Ron Milam
DIRECTOR
Ron Milam joined Smart Growth California in 2014 as the coordinator of the Los Angeles Funders’ Collaborative and since fall of 2017, has directed Smart Growth California. Since 2005, Ron has served over 160 organizations and networks as an organization development consultant.
Ron is skilled at developing leadership, building stronger teams, improving organizational effectiveness and facilitating collaborative change. He brings an understanding of issues related to land use, transportation, climate, housing, water, the environment and racial equity.
Ron is a founding member of Pacific Pattern, a cooperative network of strategists, facilitators, and practitioners dedicated to cultivating equitable climate resilience across the ecosystems of the Pacific region. He studied planning, public policy, and management at the University of Oregon, and has a Masters in Organization Development from Pepperdine University.
Diana Williams
Program Manager
Diana Williams joined Smart Growth California in 2023 as Program Manager. Based in Sacramento, Diana brings a background in journalism, nonprofit leadership and philanthropy.
Previously, Diana led funder engagement with federal and state policymakers as public policy director at The Funders’ Network (TFN) in Washington, DC. As executive director of Urban Ecology, an Oakland-based community design center, Diana led a team offering pro-bono planning services to communities at risk of gentrification and displacement. In other roles, Diana served as communications director for the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California, a grant maker focused on sustainable communities and a beat reporter for several Bay Area newspapers.
Raised in Atlanta and Queens, Diana studied history at Hamilton College and received her Master in Public Administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
When she’s not biking or hiking with her husband and three grown kids, Diana is working with her midtown Sacramento neighborhood to advocate for more affordable housing and safer streets.
Kriselda Bautista
Program Associate
Kriselda joined Smart Growth California in May of 2022 as a Program Associate, supporting program communications, events, and data management. When she isn’t fine-tuning details of an upcoming event (like the Funder Summit or an in-person working group meeting), you can usually find her buried deep within Salesforce, SharePoint or MailChimp. She brings with her over a decade of sustainability and community engagement experience, having worked across California with the Local Government Commission (now CivicWell) and Sierra Business Council. She is passionate about serving underserved communities, collecting stories of immigrant strength and survival in the United States, and learning the history of cultural spaces that provide a sense of belonging.
Kriselda lives in the Greater Los Angeles region with her dog, Panda. She enjoys snowboarding, hiking, and the great outdoors. She is currently obsessed with baklava.
