Board of Trustees

About the Board of Trustees

Woodland’s Board of Trustees is responsible for the long-term well-being of our school, and board members serve as guardians of our mission.

Trustees oversee Woodland’s financial operations, and through strategic planning, they set the course for our future development. Trustees are not involved in the day-to-day running of school operations, nor are they involved in the admissions process. Each trustee gives a tremendous amount of their time on behalf of the school and each considers it an honor to do so. Other than the gratitude of our school community, there is no form of compensation or tuition reimbursement.

The board is comprised of members chosen from current parents, alumni, parents of alumni, and community members whose expertise is of value to the school. The head of school serves as an ex-officio member of the board. Each trustee serves on at least two committees (which meet anywhere from two to five times per year). In addition, there are seven full board meetings.

Sharon Chang, Chair

Sharon Chang, Chair

Sharon Chang is an operating partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, where she manages the firm’s business operations.  She previously led marketing efforts on the Market Development team and counseled portfolio companies on go-to-market strategies.  Sharon has been working in early stage technology companies for the past 15 years.  Previously, she was an integral part of the product marketing team at Opsware and led the worldwide product marketing team after HP acquired Opsware.  More recently, she was the head of marketing and a member of Rockmelt’s executive team.  After Rockmelt’s acquisition by Yahoo, Sharon led product for Yahoo News and spearheaded the highly visible Yahoo Digital Magazines.

Sharon is a Bay Area native who holds an MBA from the University of Southern California and a BA from the University of the Pacific where she was a Regent’s Scholar.  She served on the WSPA Board and has three children at Woodland in the classes of 2021, 2023, and 2030.

Sonia Arrison

Sonia Arrison

Sonia Arrison is a best-selling author, analyst, entrepreneur, and investor. She is founder of 100 Plus Capital, co-founder of Unsugarcoat Media, and associate founder and advisor to Singularity University in Mountain View, California. Her research focuses on exponentially growing technologies and their impact on society. Her most recent book, 100 Plus: How the Coming Age of Longevity Will Change Everything, From Careers and Relationships to Family and Faith, addresses the social, economic, and cultural impacts of radical human longevity. It gained national best-seller status and keeps Sonia busy speaking all over the world. Sonia is a Board Member at the Thiel Foundation, Foresight Institute, and Woodland School. She is also a Senior Fellow at the Fraser Institute in Vancouver, British Columbia, and author of two previous books (Western Visions and Digital Dialog). She was previously a Director and Senior Fellow in Tech Studies at the Pacific Research Institute and a weekly columnist at TechNewsWorld.

Sonia is the parent of two Woodland School students.

Sharon Binger

Sharon Binger

Sharon Binger is a Managing Director and the Chief Compliance Officer of Silver Lake, the global leader in large scale technology investing. In her role, she oversees a team of compliance professionals and is responsible for administering the firm's compliance program worldwide. She is also on point for addressing the firm's litigation. Prior to joining Silver Lake, Sharon spent more than eight years at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Most recently at the SEC, she served as the regional director of the Philadelphia Regional Office where she administered the Commission's Enforcement and Regulatory programs for the Mid-Atlantic region. Prior to becoming regional director, Sharon served as an assistant regional director in enforcement in the SEC's New York office, and originally began at the SEC as a staff attorney in enforcement in New York. Before joining the SEC, Sharon was a senior litigation associate at Willkie Farr & Gallagher in New York.

Sharon received her BA from Northwestern University and her JD from Duke University.  She has twins at Woodland, class of 2026.

James Brundage

James Brundage

James Brundage is a Partner at Ernst & Young LLP. He serves clients in the technology sector and provides financial, accounting and operational due diligence services to public corporations and private equity firms. James has experience with both buy and sell side transactions, including experience with public-to-public and cross-border transactions. Prior to joining Ernst & Young’s Transactions practice, he worked in the firm’s audit group with a focus on public technology companies.

James received a MA in Accountancy from The University of Texas at Austin and a BS in Business Administration from the McCombs School of Business . He currently sits on the Bay Area for McCombs Board of Directors. James is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in the States of California and Texas and is a member of the American Institute of CPAs.

Alison Cheung

Alison Cheung

Alison Cheung is a Senior Director of Accounting at Western Digital, a data storage solutions company. She leads corporate accounting and accounting operations and oversees the global end-to-end record-to-report process. Alison also leads the accounting transformation and is responsible for post M&A integration, processes and systems transformation. Prior to Western Digital, Alison was at Ernst & Young LLP in the assurance and advisory practice with a focus on technology companies. She has extensive experience coordinating international, cross-functional teams to provide integrated, customized solutions and services to clients. She spent two years in Hong Kong, China where she was responsible for performing technical reviews of SEC filings and provided consultation for multinational SEC foreign registrants.

Alison has one child at Woodland, Lauren, Class of 2028, and enjoys walking her to school with her pup Peanut.

Michelle Gabriel

Michelle Gabriel

Michelle Gabriel has been a part of the Woodland community since 2012, and joined the board in 2014. She has a background in nursing, having had a passion for healthcare since she was a child. She has worked in many health care systems since becoming a nurse, including Stanford Health Care, VA Palo Alto and El Camino Health. She has worked as a front line nurse in cancer care, an advanced practice nurse in palliative care, as an administrator in performance improvement, and now as an operational manager. She currently manages Stanford Health Care’s Primary Care Clinic in Portola Valley as well as the Concierge Medicine Clinic.

Michelle has a BS from Northwestern University and a MS from The University of California in San Francisco. She is the mother of one child at Woodland, Kyle, Class of 2024 and an alumnus, Aiden, Class of 2021.

Julie Galles

Julie Galles

Julie Galles has been an educator for over 25 years.  She is the Interim Head of School at The Wesley School.  Julie previously served as the Head of School at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Day School in San Mateo and as Middle School Director and Assistant Head at the San Francisco School.  She started her career with fifteen years in the science classroom at Harvard-Westlake School in Southern California and Marin Country Day School.  Throughout her career, she has written curriculum, designed advisory programs, organized professional seminars for Health and Sexuality Educators, mentored new teachers and administrators, and counseled countless students and parents.  Julie is passionate about child development and empowerment, educator growth, and parent education.  She currently also serves on the board of Kidpower International.

Julie holds a BS in Biology and a MA in Education, both from Stanford University.  She earned her California teaching credential through the Stanford Teacher Education Program and was subsequently Board Certified by the National Board of Teaching Standards in Early Adolescent Science.

Mac Harman

Mac Harman

Mac Harman is CEO and Founder of Balsam Brands. In 2006, Mac founded Balsam Hill in his Palo Alto, CA apartment. Ten years later, Balsam Hill was named to Forbes’ inaugural list of “America’s Best Small Companies” and today is a $200M direct-to-consumer retailer of holiday and home décor products in North America, Europe, and Australia. Mac has been featured on TV shows including TODAY and Fox News. Previously, he served as CEO of Progress Wire Products, in marketing for Clorox, in business development for the Cleveland Clinic, and as a consultant at McKinsey & Company. Mac has been named an EY Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist and honored on the Silicon Valley "40 under 40" list. He is an angel investor, mentor, and board advisor to various startups.

Mac holds an MBA from Stanford University and a BA in geosciences and economics with a minor in environmental studies from Williams College.

Anne Hoecker

Anne Hoecker

Anne Hoecker is a Senior Partner with Bain & Company. She is the America’s Practice Head of Bain’s Technology and Cloud Services practice. Anne has over 20 years of management consulting experience and delivers strategies that work for leading businesses. Anne advises technology clients across a variety of issues including strategy, supply chain management, performance improvement, and corporate M&A. She serves multinational clients throughout the US and Asia with a focus on helping companies navigate cross-border supply chain and strategy issues.

Anne earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and graduated from Princeton with a BSE in civil engineering. She serves on the board of Larkin Street Youth Services in San Francisco where she chairs the Strategy committee. Anne lives in Portola Valley with her husband Pete, Jack, Woodland class of 2022, Cole, Class of 2024, and Tate, Woodland Class of 2030.

Abby Kirigin

Abby Kirigin

Abby Kirigin is the Administrative and Advancement Director for Touchstone Learning, an elementary school in the Bay Area for dyslexic and 2E students. She is also a Doctoral student of Cognitive Diversity in Education at the Bridges Graduate School. She holds a Master's degree in Human Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon and an undergraduate degree from NYU in Computer Science & Philosophy. Abby previously co-founded a venture backed startup, and has worked as an Interaction Designer for startups, large companies, and the US government. Abby's son Luka graduated from Woodland school in the Spring of 2021.

Michael Mastrandrea

Michael Mastrandrea

Michael Mastrandrea is an interdisciplinary scientist focused on managing climate risks and the design and implementation of energy and climate policy in California and beyond. He is Research Director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program and a Senior Research Scholar at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. He also serves as Chief Advisor for Energy and Climate Research at the California Energy Commission. Prior to joining Woods he was Director of Near Zero and a Senior Research Associate at the Carnegie Institution for Science. He was part of the leadership team for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report, a global report on climate change science and policy options for world governments. He also sits on the Editorial Board and is a managing editor for the scientific journal Climatic Change.

Michael holds a Ph.D. from Stanford’s Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources, and a B.S. in Biological Sciences from Stanford. He and his wife Annabelle have two boys at Woodland, classes of 2026 and 2029.

Silvina Pugliese

Silvina Pugliese

Silvina Pugliese is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Dermatology at Stanford University. She was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and raised on Long Island, New York. Silvina graduated from Dartmouth College with a BA in Psychology and received her MD from Boston University School of Medicine. She completed her medical internship at Stanford University and dermatology residency at Loma Linda University. Silvina joined Stanford Dermatology in 2014 and specializes in oncodermatology, with a focus on management of treatment-related cutaneous toxicities in cancer patients and survivors, transplant dermatology, high-risk skin cancers and inpatient dermatology.  

Silvina's family joined Woodland School in 2020 and she served on the WSPA Board for the 2021-2022 school year. Silvina lives in Menlo Park with her husband Josh and their 4 boys: Ethan, Class of 2029, Pax, Class of 2030, Connor, Class of 2032, and Bryce, who will hopefully join Woodland once he reaches school age.

Ramzi Ramsey

Ramzi Ramsey

Ramzi Ramsey is a Managing Director at Blackstone, one of the world's largest investment firms. Ramzi is responsible for investing in the enterprise software and financial technology sectors within Blackstone's Growth Equity unit, focusing on high growth businesses. Over his investing career, Ramzi has invested nearly $2 billion across ~15 investments. Prior to Blackstone, Ramzi was a Partner at SoftBank’s Vision Fund and led investing activity in the enterprise software sector. Prior to SoftBank, Ramzi was an investor at TCV (Technology Crossover Ventures) and began his investing career at TA Associates. Ramzi has been recognized as a top growth equity investor by GrowthCap for multiple years.

Outside of work, Ramzi and his wife Jinanne co-founded an education e-commerce company, which sold digital and physical children's learning materials prior to selling the business in 2014. Their digital app was identified as one of the Top 5 Apps of 2014 by Mobily. Ramzi received his BS from Carnegie Mellon University with university and college honors and completed his MBA from Harvard Business School. He is a parent to Rayyan, Class of 2026, and Jana, Class of 2028.

Gary Schofield

Gary Schofield

Gary Schofield is a seasoned Board Director, CEO, and Operating Executive with 30 years of experience leading both public and private companies. Currently, Gary is Senior Vice President of Merchant Solutions at Fidelity National Information Services (FIS). FIS is a Fortune 250 global leader of financial technology solutions for merchants, banks, and capital markets firms. Schofield has also held executive positions at IBM, Oracle, and Intuit and has led six of his seven private companies to successful exits, resulting in over $1.5B in returns to his shareholders.

Gary has one child at Woodland in the Class of 2025.

 

Pratima Sethi

Pratima Sethi

Pratima Sethi is the founder of the fine jewelry brand Sethi Couture. In 2009, she started her own business creating fine jewelry that reflects a woman’s past, celebrates her journey and elevates the everyday. She previously worked in retail operations and merchandising for Louis Vuitton and as an IT Consultant at PwC. Pratima has had prior school board experience serving on Castilleja’s Board of Trustees and was the President of Castilleja’s Alumnae Association. Currently, Pratima serves on the California Regional Board for Girls Leadership.

Pratima earned an MBA from the University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business and holds a BS in Business from the University of California Berkeley, Haas School of Business. She co-chairs the Woodland’s DEI Committee as well as serves on the Advancement Committee.

Aida Soto

Aida Soto

Aida is a Chartered Financial Analyst Charterholder who spent her career managing and investing commercial mortgage assets and securities at Prudential and leading strategic investments and mergers and acquisitions at Charles Schwab. Aida is on the Board of Regents at Junipero Serra High School in San Mateo where she serves on the Advancement Committee and DEIB Taskforce. She has served on the Board of the Toigo Alumni Endowment, WSPA (Woodland School Parents' Association) and the leadership team of the Common Ground Speaker Series.

Aida received a BA in Economics from Rutgers University with honors and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, where she was a Robert Toigo Foundation Fellow.  She is the co-chair of Woodland's Advancement Committee and serves on the Finance Committee. Aida has one child at Woodland, Sabrina, Class of 2024, and two alumni, Mateo, Class of 2021 and, LJ, Class of 2018.

Michael Walters

Michael Walters

Michael Walters currently serves as the Head of Human Resources for Samsung Semiconductor based in San Jose, CA. He leads end-to-end people processes for this $27B business inclusive of talent acquisition, organizational development, compensation, health & welfare and compliance initiatives.  Prior to his tenure with Samsung, Michael was the Chief Human Resources Officer for Genoa Healthcare, the nation’s leading behavioral health specialty pharmacy company with over 550 pharmacies across the United States filling more than 20 million prescriptions per year in service of more than 1,000,000 individuals annually. Michael led all HR initiatives for this fast growing organization. He also successfully led integration work for the 2018 acquisition of Genoa by UnitedHealth Group.  Prior to his tenure with Genoa, Michael served in HR leadership roles in a wide variety of industries to include Roper Technologies, Microsoft, and Nielsen Entertainment. Walters has taught HR management through the University of Washington for twelve years and is a frequent speaker at Society for Human Resource Management events across the country. 

Michael holds an MBA with a concentration in Human Resources Management from Loyola Marymount University and a BS in psychology from University of California, Los Angeles. Michael has one child at Woodland in the Class of 2026.

Lisa Widup

Lisa Widup

Lisa Widup is an intellectual property attorney focused on trademark and copyright law and has practiced exclusively in Silicon Valley over the past 20 years. She began her career at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP where she focused her practice on all stages of trademark and copyright prosecution, counseling, portfolio management, policing, enforcement, and litigation for clients ranging in size from Fortune 500 companies to smaller Bay Area businesses and individuals, domestically and foreign. Lisa then spent 12 years as in-house counsel for Apple Inc., first in the trademark and copyright team where she became responsible for clearance, prosecution, and policing for nearly a third of Apple's trademark portfolio, and then later in the Content and Internet Services legal team where she supported Apple’s iTunes Store, Apple Music, Apple Books/iBooks, and App Store content services, including principle responsibility for handling all pre-litigation IP claims regarding third party content on the services. Lisa also volunteers her time to assist pro bono legal service organizations such as Legal Aid of San Mateo County and Uncommon Law. She is currently Senior Counsel, Trademark & Copyright at Zoom, building and protecting the portfolio for the well-known Zoom software and service.

Lisa received her BA in Psychology and Managerial Studies from Rice University and her JD from University of San Francisco School of Law. She has two children at Woodland who have attended since kindergarten, a daughter in the Class of 2028 and a son in the Class of 2025.

2022-23 Officers and Trustees

Sharon Chang, Chair
Sonia Arrison
Sharon Binger
James Brundage
Alison Cheung
Michelle Gabriel
Julie Galles
Mac Harman
Anne Hoecker
Abby Kirigin
Michael Mastrandrea
Silvina Pugliese
Ramzi Ramsey
Gary Schofield
Pratima Sethi
Aida Soto
Michael Walters
Lisa Widup
Colleen Falls
WSPA President, non-voting member
Jennifer Warren
Head of School, non-voting member
Woodland School is committed to developing diversity within our community and complies with all federal and state laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age, sexual orientation, or handicapped status in the selection of the Board of Trustees, employment of personnel, admission of students, or in the administration of the school’s programming.