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Jess Brown, President
Executive Director, Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau Jess Brown serves as executive director of the Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau and the educational organization, Agri-Culture. Jess’ involvement in the community includes president of the Tannery Arts Center, past-president of the Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County, the Monterey Museum of Art, Cabrillo College Foundation and Goodwill Industries. Jess was a founder of the F.O.O.D. Crops organization (now named Ag Against Hunger) that has distributed, since its inception in 1990, 185 million pounds of donated local produce to people in need. Jess is a graduate of the California Agricultural Leadership Program that studied in Japan, China and Hong Kong. He was a National McCloy Fellow studying in Germany and a Rotary Group Study Exchange Fellow studying in Denmark. Jess has volunteered five times to teach organizational skills to re-settled farmers in Zimbabwe. He has also taught financial skills to agro dealers in Mozambique. |
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Brian King, President-Elect
President and Superintendent, Cabrillo College
Brian King earned his Bachelor's at the University of Missouri, from where he went on to Duke University, to earn his JD. Since 2004, Brian King has been working to bring new professors to Cabrillo College after many went into retirement. Under his guidance, Cabrillo College has been selected as one of twelve colleges to participate in the California Leadership Academy for Student Success. |
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Patrice Edwards, Past President
CEO, Times Publishing Group
Patrice Edwards started Times Publishing Group back in 1991, which has established itself as one of the leading newspapers in the Santa Cruz Area. In 2008, she was appointed to a 4 year term by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to serve on the Santa Cruz County Fair board. There she aims to grow the fair as well as the interim events at the fair. |
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Charles Eadie, Past President
Prinicpal Associate, Hamilton Swift Land Management
Charles Eadie has over 15 years of public agency and consulting experience in planning and redevelopment, including work as Director of Campus and Community Planning at UC Santa Cruz, and in the cities of Santa Cruz and Watsonville. He has extensive experience managing and processing land use and development entitlements. He was project manager for the Santa Cruz Downtown Recovery Plan following the Loma Prieta Earthquake, and played a key role in housing and economic recovery in Watsonville. |
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Donna Blitzer, VP Community Affairs
Director, Government & Community Relations, University of California, Santa Cruz
Donna Blitzer has served as the Director of Government Relations for the University of California Santa Cruz campus since May, 2001. She serves as the campus liaison to local, state and federal elected officials, government agencies and community organizations and neighborhood groups. She organizes advocacy programs to support the legislative priorities of the university and works with a broad constituency both on and off campus.
Prior to joining UCSC, Donna spent eighteen years in the district office of Congressman Sam Farr as his district Chief of Staff while he was in both the state Assembly and the U.S. House of Representatives. During that time she worked on issues such as the establishment of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, the conversion of the former Fort Ord to civilian uses, the 1992 National Oceans Conference and Pajaro River flood control. She helped to organize four presidential visits by President Bill Clinton to the Monterey Bay region including the dedication of California State University, Monterey Bay. She has been awarded a Congressional Record, state Senate and Assembly Resolution and several Mayoral proclamations in recognition of her service to the Monterey Bay region.
Donna is on the Board of Directors of the Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce and O’Neill Sea Odyssey, She is a graduate of U C Santa Cruz and has lived on the Westside of Santa Cruz since 1980. She and her husband, Rob, are fortunate that their two grown daughters and five grandchildren all live in the Santa Cruz area. |
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Eric Summers, VP Finance
Vice President, Comerica Bank
Eric Summers attended California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo, graduating with a BS in Business Administration-Financial Management. While attending college, Summers worked for Mid-State Bank & Trust. Since 2005 he has been with Comerica Bank, developing customer relationships by managing new businesses. |
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Kirsti Scott, VP Marketing
Principal, Scott Design Inc
Kirsti is the Creative Director and founder of web design firm Scott Design, providing creative marketing services to the technology industry. Kirsti was previously an art director at CKS Partners, where she created logos, brochures, packaging, and more for Apple Computer, IBM, and other large corporate clients. Earlier, she worked as a software engineer specializing in interface design at Decision Focus Inc. and IBM. Kirsti is a TEDxSantaCruz organizer, is one of the co-founders of 100 Women Who Care Santa Cruz, and is a Girl Scout leader in Aptos for a group of energetic high school seniors. She studied French and political science in Paris at L'École des Sciences Politiques and La Sorbonne and has degrees in Economics from Stanford University and in Graphic Design from Rhode Island School of Design. |
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Duf Fischer, VP Membership,
Chamber Consultant and Past President
Graduate of UC Santa Barbara with degree in economics and accounting. Served in the U.S. Army 8 years. Founded F & M Engineering Construction, Inc. Owner, Partner, President, Executive V.P. of many travel organizations. Community Service: President Santa Cruz Jaycees, President Santa Cruz Area Chamber of Commerce, President Miss California Scholarship Pageant, Chairman Santa Cruz City Planning Commision, Chairman Animal Protection Institute, Chairman Advisory Board, Coast Commercial Bank, Chairman Board of Directors, Family Service Association, Board Director, Rotary Club of Santa Cruz, Served as political advanceman for Ronald Reagan. Delegate to the White House Conference on Small Business and Delegate to the first ever White House Conference on Travel and Tourism. Served as Congress Chairman for ASTA 61st World Travel Congress in Taipei,Taiwan. |
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Janene F. Adema, Membership Committee
VP of Business Development, Bay Federal Credit Union
Starting her career with Pacific Western Bank, bought by Commerica Bank, Janene quickly established herself as a motivational leader and showed her ability to maximize profits for her company. Throughout the next twenty years, she would implement her strategies for efficiency, teamwork and sales success with such companies as Monterey Bay Bank, Robobank, and Bay Federal Credit Union. Her experience enabled her to start her own business, Moving Through It, in 2010. She is currently the Business Development Manager of Bay Federal Credit Union. She has worked with the Chamber for several years, serving on the Women in Business Committee and as former Vice President. Janene has served as a Hospice bereavement counselor volunteer for over ten years, is active as a member of the Santa Cruz Rotary Club, and has served on the board for the Boys and Girls Club of Santa Cruz. She is a graduate of Bethany University with a degree in Psychology, and along with her work at Bay Federal, is currently getting her Masters in Clinical Psychology, with an emphasis on Marriage Family Therapy at Simpson University. |
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Emily Bernard, Board Member
Principal, Dell Williams Jewelers
Emily Bernard graduated from Harbor High School in 1997. She then attended UCLA, where she earned a bachelor's in American literature and culture. She is the 4th generation of her family to work at Dell Williams Jewelers. She is married to Ryan Coonerty, the former mayor of Santa Cruz. |
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Mary Gourlay Board Member
Project Manager Barry Swenson Builder
Mary Gourlay attended Kansas State for her Undergraduate and Harvard for her Master’s degree. Shortly after completing her degree in Urban Design from Harvard, Mary Gourlay joined Santa Cruz powerhouse Barry Swenson Builder as a Project manager. |
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David Heald, Board Member
President/CEO and Board Member, Santa Cruz County Bank
In October 2003, David was recruited as a Board Member and the Executive Chief Credit Officer to start up the community's local bank, Santa Cruz County Bank. In March of 2006, David was promoted to President and CEO of the bank. Prior to this, David had a 21 year career at Coast Commercial Bank where he was an original Sr. Management team member. At Coast, David was responsible for overseeing all of the lending functions, branch administration and compliance as their Executive Vice President (EVP) and Chief Banking Officer. Prior to Coast, David's extensive banking career began in the San Francisco financial district in 1972.
He is an active community advocate, filling numerous leadership positions over the years for non-profit organizations and Chambers such as: Board Member of Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce, Member of Santa Cruz Rotary, Board Member of the Santa Cruz County Business Council, Board Member and Immediate Past President of Cabrillo College Foundation, Board of Trustees for Sutter Maternity & Surgical Center of SC (Past Chair), Community Board of Trustees of The Good Shepherd Fund (past Treasurer), Past Chair of the Advisory Board of Central Coast SBDC (Small Bus Development Center-affiliated w/ SBDC since 1987 - SBA & Ca Trade & Commerce funded program at Cabrillo), Past President of Easter Seals of Central Cal & 2002 National delegate from this local chapter and Past Board Member and Treasurer of Santa Cruz County Conference and Visitors Council. |
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Tom Honig, Board Member
Freelance Journalist Tom Honig is a freelance journalist who has covered the Santa Cruz community and its politics for 40 years. He was editor of the Santa Cruz Sentinel for 15 years and worked at a variety of writing and editing jobs for 22 years before that. He has won a variety of writing and editing awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association. Currently he writes an online newsletter called the Santa Cruz Observer, at tomhonig.com. |
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Bonnie Lipscomb Board Member
Assistant Director, Santa Cruz Redevelopment Agency Bonnie Lipscomb’s work for the Redevelopment agency has left Santa Cruz a more beautiful place to call home for all of us. Every day she works to make Santa Cruz more welcoming to visitors as well as the residents. She aims at fostering economic development, the quality of urban design and to hit target economic goals for the city. |
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Chris Maffia, Board Member
Vice President, Santa Cruz County Bank Chris Maffia is Vice President, Relationship Manager for Santa Cruz County Bank where she is responsible for business and community development for the Santa Cruz market. In her background of over 33 years of banking, she has held a variety of positions starting as a teller with Bank of America and working her way through lending, and personalized banking positions with Premier Banking. In 2005, Chris retired from Bank of America as Senior Vice President, Market Manager for the Central Coast Premier Banking Team. Chris joined Santa Cruz County Bank in 2005 and has enjoyed working at the bank’s office in downtown Santa Cruz.
Chris is currently the Board Chair for the American Red Cross of Santa Cruz County. She previously served as the Board of Trustees Chair for the United Way of Santa Cruz County for two years as well as the campaign chair. She is also a 15-year active member and past chair for Dominican Hospital Foundation Guild. Chris currently serves as the chair of the luncheon committee for the Santa Cruz Area Chamber of Commerce Women in Business.
Past recognitions include Affiliate of the year for the Santa Cruz Board of Realtors, Ambassador of the Year for the Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce, and the Betty Elward award presented for outstanding participation in the Dominican Hospital Foundation Guild.
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Mark Mesiti-Miller, Community Affairs Committee
CEO, Mesiti-Miller Engineering
Throughout his engineering career, Mark Mesiti-Miller has been responsible for the successful execution of a vast array of challenging projects. His emphasis has been in the design, planning and engineering of buildings, bridges, coastal structures and other public and private facilities. In 1987, he founded Mesiti-Miller Engineering. In his role as Principal Engineer for the firm, Mark Mesiti-Miller directs a professional staff of licensed structural engineers, licensed civil engineers, engineers-in-training and other support personnel. More than half the firm's work is performed on a subconsultant basis to architects and other design professionals, while the balance is conducted with Mesiti-Miller Engineering as the prime design professional directly responsible to the client. Mark has a BS, Architectural Engineering, 1983 and studied at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA.
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Anne Mitchell, Board Member
Principal, Anne Mitchell, CPA
Anne was born in Buffalo, New York and grew up in Dallas, Texas. She received a BA in Political Economics from the University of Dallas and a MS in economics from Oklahoma State University, specializing in international trade, money, and banking. She spent 6 years in St. Louis, Missouri, first as a VISTA volunteer and then in radio, as director of KBDY, a non commercial radio station. She moved to CA to work with KFAT radio in Gilroy. She settled in Santa Cruz, CA and decided to pursue a career as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). She studied accounting at Golden Gate University in San Francisco and interned locally to become licensed. In 1985 Anne established the firm, AMMSCPA, at Branciforte Plaza with her associate, Marshall Forrester, a finance specialist, and her mother, Marge Mitchell, who had just retired from White Cap as office manager in Dallas, Texas. One of the keys to Anne’s professional abilities has been her commitment to continuing education and ongoing involvement with business organizations. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce and its Finance Committee.
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Martina O'Sullivan, Board Member
Director of Community Engagement, Dominican Hospital
Martina is the Director for Community Engagement for Dominican Hospital. In this capacity she serves on several other nonprofit, business, and government Boards. Martina served for 8 years as Executive Director of Catholic Charities for the Diocese of Monterey, when the organization worked to recruit emergency foster care homes. In keeping with her commitment to children, Martina continues to co-chair the Healthy Kids Steering Committee, working to ensure that all children of Santa Cruz County have health insurance and a medical home. Martina and her husband Will are the parents of three grown daughters, and have lived in Capitola for 27 years.
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Suni Patel, Board Member
Owner, Super 8 |
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Tess Piazza, Board Member
Vice President, Chase Bank Tess Piazza is currently Vice President of Business Banking with JPMorgan Chase. With her degrees in Communication Arts and Accounting, she has found passion in working with small business owners in the Santa Cruz County. Her role at Chase allows her to partner with small businesses to find ways to achieve their financial goals. Tess worked for Wells Fargo for 20 years - first working to develop Small Business Training then for 4 years as a Business Relationship Manager developing business and community relationships, which included business lending and cash management. Tess is a member of the Resource Development Committee for Santa Cruz Community Counseling Center, working on community outreach to raise funds for the organization. She moved to Santa Cruz 12 years ago and loves to play tennis and runs 2 miles every day with her dog, Sarge. |
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Tonée Picard, Board Member
Executive Vice President, Bay Federal Credit Union
Tonée Picard oversees the member and employee development areas of the Credit Union: marketing, financial education, technology, organizational development, and human resources as well as providing leadership for the Credit Union's community support and volunteer activities. She has over 20 years experience in marketing, brand and business development, human resources, and strategic planning, both in the financial services and high-tech software industries. Mrs. Picard has an MBA from Golden Gate University and SPHR certification in Human Resource Management. During the 20 plus years she has lived in the Santa Cruz community, Mrs. Picard has been committed to local economic development and community improvement issues. She has currently serves on the Deans' Advisory Committee for the Baskin School of Engineering at UCSC, the Governance Board for 2nd Harvest Food Bank, the United Way Board of Directors, and the Board of Directors for the Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce. |
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Karl Rice, Board Member
Associate, Redtree Properties Karl Rice holds an MBA in finance and real estate from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and a BA in business administration and communication from the University of Washington. He currently works at Redtree Properties L.P as a real estate developer and investor and he previously served as a Vice President and Relationship Manager at Silicon Valley Bank. Karl is a member of the Board of Directors and the Treasurer of Community Bridges and serves on the organization’s finance and governance committees. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Santa Cruz Area Chamber of Commerce and serves as a Commissioner on the Downtown Commission for the City of Santa Cruz. Karl is a sixth generation resident of Santa Cruz and recently he and his wife gave birth to their first son, the seventh generation of the family to call Santa Cruz home. |
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Lynn Robinson, Board Member
Council Member, Santa Cruz City Council
Lynn is a 4th generation Bay Area native that made the permanent move to Santa Cruz in 1974 when she moved to her grandparent's beach house and enrolled at Cabrillo College. She received her BA in Studio Arts from UCSC. As a small business owner of Lynn Robinson Designs, she continues her passion for garden designs and organic gardening for both her residential and commercial clients. Lynn and her husband John have a daughter currently at Harvard graduate school in Virology, and a son recently graduating from UC Berkeley.
As a second term Santa Cruz Council member Lynn is actively involved on the following boards: Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Body, Santa Cruz City Public Safety Committee, Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments (AMBAG), Conference and Visitors' Council, Downtown Management Corporation, Santa Cruz Community Farmers Market, Inc., and the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District Board. |
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Adele Talmadge, Marketing Committee, Membership Committee
Principal, Talmadge Construction
Born at Sister's Hospital on West Cliff Drive, Adele Talmadge has been a Santa Cruzan all her life. Her parents owned Port O' Call Grocery in Pleasure Point. After attending Cabrillo College, Adele went on gain over 30 years of bookkeeping and customer service experience in residential, commercial construction and property management. In 1984, she co-founded Talmadge Construction. Adele remains an active part in the community, volunteering for the Amgen Tour in 2010, directing the Lifestyle Festival for the Tour in Seaside and the Awards Ceremony for Tour of CA in 2012. When she is not busy giving back, Adele spends time in the Tae Kwon Do Dojo, already having earned a First Degree black belt. |
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Ted Whiting III, Board Member
Vice President General Services, Santa Cruz Seaside Company
Ted was born and raised in Santa Cruz. He holds a BS degree from the University of San Francisco. He served ten years in the US Army in a combination active duty and active reserve status. Ted was Chamber President in 1990, the year following the Loma Prieta earthquake, and was honored to be the chamber’s Man of the Year in 1991. He currently serves on the Chamber’s Board of Directors and as a member of its Community Affairs Committee.
Ted’s other community service has included stints as President of the Santa Cruz Area Restaurant Association and the Convention and Visitors Bureau. He has served on the board of Goodwill Industries, the Beach Area Business Association, and participated on city committees and task forces. He serves as an elder at his local church.
He has worked at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk for over half of its centennial years and is the fourth generation of his family to do so. Ted has a great love for the recreational experience his company has created for visitors the world over and is invigorated to work with the next generation of family and staff that will carry the tradition onward.
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