Board of Trustees
Ann Hertelendy (Board Chair)
undergraduate degree from the University of California in San Diego and MBA from Boston University with a focus on non-profit management. She also obtained teaching credentials from the University of Colorado in Boulder. After an internship at the White House under President Clinton, Ann worked as a permanent employee in the White House’s West Wing. She later found her calling in fundraising and has raised millions cumulatively for organizations such as UC Berkeley, UCSF, Spirit Rock Meditation Center, and the College Preparatory School. Ann joined the Northern Light School board in May 2021.
Mary Antón
Mary Antón is founder of Learning•Leading•Becoming Equity Leadership Consulting. A proud second
generation Mexican American, has devoted her career to supporting children and adults of color. She works in independent schools around the Bay Area and across the country, and with districts as diverse as New York City and Newton, MA. Mary co-founded and serves as chair of STRIDES, Schools Transforming: Reinventing Inclusive, Diverse & Equitable Systems – devoted to supporting school teams as they use data to investigate the intersection of equity and instruction, and runs an affinity network to support women leaders of color. She leads Equity Rounds throughout the country, training schools to sustainable practice. Mary facilitates the Bay Area DEI directors network, leads the Inspiring Leaders of Color program and meets with Heads of Schools, Boards & DEI directors as part of her role as Chair of PoCIS (People of Color in Independent Schools of Northern California). Mary is a lecturer in leadership at Boston College, and spent 18 years at Tufts University – teaching about the intersection of race, language, and education. Before her first retirement, Mary was a school leader for 18 years (and a K-12 teacher for 23). Mary earned her Ed.D. from Harvard Graduate School of Education and her A.B. from UC Berkeley.
Mary loves being in schools, supporting innovative practice and being a part of the deep fabric of institutions. An Oakland resident, in her off-time Mary loves to wander in the regional parks with her Irish Wolfhound, Fiona, and is an avid underwater photographer and scuba diver with a special affinity for sharks. She welcomes this opportunity to support Northern Light School now and as it imagines its future.
Kalyan Balaven
founder of the Inclusion Dashboard Consortium and Inclusion Factor, both of which remain key think tanks for schools centered around inclusion. He has served on the board of ISEEN, the Independent School Experiential Education Network and the Board of Standards for the California Association of Independent Schools. He loves poetry and spoken word and has been known to “spit a few bars” from time to time. Kal loves comics and graphic novels, long slow runs, and is a diehard 49er fan.Monika Bauerlein
Monika Bauerlein is the current CEO of Mother Jones. Born in Germany, Monika came to America on a 
Fulbright scholarship and worked for a variety of publications including Germany's Die Zeit and the Associated Press prior to landing at Mother Jones in 2000, where she’s worn many hats since.
As a strong proponent of holistic childhood education, Monika sent all three of her children to Northern Light School and is passionate about supporting the school as a board member.
Dick Bradford
Dick first joined the board of the Northern Light School in the early 2000’s and served for about three years. Upon 
retirement from Athenian in 2018, he worked with the school to help develop a STEAM classroom and curriculum. Dick formally re-joined the Board in December of 2020. Dick believes deeply in providing NLS students the best grounding possible in academics, intellectual development, and appreciation for community and social justice, so that they can fulfill their dreams of changing the world for the better.
Dick currently lives in Inverness and Berkeley, CA. Along with his work on the NLS Board, he enjoys reading, hiking, and kayaking. He is engaged in a London Literary Salon studying the works of Shakespeare – and, as a frustrated novelist, is currently working (again) to revise a book he wrote for his Master’s thesis at USF. He and his wife Molly enjoy traveling when they can. They have two grown daughters who live on the East Coast.
Education: Williams College (1976), BA English; University of San Francisco (1994), MA Writing.
Employment: Farm worker, Australia (1971-72); The Country School, Madison CT (1976-1978) – Taught literature to grades 6-9; Living Resources Corp, Albany New York (1980-1982) – Director of group homes for the developmentally disabled in Albany and Saratoga Springs; The Athenian School, Danville CA (1982-2018) – Worked as coach, dorm parent, literature teacher, Humanities Department chair, Academic Dean, and Head of Upper School.
Governance (Chair), Executive, and Education Committees
Brian Gadsden
Brian works as both a Coach and Non-Profit Management Consultant. He brings over twenty years
of experience in leadership positions in the public sector and extensive experience working at the intersection of the public, private, and governmental sectors.
His coaching focuses on supporting his clients to reach specific professional and personal goals, including but not limited to improving interpersonal communication, managing transitions and team building. Prior to coaching and consulting, Brian received his Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University, started several AmeriCorps programs, worked in senior management positions at several education non-profits, and worked for a start-up technology company.
As a proud parent of a Northern Light School student, Brian is enthusiastic about supporting the school’s mission as a board member.
Geary Johnson
A Northern Light alum and Oakland native, Geary Johnson went on to attend Marin Academy High School in San 
Rafael, CA and then the historically black college, Howard University in Washington, D.C. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting while interning for Marriott International headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland.
After his internship with Marriott, he continued on to work as an Operations Manager with the company, where he transitioned to accounting and worked his way up to a Senior Accountant. He is in the process of completing his CPA and furthering his career as an accountant.
He became a Board member of the Northern Light School in the summer of 2020, where he has been involved since a child. Northern Light has instilled in him such a community-driven mentality that in his spare time he loves to volunteer. He has a passion to help the homeless in our community and volunteers regularly for Project Homeless Connect in SF and CityTeam in Oakland.
Geary believes in Northern Light School’s future and the positive impact the NLS community will have on the world.
Will Nervis
As an Northern Light School alum, Will boasts an especially strong love for the school, Michelle
Lewis, and for the well-being of each student.
By profession, Will has worked in the legal industry for over 15 years and his jobs have brought him to Washington, D.C., New York City, Boston, Los Angeles, and more recently San Francisco, where he worked for Tesla. You can also find him jet-setting around the globe in pursuit of his volunteer work in conservation.
Will is passionate about reconnecting Northern Light alumni with the school through his role as board member.
Dr. Joel Parrott
Oakland Zoo was virtually bankrupt and branded by the media as one of the ten worst zoos in the United States. Dr. Parrott began by relentlessly and successfully rallying for the financial support needed in order to save the Zoo from certain closure. At only twenty-five acres large and just fifteen employees, Dr. Parrott quickly began making improvements to the Zoo infrastructure that supported his long-term vision of the nationally accredited, award-winning, progressive, conservation and education-focused, 100-acre Zoo it is today.
Dr. Parrott’s many achievements, including Zoo-to-Community programs to make the Zoo free and accessible to underserved communities, were recognized by Oakland’s Jobs and Housing Coalition in 2019, where he was chosen to receive the 2019 Legacy Award, recognizing ‘blazing business and civic leaders.’ He is also recognized as a lifelong Trustee Emeritus at the Oakland Zoo and has the Zoo’s entrance named after him, “Parrott Plaza.”
Dr. Parrott continues to be engaged in various projects, among which include his board role at Northern Light School.
Mike Pivovaroff
Livermore National Laboratory. Having devoted his career to performing research and development in the national interest, his current role ensures the Lab’s scientific innovation is coupled with disciplined and strategic execution. Mike has worked in a variety of science and security fields, leading and contributing to projects funded by the Departments of Energy, Defense, and Homeland Security, as well as NASA and the NIH. Mike received a B.A. in physics from UC Berkeley and a Ph.D. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Mike moved to Berkeley when he was 17 and has considered the Bay Area his home ever since. Having lived in Oakland since 2000, Mike and his wife enjoy hiking in the East Bay hills and appreciate the vibrancy and diversity of the region.
Mike joined the Northern Light School board in January 2023. He strongly believes in its mission of holistic education and is excited to contribute to its continued success.
Heather Martinez Quitugua
Guam in civil litigation. Previously Heather was a Public Defender in Guam, California, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands where she also was a member of the CNMI Superior Court Juvenile Justice Task Force. Heather was in private practice in New York and California and focused on insurance coverage, real estate, and commercial litigation. She has done extensive pro bono and volunteer work, including serving as a member of the City of Oakland Public Ethics Commission; as a board member of Lincoln Families in Oakland, the New YorkWomen’s Bar Association, the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York, and Oasis for Girls in San Francisco; and as a volunteer Court Appointed Special Advocate and Educational Surrogate for many children in foster care.
Liz Wright
Growing up in Las Vegas and then Denver, Liz is an outdoor enthusiast and was a competitive skier. College 
brought Liz to the Bay Area in 1983 to study biology at Stanford University. After a brief stint at Boston University to receive her Master’s in Public Health, Liz returned to San Francisco to work in contraceptive research at UCSF, and later served as the Administrative Director at Pinnacle Technologies, an energy start-up.
While a full-time mom of two children, Liz was actively involved at the public and independent schools her children attended, serving on various boards and the PTA. After her job ‘quit’ her (the kids went off to college), Liz became the Board Chair of the Northern Light School, where she has been involved since 2006. Liz currently lives in Denver with her husband Chris and their two dogs, and serves on the governing board of ACE Scholarships Colorado. Together, Liz and Chris direct their philanthropy and energy to lifting people out of poverty.
Liz wholeheartedly believes in our motto, Impossible is Nothing!
Finance (Chair) and Executive Committees