Board of Trustees

2022- 2023 Board of Trustees Profiles

Board Chair - Jing Tian  

Jing is the country manager for Shift Energy USA, a company that specializes in financing, development, and operation of solar systems.  A veteran in the solar industry, she has been involved with many solar companies and has advised many startups.  Jing is the parent of Helios alumna of the class of 2017.  Jing earned her Ph.D. degree in chemistry from Drexel University.  Jing is an active volunteer in her community. She was a mentor at AWIS for 6 years.  She is a Pancreatic Cancer Action Network and climate change advocate. 

Jolee Crosson

Jolee was in technology sales for 20+ years. In April of 2021, she retired from the tech world to pursue her passion for non-profit work and volunteering. Following retirement, she joined Helios School to help with admissions and community relations for the 2021-22 school year.  Outside of work, Jolee served on the board of the Community Services Agency in Mountain View for six years.  As part of the board, she worked on various committees, including Advancement, Finance, Facilities, and Governance as well as serving as President, Vice-President and Treasurer. Jolee's other volunteer activities include various fundraising committees for JDRF in support of finding a cure for her younger son's Type 1 Diabetes, Social Chair of Neysa Fligor’s Council Member Campaign Team, Co-Chairing HCA, and other community projects.

Hagar Dickman 

Hagar has ten years’ experience with Bay Area nonprofits. She currently serves as senior staff attorney at Bay Area Legal Aid, where she runs the Veterans Legal Project in Santa Clara County. Previously, Hagar was staff attorney at the Law Foundation's Mental Health Advocacy Project, where she represented individuals with mental health disabilities in housing, benefits, health access and consumer issues. She is the mother of two Helios graduates, one current Helios student, and a first-year college student. She is passionate about education and volunteered as PTA secretary for one year at Juana Briones Elementary in Palo Alto when her children attended the school. Hagar received her B.A. in Anthropology from Brandeis University, and her J.D. from Loyola University Chicago School of Law, including a year studying international human rights law at the University of Copenhagen.

Christian Dubiel  

Christian is a Partner of Kingfish Group, private equity investment and advisory firm. Since co-founding the firm in 2004, Christian has been responsible for advancing Kingfish’s overall investment strategy, building strategic relationships with capital partners and overseeing the firm’s portfolio of private equity investments.  He is passionate about developing growing organizations and has 25+ years of experience in building and investing in privately-held companies. 

Kerrie Holley

Kerrie is currently a Technology Fellow at Optum and has spent most of his career as an IBM Fellow. Kerrie has two previous Helios kids. Kerrie served on DePaul University’s Board of Trustees for two years and Naval Studies Board, part of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, for six years. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from DePaul University in Chicago; a Juris Doctor Degree and an honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters.

Marco Mena

Marco is the Chief Operating Officer and co-founder of Augmenta Bioworks in Menlo Park and has spent his career in and around biotechnology startups in Boston and the Bay Area. He is a proud parent of twins at Helios. In the last few years, he's volunteered with the Helios Community Association (HCA), the MIT Educational Council, and the Common Ground Speaker Series. He earned his B.S. and M.S. from MIT and a Ph.D. from UC Santa Barbara in Chemical Engineering.

Lisa Raghav

Lisa is the mother of two previous Helios students who each attended Helios for three years. During that time Lisa also served as a Chair of the HCA and was an active, ongoing volunteer in the school library. Lisa is passionate about children and education and has chosen volunteer roles where she can make an impact in these areas such as serving as a teacher reading assistant in the Seattle Public Schools as well as two years in the board director position of Treasurer for a bay area parents club. Lisa's professional career has been in finance primarily focused on business strategy services related to global mergers and acquisitions in the tech industry. Lisa holds a BA in English and an MBA with focus in Finance.

Anu Ramesh 

Anu became a member of the Helios Board of Directors in 2018. She is an Organizational Consultant and works on research and design of HR processes. Anu holds a bachelor's and master’s degree from the University of Delhi and a Ph.D. in I/O Psychology from the University of Maryland. 

Shawn Sears 

Shawn loves Helios School and its mission! He co-founded his own educational organization, Vida Verde, also for a special population, with his wife Laura in 2001. He still works there today as Executive Director also serves on the board and works directly with many schools across the Bay. Shawn hopes to bring these experiences in nonprofit management/governance and communication clarity as well as his delight for children and their potential to his service on the board. 

Jason Trip

Jason Trip is a senior sales engineer with Juntos Global, a company that partners with financial institutions to reach out to often-overlooked folks to build trust with the financial system and educate them about savings, loans, and business skills. Jason was previously a classroom teacher and director of admissions at Helios. After Helios, Jason was an education consultant with MIND Research, where his role was to inspire district and school staff in the classroom and in presentations and workshops to adopt STMath in the classroom, advocating for the benefits of the research-based visual approach to learning math and for the benefits of productive struggle.

Rob Zehner  

Rob and his wife Kristine have been members of the Helios community since their oldest child joined the school in 2014. Rob is a regular participant in parent workdays; among other hands-on contributions, he designed and installed the climbing wall in the Hummingbirds play area. He also enjoys chaperoning on school camping trips and helping out in iLab. In his professional life, Rob is a director of product development at Amazon's Sunnyvale campus. Rob earned his doctoral degree in physical chemistry from The University of Chicago after completing his undergraduate studies at the University of Richmond.