Boards

National Board

Holly Depatie: Board Chair; Philanthropist, Advocate and Activist, Writer
Sarah Friar: Board Vice Chair; Senior Vice President of Strategy & Finance, Salesforce.com
Raj Agrawal: Director, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
Chris Balme: Spark Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Zia Khan: Vice President, Strategy & Evaluation, Rockefeller Foundation
Nir Margalit: Board Secretary; Partner, Foley & Lardner LLP
John McKee: Dean of Development & College Relations, University of California – Berkeley
Rodney Prezeau: Board Treasurer; Vice President, Affluent Client Experience, Charles Schwab
James Ramo: President, Allenwood Ventures
James T. Reese, MD: Physician, Former Chief Operations Engineer and Head Neurosurgeon, Google
William Schawbel: CEO, Schawbel Corporation

Bay Area Executive Board

Neal Jacobs: Partner, Cambrian Capital LP
Scott Johnston: Head of Marketing & Product, Puppet Labs
Laura Fisher: Community Advocate
Seth Schalet: Chief Operations Officer, Oshman Family Jewish Community Center

Bay Area Advisory Board

Patrick Assini: Analyst, Hall Capital Partners
Bora Chung: Lead, Payments and Financing, Apple Online Stores
Scott Clark: Investment Manager, Fairview Capital
Garen Corbett: Director, California Health Benefits Review Program
Carolyn Frey: Managing Director of Strategic Partners, Corporate Executive Board
Odette Go: Treasurer, Lam Research
Timothy Harwood: Partner, Impact Recruiting
Kurt Koptish: Regional Operations Director, DaVita
Lisa Lin: Chief Operations Officer, Inveneo
Austin Long: Manager of Assessment Tools, The Center for Effective Philanthropy
Erik Newton: Partner, Heath Newton LLP
Marina Pol Longo: Consultant, FSG Social Impact Advisors
Ronil Prasad: Senior Manager for the Sales & Engineering team, Aviat Network
Vivek Shah: Vice President, Laminar Direct Capital (Member of D.E. Shaw Group)
Greg Vaisberg: Senior Corporate Counsel, Oracle
David Walther: Wealth Management Advisor, Northwestern Mutual Financial Network
Tom Yankowski: President, Center for Career Evaluations

LA Executive Board

Joan Chu Reese: Board Chair; Partner, Monitor
Charlie Cohen
Sarah and Alex Graves
Aaron Meyerson: President of Programming and Development, CBS Television Distribution
EJ Milken: Board Member, Prostate Cancer Foundation; Grant Screening Board, Everychild Foundation
Gregory Milken: COO, AltEgo; Board Member, Milken Family Foundation
Robert Perrin: Partner and Chair of Litigation Department, Latham & Watkins LLP
James Ramo: President, Allenwood Ventures

LA Advisory Board

Ben Allen: Santa Monica-Malibu School Board President
Veronica Codrington-Cazeau: Head of Middle School, Harvard-Westlake School
Barry Collier: Chief Technology Officer, Meteor Games
Ryan Malone: President, Youngstown Glove Co.
Pedro Marti: Senior Vice President Wealth Advisor, Wells Fargo
James McGrath: Attorney, Bryan Cave LLP
Philline Parlan: Employment Lawyer, Jackson Lewis LLP
Kate Pletcher: Principal, Mom Corps
Alan Resnikoff: Senior Associate, Shamrock Capital Advisors
Maggie Valiunas: Client Services, Social Media and Sales representative, Shoedazzle
Ashlie Woods: Private Wealth Advisor, Goldman Sachs
 

Chicago Executive Board

Doug Harris: CEO, The Kaleidoscope Group
Robin Lavin: President, The Osa Foundation
Nayan Shah: Senior Manager in Consumer and Industrial Products, Deloitte Consulting LLP
Hilary Wolfe: Managing Director, Northern Trust

Chicago Advisory Board

Anthony Abraham: Vice President of Strategic Initiatives, HSBC
Gary Axelrod: Partner, Latham & Watkins LLP
Benjamin Daverman: Vice President, GTCR
Michael B. Golden: Co-founder, Illinois Education Foundation
Kyle Goldman: Consultant, Bain & Company
Àja Hardy: Senior Consultant in Strategy and Operations, Deloitte
Dominique Jordan-Turner: Director, Posse Foundation Chicago
Shelby King: Manager, Groupon
Scott LaBoda: Senior Consultant, Deloitte
Melanie Madigan: Psychotherapist, LCSW
Ojas Naik: Vice President of Corporate Affairs, Edelman
Emily O'Grady: Engagement Manager, McKinsey & Company
Alyssa J. Rapp: Founder & CEO, Bottlenotes, Inc.
Sarah Sliva: Director, Woman's Board, Rush University Medical Center
Charles Young: Executive Vice President, Mesa Development LLC
 

Evaluation Advisory Committee

Amy Arbreton: Senior Research Fellow, Public/Private Ventures
Zia Khan: Vice President of Strategy and Evaluation, The Rockefeller Foundation
Melanie Moore Kubo: Principal, See Change
Angie Peluse: Director of Evaluation and Innovation, Peer Health Exchange
Marina Pol-Longo: Consultant, FSG Social Impact Advisors

Spark’s mission is to provide life-changing apprenticeships to youth in underserved communities across the United States. 30% of students in the United States drop out of high school, with the dropout rate exceeding 50% in the highest-need neighborhoods. Spark addresses the dropout crisis by connecting volunteer professionals with underserved youth in workplace apprenticeships to “spark” their potential. Students identify a “dream job,” and Spark matches that student with a mentor doing that job. As students explore the school-to-career connection, they build skills critical for academic success, gain a strong appreciation for the relevance of their education, and become motivated to work hard to achieve their dreams. Spark is a national nonprofit that provides life-changing apprenticeships to middle school students from disadvantaged communities in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Chicago, and soon on the east coast.

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