Board of Directors

RICK NOGUCHI,
PRESIDENT
President and CEO
California Humanities
Los Angeles

NEHA BALRAM,
BOARD CHAIR
Senior Government & Community Relations Representative
Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART)
Berkeley

DARYLE WILLIAMS
BOARD VICE CHAIR
Professor and Dean College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
University of California, Riverside
Riverside

RACHEL HATCH,
IMMEDIATE PAST BOARD CHAIR
Chief Operating Officer
Institute for the Future
Redding

MINA PARA MATLON,
BOARD TREASURER
Cultural Worker
Davis

KAREN MACK
SECRETARY
Founder and Executive Director
LA Commons
Los Angeles

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

ANDRES CHAVEZ
Executive Director
National Cesar Chavez Center 
Keene 

*SHIVA FARIVAR
Principal
SKF Consulting Services
Language Instructor
Irvine

*JUSTIN FICHELSON
Co-Founder & Co-CEO
Sidekick 
San Francisco 

*FRITZ FRIEDMAN
President
The Fritz Friedman Co.
San Diego

NILOFAR GARDEZI
Program Officer and Grants Manager
Dean & Margaret Lesher Foundation
Walnut Creek

RAFAEL LEMUS
Associate Professor of Spanish
Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures
California State University, Fresno
Fresno

ABE PECK 
Director of Business to Business Communications, Professor Emeritus in Service
Northwestern | Medill School
Santa Barbara

CHRISTOPHER H. PETERS (Puhlik-lah/Karuk) 
President
Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples
Eureka

GIL ROBERTSON
President
African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA)
Los Angeles

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

DEBORAH SANCHEZ (Chumash, O’odham and Raramuri)
LA County Superior Judge & Lecturer, American Indian Studies Program,
California State University, Long Beach

PENELOPE WONG
President
Penelope Wong & Associates
San Francisco