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Pleasanton Cultural Arts Council
Board of Directors

PCAC's Board of Directors welcomes your comments and suggestions. Visit our CONTACT US page, where you can direct your questions or comments to any of our Directors.

PCAC's Board regularly meets on the fourth Wednesday of each month at 7:00 p.m. at the Chamber of Commerce, 777 Peters Avenue, Pleasanton, CA. If you would like to attend a board meeting, please contact the president to get on the agenda. Members and visitors are always welcome! 

Jill Vellinger
President/PR/Communications

Jill Vellinger can trace her love for the Arts and all of her career choices to her discovery of paintings found in the Encyclopedia Britannica at the age of 5. She was so enamored of the various paintings she saw, that she promptly executed crayon renderings, covered them with cellophane and tried to sell them door to door. Since she met with a moderate amount of success, she went into advertising and marketing when she grew up, and then went on to interior decorating, which she has been doing for the last seven years. Although she did not grow up in a home that promoted the Arts, she was fortunate to grow up in an era when musical, vocal, and artistic instruction were an everyday part of the school curriculum. She believes the Arts play a vital role in every life and community, and joined PCAC to ensure that others have the same opportunities as she did.

Rebecca Bruner
Vice President/Event Planning

Rebecca Bruner is a professional real estate agent who lives in Pleasanton. She has been involved in the community in many ways since she moved here with her husband and two sons more than 20 years ago. Rebecca values the cultural arts, education and community resources that make Pleasanton a great place to live. She understands that it is up to the community members to continue to build on the existing foundation. Therefore, Rebecca joined the Pleasanton Cultural Arts Council and the Museum On Main as a board member approximately 10 years ago and continues to be involved in making Pleasanton a place we all want to call home.

Margene Gerton Rivara
Past President/MembershiP

Margene has served on the Board of the Pleasanton Cultural Arts Council for 10 years, including two as President. Margene is a former Pleasanton Civic Arts Commissioner (10 years), and was a Founding Member of the Pleasanton Cultural Arts Foundation which spearheaded the development of the Firehouse Arts Center in Downtown Pleasanton, complete with 200-seat theatre and gallery. Margene is a published designer of stained glass books. She has designed contemporary area rugs for architects and interior designers. She was Head Designer for Storybook Heirlooms. Among those owning her products are Arnold Palmer, Candace Bergen, Maria Shriver and Tiger Woods. Margene states, "I am involved with PCAC because I am passionate about the Arts. I feel that Art plays an important role in a healthy community's life. My mission is to see that the Arts are accessible to all, most importantly our children. When they are nurtured, our world becomes a better place." Margene is currently a successful Realtor with RE/MAX Accord where she puts her background to good use for her clients. She recently received the 2010 PCAC "Art Supporter of the Year Award" as well as the 2010 Bay East Association of Realtor's "Good Neighbor of the Year Award."

Jack Harrington
Treasurer

Jack is the Principal at Pleasanton-based Franklin Management and Tax Service and has served as PCAC Treasurer since 2006. Jack also serves as the Treasurer of Pleasanton's Museum on Main and works with many non-profit organizations. He has a Bachelors degree in Accounting from Northeastern University and an MBA from Babson College. Jack resides in Pleasanton with his wife and son.

Rob Woodworth
Newsletter/Volunteer Coordinator

Rob Woodworth is the Founder and Executive Director of The Jazz House, a non-profit organization and former music venue which is devoted to bringing jazz and improvisational music to all ages in a listening environment. With many years' experience in artist and venue management, production, booking and public relations, Rob has been presenting shows throughout the Bay Area, working with jazz and creative music luminaries such as Sam Rivers, William Parker and Susie Ibarra to name a few. Most recently, Woodworth was the creator and organizer of "The Zipper Festival" in Berkeley, CA, as well as the "Free-Jazz Fridays" series in Oakland. Rob is currently a Civic Arts Commissioner for the City of Pleasanton, CA. 

Gerald Hedstrom
Secretary

Gerald Hedstrom is a percussionist and represents the Pleasanton Community Concert Band on the Pleasanton Cultural Arts Council. He has been playing drums for 25 years, having started as an adult because he wasn't allowed to do so as a child. Professionally, Gerald is a retired mathematician. He taught math at the University of Michigan and Case Western Reserve University before taking a job in the Physics Department at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

RUDY JOHNSON
Board Member

As a retired person, Rudy Johnson has been an arts supporter for a very long time. He has worked with many others to bring about the reality of the Firehouse Arts Center in Pleasanton. Rudy and his wife travel extensively, and when they do, they visit galleries wherever they are in the world, and they attend plays, concerts and operas with regularity. Rudy believes that the arts are not just a nice addition to life, they are essential to the quality of life and to the quality of communities.

Charlotte Severin
Board Member/Hospitality

Charlotte Severin is a professional artist and art educator. She is the founding president of the Pleasanton Cultural Arts Council, and served as Chair for the renovation for the Amador Theater and Task Force Chair for the Firehouse Arts Center. Charlotte states, "As a working artist, I feel passionately dedicated to encouraging the arts for everyone!"

Kent Moore
Board Member/Event Planning

Bio to come . . .

Dave Wright
Board Member/Secretary

Dave Wright has been an English educator for 39 years, mainly at Chabot and Las Positas Colleges. As a teacher of creative writing, he created and developed the Las Positas College/Community Anthology, which is still going strong, co-created the English Centers on both colleges, chaired the Humanities and Arts Department for five years, and acted as Academic Senate President for Las Positas when it was restructured. His volunteer work includes being past president of the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society of the United States and Canada for 10 years. He was a founding Commissioner of the Pleasanton Civic Arts Commission, and for 14 years has worked on the PCAC Board as designer of the Youth Excellence in Arts (YEA!) Awards, as a grant writer, as designer and editor of the PCAC Arts in Season newsletter, as co-producer of the Poetry, Prose & Arts Festival and as a member of the Firehouse Arts Center Task Force.

Cassie Langan
Board Member/Art in the Schools Grant Program/YEA Awards

Cassie Langan has been actively involved in the arts since she was a young child. Enrolled for many years in several of her New Jersey hometown's community sponsored art classes, she eventually taught those very same classes when she was a young adult. After earning a BFA in Graphic Design, Cassie developed games and toys for children before marrying her high school sweetheart. Cassie has lived and worked in New York City, Boston and the Philadelphia area, often employed as the production manager in publication design. While living in Pennsylvania and raising two children, she went back to school and earned a post baccalaureate degree in Art Education, which proved quite useful when her family was relocated to California. Cassie has been teaching Art at Pleasanton Middle School for the past 12 years while serving on several educational and community sponsored committees that communicate, promote and support the positive contribution of the arts. Currently, she is also completing her Master's in Art Education and has been recently published in School Arts magazine.

Yi Jiang
Board Member

Yi Jiang is an Assistant Professor and Associate Director of the MBA for Global Innovators program at California State University, East Bay. She is also a Fellow at ESSCA business school in Angers, France. In her Management Strategy classes, she has connected students with local designers and art dealers to create business plans. Her students commented that those projects have "definitely given the MBA experience a lot more value." She endeavors to bring more art-related subjects to her graduate classes and projects. In addition to academic associations, Yi Jiang is also a member and supporter of San Francisco fine arts museums. Yi Jiang was a committee member of the 10th Annual Poetry, Prose & Arts Festival in Pleasanton.

Laura Davidson
Board Member

Bio to come . . .

Hermina Sarkis-Kelly
ADVISORY BOARD

Hermina Sarkis-Kelly has an extensive background in computer science, including a Bachelor's of Science degree from the University of San Francisco and more than 25 years of work experience in the software engineering field. While Hermina has pursued the technological industry, she has maintained an intimate passion for the arts. Her interests include painting, photography and digital media, and she is always eager to explore new artistic realms, from community service programs, theater arts projects and website design to animation. With a hunger for new artistic knowledge and a passion for creative outlets, Hermina joined the PCAC Board to help inform and motivate the Pleasanton community to appreciate the exquisite Art world that surrounds us.

Marlene Smith-Baranzini
ADVISORY BOARD

Marlene Smith-Baranzini, author and editor, has published a number of books on American history and culture, including the most recent edition of the California gold-rush classic, The Shirley Letters from the California Mines. She is a former associate editor of California History quarterly and is passionate about history, literature and art. She volunteered to help with PCAC's "Paint the Firehouse" contest in 2004 and also the "Old Firehouse" family festival in 2005. She joined the PCAC Board in 2006.