Board of Directors
Dewey Rosetti, Founder
Ms. Rosetti resides in San Francisco with her husband Bill, and two daughters who both have learning disabilities and ADD. She has been a tireless advocate for her daughters and others with learning and attention difficulties for over fifteen years. Ms. Rosetti retired from Levis Strauss as Merchandise Manager responsible for 125 million dollar business. Prior to Levis, she was a Research Analyst at McKensey & Co.
Ms. Rosetti is President and co-founder of the Parents Education Network, and the founder of the Parent Support Group at Katherine Delmar Burkes School. She is currently a Trustee of the Charles Armstrong School, and past Board member of Burkes School and California Pacific Medical Center. She was also past President of the Little Sisters of the Poor Auxiliary.
Ms. Rosetti received her M.B.A. from University of California at Berkeley, and B.A. from the University of Florida.
Ellice Sperber, Chair
Ms. Sperber resides in San Francisco with her partner, Dale Van Fossan, and her two daughters who both have learning disabilities. Ms. Sperber has been involved with PEN from its earliest years.
Ms. Sperber is a retired American Sign Language Interpreter for the Deaf and the Deaf-Blind with more than thirty-five years of dedicated work in the disabilities and disability rights community. She was the Artistic Director of The LA Sign Company, a theatre company that produced plays blending Deaf and Hearing actors. She worked at the San Francisco Lighthouse for the Blind as a Deaf-Blind Consultant. Ms. Sperber was also a dancer and the Singing Director with Zadruga Folk Ensemble.
Ms. Sperber was Chair of the Parent Group on Learning Differences at San Francisco Day School, is a former Trustee of Gateway Public Schools and Director for Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, N. CA, and has chaired fund-raising activities for weSpark Cancer Support Center's Celebrity Golf Tournaments, a non-profit founded by her sister. Ms Sperber serves on the Advisory Board of Northern California Branch, International Dyslexia Association.
Ms. Sperber graduated with a degree in Linguistics from California State University, Northridge.
Martha Gregg, Secretary
Ms. Gregg lives in San Francisco with her husband, Jim, and is the mother of two dyslexic daughters who attend an independent school. She is an Interior Designer with clients throughout the Bay Area. Ms. Gregg has also been a film editor and florist. She currently is a Board member of the Blauvelt-Demerest Foundation which supports wildlife conservation and education.
Millicent Lalanne
Ms. Lalanne resides in San Francisco with her husband Bob and their two daughters one of whom has ADHD. She has been actively involved with the Parents Education Network for the last three years.
Ms. Lalanne worked in the computer industry as a salesperson for Sperry Univac and a software consultant for a west coast correspondent banking division of Citicorp. Following that she was an account manager for both technology and consumer product accounts at Dancer Fitzgerald Sample and Foote Cone Belding advertising agencies. She then formed her own company representing and marketing photographers to advertising and design agencies.
She served on the Board of Directors of St. Vincent Day Home in West Oakland and has been a Food Bank/Food Pantry coordinator for the last three years in San Francisco. Ms. Lalanne attended UC Davis majoring in international relations and Spanish.
Tina McGovern
Tina McGovern is the Director of Development and Outreach at Gateway Public Schools. Before joining Gateway, Tina owned a non-profit consulting/event planning business for 10 years in San Francisco and is the former Development Director for Florence Crittenton Services and Mercy High School, San Francisco. She graduated from the University of Santa Clara with a B.A. in English and is currently a graduate student in the EMPA program at Golden Gate University. Tina is a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals and the Association of Bay Area Development Officers (ABADO). A native, Tina still makes her home in San Francisco and is the proud mother of four. She serves on the board of the Jack McGovern Coats Disease Foundation, founded to raise awareness for a rare retinal disease that causes blindness and the Ignatian Guild.Tina loves to spend time with her children and friends and travels as often as possible.
Sandy Otellini, Treasurer
Ms. Otellini resides in San Francisco with her husband, Paul, and daughter who is dyslexic. She retired from Intel Corporation in 1995 where she held several legal and management positions. Prior to joining Intel, Ms. Otellini was an associate with the legal firm Paul, Hastings, Janofsky and Walker where she represented Fortune 500 companies in all aspects of employment law.
Currently Ms. Otellini is co-founder of the Parents Education Network. She is Vice Chair and Director of the Exploratorium, and a Board member of the de Saisat Museum at Santa Clara University. Ms. Otellini served on the Steering Committee of the Hearts in San Francisco Project, a project benefiting the San Francisco General Hospital Foundation.
Karl Shaikh
Karl Shaikh has over fifteen years of experience in researching, developing, critiquing and/or implementing strategy for a range of organizations, including major European and international firms, as well as numerous small businesses and nonprofits.
Karl has an MBA and a Masters in Finance from London Business School, with a focus on Strategy, Corporate Finance, Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital. Since arriving in San Francisco in Oct '09 from London, Karl has been managing his business in the UK remotely. He is also enjoying serving as a stay-at-home dad to his 30-month-old boy named Zac, and the recent addition of 9-month-old Zara.
In his spare time, Karl teaches a Strategy course and an Entrepreneurship course to an MBA class at USF. He has also delivered three service grants to nonprofits in San Francisco on behalf of the Taproot Foundation. It was while delivering a Taproot service grant to PEN that he first encountered the organization and was eventually invited to join the board.
Karl is passionate about PEN’s mission because he believes that the best way to make a difference to people’s lives is by helping them learn - and that helping people learn how to learn, to suit their own learning style, is perhaps the greatest gift.
Brian Thomas
Brian Thomas is the Associate Head of School at The Bentley School in the East Bay, overseeing the Upper School Campus since August of 2008. Brian was the Head at the Presidio Hill School in San Francisco, Executive Director and High School Developer/High School Principal at the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy (Agassi Prep) in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Assistant Head of the Upper School at Catlin Gabel School in Portland, Oregon. Brian first came to the San Francisco Bay Area to become the English Department chair at Marin Academy. He is a graduate of Yale and received a Master’s Degree in Education from Portland State University. He also serves on the Boards of the Bay School of San Francisco and the Seven Hills School in Walnut Creek. He is a former Trustee at the Howard Gardner School in Vancouver, WA.
He grew up on Chicago's far south side in the City of Harvey and the Village of Robbins. Brian frequently writes and speaks about educational innovation, changing school culture, and creating inclusive, respectful environments in schools. Before working in the education space, Brian was an actor, working off-Broadway and in Los Angeles. He has worked for Bill Cosby, Stedman Graham, the Negro Ensemble Company, and the Hartford Stage Company. In 1988, he received an Emmy Award for his work as an actor for the docudrama, Fastbreak to Glory: The Du Sable Panthers Story. Over the years, Brian has been an ardent advocate for the Parent Education Network, advising the SAFE students since the groups inception. Brian is married to Jaime Thomas and they have two children, Eian and Olivia.
Julie Traun
Ms. Traun resides in San Francisco with her husband Tony Tamburello, and daughter who is dyslexic. She has been active in starting a parent support group at Presidio Hill School.
Ms. Traun has been an attorney in private practice since 1979. Currently she is a sole practitioner and employed part time by the Bar Association of San Francisco as an administrator in the Indigent Defense Program. Ms. Traun has taught as an adjunct professor of law at Golden Gate University Law School and USF Law School, and New College of California School of Law. Ms. Traun is a long time member of the Conflicts Committee of the Bar Association of San Francisco, the National Lawyers' Guild, Women Defenders, California Attorneys for Criminal Justice and the California Criminal Trial Lawyers' Association. She has been honored by the Bar Association of San Francisco and Women Defenders as an "Outstanding Criminal Defense Attorney."
Ms. Traun received her law degree at the New College School of Law, and B.A. from the University of Minnesota.
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