2024-25 LAEF Board

The Los Altos Educational Foundation Board of Directors is comprised of volunteers from our nine Los Altos School District schools and the community. The board members are responsible for ensuring the strategic, fundraising, fiscal, and organizational goals of LAEF are met.

Front row: Alex Wang, Melinda Kersey, Shivanjali Srivastava, Patricia Moll Kriese, Jeff Zeisler, Chryssa Sanders, Brandon Kam, Rita Chan, Rama Mulpuri. Back Row: Shen Jackson, Jack Lo, Betsy Williams, Emily Harris, Margo Felt, Jensen Barna, Mike Beman, Adina Ardelean, Aarthi Srinivasan, Lisa Sung, Murray Stokely. Not pictured: Emma Cheng

"It was an absolute privilege to volunteer on the LAEF board for five years. It was an honor to collaborate with such a dedicated and talented group of people. The strength of the organization stems from combining a diversity of ideas, backgrounds, and approaches with an unwavering focus on creating an outstanding educational experience for all LASD students. I leave the board knowing it is in extremely capable hands." – Steve Apfelberg, LAEF Board Member 2018-2023

​LAEF Board Officers 
Jeff Zeisler, President
Chryssa Sanders, Vice President
Brandon Kam, CFO
Rama Mulpuri, Secretary

Almond Representatives
Jeff Zeisler
Alex Wang
Melinda Kersey
AlmondReps@LAEFonline.org

Covington Representatives
Brandon Kam
Shivanjali Srivastava
CovingtonReps@LAEFonline.org

Gardner Bullis Representatives
Patricia Moll Kriese
Lisa Sung

GardnerBullisReps@LAEFonline.org

Loyola Representatives
Aarthi Srinivasan
Murray Stokely
LoyolaReps@LAEFonline.org

Oak Representatives
Rama Mulpuri
Shen Jackson​​​​​​​​
OakReps@LAEFonline.org

Santa Rita Representatives
Mike Beman
Jack Lo
Betsy Williams
SantaRitaReps@LAEFonline.org

Springer Representatives
​​​​Emma (Xinhui) Cheng
Emily Harris

SpringerReps@LAEFonline.org

Blach JH Representatives
Chryssa Sanders
Emily Harris
BlachReps@LAEFonline.org

Egan JH Representative
Adina Ardelean
Margo Felt
Rita Chan
EganReps@LAEFonline.org

LAEF Staff
Heather Macdonald, Executive Director
Anna Kjos, Marketing Coordinator
Kyuri Doeden​, Donor Specialist

Contact the LAEF Office at admin@laefonline.org
 

LAEF Board & Staff Biographies

Jeff Zeisler, LAEF President, Almond School Representative
Jeff has two 5th graders at Almond and a 7th grader at Egan. He previously served as LAEF Vice President and LAEF CFO. Jeff is 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 16 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, LAEF Vice President, Blach School Representative
Chryssa has an 8th 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. She is the Parliamentarian for the Blach PTA. Chryssa is very invested in protecting arts and literacy funding in our schools.

Brandon Kam, LAEF CFO, Covington School Representative
Brandon has a TK and 2nd grader at Covington. 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.

Rama Mulpuri, LAEF Secretary, Oak School Representative
Rama has a 2nd grader at Oak Elementary. She worked for many years running Sales and Marketing Operations for corporations in the Bay Area and, at present, helps non-profits as a Marketing Consultant across the US. She volunteered for many years as a Project Cornerstone leader, classroom parent, and part of the PTA. She enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, and concocting recipes in her kitchen, and recently published a children's fiction book.

Aarthi Srinivasan, Loyola School Representative
Aarthi has a 6th grader at Loyola and is mom to a toddler who will be joining TK at LASD in 2 years. Aarthi grew up in India and came to the US for graduate school. She is currently working on Digital Health at Alphabet. She previously worked at Abbott and a few start-ups. Aarthi believes well-rounded education is the cornerstone for building a better tomorrow and is passionate about LAEF's mission to secure funding for music, PE, computer science, and more at LASD schools. In her free time, Aarthi loves traveling, hiking, cooking, sketching, and reading books.

Adina Ardelean, Egan School Representative
Adina has a 7th grader at Egan. She is a Senior Lecturer in Economics at Santa Clara University. She's 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.

Alex Wang, Almond School Representative
Alex has a 6th grader at Almond School and an 8th grader at Egan, with all three of his children having grown up in LASD public schools. His wife, Lily, teaches at Los Altos High School. Alex founded Rainmaker Real Estate in 2007 and has been selling local real estate for 20 years. In his free time, he enjoys traveling, cooking, playing poker, and practicing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Betsy Williams, Santa Rita Representative
Betsy has a Kindergartener and a 3rd grader at Santa Rita and is a proud alum of Springer, Blach, and Mountain View High School. Betsy worked as a data analyst at Google and Facebook before returning to graduate school to study counseling psychology and is now working toward her licensure as a Marriage and Family Therapist. Early in her training, Betsy got to return to her Springer roots as a CHAC intern and greatly enjoyed supporting students individually and in groups. When not trying to keep up with her boys, Betsy enjoys baking, hiking, and catching live music.

Emily Harris, Blach & Springer Representative
Emily has a 7th grader at Blach and moved to Los Altos with her family in 2015 specifically for the excellent schools. She previously served as LAEF President, Vice President, and Secretary. 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.

Emma (Xinhul) Cheng, Springer School Representative
Emma has a Kindergartener at Springer. She is passionate about education as 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.

Jack Lo, Santa Rita Representative
Jack has a 2nd grader at Santa Rita, along with four older children who have all attended Santa Rita, Egan, and Los Altos High.  A Silicon Valley resident for most of his life, Jack has led engineering teams at Google, VMware, and Transmeta.  He enjoys travel, concerts, musicals, and good food.  He also loves sports, especially golfing, coaching flag football, and rooting for his kids’ all-star cheer and lacrosse teams.  He’s also a diehard Stanford Cardinal fan.

Lisa Sung, Gardner School Representative
Lisa has a 3rd grader at Gardner Bullis and a 7th grader at Egan. She grew up in New York and studied and worked in Massachusetts before coming to California. Most recently, Lisa led a solutions engineering team at Google, building operational tools for Ads. She enjoys reading and spending time with family and friends. She believes in equity in access to education and consistent, experienced mental health support for all.

Margo Felt, Egan School Representative
Margo has an 8th grader at Egan. She is a Trust and 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.

Melinda Kersey, Almond School Representative
Melinda has a 3rd & 5th grader at Almond Elementary. She's a Chief of Staff for a VP of Customer Services at Google. Previously, she was in advertising sales & marketing working at Cisco & Adobe. Melinda is a California native, and while she grew up in the East Bay (Danville), her best friend grew up in LASD schools, so she is excited to support an ecosystem that has given so much to her friend & her own boys. When she can, Melinda enjoys skiing, watching her oldest play baseball, swimming and hanging by the beach. 

Mike Beman, Santa Rita School Representative
Mike has 2nd and 6th graders at Santa Rita and is an LASD alum himself. He attended college on the east coast before literally riding his bike back across the country. He maintains a strong academic and adventure streak as a professor who also works at a startup; his research examines microbial life everywhere from alpine lakes to the bottom of the ocean, and he regularly travels the world for work. He has many interests and hobbies and is passionate about supporting all of LASD's learners.  

Murray Stokely, Loyola School Representative
Murray has a 2nd grader at Loyola as well as four older children who thrived in Los Altos Public Schools.  He’s currently an engineering leader at Snowflake, and previously held leadership roles at Google, Apple, and Meta.  Murray is a lifelong learner and is proud of the academic opportunities, diversity, and well-rounded education offered by the Los Altos School District.  He enjoys spending time with family and friends, traveling, cycling, skiing, and sharing his love of the outdoors with the families in Loyola’s Cub Scout Pack 33.

Patricia Kriese, Gardner School Representative
Patricia has a 4th 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.

Rama Mulpuri, Oak School Representative
Rama has a 2nd 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 with 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.

Rita Chan, Egan School Representative
Rita has 5th and 8th-graders at Gardner Bullis and Egan. 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 about other cultures, and studying architecture.

Shen Jackson, Oak School Representative
Shen has a Transitional Kindergartener (TK) at Oak and a 7th grader at Blach. 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.

Shivanjali Srivastava, Covington School Representative
Shivanjali Srivastava has a 5th grader at Covington and an 8th grader at Egan. A passionate product marketer, she has led product marketing and partner marketing teams at Microsoft, TiVo, XPeri, Ericsson and GE. Although a Bay Area resident for the last 14 years, she moved to Los Altos three years ago for the outstanding schools and the strong community. Eager to give back, she is an active volunteer for many PTA initiatives, including co-leading Project Cornerstone at Covington. In her spare time, Shivanjali loves spending time with her family, traveling, reading, hiking, yoga and qigong. 

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.

Kyuri Doeden, LAEF 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.

Anna Kjos, LAEF 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. Her three children attended Loyola and Mountain View High School. A local who grew up in Los Altos, she previously worked for Adobe Systems and other technology companies in the valley. She enjoys serving homeless families and helping with other service opportunities coordinated through her church. She loves adventure travel and enjoys hiking, reading, and theater.