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 Mission/Strategies/ValuesHistory of Spark Board of DirectorsStaffAdvisory BoardPressAnnual Report |
Spark's Board of Directors is exemplary group of young women leaders whose steward the organization. The commitment of our board members is
evident in their generosity. Each member pledges 120 volunteer hours annually as well as underwrites all administrative expenses. |
 Jamie Allison (Vice President and Grants Committee Co-Chair) jamie@sparksf.org  Jamie Allison is a Program Officer with the S.H. Cowell Foundation
in San Francisco; she is responsible for the Youth
Development grantmaking area. She has worked in
philanthropy for the last seven years and has also worked in
the public and private sectors conducting research and
coordinating a variety of programs. She has worked as a
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) consultant, helping
companies align their brands with social missions. Jamie
considers civic engagement a lifestyle choice and has a deep
commitment to supporting vulnerable children and families.
Her volunteer activities include serving as a founding board
member of the Passport Scholars Foundation, a non-profit
organization that provides 10th grade girls with
international community service and academic enrichment
opportunities. She has also taught English as a second
language in West Africa.Jamie graduated with Highest Honors from the University of Tennessee where she earned Bachelors degrees in Political Science: International Relations, Spanish, Economics, and Humanities. She also holds a Masters degree in Public Policy from the Goldman School at UC Berkeley. Stephanie Block (Events Committee) stephanie@sparksf.org  Stephanie
Block is an award-winning travel writer and Editor-in-Chief
of
TangoDiva,
the premier women's online travel magazine. She can toast
and gamble in several languages and makes a career out of
traveling and telling. Her global shopping secrets have been
featured in Marie Claire magazine, and her book editing
credits include the fantastic, "Fly Solo: The 50 Best Places
on Earth for a Girl to Travel Alone," to which she also
contributed several chapters, as well as the seminal essay
collection from the first ever YearlyKos Convention (a
gathering of top progressive politicians, bloggers and
thinkers) "unConventional," to which she contributed an
essay. She also serves on the companion political journal's
editorial team.Stephanie's passport is like first class on a holiday weekend—totally full! Texan by the grace of Diva, Stephanie found her way out to San Francisco having visited over fifty countries and lived in many herself, including France, India, Jamaica, Germany and Japan. A graduate of Vassar College with a major in English, Stephanie is an avid grammarian and former high school English teacher with a Masters in Educational Technology. Rohini Gupta (Co-Founder and Grants Committee Co-Chair) rohini@sparksf.org  Rohini Gupta is a practicing attorney with strong interests in education and international affairs. In 2007, she served as the official writer and editor of the Foreign Policy Association's blog on Latin America, with a focus on Mexico. Rohini previously worked for the American India Foundation (AIF) in New York and the World Affairs Council of Northern California, where she participated in the launch of the Global Philanthropy Forum. In college, she interned in Washington, D.C. for U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein and the U.S. Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration.
Rohini graduated with honors from the University of California, Berkeley, where she earned a B.A. in political science and wrote her honors thesis on democratization in Kenya and Tanzania. She earned a J.D. with a concentration in international law at the University of California, during which she studied in Paris, France and served as an executive editor of the Women's Law Journal. Karen Hennessy (Co-Founder and Events Committee) karen@sparksf.org  Karen
Hennessy graduated from the University of California,
Berkeley with a major degree in Molecular and Cell Biology,
Neurology and a minor in American Literature. During her
time in Berkeley, Karen did research for the Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratories research facility, and taught
chemistry at the Lawrence Hall of Science educational
discovery museum.In 2002, Karen lived abroad in Northern Ireland, from where she traveled throughout Europe. During her time there, Karen taught science in a high school in Belfast, Ireland. Karen now manages Premier Support Services for SalesForce.com in San Francisco. She continues to spend time working with children and education, as a volunteer for the I’m All Ears bilingual literacy program. She helped to found Spark in 2004, and has been a Spark Board member since its inception. In addition to her involvement in Spark and I’m All Ears, Karen serves as a member of the SalesForce.com Foundation Steering Committee. Fiona Hsu (Co-Founder and Grants Committee) fiona@sparksf.org 
Fiona Hsu is a strong advocate for working families and has worked to promote greater economic opportunities for them through living wages, good jobs, fair taxation, and decent housing. She is currently an affordable housing investor.
Fiona previously served on the board of the DC Chapter of the National Asian Pacific Women's Forum. She has also served as a mentor to two young girls through Asian American Leadership Empowerment and Development (AA LEAD) and the Berkeley YMCA. She loves to volunteer with Girls on the Run Bay Area. Fiona is passionate about building strong communities here at home and abroad. With Habitat for Humanity’s Global Village program, she traveled to the village of Hosahalli, Bangalore, India to help build a home for Manju and her family, and to the village of La Union, Veracruz, Mexico to help build a home for Anjelica and her family. She is a founding member of Habitat San Francisco’s Young Leadership Circle. Fiona received her undergraduate degree from U.C. Berkeley, where she studied Economics and Sociology. She received her Master's in Public Policy from the Goldman School of Public Policy at U.C. Berkeley. Jacki Kaczmarek (Treasurer and Events Committee Chair) jacki@sparksf.org  Jacki
Kaczmarek graduated from Santa Clara University with a
Bachelors of Science in Commerce degree with an emphasis in
Finance. She currently works as a senior tax associate for
Wealth and Tax Advisory Services, Inc. which provides high
net worth individuals with wealth management and
preservation strategies as well as tax consulting and
compliance. Jacki is also a part of their corporate
practice, which provides a variety of global corporations
with domestic, international, state and local tax planning
and compliance. During college, Jacki worked as the
Director of Baseball Operations for the Santa Clara Broncos
Baseball Team and worked closely with Head Coach and donor
society. She assisted in the coordination of numerous
fundraising events and managed the organization of
recruiting efforts and financial contributions. Jacki loves
to travel, cook, decorate and dance. She currently live in
San Francisco and grew up in the East Bay.Chanda Keefe (Grants and Strategic Planning Committee) chanda@sparksf.org  Chanda
Keefe is a Principal in the Global Markets Technology (GMT)
department at Banc of America Securities. In this role she
is responsible for managing teams which develop and
integrate software applications for the investment banking
division within Bank of America. She is a member of the GMT
iVoice committee which is responsible for raising associate
satisfaction and resolving issues both within the San
Francisco office as well as across the broader Global
Markets world. Additionally, Chanda participates in SF LEAD
which is a BofA organization that is responsible for
promoting Leadership, Education, Advocacy and Development of
female BofA associates. She is a part of both the
Development and Leadership sub-committees which focus on
getting high potential women mentoring, training and access
to senior level female executives. Outside of work, Chanda
is a member of the Junior League of San Francisco and sits
on the Community Programs Development committee. The Junior
League is a nationwide organization of women committed to
promoting voluntarism, developing the potential of women,
and improving communities through the effective action and
leadership of trained volunteers. The San Francisco
league's local focus for the upcoming year is on Supporting
and Strengthening Families in Need. Chanda is also a member
of SPARK and volunteers her time to various local
organizations that help those in need. Most recently this
has included participating in Project Connect events.
Chanda is a native of the San Francisco area and in her
spare time enjoys snow skiing, hiking, camping, scuba
diving, adventure travel and entertaining. She earned a
Bachelors degree in Business Administration emphasizing
Finance with a minor in Political Science from the
University of Southern California.Kathleen Kelly (Co-Founder and President) kathleen@sparksf.org  Kathleen Kelly is a teaching fellow at the International Human Rights Clinic at Stanford Law School, where her work focuses on human rights issues in Southern Africa. Prior to
that, she spent four years as a commercial litigation attorney at Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner LLP, focusing in the areas of antitrust and white collar. Kathleen is
dedicated to furthering the cause of international human rights and has done so through her work at the International Human Rights Clinic at Boalt and the Center for Justice and
Accountability, where she conducted extensive research on human rights abuses in El Salvador in the 1980s and particularly the murder of Archbishop Romero. Kathleen is
committed to representing immigrants who have experienced human rights abuses in their home countries. She has worked closely with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights in San
Francisco and has successfully represented numerous asylum applicants from countries all over the world including Mexico, Peru, Guatemala, Somalia, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Kenya.
She is also on the board of directors of Circulo de Vida, a comprehensive support center in the Mission for Latinos living with cancer, and is a member of the 2007-2008 class
for Leadership San Francisco. Kathleen graduated with highest honors from U.C. Berkeley and received her J.D. at Boalt Hall School of Law at U.C. Berkeley. In her spare time,
she enjoys learning languages. She has studied Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, Catalan, Greek and Japanese. Akshata Murty (Strategic Planning Committee) akshata@sparksf.org Akshata Murty is originally from Bangalore, India but describes herself as a global citizen. Akshata recently graduated from Stanford Business School and is currently working at Tendris, a Venture Capital Fund focused on supporting sustainable businesses. Her passion lies in exposing women world over to the opportunities that become available to them when they are empowered. Akshata received her undergrad degree at Claremont McKenna. Mona Motwani (Co-Founder and Grants Committee) mona@sparksf.org  Mona
Motwani is a civil rights attorney at the Fair Housing Law
Project, a program of the Law Foundation of Silicon
Valley. She works in the area of housing discrimination and
predatory lending. She graduated from UC Hastings College
of the Law in San Francisco in 2005, and received her B.A.
in political science from the University of Michigan. She
left her home state of Michigan to live in Breckenridge,
Colorado for three years, and then moved to San Francisco.
At UC Hastings College of the Law, Motwani was a Board
member of the Hastings International and Comparative Law
Review, Public Interest Foundation and Hastings Democratic
Caucus. She was a volunteer and Student Advisory Board
member for General Advocacy Assistance Project (GAAP), a
legal services agency that serves homeless clients in the
Tenderloin. Mona also volunteered as a tutor for middle
school children at the KIPPS Program at Ben Franklin Middle
School. Throughout law school, Mona worked at a variety of
organizations, including the ACLU where she worked on voting
rights, and the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies where
she worked on asylum cases for victims of gender
persecution.
Mona worked on international human rights issues, with a
focus on human trafficking, at the United Nations in
Sarajevo. She also worked on international human rights
litigation under at the Center for Justice and
Accountability, a non-profit that brings civil prosecutions
against human rights abusers living in the United States.
In her free time, she enjoys mountain biking, snowboarding,
traveling, cooking, and hiking.Mariya Pamnani (Events Committee) mariya@sparksf.org  Mariya
Pamnani is a senior associate in the Economic and
Statistical Consulting practice at Deloitte Financial
Advisory Services. Mariya’s strong interest in international
economic issues has previously led her to internships at the
San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank, and at an international
microfinance institution in Paris, France. Mariya has been
an active member of the World Affairs Council in San
Francisco, serving for two years as an officer on its Young
Professional Steering Committee. At the World Affairs
Council, she co-chaired and organized a three-part series on
economic development and international entrepreneurship with
Muhammad Yunus (founder of the Grameen Bank and recent Nobel
Peace Prize winner) as the keynote speaker. Mariya is very
excited to now be a part of Spark and its efforts to support
and promote international women’s issues. Mariya graduated
from Stanford University in 2001 with a B.A. in Economics.
She speaks Mandarin Chinese and French.Sara Pasquinelli (Grants Committee) sara@sparksf.org  Sara
Pasquinelli is a land use and environmental law attorney at
Fitzgerald, Abbott & Beardsley LLP. She received her Juris
Doctorate from Golden Gate University School of Law in May
2004. During law school, Sara worked at the Golden Gate
University Environmental Law & Justice Clinic and the United
States Department of Justice, Environmental & Natural
Resources Division. She also worked for Magistrate Judge
James Larson, at the United States District Court of the
Northern District of California. She was a member of the
Environmental Law Society and Public Interest Law
Foundation. Prior to law school, Sara worked for a
non-profit environmental consulting firm in Santa Cruz. She
was an administrative assistant and co-manager of the
sustainable transportation project group. She also
participated in oil recycling outreach programs in the
predominantly Latino communities of Santa Cruz County.
During her undergraduate studies, Sara studied and worked
abroad in Mexico, both in Mexico City and Merida. She also
spent a semester in Barcelona, Spain. These experiences
helped Sara achieve fluency in Spanish.Nancy Reyes (Membership Chair and Events Committee) nancy@sparksf.org  Nancy
Reyes is an Economics graduate of the University of
California, Santa Cruz. She is currently the Manager of
Institutional Services at Parnassus Investments, an
investment firm “serving the growing community of investors
who believe their assets should be chosen with a conscience
as well as financial savvy.” Her internship at the Santa
Cruz Community Credit Union sparked her interest in finding
ways to increase social, economic, and environmental justice
by promoting socially responsible businesses. Their More
Than Just Commerce program, “seeks to nurture an
economically viable local economy and strengthen the
community by promoting locally owned and independent
businesses.” In her youth she served as an officer for the
California Scholarship Federation and Youth For Earth,
member of Key Club, sat on the Red Bluff Union High School (RBUHS)
Board of Trustees and was an American Legion Auxiliary Girls
State Representative. Nancy has been actively involved with
the St. Vincent De Paul Society in Santa Cruz, CA and the
Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation of San Francisco,
CA.Rana Turk (Grants Committee) rana@sparksf.org  Rana
Turk currently works as Vice President in Technology within
the Investment Banking arm of Bank of America. She serves
as a conduit between the business and technical teams to
identify inefficiencies and new development needs and offer
technical solutions to complex business problems revolving
around Trading. She serves on the iVoice and SF Women
that Lead Committees at Bank of America. She is also a
small business owner of two retail furniture/interior design
stores in California serving as the General Manger were her
primary role is high level guidance, marketing, and
accounting management. She has been involved in volunteer
efforts with Hands on Bay Area, Adopt-a-Family and Food Bank
Collection efforts.Rana graduated from UC Davis with a degree in International Relations and World Trade. She went on to receive her Masters in Business Administration from Santa Clara University emphasizing Information Systems Design and Management as well as Innovation. During her time at UC Davis she spent a summer in three West African countries as an intern with UNICEF working with various programs benefiting women and children such as Safe Motherhood, Immunization Programs, Primary Education, and AIDS prevention. Further college volunteer work included Pediatric Emergency Care, as a certified Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), as well as Senior Citizen care. Rana takes special interest in raising awareness of conflicts in the Middle East, and is semi-proficient in Arabic and French languages. Michelle Watts Zagazeta michelle@sparksf.org 
Michelle Watts Zagazeta is a trademark and litigation attorney at
Manatt, Phelps, and Phillips in Palo Alto. She has been committed to
advocacy and public service since her adolescence when she volunteered
at a local homeless shelter and founded a multicultural club at her
high school. While a Stanford undergraduate, she was actively
involved with the Haas Center for Public Service and was selected to
be part of Stanford's Public Service Scholars Program. She traveled
throughout Northern California visiting middle schools and high
schools to encourage low-income and minority students to pursue higher
education. She also interned at Philanthropic Ventures Foundation in
Oakland, California. Michelle graduated with highest honors from
Stanford and received her J.D. at Boalt Hall School of Law at U.C.
Berkeley, where she co-founded the Pilipino American Law Society and
interned with the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic.
Michelle also has a passion for athletics and has won her weight-class
at amateur powerlifting competitions at the state, national and world
level. |
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