The 2007-2008 year represented a new step for YCS. This was our first year as an independent 501(c)(3) organization, and thus we have our first Board of Directors. The Board is a cross section of community leaders who bring a broad history of working with youth and reflecting the diversity of the communities in which we work. We are excited to be working together and feel it is a privilege to help the staff move the work of YCS forward. Bob Barrett Bob is a mediator, facilitator, and consultant with more than twenty-four years of experience in the alternative dispute resolution and consensus-building fields. His work focuses primarily on multi-party projects, often involving environmental concerns. He is an environmental lawyer by training, with degrees from Stanford University and the law school of the University of California, Berkeley (Boalt Hall). Before beginning his practice, he was the program officer at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation responsible for its grants in the environmental and conflict resolution areas. He has served on a number of boards and public service positions, including: two terms on governing board of the Las Lomitas Elementary School District; treasurer of the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution; founding president of the California Dispute Resolution Council; two terms on a church governing board; and board member and president (2005-06) of the Palo Alto/University Rotary Club. Bob lives in Portola Valley with his wife. They have two grown children. David Blitz David has lived in Palo Alto for the last 14 years, after growing up in Rock Island, IL. He has also lived in Kansas City and St. Louis. He is married with two daughters, both of whom live on the East Coast. David holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Northern Illinois University and a Master of Public Administration from the University of San Francisco. He has worked for 27 years in real estate development, finance, brokerage and corporate facility management. He worked for eight years in senior health care facility ownership and administration. Currently, he is a Vice-President of Jones Lang LaSalle. He has served the community through membership on the YCS Steering Committee, Member and former Board member of the Palo Alto Rotary, former member and president of the Palo Alto/Stanford Chapter of the American Heart Association, Graduate of Leadership Palo Alto, former Chairman of the Check Point Software Donations Committee. Melissa Baten Caswell Melissa Baten Caswell lives in Palo Alto with her family. She has a BA from Dartmouth, with a major in psychology and a minor in economics, and an MBA from Dartmouth with a focus on Organizational Behavior and Marketing. Melissa is currently a member of the Palo Alto Unified School District Governing Board. She has worked for three years in banking on Wall Street, and for 14 years in High-tech marketing, business development, corporate development and strategy in both large and small companies. In three of these companies her focus was on education. Melissa has been active in PTA leadership and management at Duveneck School, where she was also a room parent. She has been a Junior Great Books leader, Biz World instructor,and a Meet the Master’s Instructor. She has served on the Palo Alto PTA Council as EVP, PTA Council President, and is the incoming VP of Communications. She also is on the Cabinet for the 2007 capital campaign of the Palo Alto Art Foundation. Diana Ekstrand Raised in a bilingual Spanish household, Diana spent much of her youth and career traveling abroad. Diana holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from Stanford University. She conducted advocacy work for multinationals in Europe and later managed global environmental, health and safety compliance programs for GE operations worldwide. She has conducted audits, delivered training, and handled government relations in over 12 across Asia, Europe, and the Americas. She has also worked closely with the GE Fund to identify grant recipients. More recently, Diana has become an active community fundraiser. In 2005, she co-chaired Stanford's Bing Nursery School auction and raised scholarship funds for young children. Since 2008, she has co-chaired the Covington Elementary School auction in Los Altos and raised funds to support core curriculum, enrichment and technology programs that could not be funded by the state or local school district. Taken together, she has raised over $500,000 for local schools. Diana lives in Los Altos with her husband and three children. Leif Erikson Leif has served as YCS executive director since April 2004. He had been a parent volunteer who began supporting YCS in 1995, partnering with previous YCS executive directors Susie Hodges and Kent Koth.
Leif received a BA in Political Science at Stanford University where he met his wife Sharon. They helped to start a multicultural child development program in Sunnyvale and served young people and families for ten years. Leif then worked for over twenty years in corporate marketing in the technology and biotech industries, before returning to community service.
Leif is an elder in the Presbyterian Church and served seven years on the governing board of Palo Alto First Presbyterian Church. He serves on the board of Stanford’s United Campus Christian Ministry. To strengthen partnerships with youth serving organizations in East Palo Alto, Leif represents YCS on the steering committee of the EPA Youth Consortium and the leadership team of the East Palo Alto Fellowship of Faith Consortium. Leif is a founder of the Built to Last Collaborative that was created to increase high school graduation rates of East Palo Alto students. He is a active member of the Palo Alto University Rotary Club and the One East Palo Alto organization.
Leif and Sharon have two adult sons and one granddaughter. Rita Lancefield Rita has a BA in psychology from Pomona College. She worked for several years at a psychiatric hospital for teenage girls. Since moving to Palo Alto 40+ years ago, she has volunteered in many organizations working with youth—local PTA boards, founding parent and volunteer with team teaching/alternative schools at the junior high and high school level, room mother, facilitator of groups focused on parenting skills, values in the family, and environmental issues.
She has served on the boards of two for-profit businesses and several non-profits, including Challenge Learning Center, Pacific Islander Outreach (board chair), ACS advisory board. For twenty years she has been a director of Charter Oak Foundation, funding groups working with youth. For Charter Oak, she has served as secretary, grant administrator, and board chair. She also worked extensively with Beyond War and Foundation for Global Community. Rita lives in Palo Alto with Rob, her husband of 50 years. They have two grown children. Linda Lenoir
Linda currently works as the District Nurse for Palo Alto Unified School District, a position she has held for 20 years. In addition, she has been deeply involved with local community non]profits, including PTAs. Linda was PTA President at L.M. Nixon Elementary and has continued to work in collaboration with the PTAs, including her present position as the Health VP for the Sixth District (Santa Clara County)PTA. She first became involved with YCS as a member of the Parent Booster Club for Interact at Gunn High School in the late 1990's.
Linda's passion for community service led her to serve on the City of Palo Alto’s Human Relations Commission, as well as the City’s Red Ribbon Task Force/Emergency Preparedness Committee. She is on the board of the Santa Clara County Health Commission, YMCA, Palo Alto Community Childcare, Adolescent Counseling Services, Citizen Corps and Palo Alto Family Resources Foundation. She has volunteered for the American Red Cross, responding to hurricane recovery, Flying Doctors and the Haiti Project. As a member of the University Rotary Club, she has successfully advocated for financial and volunteer support of YCS projects. Suzie Lovercheck
Suzie is a native of Palo Alto and got her B.A. from UC Davis with a double major in Psychology and Sociology. She received her Master’s in Occupational Therapy from Colorado State University. Suzie served with AmeriCorps *NCCC for two years and experienced a variety of 6 week community service projects while in the roles of Corps member and team leader. From there she went on to be a Project Manager with KaBOOM!, a national non-profit that facilitates community-built playgrounds. She built 41 playgrounds in the Bay Area and has completed a total of 91 builds in the US and Canada. She has volunteered in numerous organizations (beginning while she attended Gunn High School) which focused on the areas of education, community service, services for people with disabilities and human rights. Suzie moved back to the Bay Area after 4 years in Colorado and works as an Occupational Therapist in the Palo Alto Unified School District.
Suzie lives in Palo Alto. This is Suzie’s first experience serving on a non-profit board. Dan Nero
Dan has lived in Los Altos for the last 5 years, after growing up in Johnston, RI. He has also lived in Carlsbad, Ca, Old Greenwich, CT, and New York City. He is married to Kim who is an elementary teacher in the Los Altos School District. They have three children who all attend public schools in Los Altos.
Dan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Providence College. He has 20+ years of broad-based experience in the alternative investment and commercial banking industries. Within his most recent positions, he has served as a Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer with responsibility for overseeing all operational, financial, regulatory, and investor / prospect relationship matters at several high-growth alternative asset investment management and financial services firms.
He has been active as a baseball and basketball coach in the Los Altos Little League and the Foothill Chapter of the National Junior Basketball Association and recently served as the Co-Chair person for Covington Elementary School’s participation in the Los Altos School District Junior Olympics. Susan Phinney Silver
Susan lives in Palo Alto with her husband and two kids, now 12 and 8, who attend our neighborhood public schools and enjoy being part of YCS events.
Susan joined the David and Lucile Packard Foundation in 2008 as its first Program-Related Investment (PRI) Officer, where she manages a $160 million portfolio which primarily consists of low-interest loans to grantees and other nonprofit organizations. Prior to joining Packard, Susan consulted with private and community foundations on their PRI programs, and on strategic planning and business development issues for a variety of nonprofit and public-purpose clients. She spent the previous 15 years creating innovative community financing vehicles to generate private-sector lending and investments for affordable housing, community economic development, and environmental cleanup in California and nationally. She has served on the boards of the California Economic Development Lending Initiative (CEDLI) and the California Environmental Redevelopment Fund (CERF). Barbara Spreng
Barbara lives in Palo Alto, where her interests include education, issues concerningyouth and families, and politics. Her professional skills include nonprofit boardsmanshipand organizational development, graphic design and layout, writing/messaging, some Excel expertise, fundraising, and event planning.
She has served on many non]profit boards, including current service with Habitat forHumanity Greater San Francisco, Palo Altans for Government Effectiveness (PAGE), PaloAlto Family Resources Foundation, Adolescent Counseling Services Board of Advisors,and Facing History and Ourselves (regional board). Barbara has worked extensively withPTAs, from the local to state levels, and is the Immediate Past President of the SixthDistrict 0Santa Clara County) PTA. Linda van Gelder
Linda started out with YCS as a volunteer helping maintain the database and helping with mailings, then was on the Community Board for two years. At the time her children were in preschool and are now in middle school and active in the YCS club at Jordan. While her youngest was still in preschool, she filled in as a teacher in the two year old class for one year and as a substitute the next year. After the children were both at Duveneck, she became active at their school. Among her PTA positions, she chaired two Harvest Carnivals, helped in classrooms, and was the PTA/Site Council Liaison for two years. Now that her children are at Jordan, she continues to be active. She has been the PTA Historian, and is currently the co-VP Ways and Means and the PTA Site Council Liaison. Prior to becoming active with schools and YCS, Linda was a revenue analyst in the high tech industry.
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