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Our Board 

Lori Shoemaker, President

Lori is a neuroscientist in the Department of Neurosurgery at Stanford, where her work is focused on arteriovenous malformations (AVMs), a rare disorder of the blood vessels of the brain. She has been a member of the Pacific Art League’s Annual Fundraising Gala Committee and sits on the Board of Early Engagement. She has participated in science outreach activities throughout her career, including Girls Go Tech, Science Innovators in the Schools Program, and judging at national and regional science fairs.  Lori has significant volunteer experience with national Red Cross Societies, the Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the International Committee of the Red Cross, including undertaking an Operational Review of the Canadian Red Cross disaster response in 1997.  She also served as the President of the University of Winnipeg Alumni Association and directed an Organizational Review of the University’s Volunteer Management Program.  Lori has lived and worked in many diverse communities throughout the world, including Canada, the United States, Japan, Switzerland, Uganda, Yugoslavia and Albania. Lori received her Ph.D. in the Neuroscience Interdepartmental Program at UCLA and her B. Sc. (Chemistry Co-operative Program) from the University of Winnipeg, Canada. She joined Stanford in 2009, following a postdoctoral fellowship at the Harvard/MGH Center for Regenerative Medicine.

Ellie Javadi

Ellie Javadi has served as a strategic leader and brand marketer for 20+ years in a diverse arena of industries including venture capital and research. She is passionate about delivering impactful brand, digital and communication strategies. She has a demonstrated history of working with emerging brands, early stage start ups and growth companies. She provides an editorial mindset and a high standard for visual story telling, all brought to life through a deep understanding of the marketing landscape and an ability to translate market trends into branded programs.

Most recently, she served as CMO at Sapphire, a late-stage venture fund. Prior to that, she led the marketing function at Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) for seven years. While there, she oversaw the firm’s brand and marketing evolution with a focus on digital, social, and content initiatives. Prior to Norwest, she spent a decade at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) where she led the communications function and was responsible for marketing, social media, content, and earned media initiatives for SRI and its spin-off companies. 

She has served three terms as President of the Board of the Public Relations Society of America (Silicon Valley) and CEO/Board Chair at the Pacific Art League (PAL) in Palo Alto for a full term.

Most recently, she delivered a TEDx on Iran, titled: Hair, Women & a Revolution to Come.

Ellie earned her graduate and undergraduate degrees from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. She is active in CMU alumni affairs and hosts alumni events and dinners in Silicon Valley. She is an active marketing and brand advisor to the CMU Tech & Entrepreneurship group supporting founders and CEOs on their journey.

Paul Barsley

Paul has over 35 years of leadership and general management experience in product design and development, design consulting and business operations in telecommunications, healthcare and computer industries. These range from start-up companies to large providers of technology services. He has held Vice President or C-level roles at a number of companies most recently at Celestica, Vocera Communications and IDEO. Paul enjoys helping to grow companies through the involvement in business strategy, business planning, product design and financing. He is currently a certified mentor with Score helping small businesses start and grow. Paul has an engineering degree from Brighton University, England.

Teri Vershel

Teri has been an art lover her entire life and wants the arts to thrive in her community. She’s been in the Bay Area for over 35 years and has contributed on other arts’ boards, as well as, school boards and fundraising boards. She has a degree in Computer Science and worked in industry for over 15 years. She and her husband, Mark, have two adult children who went through Palo Alto schools, so she has many connections in the community. She recently finished a photography degree and is passionate about taking street photographs. She is also a photographer at Pro-Bono Photography, an organization that pairs non-profits that need photography services but have no budget with photographers. She enjoys theater, music, reading, yoga and traveling.

Darren Kerr

Darren teaches portrait, figure and landscape painting at the Pacific Art League. He earned an MFA in Figurative Painting in 2012 and has been teaching or taking classes at PAL since 2010. Before that he was a Distinguished Engineer at Cisco Systems and holds several US patents in the fields of internetworking and packet switching algorithms. He also had a very short career playing basketball in Europe, but can unfortunately no longer dunk. Meanwhile, the whole Kerr family is fully invested in the Arts: wife Lisa paints and helps with classes, daughter Lauren works as an instructor for adult artists with disabilities, son Steven writes, and son Kevin practices Fine Arts in college.

Mike Nuttall

Mike has 40 plus years of experience in design, leadership and management. Since arriving in the Bay Area in 1980 he has made a significant impact in the world of design, most notably by strengthening the visual appeal and usability of technology products. His contributions have drawn corporate attention to the use of design as a source of strategic competitive advantage. From 1983 to 1991, Mike’s internationally recognized firm Matrix , won more than 20 design awards. Mike then joined forces with David Kelley and Bill Moggridge and formed IDEO. At IDEO he led development efforts resulting in hundreds of successful computer, consumer and medical products for companies in the US, Europe and Asia. Mike also managed IDEO Ventures, a multi million dollar internal venture capital fund making strategic equity and royalty investments in IDEO’s clients. Mike has an MA from the Royal College of Art in London.

Emily Kan

Emily has experience in the art, nonprofit, and education sectors. She is passionate about advancing the arts and community building. She has interned at art museums across the country and enjoys drawing, painting, and ceramics. Although Emily is from the East Coast, she appreciates the natural beauty and way of life in the Bay Area. Emily has a JD from the University of Michigan Law School.

Marco Zecchin

Marco is a fine art and commercial photographer with more than 50 years experience. Since 1985 he has been the owner of “Image Center” - an architectural and interior design photographic company. During this time he also created, with his business partner, Marketing4Artists, an education company helping artists learn how to authentically market their work.

Over the years, Marco has extended his creativity into may communities - serving as a workshop assistant with “Friends of Photography”, and board member of “United Way of the Salinas Valley”, “Bread for the Journey”, and “Little Italy San Jose”. Using his photographic skills, Marco worked as a photographic assistant for UC Davis Medical School while studying for his BS degree in Nutrition Sciences and Dietetics.