Representing El Granada, Emerald Lake Hills, Half Moon Bay, Montara, Moss Beach, Redwood City, San Carlos, Woodside
Term: 2021-2024
[Contact Director Kersteen-Tucker]
Zoe Kersteen-Tucker is a long-time coastal and environmental protection advocate. She served as a leader of and spokesperson for the successful countywide Devil's Slide Tunnel Initiative, Measure T, in 1996. This popular Initiative ensured the protection of Montara Mountain, now part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA), and mandated construction of the tunnels to replace a portion of failure-prone Highway 1 on the San Mateo County Coast. The Devil’s Slide Tunnels opened in 2013.
She helped lead the multi-year effort to expand Midpen’s boundaries to include the San Mateo County Coast in 2004. She served on the San Mateo County Transit District (SamTrans) Board of Directors from 2006 to 2018 and also served as a San Mateo County Planning Commissioner representing District 3 from 2014 to 2018.
As owner of Pacific Development Associates, Zoe provides nonprofit executives and boards of directors with consulting services focusing on organizational culture, communications and fund development. In prior years, she served as Executive Director of the Coastside Land Trust and President and Executive Director of Green Foothills.
Zoe is an avid hiker (both with and without her dog Bear), e-biker, an occasional mountain biker and a rambling equestrian in her youth. She holds a Ph.D. in Experimental Neuropsychology from U.C. Berkeley. She is married to George Tucker, a retired NASA-Ames Research pilot, and has one daughter, a fisheries biologist working for a regional water district.
During her service on the Midpen board, Zoe has been instrumental in creating the District’s Agricultural Policy, a document that clarifies and defines the District’s role in encouraging viable agricultural use of land resources and preserving the rural character of the San Mateo County Coast. This set of policy directives also provides an important new blueprint for the District’s efforts to make its Conservation Grazing leases more accessible to under-served communities. Zoe also led the charge to put more dog waste receptacles at trailheads throughout the District, and she remains committed to ensuring that the District’s beautiful lands are welcoming to all.
Zoe has lived in Moss Beach for more than 30 years and is the first Coastside resident to serve on the Midpen board of directors.