Board of Directors

Elisabeth Jewel, Chair

Elisabeth is a partner in Aroner, Jewel & Ellis Partners, a government and community affairs consulting firm founded in 2003. Based in Berkeley, the firm provides a full menu of lobbying and community outreach services, with clients ranging from Hewlett Packard and Safeway to non-profits such as Lifelong Medical Care and Center for Elders Independence. With long standing ties to San Francisco East Bay Area government and politics, she works with clients to build relationships with local elected officials and other opinion leaders, and devises and executes media strategies and community outreach plans.

Greg Kershaw, Vice Chair

Greg Kershaw is manager of digital marketing at WD-40 in San Diego. Greg has experience in helping organizations build relationships, create conversations and tell stories through strategic planning, branding, media training, marketing communications, content development, video and social media. An alum of San Diego State University where he earned his BA in communications with an emphasis in public relations, Greg is also a graduate of LEAD San Diego’s EMBARK and IMPACT leadership programs, has completed the Word of Mouth Marketing Association’s community specialist certificate program and has earned his professional certificate in digital and social media from SDSU’s College of Extended Studies.

Matthew Williams, Treasurer

Matt serves as the Board Treasurer and on the Resource Development Committee. Matt has been a registered investment adviser since 1991. He was elected to the board of the San Francisco East Bay Area’s mass transit provider, AC Transit, in 1994 and again in 1998, and served as president four times. He was also a member of the Alameda County Congestion Management Agency and helped put together the financial plan for the County’s half cent sales tax for transportation in 1998. He also worked to provide every low income high school student in the Alameda County area with a free bus pass. Matt is also a member of the executive committee of the San Francisco Bay Chapter of the Sierra Club and, in this role, works to improve transportation in the Bay Area.

Tosan Boyo, Secretary

Tosan has dedicated his career to building and refining population health initiatives utilizing patient-centered and cost-effective principles. Born in Nigeria, then living and traveling across various countries, he is imbued with a unique perspective about how intersections within public policy and healthcare delivery impact the wellness of communities—especially vulnerable populations. Tosan is the chief operating officer of Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. He is board-certified in healthcare management as a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives and has a Master of Public Health degree from Montclair State University.

 

Bishop Minerva Carcaño, Ex-Officio member

In 2004, Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño became the first Hispanic woman to be elected to the episcopacy of The United Methodist Church, the second-largest Protestant denomination in the US. Today, she is one of 69 active bishops leading more than twelve million members of her denomination worldwide. She currently serves as Bishop of the San Francisco Area of The United Methodist Church after having served as the resident bishop of the Phoenix and the Los Angeles Areas. Bishop Carcaño is a graduate of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and Perkins School of Theology of Southern Methodist University.

Duane Jackson

Duane is a research scientist with 15 years of pharmaceutical industry experience. He currently works at Gilead Sciences where he manages strategic partnerships and implements key initiatives for the commercialization of pharmaceutical therapies. Over the course of his career, Duane has worked at companies such as GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, and Abbott Laboratories where he has built expertise in analytical sciences, strategic development, integrated project planning, and process improvement. Outside of work Duane has maintained a significant dedication to community involvement and equitable advancement of the underserved. He received his bachelors of science degree in chemistry from Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA and a masters of business administration from Yale University in New Haven, CT.

Brad Johnson

Brad is a software engineer specializing in web and mobile applications. Before he started writing software, he held a variety of roles at several nonprofit advocacy groups, including founding an education-focused organization and building membership for an online journalism start up. When he’s not working, he enjoys spending time in the Sierra Nevada backcountry on skis or on foot.

Nitin Karandikar

Nitin Karandikar is an experienced software executive, who has held senior management positions at health technology companies both large and small, including Epocrates, Intuit, and DeVero. He has more than 25 years of experience in professional software development and software architecture. In addition he is interested in the optimization of business processes and operations, and has a passion for Data Analytics and Machine Learning. Nitin is currently the VP of engineering at DigiSight Technologies Inc., a digital mobile technology startup in San Francisco that’s focused on ophthalmology.

David McGrew

David has spent over 30 years in healthcare finance and is currently the CFO at San Mateo Medical Center. His experience spans an integrated healthcare delivery system, large tertiary academic medical centers, public health hospitals, district hospitals and community, non-profit hospitals. He is an Oakland resident and native Californian who received his BA in business/accounting from San Francisco State University and earned his CPA license while at KPMG. He is a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives and the Healthcare Financial Management Association.

April Smith

April Smith has been a prosecutor for the past eight years. She began her career in Southern California as a deputy district attorney in Riverside County. After practicing for six years, she opted to move to the Bay Area to continue her work as prosecutor with the Alameda District Attorney’s office. She is currently assigned to the Human Exploitation and Trafficking (HEAT) unit which is a vertical prosecution team dedicated to prosecuting cases of human trafficking, pimping, and pandering of minor and adult victims.

Bruce Soublet

Assistant City Attorney/ADA Coordinator, City of Richmond, California.

Brent Taylor

Dr. Brent Taylor joined the faculty at San Diego State University in 2000 after receiving his PhD in sociology with an emphasis in marriage and family therapy (MFT) from the University of Southern California. He became the program director of the marriage and family therapy program in 2008. Since 2015, he has served as chair of the department of counseling and school psychology, which has five master’s degree programs. His research and clinical specialties include fatherhood and men’s issues, Latino families, foster and adoptive youth, and culturally-infused clinical training. He has conducted Spanish-speaking practicums for his students. He has published in many areas, including men’s issues in MFT training, Latino fatherhood, and integrating diversity into supervision.
 
 

Richard Walter

Community volunteer.

 
 

Burt Yin

Community volunteer.

 

 

John Steinfirst, Emeritus member

Former FFYC President & CEO (1988 – 2008).