Who We Are

TEAM    |    BOARD    |    SONOMA VALLEY UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

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Our Team

​Angela Ryan, Ph.D
Executive ​Director

A Sonoma native, Angela returned to the Valley in 2013 after earning a doctorate in history from Ohio State University and living and working in New York City as a college professor. After volunteering locally, she eventually embarked on a career in the nonprofit world, first at Teen Services Sonoma, followed by a consulting agency, and as Executive Director of the Petaluma Museum. Angela joined the Sonoma Valley Education Foundation in 2019 as the Director of Programs & Grants, then stepped into the role of Executive Director in January 2021. When she's not raising money for the public schools that she attended as a kid, Angela is serving on the Board of Directors of Impact100 Sonoma, and staying busy with her husband and two young children.

​​Gail Chadwin
​Director of Development

Gail grew up in Sonoma and is a graduate of Prestwood, Altimira, and SVHS. She attended UC Santa Cruz and graduated with degrees in Community Studies and Sociology/Latin American Latino Studies. From 2008-2013, Gail lived in El Salvador, where she was a member of the fundraising team at Habitat for Humanity El Salvador. In early 2014 Gail moved back to Sonoma and worked as the Development Coordinator at local nonprofit Seeds of Learning. In 2018 she joined the Green Music Center at Sonoma State University as the Annual and Foundation Giving Manager. She is excited to join Sonoma Valley Ed Foundation and help support local schools. In her spare time, Gail enjoys singing with the Valley of the Moon Chamber Ensemble, playing tennis, and spending time with her husband and two young children.  

​Cindy Kenton
​Accounting

Cindy is a native Californian and has worked for the foundation since 2017. This experience gives her a deep appreciation for how nonprofits seek to improve the quality of life for the students in our valley. She received a BS in Accounting from California Polytechnic University, Pomona. Prior to joining SVEF, Cindy has worked in the wine industry for over 20 years as a controller for Chateau St. Jean and Joseph Phelps Winery. Cindy and her husband raised two children in Sonoma and while being active with the school PTO, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and Venturing.  

Sarah Carroll
Development and Marketing Manager

Sarah brings 20 years of professional experience in luxury travel, hospitality & wine marketing into her role with the Sonoma Valley Education Foundation.  Her career involves operations, sales, marketing & customer service from her positions with Creative Leisure, Beautiful Places and Don Sebastiani & Sons.  She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Impact100 Sonoma.  Sarah is passionate in building a world where all people can safely reach their fullest potential with dignity and respect. She received a Bachelor’s degree in Women & Gender Studies from Sonoma State University.  Sarah, along with her husband, Zachary and daughter Tallulah, enjoy living in Sonoma, where Tallulah attends Flowery Elementary School

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Board of Directors

Salma Khan Wornick
Secretary

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Salma brings 20 years of professional experience to the evolving landscape facing SVEF’s board. Her expertise, at the intersection of people, process and technology, has been cultivated at companies like Airbnb, StubHub, Google and KPMG. Salma currently serves as a technical program leader at Airbnb overseeing the public company controls and financial reporting risk management program at Airbnb.

Growing up in Houston, Texas, Salma was the beneficiary of programs like those funded by SVEF and knows the possibility and impact firsthand. She credits these generous programs, along with incredible teachers, coaches and school administrators who took an interest in her as advocates and cheerleaders, with the human she is today. Salma aims to have a similar positive impact on the lives of young people. She received a Bachelor's degree in Accounting from the University of San Francisco.
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Salma lives in Sonoma with her husband Michael.

Mark Mance
Vice Chair

Mark founded Northview Hotel Group in 2004 and currently oversees all aspects of its business. Previously, Mark was president of Sunstone Hotel Investors (NYSE: SHO), a public lodging REIT comprising upper-upscale and upscale hotels, operated under brand names franchised or licensed from Marriott, Hilton, InterContinental, Hyatt, Starwood, Carlson, Fairmont, and Wyndham.

Throughout his career, Mark has invested in over $3 billion of lodging assets and developed a strong track record of generating exceptional risk-adjusted returns for partners and investors. Prior to joining Sunstone, Mark was a principal with Westbrook Partners, where he was responsible for more than $2 billion of acquisitions and dispositions, including all aspects of transaction origination, underwriting, execution, and oversight.

​Earlier in his career, Mark was a financial analyst and associate at Morgan Stanley in the real estate and mergers and acquisitions departments.
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He has a BA from Duke University and an MBA from Stanford University.

Graham Smith
Chair

​Graham Smith held executive roles at Salesforce, including Chief Financial Officer from 2008 to 2014. Prior to joining Salesforce, Graham served as Chief Financial Officer at Advent Software from 2003 to 2007. Prior to Advent, he was Chief Financial Officer at Vitria and Nuance Communications and held senior finance roles at Oracle.

In addition to the Sonoma Valley Education Foundation, Graham currently serves as a member of the boards of directors of Citrix Systems, Splunk, Xero, MINDBODY and BlackLine.

​Graham holds a B.Sc. from Bristol University in England and qualified as a chartered accountant in England and Wales.

Stephen Sorkin
​Treasurer

Stephen served as VP Engineering and Chief Strategy Officer of Splunk from 2005 to 2016. After his family moved to Sonoma in 2013, he has worked to develop affordable housing and mixed used real estate in Sonoma Valley and beyond.

He currently serves as Treasurer of the Sonoma Valley Tennis Association, a non-profit that provides free and low cost tennis programs for children in the community and maintains the Maxwell Farms Regional Park tennis courts for the county.

​Stephen attended public primary and secondary schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District, received a BS in computer science from Stanford University and a MS in Computer Science from UC Berkeley.

Nancy Atkinson Mulligan

Nancy is a travel industry veteran with a distinguished career that spans four decades.  As Chief Travel Officer, Nancy was responsible for developing ‘everything travel’ at TripActions. Before joining TripActions in 2016, Nancy was President & COO at S.R. Travel (a corporate travel management company), held executive roles at McCord Travel Management and was CEO at Premier Travel Center.

Throughout her career Nancy has volunteered and acted as a proponent for her companies to get involved with non-profits including the AIDS Walk, American Cancer Society and the Walk to End Alzheimer’s. Nancy is passionate about mentoring the newest generation of travel professionals, which has especially come into play in her current role as Chief Travel Officer at TripActions, where her deep industry knowledge and expertise has been essential to the company’s hyper growth. ​​

Mary Favaro

​Mary joined the Sonoma Valley Education Foundation in March 2019 as its Executive Director, taking the reins upon Interim ED Laura Zimmerman's departure. She enjoyed leading the charge until January 2021, when she handed the reigns to Angela Ryan and took a seat on the SVEF Board. 

​Mary received her Masters in Teaching from National Louis University in Chicago, IL, and was most recently a Middle School STEM teacher at The Presentation School in Sonoma.

Prior to joining the education world, she earned her MBA from Stanford University and spent ten years as a business consultant in Australia, England and the U.S. Mary and her husband Paul have four children and have lived in Sonoma since 2007.

Joanne Green

Joanne is proud to be a product of public schools. Raised in Yuba City, she knew from an early age that she was called to serve through teaching. After graduating from Cal Poly with a B.S. in Child Development, she went on to earn her multiple subject teaching credential from Fresno Pacific University, getting to student teach in the agricultural central valley.

After teaching 1st grade and kindergarten for five years, Joanne and her husband, Joel, moved to Sonoma in 2011 to start their family (reminding Joanne of the one-high-school town she was raised in).

​Immediately after making Sonoma their forever home, Joanne continued her passion for public education via SVEF with the Parents Advisory Committee. As a mother of two boys, she now spends her time volunteering in and out of the classroom and on sports fields. Her two years as PTO president for Prestwood Elementary, and most recently as a pod leader for the 2020/2021 distant learning year, will bring much perspective.

Mariah Hanson

Mariah Hanson is the founder and creator of the legendary “Dinah,” aka The Dinah, reputedly the largest queer women/lesbian event in the world. (www.TheDinah.com).

​More than just an event producer extraordinaire, Hanson is first and foremost an avant-garde business entrepreneur who, in the span of three decades, has created an unsurpassed cultural and social phenomenon. Hanson has built an impressive empire, from a small, one-night event at The Palm Springs Museum with 1,500 participants to booking lavish locations at deluxe hotels over the course of five days and nights, with some 10,000-plus attendees and major corporate sponsors under her belt. The Dinah has become a rite of passage for queer women, where during five event-filled days of music and community, women from all walks of life experience profound connection in a diverse and multi-cultural setting. The Dinah inspires all women to boldly live out loud while openly celebrating both our differences and commonalities, alike.

Hanson served two terms on the Board of Equality California, during the pivotal time when the board had to decide whether or not to pursue the Gay Marriage fight and no longer wait until the time “was right.” Always a pioneer, she voted in favor of moving forward, and helped the board achieve history in successfully championing the right to marry. 

Hanson served on the Aspen Gay and Lesbian Ski Week Board of Directors, and held the dual role of Development Director, raising critical funds to help produce the international event and at the same time to bridge the relationship between corporate donors and the LGBT community. 

Hanson also served on the Board of Directors of The San Francisco Community Center, joining to create the vision and raise the money needed to help the community center dream become reality. The SF Community Center now serves as a model for community centers around the country. Hanson has also served on the Cable Car Awards Board, an organization whose mission was to recognize and celebrate events in The San Francisco LGBT community and in the process helped raise the visibility of LGBT events and contributions to San Francisco culture. 

Mariah continues to utilize the world renowned Dinah as a powerful platform to mobilize the LGBTQIA community around humanitarian projects and social issues.

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Sarah Leffert

Sarah has led fundraising efforts for educational institutions resulting in more than $75 million in private donations over the past 20 years. She currently serves as the Chief Advancement Officer at Schools of the Sacred Heart San Francisco, where she oversees communications and institutional positioning in addition to all fundraising activities.

A native New Orleanian, Sarah moved back to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina to help scale a charter management organization in New Orleans serving students in Central City. Earlier in her career, she led development efforts for the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University and also worked for Stanford University.

​Sarah attended Wesleyan University and has served on accrediting teams for the California Association of Independent Schools.

Geeta Malik

As the daughter of student immigrants who came to California to further their dreams, Geeta grew up knowing the value of good education. She attended all public schools until medical school at Creighton University. She has practiced Family Medicine in town for over ten years and has a special emphasis on chronic disease management, preventive care and women’s health.  She is an advocate for evidence-based medicine and collaborative care.

Her two daughters are enrolled in Sonoma’s own Spanish dual immersion program and are now at SVHS and Adele Harrison Middle School. As with lack of healthcare, educational inequities deprive students and their families of safety and opportunity.

​Geeta joined SVEF to help our Valley’s students recover and grow out of this global pandemic and assist in developing nimble solutions to the next challenges the District faces.

Adrian E. Palazuelos, Ph.D.

Dr. Adrian E. Palazuelos is in his first year as the Superintendent of the Sonoma Valley Unified School District. Sonoma Valley Unified is located in the County of Sonoma in Northern California and serves over 3,700 students in preschool through 12th grade.

A product of California public schools and a first-generation college graduate, Dr. Palazuelos began his career in education as a bilingual educator before expanding his collegiate credits to include a Masters of Education in Educational Leadership and Administration from UCLA, along with a PhD in Education from UC Santa Barbara.
He has held leadership roles at all levels of education - including Elementary, Middle and High School Principal positions - and also spent time as Associate Superintendent of School Leadership and Support for the Natomas Unified School District in the greater Sacramento region, leading district wide efforts to create an International Baccalaureate continuum.

Most recently, Dr. Palazuelos served as Superintendent of Fillmore Unified School District in Ventura County where he made noteworthy contributions including the expansion of college and career offerings in technical education pathways, investment in a new career technical education facility, increased access to Advanced Placement courses and exams, and further enhancing the partnership with the local community college to increase student access to their programs and courses. 
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Dr. Palazuelos and his wife, Julie, have been married for over 20 years and are the proud parents of four children.

Barbara Talbott

Barbara has spent her business life building strategies and brands.  For nearly two decades she served as Chief Marketing Officer of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, building the team and reputation that made the company one of the world’s most respected.  She began her career in consulting with McKinsey & Company, then served as Vice President Marketing for Royal Viking, a pioneer in worldwide ocean cruising.  Currently at GlenLarkin Advisors she works with CEOs and leadership teams, helping them to define and pursue their most important goals.  
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As a first generation student, Barbara has long supported access to education for others.  Currently a board member for the Wine Business Institute at Sonoma State, her previous board service includes the School of Hotel Management at Cornell University and the Committee of 200, a leading organization of women executives and entrepreneurs.   A graduate of the Honors College at Ohio State University, she earned an M.A. and PhD. from the University of Wisconsin.    

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Sonoma Valley Unified School District

The Future of the Valley Starts Here!

The Sonoma Valley Unified School District is home to five elementary schools: Dunbar, Sassarini, Flowery, El Verano and Prestwood; two middle schools: Altimira and Adele Harrison; one high school: Sonoma Valley High School; one continuation high school: Creekside High School; and two charter schools: Sonoma Charter School and Woodland Star. Find out more about our school district at their website: sonomaschools.org

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Your Support Matters

Thank You!

The Sonoma Valley Education Foundation relies on community members' support for public education to ensure and sustain a vibrant, safe and strong future for Sonoma Valley students. Your support has made a huge difference in students' lives and will continue to do so! We are deeply grateful for your generosity.

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