Category: 2026 BOD Candidates

Eli Forrester

Hi! I’m Eli Forrester, and I’ve spent more than a decade keeping products and materials at their highest and best use. I’m from San Francisco and work as the Sustainability Program Manager at Recology, leading the sustainability strategy for an employee-owned company that recycles and composts 1.5 million tons of material a year. Previously, at Steelcase, a century-old furniture company, I built the circular economy programs in reuse, remanufacturing, and reverse logistics that became Circular by Steelcase, the company’s end-of-use program to reuse, repair, remake, and recycle furniture.

From 2021 to 2024, I served on the University of Michigan President’s Sustainability Advisory Board, advising campus leadership on dozens of projects including expanded food recovery and composting at dining facilities serving 15,000 students daily. Earlier, as a policy director at the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, I worked with state agencies on zero-waste legislation.

I’m a founding member of NCRA’s Reuse & Repair Committee because reuse must come before recycling. As a Board Member, I will help grow it from a new committee into a lasting NCRA program. I’ll push to close the organics and recycling access gap in multifamily, low-income, and multilingual communities. And I’ll help plan tours and Recycling Update sessions that advance NCRA’s mission to End Waste. I’d be honored to have your vote.

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William Neil

I would be honored to serve on the NCRA Board. I’m the founder of EarthSort, an app that tells residents which bin an item goes in under their city’s rules. I also bring board experience, serving on the Board of Angel Flight West and as Treasurer of the Schoellkopf Foundation.

My love of the environment started early. From age 10 into my twenties, I spent summers in Botswana’s Okavango Delta, where my mother ran a tented safari business. With no electricity and no store, we fixed and adapted whatever we had.

For most of my career I led data divisions in banking, including more than 20 years at First Republic Bank, turning messy information into decisions people could trust. EarthSort puts those same skills to work on waste.

Over the past two years I’ve attended conferences across California and Oregon and talked with waste leaders about information gaps and resident education. This year I attended NCRA’s Recycling Update and Advocacy Day, and joined the Reuse & Repair Committee.

As SB 54, SB 707 and other new rules roll out, residents will be asked to change how they recycle, reuse and discard what they own. On the board, I want to help make those changes easy to understand and act on, bringing my technical and leadership experience.

I’d be grateful for your vote.

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Sarah Koplowicz

Hello fellow NCRA members! I started my journey working in trash in 2007, when I worked as Zero Waste Coordinator at the UC Davis R4 Recycling Program. As a lifelong environmentalist, that experience galvanized my interest and led me to work in Zero Waste event management for more than a decade, managing crews for events with up to two million attendees. Along the way I spent two years at the SF Green Business Program, obtained an M.S. in Environmental Management, and now work as a Managing Consultant at R3 Consulting Group, where I assist public agencies in all aspects of solid waste programs.

I have been on the Board since 2025 and served as co-Secretary in my first year. I currently serve on the Recycling Update Program Committee. In addition, I served as a board member for the nonprofit Race to Zero Waste 2023-2024 and was on the Zero Waste Youth USA planning committee for 7 years. I started volunteering at the NCRA Recycling Update in 2015 and have attended almost every year since. I’m also an active member of CRRA, including leading a panel at the 2026 CRRA conference. 

If re-elected to the Board, I would be pleased to continue contributing my extensive experience and knowledge of the industry and my passion for Zero Waste. It’s my honor to work closely with NCRA to provide the best possible programs at the Recycling Update and throughout the year.

Reka Abraham

If we’ve not yet had the pleasure of meeting, hello, my name is Reka (pronounced “Ray-kah) Abraham. I am currently on the NCRA Board. During my first term, I served as Board Secretary in year one and Treasurer in year two. I am currently chair of the Finance Committee and an active member of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity (DEI) committee. I have been in the zero waste industry since 2017, working in both the public and private sector. My current role is Deputy Executive Director and Regulatory Manager with RecycleMore, a waste management authority in the East Bay. I am hoping to serve my second term and thank you deeply for considering voting for me.

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Xinci Tan

I’m Xinci with Zero Waste Sonoma. I have served two terms as a NCRA board member and would like to serve one more before stepping down. In the time that I’ve been on the board, I have advocated for keeping Recycling Update and other events affordable, tried to improve visibility of DEI initiatives, and pushed for more accessible and easier to read website and newsletters. I feel that these projects are all still in progress, and given that the board is about to start our first ever 4 year strategic planning process, I want to serve one more term and see these projects through. Thank you for the opportunity!

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