Meet the Members

Andrea Vizenor brings nearly 30 years of leadership experience across industry and education. Ms. Vizenor began her career in the hospitality and tourism industry where she was a recognized leader of 10 years within Hyatt Hotels and Resorts across three locations, Key West, Florida, Phoenix, Arizona and Burlingame, California.  

Her roles in education over the span of 20 years  include a high school teacher, adjunct faculty member, regional director, director and dean.  Andrea employs broad-based skills and experiences that are student first and service-centered and include: visionary and transformative leadership and collaboration, workforce development, career technical education, instructional design and teaching, adult learning, key pedagogy principals, K-12 best practices and teaching, new program design and federal and state educational policy and advocacy.  

Andrea can be credited to contributions that led to the design and development of a new instructional division, the Strategic Partnerships and Workforce Development at Skyline College, the strategic vision and partnershp development that has evolved to include a dynamic dual enrollment program that has increased access to college for nearly 10,000 high school students in San Mateo County and the Racial Justice Training Forum, a powerful equity-focused  professional development experience that brought together nearly 4000 individuals across California to expand their learning in ways that support the advancement of a more just and diverse workforce.

Andrea has a deep commitment to leading institutional change that advances increased success for disproportionally impacted students and continually strives to enhance the cultural competency and fluency of herself and the teams she has the honor to serve. 

Ms. Vizenor was a Skyline College President’s Excellence in Leadership award winner and was a Kent Award Recipent for the Dual Enrollment Program under her leadership and lastly, awarded Manager of the Year during her time at the Hyatt Key West Resort and Marina. 

She currently resides in Burlingame, California where she enjoys cooking and spending time with friends and traveling with her son RJ and his father Ramone. 

Ms. Vizenor looks forward to continuing to make an impact in the San Mateo County Community College District in her new role at College of San Mateo. 

Andrea holds an M.A. in Educational Leadership from Concordia University and a B.A. in Public Administration from University of San Francisco.

Emily Beach is the Regional Director for JobTrain’s North San Mateo County Career Center in South San Francisco.  She leads a team of employment specialists at the Economic Advancement Center who empower clients with resources and supportive services needed to find better jobs, economic mobility, and sustainable careers.

Emily’s professional experience spans the nonprofit, public, and private sectors. After graduating from the University of Notre Dame (B.A. Government and Spanish) on an Army ROTC scholarship, she served as a U.S. Army officer in Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and Texas. During her four years on active duty, she earned the rank of Captain and the U.S. Army Parachutist Badge. Later, she worked as a private sector business executive, non-profit leader, and community volunteer.

Emily is also an elected member of the Burlingame City Council since 2015 and served as Burlingame’s 50th Mayor in 2020. She prioritizes affordability, sustainability, forward-thinking transportation improvements, and fiscal responsibility in her local policy work.

Karen oversees economic development and community vitality for the City of Half Moon Bay. She is the project manager of the Coastside Recovery Initiative – an economic recovery plan that has recently procured $6M in local, state, and philanthropic funding for implementation projects. She shepherded the Carter Park Improvement Project through conceptual and final design, community engagement, and environmental review resulting in a $4.75M earmark from California Assemblymember, Marc Berman.

Prior to civic service, she spent 15 years in the nonprofit sector in a variety of leadership positions at Asian American Recovery Services and HealthRIGHT 360. She implemented an agency wide risk management program covering 900 employees throughout California and served as a senior advisor in merger discussions and implementation. She was voted “Best Communicator” by colleagues for five consecutive years and was sought out as a thought partner throughout difficult personnel situations, retreat planning, contract negotiations, meeting facilitation, strategic planning, and employee engagement.

Career highlights include advocating for culturally competent safety net services, working toward de-stigmatizing substance abuse and mental health treatment in Asian/Pacific Islander communities, nurturing new and mid-level managers, managing the Coastside Recovery Initiative, and assisting with the creation of the Coastside Victims Fund in response to the mass shooting that took place on January 23, 2023 in Half Moon Bay.

She is a certified executive coach and holds a graduate degree in ethnic studies and a bachelor’s degree in human communication. Karen is the first in her family to graduate from higher education. She is passionate about serving her local community and can be found on the Coastal Trail with her husband and two sons and being a sounding board for family and friends.

With longtime roots in the San Mateo County community and a lifelong commitment to education and public service, Eddie Flores joins the College of San Mateo (CSM) as the new Acting Director of Community Relations & Marketing.

Prior to this role, Eddie served as Director at the Peninsula Health Care District overseeing a multi-million state mental health initiative, overseeing the business, marketing, rollout and community relations for allcove™ San Mateo, a youth drop-in mental health center. Eddie led and secured over $2.5M in grants & funding from statewide sources, making this the Health Care District's most impactful community strategic priority.

Eddie comes to CSM with over 20 years of progressive executive management experience in public, private, non-profit, and civic arenas. He has a proven track record of being a collaborative leader, previously managing teams at the American Lung Association, Salesforce, and internationally at the World Health Organization.

In his current role as a publicly elected official and member of the South San Francisco City Council, Eddie serves as Vice Mayor and continues tackling high-impact initiatives that serve children, youth, and young adults, with a personal commitment to do so with a social justice, equity, and diversity lens.

As President and CEO of SAMCEDA, Rosanne Foust directs conversations important to maintaining a strong local and regional economy, attracting and retaining major employers and good jobs, and creating partnerships between business and government to address the critical issues of affordable housing, mobility improvements and maintaining a good quality of life. 

Ms. Foust has built SAMCEDA into an influential and highly regarded inclusive association with membership of Fortune 500 corporations including technology and social media, biotechnology and life sciences, banking and financial services, utilities and energy, construction and developers, as well as healthcare, education and non-profits.  Her leadership has facilitated successful advocacy efforts related to major infrastructure projects, including California High Speed Rail, Caltrain Electrification, Transbay Terminal, reform of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and the protection of the Hetch-Hetchy reservoir. She led the business community to support transportation and transit initiatives including the Highway 101Managed Lanes Project and the successful passage of Measure W (2018, a co-chaired campaign) and Measure RR (2020). 

When the pandemic began in March 2020, Ms. Foust creatively pivoted SAMCEDA to be a key partner to the County of San Mateo serving as the business resource liaison for the entire county by assisting and coordinating COVID-19 pandemic response and recovery for the business community. 

Previously, Ms. Foust had a twenty-year career with Alsace Development International USA, Inc. in multiple positions including Regional Manager, Director U.S. Operations, Executive Vice President North America & Treasurer of the Corporation. She directed and managed U.S. offices in Boston, Los Angeles and Redwood City and an international office in Sydney, Australia for the economic development authorities of Alsace, France. In her twenty-year tenure, Ms. Foust brought billions of dollars in investments to this region in France.

Local and Regional Elected Official

Ms. Foust served for twelve years on the City Council in Redwood City, including as Mayor and Vice Mayor. During her tenure on the Council, she successfully negotiated the Development Agreement to bring Stanford University to the community, oversaw the building of a brand new Public Library in Redwood Shores, and led the efforts to approve a $90 million recycled water plant and secure funding to restore Bair Island. She is also credited with working tirelessly on Redwood City’s Downtown Precise Plan which served as the catalyst for the transformation of Redwood City’s downtown into the new thriving neighborhood of over 2,500 new housing units (375 of which must be affordable), retail, office, and entertainment which exists today. 

During her time in elected office, Ms. Foust served for 10 years on the San Mateo County Transportation Authority (five years as Chair) and as an inaugural board member for 7 years on the San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority.  In these roles, she advocated for transportation solutions to reduce congestion and improve mobility and the protection and restoration of the San Francisco Bay.

Active Community Leader and Volunteer

• Chair, First Five Commission San Mateo County
• Chair, San Mateo County Community College District Bond Oversight Committee
• Chair, Measure W Citizens’ Oversight Committee
• Deputy Chair, Chamber San Mateo County
• Vice Chair, Supervisory Committee, Provident Credit Union
• Vice Chair, NOVAworks - Workforce Investment Board (San Mateo County and North Santa Clara County)
• Vice Chair, San Mateo County Event Center
• Trustee, Bay Area Council Economic Institute
• Trustee, Notre Dame de Namur University
• Board Member, Greenbelt Alliance 
• Board Member, Redwood City Improvement Association
• Board Member, Heritage Bank of Commerce Peninsula/Stanford Advisory Board 

Education and Accomplishments

Ms. Foust holds a Masters of Public Administration, Bachelors of Arts in International Studies and Economics, has completed multiple Executive Education programs at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business (including the Entrepreneurial Boot Camp), as well as completing the year-long Executive Management program at UCLA’s Anderson Graduate School of Management.  

The San Francisco Business Times has honored Ms. Foust as one of the “Most Influential Women in Business in the Bay Area” (from 2009 until the present), “Businesswoman and Person of the Year” by Chamber San Mateo County, Notre Dame de Namur University’s first “Alumna of Distinction” and in 2021 was named “Woman of the Year” by then Assembly Speaker Pro Tempore Kevin Mullin.

San Mateo Mayor Amourence Lee has lived in San Mateo with her family for over a decade. She joined the council in 2019, and is the first Asian woman and Jew of Color to hold the office in San Mateo, the largest city in San Mateo County. 

Amourence studied public policy and public health at Columbia University where she received her Master degree. Her 15+ year career has focused on building strong and empowered communities in the nonprofit, public, and private sectors. She worked at Unicef in Beijing, is a two-time nonprofit executive director, and successful start-up founder. 

She served as a Vice-Chair of the Parks & Recreation Commission and the General Plan Subcommittee. She currently serves on the board of the Home Association of North Central San Mateo, San Mateo County API Caucus, and Commute.org. She is a novice ukulele player and yogi.

James Lees is a Senior Vice President with KidderMathews and has over 35 years commercial realestate experience. His expertise and extensive marketknowledge has led to more than 14.9 million sq ft inoffice sale and lease transactions valued at over $5.4billion.

His skills in investigation and analysis support clientsin making insightful business decisions. James’ vision,creativity, relationship building, market knowledgeand implementation of successful leasing and salesstrategies employ multiple resources across a broadnetwork. Additionally, he offers strong underwritingcapabilities, including forecasting and trending foracquisitions, dispositions and debt restructure.

Prior to joining Kidder Mathews, James was a seniorvice president with CBRE where he was awarded theirmost prestigious national honor, the McCarthy Award,and is a two-time member of the Colbert ColdwellCircle. He was named as 1 of the 5 Most Influentialin San Francisco Peninsula Real Estate by the SanFrancisco Business Times.

Education

Bachelor of Arts University of California, Los Angeles

Professional Achievements

Serves as an advisor for the College of SanMateo linking business and education to meetcompanies growth requirements 

2015-2017 - Board of Directors, The Edge of SanMateo

Served as an Advisor to the Jean WeingartenPeninsula Oral School, which was named after hisMother

Title: Second Vice President, NAACP

Nancy Magee is the San Mateo County Superintendent of Schools. Elected in 2018, Superintendent Magee brings more than 20 years of classroom experience and 11 years of district and county office of education leadership experience to the role. Most recently, she served as the Associate Superintendent of Student Services at the San Mateo County Office of Education where she oversaw special education programs, Court and Community Schools, Career and Technical Education, and Safe and Supportive Schools. Superintendent Magee also served for four years as the County Office of Education’s Administrator of Board Support and Community Relations. In that role, she directly supported the San Mateo County Board of Education, served as Secretary to the County Committee on School District Organization, and acted as the County Office’s Public Information Officer and Community Liaison. 

Superintendent Magee serves on the First 5 San Mateo County Commission, the Housing Endowment and Regional Trust of San Mateo County Board, the Home for All – San Mateo County steering committee, and The Big Lift leadership team, and is Co-Chair of the San Mateo County Child Care Partnership Council.

Superintendent Magee began her career as a high school English and Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) teacher in San Diego County. She served as a high school librarian and school district administrator for student services before being tapped to oversee a federal Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) grant serving six school districts. Superintendent Magee’s experience in that role helped prepare her to create and lead the San Mateo County Coalition for Safe Schools and Communities. Under her leadership, the Coalition developed and implemented a set of emergency response protocols, a suicide prevention toolkit, and a student threat assessment protocol that are now the standard in San Mateo County.

Superintendent Magee holds a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science from San Jose State University and a Bachelor’s degree in English from San Diego State University.

Shireen Malekafzali (she/her) serves as the chief equity officer for the County of San Mateo. In that role, Shireen supports the County to build more equitable structures, policies, and practices to advance equitable outcomes for our communities. She has established County infrastructure to operational equity, including the first Racial and Social Equity Action Plan for the County, which includes specific and measurable commitment from 25 departments and more than eight interdepartmental goals and actions. Countywide efforts have developed Foundational Equity Training for all staff, Staff Equity Resource Hub, an Equity Impact Assessment Toolkit, a Community Engagement Toolkit, learning videos, resources, and more.

Shireen brings more than 20 years of experience advancing equity through the nonprofit, government and philanthropic sectors. Most recently, she served as health equity officer and previously as senior manager for the Policy, Planning and Equity Division of San Mateo County Health.  Prior to joining the County, Shireen was associate director at PolicyLink, a national racial and economic equity institute. She currently serves as a member of the following groups: State of Equity Advisory Committee, ReWork the Bay Equity at Work Council, College of San Mateo President’s Advocacy Council, SVCF Equity Forward Advisory Committee, and serves as board chair of Human Impact Partners.

Shireen has a BS in environmental science and a Master of Public Health from San Francisco State University. Shireen lives in San Mateo County and has a passion for advancing a just democracy and loves doing anything outdoors with her two kids.

Title: City Librarian, San Mateo Public Library

Wade Painter is President and CEO of San Mateo Credit Union (SMCU). SMCU is $1.7 billion in assets and serves 90,000 members in the communities of San Mateo County, City of Palo Alto, and parts of San Francisco. Wade is also President of SMCU Community Fund, a 501(c)(3) non-profit public benefit corporation that provides grants to small businesses, non-profits, and families throughout San Mateo County. Wade has been in his current role since 2015.

Prior to coming to SMCU, Wade was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Redwood Credit Union in Santa Rosa. Wade was previously an audit partner and consulting managing director for RSM US, LLP.

Wade is degreed in Business Economics, and he attended University of California Santa Barbara and University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Sandy Rodriguez is an Associate Vice President withKidder Mathews and has over 25 years commercial realestate experience in addition to a strong background in property management. This experience gives Sandya unique perspective of both tenant and landlordrequirements. Previous experience includes CBRE,Spieker Properties, Insignia Commercial Group andMetLife.

Sandy provides both landlord and tenant representationservices. She serves as a primary point of contacton listings and has been involved in transactionsexceeding $1.8 billion in value. Sandy’s responsibilitiesinclude oversight of the design, implementation andmanagement of marketing campaigns for listed properties, as well as strategic property re-brandingand re-positioning, lease negotiations, and assistingwith underwriting assumptions.

Prior to entering the real estate industry, Sandy enjoyeda career spanning nearly 20 years as a professionalballerina. She applies the drive and discipline of that career to all that she does.

Professional Achievements

She serves on the President’s Advisory Councilfor the College of San Mateo, linking businessand education to meet companies’ growthrequirements

2015-2017 – Board of Directors, The Edge of SanMateo

Stacey Wagner joined Kaiser Permanente in April 2007. She is the director of Public Affairs for Kaiser Permanente in San Mateo County.  

She oversees government and community relations, community health, which includes grants, issues and brand management, and internal and external communications.

Stacey serves on the following boards: College of San Mateo’s President’s Advocacy Council, Chamber San Mateo County, Redwood City Improvement Association (RCIA), Redwood City Together, and the City of Redwood City’s Pride & Beautification Committee. She also serves on various committees and task forces.

She has worked in the telecommunications and waste management industries in similar roles, and for two members of the California State Legislature.

Jeramy Wallace is a Professor of English at College of San Mateo (CSM) in San Mateo, CA. He has served in a variety of leadership roles, including as president of the CSM and SMCCCD Academic Senates and as a coordinator for the CSM Umoja Community.

Jeramy has written and presented widely on race, educational equity, and social justice in community colleges, and he is co-author of the book Minding the Obligation Gap in Community Colleges and Beyond: Theory and Practice in Achieving Educational Equity (2020, Peter Lang) and authored the forthcoming books The White Educators Guide to Equity: Teaching for Justice in Community Colleges (2023, Peter Lang) and The People’s Stories: Critical; Storytelling for Social Justice (forthcoming, Cognella).

Jeramy’s teaching and research focus on the power of critical storytelling in empowering minoritized community college students and in resisting the racialized, gendered, and classed misconceptions and assumptions about community college by the larger society.

Jeramy received his Master’s in English from Notre Dame de Namur University and his postsecondary teaching credentials from San Francisco State University.

Erica Wood has joined the San Mateo Chamber of Commerce as its president and CEO, effective December 19, 2022. She succeeds Cheryl Angeles. Wood brings to the position more than 25 years of experience in the social sector as well as active business and community involvement in San Mateo County.

Wood has held executive level positions in nonprofit and philanthropic organizations, including Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF), the nation’s largest community foundation. While there she was a driving force behind the organization’s growth and success during an unparalleled merger. Wood led major grantmaking programs and award-winning strategic initiatives focused on jobs and the economy, housing and transportation, education, and immigration.

Wood is currently the principal of her own consulting firm and has been working with the City of Half Moon Bay on a comprehensive regional economic development effort—the Coastside Recovery Initiative— that in a few short months has resulted in more than $5 million in public and private investments to support implementation projects.

Wood has also been working with the San Mateo Area Chamber in a consulting capacity to help set strategy for the organization and rebuild its signature leadership program with an alumni network that is 900 strong and growing.

Wood graduated with honors from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is a senior fellow with the American Leadership Forum and serves on the board of Raising a Reader, a national organization focused on early literacy. She is passionate about serving her local community of Half Moon Bay and enjoys hiking on nearby trails with her husband, daughter, and dog. The San Mateo Area Chamber of Commerce Board Leadership is excited to welcome Erica.