Founders
Dixie Layne
Chair
Frances Grate
Vice-Chair
Dominick Sinicropi, Ph.D.
Secretary
Dominick Sinicropi, Ph.D. moved to California in 1982 to pursue postdoctoral study at Stanford University in the Department of Biological Sciences. He transitioned to a career as a Research and Development Scientist at Genentech, Inc. and Genomic Health, Inc. in the San Francisco Bay Area. When he retired, Dom moved to Pacific Grove in 2018 and was alarmed to learn about the decline of the overwintering monarch population in Pacific Grove. Upon meeting Robert Pacelli and learning about the loss of monarch overwintering habitat in Pacific Grove, Dom was motivated to become a cofounder of Friends of the Monarchs to support local monarch conservation actions.
Gabriela Chavez
Treasurer
Robert Pacelli
Committee Member
Clemencia Macias
Committee Member
Clemencia moved to Pacific Grove, CA in 1987 after living in Bogotá, Colombia, Berkeley, where she graduated from UC Berkeley, Bolivia and Switzerland.
While living in Pacific Grove, she learned about the Monarch Butterfly winter migration, where Monarchs come from Canada to California to this specific coastal town. In the early years she observed the butterflies come to Washington Park and later they moved to what is now called the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary. She was involved with the initial movement to create the Sanctuary, with Ro Vacarro, Pat and Sally Herrgott and Robert Pacelli, to protect the Monarchs for generations to come.