Board of Directors

MARJORIE CLARK is a Counselor, Service-Learning Coordinator and Psychology Instructor at Evergreen Valley College in San Jose, California. She has a Master in Psychology from The New School for Social Research and currently teaches classes which focus on the Psychology of Women, Marriage and Family, and Domestic Violence. She has served on the board of The Support Network for Battered Women. She is passionate about education and service to other and works with young women and men to instill in them a sense of cross-cultural awareness as well as civic and social responsibility.

FRANCI COLLINS has worked and volunteered as a Community Advocate since returning to the Bay Area in 1982. She is a volunteer with the American Red Cross and has helped coordinate the efforts of non-profit agencies after major disasters across the country. She created and maintains the immigrant resource website, immigrantinfo.org. She has a BA in Psychology from Lewis and Clark College and an MBA from San Jose State University. She is also a hypnotherapist who maintains a private practice in Mountain View.

SAM HO is currently a human resources manager specializing in the area of diversity for the San Jose-Evergreen Community College District. He has worked in the areas of community building and human, social and community services for over 20 years. He has an MBA in management and is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Human Organizational Development at the Fielding Graduate Institute. He served as the Executive Director of a 22-year-old non-profit community based organization in Southern California where he was responsible with his team for generating and maintaining an annual operating budget of ovr $1.5 million and managing 15 concurrent grant-funded projects. In that capacity he served low-income at-risk populations and worked with diverse communities and leaders representing all ethnic groups and backgrounds.

ANN LOPEZ, Ph.D., was the first Latina to receive her doctorate in environmental studies from the University of California-Santa Cruz. Her groundbreaking dissertation based on a seven-year study of NAFTA and corporate agribusiness impact on farming communities in Mexico was published as a book in 2007 by UC Press as The Farmworkers’ Journey. Dr. Lopez is a national expert on NAFTA, the Green Revolution, corporate agribusiness, and the impact of corporate penetration on Mexican communities. She teaches at San Jose City College and served as a post-doctorate fellow in environmental studies at UC-Berkeley. She works tirelessly on behalf of rural farmers in Mexico and migrant farmworkers in California.

LORI LUJAN is an instructor in Sociology and Ethnic Studies at Evergreen Valley College. She holds a B.A. in Sociology from California State University at Hayward, an M.A. in Ethnic Studies from San Jose State University, and is working on another M.A. in Counseling Psychology. She has taught and guest lectured at several Bay Area colleges. As a teen Lori worked in the orchards picking and packing fruit to earn money for college. She has been active in social justice and community building for over 20 years in both Oakland and San Jose. She has authored many articles for publications including the San Francisco Chronicle, has produced news and public affairs radio programs, and has developed and expanded the role of public relations for non-profit organizations. Bilingual in Spanish/English, she has traveled extensively in Latin America.

GIL VILLAGRAN, MSW, is a lecturer in the School of Social Work at San Jose State University. In his prior career he worked in direct practice and administration of human services for the Santa Clara County Social Services Agency. He has worked with individuals and families suffering from poverty, homelessness, under-employment, substance abuse, domestic violence, gang involvement, undocumented immigration status, mental illness, and human rights violations. Gil was born in Mexico City and grew up in the City of Santa Clara when the County was still called the “Valley of Heart’s Delight”. He labored as a child in farm work and as a teen in canneries, landscaping and factories. He has traveled in five continents, learning about the beauty of all cultures as well as social injustice. He is an advocate of human rights for all people from all nations and identifies himself as an Earth Citizen.

ELIZABETH SARMIENTO, currently works at Acterra, a non-profit environmental organization, as the Green@Home Outreach Coordinator. She is a native Spanish speaker, an advocate for environmental and social justice. While working on her Environmental Studies degree at San José State University, Elizabeth was Director of the Environmental Resource Center.  For over three years she worked at the Santa Clara Valley Water District in its Water Use Efficiency Unit, where she promoted water conservation in Santa Clara County. In 2008, Elizabeth was a member of the Mountain View Environmental Task Force, which allowed her to share, research and help write the City of Mountain View’s Environmental Sustainability Report. Since 2003, Elizabeth has been part of the Youth Enrichment Strategies (YES) program. YES brings families of limited resources together to learn and appreciate the natural environment, through play, while camping in the redwood forests.

JULIE SOLOMON, Ph.D., is a program development and evaluation consultant. In this capacity, she works with governmental and non-governmental organizations, foundations, corporate giving programs, and coalitions throughout the United States and internationally to plan and evaluate behavioral health programs. She has lived in Mexico and Spain, speaks several languages, and dances with a Latin dance group.

RICHARD HOBBS, Executive Director