VERONICA A. BETTENCOURT ‘98, PRESIDENT

After lingering on the East Coast for grad school, Veronica moved to California with her husband to join her five closest Brown friends on the best coast. At Brown, Veronica made up her own sub-specialty concentration that blended international relations and political theory. Her subsequent career has reflected her multiple interests, ranging from working at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, through being an in-house lawyer in tech for over a decade, to creative writing. Veronica is an avid hiker, nature enthusiast, jazz vocalist and cook.

Fun fact about Brown: While at Brown, Veronica founded her own literary and arts magazine, Ophelia. Ophelia met an untimely death when Veronica could no longer cajole her friends into staffing it post graduation.

CAROL RHOADS ‘70, VICE PRESIDENT

Carol has led organizations through growth and change, from higher education to corporate startup and Fortune 500 healthcare companies. She chaired Planned Parenthood in southern California and was a Santa Clara County Juvenile Justice Commissioner. Now she is a pro bono lawyer for young people aginG out of the foster care system.

Brown around ‘70 (as now) was exciting! Defining moments were the birth of the New Curriculum, political activism, and the passing of Pembroke (along with the skirt requirement on the Brown campus). Carol worked on the nascent Brown Student Agencies and tutored disadvantaged kids. Not to mention Spring Weekend with Sha-Na-Na!

After business school at Columbia, Carol and her husband Keating started a family in San Francisco. After criss-crossing the country, they returned to the Bay Area with the arrival of grandchildren.

NAEEM ZAFAR '81, TREASURER

Naeem is a serial tech entrepreneur, 5X CEO of Silicon Valley startups, an angel investor, and teaches courses on Entrepreneurship at the University of California Berkeley and at Northeastern University. After Brown with an electrical engineering degree, he was exiled to the frozen tundra of Minnesota for graduate school and has been in Silicon Valley since 1988. After teaching ENGIN 1010 at Brown, while commuting from SF Bay area, he founded Startup-Advisor, a company focused on educating and advising entrepreneurs on all aspects of starting and running a business (www.Startup-Advsior.com)

Sci Li days: "It took me a long time to find out that there is another library on campus. Other than flipping between Barus & Holley and Ratty I spent every day in the basement of Sci Li that had a vibrant social scene.

JULIAN BARING ‘97, MEMBER AT LARGE

Julian Baring Class of ’97 is married to Elisa Baring Class of ’99 and lives in Los Gatos with 3 children and a dog. At Brown he was on the Crew Team (Hall of Fame ’94 crew) as well as competed for Brown in Club Rugby, Club Skiing and Club Sailing. Professionally he is currently Adform‘s Regional President, Americas and has more than 25 years of digital and technology industry operating experience across a variety of management roles including marketing, sales, corporate and business development in companies at all stages of maturity from start-up to exit. Julian matriculated with an MBA from Oxford University in 2004 . Julian and his family feel privileged to finally be living in Silicon Valley's beautiful hills, an outcome he predicted over 27 years ago when he visited Los Gatos, the home of his then college girlfriend, now wife.

KIM HIGHLUND ‘04, COMMUNITY SERVICE CHAIR

Kim, a native Californian, is excited to be back in the Bay Area after living on the East Coast (Providence and NYC) for one too many winters. At Brown, she split her time between a cubical at the Sci Li or the Rock, and training in the Pizzitola with the Women’s Varsity Volleyball team. A team captain and 2001 Ivy Champion, Kim no longer digs volleyballs, but the library is still her happy place! After graduating with a degree in Political Science, Kim has gone on to manage projects in television at HBO Sports and the NHL, build healthcare facilities, and create programming in higher education at Columbia University (nonetheless, she is Ever True).

JORDAN PISARCIK ‘08, MARKETING CHAIR

Jordan graduated from Brown with a degree in Neuroscience, moved to New York City, and began a career in healthcare. He initially worked in the life sciences area before moving to healthcare technology and digital health, joining an early-stage startup focused on patient engagement that was acquired by Optum (part of UnitedHealth Group) in 2021. He has built and led teams across business development, customer success, and product management.

Jordan moved to the Bay Area in 2022 with his wife, where they are raising a family and enjoying the nice weather. He fondly remembers the strong sense of community and service from his time at Brown, during which he led campus tours and assisted with Admission Office initiatives for new and prospective students. Some of his favorite memories on campus were Spring Weekend and Commencement.

DAVID SABEL '86, P'17, '19, UNIVERSITY LIAISON

David is a Product leader currently focused on the platform build out at Gwynnie Bee, a pioneer in subscription clothing rental. David has lead product teams in e-commerce and online advertising for 20 years at such companies as Microsoft, Yahoo, LookSmart and at startups in the Web Intelligence and Music Recommendation spaces. While at Brown, when he wasn't studying for his degree in International Relations of course, David spent most of his free time at WBRU wrestling with large vinyl platters.

EMILY WANDERER ONCE MSc '19

Emily is a business development leader focused on corporate wellbeing and social impact, currently working at Sequoia Consulting, an HR consulting firm based in San Mateo. Emily attended Brown for her Master’s degree, where she built an integrated degree program from the School of Engineering’s PRIME Masters program and the School of Sociology. Emily now resides in Santa Clara with her husband and dog, Taco. Emily’s favorite memory of Brown and Providence is the fantastic food shared with the great community of friends; she misses DenDen, Nick’s on Broadway, and Knead Doughnuts.

MIN JUNG “MJ” HAN ‘16, SECRETARY

MJ graduated from Brown with a degree in chemistry, moved to the midwest to receive another degree in chemistry, then moved further west to receive a J.D. She is currently an attorney at a large law firm in Palo Alto with a focus on startups and venture capital. In her free time, she enjoys watching films, playing poker, and hiking.

Some of MJ’s favorite places/memories from Brown include Wayland (her first-year dorm), the bamboo garden at the Watson Institute, the List Art Center stairwells, “Spicy With” at Jo’s, and sunsets from the SciLi stacks (#TeamSciLi). She very much looks forward to her 10th-year reunion.

MEGAN STREICHER '09, MEMBER AT LARGE

Megan graduated with a degree in European History in 2005. Some cherished campus  memories include a student job at the Music Department, where staff were served coffee milk as a “perk,” and lining up to use the treadmill at the Bears Lair. First jobs after graduation include teaching at Emerson College and Bryant University. Megan moved back home to the Bay Area where she taught at Notre Dame Namur University in Belmont where, among other responsibilities, she helped edit the student newspaper and led yoga classes. NDNU ended its undergrad program in 2021. Now teaching at a small private HS, she is active in her son’s school teaching monthly art and Social Emotional Learning classes (SEL), the PTA, and her sorority alum group, Delta Gamma. A volunteer at the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Commission, Megan is passionate about bringing SEL classes to all youth in our community. She is excited to be involved in this alum group and plan activities.

YUDI FU '13, MEMBER AT LARGE

After graduating from Brown with a degree in Computer Science and Mathematics, Yudi biked from Providence to the Bay Area, where she worked as a software engineer at a couple of startups, most recently at Strava. Passionate about the outdoors, she spent the remote working years since COVID nomading across the country visiting national parks. Currently, Yudi is taking a break from working in tech to explore how to apply her server-side software engineering skills to the climate crisis, driven by a deep commitment to environmental sustainability.

During her time at Brown, Yudi spent most of her time in the CIT, conducting research in the Graphics Lab with Andy van Dam and holding TA hours in the Fishbowl. Outside of her academic pursuits, she enjoyed arts and crafts projects with her China Care Brown mentee and engaged in various active hobbies like karate, rock climbing, volleyball, and road biking.

GINA KIM EMBA‘19, SOCIAL MEDIA CHAIR

Gina has called many places home since she was three, including Libya, the U.K., South Korea, the Bay Area, and Seattle. These experiences have shaped her multicultural perspective and love for exploring different cultures. Now, she’s settled in San Jose with her two wonderful boys.She graduated from Brown University in 2019 with a degree in Business Administration, part of a joint MBA program with IE University in Madrid, Spain. This program took her on exciting journeys to Providence, Madrid, and Cape Town, adding even more memories to her travel log.

Gina works as an GTM Strategist in the tech world, where she enjoys connecting technology with diverse cultures. When she’s not working, you can find Gina discovering new food and drinks, always on the lookout for the next place to explore. To burn off those calories from her favorite hobby, she enjoys hiking, going for long runs, and taking cycling classes.