Jolie Krakauer (President) is an attorney who has spent the past decade raising her three girls and providing volunteer leadership for their schools. She has served as Board Chair at the Berkwood Hedge School and at the Childrens Community Center, a parent coop where the Board effectively ran the school. She is a founding Board Member of Los Mapaches Project, a group that educates children and adults about Latin American music and culture. As an attorney, she worked at the Tenderloin Housing Clinic in San Francisco and later for Martin, Ryan & Andrada, where her focus was medical malpractice defense. Jolie graduated from U.C. Santa Cruz and Hastings College of the Law. Her two older daughters Zoe and Greer graduated from JMSG in 2005 and 2008, and her youngest daughter Lila is in 8th grade at JMSG.

Mike Barbee (Vice President) is the president of Carlson, Barbee & Gibson, a Civil Engineering, Surveying, and Planning firm that he founded in 1989. The firm specializes in land development engineering, including boundary and top surveys, planning and feasibility studies, design of grading and improvements, mapping, construction staking, and related services. Mike attended the University of Utah and U.C. Berkeley. He currently serves on the Board of the California and Nevada Civil Engineers and Land Surveyors Association. In the past, he was on the Board of Redwood Day School. His daughter Alison graduated from JMSG in 2007.

Pamela Organista (Secretary) is Professor and Chair of Psychology at the University of San Francisco. Prior to joining the faculty at USF, she was an Assistant Clinical Professor providing psychotherapy, consultation, and supervision in the Department of General Internal Medicine at UCSF. Her research interests include community-based prevention interventions and ethnic minority health issues. Publications include Readings in Ethnic Psychology: African Americans, American Indians, Asian Americans, and Hispanics/Latinos (Routledge, 1998), and Acculturation: Advances in Theory, Measurement, and Applied Research (American Psychological Association, 2003) which she co-edited. She is the founding and present Director of the Ethnic Studies Program at the University of San Francisco and from 1998-2000 served as the Director of Academic Advising in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of San Francisco. Pamela completed her bachelor’s degree in psychology and Black studies at Washington University in St. Louis, doctorate in clinical psychology at Arizona State University, and clinical psychology post-doctorate in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco. Her daughter Zena graduated from JMSG in 2010.

Carolyn Sherwood Call (Treasurer) is an economist whose recent work has focused on addressing climate change. She currently teaches in the Lorry I. Lokey Graduate School of Business at Mills College; previously she taught economics at Saint Mary’s College of California and was an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Carolyn has also volunteered extensively at her children’s schools. She holds a B.A. from Pomona College and a Ph.D. in economics from U.C. Berkeley. Her daughter Michelle graduated from JMSG in 2005.

Robin Barlow Jones is an administrator at Piedmont Elementary School in the Oakland Unified School District. She has blended two careers – over 15 years in education, and 20 years in the advertising industry. As an educator, she has worked in the Boston and Oakland public school districts, and as for the Educational Development Corp. and the USVI Department of Education in St. Croix. In advertising she worked from 1995 to 2007 as a freelance producer for agencies including Carol H. Williams Advertising, EVB, Euro RSCG and Yates Advertising. She produced radio and television projects for clients including General Motors, McDonalds, Coors, U.S. Census Bureau, PG&E, Safeway, Wells Fargo, and Allstate. Robin received a B.S. in special education from Boston University and a master’s degree in educational media and technology from Boston University. Her daughter Tajah graduated from JMSG in 2008.

Paul Brumbaum is a senior vice president of Wells Fargo’s wholesale banking group, where he has worked for 25 years. In his current role, his duties include spearheading the bank’s environmental initiative as it relates to real estate and agricultural lending, both businesses in which Wells Fargo is the national leader. Paul is a native of the SF Bay Area and has spent his whole professional career in the San Francisco offices of Wells Fargo. He is a 1982 graduate of Middlebury College. He is an avid outdoorsman and especially enjoys hiking, backpacking, biking, whitewater rafting, gardening and construction. He has served on various school, church, and nonprofit boards, including the Board of Berkwood Hedge School in Berkeley. Paul lives in Berkeley with his wife Sandy, and their daughters Ellie and Hannah, both of whom graduated from JMSG in 2009 and 2006.

Mark Fillinger is Director of Development at NextLight Renewable Power LLC, where he is responsible for developing NextLight’s utility-scale solar projects. A 20-year energy industry executive, Mark has extensive experience with siting, permitting, and negotiating project-related contracts. Previous work with PowerLight Corporation (now SunPower) included development of the company’s power purchase agreement offering, negotiating and closing the first $40 million of projects developed under this structure. While at the California Consumer Power and Conservation Financing Authority, he developed a third party photovoltaic acquisition program for state agencies. Mark holds a B.S. in Energy Economics from the University of California, Davis and an M.B.A. in Finance from Columbia University. His daughter Kiley graduated from JMSG in 2009 and his daughter Chloe is currently in 8th grade at JMSG. 

Sharon Goldfarb is a family nurse practitioner. She has worked on several campaigns for California Nurses Association, helping launch their "Main Street Campaign&quot.; She has served on the board of Pacific Boychoir Academy, and she has headed several successful fundraising campaigns for both Pacific Boychoir and Berkwood Hedge Schools. Professionally she has worked on and founded several Ryan White funded programs and served on the New York City AIDS Task Force. Sharon was adjunct faculty at New York University and Columbia University. She is the proud mother of three, and her daughter will be in seventh grade at JMSG this year.

Tiffany Harris is a tax accountant with Burr Pilger Mayer Inc. in Walnut Creek. A native of California’s Central Valley, she graduated from St. Mary’s College in Moraga in 2008 and passed the CPA exam shortly afterward. She has volunteered for community service through various school organizations, held softball clinics to coach elementary school girls, and was awarded Outstanding Offensive Player of the Year and Captain’s Star on the Section Champion High School softball team. She is currently pursuing a Masters in Taxation at Golden Gate University.

Jody Brunk Knowlton is Principal and Co-founder of Artsource Consulting of San Francisco, a firm specializing in the development of fine art collections for private, corporate, and institutional collectors world-wide. Prior to co-founding Artsource Consulting in 1994, Jody worked with Roselyne C. Swig Artsource, where she managed multiple corporate and private fine art collections, and developed ArtReach, a rotating exhibition program that partnered non-profit arts institutions with businesses. She has helped found nonprofits working on domestic violence and arts in education, and has served on the parent board of Thornhill Elementary School for the past five years. Her daughter Sarah and Olivia graduated from JMSG in 2008 and 2010.

Rick Lowe is an internationally recognized graphic designer and creative director, with more than two decades of experience working with some of the world’s leading brands. Rick has played a key role in developing and shaping many of the brands we see and interact with daily, including Nike, the Exploratorium Museum, Adobe Software, Sony, Apple, The Getty Museum, Netflix, and Adidas. From 1994 to 2004, Rick was vice president and creative director of one of the leading international design agencies, MetaDesign, where in addition to providing creative vision to the firm, was responsible for successfully directing multi-million dollar interdisciplinary client programs. In 2005, Rick founded Rick Lowe Design, a branding and corporate identity consultancy dedicated to transforming corporations, cultural institutions, and organizations that make a difference with world-class design. Rick’s work has been recognized and featured in top publications, including Communication Arts, Print, ID, Graphis and the ACD (American Center for Design) 100 Show. Rick completed his BFA with outstanding honors in graphic design from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1986 and in 1996 completed an MBA-equivalent in business management, entrepreneurship & philosophy from the Business Professionals Institute in Sunnyvale, California. Rick has been a requested presenter on the university speaking circuit, as well as design industry conferences including Carnegie Mellon, Arts Center, and at AIGA events nationally. Rick was also an adjunct professor at the California College of Arts where he taught advanced typography. Rick lives in Orinda with his wife Rebecca and their two daughters Olivia, a JMSG 2011 graduate, and Ruby, a current sixth grader at JMSG.

Simone Marean is an educator, Executive Director, and co-founder of Girls Leadership Institute. Simone currently lives in Berkeley, CA, where she teaches GLI programs year-round. She has a Masters Degree in Educational Theatre from NYU. Simone taught theatre at The Young Women's Leadership School, The Brearley School, The McCarter Theatre, Henry Street Settlement, American Place Theatre, Red Bull Theatre, The School of the Future, and the Neighborhood School. Simone grew up on the north shore of Boston and graduated from Bryn Mawr College Magna Cum Laude.

Debbie Mitchell is an educator who has taught on the elementary school level and in the graduate teacher credentialing program at Mills College. She has been an active volunteer at all of the schools her children have attended, and has served on the parent boards of Thornhill Elementary and Redwood Day School. Debbie received her B.A. in English Literature from U.C. Berkeley and her M.A. in Education from Mills College. Her daughter Chelsea graduated from JMSG in 2006.  Her son, Jack, did not meet the proper criteria.

Daphne Muse is the former director of the Women’s Leadership Institute at Mills College. An educator, author and activist, her books include the New Press Guide to Multicultural Children’s Literature for Young Readers and a collaboration with award-winning poet Nikki Giovanni on challenges and opportunities for historically black colleges in the 21st century. Among her many projects, Daphne spent six years as a writer for Breaking Barriers, a collaborative effort of Scholastic Inc. and Major League Baseball. Her current initiatives include launch of Grandmothers Going Global (GGG), an NGO designed to create a global network of grandmothers offering exchanges, mentorships, respite, retreats and cultural, academic, and leadership opportunities. Daphne has a B.A. in American and English Literature from Fisk University.

Rhonda L. Nelson is a member of Severson & Werson where she is co-chair of the Labor and Employment Group. She was a member, vice-president, and president of the Oakland Barracuda Aquatics, and a member of Equal Rights Advocates. She was a co-founder of NIA at Head-Royce School where she and four other African American women established an endowment scholarship fund for a child of color. She was also on the steering committee of the Learning Disabilities Network, a parent run organization. Rhonda has a J.D. from U.C.L.A. Law School, a M.P.A. with an emphasis in Judicial Administration from U.S.C., and a B.A. from U.C.L.A.

Sarah Pollock directs the undergraduate journalism program at Mills College, a women's college in Oakland, CA, where she is also a professor in the graduate program in creative writing. An independent journalist, she has been senior editor at Mother Jones and editor in chief at Pacific Discovery, the now-defunct natural history magazine of the California Academy of Sciences, where she served on the Board of Directors for 15 years. She was features editor at the Oakland Tribune; a staff writer at Newsday and the Hartford Courant; and has written articles, essays, and book reviews for magazines and newspapers. Her interests include journalism and women's leadership; women's education; the politics of gender equality; environmental issues; and the craft of literary non-fiction. Currently, she is focusing her energies on creating low-overhead, Luddite-friendly strategies for including digital/multimedia storytelling in journalism and creative writing courses. She grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of California at Berkeley. Her daughter is a seventh grader at JMSG this year.

Jim Ryder   Recently retired from the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United as the Northern California Director of Collective Bargaining and Kaiser Division Director, Jim has spent the last 20 years engaged in the political and economic education of registered nurses to further their understanding and broaden their commitment to social advocacy for patients, communities, and the achievement of a Medicare For All system of national healthcare.  His work included the bargaining and enforcement of contracts for RNs throughout Northern CA, the creation of RN to patient ratios in CA, political campaigns (electoral and propositions), and social justice work.  In the 20 years prior, beginning in 1977, Jim worked for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and was deeply engaged not only in collective bargaining, but in the social justice issues championed by the ILWU, e.g., the Anti-Apartheid movement, the El Salvador coffee boycott, Solidarity work for Chile and Central America, UFW support and creating the Berkeley Biotech Engineering program (Berkeley/Bayer/ILWU).  Prior to that Jim was an anthropologist/social demographer (2 years of fieldwork in Yucatan, Mexico) before working at UCB.  Jim is married to Joanne Jung, a Lead Labor Rep at CNA, in charge of Sutter Collective Bargaining, and the father of an 8th grader at JMSG, and a grown son in Colorado.

Victoria Jew Wong is a self-employed architect in Oakland who develops her own projects, both residential and commercial. A third generation Chinese-American and a native San Franciscan, Victoria is a member of the Jack London Aquatic Center Masters Rowing Team. She received her bachelor’s degree in architecture from U.C. Berkeley. Her daughters Rachel, Stacey, and Jodie graduated from JMSG in 2005, 2007, and 2010.