MEET THE SILICON VALLEY ENCORE FELLOWS

The Silicon Valley Encore Fellows program, now in its second year, awards yearlong, paid Encore Fellowships for former corporate employees in California’s Silicon Valley. Program costs, including each fellow’s $25,000 stipend, are covered by a combination of funding from The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, corporate sponsors Hewlett Packard, Agilent Technologies and Legacy Venture, and participating nonprofits.

• 2010 Fellows
• 2009 Fellows

2010 Silicon Valley Encore Fellows

Betsy Balassone

Balassone brings business and international experience in finance and sales from IBM, Wachovia National Bank, and Hoffmann-La Roche and has served on the boards of several non-profits, conducted national events, and led annual and capital fundraising campaigns. As a member of the Encore Fellowships Network team at Civic Ventures, she is leveraging her business development and management skills to partner with organizations to design and establish new programs in conjunction with the national expansion of the Encore Fellowships Network.

Bill Blodgett and Mee Leng Wang

Blodgett and Wang have a combined 54 years of experience in various marketing and customer support roles at HP and are “job-sharing” their fellowship. They are partnering to bring business development and change management expertise to Experience Corps Bay Area, a program of the state-wide nonprofit, Aspiranet. Experience Corps engages older adults as tutors for children in urban public schools.

Marc Burton

Burton has enjoyed a wide-ranging 31-year career in Banking and Financial Services, including roles as Regional Vice President/Commercial Lending at San Francisco Federal and Vice President/Commercial Mortgage Banking with Wells Fargo. Marc brings his business skills in finance, management and marketing to Environmental Volunteers (EV) to assist with strategic planning and develop marketing practices geared towards organizational growth and expansion. Environmental Volunteers provides natural science and environmental education programs to local schools, helping fill a critical gap in science education.

Mark Cator

Cator is leveraging his 25-plus years in sales and sales development management experience at Apple Inc. to help Legacy Works, an organization focused on magnifying the philanthropic efforts of its members, develop and launch programs designed to engage Legacy members and increase their philanthropic impact. Mark’s corporate experience included heading up the Western Region Education Industry sales team for Apple.

Janice Edwards

A talk show host, executive television producer, and community relations director who worked at the local NBC and CBS stations in Silicon Valley and San Francisco, Edwards is putting her expertise to work on the communications strategy and implementation at Partners in School Innovation, a nonprofit that supports public schools in low-income Bay Area communities in achieving educational equity through school-based reform. PSI works directly with educators at the grade, school and district levels and serves students of color and English learners.

Liane Freeman

Liane Freeman has extensive cross-functional experience, leading the development and introduction of innovative customer relationship practices, strategic planning, organizational design and program execution at Intuit and EPRI. Liane is now leveraging her corporate background and her experience as an instructor at several Bay Area community colleges serving as the Director of Strategic Planning at the Krause Center for Innovation, an educational nonprofit that provides professional development for K-12 teachers and focuses on integrating innovative technologies into the curriculum to improve student outcomes.

Mike Gallagher

Gallagher spent his entire career at Hewlett Packard/Agilent Technologies managing marketing and marketing communications functions. Mike is doing research for Civic Ventures to determine the market potential, feasibility and fit for Encore Fellows working in rural county governments and school districts. He will do an in depth study to determine the core needs, interest level, delivery model and the value of the services that could be provided to widely dispersed and remote counties. Mike has volunteered in a number of local government and non profit organizations.

Mark Judge

After beginning his professional life at Hope Services, Mark Judge left the nonprofit sector for a career in children’s publishing. His 22 years at Klutz, a publisher of children’s activity books, included the role of Vice President of worldwide sales and marketing. This is serving him well in his market research role at Youth Science Institute (YSI) of Santa Clara Valley. YSI delivers science education programs to more than 30,000 children annually in support of the mission: “To inspire enthusiasm for science and a love of learning.”

Janet Pretti

Pretti spent 20 years at Hewlett Packard in a range of sales, marketing, and international assignments and served most recently as Vice President of Worldwide Channel Marketing. She brings her extensive business and leadership experience to oversee new initiatives at Resource Area For Teaching (RAFT) that will enhance STEM education for students, involve community volunteers, and assess RAFT's impact on teaching and learning. RAFT develops hands-on activities aligned to curriculum content, serving over 8500 teachers and transforming learning for hundreds of thousands of students.

Kim Wisckol

Wisckol brings more than 25 years of experience in Human Resources at Hewlett Packard, where she was a Vice President, and at Accuray Incorporated. Wisckol is applying her extensive experience in human resources and change management to assess the current structures and processes at Partners in School Innovation and will design and implement programs and processes to support their mission and scaling plan. Before working at HP, Kim served in social service organization in Vista, California providing services to youth, families, the homeless and senior citizens.

2009 Fellows

Scott Allen

Scott Allen focused his extensive executive experience and expertise in small business management and marketing in publishing at MacAdam CAGE Publishing and in the financial sector to create a business plan for an encore careers job-matching system in California. He is currently finishing up his fellowship at Aspiranet, a statewide network of family, adoption, foster care, after-school and education programs in California.

John Armstrong

John Armstrong, a financial analyst and marketing specialist who worked at a private financial consulting firm, the Hewlett Packard Company and in the Peace Corps, put his expertise to work on the communications strategy and its implementation at Environmental Volunteers, a nonprofit that works with trained volunteers to deliver environmental education throughout Silicon Valley. Armstrong is now the Collaborations Project Manager at Environmental Volunteers, heading up “Science by Nature.”

Nigel Ball

Nigel Ball served in various senior marketing roles for 24 years at Hewlett Packard, leaving in 2008 as a Vice President. In his fellowship, he applied his marketing expertise and strategic partnership skills to help expand Resource Area For Teaching (RAFT), a teacher support organization that provides low-cost materials, tools and strategies to enhance hands-on math, science and art education in California’s San Mateo County. The organization hired Ball as its Marketing Director during his Fellowship.

Gina Cassinelli

Gina Cassinelli leveraged her 20-plus years' marketing experience at Hewlett Packard, including her role as Vice President of Enterprise Solutions Partners, to raise awareness with the public and key partners about the entrepreneurial work at Citizen Schools, a national nonprofit that partners with middle schools to enhance learning for low-income children. Cassinelli is serving as interim Executive Director for the last three months of her Fellowship.

Leslye Louie and Lyle Hurst

Leslye Louie and Lyle Hurst were both Vice Presidents and General Managers at Hewlett Packard, with a combined 50 years’ experience in marketing, sales, finance, operations and business development. They worked together at Partners in School Innovation, a nonprofit that works with low-performing urban public elementary schools to achieve educational equity through school-based reform. Their job share fellowship increased the group’s impact through performance management and marketing. Louie also served as interim Executive Director during a transition in the organization’s leadership. Louie and Hurst continue to work at Partners while leading the national expansion of the Encore Fellowships Network.

Luanne Meyer

Luanne Meyer brought more than two decades of experience and expertise as a director managing primary market research projects and teams, including work in the biotech and health care industries, to her fellowship. She provided marketing expertise and strategic program planning assistance while helping to build new partnerships at Youth Community Service, a community education partnership that builds civic engagement and positive youth development for middle and high school students.

James Otieno

James Otieno, originally from Kenya, has 23 years of experience working in Silicon Valley, including Vice President in human resources at Hewlett Packard. He spearheaded improving human resources systems and management, while helping with strategic planning, at the Silicon Valley Education Foundation (SVEF), which partners with the private sector and education community to improve public education. Now Otieno is a Vice President in new business ventures at SVEF.

Bill Pace

Bill Pace has 25 years’ experience as a senior executive providing strategic management consulting services, including roles as CEO and President at Kurt Salmon Associates. Pace worked to develop a business plan to expand the Encore.org web site for Civic Ventures, a think tank on boomers, work and social purpose. Pace also spent half of his fellowship working as part of a team with Scott Allen, another Encore Fellow, at Aspiranet.

Louise Smith

Louise Smith has a doctorate in social psychology and more than 20 years of experience in marketing, business and systems development in senior roles in the technology sector, including work at Apple and BEA Systems. During her fellowship, she helped the Community School of Music and Arts develop a comprehensive marketing and outreach plan. In May, Louise began working as the Director of Marketing for RAFT, the Resource Area for Teachers, working on a part-time basis to facilitate enjoying both a new nonprofit encore career and her other interests.