Board of Trustees

Trustees are the stewards of the PKS mission, responsible for setting the school’s strategic direction with input from faculty, staff and leadership, and feedback from the parent community; hiring, supporting, and evaluating the Head of School; and providing fiduciary oversight to ensure that PKS remains on sound financial footing and meets its financial obligations.

Alejandra Rincón, PhD

Alejandra Rincón, PhD serves as Assistant Vice-Chancellor and Chief of Staff for the Office of Diversity and Outreach at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). In that capacity, she manages the overall operations of the Office of Diversity and Outreach, is the lead strategist for this unit and assists in carrying out the vision and goals for the overall campus. This includes a new initiative dedicated to Advancing Excellence in Staff Recruitment by working with search committees hiring top executives and upper management. She also serves as a Curriculum lead for the new Latinx Center of Excellence in the School of Medicine.

Dr. Alejandra Rincón is the author of “Undocumented Immigrants and Higher Education: ¡Sí se puede!” This is the first book on the topic to chronicle the historic struggle of undocumented students and their supporters to gain equal access to higher education through in-state tuition laws. Her new publication entitled “Immigrants’ Efforts to Access Public Schools and Higher Education in the United States” is part of Springer’s 2020 Handbook on Promoting Social Justice in Education.

Dr. Rincón is the 2006 recipient of the Human Relations Award of the National Association of College Admissions Counseling. The award honors persons who have been instrumental in making postsecondary education opportunities available to historically underrepresented students. Through her current service for the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE), she continues to advocate for increased educational opportunities for underrepresented students.

Ali Nazer

Ali and his wife Cynthia have two children at PKS. Ali was born in Iran and grew up in Canada where he completed a couple of engineering degrees at Queen's University. He moved to the Bay Area in 2002 to get his MBA from Stanford and has been in San Francisco since 2004. His wife Cynthia is Chinese-American, so both Chinese immersion and a progressive program were priorities. They joined the PKS community in 2016 when their oldest child started pre-school. Ali has worked in technology and product management for most of his career including multiple start-ups and roles at Electronic Arts, Facebook, and most recently Adobe. His interests include cooking, eating, travel, and watching sports of all kinds.

Betty Luk

Betty and her husband Jasmin Ajanovic have two kids at PKS. Betty has engineering degrees from the University of Waterloo and Cornell University. She has held various engineering and leadership roles at AMD, Facebook (Meta) and Stripe. She is currently running her own coaching business where she guides individuals on their career journey and is the creator of “TPM Stories” which publishes and celebrates the diverse careers of technical program managers. She has served on professional and arts non-profit organizations, and is also currently on the Board of Directors with the San Francisco Bach Choir. Betty enjoys spending time with friends and family, cooking, hiking, traveling and music.

Growing up in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Canada, Betty wanted her children to learn the Chinese language and culture. While language immersion is what led them to PKS, Betty is even more grateful for PKS’s commitment to fostering understanding and resilience. Since joining the PKS community in 2018, Betty has been a room parent, volunteer photographer, and co-chair of the Teacher Appreciation Committee and she is honored to be serving on the PKS Board of Trustees.

Dr. Christy Lao

Christy is a Professor of Education, Founding Director of the Confucius Institute (CI) at San Francisco State University (SFSU), and Principal Investigator and Director of several major federal projects. As the founding director of CI at SFSU, Christy initiated, negotiated, and established the first CI on the West Coast in 2005. Under her direction, CI-SFSU provides programs and services including Chinese teacher training, Chinese curriculum development, Chinese language learning.

Previously, Christy was a faculty member of the Bilingual/Bicultural Program of Teachers College, Columbia University, and at Hong Kong Baptist University. For the past 25 years, she has worked with Chinese bilingual schools and Chinese Immersion schools and teachers in San Francisco, New York City, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China. Christy has provided professional development in Chinese as a Second Language to bilingual Chinese teachers in the U.S. and in many parts of the world, focusing on literacy development. 

Christy’s scholarly specialization is in second language acquisition, bilingual education, biliteracy, and teacher education. Her most recent book is “Comprehensible and Compelling: The Causes and Effects of Free Voluntary Reading”, coauthored with Stephen Krashen and Syying Lee. The traditional Chinese character version titled “自主阅读” is published by亲子天下出版社 in Taiwan, and the simplified Chinese character version will be published by XinJiang Juvenile Publishing House in China. Christy is a frequent featured presenter at the National Association of Bilingual Education and the California Association of Bilingual Education.

Christy’s recent international professional collaborations included projects with (1) Centre for Advancement of Chinese Language Education and Research, The University of Hong Kong; (2) Centre for Enhancing English Learning and Teaching, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; and (3) Graduate Institute of Children’s Literature, National Taitung University. Christy serves as an External Examiner for the Post Graduate Education Program on Teaching Chinese as a Second Language and as an external member of the doctoral dissertation committee at the University of Hong Kong. Christy also serves as an external project evaluator for government-funded research projects at Hong Kong University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Emila Damjanovic

Emila Damjanovic and her husband Peter Lee have two children at PKS. Emila’s family joined PKS in 2017 when their first son entered pre-school after hearing about PKS through some of their closest friends. Emila was raised in Slovenia before immigrating to New York City at the age of 14. Emila was part of the initial founding team, and is a Partner, leading the Investor Relations team at Lead Edge Capital, a growth stage private equity fund. Prior to Lead Edge, she was the Head of Investor Relations and Assistant COO at Eastern Advisors, a global crossover hedge fund funded by Tiger Management. Emila is passionate about empowering women and leads the effort to connect female entrepreneurs, operators, and investors across her network. She speaks three languages, enjoys traveling and exploring new places with her family and friends.

Emma Cocks

Emma served as in-house counsel for a federal agency for over a decade and then moved to the client side where she works on the acquisition of all things real estate portfolio related, whether A/E services, capital construction, repair and alteration, or maintenance. She also acquires and disposes of federal real estate. Emma and her husband Rob joined the PKS community in the fall of 2013 when their daughter Charlie entered the preschool as a toddling two year old. Now she’s entering 8th grade.

Emma has been a room parent three times, given many an admissions tour, and chaperoned multiple field trips over the years at PKS. She served as the Communications Chair for the Parent Association before joining the Board in 2019. Emma and Rob moved to San Francisco from Atlanta in 2000 and live in Noe Valley. Emma holds a JD from Golden Gate University and a BS in Biology from Emory University.

Jamie Wong

Jamie and her husband, Andrew, live in the Inner Richmond with their two kids. Originally from Sacramento, Jamie grew up in a household passionate about bridging US-China relations through cultural and economic exchange. After spending several summers abroad, Jamie went on to earn a B.A. in International Relations and Asian & Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. She had brief stints in Hong Kong and Shanghai before returning to California to attend law school at UC Law San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings) where she was President of the Chinese Law & Culture Society and helped recruit the school’s first Chinese Law professor. She is now a corporate law attorney at Apple managing its global legal entities. Jamie enjoys travel, music, tabletop games, cooking with her family, and, most of all, connecting with old and new friends. She had the opportunity to get involved in the PKS community while serving as a room parent and looks forward to progressing the school’s mission as a trustee.

Janette Fong

Janette and her husband Neville have been a part of the PKS community since 2017, when their eldest entered preschool. Originally from the suburbs of New York, Janette picked up a little bit of both Mandarin and Cantonese growing up, but never made it past early elementary level conversation. It is still a wonder to both her and her husband (who knows exactly 2 phrases in Chinese,) that their two kids can sing and speak in Mandarin as well as they do! 

Janette is currently the Chief Digital Officer for WorkMoney, an advocacy organization that aims to improve financial conditions for the average worker. After 15 years working in the tech industry, she now dedicates her time and expertise towards social change. She previously co-founded the U.S. Digital Response, a civic technology non-profit and still sits on their Board. Janette earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, and a Masters of HCI from Carnegie Mellon University.

Jason Williams

Jason has held executive leadership roles in several technology companies, including Guideline and Earnest. After stepping back from the tech industry, he is now an independent art advisor while spending more time with his husband Matt and two daughters, Lola and Zadie. He holds a degree in Economics from Harvard College and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

His family has been part of PKS since 2020, a journey inspired by his previous work at a progressive international school in Beijing. This experience ignited his commitment to advancing and championing PKS' mission.

Jevan Lenox

Jevan and his husband Ryan have two sons at PKS, and live in the Mission along with a large Airedale terrier. Jevan grew up in a New Jersey suburb, where he was a delinquent student at Saturday Chinese school. He made it up to his parents by majoring in East Asian Studies at Harvard College, including a summer in Beijing in a Mandarin immersion program, and later moving to Shanghai for several years. Jevan also earned his MBA from Harvard Business School and a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School.

Having begun his career as a consultant at McKinsey & Company, Jevan has spent the last decade helping high-growth companies scale their operations and cultures. He is currently the Chief People Officer at insitro, a techbio company that seeks to transform drug discovery through machine learning and high-throughput data generation.

Kirkwood Land

Kirk is a tenured Associate Professor at the University of the Pacific where he has teaching responsibilities in the first-year biology core for several different pre-health programs and tracks. In addition, his research laboratory encompasses two areas (1) the identification and characterization of natural antimicrobials found in a variety of sources, and (2) the identification of the critical factors associated with undergraduate student success. He has presented and published extensively in both areas. Kirk holds a B.S. degree in Microbiology from UC Davis and a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from UCLA. He completed postdoctoral training at UCSF prior to joining the University of the Pacific.

Kirk and his son Sean (‘24) are a PKS alum family. Sean is in 9th grade and now attends The International School of San Francisco (formerly the French American and International School), where he is continuing to refine his command of Mandarin. Sean is also exploring a third language at International to expand his global mindset even more. In his spare time, and while waiting for Sean to finish his swim team practice, Kirk enjoys running and training for his next half marathon.

Lilly Fu

Lilly Fu is a financial executive with over 20 years of experience in the nonprofit sector. She currently serves as the Senior Director of Finance and Administration at The George Lucas Educational Foundation. Her career includes CFO and board positions at educational nonprofits such as GreatSchools, NatureBridge, and Mount Tamalpais College.

Lilly's dedication to education began as a classroom teacher with Teach For America. She has consistently advocated for progressive and inclusive educational practices, both as a financial leader in education nonprofits and as a mother whose children have benefited from progressive education.

Lilly holds a Master's in Public Policy from Harvard University and a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Wellesley College. She is excited to advance PKS's mission and support its vibrant community.

Mark Roche

Mark Roche and his wife Kirsten have three children at PKS. Mark grew up in upstate New York, studied Chinese while at Middlebury College, and spent time living in Harbin, Qingdao, and Beijing, China before going to law school. Mark received his law degree from Georgetown and moved to San Francisco in 2006.

Mark is a partner at Baker McKenzie where he focuses on corporate tax and white collar disputes. He also co-chairs the firm’s California pro bono program, where his practice ranges from advocacy on behalf of children in special education matters to appellate advocacy before the Ninth Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court. Mark and Kirsten have been active members of the PKS community since 2014. They live with their three kids and over-sized dog in San Francisco’s Inner Richmond.

Mary Mercer

Mary and her husband, Tom, are parents to two middle school students at PKSl. They were first drawn to the school, in preschool, because of its strong sense of community, and are grateful for the continued curiosity, joy in learning, and love of Chinese language and culture fostered by teachers, students, and families, alike. Mary has served as room parent for both of her children's classes and has enjoyed lending her elbow-grease for many different school celebrations.

Outside of PKS and family-life, Mary is a Professor of Emergency Medicine at UCSF and practices at San Francisco General Hospital, where she also serves as Chief of the Medical Staff. Recently. She graduated from Harvard University with a BA in History of Science, Columbia University Medical School, and UC Berkeley School of Public Health.

Nancy Hang

Nancy grew up in the Bay Area and is ethnically Chinese; her parents were refugees from Vietnam. She and her husband, Alex, first heard about PKS in 2012, when the school was only a few years young. They were compelled by the school's mission, innovation, and joyful learning approach and now have two children at PKS. Nancy embarrassingly and proudly admits that their children's Mandarin surpassed hers after just one year at PKS!

Professionally, Nancy comes from a business and technology background, with over 15 years experience in various strategic and operational leadership roles at startups and Fortune 500 companies. She was most recently VP of Global Travel Product Strategy at SAP Concur; before that, she was VP of Consumer Travel Products. Nancy joined SAP via Hipmunk, where she was SVP Product, helping build and scale the company through its acquisition in 2016. Prior to Hipmunk, Nancy was an early product leader at Zynga, helping lead its IPO in 2011. She has also spent time at Yahoo! and IBM. Nancy received her MBA from MIT and M.S. and B.S. degrees in Computer Science & Engineering from UCLA.

It brings Nancy much joy to watch her and Alex’s kids conversing with their grandparents in Mandarin and connecting through language. She looks forward to further advancing the PKS mission as a trustee in this stage of the school's growth.

Robert Tsai

Robert arrives at Presidio Knolls School by way of rural Pennsylvania and Louisiana. He and his family have been part of the PKS community since 2012, where his spouse is a regular guest speaker and where their children are happy students and alums. Robert has been a repeating room parent, has explored San Francisco as a chaperone on many field trips, and has coached and managed his children’s respective soccer teams.

Outside of school and family life, Rob is a software engineering professional who has delivered a wide range of products, from very small electronics to very large internet-scale systems. He was on the founding teams for Google/Android contactless smartphone payments, and for Google[x]/Verily medical devices and surgical robotics; he currently works on autonomous driving software at Cruise. Rob holds a B.A. from Harvard College and an M.Eng. from Cornell University, both in Computer Science.

Sonia Wadhawan

Sonia was born in Canada but has spent most of her life in the Bay Area. 

Sonia joined the PKS community in 2016 when her daughter started pre-school. Sonia has been a room parent and an active member of PKS through her daughter’s educational journey.

Professionally, Sonia is a seasoned business leader with 20+ years of experience driving innovation through strategic technology partnerships. She is on the board of the Consumer Technology Association, the group best known for putting on the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas every January. She is a founding member of the Diversity Investment Committee whose remit is to invest in venture firms and funds focused on women, people of color and other underrepresented startup founders and entrepreneurs.

Sonia is a life long yogini, enjoys cooking, travel, and connecting people with others to build community and inspire ideas. 

Dr. Theresa Johnson

Dr. Theresa Johnson works on new Payments technology platforms to accelerate belonging at Airbnb. On Payments she leads multiple cross-functional teams focused on micro-services architecture and platform APIs. Her product team builds platform products and tools to allow any developer to seamlessly integrate with Airbnb Payments infrastructure. Theresa joined Airbnb as a Data Scientist after earning a PhD in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University. As a data scientist, she worked on product teams focused on supply growth and quality. Her biggest bet was working on a smart pricing system for listing photography that increased global access to high quality photos for hosts to increase their revenue, regardless of market.

She has a BS, MS and PhD in aeronautics and astronautics engineering from Stanford University. She enjoys bringing her passion for all things space to the students and parents of PKS. She’s help the Willow Tree class build model comets and hosted a “Count Me In” to watch a meteor shower. She is a founding board member of StreetCode Academy, a non-profit dedicated to high touch technical training for inner city youth. She is also serving a 5 year term on the Stanford Alumni Association Board of Directors.

Theresa lives in Bernal Heights, San Francisco with her husband Brian, daughters Cora and Luna, and her rescued catahoula hound, Amelie.

Ting Chen

Ting and her husband Craig have two children attending PKS. She immigrated from China to the U.S. at age 8, and grew up in Georgia, South Carolina, and Oklahoma, before settling permanently in the Bay Area after law school. Ting holds a B.A. from the University of Oklahoma and a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and is currently a judge at the San Francisco Immigration Court. In her free time, Ting loves reading, running, eating, and (of course) singing Chinese pop songs at the top of her lungs with her children. 

Wendy Wong

Wendy Wong is currently an Executive Director in Wells Fargo’s Mid-Corporate Technology Banking Group where she partners with mid-to-late stage technology companies on debt and equity capital solutions, liquidity management, foreign exchange risk management, and treasury infrastructure needs. Her portfolio includes some of the most innovative companies in fintech, software, and internet, and she has supported many of them from startup through IPO. Prior to joining Wells Fargo, Wendy worked in credit-related roles at Goldman Sachs, Silicon Valley Bank, and American Express. Wendy holds a BA/BS in Business Administration and Economics from UC Berkeley, and an MBA from NYU.

Wendy is a Bay Area native and currently lives in Noe Valley with her husband Will, and two kids, Vivienne (G7) and Johnny (G5).

Will Chu

Will and his wife Sarah are parents and uncles/aunts to four PKS children. Will grew up in Fremont and attended Chinese school on Saturdays, which was run by parent volunteers including his mom. 

Will is passionate about supply chain and working with people that keep our goods moving. He is the CEO of Vector, a software platform that enables collaboration between the yards of distribution centers and the truck drivers that visit them. On Saturday and Sunday mornings you can find Will swimming in and out of SF’s aquatic park. Will graduated from Cal with a B.A. in computer science.