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ABOUT CURIODYSSEY

Board of Directors

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Ashish Motivala
Board Chair

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Andrea Irvin
Secretary

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Bruce Wright
Treasurer

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Jenny Shain
Volunteer Representative

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Justin Berger

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Erin Calihan

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Anne Campbell

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Anu Datta

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Christina Diercks

Pedro David Espinoza

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Juan Carlos Galá

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Jim Hekkers

Allison Keenan

Danielle Kling

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Maria Teresa Lopez

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Amar K. Mehta

Craig Michaels

Craig Michaels

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Meriel Owen

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David Pauling

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Valerie Wong

Executive Director

Aragon Burlingham

Executive Director Emeritus

Rachel Meyer

Directors Emeritus

Thomas R. Brown

Linda Lanier

Connie Sevier

Kathryn Ann “Kat” Taylor, Chief Executive Officer, Beneficial State Bank

Polly Hoover Taylor

Honorary Campaign Co-Chairs

Linda Lanier

The Honorable Jackie Speier, U.S. House of Representatives, CA-14

Kathryn "Kat" Taylor, Chief Executive Officer, Beneficial State Bank

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LOCATION

1651 Coyote Point Drive
San Mateo, CA 94401
Ohlone Land Acknowledgement
650-342-7755
info@curiodyssey.org

CuriOdyssey is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, Tax ID 94-1262434

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BOARD OF DIRECTORS

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Ashish Motivala

Founding Engineer and Engineering Leader, Snowflake
Board Chair

Ashish Motivala is a passionate builder of technology products and has been building databases and data processing systems for the last 15 years. In his day job, he's a founding engineer and engineering leader at Snowflake, a cloud data company that was born, raised and headquartered in San Mateo. Prior to that he spent time fabricating databases at Oracle.

Ashish hails from Mumbai, India and now lives in Foster City with his wife Nilu and 2 daughters aged 8 and 6. They've been regular visitors to CuriOdyssey over the last 8 years. He has many fond memories in and around CuriOdyssey. CuriOdyssey is smack in the center of his science path, running path, biking path, even open water swim path. These serendipitous events have connected him to the mission and people at CuriOdyssey. Ashish and his family have been active volunteers in the community in areas like sustainability and supporters of child education projects globally.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

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Andrea Irvin

Community Volunteer
Secretary

Andrea Irvin is an active volunteer in her community. She currently serves on the SHS Parent Association Executive Committee as Secretary and Admissions Co-Chair and previously was the SHS P-8 Parent Association Co-President, where she oversaw all advancement, parent education, service learning and other parent events and activities. Andrea is a Young Men’s Service League Board Member, handling membership for the Peninsula Chapter. Andrea’s family has supported CuriOdyssey since her early childhood and she has continued to participate in CuriOdyssey programs with her own children. She and her husband, Bob, live in Hillsborough with their daughter, Jackie, and sons, William and Henry.

Andrea Irvin practiced law at Cooley LLP from 2001 – 2017. Her practice focused on intellectual property and technology-based transactions for both private and public companies. The scope of her practice included the preparation and negotiation of information technology agreements and intellectual property counseling.

While at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, Andrea was a member of the Hastings Communications and Entertainment Law Journal. She earned an undergraduate degree with honors in Political Science from University of California, Berkeley. Prior to attending law school, she served as a professional staff member to the Committee on Armed Services of the US House of Representatives, where she evaluated budget requests and legislative proposals, presented policy initiatives, and drafted and negotiated legislation related to the annual National Defense Authorization Act. She is a Member of the California and American Bar Associations.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

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Bruce Wright

CPA
Treasurer

Bruce Wright is a CPA and partner with SingerLewak LLP, a regional accounting firm. His former firm, Good & Fowler, LLP, merged into SingerLewak in 2017. He has over 43 years’ experience including extensive experience with nonprofit organizations. Bruce will be retiring at the end of this year.

Both Bruce and his wife, Frances, are former CuriOdyssey board members. Bruce’s term ran from 2006 to 2010 and he served as treasurer for 3 years. He has been a board member of the Boys & Girls Clubs of North San Mateo County since 2013, including 5 years as board chair. Bruce is very involved with Rotary in South San Francisco, leading their efforts in low-income senior housing.

Bruce and his family reside in Pacifica and enjoy their vacation home in Groveland.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

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Jenny Shain

Administrative Services Manager, City of Sunnyvale
Volunteer Representative

Jenny Shain, Administrative Services Manager for the City of Sunnyvale, holds a MSIPA (Master of Science, International Public Administration), from the University of Southern California and a BA in German Language and Literature from Binghamton University – State University of New York. She received a Fulbright Teaching Assistantship and worked for a year at a high school in Hamburg, Germany. She completed her master’s internship in Malaysia, working for Petronas, the Malaysian national oil company. She has worked for 30 years in municipal government for the City of Sunnyvale. She staffed the Parks and Recreation Commission and developed and implemented policy and budgets for the Department of Parks and Recreation for many years and she was adjunct lecturer for San Jose State University in their Recreation and Leisure Studies Department. She currently manages customer service operations for the City's 30,000 utility accounts for water, sewer and garbage. She is also responsible for the City’s Business License program and for implementing the City’s cross connection compliance program.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

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Justin Berger

Attorney & Community Volunteer

Justin Berger lives in San Mateo with his wife, Crystal, and their 8-year-old son, a second grader at Fiesta Gardens International School. They have enjoyed many visits to CuriOdyssey since their son was a toddler. Justin is active in the San Mateo community, currently serving on the Board of the San Mateo County Health Foundation, and recently terming out as a Board member of the San Mateo County Bar Association. Justin also serves as Board Chair of a small legal aid organization in Oakland-Housing and Economic Rights Advocates-and previously served as Secretary of the Northern California Peace Corps Association. (Justin was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador from 1999 to 2001).

Justin recently opened his own law practice after 16 years at a Burlingame law firm where he was a trial attorney in high-stakes financial fraud cases. His current practice focuses on advising corporate whistleblowers, especially in the area of healthcare fraud.

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Erin Calihan

Community Volunteer

Erin Calihan is an interior architect and designer living in San Mateo Park with her husband, Pat and two children, Evelyn (5) and Charlie (7). She is passionate about her community and working together to elevate the lives and institutions that make the Peninsula such a remarkable place to live. As Erin relates: "Making the inevitable family move from San Francisco down the Peninsula in 2019, our family quickly found ourselves spending afternoons pulling cranks and pushing levers, running between the viewing windows, gaining educational experiences from volunteers, and swinging at the Whooosh! playground — we found CuriOdyssey."

Erin looks to the future and wants to involve her family's time working together to bring CuriOdyssey into its next phase.

Graduating from Tulane University in 2005 and moving to the Bay Area, Erin has given her time to the Junior League of San Francisco, Institute of Classical Architecture & Art (San Francisco), Edgewood Auxiliary (San Francisco), PARCA Auxiliary (Partners and Advocates of Remarkable Children & Adults, Burlingame), St. Paul's Nursery School (Burlingame), and Episcopal Day School of St. Matthew where Evelyn and Charlie are currently attending.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

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Anne Campbell

Community Volunteer

Anne Campbell devoted her forty-year career to public education. She spent many years as a middle school teacher, counselor and principal. Anne also was a district-level superintendent in Portola Valley and Redwood Shores as well as serving two terms as San Mateo County Superintendent of Schools between 2010-2018. Environmental Education and Early Childhood Education are particular areas of interest.

Anne is active in the Rotary Club of San Mateo, serves on the Board of Reading Partners, and is currently Moderator of the First Congregational Church of Palo Alto.

An avid travel buff (when a pandemic isn’t raging), Anne always makes it to Book Group and is a long-time Stanford Women’s Basketball fan. She is married, has four children, three grandchildren, and a rescue dog, Taches, who makes sure two walks are part of every day’s routine.

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Anu Datta

Vice President, Human Resources, VMware

Anu Datta is Vice President of Human Resources leading Executive Recruiting at VMware, Inc, a global cloud computing company based in Palo Alto, CA. Anu joined VMware in 2008 and spent his first six years building the executive search function responsible for recruiting senior executives to the leadership team. In 2014 Anu and his family went on assignment to Singapore where he led the Human Resources function for the Asia Pacific business for three years. Back in the Bay Area, he spent two years as HR Business Partner to the Global Sales and Services organization and one year leading the Global People Development function before returning to focus on executive talent.

Prior to VMware, Anu worked for a number of recruiting organizations in Europe and North America focused on placing C-level executives in technology firms.

Anu is an active volunteer in youth education supporting school fundraising and community events as well as coaching his kids’ local sports teams. Having visited CuriOdyssey a number of times when his children were younger, he was excited to be introduced to the vision and current mission at the Gala in 2019.

Anu hails from Blackburn, Lancashire, UK and graduated from the University of Warwick, UK with a BSc in Mathematics and Business Studies. He now lives in Emerald Hills, California with his wife Stephanie LeMar-Datta and their three daughters.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

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Christina Diercks

Private Banker,
Wells Fargo Bank

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Pedro David Espinoza, CuriOdyssey Board of Directors

Pedro David Espinoza

Tech entrepreneur, investor, author, and public speaker

Pedro David Espinoza is a tech entrepreneur and investor who transformed from mechanic to Berkeley, Stanford, and Harvard graduate. He founded SmileyGo, an app optimizing corporate NGO investments, which expanded to 30 countries, and later launched Pan Peru USA, supporting women entrepreneurs and STEM education. As Founder and General Partner of PDE Ventures, he manages investments in 20 startups and holds LP positions in multiple venture funds. His career includes executive roles at Silicon Valley Leadership Group and Ever Medical Technologies. Espinoza has authored two books on diversity in tech, "Differences That Make A Difference" (2019) and "The Real ROI" (2024), and has delivered over 300 keynote speeches sharing his immigrant entrepreneurial journey.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

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Juan Carlos Galá

Biotech Business Planning Consultant

Juan Carlos Galá is a consultant specializing in financial and executive advisory services within the biotech industry. With over two decades of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, Juan has held leadership positions encompassing finance, business development, and alliance management. Notably, he served as CuriOdyssey's Treasurer from 2018 to 2021, and still serves on the Finance Committee, demonstrating his commitment to the organization's mission and goals.

Residing in Scottsdale, Arizona, Juan finds joy in exploring new destinations and cherishing moments with his wife and four children when he's not immersed in professional pursuits.

Juan holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and obtained his undergraduate business degree from the Wharton School of Business.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

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Jim Hekkers

Retired Managing Director, Monterey Bay Aquarium

Jim’s extensive leadership experience in nonprofit management includes serving as the managing director of the Monterey Bay Aquarium from 2001 to 2015. Overseeing the aquarium’s overall operations and visitor programs, Jim managed the visitor experience, exhibits, education, research, communications, marketing, animal husbandry, human resources, operational and facilities divisions. As the Aquarium’s chief strategic planner, he developed five institution-wide strategic plans during his tenure. He simultaneously served on the Board of Directors of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, and became a featured presenter at regional, national and international conferences.

Jim also served in executive leadership positions at the Tennessee Aquarium and Ocean Journey in Denver. His previous experience in board leadership includes the National Steinbeck Center, the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History, and the Geology Museum at the Colorado School of Mines. To inspire future non-profit leaders, he taught evening classes on collaboration and leadership at California State University, Monterey Bay for five years. He was also a founder of The Ocean Project.

During his career, Jim consulted on numerous management and planning projects with clients including the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the Monterey Jazz Festival, the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, and SeaLife Aquariums and Attractions in London, among others.

Jim currently consults with IMPACTS Experience as chief strategy officer and in that capacity has developed strategic plans for the Tennessee Aquarium, the Virginia Aquarium, Avenidas (a senior service provider in California), the Monterey Jazz Festival, and CuriOdyssey. He continues to collaborate with Colleen Dilenschneider of IMPACTS Experience to conduct market-trends workshops for numerous aquariums, zoos, museums, science centers, performing arts, and historic sites.

A graduate of Colorado State University, Jim received his Masters of Nonprofit Management degree from Regis University. He currently resides in Broomfield, Colorado. He will be retiring from his consulting positions at year-end 2021, and plans to spend most of his time traveling with his wife Nora, enjoying his five grandchildren, volunteering, and completing several personal writing projects.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Board Member Allison Keenan

Allison Keenan

Community Volunteer

Allison Keenan was a member of The Carey School Board of Trustees, where she served as Annual Fund Co-Chair and on the Strategic Planning Committee. She also served as President and Vice President of The Carey School Parents Association (CSPA). Most recently, Allison was a member of the Crystal Springs Uplands School Family Association Executive Committee. Allison has been active in many other nonprofit organizations, including serving on the boards of The Little Jim Club of California Pacific Medical Center, the PARCA Auxiliary and the Burlingame Mothers Club. Allison received her B.A. in Political Science from the University of California at Santa Barbara and has a background in marketing and non-profit development. Allison lives in San Mateo with her husband and their two teenage sons.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

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Danielle Kling

Independent Advisor,
Retired SVP GMM Williams-Sonoma, Inc.

Danielle has 20+ years of business experience and is currently an Operating Partner for Goodwater Capital, a venture firm that specializes in consumer technology. Previously she worked at Williams-Sonoma, Inc. as the Senior Vice President, GMM Pottery Barn brand. She was also a Manager at Homestead Technologies and at the Permanente Company and a Consultant at Deloitte & Touche. Danielle is a graduate of Stanford University and has an MPH from Yale University. She and her husband Dave, an attorney, have a 16-year-old son, Carter, and 14-year-old daughter, Coco.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

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Maria Teresa Lopez

Sr. Director Finance, US Commercial, Genentech

Maria Teresa López (MT for short) is a Business Professional for Genentech Inc., a member of Roche Group. She has worked for Roche/Genentech for over 25 years having exposure to all facets of pharmaceutical industry including in-depth knowledge of management accounting and financial governance to fuel growth and navigate change. Her focus has been on top-and bottom-line growth, ensuring regulatory compliance, and maximizing value for money by providing key financial strategy, stewardship, and management insights. Known for curiosity, applying unconventional approaches to problem-solving and challenging status quo, as well as embedding and promoting adoption of positive change to boost productivity and facilitate business expansion. Design and secure stakeholder buy-in for business and cultural change to optimize financial performance. Passionate about developing, training, and leading world-class teams focused on creating value and innovation. She has an enterprise mindset and has used her extensive network and multi-cultural experiences gained during her global assignments in Switzerland, Canada, and US for the benefit of the business and employees.

While in Canada, she served as Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Pharmaceutical Distribution Network (CPDN). Under her leadership, CPDN achieved membership growth, operational excellence, and improved corporate governance. Additionally, she was a member of the Board of GS1 Canada Pharmacy Sector (GS1 Canada).

Maria Teresa and her husband Ricardo live in San Mateo with their 2 children, Nuria (15) and Gabriel (18) where she started engaging with the community - San Mateo is now their home. CuriOdyssey has a noble mission and she is excited to be part of it and help develop our future innovators!

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

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Amar K. Mehta

Chief Legal Officer, Waymo

Amar K. Mehta is Chief Legal Officer for Waymo, Alphabet’s self-driving car business. Having been at Alphabet for a decade, Amar spent the first six years of his career at Google working on intellectual property and transactional matters including the smartphone patent wars and Google’s acquisition of Motorola. More recently at Waymo, Amar manages the commercial, corporate, employment, and intellectual property teams within Waymo’s Legal team. At Waymo, Amar recently closed Waymo’s Series A and Series B fundraise and played a central role in Waymo’s trade secret litigation with Uber.

Amar is passionate about education and entrepreneurship. He currently advises the MIT Center for Entrepreneurship and the MIT $100k Entrepreneurship Competition. Previously, he has guest lectured on legal topics at Stanford Law School and University of Pennsylvania Law School. Amar also served on the board of directors for We Teach Science, a non-profit whose mission was to motivate, inspire and mentor students to achieve excellence in math and science. He has been drawn to CuriOdyssey since his kids (ages 7 and 4) began visiting the zoo and by his desire to build a love for science in young children.

Amar grew up in Baltimore, MD and graduated from MIT (bachelor’s and master’s in electrical engineering and computer science) and Harvard Law School. He currently lives in Hillsborough, CA with his wife, Rani, and their two sons.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Craig Michaels, CuriOdyssey Board of Directors

Craig Michaels

Craig Michaels manages product marketing for Apple TV. Before that, he led a media development group at NBCUniversal, producing digital content and apps across ten broadcast and cable networks. Prior to joining NBCU, Craig ran programming and partnerships at a few media startups.

Growing up in New York with a kindergarten teacher as a mom, Craig has long understood the value of education, exploration, and community building. He currently serves on the Parks and Recreation Commission in his home city of Belmont, and is a board member of the Northern California chapter of Playworks, Emerald Lake Country Club, and Belmont Park Boosters.

During his off-time, Craig enjoys exploring the Bay Area with his spouse, Debora, two kids — Katie and Ben — and Molly, their labrador, who are always up for new two- and four-legged adventures.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

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Meriel Owen

Director, Search and Evaluation, Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation

Meriel Owen is a PhD trained neuroscientist with over 15 years of experience in clinical research, impact investing, biotech entrepreneurship, drug development, and alliance management. She currently serves as Director of Search and Evaluation at the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation where she evaluates and leads investments into promising new drugs and diagnostics for dementia.

Meriel is passionate about STEM education and sharing the wonder of science. While living in Chicago, she volunteered with Chicago Lights where she mentored young students, and led the Northwestern University Brain Awareness Organization where she generated and presented interactive sessions on brain science. She lives in Menlo Park with her husband and her 3-year-old son. They love visiting CuriOdyssey (especially Gunner!) and hiking around the Bay Area.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

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David Pauling

General Counsel, Sutro Biopharma

David Pauling is General Counsel at Sutro Biopharma, Inc. He is an experienced, knowledgeable attorney who specializes in solving complex problems in the biotech industry, with particular focus on governance, intellectual property, and agreements. David enjoys working with management and scientific stakeholders to find creative solutions to achieve Sutro’s goals.

In addition to his law degree from Santa Clara University, David has a master’s in molecular biology and undergraduate degrees in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from UC Santa Cruz.

David is passionate about ensuring that children of all backgrounds having access to high quality science education.

He looks forward to being an active Board member, including using his skills in board governance, intellectual property, and contracts to support CuriOdyssey’s strategic goals.

David lives in San Mateo and has 2 children, ages 12 & 14, who were frequent visitors to CuriOdyssey.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

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Valerie Wong

Educator and Finance Professional

 Valerie Wong has a passion for mentoring, education, and community building initiatives, and that is why she is so attracted to CuriOdyssey's work. She goes to CuriOdyssey on a regular basis with her 5-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son and loves watching her children engage and learn from everything that CuriOdyssey has to offer. She frequently plans meet-ups there, promoting CuriOdyssey to other families in the Bay Area.

Valerie is a 500-hour certified yoga instructor, and has taught in the Bay Area for the past decade, currently at Equinox in San Mateo. Following her passion for education, Valerie has taken Montessori training and has been implementing this approach with her children from infancy. Valerie previously worked at BlackRock as an Equity Index Strategist and spent almost eight years at MSCI as part of the Index Client Coverage team. She began her career as an Auditor at KPMG and then worked as a Financial Analyst at HSBC.

Born and raised in Panama, she is fluent in both Spanish and English. She has served on the board for several nonprofit organizations, including as Treasurer of St. Paul's Nursery School in Burlingame and as President of Latinos in Finance.

Valerie holds a Masters Degree in Finance, a B.Sc. in Accounting, and a B.A. in International Business.