JP Lu, LAEF Board Secretary, Almond Elementary School Representative

JP has a 2nd grader and two 4th graders at Almond. She's a surgeon at the Permanente Medical Group, working at Kaiser Santa Clara. JP was born in Wisconsin and grew up in San Jose. She loves the outdoors and watching kids figure things out. She firmly believes that an interest in lifelong learning leads to better people, stronger communities, and success all around.

Jeff Zeisler, LAEF Vice President, Almond Elementary School Representative

Jeff has two 4th graders and a 6th grader at Almond. He's VP of Field Services at Delphix and previously worked as Sr. Director of Presales Engineering at HP. Jeff grew up in Palo Alto and has lived in Los Altos for 15 years. He coaches baseball for Los Altos Little League and serves on the board of the Flora Family Foundation. He enjoys hiking, snowboarding, youth sports, and Stanford football.

Chryssa Sanders, Blach Junior High School Representative

Chryssa has a 7th grader at Blach. She's the Director of Program Management at Roku. She previously worked at DNEG — a leading film VFX company, at Apple, and Lucasfilm. A member of Girl Scouts for 15+ years, she is currently co-leading her daughter's troop. Chryssa is very invested in protecting arts and literacy funding in our schools.

Aubrey Wing, Blach Junior High School Representative

Aubrey has a 8th grader at Blach. He works as a Business Engagement Lead for Google Cloud. He’s a long-time volunteer with Santa Clara County Parks and Silicon Valley Bike Exchange and enjoys cycling, skiing, and helping his wife run her business.

Masoud Vakili, Blach Junior High School Representative

Masoud has a 7th grader at Blach. He is a quantum physicist, consulting for different organizations on technology, and a part-time faculty member at Foothill College. He enjoys gardening and tennis, is passionate about solving world mysteries and problems and helping others. 

Emily Harris, LAEF Co-President, Covington Elementary School Representative

Emily has a 6th grader at Covington and moved to Los Altos with her family in 2015 specifically for the excellent schools. She is passionate about volunteering with youth & local nonprofits committed to literacy and education throughout Santa Clara County. She began her career as an elementary school teacher in Orange County, then taught middle school Language Arts and literacy in San Diego. An avid maker, Emily enjoys reading, sewing, community building, and making colorful projects with her daughter.

Brandon Kam, Covington Elementary School Representative

Brandon has a 1st grader at Covington as well as a preschooler.  He grew up in Hawaii and lived in Boston and Chicago before settling in Los Altos almost a decade ago.  He most recently worked in tech doing machine learning; before that he worked in quantitative finance and government research.  He enjoys spending time with family and friends, traveling, volunteering, and staying active with whatever his joints can still handle.

Adina Ardelean, Covington Elementary School Representative

Adina has a 6th grader at Covington. She is a Senior Lecturer in Economics at Santa Clara University. She has volunteered at Covington and as a delegate of the National Economic Education Delegation. Adina grew up in Romania and came to the US for graduate school 20 years ago. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, skiing, reading, yoga, and playing tennis.

Jensen Barna, LAEF CFO & Past President, Egan Junior High School Representative

Jensen has a 6th grader at Santa Rita and an 8th grader at Egan. She is a Financial Analyst with the City of Santa Clara and previously worked for the City of Sunnyvale and KPMG. She enjoys volunteering with the Parent Club of Palo Alto and Menlo Park and the Children’s Corner Preschool of Los Altos and Mountain View. She enjoys learning more about art history and antiquities across all cultures.

Margo Felt, Egan Junior High School Representative

Margo has a 7th and an 8th grader at Egan. She is a Trust & Estates attorney at Thoits Law in Los Altos. She enjoys volunteering in the school library and serving on the Los Altos Community Foundation Planned Giving Committee; her previous volunteer work included serving as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA). When she’s not working or trying to figure out what to serve for dinner that her kids won’t refuse to eat, she enjoys listening to her kids laugh at her while she attempts to play Roblox with them.

Rita Chan, Gardner Bullis Elementary School Representative

Rita has a 3rd and 6th grader at Gardner Bullis.  She is an in-house attorney at a public water agency and previously worked in a private law firm, practicing in general government and environmental/land use areas. Rita likes to volunteer at her children’s school activities as much as her work allows and enjoys traveling - especially exploring new places, learning other cultures, and studying architecture.

Patricia Moll Kriese, Gardner Bullis Elementary School Representative

Patricia has a 3rd Grader at Gardner Bullis Elementary, where she has volunteered as a Classroom Parent and with the PTA. Previously, Patricia worked in executive leadership positions at Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft, with a focus on corporate affairs, public policy, and social impact programs.  She was raised in Los Altos and attended LASD public schools. She has lived in the Bay Area and Europe and enjoys cooking, travel, and yoga.
 

Praneetha (Nita) Poloju, Loyola Elementary School Representative

Nita has a 6th grader at Loyola Elementary. She is a Chief Technologist at Microsoft Corporation, and previously was a Research Staff member / Technologist at IBM Microelectronics and Intel. She was born and grew up in India, she came to the United States in 2005 to pursue graduate studies in Electrical & Computers Engineering. She loves hiking, yoga, and spending time with her sweetheart 6th grader. She has been an active volunteer for over several years and strongly advocates social well-being by building stronger communities with education as the backbone.

 Loyola School Representative

Coming soon.

Rama Mulpuri, Oak Avenue School Representative

Rama has a 1st grader at Oak Elementary. She has worked for many years running Sales and Marketing Operations for many corporations in the Bay Area and at present helps various non-profits as a Marketing Consultant across the US. She has volunteered for many years as a Project Cornerstone leader, classroom parent, and as part of the PTA. She enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, and concocting recipes in her kitchen, and she has recently published a children's fiction book.

Shen Jackson, Oak Avenue School Representative

Shen has a 6th grader at Oak Elementary. He is currently an engineering leader in technical infrastructure at Google, and previously was an engineering leader at Tesla. He grew up in Guyana and moved to the US permanently for university. He enjoys traveling to different countries with his family, and is an avid foodie.

Aleks Stanojevic, Santa Rita Elementary School Representative

Aleks has a 5th grader at Santa Rita and an 8th grader at Egan. She is the Vice President of Finance at Pacific Biosciences, and was previously in finance leadership roles at Shutterfly and Applied Materials. She has been a resident of Los Altos for more than 12 years. Aleks enjoys volunteering at her children’s school activities (Project Cornerstone reader, room parent, helping with school plays) along with traveling, reading, and playing tennis.

Justin Martin, Santa Rita Elementary School Representative

Justin has twins in 4th grade and a 6th grader at Santa Rita. He is CFO at SIMCO Electronics, with previous experience at Skylo Technologies, Bloom Energy, and Cisco.  In his free time, he enjoys homebrewing, skiing, golf, hiking, and cheering for the University of Tennessee football team.

Jialin Jiao, Springer Elementary School Representative

Jialin has a 1st grader at Springer. He's an experienced software engineering leader. Having a strong interest in connecting to the local community, Jialin currently volunteers in a few places. He serves as a mediator in the City of Mountain View Mediation Program. He deeply believes that investing in education for ourselves and our future generations is the best investment we could make. Jialin enjoys watching his daughter play soccer and play on the monkey bars. 

Erich has a 4th grader at Springer. He has been working on search and data infrastructure at Google, Houzz, and currently at Apple. He grew up in Romania and came to the US during university. He has volunteered in the kids' classrooms, for class trips, and the walk-a-thon. In his free time, he enjoys hiking and trips with his family and playing tennis.

Emma Cheng, Springer Elementary School Representative

Emma has a Kindergartener at Springer. She is passionate about education as she believes it holds immense potential for shaping and uplifting the individual and community. She is currently a data science leader at Nuro with previous experience at Wish, Tesla, Apple, and Cadence. She enjoys volunteering at her daughter’s school activities along with traveling with her family to explore the world.

 

Heather Macdonald, LAEF Executive Director

Heather leads the educational foundation in raising funds that are a critical component of the Los Altos School District’s budget. She works in partnership with the Board of Directors, staff, and volunteers to engage families and community members in raising funds to ensure that all students in LASD receive a well-rounded, top-tier education. Heather is passionate about supporting education through her work and volunteerism. Prior to joining LAEF, she worked for 12 years in nonprofit education at Art in Action. Heather also worked in the for-profit sector for over 15 years at companies that included Intuit and Bay Networks. She is a past PTA Executive Board member and enjoyed volunteering in her children’s schools. Originally from the East Coast, she’s lived in the Bay Area for over 30 years.

Anna Kjos, LAEF Staff Marketing Coordinator

Anna is the Marketing Coordinator for LAEF. She works with the board and staff to develop communication goals and marketing campaigns, implementing them via the LAEF website, email, social media, collateral, and events. A local who grew up in Los Altos, she worked for many years as a product manager at Adobe Systems and other technology companies in the valley. Her three children attended Loyola and Mountain View High School. She enjoys serving with Much Hope to care for homeless families and helping with many other service opportunities coordinated through her church. She loves adventure travel and enjoys hiking, reading, and theater. 

Kyuri Doeden, LAEF Staff Donor Specialist

Kyuri is the Donor Specialist for LAEF, focusing on donations, donor stewardship, and corporate matching. Originally from New Jersey, she moved to CA through her husband’s job transfer from Tokyo. She first went to teach English in public high schools for three years in the JET Program and then five years as an editorial assistant in the Linguaphone Japan office. Her three children are graduates of Loyola and Blach schools. When her kids were younger, Kyuri volunteered at Loyola and LAEF. In her spare time, she enjoys volunteering as an art docent, at various positions in her church, as well as running, swimming, reading, traveling, and going to see art exhibits and theater performances.