Lawrence K. Yee

WSN Advisory Council

For the past 35 years, Lawrence “Larry” K. Yee has worked locally and nationally and held leadership roles in sustainable agriculture, food systems, and California water. Appointed by Governor Jerry Brown in 2012, Yee served for 10 years as a member of the LA Regional Water Quality Control Board and the last two years as Board Chair. From 2009 to 2019, Yee served as co-founder and president of the national board of the Food Commons, a fully integrated local/regional food system model with the first prototype developed in Fresno, CA. In 1986, he was appointed director of the UC Cooperative Extension office for Ventura County. In 1993, he founded the UC Hansen Trust, a multi-million-dollar UC endowment established to sustain and benefit agriculture in Ventura County. In 1997, he established and directed the UC Hansen Agricultural Research and Education Center.

In 1996, Yee interned and worked with Mr. Dee Hock, the founder and CEO Emeritus of VISA International, who was widely recognized for his brilliance in designing and creating innovative organizational structures. From 1996-2002, working with Mr. Hock, Yee assisted in developing several national organizations, including the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance, the Society for Organizational Learning at MIT, Community Alliances of Interdependent Agriculture in association with the Kellogg Foundation, and the National Association of Family Farms for which he served as national board chair from 2002-05. During 2003-04, Yee was appointed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as National Program Leader for Food Marketing Systems Innovations. In 2003, he joined the Agriculture of the Middle national initiative and later served on the national coordinating committee. He has also served on the California Roots of Change, the National Food Alliance, the Los Angeles Food Policy Council, and the Ventura County Ag Futures Alliance. Yee is married to Kathy, and they have two children and three grandchildren. Larry can be found every Sunday working at the Ojai Farmers Market.