Berkeley Parents Network: BPN Volunteers

Berkeley Parents Network

BPN Volunteers

Berkeley Parents Network > Help & Frequently Asked Questions > BPN Volunteers

This page lists the volunteers who run the Berkeley Parents Network, keep newsletters going out and the website updated.
See Current Moderators See Past Volunteers

June 2005 - some of the BPN volunteers
Back row (L-R): Kathy K, Jennifer M
Front row (L-R): Ginger O, Paz N, Jean F, Laurel C, Carrie S

Current Newsletter Moderators

Carrie S - Advice Given
Fran R - Advice Given
Jean F - Schools & Preschools
Ginger O - Advice Wanted, Website
Karie F - UC Families
Jon F - Announcements
Kathy K - Household
Laurel C - Marketplace
Sally N - Teens
Tiffany E - Recommendations
Layla K - Childcare
Wayne C - Recommendations

Past Volunteers

Advice River A, Elizabeth B, Patty C, Julie K, Leslie K, Tami W
Announcements Martine E, Anne-Caroline I, Jennifer M, Jennifer M, Inbal K, Tami W, Karoline R
Childcare Kelly M, Jennifer M, Carol T, Karie F, Timna H
Household Nancy P, Becky W
Marketplace Heather P, Kimberly S
Recommendations Claire D, Myriam G
Schools River A, Jennifer M, Paz N
Single Parents Nicole M
Special Schools Issues Cecelia A, Judith B, Lysa H, Cindy L, Jennifer M, Betsy M, Eve P, Kelly S, Jaime S, Suzanne T
Web Site Archiving Myriam G, Elisabeth P, Fiona J, Kathleen K, Wendy W, Anne S, Leticia C, Sherry R, Erika Z

About the Moderators

Carrie S

Carrie S has been moderating the Advice newsletter ever since 2002, when she responded to a request to "just do it for a couple of months till we find somebody else". Carrie is known on BPN for her dry wit and self-described thick skin. She says she is "a small person, with more guts than brains". She can't cook, has no mechanical sense, loud noises make her jump and she is extremely acrophobic. Carrie was born and raised in Southeastern Louisiana, where her sister and her parents, immigrants from Ecuador, still live. For fun, Carrie likes portrait sketching, long distance running and amateur photography. She can be found during the day at UC Berkeley, where she is a programmer for the Dept. of Environmental Science, Policy and Management and Center for Forestry. At night and on weekends she is at home in Albany with her husband and two daughters, 8 and 10, who attend the Montessori Family School. They have 2 cats, 2 rats, a snake, and Carrie is trying to talk the husband into getting a dog. (Oct 2006)

Jean F

Jean F began moderating the Recommendations newsletters in January 2005 after being coerced into volunteering by her friend Ginger. She is currently the moderator for Recommendations Wanted. Jean lives in Berkeley with her partner Wendy and their son Michael, 5, who has just started kindergarten at Oxford Elementary School. Jean grew up in the Bay Area where she was the middle child of 5 children, and almost all of her weekends and holidays are consumed by the activities of her large extended family! Jean's paid job is Props Director for the UC Berkeley Theater Department, where she has worked for 17 years. Although Jean's degree is in Health Education, and she volunteered for many years as a medic at the Berkeley Free Clinic, her long love of the theater, not to mention a genius for bargain-hunting, has turned her into a local guru for Bay Areans looking for theater props. She was featured recently in an article in The Berkeleyan which you can read here. (Sept 2006)

Laurel C

Laurel began moderating the Marketplace portion of the newsletter in 1999, when she was a student parent at Cal. Other than a two year hiatus when she lived in the South Bay, Laurel has been in charge of Marketplace ever since. She has watched it grow from a few items in each newsletter to 100+ items, twice a week. She remembers debating with Ginger whether or not cars should be allowed! Laurel lives with her family (husband, two kids, three cats, and a snake) in Berkeley. Both children are homeschooled. Laurel likes knitting, cooking, reading, hiking, and sleeping. (Oct 2006)

Paz N

Paz Navarro began moderating the Schools Newsletter in March 2005. Paz and her husband Scott have two children Uma, 5, a kindergartener at Oxford Elementary and Diego, 1.5, still a rugrat at home. Paz grew up in a rural coal mining town in West Virginia, before moving to the Bay Area at age 13. She has always been determined to be a Berkeleyan, sneaking out to 924 Gilman Street since age 14. After attending Cal, Paz decided to never leave Berkeley and has settled here for good. She volunteered for years at the Berkeley Free Clinic, while also working at the Berkeley High School Health Center. Currently, Paz heads up the reading coach program at Oxford Elementary. She plans to attend a Physician Assistant program soonish, if they let her in. Paz has a fondness for tattoos, music, dancing to 80s music, gallavanting abroad, clinical things and designer duds. Paz is currently accepting applications for new friends and acquaintances, contact her via the Schools Newsletter. (Oct 2006)

Sally N

Sally N joined the BPN in 1999 when her kids were at King Middle School and Berkeley High School. She wrote a quick email to Ginger saying "It's not that I feel that thumb sucking and toilet training aren't important----they have just ceased to be so for me. However, let's talk about Berkeley High, driver's training, SEX, etc. and I really get interested." Ginger (with teens of her own) willingly set it up and Sally agreed to moderate the newly minted "Parents of Teens" digest. Sally's son is now 23 and covers Bergen County New Jersey high school sports for a local cable TV station and pays his own bills! Her daughter is a junior at UC Davis and after a tense first year has learned to balance academics with her love of competitive cycling on the national championship Cal Aggie Cycling team. She lives with her husband, Paul, in Berkeley. Weekdays you'll find her up on the hill at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab where among other things she coordinates Nano*High. Sundays you'll find her singing in the choir at Epworth United Methodist Church. (Dec 2006)

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