Board of Directors / Team

Ying Gonikman joined the SchoolForce board in 2018. Ying was part of the Measure K and Measure C campaigns serving as chair for OutreachCircle. As a continuation in advocating for school funding, Ying served as Sandpiper Chair, VP of Annual Giving and VP of Operationsfor SchoolForce. She has been a resident in Redwood Shores since 2009 and has an eighth grader and a sixth grader at Ralston. Ying enjoys volunteering in classrooms and in youth sports leagues. She is excited to work on encouraging parent community involvement at all levels and ensuring that the schools in our district continue to excel.

Ying holds a BA degree in Computer Science from UC Berkeley. Ying loves to read, travel, and explore the outdoors.

Eric has lived in the Bay Area since 2004 and has lived in the Belmont-Redwood Shores School District since 2011. He and his wife have two sons, one at Nesbit and one at Ralston.  Eric joined the SchoolForce Board in 2018 and currently serves as the SchoolForce treasurer and has previously served as financial secretary.

He currently works at Visa as a Vice President in the Strategy Group. He has an MBA from Rice University and a B.S. in Accounting and Finance from Indiana University.

Matthew Debski joined the SchoolForce Board in 2022 and serves in the role of Secretary.  He has also served as a member of Central’s Site Council. Matt and his wife, Katie, have one son at Central Elementary, and one at Ralston Middle School.

Matt moved to the Bay Area in 2000 after earning his BS and MEng in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  He works at Google as an Engineering Manager.

Debbie joined the SchoolForce board in 2021 and is excited to be more involved in supporting our kids and schools. It takes a village! She looks forward to meeting and working with our community. She has a background in communications, and has worked in a variety of analytics and program management roles.

Aaron is a San Francisco native who attended public schools throughout his life. He and his wife moved to Belmont in 2014 and have two sons who attend Fox Elementary School. Aaron has many years of experience leading digital marketing and is currently a fractional marketing executive. He can be regularly seen around Belmont helping his sons’ baseball and basketball teams or running on the Bay Trail.

Aaron has a BS in Business Administration from UC Berkeley and an MBA from the University of Texas.

Allegra Newman is the VP of Effectivness, after having served as SchoolForce Chair for Fox Elementary. She and her husband, Dan, have two children; one at Fox and one at Ralston. Allegra was part of the PTA Board at Fox since 2019 which lead to her becoming more involved with SchoolForce, and helping community members understand its important role.

Allegra is originally from Cleveland, OH. She has a dual BA degree in Biology with a Concentration in Marine Science and Psychology from Boston University. She also holds a MS degree in Speech-Language Pathology from California State University, East Bay. For the past 12 years Allegra has focused her professional work in adult acute care hospital settings working with patients who have speech-language and/or swallowing disorders. During COVID, Allegra took a break from work to focus on supporting her kids at home.

Ellen has lived in Belmont since 2008. She joined the SchoolForce Board in 2022 and serves as the SchoolForce Financial Secretary. She has two children at Cipriani.  Professionally, she was a Director of Product Management at one of the largest cybersecurity companies. Prior to that she worked in internal audit as well as in one of the big 4 public accounting firms. She has a B.A. in Accounting and Management Information System. In her spare time, she enjoys outdoor activities and playing music with the children.

Jo moved into Belmont-Redwood Shores School District in 2014 with her four children, two who are now at Carlmont, and two at university. She most recently served at the Ralston PTA president working closely the ECC Steering Committee to help engineer a strong start to our joint fundraising efforts.

She is also the current president of the Carlmont Scots Booster Board and mentors collegians at two nearby Universities as the Chapter Key Advisor for chapters of her sorority.

Paul and his wife have two daughters, one at Nesbit and one at Ralston. He first got involved with the Nesbit PTA due to his interest in exploring ways to increase carpooling and extracurricular activities, and he is interested in technologies that build and support communities. He has led Art in Action and several Discovery Day projects – including building and racing solar cars and bringing several of his family’s chickens to meet and play with the children.

Paul has worked in startups and international companies in the clean energy and decarbonization sectors for over 15 years, and he has BSE, MS, and PhD degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Tulane University in New Orleans. In his spare time, Paul enjoys many sports and camping with his family.

Jeff Goldman, and his wife Juliette, have two daughters, at Ralston and Carlmont. Jeff has taken on the role of  Schools & Community Chair, after having served as Ralston SchoolForce chair, and previously as Cipriani SchoolForce chair. He’s excited to work with our district’s outstanding instructional faculty, staff and other professionals to make BRSSD’s schools the best they can be.

Jeff’s secret identity is as a compensation and benefits attorney with Cooley, based in Palo Alto. At home, he enjoys spending time with Max the Dog and performs with Pied Piper Players.

Sherie Lyn Hafalia and her husband, Michael, have lived in Belmont since 2012 and have three children at Ralston, Central and Cipriani. Sherie has volunteered at Central Elementary teaching music theory, recorder classes, ukulele lessons, and has helped with their fundraising events for the past 6 years.  She currently serves as the Central PTA Executive Vice President. Sherie works at Stanford University as a Conference and Events Manager at the Graduate School of Business and also owns Pili Lani Events, curating weddings and corporate events.

Ryan Lewis joined the SchoolForce board in 2022.  Ryan has served as President of the Footsteps Child Care Board, and serves as a member of the Measure I Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee.  He and his wife, Lauren, have two children at Central Elementary.  Outside of his community involvement, Ryan works as an executive coach for Federal employees based out of IRS University.

Ryan loves indoor rock climbing at Planet Granite, road cycling throughout San Mateo County, and spending quality time with family throughout the Bay Area.  He earned his BA from Emory University and an MBA from Santa Clara University.

Aaron Lockwood and his wife, Robin, have two children attending schools in the Belmont-Redwood Shores School District. Since moving to Belmont in 2020, Aaron has served as a board member with Opening Doors, the District’s special education PTA, and he is happy to be able to provide legal support to SchoolForce on a pro bono basis.

Carisa joined the SchoolForce board in 2019, after many years volunteering at Central Elementary’s PTA, including 4 years on the district-wide PTA Council. She has been working to better align and coordinate PTA and SchoolForce fund raising efforts and previously served as the PTA Liaison and Education Commitment Campaign Co-Chair.

Carisa and her husband, Leo Leung, have two children at Carlmont High School. She worked as a funder and community builder at United Way in Boston and Pittsburgh. She has a BA in political science from Amherst College and MA in urban and environmental policy from Tufts University.

Alan Kissick is a proud father of two kids at Central Elementary. He first got involved through programs like Art in Action and is a regular volunteer at Central. When he is not working with SchoolForce, Alan is a global health and local patient advocate related to non-communicable and infectious diseases.

In his spare time, Alan is passionate about cycling, the great outdoors, and music, and loves to learn.

Vaishaly Shah and her husband, Sid Mistry, moved to Belmont in 2013, and are avid supporters of SchoolForce. Vaishaly started volunteering with Cipriani Elementary as a room parent when her older daughter was in Transitional Kindergarten, and is excited to join SchoolForce as the Cipriani Chair. Vaishaly is originally from Houston, Texas and went to school at The University of Texas at Austin. She currently works in Finance at a tech company.

Kristin’s began serving as the SchoolForce Chair for Fox Elementary in 2023. She and her husband have two children: one at Fox and one at Ralston. Kristin has been part of the Fox PTA board since 2018. She served on the ECC steering committee which led her to be more involved with SchoolForce. Professionally, she is a World-Wide Account Manager at FedEx. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with family, doing F45, and traveling.

Mindy started volunteering as a room parent at Nesbit and then actively volunteered for Nesbit PTA. She was excited to join the SchoolForce Board in 2023. She currently serves as the Nesbit Chair and looks forward to getting more involved to support our community.  Professionally, she currently works at a tech company. In her spare time, she enjoys outdoor activities.

Nivedita is excited to volunteer as the Ralston representative on the SchoolForce Board. She brings many years of volunteering experience at various levels – co-op preschool Board President and Secretary, chairing events at Nesbit, representing Nesbit on the PTA Council and SchoolForce Board and working in the classroom. Nivedita and her husband, Anand, have two boys. One is a Ralston Ram and the other a Carlmont Scot.

Nivedita holds a BE in Electrical Engineering from India and an MS in Computer Science from The Ohio State University. For eight years she worked as a graphics software engineer at an award winning animation and special effects studio. She earned a couple of movie credits for her work.

Linh joined the SchoolForce board in 2023. She first volunteered at her daughter’s school when she was in transitional kindergarten, and later in the year she began to co-lead an environmental club at the school. She began her involvement with SchoolForce during the 2022 read-a-thon and enjoyed the experience and importance of the event, which led to her continuing to be more involved.

She looks forward to continuing to participate and supporting the students at the school. She has two children and currently works in healthcare at an acute-care facility.

Lourdes Arce has held the board position of Sandpiper Chair since 2022, and looks forward to getting more involved in SchoolForce, supporting our schools and students. With her husband, Alonso, they have two children, one of whom is a student at Sandpiper. As a new parent in the school, she enjoys volunteering and getting involved in our community. 

She has a background working in Non Profits and in the international expansion of a software company. She has a BA in International Relations and a MA in Social Responsibility from Universities in Mexico, where she is originally from.