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Our Board of Directors
Jane Schwickerath, President
Jane moved to Santa Cruz 29 years ago while working full-time as a hair stylist and as a part-time student at Cabrillo College and San Jose State University. Jane received her Masters in Social Work in June of 2007 with an emphasis in geriatric and gerontology. Her focus throughout her education has been on aging lesbian and gay issues. Jane spent two years as a Social Work Intern at The Diversity Center, concentrating her efforts on the 60-Plus Senior Program.
Monica Morales, MPA, Vice President
Chris DiMaio, Director
Recently retired from a long career in psychiatry working in both the public and private sectors, Chris joined our board in May 2007. He has a strong interest in meeting the needs of LGBTIQ veterans as well as creating safe space for the LGBTIQ community to pursue our goal of equality.
Joe Eugene, Secretary
Joe has lived in Santa Cruz county since enrolling at San Lorenzo Valley High School in 1963. He has lived in Big Basin, Aptos, Santa Cruz and Live Oak. He has a BA in Inter-American Studies, with half of his undergraduate courses taught in Spanish. Travels in Latin America have included Mexico, Costa Rica, Peru, Chile, Argentina and an afternoon in Brazil. Joe is Retired from a 30 year career with the County of Santa Cruz, mostly as a mainframe programmer and systems analyst.
As a gay man, Joe is proud to have been with one partner for 17 years and another for 10 years. Joe has been a Triangle Speaker for about 5 years and a Triangle Speakers board member for 2 years.
Sandra Sandoval, Treasurer
Sandra emigrated to the USA at the age of 20 from the U.K. After graduating from San Francisco State University, she opened an accounting practice in a low-income area and worked with non-profits there for 20 years. She lives in Capitola and has three children and a baby granddaughter.
Stephanie Taylor, Director
Stephanie is a native of Santa Cruz, a lesbian, and mother of two amazing children. She is dedicated to serving the LGBTIQ community through Diversity Center programs, present and future.
Phillip Gomez, Director
Phillip was raised in a small town in Texas surrounded by acres of cattle and tumble weeds. He left, at the age of 20, with a strong call for religious studies and moved from open pasture to mountains and adobe houses in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He studied for a year then moved to Houston with his partner of 6 years and attended art school and graduated with an Assocaite Art degree in Graphic Arts. He and his partner seperated and he moved to live with friends in California, the land of poppies and beach fronts. Following the hot housing market, he worked in leasing and eventually moved into bookkeeping. He met his current partner, Van, and they purchased a house together in Los Gatos, CA. Finding his work unsatisfying, he began mentoring and found that he loved working with kids. Choosing to make a deeper commitment, he and his partner adopted two boys and lived through what felt like a long day in an amusement park. When the boys entered high school in 2004, he began volunteering in the community. When their sons left home in 2007, Phillip and Van moved to Santa Cruz and Phillip began volunteering at The Diversity Center, where he quickly took on the role of volunteer coordinator.
Grace Gallego, Director
Grace Gallego was born in San Francisco, raised in the Philippines and, at age 20, returned to the Bay Area to attend The California College of the Arts Environmental Design program. Her professional career was in Technical Education designing training programs, a field where she is regarded as somewhat of a pioneer.
Grace's interest in the Santa Cruz LGBT community began when she moved to Ben Lomond in November of 2003. Accustomed to Bay Area activities and opportunities for community interaction, the Santa Crzu LGBT activities seemed to fall somewhat short for lesbians 40 and over. So, with her knack for organization, in the fall of 2007, Grace founded LezCruz, a social netowkring group for the 40+ lesbian community. LezCruz has already very quickly blossomed to over 120 active members!
Grace is employed at UCSC and enjoys being retired from the high tech world. She shares her home in the mountains with her two Cockapoos, Angus and Abbe, and her cat Bill. She has a daughter, a former SC resident, who is a teacher and now lives in Berkeley.
Damian Maldonado, MPA, Director
Damian was born in a small community in California's centralvalley and was raised both in the United States and Mexico where he and his parents worked as migrant farm workers for many years. While working in the fields, he managed to finish High School and furthered his education with an A.A. Degreee in Administration of Justice, a Bachelor of Science in Politics from the University of California Santa Cruz and earned a Master's Degree in Public Administration from California State University of Fresno.
Damian has a strong interest in meeting the needs of the Latino LGBTIQ communtiy and knows firsthand about many of the cultural barriers that exist with being a gay Latino. Damian enjoys public speaking and sharing his previous experiences as an openly gay police officer and speaking to the challenges that exist of coming out in such conservative and para-military work environments.
Damian currently owns a successful statewide consulting firm in the areas of training, education and public health. His firms most recent accomplishments include: having successfully co-authored legislation to improve out-of-school-time program funding, having evaluated the unique challenges of rural programs statewide in a formal report presented to the California Department of Education, having been asked to present his work at the California State Legislative Rural Education Summit and being selected to serve on the Prop. 49 Master Plan Design Team.
Damian currently lives in Aptos, CA with his partner of 11 years, Javier and their two poodles, Maya and Sparky.
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