Andrea Ambriz
Strategic Lead

Andrea Ambriz supports River LA in crafting and leading strategic organizational initiatives and efforts, including facilitating the execution of River LA’s innovative, digital public engagement program to engage diverse stakeholders. As a Los Angeles native, Andrea seeks to ensure the voices of community members drives neighborhood transformations and imagined opportunities along the Los Angeles river and surrounding areas. Andrea is an experienced strategist and advocate for working families and businesses, with a strong track record of building partnerships and creating solutions to foster, strengthen and protect our communities. She has served as Chief of Staff for a California, state-wide labor union, where she championed economic justice initiatives for nearly 400,000 workers.   

Andrea also served under 44th U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House as Deputy Director of Private Sector Engagement, crafting innovative partnerships with business and non-profit leaders to benefit American workers and communities, such as spearheading commitments to advance pay equity, combat climate change, and support refugees and immigrants. From additional held positions at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Andrea has worked collaboratively with bipartisan members of U.S. Congress, consumer advocates, businesses, and foreign governments to develop policies to strengthen the U.S. economy and build wealth for American families.

Formerly advising legislators in the California State Assembly and Senate, Andrea notably helped champion the safety and health of California communities by helping institute landmark laws to allocate over $400 million equitably to park-poor neighborhoods for green, open space development throughout California. This funding supported developments along the Los Angeles River and adjacent park areas, among other areas.

She earned undergraduate degrees from DePaul University in both Public Policy-Urban Studies and Sociology, and holds a Master of Public Policy degree from the University of
California, Berkeley.

Clara Potes-Fellow
Director of Development

Clara Potes-Fellow is the development director at River LA, bringing to the role a distinguished 30-year record of accomplishments in the advancement functions of higher education institutions, health, youth development, and civic non-profit organizations. In this capacity, Clara leads efforts to facilitate philanthropic gifts and grants to advance the mission of River LA and support its programs and initiatives.

As a consultant, Clara has been affiliated with the Institute for Philanthropic Excellence, which helps nonprofit organizations develop fundraising strategies. She served as interim executive director at the Cerritos College Foundation, where she created the strategy for the college’s $10 million Major Gifts Campaign. Other organizations she has served include East Valley Community Health Center, the Arroyo Seco Foundation, Grand Park L.A., Orange County Conservation Corps, Boys and Girls Club of West San Gabriel Valley, the California State University, Office of the Chancellor, Southern California Edison, L.A. Metro and the Spanish daily La Opinion. She was press secretary for the Clinton/Gore Presidential Campaign, where she managed press relations with the Hispanic media.

Clara earned an MBA at American Jewish University, Los Angeles; a master’s in communications management at The Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California, and a bachelor’s degree in communications from Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, Colombia, where she grew up. She completed a certificate as Specialist in Planned Giving at the American Institute for Philanthropic Studies at CSULB.

Clara is passionate about the nonprofit sector and feels that it is a privilege to help donors direct their generosity to help in the revitalization efforts of the Los Angeles River. She enjoys fine art painting and sculpting and her work has been exhibited in Umbria, Italy. An avid golfer, Clara is a member of the Latina Golfers Association, an organization that promotes golf as a means for professional networking.

Ed Reyes
Executive Director

Ed P. Reyes is the Executive Director of River LA where he spearheads the organization’s efforts to revitalize all 51 miles of the LA River. Ed Reyes brings two decades of experience working in the public sector and improving the quality of life for all Angelenos, having served on the Los Angeles City Council for 22 years, 10 years as Chief Planning Deputy for District 1 and 12 years as City Councilmember. 

Both in his tenure on City Council and beyond, Ed has been a staunch advocate and champion for the Los Angeles River. During his time in City Council, and with the support of his Council colleagues, Ed established the Ad-Hoc River Committee to revitalize the Los Angeles River and served as Chair for 10 years. 

As chair of the Los Angeles River Ad Hoc Committee, Ed brought a renewed focus to the once-ignored Los Angeles River. He championed a multidisciplinary focus to promote a multi-purpose role along the river corridor and secured more than $3 million to create a neighborhood-driven plan that included enhancing water quality, environmental protection, increasing open space and improving flood control.

In 2007, Ed led a comprehensive community participation process that led to the adoption of the City of LA’s Los Angeles River Master Plan. The plan focuses on a regional strategy to address the deterioration of natural habitats while enhancing flood control capacity.

Ed was appointed by Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis as an LA County Park Commissioner, and by then-Governor Jerry Brown to the governing board for the Designated Local Authority for Former Community Redevelopment Agency overseeing the transfer of assets and land use authority from the Community Redevelopment Agency. He is currently appointed to the Measure W Committee to facilitate the goals for implementing stormwater harvesting.

Jordan Schneringer
Development and Communications Associate

Jordan Schneringer is the Executive Assistant at River LA. He supports the CEO and Chief Operating Officer in carrying out the organization’s mission and outreach, along with the facilitating day-to-day administrative functions.

Prior to River LA, Jordan served in varied roles on multiple government campaigns around country--culminating with a stint in Washington D.C on Capitol Hill. Jordan has always had a passion for helping people, which has now extended to include bettering communities.

Jordan, a native Oklahoman, attended the University of Oklahoma with a major in Political Science.

Jon Switalski
Director of External Affairs

Jon views the LA River as a source of life and has the potential to be a binding force that brings our communities together. Jon has worked for much of his career to enact public policy that improves how people live, move and work within their communities, policies that aim to protect our environment while providing economic and social justice for everyone.

Previously, Jon was the V.P. for Government Affairs at an electric vehicle startup. Prior to that Jon was a Macomb County Commissioner, representing the city of Warren, Michigan for four years. He then was elected to the Michigan House of Representatives where he served for the maximum of six years.. There he held various leadership roles and enacted far reaching, impactful legislation.

Jon authored a Complete Streets statute that modernized decades of transportation planning. From designing roads and communities that only serve an individual vehicle to transportation infrastructure design that included the needs of pedestrians, bicyclists, public transit riders and those with disabilities. Renewable energy policy was also central to Jon’s legislative agenda. He spent much of his last-term in office writing legislation to democratize energy production, to adopt a feed-in-tariff policy, to invest in micro-grids and to provide financing for community solar gardens. Overall, this legislation would provide the regulatory framework to allow consumer and producers freedom to choose the source of their energy.

After ten years of service and being term-limited from elected office, Jon had the desire to continue his efforts to create positive change in a dynamic, progressive environment. California and Los Angeles proved to be just the opportunity he was looking for and River LA’s work is just that effort. Jon couldn’t be more thrilled to be a part of this transformative change. Jon holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree from Grand Valley State in Michigan. He enjoys playing golf, hiking and of course spending as much time at the beach as possible. Jon also is an avid traveler.