Our Board of Directors
Nancy Clark
Board President
Leadership Dynamics Inc.
Nancy has over twenty-five years of systems, operations, and change management experience. Nancy dedicates her efforts to helping clients anticipate, prepare, and transition their organizations for the future. Prior to opening her own consulting firm, Nancy was a principal with Arthur Andersen. She led the Northern California Enterprise Consulting Practice and also served as the Western Regional Director of Arthur Andersen’s School of the Future effort. Her passion is to help public and private education by bringing her organizational development skills to the learning industry. In particular, she worked with the Alameda Unified School District in the planning and implementation of the Arthur Andersen Community Learning Center, a collaborative learning environment that combines the best educational practices with state-of-the-art technology. She has consulted to Los Angeles Unified School District (1.2 million students), San Francisco Unified District, Orange County Department of Education and other school systems.
Nancy has served as a member of the Industry Education Council of California and its Blue Ribbon Technology Committee; she has presented to the Governor’s Council on Information Technology and she is frequently requested to speak at education and business conferences. She was part of the team that was honored with the 1996 Conference Board’s “Best in Class” award for her work with Alameda. She previously served as the President of the Board for Alternatives in Action and the Bay Area School of Enterprise (BASE), and currently is the Board President for On The Move. She earned her B.A. degree from the University of California, Davis, and a MBA degree from the University of Santa Clara.
Rick Turko
Treasurer, Audit-Finance Committee
Community Member
Rick Turko “retired” in 2005 after almost 30 years of work in Accounting and Information Technology positions at various companies, including Amazon.com, Oracle and Dun & Bradstreet. Following his relocation to Napa from Seattle in 2007, Rick became an active member of the Napa Valley Unity League as well as a significant contributor to Napa Valley LGBTQ Pride and the Napa Valley AIDS Walk. In 2009 he founded the Napa Guerilla Gay Bar – a not-for-profit social and philanthropic organization with the purpose of building community and supporting Napa Valley businesses and organizations. He currently works with the Tech Connection – a joint program of NapaLearns, the Napa Valley Education Foundation and Napa Valley Unified School District – which helps put technology into the hands of Napa County students. A graduate of the University of Washington with a degree in Accounting, Rick is also a voice actor and enjoys Facebook, wine tasting and entertaining friends in the home he and his husband Rob recently purchased in Terrace-Shurtleff neighborhood of Napa.
Laura Corthell
Secretary
Community Member
Born and raised in Massachusetts, Laura worked in hospital administration at Boston University Medical Center while completing her college degree at night. In 1978, Laura relocated to San Diego where she joined IVAC Corporation, a medical device company. After a stint in HR, she earned a position in outside sales and became one of the first women representatives to rank in the top 10 of IVAC’s 100-member national salesforce. In 1989, Laura and her former husband started their own business, DeltaTRAK Inc., which manufactures, sells and markets devices that measure transit temperatures for shipping and storage applications worldwide.
In 1997, Laura and her neighbors started the Ruby Hill Giving Thanks Charity Committee and raised more than $1.5M to support organizations helping deserving women and families in the Pleasanton area. From 1997-2010 Laura served on the Ruby Hill Community HOA Board of Directors, and upon moving to Napa in 2014, Laura became a literacy tutor at the Napa County Library. She is also a citizenship tutor through On The Move’s Citizenship Legal Services Program.
Laura has 3 children, loves golfing and gardening, and she believes education and citizenship are important factors in improving the quality of life for women and minorities in Napa.
Alexander Tavizon
SF Bay Area Tribal Coordinator/Liaison ERWMP
Alexander Tavizon currently joins On The Move as its newest board member. Alex earned his B.A. in Social Welfare with a minor in Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley. Alex has worked with various nonprofits across the United States. Alex is an advocate who works with underrepresented communities in order to help bring awareness, information, and representation to the public.
Alex has worked with Voices Aftercare programs, John Burton’s Advocates for Youth, Children’s Defense Fund, and his former Foster Youth Group, Children’s Home Of Stockton in various positions to discuss his personal experiences in Foster Youth, advocate at benefits for funding for organizations like Voices, Children’s Home of Stockton, and Berkeley Hope Scholar, guest speaker at a multitude of events to bring awareness to the need to support aftercare programs in California, groups homes, benefits and ability of people who just take the time to support a youth in need in anyway they can, helped youth at high schools and junior colleges apply for colleges and develop their story, worked on the east coast as a Cultural Heritage Mentor to empower African American youth in discussing their narratives.
Alex is the Bay Area Coordinator for the California Indian Environmental Alliance (CIEA). A Native-ran Environmental Justice nonprofit working with California Native Americans Tribes. Alex provides tools, information, and resources for Bay Area Tribes to advocate for themselves to be included in various local and state environmental issues that affect them and their traditional territories, including the governance structure of their local IRWMs.
Brad Nichinson, MD
Audit-Finance Committee
Psychiatrist & Mental Health Educator
Brad is a psychiatrist who had a private practice in La Jolla for 20 years before moving to the Napa Valley in 2008. In addition to his training as a psychopharmacologist he has extensive Cognitive and Analytic training as a therapist. While in San Diego, he was on Clinical Faculty at UCSD School of Medicine, and served as the Psychiatric Consultant for UCSD’s Student Health Service and Psychological and Counseling Center. He has extensive clinical experience working with a diverse population of young adults as well as training and teaching non-MD clinical staff.
Brad maintains a small private practice in St. Helena and has been a mental health consultant and resource for the staff of VOICES Napa since 2011. He is also working closely with OTM on the Napa Innovations Mental Health Services Act Project. In early 2013 he started consulting in a support role with the St. Helena Family Center. Brad was named to the Board of Directors of The Napa Valley Community Foundation in July, 2013. Brad grew up in Great Neck, NY and is a graduate of Haverford College. After a year of research at Harvard Medical School he attended the Medical College of Virginia, where he received his MD. He completed his residency at UCSD School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, and is Board Certified.
Betsy Strauss
Attorney and Mediator
Betsy Strauss is in private practice specializing in local government law with an emphasis on land use law and municipal finance. She represents cities on a special project basis and is developing a northern California mediation practice. As part of her private practice, she serves as special counsel to the League of California Cities on a variety of municipal finance and land use matters. She was the League’s principal legal consultant on the development of e recent ballot measures relating to the state/local fiscal relationship. In addition she has taught State and Local Government Law at Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley. Betsy has served as the city attorney for the cities of Napa, Fairfield, and Rohnert Park. In addition to her work as an attorney, Betsy has a Masters in Jewish Studies and is working on a book called Stay for the Blessing which uses ancient stories from the Bible and the Talmud to resolve today’s conflicts.
Gabriela Ramirez
Educator
Born in Guadalajara, Mexico, Gabriela migrated to the United States with her mother and brothers when she was 17. Through hard work, the inspiration of a courageous single mother, and the power of a community coming together to support its youth, she attended Sonoma State University after high school and obtained her teaching credential. In 2014, Gabriela earned a Masters in Educational Leadership, and after 25 years working in the Napa Valley Unified School District, she is now Assistant Principal at Napa Valley Language Academy.
Gabriela’s lifelong passion for education is rooted in experiences that transcend every kind of border. As a woman, an immigrant, a former English-language learner, and a mother of two bilingual children, the urgency for providing safe, supportive, respectful, and communities has been her lifelong passion.
Maren Rocca Hunt
Community Member
Maren Rocca Hunt is a former Napa Valley Unified School District administrator with thirty-four years in public education. She served as a teacher in both California and Massachusetts. With administrative experience at the elementary, middle and high school level, she served as a site principal before moving to the district office Executive Director for Elementary Education and Executive Director for Human Resources. Maren has experience leading and collaborating with students, staff, parents, as well as local, state, federal, and non-profit agencies. Committed to equity, she worked closely with the Neighborhood Initiative and private funders such as the S.H.Cowell Foundation to address systemic barriers for students in the Kindergarten to High School pipeline focusing on students from McPherson, Phillips, and Shearer Elementary.
Maren earned her master’s degree in Instructional Design at the University of Massachusetts, Boston and Instructional Leadership at California State University, Sacramento, and her Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies with a minor in Biology and Psychology. She studied Spanish in Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Spain and plans to continue her studies in Peru with her family.
Rocío Canchola
Community Member
Rocío Canchola has worked in the fields of health and social services for the last 20 years. Most recently Rocio was employed by Napa County Public Health where she led national Accreditation efforts and supported the COVID-19 response. Through her personal experience and work with the community, Rocio developed a passion for language justice and spearheaded various efforts to improve language access. Rocio has been actively involved with On The Move for 10+ years and is a fellow Verger and a former On The Verge coach.
Currently, Rocio is a Grants Officer with the Hewlett Foundation. Rocío is passionate about improving health and wellbeing for everyone by working in genuine partnership with the community and partners.