Director Profiles

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Community Members

John W. Baird, Ph.D.

One of Silicon Valley’s premier executive leadership coaches, John W. Baird has over 20 years of experience coaching executives from companies including Apple, Nike and Twitter, and new venture founders such as Zesty, BloomThat, and Townsquared. He started ExecutivEdge of Silicon Valley almost 20 years ago, and it is one of the most respected executive coaching firms in the Bay Area. Baird started his new company, Edgeman Coaching, in 2016 to continue his work with established companies. He considers his 25 years of coaching work at Apple, from their fast growth period to the present, to be among his most significant achievements. Baird holds a PhD in Organizational Communication and Leadership from Purdue University. He spent 17 years on the faculty at San Jose State University; he was named the university’s Outstanding Professor in 1989.

Phillip R. “Phil” Boyce, '66 Business Administration

Phil Boyce is president of Boyce & Associates. He is on the Board of Directors of EDC Biosystems and the advisory board of Sandhill Capital. Boyce is a member of the SJSU College of Business Advisory Board. He lives in Saratoga and has a daughter, Sharon. Boyce is involved with a number of charitable entities, including the Valley Foundation, Silicon Valley Children’s Fund and the Hakone Foundation. Boyce received the Tower Award in 1997 and chaired the Heritage Gateway Campaign. In 2017, the university presented him with the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters.

Stephen “Steve” Caplan, '65 Industrial Management

Steve Caplan retired and sold KBM ​Workspace, a​n interior design and commercial furnishings ​company in 2007. The company grew from a small, local dealership to a large company ​with offices in San Jose, San Francisco, and Sacramento. He ​has been involved ​with hospital boards, The Health Trust, YMCA of Silicon​ Valley, KTEH ​/KQED​, and ​San Jose ​Rotary. Currently, Caplan spends his time working with San Jose State University and Tahoe Maritime Center Museum and Gardens. Caplan is the recipient of the SJSU College of Business Distinguished Alumnus Award, the Boy Scouts of America Distinguished Citizen Award, the YMCA John D. Crummy Award, and other honors. Caplan and his wife, Cheryl, '67, live in San Jose and ​South ​Lake Tahoe.​

Wanda Hendrix, '77 Sociology, '94 M.P.A.

Wanda Hendrix is the former President of the SJSU Alumni Association and a long time supporter of the Spartan Foundation. She retired as Treasury Manager from East Bay Municipal Utility District in 2013. Hendrix resides in San Jose and is involved with many organizations in the San Jose community.

Eric Kelly, '80 Business Management

Eric L. Kelly is Chairman and CEO of Overland-Tandberg.  Kelly is a strategic, global technology executive with over thirty-five years of experience in developing accelerated growth strategies, improving profitability of complex global businesses, technology and business innovation, mergers and acquisitions and cybersecurity. C-level experience with Fortune 500 companies. In addition, he has over fifteen years of board experience which includes public companies trading on the U.S. and Canada stock exchanges, private companies, universities and foundations. He earned a B.S. in Business Management from San Jose State University and an MBA from San Francisco State University.

Mark Lazzarini, '84 Social Sciences

Mark Lazzarini earned a B.S. focused on Environmental Planning and Management from University of California at Davis, a Master's degree in Urban and Regional Planning from SJSU, and is the Co-founder of the Certificate in Real Estate Program at San Jose State University.

Mark Lazzarini is co-founder and managing principal of DAL Properties, LLC, a company pecializing in complex property entitlements that require multi agency approvals while navigating the bureaucracy, community, and political
process. Over the years, Mr. Lazzarini and his partners, the late Charles W. Davidson and Tony V. Arreola, developed single family detached home subdivisions, market rate and affordable high density residential communities in the Silicon Valley area. In 2017, Mr. Lazzarini founded Terrascape Ventures, LLC with partner Tony Arreola. Terrascape Ventures is a company focused on the entitlement and development of mixed use, residential and office high rise developments in the Downtown and greater San Jose/Silicon Valley area. In 2021, Mark helped establish the Urban Vibrancy Institute along with Tony Arreola, Jeff Arrillaga and Gary Dillabough. All four sit on the Board of Directors. The Urban Vibrancy Institute is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit entity that conducts rigorous research and provides timely and actionable insights to inform strategic decision-making while collaborating with local businesses, communities, and government authorities to explore and reinvigorate the cultural, economic, and social vibrancy of San Jose.

Scott Lefaver, DPA, AICP '68 Social Science, '72 Urban Planning, '75 Public Admininstration

Scott Lefaver, DPA, AICP, is an owner of Cabouchon Properties, LLC, a developer and buyer of affordable tax credit housing. Cabouchon Properties owns over 2,100 tax credit and Section 8 housing units located in California, Ohio, Virginia and Alaska. 

He is a former faculty member in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at San Jose State University where he taught land use planning and private development and urban planning.  He also taught organizational behavior in the College of Business and has been an adjunct faculty member at Stanford University.  He continues as a Research Associate with the Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State. He assisted in creating the Certificate in Real Estate Development at SJSU and is the current Co-chair of the Certificate’s Advisory Board. 

Scott Lefaver is a charter member of the American Institute of Certified Planners and has served on the Board of the California Chapter of the American Planning Association (APA California). He served 12 years as a member of the County of Santa Clara Planning Commission four of which as Chair. Until 2021 he served on the Board of Directors of HomeFirst, the largest provider of homeless services in Santa Clara County, serving as its Chair in 2020.

He is a former Colonel in the California State Military Reserve (California Guard), a combat veteran, and a retired officer in the United States Army Reserve.

Dr. Lefaver received his Bachelor of Arts in Social Science and Master in Urban Planning from San Jose State University and holds both a Master and Doctor of Public Administration from the University of Southern California.

Dr. Lefaver has a long history of publishing articles and studies, including an article in Planning Magazine, “Will Success Spoil Silicon Valley” and his latest article in Urban Land, “California Developer Scott Lefaver Reviews Affordable Housing Development Policy”. He has also published studies with the Mineta Transportation Institute including “Private Land with Public Partnerships for Transit Based Development” and “Construction of Transit-Based Development: New Policy Initiatives for Government”.

Erica Lockheimer '00 Engineering

Erica Lockheimer is the CEO & Founder of HumanizeHer, a platform aimed at cultivating a world where every woman thrives, shattering glass ceilings and redefining success on her own terms. She also advises several start-up companies and invests in startups.

Erica is known in the technology industry as a prominent engineering leader with vast experience over her 25+ year career in tech, and will always be a software engineer at heart. She started out at Good Technology in 2001 as an individual contributor rising to management, pioneering her team during a revolutionary time to securely manage and synchronize e-mail and calendar data between Exchange and mobile devices. In 2010, she joined LinkedIn and rose to serve as VP of engineering throughout her 13-year tenure at the company. During the peak growth of LinkedIn in her first 7 years, she created the Growth team from the ground up where she focused on increasing membership from 150 million to now over 1 Billion members and deepening engagement with members across LinkedIn's products. From 2018-2023, she served as VP of Engineering overseeing LinkedIn Learning (formerly known as Lynda.com), helping to migrate the Glint product from LinkedIn to Microsoft, and leading the LinkedIn’s Talent Solutions/Careers team in connecting members to career opportunities and helping recruiters find the best candidates for their companies.

Erica was responsible for founding LinkedIn's Women In Tech (WIT) initiative in 2014, focused on empowering women in technical roles within the company and scaling the program to have a broader reach for women in engineering globally. She continues to be seen as a prominent leader in the space of diversity, inclusion, belonging, and building community.

In 2014 and 2015, Erica was voted amongst the top 22 women engineers in the world by Business Insider. She is a San Francisco Bay Area native, has 2 kids, loves to run, and is a graduate from San Jose State University with a B.S. in Computer Engineering and had the honor of delivering the commencement speech at SJSU in 2018 as a first generation graduate.  Erica loves the challenge of starting with something nascent and carving out the right strategy, hiring the best people, and plotting a course to drive results.

Linda Morasch, '83 Business

Linda Morasch transferred from San Jose City College to SJSU in Fall 1977. She has worked with Ponderosa Homes, Inc., a residential real estate developer, since 1976, and was appointed CFO of the company in 1978 while attending SJSU. Linda served as the president of Home Builders Association’s Eastern Division. Linda is an SJSU football fan and a longtime season ticket holder. She is a member of Exceptional Women Executives, Top Executives and Distinguished Women Alumni; previously she was a board member of the Business Alumni Association.

Edward A. Oates, '68 Math

Edward Oates founded Oracle Corporation with Larry Ellison and Bob Miner. He served as Oracle’s vice president until he retired in 1994. Oates has been a strong supporter of and guest speaker in the College of Science. He is an emeritus member of the San Francisco Zoological Society and plays guitar in a band with four friends, three of whom are SJSU alumni. Oates’ mother and brother James are also graduates of SJSU. 

Mark Pasquale, '84 Engineering

Mark Pasquale is the Vice President and General Manager for Lockheed Martin Space, providing end to end mission systems to the US Department of Defense, NASA and Commercial Companies. He lives in Pleasanton Ca with his wife Lisa.

Mark earned his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from San José State University in 1984. Mark served as the Chair of the San José State Engineering Department Industry Advisory Board and is also a Department Advisory Council (DAC) member of the ME department. Previously he served over 10 years on the San José State MESA Engineering Industry Advisory council. He is a recipient of the San José State University Department of
Engineering Distinguished Alumni Award, and is a member of the Silicon Valley Engineering Council Hall of Fame.

Jeff Ricci, '86 Business Administration

Jeff Ricci is Senior Vice President and Controller at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Previously, Ricci served in various roles for BEA Systems, Alta Vista (which was purchased by Compaq), Tandem Computers and Lockheed Missiles and Space Company. Ricci holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from San Jose State University and an MBA from the University of San Francisco.

Kevin Swanson, '87 Finance

After working for Merrill Lynch and Edward Jones, Kevin founded his own wealth management firm in 2008, which rebranded to Potentia. The Potentia Group now provides Financial Planning, Wealth Management, Tax, Trust and Fiduciary Services.  Serving as President of Delta Upsilon Fraternity while in school, 11 years as Alumni Advisor and six years as an advisor to the fraternity corporation board, Kevin represents the interest of extracurricular educational opportunities provided through the university, including Greek Life, and Athletics to provide a well-rounded education.  Kevin and his wife Sandy have been appointed by SJSU Athletics to serve on the Tower Foundation. 

San José State University Members

Vincent J. Del Casino, Jr., Ph.D.

As SJSU’s provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs, Vincent Del Casino serves as a key member of the university president’s leadership team with primary responsibility for ensuring academic excellence in undergraduate and graduate studies as well as a continual commitment to research, scholarship, and creative activities that benefit all students and society at large.

At the University of Arizona, he provided leadership and administrative oversight as the campus redeveloped central spaces for student support activities; re-organized its central administrative areas; and enhanced student success and retention. During his tenure, the university greatly increased its online undergraduate enrollment and program offerings. He was also integral in implementing the University of Arizona’s 100% Engagement Initiative that allows students to participate in “extra-classroom” activities through credit-bearing and non-credit engaged learning experiences. With more than 18 years of academic and administrative experience in higher education, he also served as professor and chair of the Department of Geography at California State University, Long Beach.

Del Casino is a prolific writer and researcher who has authored the book Social Geography: A Critical Introduction and co-edited with CSU, Long Beach faculty member, Dr. Mary Caputi, Derrida and the Future of the Liberal Arts.  He also has edited and co-authored multiple other books and published dozens of articles and book chapters on topics ranging from health, robots and robotic technologies, cartographic theory, and tourism, in the context of geography. His numerous commentaries on higher education have been published in The Evolllution and Inside Higher Education, including “Machine Learning, Big Data, and the Future of Higher Education.”

Prior to earning his doctorate in geography from the University of Kentucky, Vincent received his master’s in geography from the University of Wisconsin and bachelor’s in international relations and East Asian studies from Bucknell University in Pennsylvania.

Janikke Klem

Janikke Klem is the SVP Nonprofit Relationship Manager and Community Relations Officer at Heritage Bank.  An accomplished philanthropic and community relations executive, Janikke has spent her career increasing social impact through community awareness, philanthropic involvement, collaboration, and engagement opportunities. Janikke previously served as SJSU's Director of Alumni Engagement and Director of Development. Her community involvement includes serving on the board of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group Foundation (2016 to current), Silicon Valley Organization Foundation (2016 to current), SJSU Alumni Association, Leadership San Jose Advisory Board, and Chair of the SVLG Education Committee (2018-2022). She is a Senior Fellow with American Leadership Forum, a member of SPUR (San Francisco Planning and Urban Renewal Association), Bay Area Council, Full Circle Fund, and a former Salzburg Fellow.  Janikke graduated San José State with a degree in Health Science and holds a Master's in Nonprofit Administration from the University of San Francisco. Janikke has developed an extensive network through her work at San José State and other Bay Area organizations.  

Judy Nagai, Ph.D.

Judy Nagai joined SJSU as Vice President of University Advancement and Chief Executive Officer of the Tower Foundation in September 2023.

Nagai previously served as the University Hawai'i Foundation’s Sr. Executive Director of Campaign Planning, with responsibility to prepare for the University of Hawai'i’s $1 billion comprehensive campaign launch, which will benefit the university system’s 10 campuses. Additionally, Nagai previously worked at University of the Pacific as the Associate Vice President for Development, responsible for the school and college fundraising program. She has also worked in a variety of advancement roles at California State University, Sacramento, University of California, Davis, University of Nevada Las Vegas, and the Stanford Alumni Association.   

Nagai is a CASE District VII Cabinet member and is also a Senior Fellow with the American Leadership Forum, Mountain Valley Chapter. She was born and raised in Watsonville, Calif., and holds a BS degree from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, an M.Ed. degree in Higher Education and Student Affairs Administration from the University of Vermont, and a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.  

Throughout her career, she has worked to advance the student-centered mission of each university through advancement, fundraising, and alumni relations activities. She is a co-author of research focused on the motivations of volunteer advisory board members, which are published in The International Journal of Volunteer Administration (2013) and Innovative Higher Education (2013). In her free time, she enjoys travel, yoga, paddle boarding and hiking. 

Cynthia Teniente-Matson, Ed.D.

Dr. Cynthia Teniente-Matson serves as the 31st president of San José State University. An internationally-recognized Latina leader, President Teniente-Matson is a champion of student success initiatives; diversity, equity and inclusion; civic engagement; and experiential learning. 

Throughout her career that spans more than 30 years in higher education, President Teniente-Matson has always put students first, engaging in strategic partnerships and serving on numerous national educational-governing and civic boards geared toward enhancing the student experience. This is a return to the California State University system for President Teniente-Matson, who served as Vice President for Administration and Chief Financial Officer at California State University, Fresno from 2004 to 2015.

Prior to her appointment at SJSU in January 2023, President Teniente-Matson led Texas A&M University-San Antonio from 2015 to 2023. As the second president in the university’s history, President Teniente-Matson spearheaded the growth of the campus into a comprehensive master’s university while earning the U.S. Department of Education Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) designation and the Seal of Excelencia, awarded to 24 universities nationwide. She established several key initiatives for the university, including the Mays Center for Experiential Learning and Community Engagement, Cisneros Institute for Emerging Leaders, Institute of Water Resource Science and Technology, Cyber Engineering Technology & Cyber Security Research Center, the NSA Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education and the sole Texas Facebook CyberSecurity University Program. 

President Teniente-Matson is a renowned public speaker and has delivered keynotes at national conferences regarding contemporary issues in higher education, risk management, women’s leadership, and Latina/Latino leadership. In 2022, the White House Office of Presidential Personnel appointed her as Commissioner to the Japan U.S. Friendship Commission and a panelist to CULCON, a State Department Japan-U.S. Binational Governance Commission. Currently, she serves as past chair of the Board of Directors for the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), a university presidents and chancellors membership association; is a board member of the American Council on Education and the Girl Scouts USA National Board; and is a member of the HSI-Educational Testing Service (ETS) Steering Committee and LiftFund. 

President Teniente-Matson earned her Bachelor of Arts in Management from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, her Master of Business Administration from the University of Alaska Anchorage and a doctorate in Educational Leadership from California State University, Fresno. She and her husband Mike have two sons: Phillip and Wyatt. She enjoys writing, traveling, and outdoor activities such as biking and boating.