Officers and Executive Committee
WHO WE ARE
We are a group of dedicated professionals who believe that people can engage in
challenging conversations with respect, dignity and hope for the future.
OFFICERS AND EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Bill Sailer
Chair
Senior Vice President, Legal Counsel, Qualcomm (retired)
Boards/Community Involvement: Director, Legal Aid Society; Director, The Ralph Benirschke Legacy Foundation; Director of the San Diego County Bar Foundation; Trustee of the Children’s Hospital Foundation of San Diego; Director, Voices for Children; Director, Kids Included Together, Inc.; Board Member, Junior Seau Foundation; Director, La Jolla Country Club.
Ben Haddad
Vice Chair
Principal, California Strategies LLC
Former: Senior Vice President for Communications, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC); President and Chief Executive Officer, San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, and served as its Chairman in 2009; ; Senior Vice President for Communications, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC); President and Chief Executive Officer, San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, and served as its Chairman in 2009
Boards/Community Involvement: San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, Former Chair; San Diego Foundation, Executive Committee, Board Member and Former Chair; Former Board Member and Chair, LEAD San Diego; ; Former Board Member of San Diego Symphony, Monarch School, San Diego Center for Children, Red Cross, San Diego County Water Authority, and California Coastal Commission
Thomas W. Turner Jr.
Immediate Past Board Chair
Vice President, CBRE
Former: Managing Partner, Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch, LLP: Commercial Real Estate Attorney
Boards/Community Involvement: University Club Board of Governors; Past President/Board Member/Executive Committee, National Association of Industrial and Office Properties;; Board, Past President, San Diego County Taxpayers Association; Board, San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation; ; Former Board Member, San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce; Past President, HomeStart; Past President, San Diego League; Past Board, La Jolla Music Society
Nancy M. Giberson Ph.D.
Secretary
Former: Assistant Superintendent, San Diego County Office of Education and Santa Cruz County Office of Education; Principal, Torrey Pines High School and Oak Crest Junior High; School; President, National Council of Administrative Women in Education; Chair, CISC, California County Superintendents Education Services Association; Board of Directors, International Network of Principals’ Centers; Advisory Board, National Science Foundation.
Boards/Community Involvement: Advisory Board, Coastal Community Foundation; Chair, Solana Beach Fund; Alumnae Advisor Committee, Pi Beta Phi, University of California, San Diego.
Jim Linthicum
Treasurer
NCRC Mediator; NCRC Hearing Officer; and, NCRC Mediator Mentor
Former: Chief of Capital Programs and Regional Services, San Diego Association of Governments; Director of Mobility Management and Project Implementation, San Diego Association of Governments
Boards/Community Involvement: American Society of Civil Engineers; Construction Management Association of America
BOARD MEMBERS
Johanna Afshani
Attorney, Mediator & Social Justice Activist
Former: Coach for the Wilmer-Hale Teen Empowerment Conflict Resolution Skills Training Program and Mediator for Mediation Works Incorporated; Former Chair, NCRC-KPBS ; Community Heroes Selection Committee; Chair, NCRC Local Peacemaker Award Committee
Burgundi Allison
Associate Director for Diversion and Prevention, Annie E. Casey
Former: Director, Youth Opportunity (YO!) program, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine; Nonprofit and government programs leadership in youth development, education, workforce development and housing.
Richard Bregman
San Diego Market President and National Co-Head of Healthcare Commercial Banking for Bank of America
Boards/Community Involvement: Board Chair, San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce; Board Member and Finance Committee, BIOCOM; Previous Board member of CONNECT, Zoological Society of San Diego, YMCA of San Diego County and the United Way of San Diego
Michelle Candland
Former: Managing Director, CBRE
Boards/Community Involvement: San Diego Downtown Partnership; San Diego Rotary Club; Monarch School; San Diego Women’s Foundation
Maggie Carter
HR Director for Business Diversity and Inclusion at SDG&E
Former: Raytheon Company
Jennifer Hicks
Senior Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer for U.S. Bank
Former: Corporate Payment Systems lead for the Omnichannel group
Boards/Community Involvement: Board member of CASA of Monterey County; Board member and financial liaison for the Community Health Partnership of Illinois; Treasurer of the Windsong Cove Condo Association
Steve Jennings
Executive Director, Rady Children’s Hospital Foundation; Senior Vice President, Rady Children’s Hospital and Health Center
Former: Assistant Vice Chancellor, Development for the College of Letters and Science at UCLA; Assistant Vice Chancellor, Health Sciences Development
Peter James MacCracken, APR
Principal, Strategic Communications
Boards/Community Involvement: Advisor, Equinox Project; Public Policy Committee of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce
Jane Howard-Martin
Vice President Labor & Employment/Plant Support Toyota Legal One, Toyota Motor North America, Inc.
Former: Partner with Morgan, Lewis and Bockius LLP in their Los Angeles and Pittsburgh offices; Partner at Kirkpatrick & Lockhart in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Boards/Community Involvement: Howard-Martin has been featured in a number of publications and symposiums. ; She authored a column on employment issues for USAToday.com, a treatise on Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act; served on the Editorial Review Board of the Pennsylvania Labor Letter; appeared as a panelist on MSNBC’s “Today in America”
Susan McClellan
Boards/Community Involvement: Current: Board Vice President of San Diego Zoo Global Foundation; Co-Chair of Teacher Workshops in Conservation Science Committee; Board Member and Nominating Committee for Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund; Board Member of La Jolla Community Foundation; ; Previous Board Member Make-A-Wish Foundation; LEAD; San Diego; ARCS (Achievement Awards of College Scientists) Foundation; Las Patronas; ; Voices for Children; Capital Campaign Committee for Monarch School; Former Treasurer, Former Secretary San Diego Zoo Global Board; Past President of Junior League of San Diego; National Charity League; Past Chair Las Patronas Jewel Ball; National Charity League Senior Presents; San Diego Zoo RITZ (Rendezvous In The Zoo); KPBS-TV Auction; Founding Member San Diego Women’s Foundation
Aradhna Malhotra Oliphant
Chief Operations and Strategy Officer, Wallis Annenberg Legacy Foundation
Former: Board Director, Principal, AMO Consulting, President and CEO of Leadership Pittsburg, Inc; President International Women’s Forum Western Pennsylvania; Vice Chair, Allegheny County Governance Commission; Chair; Chatham University’s Board Governance Committee
Boards/Community Involvement: First Commonwealth Financial Corporation; Chatham University; Chair, International Women’s Forum Philanthropy Group; Member, National Security Seminar of the U.S. Army War College
Rich Paul
Partner, Quarles & Brady LLP, Mediator, West Coast Resolution Group
Former: Partner, Paul, Plevin, Sullivan & Connaughton
Boards/Community Involvement: Adjunct Professor of Employment Law at USD Law School; Editorial Review Board for the California Employment Law Letters; Past Chairman of the Board of The San Diego Blood Bank
Sharon Powell (’26)
Executive Board/Vice President of Programs and Community Engagement, Understand the Grind Foundation; Founder & Owner, N’Flight Youth Track program
Former: San Diego Unified School District, HSCW – Health Services Case Worker, San Diego Adolescent Pregnancy & Parenting Program (SANDAPP); San Diego Unified School District, District Advisory Council
Boards/Community Involvement: Member, Democratic Women’s Club of San Diego; Member, Mothers of Professional Basketball Players (MPBP, Inc.); Advisor & Community Engagement, Champions Culture, LLC
Eric Sandy
NCRC Mediator; NCRC Credential Program Evaluator; NCRC Hearing Officer; NCRC Lead Trainer; NCRC Credential Program Coach
Former: Lieutenant, Community Services, City of Del Mar; President-Elect, ADR San Diego and Editor; Sociology Instructor, San Diego State University; Editor, California Lifeguard Magazine; ; West Coast Contributor, American Lifeguard Magazine; Instructor, Mediation International; Instructor, California Enforcement Officer Association; Port of San Diego, Employee Dispute Resolution Board
Leo Spiegel
Managing Partner of Spiegel Capital Management
Former: UC San Diego True Triton in 2020
Boards/Community Involvement: Chair of the Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego, UCSD Foundation Board, the International Leadership Committee for the Campaign for UC San Diego, the Dean’s Advisory Council at the Rady School of Management, the UC San Diego Innovation and Entrepreneurship Council and The Basement Executive Board; Leichtag Foundation Board in 2021
Steven R. Smith
Dean Emeritus and Professor of Law Emeritus, California Western School of Law
Boards/Community Involvement: Past Chair, American Bar Association Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar; Past Chair, San Diego Foundation; Director, San Diego Volunteer Lawyer Program; and Board of Directors, Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Program
Paul Vaden
Corporate Consultant; Keynote Speaker; Founder, Answer the Bell, Inc.
Boards/Community Involvement: Junior Diabetes Research Foundation Chapter Board President; Big Brothers Big Sisters of San Diego County
Pedro Villegas
Senior Director, Regulatory and Legislative Affairs, NextEra Energy Resources
Former: Director of Community Relations and Director of Regional Public Affairs, San Diego Gas & Electric; Manager of Regulator Relations, San Diego Gas & Electric and the Southern California Gas Company; Deputy Director, Speaker’s Office of International Relations & Protocol, California State Assembly; Principal Consultant, Standing Committee on Jobs, Economic Development & the Economy, California State Assembly; Senior Consultant, Select Committee on California-Mexico Affairs, California State Assembly; Research Coordinator, Pacific Council on International Policy; Visiting Research Fellow, Center for U.S.-Mexico Studies, University of California, San Diego
Boards/Community Involvement: The San Diego Foundation, RISE San Diego, ComicCon Museum