Biotechnology—Gene Sequencing Technology Terry Caskey grew up on a small farm in the Central Valley of California. As the first in his family to attend college, he was proud to complete his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from UCSB, then his master’s and Ph.D. in engineering from the University of Massachusetts. He has spent 20+ years…

Associations-Home of Guiding Hands Falon serves as the Vice President of Operations for Home of Guiding Hands, overseeing the functionality of 28 residential group homes and a 25,000-square-foot resource center located in El Cajon. Her responsibilities extend to managing the transportation department and supervising the entire IT network supporting over 800 employees across office, remote,…

Education-State University-Program Manager Veronica Perondi currently serves as the Assistant Director of A.S. Programs for Associated Students at San Diego State University. In this role, she’s dedicated to empowering students through leadership and engagement programs. She earned an undergraduate degree in International Relations from San Francisco State University where she was was actively involved in…

Education – Private University – Professor Tom Herman is a teacher and journalist. He is the tax columnist for The Wall Street Journal’s wealth management section. After graduating from Yale, Tom joined the news staff of The Wall Street Journal in New York, where he was given the food beat. Tom wrote for The Wall…

Associations – Institute of Reproductive Grief Care In February of 2023, Dale Gray took over the role of Director of Mission Advancement at the Institute of Reproductive Grief Care. Prior to joining the Institute, he served at the university level as the Director of Philanthropy, and has over 23 years experience before that driving sales…

Social Services and Welfare – Neighborhood House Association Kristine is the Senior Director of Nutrition Services for the Neighborhood House Association where she has worked for sixteen years. Originally from Seattle, WA, Kristine joined the Navy right out of college, then received her BS in dietetics from Kansas State University, and later her Master of…

Retired-Law Mary Dawe is a retired Senior Staff Attorney of California State of Appeal, where she served for 27 years. She grew up in Southern California, graduated from UC Riverside, and later went to Law School at USD with the support of her late husband Jim, while they were raising three young children. Mary says…

Associations-Meals on Wheels Amie Brown is the Chief External Affairs Officer for Meals on Wheels San Diego County. She came to Meals on Wheels in 2018 after working in the nonprofit sector for more than 25 years, with a strong emphasis in healthcare for the underserved. She has extensive experience with growing nonprofit organizations, earned…

Associations-Burnham Center for Advancement Tad Parzen is the President and CEO at Burnham Center for Community Advancement, as well as the San Diego Business Journal 2023 Nonprofit CEO of the year, and former presenter at San Diego Rotary Club. Tad’s career began as a litigation and trial attorney as a partner in the firm of…

Classification Pending Paul Gothold recently retired his appointment of San Diego County Superintendent of Schools after serving six years in that role, providing educational leadership while administering mandated services, and thirty two years in education overall. His first teaching position was educating adjudicated youth in East Los Angeles where he started to realize that young…