Jocelyn Surla Banaria, Ph.D. (Chair)
E-mail: jocelynbanaria@gmail.comPolicy Analyst, Office of the Associate Vice Chancellor—Admissions & Enrollment, UC Berkeley
Jocelyn Surla Banaria is a Policy Analyst in the Office of the Associate Vice Chancellor—Admissions & Enrollment at the University of California, Berkeley (aka, "Cal"). Jocelyn received her BA in Development Studies from Cal in 1993, MA in Counseling with an emphasis in Higher Education from Cal State Hayward in 1997, and Ph.D. in Education with an emphasis in Higher Education Administration from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 2004. Her research focuses on the recruitment and retention of underrepresented students, specifically Filipino American students at four-year colleges. Jocelyn and her family moved back to the Bay Area in 2006 after spending 6 years in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her husband, Randy, is the Corporate Controller of Bigge Crane and Rigging Company in San Leandro. Jocelyn and Randy have two daugthers--Jadyn Hokulea and Janelle Kamaulihiwa, and live in Alameda. Jocelyn has a passion to serve the Filipino community, specifically with Higher Education issues.
Jocelyn and Randy have three daugthers--Jadyn Hokulea, Janelle Kamaulihiwa, & Jayla Luzon, and live in Alameda.
Ray Buenaventura, Esq.(Vice Chair)
E-mail: raybesquire@yahoo.comRay Buenaventura is an Attorney licensed to practice law in California and Washington D.C. He is currently in private practice and focuses on criminal defense and immigration. He is a Certified Criminal Law Specialist and has been practicing law for nearly 17 years. Mr. Buenaventura is a member of the San Mateo County Bar Association, Filipino Bar Association of Northern California, Asian American Bar Association and Alameda County Bar Association.
Mr. Buenaventura is very active in the community. He was appointed to the Library Board of Daly City and serves as a Commissioner. He is the immediate past President of the Filipino American Democratic Club of San Mateo County. Mr. Buenaventura also serves as an Alternate and Associate Member of the Democratic Central Committee of San Mateo County and is also a member of the Fil-Am Democratic Caucus and the Asian Pacific Islander Caucus of the California Democratic Party. Mr. Buenaventura served as a Delegate to the California Democratic Convention in 2007, 2008 and 2009. In April 2008, Mr. Buenaventura was elected as Delegate to the Democratic National Convention for President in Denver (August 2008). In addition, Mr. Buenaventura is involved in several non-profit organizations, including the Pilipino Bayanihan Resource Center (Director & Vice-President), Daly City-Sister City Committee (Director & Vice President), Filipino Mental Health Initiatives (Oversight Member) and the Knights of Columbus Foundation for Developmentally Disabled Children (Director and 2nd Vice President). Mr. Buenaventura has also contributed his legal services pro-bono to those in need. He has volunteered his legal services to the United States Center for Refugee and Immigrant Children. He has voluntarily represented children who are facing deportation and removal from the United States. He is also a regular volunteer to Community Law Night, a service provided by the San Mateo County Bar Association. Further, he has volunteered for the San Francisco Voluntary Legal Service Program, helping pro-bono on family law related matters.
E-mail: melissacanlas@yahoo.comInstructor, City College of San Francisco, Asian American Studies and Women’s Studies.
Melissa Ann Canlas was born and raised on the East Coast, and moved to San Francisco after receiving her Bachelor’s Degree in Literature from St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Melissa received her Master’s Degree in Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University, where she also served as a PEP teacher.
Melissa’s work experience reflects her commitment to social justice through education. Melissa has worked for several years to assist and advocate for underserved, first-generation bound college students. Melissa has worked with several non-profit organizations in San Francisco, such as the Japanese Community Youth Council, Filipino Community Center, Vietnamese Youth Development Center, and Community Youth Center. Her work experience also includes instructing in the Ethnic Studies departments at Laney and Merritt Colleges.
Currently, Melissa teaches at City College of San Francisco in the Asian American and Women’s Studies departments. Melissa also serves as co-advisor for the CCSF student group PEACE (Pilipinos for Education, Art, Culture, and Empowerment). Melissa is honored to serve as a PEP Board Member and she credits the teachers, students, and community of PEP with helping her become a prouder Pinay.
Arlene S. Daus-Magbual
E-mail: alena_sd@hotmail.comArlene Sudaria Daus Community Leadership Program Director
Arlene S. Daus-Magbual is a Pinay that was born in East Los Angeles and raised in Long Beach and Riverside CA. Arlene is the Associate Director for Pin@y Educational Partnerships (PEP. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science at the University of California Riverside, and her Master of Arts in Asian American Studies at the San Francisco State University. Next fall she will pursue her Doctorate in Education at San Francisco State University. Her experience with nonprofits includes organizations such as Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics, Asian Pacific American Legal Center, Oakland Kids First, Girlsource, the Filipino American Development Foundation and the Filipino Community Center. She currently resides in Daly City, CA with her husband Roderick Daus-Magbual and their 3-month-old Pinay sweetheart Amianan.
Roderick Rana Daus-Magbual
E-mail: rodmagbual@gmail.comRoderick Raña Daus-Magbual is a Bay Area transplant via Riverside and Long Beach, CA. He received his BA in Liberal Studies from UC Riverside in 2000, his MA in Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University (SFSU) in 2004, and is currently a Doctoral student at the University of San Francisco (USF) in the Organization and Leadership (O&L) Program and a minor in the International Multicultural Education (IME) Program. Over the past five years, Rod has served as a teacher, coordinator, and as the current Associate Director of Curriculum Development for the Pin@y Educational Partnerships (PEP). PEP is a service learning education program which partners with SFSU Asian American Studies (AAS), San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), and the Filipino Community Center (FCC). PEP provides a transformative decolonizing curriculum based on Filipina/o American Studies to elementary, middle school, high school, and community college students. PEP provides educational opportunities for both graduate and undergraduate SFSU students to gain skills in curriculum development, lesson planning, and teaching. In addition, Rod teaches the "Filipino Community Issues" course at Skyline College. Rod truly believes that education has the potential to uplift the mind, body, and soul to transform our society towards positive social change.
Herb Felina
E-mail: herb.felina@comcast.netA former student of SFSU, this Daly City native is currently a Cardiovascular Anesthesia Technician at Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco. He balances his life with his passions of music as a DJ and comedy as a stand-up comedian. Herb has been a part of, as well as organized, many events, variety shows, and fundraisers in the community utilizing his passions. On a personal note, Herb is a close family friend of Val and Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales who supports any and every endeavor of both Val and Allyson. As a proud board member of PEP, Herb hopes to strengthen, motivate, and further cultivate the success of PEP, with his personal touch, for many years to come.
Allyson Fernandez
E-mail: allyson.t.fernandez@gmail.com(Bio Pending)
Michelle Ferrer
E-mail: michelleferrer7@gmail.comMichelle Ferrer has a B.A. in Psychology from San Francisco State University and is currently pursuing her Master's Degree in International Multicultural Education at the University of San Francisco. Michelle is a pinay educator/writer born in Manila, Philippines and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. Michelle has provided leadership development training to teen-age youth for the past eight years through both cultural and creative arts. Michelle joined Oakland Kids First in 2003 and brings a spirit to her work that values youth wisdom, creates safety for others to find their voice, and provides opportunities for learning and reflection. Michelle is a former teacher with PEP in the San Francisco public schools. She has performed her poetry at APAture, Diwang Pinay, Bindlestiff Studios, MACLA (San Jose) and at the Youth Speaks event, "This Kolor Children." She uses her writing as a medium to begin a dialogue about the impact different forms of oppression have had on marginalized communities.
Daniel Gonzales, JD.
E-mail: gonzo1@sfsu.eduAssociate Professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University
After working on the planning and implementation of Asian American Studies and the School of Ethnic Studies at SFSU in1969, San Francisco-born Daniel Phil Gonzales began a four-decade career in education as a co-lecturer in Asian American Studies. With a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and a Juris Doctorate from Hastings College of Law (1977), he has continuously taught, researched, written newspaper and magazine articles, and recorded video about Filipina/o American history, Asian Americans and American legal, political and social processes, and Philippine/U.S. relations. He resides in San Francisco with Barbara Linda Palaby, his spouse of 29 years, and sons Arel and Balentin.
Claire Kahrobaie (Secretary)
E-mail: ckahrobaie@yahoo.comClaire is a San Ramon-based meeting & event planner, coordinating details both locally in the San Francisco/Bay Area and nationwide. Happily, her previous role as Director of Client Services for a Silicon Valley Internet think tank brought her corporate meeting talents to international client sites in India, Bulgaria and Israel.
Claire’s passion for details began at the San Francisco Fairmont Hotel, coordinating the hotel’s annual holiday events for guests and working with the five restaurants on special event programs. She left the hotel to develop curriculum, internships and placement opportunities at a travel and tourism academy, where she found graduates positions in the hotel and tourism industry. Claire returned to San Francisco, joining an established destination management company exclusively supporting the President on meetings and special events with clients such as BEA, AMD, and HP. As a marketing & event coordinator for an office furniture dealership, she arranged client presentations, quarterly marketing events, annual travel and event itineraries for trade shows, and company events and teambuilders.
After 12 years of experience in the industry, her company KM&E was born in 2006 from her passion for handling details for various organizations and at various locations. She is a current member of the International Special Events Society, Northern California Chapter (ISES-NCC) and served on the Event Committee for Oasis for Girls’ Annual Fundraiser in 2007. A former Board Member and Programs Chairperson for the San Francisco Chapter of IFMA [International Facilities Management Association], she directed various educational programs and networking sessions, serving the professional needs of facilities managers for that chapter. She received her B.A. in Psychology from the University of California at Berkeley.
Claire was elected as PEP Board Secretary in 2008 and serves as Co-chair of the Fundraising & Events Committee. She is excited to have found a home at PEP, where she can utilize her skills to support PEP’s mission through its fundraising efforts – hopefully elevating PEP to another level of awareness to another generation of Filipino Americans in the Bay Area.
Dawn Bohulano Mabalon, Ph.D.
E-mail: dmabalon@sfsu.eduAssistant Professor, Department of History
San Francisco State University
Dawn Bohulano Mabalon, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of History at San Francisco State University, where she teaches courses in US history and race and ethnicity. A third generation Pinay born in Stockton, California, she received her M.A. in Asian American Studies from UCLA in 1997 and her Ph.D. in history from Stanford University in 2004. Her poetry, essays, articles and curriculum have been published in the books and anthologies Tomorrow’s Memories: The Diary of Angeles Monrayo (University of Hawaii, 2003), Coming Home to a Landscape: Writings by Filipinas (2003), Pinay Power: Pilipina Peminist Theory (Routledge, 2006), Positively No Filipinos Allowed (Temple University, 2006), and in the Pin@y Educational Partnerships Sourcebook (Phoenix Publishing, 2007). She is the past chair and founding board member of the Little Manila Foundation, which works for the preservation and revitalization of the Little Manila Historic Site in Stockton, serves on the advisory board of the Manilatown Heritage Foundation, and is a National Trustee of the Filipino American National Historical Society. She is co-author of Filipinos in Stockton, a book of historic photos and essays (Arcadia Publishing, 2008). She is a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow for 2007-2008. She is currently completing her book manuscript, Life in Little Manila: Filipinas/os in Stockton, 1917-1972. Her research interests include Filipina/o American community history and culture, foodways and food history, and Pinay Studies.
Francisco Sibal
E-mail: fsibal@phoenixphi.comFrancisco Sibal is the Director of Development and founder of Phoenix Publishing House International, whose mission is to develop and maintain Filipino heritage, history, and culture for the global Filipino community. Previously, he was a senior auditor for the public accounting firm Ernst & Young.
As a believer that good business and good community are not mutually exclusive, Francisco feels fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with several Filipino American nonprofit organizations. He first got involved with PEP in project development, by coordinating to expand its services to the elementary level at Longfellow elementary school. Since then, he has continued to be an active supporter for its mission as a business partner and board member. In addition, Francisco has led community fundraisers for Books for the Barrios, a nonprofit that supports public schools in the Philippines. He also serves as an officer for PICPA-USA (Philippine Institute of CPAs). Francisco received his BS in Economics from Santa Clara University.
Imee Villegas
E-mail: imeevillegas@yahoo.comImee Villegas is a Market Research Project Manager for Wells Fargo Bank Customer Strategies & Marketing, Ethnography Group in San Francisco, California.
Imee is an Alumnus of both Saint Mary’s College of California and San Francisco State University, and majored in Biology and Chemistry. Imee began her career in the environmental and research field for The Dow Chemical Company in the East Bay and spent the next 15 years in banking, consulting, audit and credit. Imee has held positions as an Assistant Vice President for Credit Review and Risk Management, analyzing complex credit structures, assessing loan loss reserves and the risk rate quality of middle market portfolio transactions with Merrill Lynch in Chicago. She was also a Senior Analyst for both Finova Capital Corporation and Union Bank in Southern California; analyzing the financial structure and collateral quality of participated and syndicated transactions exceeding $200 million. Imee’s experience extends to audit; reviewing internal business lines within the Wells Fargo organization, and performing collateral and financial audits for highly leveraged companies.
Imee is an active participant in volunteering and mentoring youth with organizations such as Metro Achievement Center in Chicago, homeless and women’s shelters around the East Bay, Brothers of the Elderly in San Francisco, participated in overseas medical missions within the Zambales province of the Philippines, and Pinay Educational Program (PEP), founded by a close friend, and fellow high school classmate, Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales. She remains an active board member alongside former classmates, Jocelyn Surla Banaria and Claire Cabal Kahrobaie.