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The Board of Directors meets on and we gratefully acknowledge our liaison from the City Council
the third Wednesday of every month.
Members of the Board are:
Stephanie Anderson
Brigid Barton
Pat Bashaw
Bern Beecham
Dory Toft Bleich
Gwen Books
Michael Dreyfus
Jeannie Duisenberg
Alyssa Filter
Joanne Gee
Anne Gregor
Natasha Kurtova French
Mary Kelley
Karen Kienzle
Patty McGuigan
Roxane Mehta
Deborah Pappas
Kristen Rampe
Carol Rutlen
Loren Saxe
Jan Schachter, co-president
Teri Vershel, co-president
Robin Welles
Kristin Wu
Greg Scharff
Stephanie Anderson has been a resident of Palo Alto for over 20 years, and an active schools and community volunteer for much of that time. She graduated with honors from Princeton University and has an MBA from Stanford, but the arts are a true passion of hers. She grew up in Hong Kong and Japan, and collects Asian art, especially Japanese woodblocks, porcelains and textiles. Her 2 daughters enjoyed taking Japanese brush painting classes through the Art Center during their elementary school years. Stephanie firmly believes that the arts are a fundamental part of a child's development, and will work to ensure access to art for all children. Her hobbies are travelling, cooking, reading and gardening.
Brigid Barton comes from a six year stint on the Palo Alto Public Art Commission. Her background is as an art history professor at Santa Clara University and the former director of the de Saisset Museum on the university campus. Her particular interests are in outreach and education.
Pat Bashaw a Palo Alto resident for over 30 years, has been actively involved with local non-profit arts and service organizations in parallel with a career as a human resources executive in several high tech biomedical companies. For the ten years prior to her “retirement” in 2005, she consulted to early stage, venture funded companies in organization and human resources development. She has been a Board member and Chair of both the Djerassi Resident Artists Program and Next Door Solutions to Domestic Violence. Her two sons attended Palo Alto schools, and two of her four grandsons live in the Bay Area. Pat lives in Palo Alto with her husband, Gene Segre, who is also a long time supporter of the arts.
Bern Beecham is a former mayor and councilmember of Palo Alto. He has a business background in Silicon Valley and continues to be involved in technical efforts, such as bringing Fiber To The Premises in Palo Alto, and other volunteer efforts such as improving Palo Alto libraries and Stanford University's hospitals.
Dory Toft Bleich has provided graphic design and copywriting services in Palo Alto since 1999. In addition she recently co-founded Meridian I.D., providing promotional marketing services to Bay Area businesses. Dory lives in Palo Alto with her husband and two children, all of whom have taken classes, toured many exhibits and enjoyed countless events at the Art Center.
Gwen Books, a resident of the peninsula for forty years, is the founder of Lifestyle Management, a personal concierge management and luxury travel planning service. She traces her interest in art to a high school field trip to UCLA to view a Picasso exhibit and Sister Corita Kent’s serigraphs. She believes art is an essential aspect in the lives of young children and enrolled her son in Art Center classes. Gwen finds inspiration in wandering through museums, traveling and exploring architecture all over the world. She collects Bay Area figurative artists and African art - perhaps an odd combination to some, but Gwen feels borders & boundaries are always merging and Africa is one of her favorite places to visit.
Michael Dreyfus is a residential real estate broker with Dreyfus Properties in Palo Alto. He has worked in the residential brokerage business since 1990 and holds a B.A. from UCLA and a Juris Doctor from Hastings College of the Law. He is also a member of the California Bar Association.
Jeannie Duisenberg, a Palo Alto resident, recently retired as the Director of Communications at Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale. In the late 1970s, she sat on the Palo Alto Cultural Center Guild (now the Foundation) Board of Directors, after founding Project Look! under the Guild’s umbrella. Jeannie is an emeritus board member of the San Jose Repertory Theatre and she has long been interested in promoting arts and arts education in the community. Her interests and activities clearly coincided with the Foundation’s mission, and Jeannie joined the Board in 2001.
Alyssa Filteris a Certified Public Accountant and is currently working as a senior associate in the Assurance and Advisory division at Frank, Rimerman & Company LLP. Through Frank, Rimerman, she has worked with various not-for-profit organizations and has a passion for the industry. She is also involved in the Firm’s Sustainability group, working with the Community Initiative whose goal is centered on contributions to local communities. Although she very little artistic ability, she appreciates art in its many forms, as well as the importance of art education and community resources.
Natasha Kurtova French brings to the board a diverse background and experience. A graduate of Moscow State University's School of Journalism, Natasha wrote for a number of Russian national magazines and newspapers, reporting on art, culture and politics. She came to the United States in 1990 to participate in the John Knight Fellowship program for journalists at Stanford University. She subsequently earned an MBA from UC Berkeley and worked at global and start-up high technology companies in Silicon Valley. She moved into the banking industry, mostly recently with The Private Bank of the Peninsula. Natasha has, for several years, been actively involved with local non-profit organizations. She served on the board of The El Camino Youth Symphony and the Pacific Art League. Art has been Natasha's hobby and passion throughout her adult life.
Joanne Gee worked with many national businesses as a senior project manager until early retirement two years ago from a large telecommunications corporation. She previously served as a member of the Belmont Arts Council and on the board of trustees of a non-profit, Peninsula dance company. Her interest in art has been primarily as an art enthusiast. She has dabbled in brush painting and stained glass. Her passionate belief is that everyone should have an early introduction to all forms of art and then have that introduction develop and grow with attentive nurturing.
Anne Gregor brings to the Board a dozen years of experience with the Junior Arts Center in Los Angeles, where she served as president and board member. Anne is particularly interested in the role art plays in child development. Anne is a past President of the Foundation Board.
Mary Kelley has held senior positions at Charles Schwab & Co., Foote Cone and Belding, Tradenable, Communications Satellite Corporation and Prodigy and served as a consultant to venture capital companies. She learned to support the arts from a young age in Cleveland where her family was deeply involved with the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Art Institute. She holds a Fine Arts degree
from Harvard and an M.Sc from MIT's Sloan School of Management. Mary worked for several arts related publications in New York, including Artforum and Art in America. She is particularly interested in ensuring there is continuing support for local access to art classes, artists and exhibits.
Karen Kienzle (ex officio) In her current position as Director of the Palo Alto Art Center, Karen Kienzle oversees a vibrant organization that contributes arts programming to the community through exhibitions, public programs, educational events, and art classes for adults and children. She manages the Art Center staff, administers the budget, oversees marketing and outreach, and interfaces with our supporting Palo Alto Art Center Foundation (a private nonprofit that supports the Art Center through fundraising and advocacy). Kienzle looks forward to continuing the Palo Alto Art Center’s tradition of excellence in all aspects of its programming. Contributing her experience in and passion for audience development, community outreach, collaboration, and marketing, Kienzle plans to expand the Art Center’s impact in the community.
Prior to her appointment at the Palo Alto Art Center, Kienzle served as Assistant Director for Exhibitions, Education, and Community Outreach at the de Saisset Museum at Santa Clara University. In that capacity, she managed the exhibition program for the museum (six to twelve temporary exhibitions per year). During her seven-year tenure she established an excellent record of creating and scheduling scholarly, thought-provoking, and interdisciplinary—but also accessible and compelling—exhibitions. In generating her own solo and group exhibitions, as well as coordinating packaged and permanent collection exhibitions, her approach to programming reflects her commitment to diversity in the context of ethnicity, gender, age, and media.
Kienzle also worked as Assistant Curator and Curatorial Assistant at the San Jose Museum of Art. Kienzle has held curatorial intern positions at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Oakland Museum of California, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. She received her B.A. in the history of art from U.C. Berkeley and her M.A. in museum studies from San Francisco State University.
When Patty McGuigan started in the commercial real estate business in the 1980s, she was one of the first women in her field. She now is a Senior Vice President at Cornish & Carey Commercial, where she has completed thousands of transactions in the 25 years of business. Before joining Cornish & Carey Commercial, Patty, a UCLA graduate, taught high school English for 13 years. Patty served on the board of the Triton Museum for 7 years, is a member of the Council of 100 at the San Jose Art Museum and belongs to 24 other museums everywhere. A list of things she loves: bicycling, yoga, reading, art, sketching, writing, traveling, golf, her husband, her children, her grandchild, Palo Alto and Aptos.
Roxanne Mehta is a passionate advocate for the crucial role that art and design education can play in the intellectual development of children, no matter what career or interests they may pursue as adults. Her joy is in observing and helping to nurture the creative instinct that is present in every child. Roxane serves on the Board of the Palo Alto Council of PTAs as Arts Chair, and lives in Palo Alto with her husband and three children. Reading and cooking are two of her favorite pastimes.
Deborah Pappas is SVP and Manger of the Palo Alto office of Borel Private Bank & Trust. Ms. Pappas started her career with Borel in 1993 as a commercial lending officer in the San Mateo office. In the Borel spirit of community involvement, Ms. Pappas is active in the Palo Alto community and serves on the Board of the Palo Alto Downtown Association, is President Elect of the Palo Alto University Rotary Club and is current Membership Chair of the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce. She has 2 teenage daughters and is married to Palo Alto native, Steve Pappas.
Kristen Rampe is a senior manager with Frank, Rimerman Consulting a division of Palo Alto based Frank, Rimerman & Company, LLP. She is a CPA and art enthusiast, having filled her life with art since a young age including a summer abroad at the Pont-Aven School of Contemporary Art in France. Kristen has worked with the Foundation since 2005.
Carol Rutlen is a CPA and the managing partner of Rutlen Associates LLC. Carol brings to her clients over 25 years of experience with extensive concentration in tax and human resource issues associated with international tax, expatriate assignments and global stock plans. Prior to starting her own business, Carol was a partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers and was the partner-in-charge of their global stock practice and the International Assignment Services in northern California. Carol also founded and served as CEO of ExpatEdge, a software company focusing on the unique needs of mobile employees.
Loren Saxe has lived in Palo Alto for the past 50 years except for 6 post-Paly years in southern California where he received MBA from UCLA and subsequently earned his CPA. He has servied in various financial/investment capacities since then. Loren has served on the boards of many local non-profit organizations over the past 30 years, most recently, Theatreworks, where he served a term as Board Chair. He has no artistic talent but rather a deep appreciation of the transformative power of the arts in its many forms. His interests include cycling, running, travelling and sports, especially baseball.
Jan Schachter is an award-winning ceramic artist, working out of a studio (Plum Tree Pottery) in her home in Portola Valley. Jan enjoys making pots for everyday use. Her casserole is in the permanent collection of the Renwick Gallery, National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Jan is a member of Baulines Crafts Guild and serves on the board of the Association of Clay & Glass Artists of California. Jan is the Co-President of the Foundation.
Teri Vershel brings over 13 years of experience working at many high-tech companies, including Intel, Hewlett-Packard and Netscape, to the Art Center. More recently she has been involved in Palo Alto schools, serving on various boards and chairing fundraising efforts. Her love of art has spurred volunteerism in various Bay Area art museums. She joined the Foundation Board in 2003. She lives in Palo Alto with her husband, Mark, and two children, Rachel and Leo. Teri is the Co-President of the Foundation.
Robin Welles has lived in Palo Alto for 18 years. She travels extensively with her husband, Daniel. She has been a committed volunteer at the Art Center since 1987. Robin’s early background is in dramatic and musical arts, but more recently she has taken up sculpting.
Kristin Wu