HandsOn Bay Area strengthens communities through volunteer action and leadership development.
LIFT 2009 Team Members
Max Anderson (Captain) Max Anderson hails from England, and has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for the last 16 years. He has a BA in Communications and Post-Graduate Certificate in Journalism. He runs his own hi-tech consultancy business focusing on training, instructional design, and recruiting. He has dabbled with HOBA over the last few years as a volunteer and decided to get involved at a more committed level as a way to give back to the community and be of greater service to others. He is also a mentor for a young boy in the North Bay as part of the Big Brother Big Sister organization, and finds it incredibly rewarding to interact with under-privileged children. He is proud to have been selected for HOBA's 2009 LIFT program and looks forward to the fun, the friends, and the personal growth. He anticipates creating his own foundation or charity one day (tackling women's abuse issues) and hopes the LIFT experience will help him prepare for that. He enjoys swimming, sailing, scuba diving, snowboarding, windsurfing, kite-flying, cycling, camping, and pretty much anything that involves being outside in the beautiful Bay Area with joyful friends, warm winds, and blazing blue skies.
Suzanne Grady (Captain)
Suzanne Grady grew up in Michigan and has lived in San Francisco for the past six years. She holds a Bachelors degree in Political Science and Latin American Literature from the University of Michigan. For the past four years, she has attended classes in horticulture, permaculture, gardening and composting. She also held various paid and unpaid positions in garden education programs and youth service learning projects throughout San Francisco. Presently, Suzanne works as a paralegal at Drinker Biddle and volunteers as the Outreach and Fundraising Coordinator of Project OLE, a garden education nonprofit in the Excelsior. Her interests include quality time with her pit bull, being part of a healthy community, good books, dinner parties and hiking.
Megan Bergtholdt
Megan Bergtholdt is originally from Novato, CA and currently works as a business analyst at Yahoo. After surviving four bitter winters in upstate New York, Megan graduated Cornell University with a degree in biological engineering. She hightailed it back to sunny California and joined San Francisco Consulting Group, a boutique consulting firm with clients in hi-tech, software, biotech, energy, and telco. Over the years, she contributed to engagements focused on sales and marketing strategy - everything from competitive analyses to implementing CRM solutions to constructing ROI sales tools. Megan loves cooking, animals, and any activity that takes her outdoors.
Kelly Chang
Kelly Chang was born and raised in San Jose, California. After graduating from UC Berkeley with a BS in Business Administration, she moved to Boston to work at the Center for Effective Philanthropy. As a Senior Research Analyst at CEP, she moved back to the Bay Area to help start their new San Francisco office. She is happy to be back in California and excited to help contribute to the Bay Area community! Her interests include traveling, outdoor adventures, live music and leisure reading.
Stephanie Jacques
Stephanie Jacques currently works as the Partnership Coordinator for Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Bay Area where she helps provide positive role models to at-risk Bay Area youth. A recent transplant from Arizona, she received her degrees in Political Science and French from the University of Arizona. During her college days at the UA, she studied abroad in Paris, France and Yalta, Ukraine and spent her free time working with many diverse non-profits to build a stronger Tucson community. When she is not working or volunteering, Stephanie enjoys reading a good book, catching up on her TiVo, or exploring San Francisco.
Josefina Jimenez
Josefina Jimenez was born and raised in Mexico City, one of the largest cities on the planet. Josefina was used to fast pace and lots of people until she met her match volunteering with seniors through HOBA. She has since learned to slow down and enjoy the silence in the company of our Bay Area elders and that is now her favorite volunteering activity. While Josefina earned a B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering and a M.Sc. in Operations Research, she is currently job hunting after a 9-month world traveling adventure with her husband. No regrets!
Bridget O'Rourke
Bridget O'Rourke is a native of New Jersey (exit 9!) and has been living and working in San Francisco since November 2006. She is currently a Case Supervisor at San Francisco Court Appointed Special Advocates Program (CASA), helping to support and supervise volunteers working one-on-one as advocates for children in foster care. Before joining the SF CASA team, Bridget was a Residential Counselor at Boys Hope Girls Hope of San Francisco, and currently serves on the organization's Program Committee. She is passionate about youth social services and loves cooking and watching documentaries. Her new year's resolution for 2009 is to learn how to ice-skate!
Priscilla Padilla
Priscilla Padilla is a Bay Area native who recently moved back from living abroad in Mexico. She has a B.S. in Biology and Spanish Literature and an MPH from Boston University with a concentration in maternal and child health services. She has volunteered for a diverse array of non-profit organizations in the Bay Area and Boston. Currently, she works for the Vietnam Veteran’s of California, an organization that provides social services to local veterans. In her free time, Priscilla enjoys watching independent movies, reading, cooking, and traveling to new places. She particularly enjoys volunteering with programs that support youth in pursuing higher education and health awareness. She is extremely honored to be serving as a 2009 LIFT fellow!
Molly Stack
Molly Stack has made her way west from Cleveland to San Francisco, by way of a short stint in Chicago. While in the “windy city” she earned her degree in English at DePaul University and secured her first position in the nonprofit sector working for a community development organization. She has lived in the Bay Area for almost three years and while here has worked with various nonprofits including organizations focused on health and human services, education and socially conscious design. She looks forward to collaborating with her fellow “fellows” and to creating opportunities for community change while working with HandsOn Bay Area.
Vlada Teper Vlada Teper has taught high school English and ELD in urban and suburban high schools in Northern California for the past four years. Vlada was a Fulbright Scholar in Russia from 2003-2004 where she researched world literature curriculum development. She completed her undergraduate and graduate education at Stanford University, and holds two Master degrees in English Literature and Education. Vlada currently lives in Mill Valley, California.
Kunal Trivedi
Kunal Trivedi was born and grew up in Western side of India. After graduating from Carnegie Mellon University, he worked there as a network researcher for over four years. Since 2005 he has been living in San Francisco and working as a software engineer at Riverbed. Over a year ago, he started volunteering for HOBA as a tutor at Hamilton Shelter. Since then he had been involved in number of tutoring and mentoring related projects with HOBA, Beacon, EXCEL and MNC-GED. He strongly believes 'Be the Change, if you want to change the world' motto. In his free time he likes to develop educational software applications helping students and schools equally. He also loves reading sci-fi books. Kunal is really excited to be part of a great program and looking forward to working with fellow LIFTers.
