Our Staff

Paul L. Watson, Jr., MSHS
President/CEO

Formerly Executive Director of the Training and Research Institute for Residential Youth Centers in New Haven, CT; San Diego Youth and Community Services; and Watson and Associates International. Paul began his career as a youth organizer at the age of 17. He has a Master's degree from Springfield College. He began a consultant organization in 1998 and specialized in Community Development, Youth Development, Child Welfare, and Organizational Development. He successfully completed International projects in Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan), The Netherlands, Brazil, Jamaica, and Egypt. He is a national trainer in Youth Development and a member of the Community Youth Development Design Team. He was trained as an ICA Participatory Facilitator. Paul has also served as faculty at Springfield College, New School of Architecture and Design, San Diego City College, and UC San Diego. Paul has won numerous awards and has published both books and articles.

Bill Oswald
Associate Executive Director for Research and Evaluation

Bill received his Ph.D. from the University of Rhode Island in 1988 where he studied Community Psychology. While his work has varied over the years, it has remained focused on fighting the structural causes of poverty by working side-by-side with people in poverty to support them in bringing their voice into the public dialogue. This work has ranged from direct, grassroots community organizing to running a regional training center for Community Organizers to serving as Dean/faculty at Springfield College, School of Human Services that focused on providing access to postsecondary education to communities that have historically been denied that access. Bill’s more recent work includes conducting Participatory Action/Civically Engaged Research and providing support to immigrant/refugee communities and their organizations. Bill’s responsibilities at the Global ARC include overseeing and managing projects related to Community Youth Development, Environmental Justice, and Research and Evaluation.

Marina Ibarra
Community Engagement Coordinator

Marina has been with the Global ARC since 2015, starting as a volunteer at Ocean View Growing Grounds. Later she started working as the Community Outreach Coordinator at the OVGG, promoting health and connecting community members to the Global Food Justice Movement through the urban garden and giving them the opportunity to connect with professors, researchers, students, community knowledge, and residents. Marina has also helped with teaching UCSD students interested in community organizing, taking them to do field work canvasing the community, creating surveys, and more. Additionally, Marina works as an advocate for residents, students, and parents, informing them about the opportunities that the San Diego Unified School District has for our children in school and giving advice to parents on advocating for their children's education. As a member of the Global ARC who is fluent in both English and Spanish, Marina helps with translation on projects with San Diego’s hispanic populations. For 15 years Marina has been a member of a non-profit organization Latinos y Latinas En Acción, and currently serves on their board of directors, promoting the immigrant vote, filling out immigration forms, providing citizenship classes, and more.

Kristopher Garcia Raudales
Research Associate

Kristopher started at the Global Action Resource Center as a student intern assisting the YEJA program with research, participating in a PSRO event and working at the Ocean View Growing Grounds. After graduating from UC San Diego in 2022 with a Bachelor’s in Urban Studies and Planning, he became an official member of the Global ARC as the Research Associate. He now serves the organization by providing research under environmental justice issues and funding opportunities, along with supervising our team of university interns and managing the organization’s social media platforms. He values the idea of serving others and hopes to be of service to the community of San Diego in improving equity and quality of life for all community members. Kristopher enjoys photography and is fluent in English and Spanish.

Thi Vo
Environmental Justice Learning Hub Manager

Thi is a UC Berkeley Alumna originally from San Diego, Thi is currently our Environmental Justice Learning hub Manager. Her focus is on OVGG’s crop production, soil health management, and does research on environmentally sustainable urban agriculture methodology. She was also a fellow in the Multinational Exchange for Sustainable Agriculture’s (MESA) Applied Agroecology Program and received her certificate in applied agroecology in 2022. Thi sees San Diego as a rising community in the conversation on food systems with Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) voices leading the way and is truly excited to see communities coming together to support that movement.

Lily McCann
Agriculture Specialst / Administrative Assistant

Lily is a UCSD alum with a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology with a focus in Climate Change and Human Solutions. With an interest in cooking and healthy eating, and a passion for sustainable agriculture, Lily is excited to be involved in food production from planting the seeds in the soil, to improving access to healthy, sustainably produced and culturally relevant foods. Her focus is on phytoremediation, native demonstration garden, seed saving project, and general food production at OVGG. Lily sees food sovereignty as a vital aspect of environmental justice, and as an integral part of strengthening the natural and built environments in which we live, work and play. 

Catherine Parker
YEJAA Program Manager

Catherine is a UCSD alum with a bachelor's in Anthropology of Climate Change and Human Solutions, and a minor in Human Rights and Migration. With a professional background in fine art and film, Catherine is interested in the ways in which creative arts serve as a medium to bridge the gap between climate science, its related intersectional social issues, and people's lived experiences. Catherine started working with the Global ARC as a fellow of the College Corps program and assisted the previous Academy director, Raphael Lagoc, before transitioning into the role of Program Manager. What excites Catherine most about leading the Academy is the chance to provide support and mentorship for San Diego's upcoming generation of Climate advocates.

Zainab Altimimi
Research Associate (Weaver)

Zainab is a mother of three who is very active in her El Cajon community. She dedicates her time to teaching Arabic and working with the community as a volunteer. She worked with the Islamic Center of San Diego-East County and volunteered with Somali Family Services to help educate and talk to the community about COVID-19 vaccinations. She has had many experiences as a Community Health Worker in helping her community become educated about vaccines and booster shots. With that experience, Zainab will continue her role as a community worker by working with Global Arc.  What motivates her is helping her community,  serving them so that they can grow and have a strong impact. Zainab loves to cook, teach Arabic, and take a good walk at the beach!  

Men Nguyen
Research Associate (Weaver)

Men has received a B.A. in English language teaching, an M.A in English linguistics from the Vietnam National University, and a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction majoring in second language acquisition – ESL from the Texas Tech University. She has 14 years of experience working as an ESL lecturer and interpreter in Vietnam and 7 years of experience working as a research assistant at Texas Tech University. She loves working for the Vietnamese community development and has a great passion for work related to education, research, communication, and interpretation. Today, under her own business: B Learning LLC, cooperates with the Global Action Research Center as a community weaver to assist with community engagement to increase COVID-19 vaccination and participation in preventive care such as flu vaccines, mammograms, diabetes screenings, and blood pressure management.