Board of Directors

CALIFORNIA HUMANITIES BOARD MEMBERS

BENNETT PEJI, BOARD CHAIR
Community Impact Officer
San Diego

ALEX ESPINOZA, BOARD VICE CHAIR
Professor, Department of Creative Writing
Tomás Rivera Endowed Chair of Creative Writing
UC Riverside

NANCY RIDDLE, TREASURER
Chief Financial Officer
WestEd
San Francisco

WENDA FONG, SECRETARY
Co-Founder & Chairperson Emeritus
Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment (CAPE)
Los Angeles

BRIAN AGUILAR
Deputy Director
Center for California Studies
California State University, Sacramento

*ROBERT MAILER ANDERSON
CEO
UpCal Entertainment
San Francisco

BRENDA WONG AOKI
Co-Founder & Artistic Director
First Voice
San Francisco

THOMAS K. ARNOLD
Publisher and Editorial Director
Media Play News
Carlsbad

NEHA BALRAM
Program Analyst—Cultural Affairs
City of Oakland
Oakland

DR. HONORA CHAPMAN
Associate Dean
College of Arts & Humanities
California State University, Fresno

*SHIVA FARIVAR
Principal
SKF Consulting Services
Language Instructor
Irvine

*FRITZ FRIEDMAN
President
The Fritz Friedman Co.
San Diego

RACHEL HATCH
Program Officer—Community Vitality
The McConnell Foundation
Redding

PATSY HICKS
Director of Education
Santa Barbara Museum of Art
Santa Barbara

MINA PARA MATLON
Managing Director
Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life
Davis

CHERYL ALETHIA PHELPS
Communications Director
ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties

OLIVER ROSALES
Professor of History
Bakersfield College
Bakersfield

DR. BIDHAN CHANDRA ROY
Professor of English
California State University, Los Angeles
Founder of WordsUncaged
Los Angeles

JOHN SZABO
City Librarian
Los Angeles Public Library
Los Angeles

JENNIFER MAYTORENA TAYLOR
Associate Professor
Department of Film and Digital Media and Social Documentation MFA Program
University of California, Santa Cruz

MARY VALENTINE
Former College Professor, Photographer
Los Angeles

JESSICA WEARE
Vice President of Corporate Responsibility
Silicon Valley Community Foundation
Mountain View

PENELOPE WONG
President
Penelope Wong & Associates
San Francisco

*Gubernatorial Appointees

NOMINATE A NEW BOARD MEMBER:

California Humanities seeks board nominations on a revolving basis to serve three-year terms on its Board. For more information, please click for Board Committee Descriptions. If you would like to nominate a new board member please download the form below and email it to nominate@calhum.org. Candidates must be nominated by someone other than themselves. Download the Nomination Form

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