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The May 2019 Advocate Advocate for May 2019

Danville-Alamo-Walnut Creek Executive Board Slate 2019-2020
President – Deborah Wechsler
Deborah first became involved with AAUW helping with the Expanding Your Horizons program, as a docent for the Holiday Home Tour and the Garden Tour fundraisers, and a Tech Trek interviewer.

She was Tech Trek co-chair for 2016-17 and Tech Trek Chair 2017-18. Currently she is serving on
the Board as President. Her passion for AAUW lies in the mission for equal education and opportunity for women, especially in Science, Math and engineering fields. Deborah earned a BS in Geology from Colorado State University and MS in Geophysics from the University of Utah, after which she worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory on nuclear blast discrimination and seismicity of northern New Mexico. She joined Chevron at the research lab in La Habra, California and spent the next 26 years in various technical and management positions, moving from California to Denver, Oklahoma City,

California Bay Area, Houston, Bakersfield, and eventually back to the Bay Area. While in Denver she earned an MBA from Regis University. She and her husband Bruce were transferred with Chevron to Sumatra, Indonesia, where they and their two daughters lived and worked for four years. Deborah retired when they returned to the Bay Area in 2007. Since then she has been Treasurer and then President of the Board for her synagogue and continues to serve on that Board. She also volunteers for Save Mount Diablo, a local land trust organization, and is a coach for the San Ramon Valley Mountain Bike Club.

President Elect – Chris Ritter
Chris is a native Californian, born in Berkeley, and now lives in Alamo. She has been a member of AAUW since 2015 and recently retired from her career as a marketing executive. Chris spent most of her over 40-year working life in the medical equipment industry leading product development strategy and marketing. She took two short breaks from industry to work in non-profit organizations including teaching 8th grade science in San Ramon Valley Unified School District and serving as the VP of Membership and Marketing at the American Academy of Ophthalmology in San Francisco. Chris credits her teachers and family who supported and encouraged her early interest STEM as key enablers of her subsequent career successes. She holds a BS in biology from Stanford, an MS in bioengineering from University of California in San Diego and an MBA from St. Mary’s College. Chris has served as our branch Treasurer for the last two years. In addition to her AAUW role, Chris enjoys spending time with her two adult sons and grandchild, playing Pickleball, and continuing her study of classical piano music.

Program Vice President – Bette Felton
Bette has been our branch Co-Program Vice President the last year.

Membership Vice President – Marsha Anderson Landau
Marsha has been a member of AAUW since 2013. She assumed VP Membership Duties January
2018. She has been involved in the Holiday Home Tour writing home narratives, Garden Tour
Membership duties, and will assume branch Advertising endeavors with Chris Ritter this coming
summer. She enjoys the contact with interested potential and new AAUW Members. The Membership brunch, September, is a major activity. Oakland born, she has lived in Danville and Alamo since 1971. Several generations of family volunteerism devoted to charitable causes played a big part in her upbringing. Her family were activists in Oakland Schools, local charities, fighting early immigrant discrimination and grass roots efforts in Chinatown and Oakland at large.
She holds a BBA, 1972, Armstrong College, Berkeley. 1981 she received her MAM from University of Redlands -Finance and Business. Her professional background includes IT language data extraction development for the health and diversified utility business. In 1986 she made the decision to be part of the burgeoning growth in the San Ramon Valley because she believes in local economy participation. She received her Broker’s License, owning two Better Homes offices in San Ramon and Danville. She and her husband Robert own the RHL Group specializing in local properties and is also a participating Broker – ReMax, Danville.
She has two children, two grandchildren, is a Gardenista in two local Garden clubs, since 1972 is a Scottish Terrier affectionato, contributes daily to two websites, and dabbles in watercolors when there’s time! She lives in Alamo.

Funds Co-Vice President – Liz Williams
Liz Williams joined AAUW in 2010 after electing an early retirement option from Cisco Systems where she worked as a Human Resources Executive. Liz has over 30 years of experience in her field and has worked with a variety of high tech companies across Silicon Valley. Liz completed a BA in Public Relations and an MA in Instructional Technology from the University of Arizona and San Jose State University. Currently, Liz is consulting part-time with Lee Hecht Harrison in Walnut Creek. Liz and her husband, Tom Thomas, live in Danville and enjoy travel and all the wonderful outdoor activities available in Northern California. Liz has one daughter, Laura, who recently completed her Masters Degree in Urban Planning at San Jose State University and is now working as a Sales Executive at Insight Corporation. Liz has served as a Co-VP Membership, Co-Chair Programs and as Co President.

Funds Co-Vice President – Kathy McKnight
Kathy was born in Los Angeles and after a 4 year stint in Dallas moved to Northern California with her parents. She attended CAL and earned a BA in English with a history minor. She received a teaching credential from Cal State East Bay. After her husband’s graduation, she and Steve spent two years in the Peace Corps in Thailand teaching English in the Secondary Schools. After their return, they settled in Fresno. Their daughter, Diane, was born in 1967. During this time Kathy sponsored a YTeen group of at risk girls. Subsequently, the family moved to Phoenix so Steve could earn his Master’s degree. After a return to the Bay Area, Kathy began working as a part-time teller at Bank of America to earn a down payment on a house. This morphed into a 30 year career during which time she became a vice-president and traveled around the US setting up loan centers and standardizing procedures. She is currently retired and volunteers teaching English to adults through the Project Second Chance program sponsored by the Library. She also visits and reads to seniors in a residential care home in Walnut Creek. Kathy was Co-Chair for the Garden Tour in 2013 and 2014.
She served as Board Co-President in 2014-2015. She is currently the Secretary and participates in a movie group and interviews for Tech Trek.

Secretary – Holly Sauer
Holly has a BS in Agriculture and Journalism. She is a Past President of our Branch and has been
involved in many other capacities. She is currently on the 50th Anniversary Committee.

Treasurer – Claudia Schwarz
Claudia is a new member. She received her BS in Nutritional Sciences from Rutgers University and MPH from UC Berkeley. She has managed programs and budgets for UC Berkeley and is thoroughly familiar with Excel and accounting/budgeting software and principles. She is excited to serve on the Board of DAW-AAUW.

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Our DAW AAUW needs volunteers to help with our Garden Tour which earns funds for women’s education. As a docent you would help out a total of 3 hours and only need to be at a garden either in one place or rotating with another docent. We also need home made finger foods to serve as refreshments.  Please let us know you can help.

We need 150+ volunteers in order to staff all the homes on the Tour. To volunteer please complete the form below. The docents work 3 hour shifts.  The morning shift is from 10 am to 1 pm; the afternoon shift is from 1 pm to 4:00 pm.  We ask you to arrive 15 minutes before your shift. No experience is required to be a docent.  We will provide you with the information you need. You may contact Tena Gallagher at daw.aauw@gmail.com.

Elected Officers – 2017-2018:

President: Melanie Wade
President Elect: Deborah Wechsler
Program Co-Vice President: Robin Hallorin & Liz Williams
Membership Vice President: Ellen Severson
AAUW Funds Vice President: Mary Ellen Blake & Bev Nidick
Secretary: Kathy McKnight
Treasurer: Christine Ritter

Biographies:

President:
Melanie Wade
Melanie was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. A graduate of the doctoral program in education at the University of California, Irvine and UCLA, Melanie’s dissertation is based on research from AAUW that focuses on the gender gap in applied technology education and careers. Melanie was Principal of Fremont Adult and Continuing Education in Fremont, California and previously administrator for adult education in Garden Grove, California. She also served as adjunct faculty at UCI. Melanie is Program Co-Vice President. As a volunteer for AAUW-DAW, Melanie continues to serve on the web team for the redesigned website. Melanie also serves as Social Media Manager and leadership committee member of Canadian Women’s Club (2.0) of the San Francisco Bay Area. “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” (Mahatma Gandhi)

President Elect
Deborah Wechsler

Deborah first became involved with AAUW helping with the Expanding Your Horizons program, a STEM weekend program for Middle School girls, and as a docent for the Holiday Home Tour and the Garden Tour fundraisers. She began participating on the interview team for Tech Trek and was Tech Trek co-chair for 2016-17. Currently she is serving on the Board as President-Elect and Tech Trek Chair. Her passion for AAUW lies in the mission for equal education and opportunity for women, especially in Science, Math and engineering fields.

Deborah spent her first 18 years in Los Alamos, New Mexico. She earned a BS in Geology from Colorado State University, MS in Geophysics from the University of Utah, after which she worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory on nuclear blast discrimination and seismicity of northern New Mexico. She joined Chevron at the research lab in La Habra, California and spent the next 26 years in various technical and management positions, moving from California to Denver, Oklahoma City, California Bay Area, Houston, Bakersfield, and eventually back to the Bay Area. While in Denver she earned an MBA from Regis University. She and her husband Bruce were transferred with Chevron to Sumatra, Indonesia, where they and their two daughters lived and worked for four years. Deborah retired when they returned to the Bay Area in 2007. She was on the Boards of the PTAs at Charlotte Wood MS and San Ramon Valley High School, ramping up her volunteer activity when her daughters went to college. Since then she has been Treasurer and then President of the Board for her synagogue and continues to serve on that Board. She also volunteers for Save Mount Diablo, a local land trust organization, as a property steward and on various fundraising activities. For the past 4 years she has been a coach for the San Ramon Valley High School Mountain Bike Club.

Program Co-Vice President
Liz Williams
Liz Williams joined AAUW in 2010 after electing an early retirement option from Cisco Systems where she worked as a Human Resources Executive. Liz has over 30 years of experience in her field and has worked with a variety of high tech companies across Silicon Valley. Liz completed a BA in Public Relations and an MA in Instructional Technology from the University of Arizona and San Jose State University. Currently, Liz is consulting part-time with Lee Hecht Harrison in Walnut Creek. Liz and her husband, Tom Thomas, live in Danville and enjoy travel and all the wonderful outdoor activities available in Northern California. Liz has one daughter, Laura, who recently completed her Masters Degree in Urban Planning at San Jose State University and is now working as an Account Manager at Datalink. Liz has served as a Co-VP Membership and as Co-President.

Program Co-Vice President
Robin Halloran

Membership Vice President
Ellen Severson

Ellen is originally from Wisconsin. She earned an undergraduate degree in anthropology and an MBA from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. While in school she opened and managed a successful retail store. After graduate school she relocated to San Francisco where she worked for Macy’s as a buyer. Subsequently she was hired by Bank of America as Vice President in charge of new product development. Additionally, as retail marketing VP she was a group product manager of retail deposit products and Equity Line. Ellen also spent five years as a marketing consultant working for such companies as Union Bank and the YMCA. For the last five years Ellen has been employed by Beth Chaim as a part time teacher and Hebrew tutor. She lives in Danville with her husband Steve.

AAUW Funds Co-Vice President
Mary Ellen Blake

A native of Pasadena, CA, Mary Ellen worked in the airline industry for 27 years. As the Director-Marketing Systems Design, she designed marketing information systems for both American Airlines and US Airways. She worked for Sun Microsystems for 12 years as World Wide Marketing Manager-High Performance Computing before retiring in 2007. Mary Ellen’s various positions enabled her to live in San Francisco, Greenwich Village, NY, Dallas/Ft. Worth TX, Washington DC, and Ft. Lauderdale, FL before returning to the Bay Area in 1998. Accounting/History at Pasadena City College and CSULA. Mary Ellen has served in the following positions since joining DAW-AAUW in 2010; 2011 & 2012 – Co-Chair Holiday Home Tour, 2013-2014 President Elect, 2014-2015 President, 2015-2016 Webmaster, 2016-2017 Publicity, 2017-2018 Co-VP AAUW Fund.

AAUW Funds Co-Vice President
Bev Nidick

Secretary
Kathy McKnight
Kathy was born in Los Angeles and after a 4 year stint in Dallas moved to Northern California with her parents. She attended CAL and earned a BA in English with a history minor. She received a teaching credential from Cal State East Bay. After her husband’s graduation, she and Steve spent two years in the Peace Corps in Thailand teaching English in the Secondary Schools. After their return, they settled in Fresno. Their daughter, Diane, was born in 1967. During this time Kathy sponsored a Y-Teen group of at risk girls. Subsequently, the family moved to Phoenix so Steve could earn his Master’s degree. After a return to the Bay Area, Kathy began working as a part-time teller at Bank of America to earn a down payment on a house. This morphed into a 30 year career during which time she became a vice-president and traveled around the US setting up loan centers and standardizing procedures. She is currently retired and volunteers teaching English to adults through the Project Second Chance program sponsored by the Library. She also visits and reads to seniors in a residential care home in Walnut Creek. Kathy was Co-Chair for the Garden Tour in 2013 and 2014. She is currently the Co-President Elect. She participates in a movie group and interviews for Tech Trek.

Treasurer
Christine Ritter

Chris is a native Californian, born in Berkeley, and now lives in Alamo with her youngest son. She has been a member of AAUW since 2015 and recently retired from her career as a marketing executive. Chris spent most of her over 40-year working life in medical equipment industry leading product development strategy and marketing. She took two short breaks from industry to work in non-profit organizations including teaching 8^th grade science in San Ramon Valley Unified School District and serving as the VP of Membership and Marketing at the American Academy of Ophthalmology in San Francisco. Chris credits her teachers and family who supported and encouraged her early interest STEM as key enablers of her subsequent career successes. She holds a BS in biology from Stanford, an MS in bioengineering from University of California in San Diego and an MBA from St. Mary’s College. In addition to her new AAUW role, Chris enjoys spending time with her two adult sons and grandchild and continuing her study of classical piano music.

Appointed Officers – 2017-2018:

Open

Advertising Sales Manager

Melanie Wade

Advocate Editor

aauw.melanie@gmail.com

Susetta Welm

Advocate Circulation Mgr

hwelm@comcast.net

Pat Gross

Corresponding Secretary

PBGross@aol.com

Kerry Montalvo

Database Manager

montalvo.fb@gmail.com

Open

Directory Manager

dtporter@comcast.net

Judy Lauper

Expanding Your Horizons Co-Chair

jalauper@gmail.com

Tena Gallagher

Garden Tour Chair

mstena@gmail.com

Melanie Wade

Graphic Designer

aauw.melanie@gmail.com

Tena Gallagher & Susan Terzuoli

Holiday Home Tour

mstena@gmail.com  susanterz@hotmail.com

Noel Manion

Hospitality Co-Chair

nmanion64@gmail.com

Joanne Quijano

Hospitality Co-Chair

jtq@sbcglobal.net

Elle Bonner

Hospitality Co-Chair

ellebonn94@gmail.com

Open

Local Scholarship

jmjennison@astound.net

Tena Gallagher

Membership Treasurer

mstena@gmail.com

Open

Parliamentarian

Open

Publicity

maryellenblake@comcast.net

Open

Public Policy

ashakiran@gmail.com

Open

Tech Trek Co-Chair

orchid8854@gmail.com

Deborah Wechsler

Tech Trek Co-Chair

debwex52@yahoo.com

Roseann Krane

Webmaster

rkrane@gmail.com

17th Annual Garden Tour
Friday May 12 – Saturday May 13
Tena Gallagher, Garden Tour Chair

Come and celebrate Mother’s Day weekend with us.

Our 17th Annual Danville-Alamo-Walnut Creek AAUW Garden Tour will be on Friday, May 12 and Saturday May 13 from 10 AM – 4 PM each day. We are so fortunate to have five beautiful gardens to share with you and the public. Begin your Mother’s Day weekend by treating your mother and daughters or bringing friends to this self-guided tour of beautiful gardens in the Alamo and Danville area.

Tickets are $35 through Friday, April 30th. Afterwards they will be $40.

direct purchase: tickets are for sale at east bay flower company, 206 Sycamore Valley Road West (Danville Livery) starting on April 15th from 9 -5 Monday to Saturday (cash or check only).

on-line: pay here (available next week) for credit card purchase. A $2.00 fee will be added to the cost of each ticket.

us mail: Send a check postmarked by April 29th, payable to aauw fund with a self-addressed business-sized #10 stamped envelope to:

AAUW Garden Tour
P.O. Box 996
Alamo, CA 94507

Our Garden Tour for The AAUW Fund needs your help to be successful. Please volunteer in a leadership role, work with other members to gather items (hopefully donated) and create baskets, bake homemade finger food for refreshments, or be a docent from 9:30 AM – 1 PM or 12:30 – 4 PM either day.

Please, no children under age 12 or pets.

American Association of University Women (AAUW)
Danville-Alamo-Walnut Creek Branch

Please join us to learn about
The Foster Care System: What Works, What Doesn’t, and How You Can Make a Difference

Saturday, January 28, 2017
10 a.m. — Noon
Danville Town Meeting Hall,
201 Front Street, Danville

The featured speaker for this riveting Foster Care program will be Paulina Astafuroff.  She will share her personal story about growing up in the foster care system,  transitioning out of the system, and finding her way to UC Berkeley where she is  currently enrolled. Paulina now supports other foster care youth as a counselor, academic advocate, and workshop leader.

Paulina will also talk about how the foster care system works and what challenges girls  in particular, face during and after their foster care experience.

There is no charge for this program but you will need to register in order to attend. Light  refreshments will be served. RSVP: daw.aauw@gmail.com.

Mary Ellen Blake
DAW-AAUW Publicity Chair
925-735-9889

Thursday June 9, 2016, 5:00 to 8:00 PM

Carol Highton’s Garden

Scholarship Winner

Awards Ceremony Featured: Awarding of Local Scholarships, 50-year AAUW Member Recognition, AAUW Fund Branch Named Gift Honorees, and AAUW Fund Contribution Recognition.

Installation featured a brief ceremony to install and introduce our 2016-2017 Branch Executive Board.

2016-2017 Executive Board

Carol Highton’s beautiful garden where the installation was held.

2015-2016 Co-Presidents Kathy McKnight and Liz Williams

The evening ended with a Mexican taco buffet, appropriate libations, and fun, fun, fun!

Hospitality Chairs:  Robin Halloran, Sandy Killoran, & Norma Spencer

Installation Chair:  Mary Ellen Blake