Program Leads

Drew Madsen

Drew is a longboard aficionado from San Diego, CA currently living in the Outer Richmond. He spearheaded and manages Surfrider San Francisco's first volunteer-run water quality testing program, the Blue Water Task Force, with co-lead, Yasmine El-Hage.

When he's not surfing at Ocean Beach, the south end of Linda Mar, or Bolinas, he spends his time playing music, taking photographs, creating surf edits and other video projects, writing, enjoying coffee, and practicing yoga.

Yasmine El-Hage

Yasmine is a kite-surfer, Bay swimmer, and public health researcher who focuses on the relationships between human health and the health of our planet. She has worked with the UN, the International Rescue Committee, and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, and is currently researching citizen science efforts in oil spill-affected coastal communities across the Americas. Of South American and Middle Eastern roots, born and raised in the Bay, she can't wait to highlight more of our diverse Bay Area community perspectives and languages in our work towards environmental health equity.

Jane Lew

Marley Salangsang

Debra Leow

Debra connected with Surfrider at an Ocean Beach Clean Up in 2015 and discovered her tribe of passionate, fun, smart, enthusiastic, committed, earth loving activists. As an artist and parent, the Message in a Bottle Art and Education Program resonated deeply with her.  Her goals for the program are to empower artists and creators, wee and elder, to express their love for the ocean, our need to protect it and to educate and inspire the public into action.

Debra loves birds and hates plastic. She's passionate about textile reuse and raising awareness about microfiber pollution. She can be found outdoors, indulging in all things creative, traveling and doom-scrolling. And she well knows that the only antidote for doom-scrolling is pushing up your sleeves and diving into some environmental champion action. 

Most importantly, Debra believes in leaving this beautiful planet we share better than we found it. 

Hyla Wallis

Hyla is a Michigan-native, California-convert who loves hiking, biking and generally exploring the outdoors. She has been a long-time volunteer with Surfrider and is a passionate participant in various service groups in SF. Professionally, she has worked in People/Talent Operations (Tech) for over a decade+ and is excited to apply her program and project management expertise to Surfrider.

Anna Kauffman

Anna is a data driven environmental activist tracking plastic shotgun wads in the wild.  #wadwatcher