The all-volunteer California Jump$tart Coalition Board of Directors has formal authority for creating the organization's vision and accomplishing its mission and objectives. It is charged with the organization's governance, policy and strategy.
Karen L. Anderson
Karen L. Anderson is Chair of the California Jump$tart Coalition and has been involved with youth financial education for the last decade. Prior to retirement, she spent over 30 years in marketing and management for organizations including General Mills, Knudsen, Union Bank, Great Western Bank and the Employers Group. During her 15+ years in credit, investment and retail branch banking Karen came to recognize the need for consumer education in money management and developed her interest in youth financial literacy. She holds a B.A. from Mills College and an M.B.A. from the Broad School at Michigan State University.
Cheryl Barnes
Cheryl Barnes is currently a Sales Manager (National) for Discover Student Loans. Her main responsibility is to manage clients throughout the central and western United States. For the past ten years, she has held positions with both Discover Student Loans and Citibank Student Loans, including virtual client management solutions and developing growth opportunities. Prior to Citibank, she was the Assistant Dean for Admissions and Financial Aid at Golden Gate University School of Law. With more than 19 years in education administration, Cheryl has also held positions in admissions, financial aid and student services at Golden Gate University, Heald College, Loma Linda University, and the University of Redlands. Cheryl holds a B.S. in Business Management for the University of Redlands and a M.A. in Psychology from Golden Gate University.
Stanley H. Breitbard
Stanley H. Breitbard has practiced as a CPA for 32 years with Price Waterhouse, primarily as a tax partner. For 12 years until his retirement in 1995, he was the National Director of the firm’s personal financial planning department. During his professional career, Stanley was the co-author of the Price Waterhouse Personal Financial Advisor. He was also the first Chairman of the American Institute of CPAs Personal Financial Planning Division and was named one of the top 60 financial planners by Worth Magazine. Since retiring from Price Waterhouse, Stanley has been teaching and volunteering in financial education.
Maynard Brown
Maynard Brown Maynard Brown provides hope, inspiration, and empowerment in a community that needs him desperately. He grew up in the Crenshaw, Calif. area, went to Crenshaw High School, completed his B.S and M.B.A degrees at Cornell University, then started his own business. As a JA volunteer, he was overwhelmed by the students’ hunger for business and financial education, and soon returned to Crenshaw as a full-time teacher. JA Worldwide™ named Maynard Brown the 2006 National Teacher of the Year.
Jim Charkins
Jim Charkins, Ph.D. is the Executive Director of the California Council on Economic Education (CCEE) and Professor of Economics at California State University, San Bernardino. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in 1970. Dr. Charkins has developed economics teaching materials and conducted workshops nationally and internationally for teachers and students from the Kindergarten through doctoral level. He is the author of the MoneyWiseTeen (winner of two international awards for creative marketing), Living the American Dream, the Teacher Guide to the California Economics Standards, and It’s Your Choice. He serves on many boards including CCEE, the California Association of School Economics Teachers, and the Los Angeles chapter of the National Association of Business Economists.
Mitchell Freedman
Mitchell Freedman, CPA, is a founder and past Chair of the California Jump$tart Coalition. He is the President of both Mitchell Freedman Accountancy Corporation, specializing in multi-family office Services and Financial Counseling for performing and creative artists, executives, individuals in or near retirement, and those with complex financial needs, and MFAC Financial Advisors, Inc., a Registered Investment Advisory Firm. He is licensed as a CPA in California and New York. In addition he earned the credentials Personal Financial Specialist (PFS) in 1988 and Accredited Investment Fiduciary© (AIF®) in 2007. Mr. Freedman has co-authored both the Guide to Planning for Performing and Creative Artists and the Guide to Planning for Divorce, for the AICPA PFP Library.
Jim Greenwood
Jim Greenwood is a Southern California Entrepreneur and CAJ$ Chair Emeritus who considers himself a student of life and steps, helping individuals to their best possible life - one step at a time.
Rebecca Ivanovich Gallagher
Rebecca Ivanovich Gallagher is an educator influencing student outcomes as a specialist in workforce development for the Sonoma County Office of Education. She brings experience as an award winning teacher with knowledge from a first career in small business, to connect youth to educational and workplace preparation. Her focus and passion has been to provide opportunities for at-risk teens.
Rebecca has been at the forefront of expanding law related and personal finance education, facilitating public school and private sector business relationships. She has established annual events with the legal community and is a founding member of a regional financial literacy organization. A graduate of Sonoma State University, she continues to develop her educational leadership skills in order to play an expanded role in the challenge of creating innovative educational programs.
Pam Krueger
Pam Krueger, executive producer, co-host and creator of the award-winning MoneyTrack series on public television and winner of a 2009 and 2010 Gracie Award of Individual Achievement brings her knowledge and can-do attitude to viewers nationwide, educating the public on exactly what works and what doesn’t when it comes to investing. For nine years, Pam worked as a stockbroker, but recognized the increasing need for investor education. She made the leap to broadcast television by producing and reporting for numerous financial programs, such as ABC-TV’s Emmy®-Award-winning MarketPlace and Tech-TV’s The Money Machine. Her first book, “The MoneyTrack Method” [Wiley & Sons] released in October 2008. Krueger serves as the official spokesperson for the California Jump$tart Coalition. She lives in Tiburon, California, but spends much of her time in Osterville, on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
Stephanie Lee
Stephanie Lee is the founder of East Rock Financial Services, a financial planning firm in San Francisco. Prior to this, Stephanie spent ten years as a Director with a major financial analytics company, developing and managing the world's leading credit portfolio management solution. In this capacity, Stephanie met with bankers and insurers in North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa to discuss the latest innovations in portfolio management. Stephanie previously spent several years in public service advancing the operational efficiency of city government using technology. Stephanie studied Personal Financial Planning at UC Berkeley. She has a BS in Applied Mathematics from Yale and an MPA from USC. She is also a musician who performs regularly in Northern California.
Ron Lenart
Ron Lenart has served on the Board of California Jump$tart since 2008. He also serves on the advisory board of Learning for Life and has also served on the boards of Junior Achievement and the Special Olympics. He is currently working for Wescom Credit Union as their Risk Management Officer. He has been in the banking industry for more than 35 years with the majority of his time spent in international banking including overseas assignments. He holds an MBA from California Coast University.
Tena Lozano
Tena Lozano is responsible for overseeing the activities of the California & Nevada Credit Union Leagues’ credit union development department, which includes community outreach, international relations, financial education, and the Shapiro Group. In her role as executive director of the RMJ Foundation, she is responsible for administering and coordinating activities to support the goals and objectives of the Richard Myles Johnson (RMJ) Foundation, which supports youth financial education and continuing education for credit union leaders. The Foundation serves credit unions in California and Nevada. She has more than 20 years’ experience in the credit union movement, including work in public relations at WesCorp and the League. She received a bachelor’s degree in communication arts from California Polytechnic University, Pomona.
Laurie Mitchell
Laurie Mitchell is a professor and Director of the Accounting Program at University of Redlands. At Redlands, she has developed a financial literacy/community service course where liberal arts students learn about personal financial management, then share that knowledge with high school students. Laurie also serves on the Board of Trustees of a number of the mutual funds in the American Funds grou p. Earlier in her career, Laurie worked for a number of years as an auditor for KPMG, then served on the staff of the Enforcement Division and Office of Chief Accountant at the Securities and Exchange Commission. Her Ph.D. is from Columbia University.
Clar Rosso
Clar Rosso is the chief operating officer for the California Society of Certified Public Accountants and California CPA Education Foundation. CalCPA is the nation’s largest statewide association of CPAs. Among her responsibilities, she oversees CalCPA Institute’s award-winning financial literacy initiative. Rosso, a former educator, is a recipient of the California Jump$tart Coalition’s Leaders in Personal Financial Literacy Award. Rosso is also active in the AICPA National Commission on Financial Literacy and on the site council at her sons’ elementary school. She is a member of the American Society of Association Executives. Rosso holds a master’s degree from San Francisco State University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Davis.
Maria Sison
Maria Sison brings over 16 years of nonprofit experience focusing in the areas of low-income family/youth/immigrant asset development, youth services, and human rights in the United States and the Philippines. Maria received her Bachelors degree in Sociology at UC Berkeley and a Masters in International Relations at the University of the Philippines. Currently, Maria serves as Juma Venture’s Site Director and leads integrated youth service programming that fulfills Juma’s Mission to “break the cycle of poverty by ensuring that young people complete a 4 year University.”
Ann M. Stahl
Ann M. Stahl
Ann Stahl is an Investigator with the Federal Trade Commission’s Western Regional Office, based in Los Angeles. She works on consumer protection cases, and is also responsible for media relations and outreach for the regional office. She has been with the FTC for 36 years. She is also an adjunct professor in the Family and Consumer Sciences Department of California State University-Northridge, where she teaches a course in Consumer Advocacy and Education. She holds a Master’s Degree in Public Policy and an A.B. in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley.
Margo White
Margo White joined Junior Achievement of Southern California in February 2001 and in July 2005 was named Executive Vice President. She has been part of the team that has been responsible for making the organization the fastest growing non-profit in Southern California. White is responsible for JA program and curriculum implementation and fundraising in the ten-county area served by JA Southern California and oversees a staff of twenty.