Meet Our Community: Deb Kramer

As part of our seasonal spotlight series, we’re celebrating our incredible employees, partners, and volunteers who help make the work of Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful (KCCB) possible. In our Earth Day Blog, we talk about the ‘Ripple Effect’ and how all it takes is one person to inspire many to make a change in their community. Today, we’re excited to introduce Deb, our founder and executive director for KCCB. She discovered love for caring for her environment through her childhood and father, and became deeply committed to the well-being of Coyote Creek, including all the aspects and processes of transformation, learning, and building community.

Role: Founder & Executive Director

With KCCB: 11 years!

Deb Experiencing Joy Outside

Fun Facts 🌟

• Happy place: Sierra Nevada - Pacific Crest Trail 🥾⛰️🌲

• Unusual creek sightings: Birds, Safe 🐦

• Favorite hobbies: Hiking, Walking🚶‍♀️

• Favorite place to eat: Zachary’s Pizza at Berkeley 😋

• Favorite color: Cobalt Blue 🌈

When asked about their favorite hobbies, Deb described, “I love to hike, and I love to walk a lot and see things because it’s a slower pace of seeing things. There’s a park nearby in Carmel Valley called Garland…and because I volunteer there, I get to share with people things to look for and which hike might be appropriate for their outing for the day.”

How it All Started 🌱

Deb Kramer founded this organization in 2015 while she was working with another organization. At the time, she was picking up trash and thought that there must be “more to picking up trash for this whole building community thing and getting people connected to the creek.”

The city of San Jose’s Environmental Services Department approached her and provided funding for her to use for community engagement and trash cleanup. She committed herself to outreach, presentations, and conferences to slowly build her foundation for the organization that KCCB is today. Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful became a layered, multifaceted organization committed to a variety of important features that build resilience and teach grit for all who engage with it. 

Deb With Creek Partners

Deb said, “The thing, if you will, that keeps me coming back is that the community really seemed to like the things we do, and learning about the creek and why it’s a valuable resource. Seeing the cycle of learning, getting out there, and enjoying it, and caring for it, that cyclical approach really keeps me going.”

Impact on the Community 🌎

Growing up, Deb was deeply connected to nature and the community. With her father as her inspiration, and having a creek behind her house, these things illuminated parts that she was able to draw forward into her organization. Something Deb noticed was that through these activities outside, not only has it been about cleaning our creeks and caring for our environment, but it’s also taught people an essential part of being human that is easy to forget: slowing down.

At an event, Deb asked a couple about what they learned, and they said, “We are here all the time, but we never really see what’s in this park.” To Deb, this meant something important: “The BioBlitzes are about getting people to really notice, and you can only do that if you slow down and you’re with someone who can help point those things out to you.”

Additionally, other impacts in the community are notable, especially with children. Deb said, “When someone gives them permission to say, pet a lizard, eventually...children learn to trust nature and that [they have] something interesting to learn.”

Backpacking With Community

Impacts are so broad with organizations like this, not just on the impact on the community, but through the volunteers, board members, and staff alike. Something Deb has highlighted, and these interviews have inspired again and again, is deep learning and leadership in the community. For example, members going from volunteer to leadership positions of other organizations, building skills and learning tools to apply to jobs or new careers, and creating ownership of taking care of our environment, because it definitely cannot be something that is done in solitude or isolation.

“I don't have all the answers, but together we work on solving problems, and through that problem solving skills are learned. Those are things that we can take forward,” Deb elaborated.

Looking Ahead: The Future of KCCB ☀️🌳

In Deb’s reflection on transitioning to a new career and leaving behind her legacy of KCCB to powerful staff members and volunteers to continue this work, she discussed an important piece for the future, that is, confidence in her team.

Being Silly Outdoors

Deb is assured that this organization is in good hands. She said, “Knowing staff feel confident about their roles, that they have incredible camaraderie...and Jessica is now the program manager…she’s going to look out for the growth of the organization. That’s really important to me because it’s the foundation of who we are.”

Final Thoughts ✨

Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful is an organization that has been crafted to support a thriving community and a healthy environment. If someone is thinking about volunteering, coming from the founder of this organization, Deb shared to just show up and meet one person.

Paul J. Gonzalez and Deb Kramer

Deb described a volunteer and said, “At the event on Saturday [10th Anniversary Event], he was so nice, and I kept bidding on his book, and he signed it for me. He’s an example of someone who just showed up randomly one time, and he liked it. I encourage people to try.”

Volunteer work and committing to the service of being present in our surroundings are both processes of giving back and receiving. It’s this symbiotic relationship between the individual, the environment, and each other that is a driving force for the health of our world.