Jillian Misrack, President
Jillian Misrack currently serves as a Program Consultant for Full Circle Fund.
Prior to joining Full Circle, Jillian managed AOL's West Coast philanthropic and volunteer initiatives
for more than five years. She has served in the field as an educator, program manager, grantmaker, and
advisor for nonprofits and corporate philanthropy programs. Jillian has directed partnerships with a diverse
group of education based community organizations including Time Warner's Time To Read National Literacy Program,
Salesforce.com Foundation's International Youth Media Festival and AOL Aspires Education Technology
Grant Initiative.
In addition to her work with AOL Community Investment, Jillian founded her own consulting business, wesource, in 2003. She has also been involved in the
National Philanthropy Day Steering Committee, Co-chair of Northern California Grantmakers Corporate Contributions Roundtable, The Northern California
Summer Youth Program Steering Committee, the Bay Area Corporate Volunteer Council and the Silicon Valley Corporate Community Relations Consortium.
A life long volunteer, Jillian found a perfect fit when she joined The Volunteer Center of San Francisco and San Mateo Counties , Board of Directors in April 2006.
Currently, Jillian serves as Board President and Chair of the Board Development Committee. She holds a B.A. in History from San Francisco State University.
Jillian, an organ donor, is actively involved in The California Transplant Network , dedicated to educating the public and saving lives through organ and tissue donation.
Alicia Sullivan, Secretary
Alicia Sullivan joined the board in 2005. She is currently the Development Officer at American Lung Association of California. Previous and current volunteer
experience include; Vice President Fund Raising Committee - The Lafayette
Elementary School PTA, Member of the Training and Development Committee of
the Junior League of San Francisco, President Parents Council, and Chair of
the Spring Gala Committee for The San Francisco Waldorf High School and,
Board Member and Chair, of the Program Committee for the Coalition of Bay
Area High School Parents. She was also a volunteer for San Francisco Suicide
Prevention and currently volunteers with Temple Emmanuel's Caring Community.
John Thomas Ph.D, Treasurer
John is an educational consultant, with a doctorate from U.C. Berkeley in
educational psychology, who has conducted research, instructional
development, and evaluation projects for a number of educational
institutions in the Bay Area, including Far West Laboratory, West Ed, the
Buck Institute, and the Autodesk Foundation. John has written articles and
book chapters on academic studying and a manual for teachers on
project-based learning. Prior to moving to the Bay Area, John worked at
Research for Better Schools in Philadelphia where he designed and developed
instructional programs for middle-school students. John also manages several
real estate investments. John joined the Board in 2005 and serves as a
member of the Finance Committee.
Samidha Ghosh
Samidha Ghosh works at Personiva, an early stage media company, backed by leading venture capital firm, Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Previously, she was a consultant in Accenture's Organization & Change Strategy group, and created a nonprofit partnership between Haas and Accenture which is current being taught at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business. She also headed up the San Francisco operations for New Sector Alliance, an Accenture funded nonprofit consultancy. She previously held positions in investment banking at Citigroup (formerly Salomon Smith Barney) in Hong Kong, as a travel writer for Let's Go: India & Nepal, and as a Parliamentary Researcher for a UK Member of Parliament. Samidha holds a BA in History from Harvard University.
Kimberly Connor, Ph.D
A native of Washington, DC, Kimberly Rae Connor holds a Ph.D. in Religion and Literature from the University of Virginia. She is on the faculty of the University of San Francisco where she oversees several academic programs in the humanities. Her academic interests focus on African American religious life and cultural production and multicultural pedagogy. She has published two books on African American culture, Conversion and Visions in the Writings of African American Women and Imagining Grace: Liberating Theologies in the Slave Narrative Tradition that was selected by Choice as an outstanding academic title for 2000. Connor has received grants for her work from The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, The National Endowment for the Humanities, and The Lilly and Luce Foundations. Among her professional service activities is her role on the Publications Committee of the American Academy of Religion for which she functions as editor of the Academy Series, a joint publishing venture of the Academy and Oxford University Press. Her recent civic volunteer experience includes work for Interfaith Action for Homeless Children, The Virginia Refugee Resettlement Program, The NAMES Project, The Interfaith Center at the Presidio, The Jesuit Foundation, and San Francisco and San Mateo counties public schools.
James R. Forcier, Ph.D
James R. Forcier is an economist and business strategist with over twenty-five years of research, planning, and consulting experience. As Managing Director of the consultancy Bay Analytics, Dr. Forcier helps organizations realize their strategic objectives by maximizing their operational effectiveness, competitive responsiveness, and market positioning.
Dr. Forcier received his bachelor's degree from the University of California at Los Angeles and his master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Southern California. He directs the Applied Economics program at the University of San Francisco and is the author of a book and numerous articles on economics and market strategy.
A member of both the American Economics Association and the National Association for Business Economics, Dr. Forcier has been quoted in such publications as The Boston Globe, Nation's Business and The Wall Street Journal, and has appeared on CNET Radio, KRON TV, MSNBC, National Public Radio and NBC Nightly News.
Joyce Jen
Joyce Jen is an investment professional at Hellman & Friedman, a San Francisco-based private equity fund. At Hellman & Friedman, Joyce is engaged in the assessment and execution of leveraged buyout transactions, including business and market diligence as well as post-investment monitoring and involvement. Prior to H&F, she worked in the Private Equity Group of Goldman, Sachs & Co. in New York, where she participated in the Everybody Wins! Power Lunch program as a reading partner to elementary school students. Joyce holds a BA in Economics with a language citation in Spanish from Harvard University, where she was actively involved with the Harvard Undergraduate Women in Business. She joined the Board in 2007 and is a member of the Finance Committee.
Jonathan Lemberg
Jonathan Lemberg is a partner at the law firm of Farella Braun + Martel LLP, specializing in corporate finance, private equity/venture capital investment, and merger and acquisition transactions. The majority of his work is in the technology, real estate, financial services and wine industries. A Mandarin Chinese and Japanese speaker, Jonathan has spent many years studying and working in Asia, including nine years in Hong Kong and more than four years in Tokyo.
Pro bono work has always been an important part of Jonathan's legal career. Early in his career he served as the pro bono coordinator for transactional attorneys at a leading Wall Street law firm. While living in Hong Kong, Jonathan was a member of the Executive Committee of the Asian Youth Orchestra, a not-for-profit group that brings together young musicians from throughout Asia to study and tour with world-class musicians and conductors from major U.S. orchestras. After returning to the United States, Jonathan has continued working with the AYO, and has volunteered his time helping disadvantaged youths deal with legal issues relating to their special education needs.
Jonathan was named by Asia Law magazine as a "Leading Lawyer in Asia," and is a frequent speaker on U.S. securities laws and on doing business in China. He received his bachelor's degree in Far Eastern Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago, and his law degree from Columbia University. He is a member of the California, New York and Hong Kong bars.
Marcy Beck
Marcy Beck is currently responsible for program development and sponsor relations at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Environmental Energy Technologies Division, where she assists scientists, engineers and analysts in making successful connections to research funding opportunities. She has over 20 years of experience in program development, policy, planning and project implementation, along with business management in the private, public and non-profit sectors. Marcy holds an MBA from UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business.
Christopher Lierle
Christopher Lierle works in the field of corporate training as a Senior Learning Solutions Specialist for the California State Automobile Association. His specialty is in developing interactive online training for adult learners, a craft he learned at DigitalThink and honed at GreenPoint Mortgage and Wells Fargo Bank. Prior to entering the e-learning field, Christopher ran his own business for 10 years. He developed and implemented curricula on how to take the SAT, LSAT, GMAT, GRE, and other standardized tests.
Chris joined the Board in 2007. A longtime Bay Area resident, Christopher attended Bowdoin College in Maine - after which he got his frozen self back to California as fast as the plane would take him.
Steve Wakefield
Steve Wakefield is a Senior Manager with Deloitte & Touche LLP where he helps clients improve software project management and quality. Prior to Deloitte, Steve was Vice President of Operations at Bravanta, Inc., a Bay Area venture capital funded startup, which is now part of Workstream, Inc. Steve has also held Information Technology executive and senior management positions at Pacific Gas & Electric and Procter & Gamble.
During his 16 year career, Steve has been active with many corporate volunteer programs including Junior Achievement, the San Mateo County Shelter Network, San Francisco Rebuilding Together, and Deloitte's yearly Impact Day. Steve holds BS and MBA degrees from the University of South Florida and is a certified Project Management Professional.
