SAN JOSE, Calif., April 27, 2023 — Second Harvest of Silicon Valley appointed six new board members for the 22-23 fiscal year, who further deepen the experience and perspective of its board. The food bank is committed to selecting board members who bring meaningful and diverse professional and personal experience to the organization. Two years ago, Second Harvest initiated a process to prioritize most-needed areas of expertise as well as representation reflecting the diverse community the organization serves. It was also more intentional in efforts to identify Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) individuals as well as people with lived experience of food insecurity as candidates.
“Having access to a broad range of personal and professional experiences allows our board to make organizational decisions through a more diverse lens in order to deliver on our mission of ensuring everyone has access to nutritious food.” – CEO Leslie Bacho
“The result is that we have added board members this year who bring perspectives from personal experiences with hunger, inequities in chronic disease management, food insecurity among students, support within the Latino community and living in the U.S. as a first-generation immigrant,” said Leslie Bacho, CEO of Second Harvest.
Katharine Carroll is a founder and current managing partner at The reSolve Group, a residential real estate firm based in Palo Alto, CA. Carroll was a professional cyclist, competing both domestically and internationally with the U.S. National team. She has served on the National Leadership Council for the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and on the Executive Committee for the Silicon Valley chapter of Human Rights Watch (HRW). Along with her wife, Carroll began volunteering and donating to Second Harvest during the pandemic out of concern for families impacted by job loss and other hardships.
Dr. Mary Ann Dewan, the Santa Clara County Superintendent of Schools, has served in education for more than 35 years. As an experienced educator, Dr. Dewan has dedicated her career to championing equitable and inclusive education to provide all students with what they need to thrive. Her distinguished work in education reform and change leadership is grounded in her commitment to serving the community and underserved, vulnerable youth, and a mission that is centered around diversity, inclusion, equity and social justice. Under that mission, Dr. Dewan has been an advocate of universal meal programs to combat food insecurity. She has continually supported Second Harvest in its summer meals and universal school meals partnerships during the pandemic.
Patricia Legaspi is a Senior Director of Engineering at Google where she has worked for almost 20 years. The Bay Area native has led Engineering Productivity on multiple projects and teams and currently heads the Android Engineering Productivity team. The daughter of Mexican immigrants, Legaspi was raised in Oakland and earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Mills College in her hometown, Oakland. Her values around community and education drive her desire to serve the community. Legaspi has contributed to education and community support efforts via TechBridge and Oakland Dollars for Scholars. With her two daughters, she regularly volunteers at meal programs throughout the Bay Area.
Paul Yock is the Martha Meier Weiland Professor of Medicine, Emeritus, at Stanford University and Founding Co-Chair of Stanford’s Department of Bioengineering. He is the founder and former director of the Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign—a collaboration between university faculty and students to advance health outcomes and equity. He also established the Stanford Center for Research in Cardiovascular Interventions as a core laboratory for analysis of intravascular ultrasound clinical studies. Paul is known for his inventions that have improved care for millions of people around the world, including the Smart Needle and Rapid Exchange angioplasty and stenting system, which is the primary approach used worldwide. Paul volunteered at Second Harvest with his sons before joining the board.
Priya Smith is the Medical Group Administrator for the Permanente Medical Group, where she manages operations for multiple Kaiser Permanente sites in the Bay Area. Partnering with the Physician-in-Chief, Smith oversees approximately 500 physicians and 2,000 staff members to help ensure that more than 252,000 members receive exceptional health care. Through her work, Smith has long seen the connection between food security and positive health outcomes and is committed to providing excellent health care for all. She volunteered at Second Harvest for years before joining the board. Born in India and raised in Hong Kong, Priya received her bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences from Stanford University and her master’s in Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. She was recently elected as Vice Chair of the city of San Jose’s Work2Future Board and was past president of Leadership Morgan Hill.
Tony Gonzalez is a Senior Vice President and Private Client Advisor with Bank of America, Private Bank where he works with a individuals, families and business owners in Silicon Valley to meet their wealth management needs. It was through his work that Gonzalez first became a volunteer for Second Harvest. A graduate of the Lucas Graduate School of Business at San Jose State University, Gonzalez has actively held leadership roles championing diversity and inclusion at Bank of America and other organizations. He was a founding board member of the Silicon Valley Hispanic Organization and is a board member of the Latino Education Advancement Foundation. He is a first-generation Hispanic Latino who was born to immigrant parents from Mexico and remembers days without enough food to eat.
About Second Harvest of Silicon Valley
Founded in 1974, Second Harvest of Silicon Valley is one of the largest food banks in the nation and a trusted nonprofit leader in ending local hunger. The organization distributes nutritious food through a network of nearly 400 partners at more than 900 sites across Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. Due to the prohibitively expensive cost of living in Silicon Valley and the dramatic reduction in pandemic-era government support, Second Harvest is serving an average of about 500,000 people every month. Second Harvest also connects people to federal nutrition programs and other food resources, and advocates for anti-hunger policies on the local, state and national levels. To learn more about how Second Harvest is responding to the incredible amount of need in Silicon Valley, visit shfb.org
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Please contact Diane Baker Hayward at dbakerhayward@shfb.org or 408-266-8866, ext. 368.
