Wildflowers' Consultants

Pamela Burdman is an independent journalist based in San Francisco. She was a staff writer at the San Francisco Chronicle for seven years, covering immigration, education, racial issues, and Asian affairs. Her articles have also appeared in the Far Eastern Economic Review, Lingua Franca, Crosstalk, and the Oakland Tribune. Her translation of Peng Xiaolian’s Random Thoughts was selected Best Screenplay at the Locarno Film Festival. A native of Youngstown, Ohio, Pamela earned her bachelor’s degree in philosophy and East Asian studies at Princeton University and master’s degrees in business administration and in Asian studies at the University of California at Berkeley, where she taught second-year Mandarin Chinese. She also attended universities in Taipei and Shanghai.

MC Canlas is a service provider in two large Filipino communities in the Bay Area. He is the executive director of the Pilipino Bayanihan Resource Center in Daly City and the Healthy Start Collaborative coordinator in South of Market in San Francisco. Before he moved to the United States, he taught history and social science at the University of the Philippines, did socioeconomic research and education with the IBON Foundation, Institute for Popular Democracy, and took part in grassroots leadership formation with the Philippine-Danish Folk School. He worked as a community organizer for Filipinos in Daly City and cofounded the service agency—Pilipino Bayanihan Resource Center. He currently writes a column for a Filipino Weekly newspaper, Manila Bulletin-USA, and for a Filipino entertainment guide, Pinoy Pa rin Kami. He is very much invovled in developing community and cultural centers in South of Market and Daly City. In 1999, he was one of the recipients of the Civic Unity Award of Koshland Foundation of the San Francisco Foundation. MC’s family maintains two homes—one in South of Market and the other in Bulacan in the Philippines. He has dedicated his life to pursuing social transformation for the betterment of his family, his people, and their community.

Kevin Fong is a consultant for Wildflowers Institute and other organizations, and a facilitator and trainer specializing in organizational systems, design, and philosophy. Through his combined experience as a corporate buyer, a health care administrator, a writer, and an organizational consultant, Kevin has created Working in the Hyphen™ , a training series that utilizes Eastern traditions and philosophies, along with conventional organizational and leadership theories to design functional and harmonious organizational systems. He is also a practitioner and teacher of Feng Shui, the Chinese art and tradition of placement. A Kellogg Fellow and graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, Kevin lives in San Francisco and Bainbridge Island, Washington.

Bill Ong Hing is on the law faculty at the University of California at Davis and a member of the Board of Directors of Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy. His books include Making and Remaking Asian Pacific America Through Immigration Policy; To Be an American—Cultural Pluralism and the Rhetoric of Assimilation; Immigration and the Law—A Dictionary; and Handling Immigration Cases. Professor Hing is a trustee of the Rosenberg Foundation.

Alex Laurant is a graphic designer, illustrator, and film art director, currently working both independently and for George Lucas’s Industrial Light and Magic (ILM). Before and after graduating from California College of Arts and Crafts in 1986, Alex spent eight years producing illustration and graphic design for a wide variety of clients, both in-house and as a freelancer, with a focus on editorial illustration. In 1989 and 1990 he worked as a theatrical storyboard artist and conceptual

designer at George Coates Performance Works in San Francisco. That multimedia stage experience then led him to the computer and six years in the interactive/multimedia arena designing and supervising a wide range of two-dimensional and three-dimensional digital graphics and animation for many educational and edu-tainment products. Alex was art director for Albathion Software in Sausalito, whose clients included Broderbund Software, Apple Computer, Mattel Media, Johnson & Johnson, and The Exploratorium. Just before joining ILM, Alex was an art director at Rocket Science Games in San Francisco, working on the graphic adventure OBSIDIAN. As a visual effects art director at ILM, he has worked on a variety of features and commercials including the Star Wars Special Editions, Saving Private Ryan, The Mummy, and Mission to Mars.

Linda S. Lloyd is the vice president of programs for the Alliance Healthcare Foundation in San Diego, where she manages all aspects of the foundation’s grant-making process. Linda consults for a variety of agencies on public health programs in less developed countries. Her clients have included the Pan American Health Organization, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ministry of Health in Mexico, the Environmental Health Project, and Wildflowers Institute.

Linda’s expertise includes the design and evaluation of community-based health programs. She has ten years’ experience integrating medical anthropology and epidemiology in the design of community-based vector control programs. She also has considerable experience in message development, behavioral trials, and the training of local staff in applied research and evaluation techniques.

She earned her master’s degree and doctorate of public health at Johns Hopkins University, School of Hygiene and Public Health.

Naomi Lucks is a writer and editor whose work includes virtually every aspect of traditional publishing and Web publishing, from magazines, books, and advertising to Internet articles and online learning. She is a freelance development editor and book doctor, co-founder of YouCanWrite.com, a Web site for aspiring nonfiction authors, and co-author of A Woman’s Midlife Companion: The Essential Resource for Every Woman’s Journey (Prima, 1997).

Alyce Bezman Tarcher’s life has been devoted to medicine. After her graduation from the University of Nebraska College of Medicine, she trained in the specialty of internal medicine at Cincinnati General Hospital, Boston City Hospital, and the University of California in San Francisco (UCSF). She became a Research Fellow in the Cardiovascular Research Institute at UCSF. After completing her fellowship, she went to Oxford University as a visiting research scientist in the Department of Biochemistry.

Alyce then returned to UCSF to head her own laboratory and carry on her research. She also had teaching responsibilities and began her private practice of internal medicine. Clinical practice and teaching became her focus of attention. After becoming concerned about the health effects of human exposure to toxic agents in the environment, she developed a course on the subject at UCSF Medical Center. She designed, edited, and wrote a large part of a book entitled Principles and Practice of Environmental Medicine, the first comprehensive text in the field.

Alyce continues to practice internal medicine, teach medical students, and focus on the healing qualities found in alternative and complimentary medicine. Alyce has been a volunteer physician in Trujillo, Peru, for Project Hope, and was awarded the Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health.

Paul Tsang is a designer and is currently operating a multidisciplinary studio in San Francisco.

Paul graduated from the Academy of Art College, San Francisco.

David Sweet has been a freelance copyeditor and proofreader since 1983. He has been working with Wildflowers Institute for several years.

James Tyler is a photographer who creates Bright Moments! in his work. He has documented relationships using photographic methods for more than thirty years. His most recent works are published by the Center for Ecoliteracy and feature photographic essays. Publications include Getting Started: Creating Gardens as Outdoor Classrooms; Ecoliteracy: Mapping the Terrain, which documents the restoration of a watershed by students their teachers and families; Edible Schoolyard, a case study of the model school program founded by chef and visionary Alice Waters; and a grants report. Tyler provides videography, photography, and logistical services to Wildflowers, capturing visually the relationships that are at the essence of cultural patterns.

Richard Woo is the executive director of The Russell Family Foundation (TRFF). The foundation is committed to values-based education, sustainable environment, and community development. TRFF is based in Tacoma, Washington, with offices in Seattle. Before joining TRFF, Richard consulted with corporations and foundations on issues of social responsibility, strategic philanthropy, and public affairs. Earlier in his career, Richard spent eleven years managing public affairs programs at Levi Strauss & Co., including serving as executive director of the Levi Strauss Foundation. He has extensive international experience, having directed Levi Strauss Foundation grantmaking in twelve Pacific Rim countries. He has served on nonprofit boards for Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy, Northern California Grantmakers, and the Red Tab Foundation. The first fourteen years of Richard’s work life were dedicated to the public and nonprofit sectors.

Richard has a strong commitment to leadership development. He has traveled extensively in China with the U.S.-China Educational Institute (USCEI), both as a 1998 USCEI Fellow and a 1999 cultural mentor to a delegation of Kellogg National Leadership Fellows.

Dianne Yamashiro-Omi has served as the executive director for numerous nonprofits in the Asian community, including Asian Manpower Services and Asian Foundation for Community Development. She has acted as co-director of Asian Health Services and as administrative assistant for Kimochi. She has served as a board member for the Asian Law Caucus, East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation, United Japanese Community Services, and Association of Children’s Services. She has served on the boards of the California Childcare Resource and Referral Network, Asian Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy, and Youth Alive. She has actively fundraised for the Asian Women’s Shelter and Asian Immigrant Women Advocates. Dianne is a recipient of the Pacific Asian American Women Bay Area Coalition, Women Warrior Award, and the Japanese Community Youth Council (JCYC) Leadership Award and was selected as an Outstanding Young Woman of America in 1982. She is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and has completed a teacher’s credential program at the University of San Francisco. Dianne has also completed the Coro Foundation Public Affairs Leadership Development Program.

Her tenure in the field of philanthropy began as an intern at the San Francisco Foundation in 1985. In 1986 she worked for the Koret Foundation in San Francisco as a program officer for youth and education. In 1993 she served as a consultant to the Levi Strauss Foundation. From 1994 to 1997, Dianne worked as the program officer for children, youth, and families for the Gap Foundation. She served as a consultant with the Civil Liberties Public Education Fund and the Asian Pacific Fund. Currently, Dianne is a consultant to the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund and Levi Strauss Foundation. She has served on the board of directors for the Northern California Grantmakers and Asian American Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP).