Events

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President of West Valley College

Dr. Jennifer Taylor-Mendoza serves as the 13th president of West Valley College. President Taylor-Mendoza is the first African American educator to lead the College. She is a longtime leader in the Bay Area with twelve years of service in the San Mateo County Community College District, having recently served as the President of the College of San Mateo, Vice President of Instruction at Skyline College in San Bruno, founding Dean of Academic Support and Learning Technologies at College of San Mateo (CSM), and as the Director of the Learning Center at CSM.

President Taylor-Mendoza has over twenty-three years of higher education experience in both instruction and student services, mainly in the California community college system. In her various roles as a classified professional, tenured faculty leader, director, dean, vice president, and now president, President Taylor-Mendoza has found inspiration in the brilliance, power, and endless potential of community college students. She leads for social justice and liberation, recognizing our shared responsibility to address the historical legacy of racism to create a more just system of access, reward, and long-term equitable outcomes to inspire individual achievement and generational impact. The “obligation gap,” a term she coined, speaks to institutional responsibility. She is co-author of Minding the Obligation Gap in Community Colleges: Theory and Practice in Achieving Educational Equity. President Taylor-Mendoza is also an Aspen Institute Presidential Fellow and American Leadership Forum, Silicon Valley Senior Fellow.

President Taylor-Mendoza’s areas of expertise include accreditation, dual enrollment, educational policy, enrollment management, global learning, guided pathways, online learning, organizational development, professional development, and workforce partnerships. As Chief Instructional Officer, President Taylor-Mendoza served on the State Chancellor’s Office’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statewide Implementation Workgroup in developing, implementing, and assessing DEI strategies to improve systemwide equitable outcomes for California’s 116 colleges. In addition, she was an adviser to the State Chancellor’s Office on the Trustee Fellowship and provided strategies to support trustees in their role as district leaders identifying regional workforce gaps and measuring student equity goals.ty.

In my career in technology, a lot has changed. Y2K and 9/11 transformed the way companies thought about business continuity. Machine learning, digital data centers, and the rise of cyber threats changed the way we think about business security and the role of effective IT management. And all sizes and types of businesses have now become digital businesses.

Over that time, I've drawn on my career experience to help each of my customers navigate these massive transformations. Today, that experience allows me to work with my customers in a wide variety of industries to help them overcome the challenges they have as an organization and reach the goals they want to achieve.

One thing hasn’t changed: change. It will always be with us. And the team I’ve built at Sagacent Technologies is committed to making it work for you.

Songwriter, singer and pianist Vienna Teng has released five studio albums, toured across North America, Europe and Asia, and appeared on NPR Weekend Edition and The Late Show with David Letterman among others. Her songs have been covered by vocal and instrumental ensembles around the world, and drawn praise from the likes of music innovator David Byrne and choral composer Eric Whitacre. From an unlikely start as a computer science major at Stanford, playing in coffeehouses after work as a software programmer, she has built a loyal audience touring in intimate listening-room venues and cultivating community online. In the 2010s, Vienna pursued a second career in environmental sustainability at the University of Michigan’s Erb Institute, McKinsey & Company’s Sustainability practice, and global nonprofit Delterra  - themes reflected in her 2013 album Aims, which made her the first artist to win four Independent Music Awards in one year. She currently makes her home in Washington DC, and divides her time between creating new music and organizing her fanbase to take action on climate change.

Pacific Links Foundation

Tessa Reynolds (she/they) works for the county of Santa Clara as a Rehabilitation Counselor where they lead the Harm ReduQion Project, which focuses trauma-centered harm reduction support and services for people who use substances in the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. Tessa is a certified substance use counselor, and brings a client centered, trauma sensitive, and harm reduction approach to their work. They have worked for over 10 years with individuals involved in the criminal justice system, the 2SLGBTQIA+ community and those who are unhoused, with a focus on substance use care. Tessa is an active member of DUHAC the Drug User Health Advisory Committee, of Santa Clara County and is passionate about making sure marginalized communities have a say in the care they receive.

The Harm ReduQion Project offers 2SLGBTQIA+-affirming, trauma-centered substance use and overdose prevention, education, and resources. We provide NARCAN trainings, access to NARCAN, Fentanyl Testing Strips, and Safer Sex supplies. The best way to connect to our HRQ team is the email address harmreduqion@hhs.sccgov.org

Dr. Emily Roben is a pediatric emergency medicine physician at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital in Oakland and San Francisco. Emily's academic work focuses on improving and maintaining all aspects of care quality in the emergency department, ranging from daily department operations to patient care from arrival to discharge. She is also actively involved in education and mentoring for trainees and students. 

Emily earned her medical degree at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She completed a residency in pediatrics and a fellowship in pediatric emergency medicine at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, part of the McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University. She received a master's degree in healthcare quality and patient safety from The Graduate School of Northwestern University.

Emily is passionate about teaching, community service, and outreach. She can be reached for questions or future speaking engagements via DACdb. 

ConsciousMark Executive Coach

District 5170

Joseph George Winery

State of City of Saratoga

Los Gatos Rotary Club President