DELTA SAN FRANCISCO-PENINSULA FOUNDATION
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
The Foundation is led by its Board of Directors, who all possess a deep and personal commitment to education and the San Francisco Peninsula area. Their visionary leadership, professional expertise and dedicated service has helped the Foundation thrive.
EXECUTIVE BOARD
Farralon has served on the Board since January 2014 and she serves as the Chair of the Board. Farralon is a Senior Financial Associate for the SRI (Sustainable, Responsible, and Impact Investing) Group at RBC Wealth Management. She is passionate about inciting sound personal finance practices in her community. To that end, Farralon loves teaching financial literacy courses and being the CFO of the Udom family household. Farralon is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned a BA in International Relations. She and her husband have a toddler son. They love travel, dinners, and look forward to a day when they’ll have a Weimaraner named Lightning.
Farralon Udom
Chair
Regina Wallace-Jones
Vice-Chair
Regina Wallace-Jones is a dual career professional, leading in the capacity of tech executive and public servant.
Regina is the Senior Vice President of Product & Engineering at Mindbody Inc., a company whose mission is to connect the world with fitness, beauty and wellness. Regina has previously worked as a tech executive at Yahoo, eBay and Facebook in various capacities.
Regina is a big believer in civic engagement. She is the founding board president of StreetCode Academy, a patron of Black Girls Code, a board member for Women Who Code, and a partner of the Lean In Foundation which advocates for women pursuing their professional ambitions.
In 2018, Regina was elected to East Palo Alto City Council and is now serving in the capacity of Mayor of the city. In this role, Regina hopes to support the city and its residents in a robust evolutionary journey as it realizes its potential as the gateway to and the conscience of Silicon Valley.
Regina holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and a
Masters from UCLA in Public Policy with Emphasis in Technology Policy.
She is married to Steffond Jones, a Sr. Software Engineer and Apple veteran. Together, they have two beautiful daughters, Addison and Jocelyn Jones.
Quita Highsmith, MBA, is the Chief Diversity Officer at Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, and leads the diversity and inclusion (D&I) strategy across the organization. In this role, she is responsible for advancing Genentech’s D&I efforts, including recruiting, retaining and developing diverse talent, investing in initiatives to support science education, and addressing barriers in clinical trial participation via Advancing Inclusive Research™. She has served on the Delta Sigma Theta San Francisco Peninsula Scholarship Foundation Board of Directors since 2015.
Quita Highsmith
Secretary
Stacy Hovan, Esquire
Treasurer
Stacy joined the Board in 2018 and began her tenure as Treasurer in 2019. An experienced litigator, Stacy’s legal practice included complex business litigation, class action defense, intellectual property disputes, and commercial arbitration. After a decade of practice, she took a leave of absence to travel the country and deepen her spirituality. Stacy graduated magna cum laude from University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 2010 and graduated cum laude from the University of Miami in 2004, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Communication and Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature. A native of the Peninsula, Stacy is grateful for her solid public education and the scholarships that enabled her to pursue higher education. She also values the financial and investment knowledge that enabled her to live life on her terms. She believes that everyone should have access to financial education that empowers them to achieve freedom.
MEMBERS
Abayomi Jones, M.D.
Abayomi has served on the Board since 2017 as a community member. She has the distinct privilege of having received a four year scholarship from the Foundation when she was a student in 1998, which she credits as a personal achievement and a honor. She is a graduate of Spelman College and Howard University College of Medicine, and has served as a primary care physician in underserved communities for 10 years before joining the US Public Health Service Corps. Abayomi currently practices medicine and oversees policy at a local University and resides in the East Bay with her husband and two children. In the spirit of gratitude for the investment in her own growth, Abayomi hopes to “pay it forward” while serving on the Board, bringing the outputs of her knowledge, networks, and passion for community service.
Barbara Brown
Barbara has served on the Board since June 1999. Barbara is a retired Assistant Principal from the San Francisco Unified School District. A graduate of Prairie View A&M University with a BS, Barbara also holds a MS in Education Administration from San Francisco State University. Barbara is a member of Temple United Methodist Church in San Francisco, where she currently serves as the Executive Director of the Temple Tutorial Program. Barbara also serves on the Church Council. Barbara is active in her community of Ocean-View, Merced Ingleside (“OMI”) District in San Francisco. In that role, she serves as a member of the OMI collaborative. Barbara loves to travel and her goal is to visit all seven continents in her quest to travel around the world.
Bessie L. Stewart-Ross
Bessie has served on the Board since June 2000. Currently, Bessie serves as Leadership Coach to seven graduate students from the University of California at Berkeley. Holding a MA in School Administration and Leadership, Bessie was a classroom teacher for more than 20 years and a California public school administrator for 18 years. Bessie has served as president of Region 5 School Administrators, and in various leadership positions within Region 5. She is a member of the Boys and Girls Club. She also is Chair of the Hudspeth Scholarship Fund and served as Co-Chairperson of “Stamping out Obesity,” a walk-a-thon and health fair sponsored by San Francisco’s Third Baptist Church for its 160th Anniversary in 2012.
Bettye Price
Bettye has served on the Board since August 2010. Currently, Bettye is the Business Manager for the Biology Department in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University, where she is responsible for the overall administration of the Department. She oversees various functions within the Department, including human resources, finances, health and safety, compliance, service centers and student services. Over the years, Bettye has focused on management of grants and contracts for over 50 principal investigators and she manages a consolidated budget of over $60 million. Bettye holds a BA in Business Administration/Accounting from Stillman College and has many training certifications from Stanford University. She is also a graduate of the Leadership@Stanford Cohort 2011-2012.
Crystal-Marie Mitchell
Crystal-Marie Mitchell is a Program Manager + Entrepreneur + Blogger + Vlogger + Designer + Social Media Siren. She is founder of The Diva Inc. Magazine and is Creative Director of IsrylDesigns.
She has over 20 years experience in Graphic Design and has spent the last five years as a Program Manager for a compliance lab in the Bay Area. She is currently working as a program manager in the hardware engineer training space.
Crystal-Marie is an author of several books, most notably, The Diva Diaries Living Through Tough Seasons.
Imo Udom
As Mozilla’s Senior Vice President of Innovation Ecosystems, Imo is responsible for cultivating new innovative ideas and technology from conception to launch outside Mozilla’s core products. In addition to product innovation, Imo is also focused on creating systems to foster collaboration across an ecosystem of stakeholders to help realize Mozilla’s vision to build a better internet.
Previously, Imo was the Chief Strategy and Product Officer at Outmatch. He was responsible for ensuring Outmatch’s business and product strategy deliver value to customers, and support Outmatch’s mission to match people with purpose. Prior to Outmatch, Imo Co-founded and served as CEO of Wepow, a video interviewing solution that reduces interviewing time and improves hiring quality. Imo helped grow Wepow from a small side-project in 2010 to an enterprise platform that supports hundreds of global brands.
Jerlena Griffin-Desta, Ph.D.
Jerlena Griffin-Desta joined the Board in 2020. She serves as Chief of Staff to the President and Chief Diversity Officer at Sonoma State University SSU), where she oversees all programs, initiatives, and operations within the Office of the President, and is the campus lead in the development and implementation of initiatives, programs, and services related to campus diversity, equity, and inclusion, serving as SSU’s first Chief Diversity Officer. She also oversees federal and state relations and strategic marketing and communications.
Prior to joining Sonoma State in 2018, Jerlena spent nearly 30 years at the University of California (Berkeley, UCLA). Most recently, she was the Associate Vice President and Deputy to the Vice President at the University of California Office of the President, providing strategic direction and leadership for a broad array of areas, including presidential initiatives, student civic engagement, diversity & inclusion, student mental health and wellness, and student leadership.
Jerlena earned a B.S. degree from Mercer University, a Master’s and Ph.D. from UC Berkeley. She is an American Council on Education (ACE) Fellow (2017, University of Washington) and is passionate about access to and success in higher education, especially for historically underrepresented students. Born in northern Florida and raised in southeast Georgia, Jerlena has called California home since 1987. An avid traveler, and all things culinary, she has lived or visited all the continents except Antarctica. Jerlena and husband, Yossedek, live in Sonoma County, with their Rhodesian Ridgeback, Chiba.
Monica Eason
Monica has served on the board since February 2020. She has been with the Genentech/Roche organization for 30 years, where she currently holds the position of Operations Program Director. In this role, Monica provides strategic direction and operational excellence in the planning and execution of clinical trials across all development stages. She is also the recruitment and hiring lead in her department and sits on the Product Development Diversity & Inclusion Team.
Monica believes in giving back to her community and to others. She is also an ambassador for the Women of Color in Pharma (WOCIP), a global professional society focused solely on the engagement and empowerment of women of color in pharmaceuticals and other life sciences. As an WOCIP Ambassador, her remit is to help spread the organization's vision and mission and create nurturing and safe environments to promote personal and professional development. Monica earned a Biology degree from Rutgers University in New Jersey and has 3 children.
Quincy Highsmith is a retired United States Marine and graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University.
Quincy Highsmith
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