Commissioner and on the board of the Northwest Community Land Trust Coalition.
JULIE BRUNNER
Community Land Trust Technical Strategic Advisor
Julie Brunner is a housing consultant and policy advisor for ACLT. Since 2002, Julie has specialized in Community Land Trusts and serves as the Housing Director for OPAL Community Land Trust on Orcas Island, Washington. Julie has worked with community land trusts, municipalities and nonprofits across the country and has supported them in creating, expanding or improving their CLT efforts. This includes housing needs assessments, financial feasibility, program design, lender relations, project implementation and project work-outs.
Julie also provides technical assistance and training to identify and expand the use of industry standards, software, processes, and best practices through Grounded Solutions Network and NeighborWorks America.
RAY RUFFIN
Strategic Advisor
Ray Ruffin is a versatile finance professional with over 25 years of experience in real estate development and finance, commercial and corporate lending, and equity derivative markets. In recent years, he has focused on securing financing and investment for various developers and nonprofit organizations across Greater Los Angeles, particularly those addressing homelessness, affordable housing, and supporting victims of the Eaton Fire in Altadena, CA. He has resided in Altadena since 2015 and was able to return to his home 4 months after the Eaton Fire after his home was remediated for smoke, soot, and ash contamination. Ray holds a BA in Economics from Stanford University and an MS in Real Estate Development from Arizona State University. In 2025, he was appointed as a Trustee for the Altadena Library District and is an active member of Altadena Rotary, and serves on multiple nonprofit boards. Outside of work, he enjoys spending time with his family (wife and two sons) and pursuing scuba diving and taekwondo, where he has achieved the ranks of Dive Master and 1st Degree Black Belt.
MIKE HORGAN
Strategic Advisor
Mike Horgan is a licensed general contractor, Certified Passive House Designer, and design-builder who specializes in Passive House and Zero-Net-Energy construction. As the founder and president of Cairn Collaborative Design-Build, Inc., he leads a California-based architecture and contracting firm focused on custom high-performance residential projects, including multiple residential rebuilds in Altadena post-fire. A prominent figure in sustainable construction, Mike was named the 2019 Climate Champion by the City of San Luis Obispo. He has held numerous leadership positions, including Vice-President of Passive House California and co-chair of the San Luis Obispo Building Decarbonization Task Force. Additionally, he is a founding advisory board member for the Tri-County Regional Energy Network. Mike continues to share his expertise by providing essential continuing education for architects and builders through workshops and project tours in partnership with In Balance Green Consulting and the Tri-County Regional Energy Network. With over three decades in the residential construction field and an academic background in economics, education, and applied linguistics from Boston University and Worcester University, Mike utilizes decades of field experience and active Cairn Collaborative projects to mentor industry professionals in adopting sustainable building practices.
Project Partners
Altadena Community Land Trust is proud to be working in collaboration with two trusted and experienced local partners, Greenline Housing Foundation and Beacon Housing, as we work towards the shared mutual goals of anti-displacement, affordable housing, and maintaining and strengthening the vibrant social fabric of Altadena. Our project partners provide critical expertise, including knowledge sharing and technical assistance. As complementary spokes on a wheel, we are working in coalition on information-sharing, community-wide strategy, acquisition efforts, and housing rebuilding to have the greatest impact possible.
