A sunny Friday afternoon in Imperial Beach, and Charles Rilli, deputy director of the Sierra Club’s San Diego chapter, worked the room.

It was minutes before an Oct. 3 panel discussion about the Tijuana River at a crowded state park visitor center. Rilli, 27, chatted with fellow environmental activists, huddled with volunteers and herded audience members to their seats.

He brimmed with the nervous energy of someone eager to see an event he’d helped to plan succeed.

The Sierra Club hired Rilli two years ago with a mandate to boost the Club’s anemic membership in majority-Latino South San Diego County. Events like the river panel, he said, are crucial to meeting that goal.

“In South County, there’s not as much opportunity for engagement with the outdoors,” Rilli said. “It’s critical we m

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