Board Members

David Anderson, Director

David L. Anderson M.D. has practiced medicine as a general internist for nearly 30 years with the Permanente Medical Group in Hayward. During his years at Kaiser he founded the hospital bioethics committee, which he then chaired for over 15 years. He also contributed to the larger organization’s redesign of its delivery of health care to its members earlier in this decade. Dr. Anderson was educated at Johns Hopkins, the University of North Carolina and the University of Southern California School of Medicine. He completed his internal medicine residency in the Bay Area. He is a long time supporter of Girls Inc. and more recently has provided support for musical outreach to elementary school students through the Four Seasons Concert Series. Finally, he has worked at the Ashland Free Medical Clinic since its inception.

Larry Bercovich, Director

Larry's family first emigrated and settled in the Oakland community in the late 1800's and they have been involved in East Bay community work ever since. Larry joined Zip Realty, Inc, in August 2007 as Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary. With over twenty years experience in business and corporate matters, Mr. Bercovich has represented clients ranging from start-ups to Fortune 50 companies. He has extensive experience advising business executives and has served as the in-house General Counsel and Secretary of both public and private companies. His recent experience includes two successful corporate ventures. Larry has negotiated and documented over 100 strategic alliances for technology companies, and over $300 million in private equity and debt financings. Larry has led several classes on GAAP revenue recognition requirements. Larry also has significant corporate governance experience. He has taken both a leadership role and advised clients in developing and implementing effective compliance programs pursuant to the Federal Compliance and Sentencing Guidelines.

Amanda Casey, Director

Amanda Casey joined the Super Stars Literacy Board of Directors in September, 2009. Amanda is a Certified Public Accountant with 22 years working at publicly traded companies and local CPA firms in the San Francisco Bay Area, including LECG Corporation, Eos International, Inc. and QRS Corporation as Corporate Controller and Director of SEC Reporting and SOX Compliance, and Cothran & Johnson and Mowat, Mackie & Anderson. Amanda also volunteers with Wardrobe for Opportunity and The Urban Farmers and she was active in the Acalanes Chapter of National Charity League with her daughter Jennifer (Class of 2005). Amanda has a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and French from University of California in Berkeley and is fluent in French and Italian.

Debra Constantine, Director

Debra is a District Manager and in Business Development for The Carlisle and PerSe Collections based in New York. She has extensive experience as a retail and catalog clothing buyer. Debra has been very active as a community volunteer in the East Bay for the last 17 years as a member of the Piedmont Parents’ Club, where she also served as President, the National Charity League, League of Women’s Voters, Children’s Support League, Board member of Piedmont’s elementary, middle, and high schools and President and Board member of the Piedmont Newcomers and Neighbors Club.

Mainul Islam, Director

Mainul is the Chief Operating Officer at Medic Mobile. Prior to joining Medic full time, Mainul spent five years in management consulting, where he worked with the leadership of Fortune 500 companies to solve strategic and organizational issues. Mainul is excited to be applying his technical and business expertise to a social effort in which he firmly believes. Mainul currently co-leads the Board’s Strategic Planning Committee. Mainul is also a member of the leadership team of Supporting Initiatives to Redistribute Unused Medicine (SIRUM), incubated at Stanford University and is a mentor at Young Entrepreneurs at Haas Business School.

Darin Jensen, Director

Darin is the Staff Cartographer and Lecturer in the Department of Geography at UC Berkeley, positions he has held since 1999 and 2002, respectively. While geography and cartography brought him to this work, he has found his true passion in teaching. Using service-learning and engaged scholarship models, Darin strives to connect his students’ coursework with community service and social justice. Darin has been a volunteer literacy tutor in the Alameda County Jail since January 2009 and joins the Board of Super Stars Literacy to further work on literacy issues in the community in which he lives. Darin is also an active volunteer with City Slicker Farms, an organization that partners with the West Oakland community to grow and distribute organic, fresh produce in West Oakland. Darin and his partner have been residents of Oakland for more than twenty years.

Carla Koren, President

Carla is a Senior Vice President-Wealth Management, Senior Investment Management Consultant, and a CIMA at Smith Barney in Berkeley, California. Carla graduated Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa from UCLA and obtained her MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. In addition to managing over $530 million in assets, Carla is also very active with two local community organizations: the Junior League of Oakland-East Bay, Inc. (JLOEB) and Girls Inc. of Alameda County. She has held several chair positions during her fourteen years as a member of JLOEB including that of President during the 2001-2002 League year. On behalf of JLOEB, Carla currently oversees the award–winning Super Stars Literacy after-school literacy program. Carla also has a long history of volunteer leadership with Girls Inc. of Alameda County, an organization which serves to empower young women to become “strong, smart and bold.” In addition to her role as Board Treasurer, Carla currently chairs the Board’s Strategic Planning Committee and is a member of the Executive committee.

Kim McAtee, Director

Kim’s commitment to Super Stars Literacy began in 2003, when she first volunteered as a literacy tutor for kindergarten students at Hoover Elementary School. Since that time, Kim served as Chair of several Junior League of Oakland-East Bay, Inc. committees charged with managing Super Stars Literacy through its expansion and evolution from a volunteer project to an independent non-profit with an annual budget in excess of $1 million, a full complement of paid staff, and a clientele of hundreds of needy East Bay students. In addition to her work with Super Stars Literacy, Kim sells residential real estate for Coldwell Banker in Orinda, where she has developed a successful practice of doing business by referral. Kim earned her B.A. in French at U.C. Berkeley, is a member of their Alumni Association, and has served on the Board of Directors for the House Corporation of her sorority, Delta Delta Delta. "As a second generation Northern Californian, I am pleased to be able to give back to the communities that have meant so much to me and my family", she proudly remarks.

Russ Meyer, Director

As Chief Strategy Officer for Landor Associates, Russ Meyer is responsible for leading the global brand strategy competency. In this role, Russ works with teams around the world to help drive business growth for clients such as Intel, Disney, DreamWorks, FedEx, Chevron, Procter & Gamble, and Yahoo!. Russ is a frequent commentator on brands, business, and sustainability, and has been a guest lecturer at the University of California’s Haas School of Business and San Francisco State University. As an expert on brands and sustainability,Russ blogs for Fast Company magazine. Russ received his BA from the University of Minnesota and holds an MFA in design from Northwestern University in Chicago. He also graduated from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management with a Master’s degree in Management. Russ is also proud to have been an Oakland resident for 11 years.

Mike Mowery, Executive Director

After a long career in senior legal roles for Bay Area telecommunications and technology companies, Mike transitioned to the nonprofit sector as Executive Director of Super Stars Literacy in October 2007. Mike’s background with both large corporations and small startups going through a rapid growth process is serving Super Stars Literacy well as it moves into its expansion phase. Mike brings over ten years of community non-profit experience to this role. He currently serves on the Youth & Education Committee of the Oakland Rotary and, until recently, was a member of the Board of Directors of Destiny Arts Center, an Oakland nonprofit, teaching violence prevention to Oakland’s at-risk youth through dance and martial arts training. Mike and his wife, Patty, direct a donor-advised fund at the East Bay Community Foundation in memory of their daughter, Danielle, supporting youth and education programs. Mike has also been a member and project lead for two engaged philanthropy organizations: Full Circle Fund and Social Venture Partners. Mike received his law degree from University of Toledo and earned his B.A. in Political Science from The Ohio State University.

Catherine Muriel, Director

Ms. Muriel joined Support.com from Prosper Marketplace where she was Chief Marketing Officer. Prior to Prosper, Ms. Muriel held CMO positions at E-LOAN, a leading online consumer direct lender, and at Upromise, the country's largest private college savings loyalty service. Ms. Muriel also served in executive level positions at AXA Financial, Prudential Financial and Citi. She began her career in advertising where her clients included Coca-Cola, Gillette, Nabisco and Citi. Ms. Muriel holds a law degree from The London School of Economics and Political Science.

Ram Nair, Director

Ram is a private equity professional at Gryphon Investors. At Gryphon, he focuses on analyzing and monitoring investments in middle-market companies in the business services sector. Prior to joining Gryphon, Ram was an investment banking professional with J.P.Morgan where he advised on numerous strategic and financial transactions. Ram graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in economics and mathematics.