Heather Barber, Board Secretary, is a Government and Public Affairs Consultant. Previously she worked as Director of External Affairs for AC Transit, Government and Media Relations Manager for the Transbay Joint Powers Authority and representing municipalities in Washington, DC. Heather is a graduate of Smith College, with BAs in American Studies and Latin American Studies. She spent a semester studying at the University of Costa Rica, and another at the Williams College/Mystic Seaport Maritime Studies Program. She also worked in Costa Rica for two years where she did research, and taught in a Spanish-English dual immersion elementary school. She lives in El Cerrito with her husband and two children.
Marciana Burke was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, and works in Corporate and Foundation Relations at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. She has extensive experience with a variety of universities and educational organizations, including the Puente Project, an academic preparation program sponsored by the University of California Office of the President, the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, and LASPAU: Academic & Professional Programs for the Americas (a Harvard University affiliated non-profit), where she managed scholarships for Venezuelan students in the United States. Marciana holds a B.A. in International Relations & Spanish from UC Davis, studied at Universidad Complutense in Madrid, Spain, and earned a master’s degree in Higher Education Policy & Administration from the University of Oregon. Raised in a bilingual/bicultural household, she spent many wonderful childhood vacations in Peru, and now lives in Oakland with her husband and son.
Mauricio Bustos was born in Bogotá, Colombia and was raised in the Detroit area. He is the Director of Expert System Management at AXA Rosenberg, a global investment management company, focusing on technical implementation of investment strategies. He holds an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley, Walter A. Haas School of Business and degrees in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan. He lives in Oakland with his wife and two sons.
Alejandro Caminos is President of IPFC Group LLC which provides finance consulting/advisory work for sovereign, sub-sovereign entities as well as financial institutions both in the United States and abroad. He has over 15 years experience in financial advisory, banking and investment banking services for the U.S. public finance sector and international development agencies (U.S. and E.U.); private asset management, trading of domestic and foreign bond and equity markets. He is fluent in Spanish (oral and written). Previously Mr. Caminos headed the representative offices of DEPFA Bank for the Western US. Mr. Caminos also worked at KNN / Zions Bank and Lehman Brothers. He holds a B.A. in Latin American Studies & Computer Science from Brandeis University.
Erica Terry Derryck is a native New Yorker who first moved to the Bay Area to pursue a graduate degree in journalism at UC Berkeley. She went on to work in the national news divisions at ABC and MTV. Erica has also held senior-level communications positions with several major not-for-profit organizations, ranging from academic institutions to policy groups. She is currently the California communications director of the national anti-crime organization, Fight Crime: Invest In Kids. Erica holds an undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University and is a former board member and active alumna of her independent schools. She lives in Oakland with her husband and two children.
Janette Hernández, Board Chair is a first generation American of Guatemalan parents. Janette serves on the faculty at UC Berkeley, Graduate School of Education, as instructor for the Principal Leadership Institute, preparing and mentoring principals for urban schools. She also conducts research in the area of leadership for equity. Janette spent ten years as a special education teacher both in the United States and in Australia. She later worked as Principal in San Francisco for five years. Janette lives in Oakland with partner Anthony and their son.
Mary T. Hernandez is a founding partner of GCR, California's largest Latino-owned law firm. Ms. Hernandez received her J.D. from Stanford Law School in 1988 and her B.A., magna cum laude, in economics from Harvard University in 1985. Ms. Hernandez is the head of her firm's Education Practice Group and serves as legal counsel to a number of school and community college districts as well as nonprofit organizations and charter schools throughout the State of California. Ms. Hernandez served as President of the Hispanic National Bar Association in 1994-1995. She was elected to the San Francisco Board of Education in 1996 and 2000, and served as Vice President in 1999 and President in 2000. Prior to serving on the SF Board of Education, Ms. Hernandez served on a number of nonprofit boards, including San Francisco La Raza Lawyers Association, San Francisco School Volunteers, Friends of the Library and KQED. She currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Youth Law Center and a member of the Hispanic National Bar Association's Commission on the Status of Women in the Profession. She lives in San Francisco with her mother and two teenage children.
John Horsch is a founder and partner at Be Amazing, a startup firm that provides remote tutoring in foundational cognitive skills to students across the country. He was previously the Director of Customer Operations for Scientific Learning, an Oakland-based creator of educational software that accelerates learning by improving the brain's processing efficiency, and consulted to technology companies on operations and logistics. He has a BA in English from UC Berkeley, and is an avid sailor, having competed in the 1996 Olympic Sailing Team Trials. He lives in Oakland with his wife and two sons.
Jill Malko, a Berkeley native who spent most of her childhood in Philadelphia. She graduated with a BS degree in film from Boston University and also has a Masters in Education from St. Mary's College. Jill currently works at UC Berkeley as a Development Officer. Prior to her career in fundraising, she served as the Head Lacrosse Coach at Cal for nearly 10 years. She lives in Alameda with her partner and two sons both born in Guatemala.
Markos Moulitsas Zúniga is founder and publisher of Daily Kos, the largest progressive community blog in the United States founded in 2002. Moulitsas is also co-author of the critically acclaimed book Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics, author of Taking on the System: Rules for Radical Change in a Digital Era, and a weekly columnist at The Hill newspaper. He was named one of the 100 Most Influential Hispanics in the world by People en Español, clocked in at third in Forbe's Web Celeb 25 rankings, and was listed 26th in PC World's list of the "Most Important People on the Web." He is the son of a Salvadoran mother and Greek father and spent his formative years in El Salvador (1976-1980) before his family resettled in the Chicago area. After high school, Moulitsas served in the U.S. Army (1989-92). He went on to earned two bachelor degrees at Northern Illinois University (1992-96), with majors in Philosophy, Journalism, and Political Science and a minor in German. He subsequently earned a J.D. at Boston University School of Law (1996-99). Moulitsas has been happily married since 2000. He has a son, Aristotle, born in November 2003 and a daughter, Elisandra, born in April 2007.
Josh Oliver is the Vice President of Oliver & Company in Richmond, CA. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Contemporary Jewish Museum, on the Safety Committee of the Construction Employers’ Association and a member of the Artist’s Circle of San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Josh is also involved with other nonprofits, including the Edible Gardens program of the Chez Panisse Foundation in Berkeley, and Rebuilding Together Oakland, in Oakland. A graduate of the Eberhardt School of Business at the University of the Pacific, Josh lives in San Francisco.
Rich Parsons has been teaching Mathematics at The Branson School in Marin County since 1994. In addition to teaching all levels of high school Mathematics and advising a variety of extra-curricular activities over the years, Rich has worked on projects that range from revising the daily schedule to developing a comprehensive employee evaluation program. Rich has also been a long-standing member of the Branson’s Faculty/Staff Diversity Committee, and he is currently working to expose young people to other cultures through international service learning trips. Born and raised in Connecticut, Rich graduated from Brown University with BA degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science. Rich also taught Computer Science and Mathematics at the Collegiate School in New York City from 1991 to 1994, and he spent several years as a computer programmer at Cemax-Icon, a medical imaging subsidiary of Kodak, and PeopleSoft. Fluent in Spanish, Rich has traveled extensively throughout Latin America as well as parts of Europe, Asia and Oceania. Rich currently lives in San Francisco.
Greg Schafer, Board Treasurer was born and raised in upstate New York and moved to the Bay Area in 1988. He has spent the majority of his career in the life sciences industry and for the last 10 years has served in senior financial positions for biotechnology companies. He is currently chief financial officer of Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., an Emeryville, CA based biotechnology company dedicated to improving the lives of cancer patients. He holds an MBA from the Anderson School of Management at UCLA and a BSE in mechanical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. He lives in Oakland with his wife Suzanne and son, Beckett.
Nicole Silverman was born and raised in New Jersey and after pioneering her way west settled in the Bay Area in 1997. She has spent the last 11 years as the Human Resources Director for Geomatrix Consultants, a national engineering consulting firm headquartered in Oakland. Nicole received her BA in Sociology and Environmental Science from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. She spent many years in the adventure travel industry including sailing in the Virgin Islands and a stint as a Park Ranger in Zion National Park in Utah. Nicole and her husband, Gary, live in Oakland with their two children, Rachel and Sam.
Paige Wheeler Fleury, Board Vice Chair is a California native, and is currently the Senior Creative Strategist for a New York-based advertising and marketing agency. A former executive creative director and writer, Paige has over 23 years of experience in marketing and advertising for some of the world's top brands. She currently lives in Oakland, California with her husband and two children, both born in Guatemala.