Board of Directors
(please see bios below)
(TPHS Parent Volunteers)
Staff
Joe Austin
Executive Director
Meet our Executive Director, Joe Austin, who recently retired from the Poway Unified School District, where he supported K-12 STEM and Career Technical Education pathway programs. Before coming to Poway Unified in 2017, he worked in San Diego Unified, where he was a principal for 15 years, and a technology coordinator and math teacher for another 10. He and his wife, Tami, are raising three children: Brooks (11), Parker (13), and Avery (18). Tami has taught in San Dieguito Union for over 20 years, and currently teaches Art and English at Earl Warren Middle School. They have lived in Solana Beach for the past 11 years.
Angi Austin
Director of Operations
As a native San Diegan, Angi raised her 3 children (all TPHS Alumnus) here in Carmel Valley. After spending several years working as a volunteer liaison for the Dance Program it felt like a natural next step to join the Foundation staff. Her main focus is on communications, process management and website development. Angi thoroughly enjoys working with parent volunteers, Foundation board members and the Foundation team. When not at work, Angi loves spending time with family, good friends, being outside and working on her house.
Jan McDonald
Finance Manager
Working summer jobs at the San Diego Symphony SummerPops inspired Jan to get her degree in Accountancy at ASU. She has worked with several non-profits around the county and started her own company when hired at the DMSEF in 2005. Jan handles checks, deposits, reconciliations, preparing for the Audit and streamlining accounting functions. Her step-daughter graduated from CCA and is an undergrad at UW. When not at work Jan reads, hikes and bodysurfs at Torrey Pines beach.
Paige Bezdek
Facilities
Paige joined the Foundation staff after years of volunteering in support of her three Falcon daughters — two current students and one alumna. Originally from the Midwest, she spent years pursuing her love of travel as an international flight attendant, which eventually led her here to San Diego. At the Foundation, she helps manage the scheduling and use of TPHS facilities by internal and external groups, When not wearing her Foundation or mother hats, Paige is a dog mom to the world’s sweetest golden retriever.
Jaimy Clarkson
Office Assistant
Board of Directors
Recognized as one of the top high schools in California, Torrey Pines consistently excels in athletic, academic, visual/performing arts and other enrichment programs that offer students the opportunity to explore and develop interests on multiple platforms, including business, engineering, biotech, robotics, etc. The Board of Directors’ role is to ensure that continues.
Traci Acers - President
Traci has been a San Diego resident for over forty years and is a proud Falcon community member and parent. As a former teacher and school counselor she is passionate about working with school systems, community projects/support, and in the social-emotional learning realm. Traci has been very involved in the Carmel Valley community as a Girl Scout Leader, Ocean Air PTA Board member, CVMS PTA Board member, PTMS PTSA Board member, and Teen Volunteers in Action Board member. Traci is excited and honored to work with the TPHS Foundation to foster student and parent connectedness and support Torrey Pines High School staff with their educational goals. We are TP!
Doreen Hom
VP of Finance
Doreen is a native San Diegan whose profession is a biologist at Scripps Research. Her passion is volunteering in her children’s schools from elementary all the way through college. She has held (and currently holds) various leadership roles in unit, council, and district PTAs. She is also on the administration staff at San Diego North County Chinese School, as well as on the board for San Diego Chinese Cultural Association. As an alumni parent at TPHS (class of 2015 and 2017), she has been on the Foundation board since 2012, has and currently serves on various school/district committees including being the Badminton liaison (since its inception as a CIF sport at TPHS in 2015).
Beth Munce
VP of Development
After 11 years managing national and international large-scale advertising campaigns for clients like Apple, Toyota and Taco Bell, Beth turned her attention to recruiting for the advertising industry. Since 2013 she has owned and managed her own recruiting firm, Beth Matthews Collective LLC, from her home office. For the past 16 years Beth has dedicated her time and resources toward bringing excellence to public schools. She has served on numerous Site Councils, PTA Boards, fundraising committees and more. Her husband, Brian, a Torrey Pines alum, and she have 3 children: one Torrey Pines grad now studying at UC Davis, one Senior at Torrey Pines, and a daughter in middle school.
Kerily McEvoy
Recording Secretary
Kerily joined the Torrey Pines HS Foundation in 2020 when her oldest daughter became a Falcon immediately putting her 30 years technical and software skills to use in helping to relaunch the Foundation website and select a new marketing and web design partner. Alongside her software product management career focused on startups, Kerily holds many volunteer positions including serving on the board of the Solana Beach Schools Foundation for the past 7 years and as philanthropy liaison for I Love a Clean San Diego and Meals on Wheels for National Charity League
Barry Epstein
Board Member
Barry has two daughters at TPHS – a senior and a sophomore – and a dog who is not ready for high school yet. He has served on multiple Boards, including The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, CAUSES (Child Abuse Unit for Study, Education, and Services), and The American Cancer Society. He works in the Advanced Technology Group at ServiceNow, where he is also on the Global Impact Council. He has coached multiple youth sports over the past 25 years and is currently coaching the 7th and 8th Grade volleyball teams at Pacific Trails. Barry is a proud University of Michigan alumnus.
Alison Gaconnet
Board Member
A resident of San Diego for the past fifteen years, Alison Gaconnet joins the Torrey Pines Foundation board with a background in communications. Prior to moving to San Diego, she worked in the US Senate for the Senate Judiciary Committee followed by the Motion Picture Association of America in the office of Legislative Affairs. A mother of three, Alison has been extremely involved in the education community as PTA President and a Member of the School Site Council. She cares deeply for issues that affect parents, students, and teachers. Alison is honored to support our children’s education at Torrey Pines High School by serving on the Torrey Pines Foundation Board.
Silvia Greenbaum
Board member
Silvia moved from South Brazil to California in 1997 for her Masters in Architecture. She and her husband, Dan have been living in the Torrey Pines community for over 10 years with their 3 kids. She is currently involved with Teen Volunteers in Action, Scripps Whittier Diabetes Institute, Starlings Volleyball Foundation, Scripps Cancer Nonprofit as well as other charities. She loves to be busy with her family, dog Wiley and crafts. Traveling with her family and friends is also one of her favorite things to do. She also enjoys learning about other cultures and languages.
Joanna Herman
Board Member
Joanna is a proud Falcon parent (classes of 2025 and 2027) and a graduate of Torrey Pines High School, class of 1994. Joanna is a Partner with Major, Lindsey & Africa, an executive legal search firm. She specializes in working with companies to build and strengthen in-house legal departments within Southern California and across the country. Before joining Major, Lindsey & Africain 2013, Joanna spent over a decade working at law firms in San Diego, including Morrison & Foerster and Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich (now DLA Piper), where she focused on product liability and commercial litigation, working with clients across various industries including pharmaceutical, medical device, toxic torts and aviation. Joanna has previously served on the Board of Directors and held various leadership roles, including that of President, at Congregation Beth Am. Joanna has a law degree from Harvard Law School and received her undergraduate degree from Columbia College, Columbia University. Go Falcons!
Kim Klekotka
Board Member
Kim is a parent of two recent graduate Falcon grads (Class of 2024 and 2022). Kim is a former high school history teacher (AZ and Missouri) and worked for the College of Education at the University of Missouri-Saint Louis, supervising teacher training. In 2009 her family moved to Newbury Park, CA, where she volunteered as the Makerspace coordinator and served in the PTSA board as acting president and secretary. Their family moved to San Diego in 2016, Kim established a Makerspace collaboration lab both at Ashley Falls and Pacific Trails Middle School and was an active PTSA volunteer when her kids attended those schools. At Torrey Pines Kim has served as a liaison for softball 2021-2024 and as liaison for girls flag football during the 2023 inaugural season. Kim is looking forward to helping all liaisons at Torrey Pines establish and strengthen their extracurricular programs to benefit all students now and in the future.
Melissa Ladendorf
Board Member
Melissa and her husband Matt have had three children at Torrey Pines High School over the past 6 years: Madalyn graduated in 2022, Talena graduated in 2024 and Luke will graduate in 2027. For the past two years, she has been involved in teacher & staff appreciation celebrations. This year Melissa officially joins the Foundation. She is looking forward to working with other volunteers to continue showing the staff how much they are appreciated and loved with luncheons and gifts. When she isn’t busy organizing fun stuff at TPHS, she has a black belt in Koempo Karate, does Pilates, walks on the beach, raises dogs and tortoises and paints. If you want to see a sample of her beautiful artwork, visit the Administration building.
Jennifer MacDougall
Board Member
Jennifer is excited to join the Falcon Family! A long-time San Diegan, she is a parent to two teens, including a TPHS rising sophomore. An experienced corporate attorney and senior business executive, her areas of expertise include corporate governance, SEC disclosure, ethics, and trademarks and advertising law. She enjoys serving on the Board of the Boys & Girls Clubs of San Dieguito, as past President of the Association of Corporate Counsel San Diego, and lecturing and mentoring at both USD and Cal Western law schools. Jennifer has a B.A. in Political Science from Stanford University and J.D. from UC Berkeley.
Suzanne Miller
Board Member
Brandon Roach
Board Member
An experienced business executive and private equity investor, Brandon is the founder and President of Global Ag Insurance Services. Prior to founding Global Ag, Brandon served as a Vice President at Summit Partners, a global private equity firm. Prior to that he worked at McKinsey & Company and served as an officer in the United States Navy. Brandon holds a BS with Distinction from the United States Naval Academy, an MA in Education from Stanford University, and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar. He is honored to support the TPHS community by serving on the Torrey Pines Foundation Board.
Angela Schrack
Board Member
Originally from Pennsylvania, Angela moved to San Diego in 2014. A former nurse, Angela began volunteering as room mom and a teacher’s helper in Art class every year when her youngest children were enrolled at Solana Santa Fe Elementary. She then became a PTSA board member and Red Ribbon Chair at Earl Warren Middle School. She has 3 children, one who will be a senior, and one who will be coming in as a freshman this year. She enjoys cooking for her family, loves the beach and spending quality time with her kids and 2 schnauzers.
Dawn Stiles-Uppole
Board Member
Raymond Weale
Board Member
Ray has already had 2 sons graduate from TPHS with one at Harvey Mudd College the other at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and currently has a daughter at Torrey. Ray is also the former President of the CVMS Parent Teach Association. He is a senior business/IT executive with more than 25 years of experience in innovative solution development, cyber security, enterprise architecture design, and digital transformation leadership. He has led international and multicultural teams throughout his career working with some of the most respected global companies in the airline, consumer packaged goods and banking services industries in the UK, USA, Switzerland, and the United Arab Emirates.
Ray is the Managing Director of a local Salesforce and Data Analytics/AI consulting company.
Join the Board
Without TPHSF Torrey Pines High School cannot remain great, because the school budget does not provide the funding to go from good to great. With exceptional programs and an enriching immersive social and emotional experience students grow and achieve in exceptional ways. We are here to make sure that every student reaches their potential.
Torrey Pines High School Foundation
3710 Del Mar Heights Road, San Diego, CA 92130
858-755-0125
© Torrey Pines High School Foundation
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