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City Year Sacramento Board

Local community and business leaders work together to advance our mission to ensure public schools are places all students can thrive.

Cynthia Hester, Board Chair Pro Tempore
Global Director of Customer Programs Google Cloud

A passionate storyteller and marketing leader, Cynthia is an effective senior executive with experience in global marketing, customer advocacy, strategic planning, and DEI. She is focused on showcasing the human impact of innovative technology and how it can make a difference in people’s lives. Cynthia currently serves as the Director of Global Customer Programs for Google Cloud and has held roles at HP, VMware, Salesforce, and New Relic.

Cynthia is actively involved in supporting grassroots organizations focused on women's health, social justice, education and environmental issues that impact our world. Her philanthropic work includes support of Unapologetech, The Femmy's (Femtech Awards), Future Females Slovenia, The Biomimicry Institute, Center for Environmental Health, Bay Area Cancer Connection, The Humanity Lab and Ever Forward Club. She has served as board chair of The Biomimicry Institute, AIDS and Breast Cancer Emergency Fund.

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Fred Meyers, Incoming Board Chair
Director, Center for Precision Medicine and Data Sciences University of California, Davis

Dr. Frederick Meyers is the Director of the Center for Precision Medicine and Data Sciences and distinguished professor of internal medicine/hematology-oncology at UC Davis School of Medicine. He has a long-standing interest in cancer biology, clinical trials, and palliative care. In the 1980s he founded one of the first Palliative Care centers in the country. His service to the University has included 12 years as Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine followed by 7 years as Executive Associate Dean and Vice Dean of the UC Davis Medical School.

UC Davis Center for Precision Medicine and Data Sciences is a leader in precision medicine. Finding precise, targeted, and individualized cures for cancer and all diseases, and improving population health, is his enduring passion. Dr. Meyers is strongly committed to the career development of junior scholars. His appointment as Associate Director for Education, Training and Career Development of the UC Davis’ Comprehensive Cancer Center extends cancer research career development from high school to early faculty career development and to the community. In 2018 he founded the UC Davis School of Medicine Academic Research Careers for Medical Doctors (ARC-MD) program. The goal of this program is to develop the careers of medical students destined to be the next generations of diverse, team science, community-oriented physician scientists. He serves as president of CARES Foundation Board, in Sacramento. The CARES Foundation provides over $1 million a year to community-based organizations to control and eradicate AIDS and STDs from our region. He is a proud member of the City Year Sacramento Board.

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Ashanti Johnson
Senior Director and Product Chief of Staff Slack

Ashanti is an award-winning leader with more than 20 years experience in IT and management. A driven problem solver battle-tested in the fields of technology, program/product management, operational excellence, and building global unified teams. Serving as a strategic and trusted advisor to the organization’s senior and executive leadership. According to internal surveys, Ashanti has increased leadership confidence in delivering key programs and initiatives by 25% since joining Salesforce. She’s recognized as a top performer receiving Salesforce 2022 All-Star Award in Product and Technology.

Ashanti developed an exceptional reputation for being a transformational, inspiring leader while working for Fortune 500 companies like Google, Airbnb, Juniper Network, and Dell Technologies. She has managed key company-level programs to drive infrastructure efficiency, providing 10M+ cost savings, leading to $90M+/yearly savings over 3yrs for Box Inc. Leading and executing Airbnb's CTO initiatives across all 2,500+ engineers, data scientists, customer support, and senior leadership teams to build a culture of craftsmanship that led to improving quality and efficiency across the company. As a Google Playstore program manager, Ashanti assisted in scaling Google's 10 million daily users downloading apps securely from the Google Playstore, preventing unauthorized and illegal access from suspicious entities. Her executive presence and communication style, combined with her technical background and a customer-first mentality, gives her a one-of-a-kind ability to blend deep technical expertise with simple, everyday language to deliver a memorable and useful story. Aside from her professional accomplishments, Ashanti is a mother of two and married for 21 years. She mentors students through the arts and education, with a focus on preparing underrepresented students for success. Working with college administrators to develop college-career pipelines while also advocating for non-traditional career paths. Ashanti's professional and community experience, would make her a valued member to any profit or non-profit board.

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Dan Coyle photo
Dan Coyle, Corps Cares Committee Chair
Partner Delfino Madden

Dan is a partner at the Sacramento law firm of Delfino Madden O’Malley Coyle and Koewler, where he practices management side employment law. Dan has over 35 years of experience working with national and regional employers in navigating the complex and consistently changing employment laws of California. Dan has successfully defended individual and class action employment claims in state and federal court and private arbitration. Dan also counsels employers regarding personnel matters and prepares and implements employee handbooks and policies, draft contracts and confidentiality and severance agreements.

Dan is a life-long resident of the Sacramento area with family roots dating back to the Gold Rush. In addition to his service on the City Year Sacramento Advisory Board, Dan has served on the Organizing Committee of the Legal Services of Northern California Valentine Run, which provides legal support to those in our community in need, and as a member of the Sacramento Pioneer Association Board of Directors. Dan received his undergraduate degree from UC Davis, where he served as editor-in-chief of the university student newspaper, The California Aggie, and his law degree from the Santa Clara University School of Law.

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Ebony Lewis
Chief Strategy Officer, Institute for Diversity, Equity, and Advancement UC Davis

As Chief Strategy Officer at UC Davis, Dr. Lewis leads initiatives and projects that advance the campus DEI strategic goals and oversees the Institute for Diversity, Equity and Advancement (IDEA). Reporting to the Vice Chancellor, Dr. Lewis focuses on developing approaches to centralize initiatives and partnerships involving UC Davis’ existing and new recruitment, retention, and advancement programs and interventions that connect to issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Under IDEA Dr. Lewis centralizes efforts to conduct DEI-related research, analyze metrics, scale promising practices, and broadly disseminate outcomes. Dr. Lewis works collaboratively with members of the division’s leadership team and serves as a strategic thought partner to the organization at large. Recognized as an influential leader, Dr. Lewis collaborates& with campus partners and external stakeholders to develop, refine and implement key focused initiatives. Dr. Lewis has been with the University of California for over 20 years, most recently serving as Director of DEI Special Projects. Prior to joining DEI, she served as the Executive Director of Undergraduate Admissions in Enrollment Management at UC Davis. Before joining the Aggie family, Dr. Lewis was Associate Director of Admissions at UC Santa Cruz and has significant experience in college admissions, retention practices, and undergraduate DEI efforts. Dr. Lewis holds a doctorate in Educational Leadership from the School of Education at UC Davis, a master’s degree in Public Administration from California State University Hayward, and a bachelor’s degree from UC Santa Cruz.

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Jay Tkachuk
Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer Golden 1 Credit Union

Jay Tkachuk joined Golden 1 Credit Union in 2022 as Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer, bringing 14 years of experience in leading digital strategy and innovation in financial services. He leads the credit union’s Digital organization and champions the credit union’s digital transformation efforts.

Jay holds a Master of Business Administration from Texas McCombs School of Business and a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin.

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Kenneth Johnston
Founder KJ2 Productions

Kenneth Johnston received his bachelors from Xavier University. After seven years of corporate sales Kenneth succumbed to his passion for film-making and returned to school for his master's of fine arts degree in film studies. In 2010, armed with his knowledge in sales, production and professional freelance video experience, Kenneth opened the doors to his business, KJ2 Productions.

Being a positive and productive role model in his community, he volunteers his time teaching media classes in after-school programs at local high schools. He also devotes time to The Boys and Girls Club and the Alpha Academy Mentoring & Tutoring Program. Kenneth is a Nehemiah Emerging Leadership Program Senior Fellow and has been featured in numerous magazines for his leadership skills. Kenneth has received both California Senate and Assembly Resolutions for work that his company has done in West Africa and Haiti. Kenneth is an avid golfer. He is a proud member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. and the 100 Black Men of Sacramento.

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Kenny Thomas
President and CEO T3 Productions, LLC

Kenny Thomas attended the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and was one of the highest-profile recruits to ever attend the school. A four-year starter, Kenny led New Mexico to its best 4-year record in school history. He is second on the Lobos’ all-time scoring list (1,931 points), career blocks list (239), and career dunks list (114), and leads the school’s lists in career rebounds (1,032), freshman scoring (484) and rebounding (256), and personal fouls for a season (118) and career (383). Thomas is one of five Lobos to be selected as an All-American (1998), along with many other accolades during his collegiate years.

In the 1999 NBA Draft, the Houston Rockets selected Kenny as the 22nd pick. Kenny enjoyed a stellar NBA career, playing with the Rockets for 4 seasons, the Sacramento Kings for 6 seasons and the Philadelphia 76ers for 3 seasons, before retiring from the NBA in 2010. Thereafter, in 2012 Kenny received the honor of becoming a New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame Inductee. Since then, Kenny has been involved in various business endeavors and currently serves on the board of the ALS Association New Mexico Chapter, the African American Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, and the University of New Mexico - Black Alumni Chapter. Kenny also is a member of World Sports Alumni, which is an association made up of numerous professional and semi-professional athletes in different sporting arenas including, but not limited, to the NBA, NFL, MLB, UFC, PGA, Boxing, Tennis, and many other sports. Kenny still has a strong passion for sports and currently does pre-game and post-game commentating for NBC Sports California for the Sacramento Kings NBA games, as well as works with young athletes in his basketball and other youth programs, such as golf and tennis. A strong advocate of education, including S.T.E.M. education for youth, Kenny returned to finish his college studies and obtained a B.A. from University of New Mexico in 2019, showing youth and others that it is never too late to pursue your dreams of obtaining a college degree. He currently resides in Sacramento, California and continues to frequently travel to his hometown in New Mexico, where his mother and father still reside.

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Mackensie Priley
Associate Director of Development UC Davis Health Sciences Development and Alumni Relations

Mackensie Priley was born and raised in Roseville, CA and served as a Team Leader at City Year Sacramento from 2018-2019. She earned a degree in Sociology and double minors in Psychology and Gender, Women, & Sexuality Studies at Occidental College. Mackensie joined the board because City Year changed her life. Her service year launched her career and introduced her to lifelong friends along the way. Currently, Mackensie is the Associate Director of Development for the School of Medicine at UC Davis Health where she raises money for medical school priorities. She is also an active member of the UC Davis Development DEI committee.

Michael Jasso
Assistant City Manager City of Sacramento

Michael Jasso, Assistant City Manager, maintains direct oversight of the Office of Innovation and Economic Development and the Community Development Department. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture from Princeton University, and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from The University of Texas at Austin.

Michael comes to Sacramento from Chicago, serving as Chief for the Bureau of Economic Development of Cook County, IL There, he oversaw three County departments along with a cross-cutting office of economic development. Michael also served as Managing Deputy Commissioner for Chicago’s Department of Housing and Economic Development, overseeing the Bureau of Economic Development, Chief Development Officer for the Chicago Housing Authority helping to manage the third largest public housing authority in the nation, and led the Tax Increment Finance Program on behalf of the Mayor for the District of Columbia Government.

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Šejla Begić
Managing Director, Client Relationships Deloitte

Šejla is a Managing Director at Deloitte, where she serves as the Client Relationship Executive for the States of California and Arizona. She has over 20 years of experience supporting state and local government clients on transformations and appreciates that working in Health and Public Service allows her to make a meaningful difference in the communities where she lives and works.

Šejla has recently taken over the role of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Leader for Deloitte’s Client and Market Growth practice. Here she will dedicate herself to attracting, retaining, and fostering a diverse workforce to strengthen the culture of inclusion and allyship in the industry. Šejla volunteers her time outside the office to multiple charities focused on child welfare and protection. Šejla resides in Sacramento with her three daughters and two dogs. She enjoys running, skiing, traveling, eating, and spending quality time with family and friends. She is fluent in Spanish, Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian.

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Torreyana Johnson-Tripette
Mobile Clinics Operations Manager VSP Global

Torreyana Johnson-Tripette is currently a member of the mobile clinics team at VSP Global, a team she joined in October 2018. In her current role, she is responsible for planning and facilitating mobile clinic events across the country to bring no-cost eye-care and eye-wear to people in need.

Torrey is a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. She is a senior fellow in the Nehemiah Emerging Leaders program, 2008 recipient of the Sacramento Observer’s "30 Under 30” award and a 2013 recipient of the Exceptional Woman of Color Award from SacCulturalHub Magazine. Torrey is a current member of the Junior League of Sacramento, where she serves on the Corporate Relations and Diversity & Inclusion committees. Torrey received her master’s degree in public administration and political management certificate from the University of Southern California and her bachelor of arts degree in broadcast journalism from Hampton University.

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National Strategic Partners
National Partners