John Vasconcellos - Founder

John Vasconcellos is the Dean Emeritus of the California Legislature, retired November 30, 2004 after 38 years representing the Heart of Silicon Valley in the Assembly and Senate. His legislative career was most distinctive because of his having simultaneously engaged in his 38-year search for becoming a person, according to the faithful vision of ourselves, our human nature and potential. His most notorious endeavor was the founding of the California Task Force to Promote Self Esteem and Personal and Social Responsibility. He has now founded the John Vasconcellos Legacy Project and it's first major initiative the Politics of Trust Network as an historic comprehensive strategy for creating a wholly new politics of healing and hope, based upon that faithful vision, 'that we human beings are innately inclined toward becoming life-affirming, constructive, responsible and trustworthy.'

Sue North - Chair

Sue North served on Senator Vasconcellos' staff for over 7 years, the last four as Chief of Staff. Prior to that she ran her own legislative advocacy business representing clients in the fields of health, mental health and social welfare. Sue has had extensive history in staffing legislative committees dealing with fiscal policy, state and local relationships, budget reform, health, mental health, and state reorganization. She also worked in the Mayor's Office in the City and County of San Francisco managing issues, budgets and neighborhood relationships regarding families, health and welfare and poverty through two mayors. She also served as the Project Director of the California Citizen's Budget Commission, a project of the Center for Governmental Studies.

Georgia Berland - Vice-Chair

Georgia Berland, M.A., is a specialist in collaborative program design, community organizing, facilitation, evaluation, funding, and non-profit administration. Through Human Service Designs, her international consulting business, she serves as Executive Officer of the Sonoma County Task Force on the Homeless, and as a member of the Board of the California Community Economic Development Association. Georgia was Executive Director of the Association for Humanistic Psychology for seven years, the Sonoma County Human Services Commission for thirteen, and a multi-service nonprofit in San Diego for six. She taught Community Psychology at Sonoma State University, served as Drug Abuse Services Specialist for the City and County of San Francisco, and educated and counseled freedom fighters in Zambia. Georgia devised and teaches "Cooperative Action" worldwide, to clarify and strengthen each person's role(s) in catalyzing change.

Liza Loop - Secretary/Treasurer

Liza Loop is currently CFO for GoQuiet.com, Inc., a recent start-up corporation that develops, manufactures and sells telephone encryption devices. Prior to founding GoQuiet in 2000, she collaborated with her son, Jonah Loop, to launch Big RedPixel Productions, Inc. (BRPPI), a company that provides visual effects, technical direction, and production services to the film and video game industries. Ms. Loop has been writing and consulting in the high tech, retail, government and nonprofit sectors for over thirty years. Technical writing and project management remain her bread-and-butter work. Her recent clients include Slam Dunk Networks, Hewlett-Packard, and Crescent Project Management. She counts Atari, Apple, VisiCorp and many smaller computer and software companies among her legacy clients. Ms. Loop also founded LO*OP Center (an acronym for "Learning Options * Open Portal"), an educational R&D and training company in 1975 and has served as its Executive Director since then.

Hans Wynholds - Board Member

Hans is CEO and a founder of ServiceHub Corporation, a wireless application solution provider with ties to the cellular industry. Hans started 8 other businesses over the past 30 years, spanning from high technology to retail. He has served on the Boards of Sakura Design, VenusArt, Pairs International, Napa Valley Access, Arabian Passion Farms and Silverado Business Services, Inc. Hans has mentored the founders of J. Atherton, Inc., Barron Ross Corp, Simplify Inc., Push To Play, LLC and Silverado Trail Wineries Association (non profit). Hans is also the founder of The Hans W. Wynholds Company, a company that for more than twenty five years has provided application software development for the construction and maritime industries. Prior to starting his own firm, he worked for ECON, Inc., Lockheed Martin and regularly taught core courses in Systems Management and Safety.

Linda Darling-Hammond - Board Member

Linda Darling-Hammond is the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education at Stanford University, where she has launched the Stanford Educational Leadership Institute and the School Redesign Network. Professor Darling-Hammond has also served as faculty sponsor for the Stanford Teacher Education Program. Prior to Stanford, Darling-Hammond was William F. Russell Professor in the Foundations of Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. There, she was the founding Executive Director of the National Commission for Teaching and America's Future, the blue-ribbon panel whose 1996 report What Matters Most: Teaching for America's Future, catalyzed major policy changes across the United States to improve the quality of teacher education and teaching. Her research, teaching, and policy work focus on issues of teaching quality, school reform, and educational equity. Among her more than 200 publications is The Right to Learn, recipient of the American Educational Research Association's Outstanding Book Award for 1998, and Teaching as the Learning Profession (co-edited with Gary Sykes), recipient of the National Staff Development Council's Outstanding Book Award for 2000.

Lynn Daucher - Board Member

Lynn Daucher began her career in public service after winning election to the school board for the Brea Olinda Unified School District. She is a teacher by profession and holds a bachelor's degree in education, with a minor in mathematics, from the University of Rochester, New York. She served on the school board for thirteen years and during that time raised standards and built a new high school through an innovative public-private partnership without taxpayer dollars. In 1994, she was elected to the Brea City Council and served one year as Mayor. In 2000, she was elected to represent the 72nd District in the California Assembly. During her six years in the Assembly, Lynn served as the highest-ranking Republican on the Budget Sub-Committee on Education and Finance. California's school boards, administrators and superintendents have all honored Lynn for her strong leadership and commitment to improving California's public education system. She also served as Chair of the Aging Committee and the Select Committee on Olmstead Implementation, formed to keep seniors living independently rather than in institutions. Lynn has been married to Don for 38 years and they have four grown children and seven grandchildren. Lynn currently serves as the Director for the California Department of Aging.

Brian Murphy - Board Member
Brian Murphy is the President of De Anza College in Cupertino, California. Prior to his appointment at De Anza, he served as the Executive Director of the San Francisco Urban Institute and Director of External Affairs at San Francisco State University. He has also taught Political Theory, Urban Politics, and American Government at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara University, and San Francisco State, and holds a BA in Political Science from Williams College and a Masters and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley. He worked in the California State Legislature as the Chief policy consultant in reviewing California's Master Plan for Higher Education, and has worked in international development projects in Afghanistan, Algeria, and Jamaica.

David Nagler - Board Member

David Nagler is vice president, corporate affairs and secretary at ARYx Therapeutics Inc., a publicly traded drug discovery and development company in Fremont, California. Mr. Nagler joined ARYx in 2003 and is responsible for the Company's compliance, legal, human resources, information technology, investor relations, corporate communications and general operations functions. Prior to ARYx, Mr. Nagler served as vice president of human resources at Genentech, Inc., where he was responsible for servicing an employee population of 7,600 employees. During his tenure at Genentech, Mr. Nagler also served as senior director of government affairs. Prior to joining Genentech, Mr. Nagler co-founded JLA Associates in Sacramento, a legislative consulting and association management company that he later sold to Nossaman, Guthner, Knox and Elliott, where he spent 10 years as a legislative advocate. There Mr. Nagler served as a contract lobbyist to numerous statewide organizations, multinational corporations, professional societies and various business people. Amongst his clients were individual biotech companies, as well as the California Healthcare Institute, representing the life sciences industry in California. Mr. Nagler majored in public policy and philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, and is the current chair of the Human Services Commission in the City of Pleasanton (California), where he serves as Chair, and is a past member of the board of directors of U.C. Davis CONNECT, as well as the board of the Northern California Chapter of the American Liver Foundation.

Chris Weseloh - Board Member

Christopher Weseloh is the immediate past president of The Vasconcellos Project Board. He was previously CEO of Pacific Monolithics Inc., a company that deigned proprietary Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) based semiconductors, components and systems for a wide range of Wireless applications. Chris has over 20 years of experience managing high growth Silicon Valley companies. His focus has been on emerging technologies in the computer software, networking, semiconductors and wireless sectors. Chris holds a BS in Accounting and a BA in Economics from St. Mary's College and a MBA from Stanford University.