Board of Directors

Jan Erickson is an educational consultant for families and educational agencies. She retired as a special education administrator who served at the district, county, and state levels.  At Dominican University and Mills College, she supervises student teachers and has taught in the masters and doctoral programs at Chapman and Argosy universities.

Dr. Erickson served as a mentor to four girls from middle school through high  school.  She is a member of Rotary, Impact 100, Sonoma Valley Women’s Club, Sonoma Community Center, Sonoma Valley Art Museum, Vintage House, Sonoma Valley Unified School Districts’s Curriculum Advisory, Local Control and Accountability Plan and Special Education Advisory Committees, and St. Andrew Presbyterian Church. She previously served as a Board member of Sweetwater Spectrum, the Sonoma Valley Education Foundation, the Rainbow Valley Childcare and Preschool and the Sonoma County United Way and co-founded the local Chamber of Commerce’s Business Education Roundtable.  Her education background includes a B.A. from Michigan State University, M.A.’s from San Francisco State University, and a doctorate from the University of San Francisco.

Family members include her son James Neville, wife Audrea and granddaughter Emersyn of Hillsboro Oregon, daughter Jenny Hooker, husband Will, grandsons Bryson and Liam, granddaughter Rielyn of Cameron Park.  Both James and Jenny were born and raised in Sonoma graduating from Sonoma Valley High School.

Peter Drake has served on over 15 non-profit boards and advisory groups, most recently for the Grace Cathedral, the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, and TurnOut. He owned a consulting firm serving non-profit board and staff leadership for many years, and founded the COIL Foundation. Peter attended Stanford for his BA and MBA, and had previous careers in Banking and Real Estate development. He has two adult children, and lives with his husband Jared in Sonoma, where he has maintained a home or vineyard operations for over 25 years.

A long time Bay Area resident, Bob moved to Sonoma from San Francisco in 2015 with his husband, Scott. Originally from Texas, Bob received a Bachelors in Business Administration from the University of Texas at Austin and has spent his career in finance and accounting. He currently works as the Chief Financial Officer of a software company. Bob and Scott are passionate about animal rescue and have three rescue dogs: Julie, Rosie and Max. They are avid travelers and also enjoy riding their Vespas around Sonoma and Napa counties.

Piper is an organizational development consultant and executive coach who provides expertise in partnering with individuals and teams to leverage potential and create high-performing, sustainable results. Piper’s ability to identify the underlying theoretical patterns and structures within organizations and her hands-on ability to assess needs and opportunities for development make her a dynamic asset to individual and team success. She is an active and resourceful leader with a commitment to improving leadership through collaboration, confidence, and a dedication to excellence.

Yohkheved (Yohki) Ihejirika has spent most of her life in California. She studied Economics with an emphasis on Business Administration in Santa Cruz. Ihejirika works as a web designer and business consultant, and as a ceramics artist, she is active in the Center’s Ceramics Department as both a monitor and sitting on committees. She is looking forward to a more active leadership role as a Board Director. She lives in Sonoma with her husband and two cute but insane dogs, Helix & Prince.

Janet comes to the board via The Trashion Fashion Show both as a submitting artist and the copywriting / production arenas.

Professionally, her work includes 17 years with Old Navy online, managing the production of imagery for all of the products sold online. Over the course of her career, she has developed and managed creative teams, created and driven budgets, produced and styled for commercial advertising, developed a line of gourmet cookies, developed and run programs  in stress management and recreation in a medical center.

As a San Francisco native, she returned to the City after attending undergraduate school at Sonoma State University.  While studying for my Masters at San Francisco State in Recreation Therapy, she developed a strong philosophy of the value of recreation in daily life.  The Sonoma Community Center embodies these beliefs.

She’s honored to bring her experience to the Sonoma Community Center to help continue the longevity of a prized organization valued by the Sonoma Community.

Anne has been resident in the Sonoma Valley since 1998. She is the Chief Executive Officer of CFA Society San Francisco, a membership organization serving the investment profession throughout Northern California and beyond. Anne earned her BS from UCLA, completed graduate work at Johns Hopkins University in Bologna, Italy, and earned an MA at Dominican University in San Rafael.

Anne is a founding member of the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art and over the years has been a member, volunteer, and/or Board member for many valley non-profits including La Luz, the Mentoring Alliance, the Sonoma International Film Festival, Plein Aire, IMPACT 100, and more. 

Anne loves spending time with her partner, family, and friends in Sonoma Valley and in Italy, where she owns a second home. She is an avid yoga practitioner, swimmer, tennis player, home cook, and lover of books. She participates in many Community Center activities with a special fondness for her ceramics classes.

She brings her experience to the Sonoma Community Center helping to ensure the longevity of this unique organization.

Connie Schlelein taught her high school, college students and colleagues to tap into their own creativity and find their voices for self-expression.  A Community Arts Activist, she was one of a team of arts leaders who helped transform her city into a nationally-recognized cultural arts center.  As an arts educator and arts administrator for 30 years in Colorado, she served as Vice President of the National Art Education Association, President of the Colorado Art Education Association, Founder of Art Source Colorado, an arts education leadership training organization, an adjunct professor of arts education and a Visual and Performing Arts Coordinator for a top ranked Colorado school district.  

After relocating to Sonoma Valley, Connie helped found an alliance of 35 nonprofits and organizations called Creative Bridges, focused on improving equitable arts education TK-12.  The alliance has members with an enviable wealth of knowledge, experience and commitment in both the breadth and depth of arts education, social/emotional learning and equity training.  In addition, she is on the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art Board of Directors, serves as a commissioner for the Sonoma Culture and Fine Arts Commission, spearheads the Creative Alliance, a group working on a cultural plan for Sonoma Valley and is a member of the LCAP team for the school district.  She has discovered that the valley has a deep desire for quality arts education for ALL children and needs a sustainable system.   By working in concert with valley influencers, teachers, students and parents, the identity of Sonoma Valley as a culture center is emerging.

Kory Stradinger brings a wealth of business leadership experience from both for profit and non profit organizations. His most recent position was Executive Director of Sweetwater Spectrum, a nationally recognized permanent residence and farm for autistic adults in the town of Sonoma, Ca. During his 6 years in the role, Kory focused on making operational improvements, expanding opportunities for residents, and diversifying the organization’s revenue base. He led a successful $2M capital campaign, resulting in construction of additional housing capacity on campus. With many priority projects in place, Kory turned his efforts beyond Sweetwater, striving to provide information, inspiration and tools to help other communities nationwide create special needs housing.

Prior to taking his skills to the non-profit sector, Kory’s career included 20 years in strategic planning, operational and financial roles for both corporate and start-up organizations throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and in Europe. Kory earned his MBA in Finance from U.C. Davis and a BA in Communications from CSU, Chico.

He and his wife Sarai Obermeyer moved to the town of Sonoma in 2012 from San Francisco and are active in the local community.

A Napa native, Chay went to college in Lugano, Switzerland during which he opened a bar at 20 years of age and lived in Buenos Aires for 2 years teaching business executives English. After an 8 year career as Director of Sales for an outdoor luggage company Chay moved to Sonoma and got his first taste of working in the non-profit sector. Since 2010 Chay has been an integral part of the Sonoma International Film Festival, a non-profit organization supporting the local kids, arts and community. He oversees all food, beverage, entertainment, events and the 12,000 sqft Backlot Hospitality tent as well as contributes to sponsorship sales, marketing and social media. In his spare time he’s a chef for his own catering company Touché Mobile Chefs, works at a new luxury resort in Napa Valley to hone and sharpen his hospitality skills and MC’s for Grapes and Games (a local grape stomp event company).