Board of Directors / Team

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: one at Ralston Middle and one 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.

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 at Nesbit School. 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 two sons at Central Elementary.

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.

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 and then as VP of Annual Giving for SchoolForce. She has been a resident in Redwood Shores since 2009 and has a seventh grader at Ralston and a fifth grader. 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.

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. Currently, she has a son at Ralston, a daughter at Carlmont and two students 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.

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.

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.

We are seeking a VP of Annual Giving to develop a fundraising strategy and program plan for all fundraising activities throughout the fiscal year.  Additional duties include: define and execute each fundraising campaign including operational details and communications; be responsible for planning and executing major donor event including thank you gifts; ensure brand consistency across all communications and campaigns.

Ryan Lewis joined the School Force board in 2022. He also serves as the President of the Footsteps Child Care, Inc. Board. Currently, he and his wife, Lauren, have two children at Central Elementary. Outside of his community involvement, Ryan works to preserve affordable housing as part of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. Additionally, he is an executive coach supporting HUD, EPA, Treasury, Interior, Defense, Homeland Security, Forest Service, and many other agencies.

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.

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.

Allegra Newman is the SchoolForce Chair for Fox Elementary. She and her husband, Dan, have two children at Fox. Allegra has been part of the PTA Board at Fox since 2019 and is looking forward to getting 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.

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.

Nivedita is excited to co-chair with Jeff Goldman as the Ralston representatives 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.

Jeff Goldman, and his wife Juliette, have two daughters at Ralston and Carlmont. Jeff has taken on the role of Ralston SchoolForce chair and previously served 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.

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.

Lourdes Arce is excited to join the board this year as Sandpiper Chair and get more involved in SchoolForce, supporting our schools and students. With her husband, Alonso, they have two children, one of them 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.