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 and WSPA President serve as ex officio and non-voting member of the board. Each trustee actively engages with the board by imparting their professional experience or by serving on committees. 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 two Woodland graduates, class of 2021 and 2023. She has a current Woodland student, class of 2030.

Federico Acabbi

Federico Acabbi

Federico is a Managing Director at RBC Capital Markets in San Francisco, where he covers infrastructure software and cybersecurity clients. He spent the last 13 years as a Technology-focused investment banker in the Bay Area and advised on $60+ billion of cumulative deal volume across M&A, equity and debt capital raises in over 60 transactions. Prior to joining RBC in 2021, Federico was a Director at Credit Suisse, where he spent 5 years building the infrastructure software banking practice. Before Credit Suisse, he was a Vice President at Barclays. Federico received a BSc and MSc in Industrial Engineering and Management from Politecnico di Milano and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California Berkeley.

Federico has two children at Woodland in the classes of 2028 and 2031.

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.

Stacy Brown-Philpot

Stacy Brown-Philpot

Stacy Brown-Philpot brings additional expertise to the board and is Founder and Managing Partner at Cherryrock Capital, the first Black Woman-founded, multi-hundred-million-dollar venture firm focused on Black and Latine founders. Stacy has over 20 years of experience in the technology industry, leading the growth and scale of large and small enterprises in the digital economy. She is the former CEO of TaskRabbit and previously spent nearly a decade leading global operations for Google’s flagship products. She also brings a background in finance from her experience at PricewaterhouseCoopers and Goldman Sachs. Ranked by Business Insider as one of the 46 Most Important Blacks in Technology, Stacy is a frequent speaker on diversity, equity and inclusion. Stacy is a founding member of SoftBank’s Opportunity Fund, a $100m venture fund established to invest in Black, Latinx, and Native American entrepreneurs. She serves as an advisor to some of the most prominent venture capital and private equity firms including General Catalyst, Ariel Alternatives, and the Operator Collective. She is also on the Board of Directors for HP Inc, Nordstrom, Noom, StockX, Joy, Black Girls Code, and The Urban Institute.

Stacy holds a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School of Business and an M.B.A. from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. She has one child at Woodland in the class of 2025.

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.

Colleen Falls

Colleen Falls

Colleen is the Associate Vice President of Sales and Applications for the Americas at Tecan, a cutting-edge automation solutions provider in the life-sciences and diagnostics fields. She manages teams in both the commercial and technical areas of the business who are dedicated to providing solutions in the areas of laboratory and healthcare innovation and driving scalable solutions to accelerate scientific advancement. With over 15 years of experience in biotech and healthcare sales in the Bay Area, Colleen is dedicated to improving patient outcomes and advancing scientific knowledge though her leadership and strategic vision. In addition, Colleen is passionate about advocating for girls/women in STEM and serving as a mentor and public speaker in this space. Colleen received her BA in Forensic Anthropology from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. She continued her education studying forensics in graduate school at the University of New Mexico and later Finance via the Harvard Business School. Colleen served as the president of WSPA for the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 school years.

Colleen has two children at Woodland in the classes of 2028 and 2030.

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 as a health care administrator in primary care. She currently is an interim assistant director of primary care.

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 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.

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 is the Executive Director of REEL, a Bay Area nonprofit supporting the educational needs of twice-exceptional students. She is also a doctoral student at Bridges Graduate School of Cognitive Diversity in Education. Abby holds a Master's degree in Human Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon and a B.A. in Computer Science & Philosophy from NYU. She lives in Redwood City with her husband, 3 dogs, and 3 kids - including one daughter, Woodland class of 2027, and one Woodland graduate, class 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 Associate 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. She is actively involved in medical education and currently directs the dermatology course for second-year Stanford medical students.

Her 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 who attend Woodland.

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, Jana, Class of 2028, and Kinan, Class of 2032.

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.

Gabe Swank

Gabe Swank

Gabe is an experienced non-profit board member, business development professional, and investor. He's advised the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and startups on go-to-market strategy, including at Intuit and Agilent. His work developing and redesigning go-to-market strategies has led to 100s of millions of dollars in new or saved revenue. Gabe has used his for-profit GTM experience to accelerate fundraising and program impact at non-profit organizations through the Stanford Alumni Consulting Team and through leadership roles on the boards of the Redwood City Education Foundation, Upward Scholars, and the "Yes on H" campaign. Gabe holds an MBA and BA with University Distinction from Stanford University.

Gabe has one child at Woodland in the class of 2032.

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.

Angie Wang

Angie Wang

Angie is a founding team member of Nuro, a Mountain View robotics - autonomous driving technology company. Currently she is a Senior Finance Manager, overseeing the company’s payroll operations, stock equity administration and taxes. In the past eight years, Angie has been helping startups set up and grow their accounting operations, treasury management, global payroll and employee benefit programs, stock equity plans, as well as people operations. Angie is a Certified Public Accountant in California and was previously specialized in tax planning and tax compliance for high-net-worth clients. She holds a BA in Journalism from Fudan University and a MS in Accountancy from San Jose State University.

Angie has two children at Woodland in the classes of 2027 and 2029.

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 one child at Woodland who has attended since kindergarten, a daughter in the Class of 2028.

2023-24 Officers and Trustees

Sharon Chang, Chair
Federico Acabbi
Sharon Binger
Stacy Brown-Philpot
James Brundage
Alison Cheung
Colleen Falls
Michelle Gabriel
Julie Galles
Mac Harman
Anne Hoecker
Abby Kirigin
Michael Mastrandrea
Silvina Pugliese
Ramzi Ramsey
Aida Soto
Gabe Swank
Michael Walters
Angie Wang
Lisa Widup
Neha Joshi
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.