Our Alta Vista Board
Dr. Abdur Chowdhury
Abdur is into cave diving, aikido and teaching his daughter how to rock climb. He is involved in early-stage companies and is the former Chief Scientist of Twitter. Abdur has a B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science from George Mason University and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Illinois Institute of Technology. He has worked as both a researcher and a developer and has launched over 20 commercial products, filed more than 20 patent applications, and written over 80 scientific publications. Abdur previously served as the Chief Architect for Search at AOL and held positions at IIT Information Retrieval Lab, Georgetown Computer Science Department, and University of Maryland's Institute for Systems Research. He was a co-founder of Summize.com, acquired by Twitter in 2008. He and his wife Ana, a native of Guatemala, live in San Francisco with their daughter Alexis, an Alta Vista student. John W. Conomos [Board President]
John was a frustrated technology consultant for a management consulting firm when he moved to San Francisco in 1998. He was with a friend at Kan Zaman Cafe in the Haight Ashbury when he met his future wife, Amanda, a graphic and web designer. Together, they would apply their business and design skills to developing real estate and starting a construction company; later, they would build a family to include their two sons, Tasso and Basel, two Alta Vista students. Today, John is co-founder of Crimson Holdings, a real estate development and investment firm, and President of Drömhus, Inc., a general contracting company. John holds a B.S. in Economics and a B.A. in German from Santa Clara University. Hon. David Garcia (Ret.) When not busy mediating cases, Judge David Garcia competes as a ballroom dancer. David received his B.A. and J.D. from the University of San Francisco and completed his L.L.M. degree at Yale Law School. He was appointed to the bench by Governor Jerry Brown and elevated by Governor George Deukmejian to the San Francisco Superior Court, where he served for many years as a respected judge. David currently is a partner at JAMS (Judicial Arbitration Mediation Services) and specializes in employment, real estate and business cases. He is also fluent in Spanish. David and his wife, Dot, live in San Francisco with their sons, Alta Vista students Joaquin and Federico. Renée Lawson Renée is a fourth-generation San Franciscan. (Her favorite sweets come from Stella in North Beach and Dianda's in the Mission.) Renée received her B.A. in German from Santa Clara University, attended Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, obtained her M.A. in German from University of California Santa Barbara, and her J.D. from the University of California Los Angeles. She currently is Associate General Counsel at Zynga. Renée and her husband Kent, a partner at Burr Pilger Mayer whose clients include a variety of tech companies and their founders, live in San Francisco. Their daughter Isabelle is a fifth-generation San Francisco native and Alta Vista student. Elena Ro Yang You will often find Elena chasing her sons down the streets of San Francisco as they ride their bikes! Elena received her B.A. in History from Yale University and obtained her J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center. She is currently a senior government lawyer and previously practiced business litigation at the law firms of Latham & Watkins, Silicon Valley and Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, San Francisco. Elena also has served on the Board of the Asian Women's Resource Center in Chinatown, San Francisco. Elena and her husband Young, Vice President at Wells Fargo Bank, live in San Francisco with their sons Bryce and Alex, both Alta Vista students. Christy Witherspoon Christy is our Alta Vista camp counselor (and amazing campground chef) -- dragging both seasoned campers and newbies to a wide array of Bay Area parks for fun family overnight adventures. Christy is a private professional conservator in San Francisco, advocating for incapacitated seniors in our community. Christy's husband, Korku Dadzie, originates from Ghana and is a telecommunications engineer and "futbol" enthusiast. Their daughter Kokwe is a founding Alta Vista student.
a progressive learning environment
an emphasis on science, math and technology
|
Alta Vista Board |