The Board of Trustees

Alegria Barclay

Equity & Inclusion Committee

Friend of TBS

Alegria Barclay serves as the Director of Social Justice and Equity at the Nueva School. Alegria has a long history of fighting for social change both within schools and the non-profit world. She has taught homeless youth to write poetry, supported rape survivors in their journey towards healing, helped LGBTQ students to feel included, lobbied for more diversity in young adult literature, and currently runs a four-day Equity & Inclusion Institute for prek-12 educators.

Having grown up and taught overseas across four continents, Alegria is a firm believer in both our shared humanity and our richly complex diversity. A queer woman of color, a mother of two, a poet, and an educator, she believes in inspiring others to exercise their radical imagination in building the Beloved Community.

Allison Macbeth

Chair, Governance Committee

Where are you based, and where have you lived?
Richmond, California, grew up in Southern California

What is your relationship to TBS? Do you have kids attending TBS (currently, in the past, or potentially in the future)
Parent of Fifth Grader at TBS

What are your areas of expertise or fields of study? Where did you study and why?
Law School Instructor and Attorney in Public Service

What Matters in Education is:
Support to encourage and inspire lifelong learning.

Current Parent

Andy Singer

Finance Committee

Originally from Chicago, IL, where he attended the Francis W. Parker School, Andy Singer is a parent of twin boys in 6th grade at TBS and lives with his family in the Rockridge neighborhood in Oakland.

Andy has a BA in Government from Hamilton College and an MBA from the University of Maryland, Robert H. Smith School of Business. He has worked in the high-tech industry for more than 25 years, serving in leadership positions in large public companies and venture-backed startups. He is currently the Vice President of Marketing for a cyber security startup company.

Since moving to Oakland in 2007, Andy has served in several volunteer leadership positions. From 2007 to 2009, he served as the District 1 representative to the City of Oakland Budget Advisory Committee. In 2015, when his children entered kindergarten at Chabot Elementary, part of the Oakland Unified School District, he served four years on the Chabot Elementary PTA Board of Directors. Andy served as the Vice-Chair of the Annual Fund campaign from 2015 to 2017 and then as Vice President of Fundraising from 2017 to 2019. From 2020 to 2021, Andy, selected by the Oakland Unified School District Board of Directors, served as the District 1 representative to the Equitable Enrollment Working Group, where he developed recommendations for revising the district’s enrollment policy. Andy joined the TBS Finance Committee in the Fall of 2021.

 

Current Parent

Brian Scott Ambrosch

Board Chair, Advancement Committee

Where are you based, and where have you lived?
I am based in Richmond, CA after moving around the Bay with stints in Albany, San Francisco, and Oakland. Prior to that I lived in Mystic, CT, Dryden, NY and Ithaca, NY.

What brings you to the TBS Board and to the TBS community?
My son started attending TBS in the 3rd grade and after seeing how great the school operated on so many levels I decided to start volunteering in a number of areas, from class room coordinator to a member of the Advancement Committee. From there I joined the board as Chair of the Advancement Committee and then, in the start of my second term, I became the chair of the board. We came to TBS after realizing that the school we were at was not academically challenging enough for our son. After looking around we found that TBS had the perfect balance of Social and emotional work and academics alongside civic engagement and was a goldilocks school in our eyes - not too big and not too small.

What is your relationship to TBS? Do you have kids attending TBS (currently, in the past, or potentially in the future)?
My son graduated from 8th grade in 2022.

What are your areas of expertise or fields of study? Where did you study and why?
My field of expertise is in entertainment and production. For the past 30 years I have performed as a professional magician, worked as a performance consultant and I produce events both in person and online.

What are your hobbies?
I love to work in my little urban farm with my gardens, chickens and bees. I also have a love of model trains and collect books and oddities.

What is your superpower?
I can find lost items.

What Matters in Education is:
Wonder.

Current Parent

Carol Starks

Governance Committee

Originally from the Chicago Area, Carol has been living and working in the Bay Area since 2008. She completed her undergraduate studies at Indiana University in Clinical Laboratory Studies and completed graduate studies from Rosalind Franklin School of Medicine and Science in both Healthcare Management and Clinical Laboratory Sciences with a focus in Transfusion Medicine.

She has 35 years experience in laboratory medicine, and 20 years in medical education holding positions as department director, clinical rotation coordinator, and part time lecturer. 

Carol has also worked as an evaluator and application review committee member for the Accreditation Bureau of Health Education Schools for 20 years. Currently Carol is employed by Kaiser Permanente as the Assistant Laboratory Administrative Director, Laboratory Quality and Compliance at the Oakland campus. She recently gained Fellow status in 2019 with the American College of Healthcare Executives.

Catherine Hunter

Chair, Head Support & Evaluation Committee

What Matters in Education is:
continually stoking each child’s natural curiosity by asking provocative and challenging questions, and encouraging exploration through trial and error.

Cathy Hunter has been an educator for over forty years; in the Bay Area she served as Upper School Head at Head-Royce School and as the founding head of San Francisco Friends School. Cathy is currently serving as a leadership search consultant with RG175, where she is particularly interested in advancing women and people of color into senior leadership positions. As Board Chair, Cathy helped the California Teacher Development Collaborative (CATDC) begin a branch in Southern California, expanding upon its impactful work in the Bay Area. CATDC programs now reach hundreds of educators each year.

Community Member

Deborah Volk

Board Secretary, Finance Committee

Where are you based, and where have you lived?
I am in the East Bay and have lived on both coasts.

What brings you to the TBS Board and to the TBS community?
My son is a graduate of TBS, and I want to support this school that nurtured him for a decade.

What is your relationship to TBS? Do you have kids attending TBS (currently, in the past, or potentially in the future)?
My son is an alum.

What are your areas of expertise or fields of study? Where did you study and why?
I have small business experience wrapped around technical expertise. I have a liberal arts education that supported my studies into mathematics, physics and computer science.

What are your hobbies?
I enjoy a lot of different things.

What Matters in Education is:
Fostering a life-long love of learning; for without that, individual, community and global growth gets stunted.

Current Parent

Fabiano Valerio

Board Vice Chair and Chair, Equity & Inclusion Committee

Where are you based, and where have you lived?
I am from Brazil. I moved from Brazil to Miami. In 2011, we moved from Miami to the Bay Area. I am based in Richmond, California.

What brings you to the TBS Board and to the TBS community?
I felt part of a community when Noah joined TBS. The school focuses on educating the individual student rather than just imparting knowledge. I also liked the school's focus on social-emotional learning. I became part of the Board because I wanted to give back to the TBS community.

What is your relationship to TBS? Do you have kids attending TBS (currently, in the past, or potentially in the future)?
My son, Noah, is in eighth grade.

What are your areas of expertise or fields of study? Where did you study and why?
I attended college at the University of Miami. I got a Juris Doctor from the U.C. Berkeley School of Law. I used to manage a supply chain consultancy before attending law school.

I currently manage the Immigration Team of a nonprofit dedicated to making San Francisco the first city to provide universal access to free legal services.

What are your hobbies?
I love to run, hike, meditate, and nature.

What is your superpower?
My superpower is self-awareness.

Current Parent

Kate Ai Le

Chair, Equity & Inclusion Committee

Katherine brings experience working with Fortune 500 companies and nonprofit organizations to
implement change through cross-functional teams. A parent of two kids, she has been part of
the TBS community since 2012, supporting both the Early Childhood and K-8 campuses.
Currently she serves on the Equity & Inclusion Advisory Committee and the Strategic Planning
Task Force, bringing her knowledge of DEIB practices and change leadership to the Board.
Katherine has a BA in Psychology and Business Administration and is working toward a Master
of Science in Organization Development at Pepperdine University.

What Matters in Education is:
Developing critical thinkers and compassionate lifelong learners to engage our world in
transformational change toward a sustainable, equitable, and mutually beneficial future.

Current Parent

Leslie Cruz

1st/2nd Grade Teacher (Blackberry Creek Classroom)

Where are you based, and where have you lived?
I live in Oakland. I've lived in Seattle, WA Chicago, IL Los Angeles, CA Kansas City, MO Shanghai, China Torino, Italy Luxembourg.

What brings you to the TBS Board and to the TBS community?
For a school to be successful teacher voice must always be included. I am at the TBS community because it didn't feel performative and really seemed to value equity and inclusion.

What is your relationship to TBS? Do you have kids attending TBS (currently, in the past, or potentially in the future)?
I work for TBS.

What are your areas of expertise or fields of study? Where did you study and why?
Early Childhood and Elementary Education
Teaching, Curriculum, and Learning
Languages-Italian and Spanish

What are your hobbies?
Reading, trying new food, traveling, and laughing till my stomach hurts.

What is your superpower?
Vulnerability

BioLeslie Cruz (she/her) has been teaching for thirteen years. This is her third year at The Berkeley School. She began her teaching career in public schools and hopes to end there as well. She taught internationally for the subsequent seven years at various schools around the world and then ended up in the Bay Area. She believes that socio-emotional learning is just as important as any core academic subject. Leslie engages in practices that always keep students at the center. She believes that, to push for equity and justice, we must all believe in creating communities that care for each other and show up for each other. She is excited to return to teaching grades one and two next year.

Nancy Nagramada

Chair, Audit Committee

Where are you based, and where have you lived?
While I currently live in the city where I grew up, San Leandro, CA, I have lived in San Francisco, Sacramento, and Danville, CA, as well as in New York - in both Manhattan and Locust Valley.

What brings you to the TBS Board and to the TBS community?
I am a friend of TBS. I do not have children at the school.

What is your relationship to TBS? Do you have kids attending TBS (currently, in the past, or potentially in the future)?
I believe in TBS's mission and value the work the community does regarding civic engagement. I appreciate sharing my experience as an educator to support the Board's work in terms of the long-term duty of care for the TBS.

What are your areas of expertise or fields of study? Where did you study and why?
I have worked nearly 30 years in education, working with students and families from preschool to high school. I taught English and history for many years, led summer programs, and have administrative experience at varying levels in schools.

What are your hobbies?
Gardening, Music and Books of all kinds, Dance, Theater, Musical and Choral Singing, Home Cooking, Mixology.

What is your superpower?
Tireless Work Ethic.

What Matters in Education is:
Honing the skill of creative problem solving in our students. The world needs flexible, nimble thinkers who are unafraid to approach challenges with a what-if attitude.

Community Member

Samantha Snook

4th/5th Grade Teacher (Strawberry Creek Classroom)

What Matters in Education is:

Empathy and empowerment. Let’s empower our children to feel deeply and lift up others.

Sarah O’Rourke King

Advancement Committee

Where are you based, and where have you lived?
Based - Richmond, CA

What brings you to the TBS Board and to the TBS community?
Our family has been a part of the TBS community since our older daughter started at the ECC in the Eugenia classroom. I have loved being a part of the school serving as classroom coordinators, family association lead and now as part of the board for the last six years.

What is your relationship to TBS? Do you have kids attending TBS (currently, in the past, or potentially in the future)?
Current Parent - Maggie (4th grade in Cerrito) and Abby (TBS Alum)

What are your areas of expertise or fields of study?
Journalism and Marketing

What are your hobbies?
Right now my kids are my hobbies but when I am not driving them all over for youth sports, I like to be outside, foster animals, read and craft.

What is your superpower?
Bringing people together!

What Matters in Education is:
Developing a natural curiosity to be a lifelong learner.

Current Parent

Taryn Grogan

Advancement Committee

Where are you based, and where have you lived?
Born and raised in San Francisco, Lived in Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco, San Bruno

What brings you to the TBS Board and to the TBS community?
I joined the board as a community member in 2017. I've been in the world of independent school education for over 20 years and have been a long time admirer of TBS. This community has and continues to provide experiential, authentic, and nurturing learning experiences for young children through young teens. The heart of TBS is big and evident. I was honored to be considered to join the Board to support the work of the school and students.

What is your relationship to TBS? Do you have kids attending TBS (currently, in the past, or potentially in the future)
External community member.

What are your areas of expertise or fields of study? Where did you study and why?
I studied Mass Communication, Television and Radio, at UC Berkeley and San Francisco State University. While my profession is not currently in this field, I absolutely use the skills I developed in my undergrad and graduate studies. I chose this area of study to change the news. I wanted to produce the news, since I wasn't pleased with how the news stories are developed and/or covered.

What are your hobbies?
Volunteering for important causes!

What is your superpower?
Making people laugh!

What Matters in Education is:
The opportunity to question, learn, grow, and dig deep in a safe and nurturing community.

Community Member

Tim Nunes

Head Support & Evaluation Committee

Where are you based, and where have you lived?
Based in Berkeley, CA. Have lived in several different places across the US (Louisiana, Indiana, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, SF.)

What is your relationship to TBS? Do you have kids attending TBS (currently, in the past, or potentially in the future)?Daughter Jaeda is in 7th grade, has been at TBS since ECC.

What are your areas of expertise or fields of study?
Education.

What is your superpower?
Not having any superpowers.

What Matters in Education is:
The details. Good ideas are abundant. How they are brought to life can determine if, and for whom, they work.

Current Parent

The Berkeley School is a not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) organization, and the bylaws of the corporation are available upon request. The TBS Board of Trustees is responsible for the long-term growth and prosperity of the school. Its primary role is to set the strategic direction for the school, ensuring its economic stability and financial future. Trustees represent current families, current faculty, alumni families, as well as the broader community. Board members are elected through a formally defined, multi-step process that begins with the Governance Committee.

Board of Trustees Blog

The TBS board maintains a blog to ensure that the school community understands the nature of independent school governance, is familiar with the processes and practices the board follows, and can follow the work that trustees undertake each year.

We hope that reading about the board’s activities will help all community members feel informed about the school’s future and encourage those interested in learning more to connect with us.

Our Mission

Ignite Curious Minds
Awaken Generous Hearts
Engage a Changing World

K – 8 Campus

1310 University Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94702
(510) 665-8800

Early Childhood Campus

2030 Francisco Street
Berkeley, CA 94709
(510) 849-8340

Ignite Curious Minds
Awaken Generous Hearts
Engage a Changing World

K – 8 Campus

1310 University Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94702
(510) 665-8800

Early Childhood Campus

2030 Francisco Street
Berkeley, CA 94709
(510) 849-8340

Connect