Board of Trustees

The role of a board in a not-for-profit school is to safeguard and promote the school's mission by ensuring fiscal stability, and working closely with the Head of School to implement a strategic vision. The Helios Board is made up of current and past parents, along with outside experts, all of whom meet regularly during the year on committees, task forces, and as a full board. Helios School is a member of NAIS and CAIS. Both organizations provide a network of other boards and professional development that binds the school into the local and national independent school community.

2024 - 2025 Trustees

Jing Tian (Board Chair)

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 earned her Ph.D. degree in chemistry from Drexel University and is an active volunteer in her community. She was a mentor at AWIS for 6 years and is a Pancreatic Cancer Action Network and climate change advocate. As the parent of a Helios alumna of the class of 2017, Jing cares deeply about the mission and values of the school.

Matt Allio

Matt is the Head of School at the Trinity School in Menlo Park. Trinity is a K-5 co-ed school that shares many of our values—their mission talks of “an environment where each child is known, valued and has their unique voice.” His extensive knowledge, gleaned from 21 years as a head of school in Southern California and the Bay Area, is of great assistance in the board’s work.

Jolee Crosson

Jolee has over 20 years of experience in technology sales. In 2021, she traded the tech world for her passion for non-profit work and volunteering. Currently, she leads the parent booster club at her youngest child's school and is an active member of the Los Altos Women's Caucus, dedicated to empowering women in leadership. Prior to joining the board, Jolee contributed to Helios School's admissions and community relations in the 2021-22 school year and co-chaired the Helios Community Association for two years. She had a six-year tenure on the Mountain View Community Services Agency Board and is also dedicated to supporting her son with Type 1 Diabetes through fundraising for Breakthrough T1D. She is a mother of two sons, one a Helios graduate.

Hagar Dickman 

Hagar has ten years of experience with Bay Area nonprofits. She currently serves as Director of California Long-Term Services and Supports Advocacy at Justice in Aging, where she works on ensuring all Californian older adults can access the supports they need to age in place. Prior to joining Justice in Aging, Hagar was a mental health, disability and veterans attorney representing individuals with mental health and other disabilities in housing, benefits, health access and consumer issues. She is the mother of two Helios graduates, one current Helios student, and a college graduate. Hagar received her B.A. in Anthropology from Brandeis University, and her J.D. from Loyola University Chicago School of Law.

Kristal Ferchau

Kristal Ferchau is the Managing Partner of Spectrum Business Partners, a consulting firm that specializes in business management and executive advisory services. With over 25 years of experience in strategic planning, organizational development, and diversity initiatives in the technology sector, Kristal has advised both emerging startups and global brands on performance optimization and sustainable growth. Beyond her professional endeavors, she has served as co-chair of the Helios Community Association and participated in the American Marketing Association’s mentorship program for first-generation college students. Additionally, she is an advocate for Girls Inc., cultivating leadership skills in young girls. Kristal has been a member of the Helios community since 2018 when her son joined the school as a kindergartener.

Tanya Lattner

Tanya Lattner is the Executive Director and board President of the LLVM Foundation, a nonprofit supporting the open source software project LLVM. For the last 10 years, Tanya has helped the LLVM project through educational events such as large developers conferences and workshops, student support through travel grants, community outreach, and increasing diversity within the project and open source software through the Community.o program. Tanya has a Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Portland and a Masters Degree in Computer Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She has over 10 years experience and 5 patents as a software engineer primarily focusing on compilers and related tools. Tanya is a Helios parent with 2 boys in 5th and 7th grade. She is an active volunteer as room parent, helping and chaperoning camping trips, and co-coaching a First Lego League robotics team. Prior to being at Helios, Tanya volunteered at their local public school as room parent, cub scout den leader, co-organizer of a book fair, and sourced, organized, and managed the after school programs. When not working or volunteering, she likes to travel, cook, and make fancy decorated cookies.

Marco Mena

Marco was 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.

Shawn Sears 

Shawn loves Helios School and its mission! He and his wife Laura co-founded an educational organization in 2001, Vida Verde, also for a special population. He still works there today as Executive Director, serves on their board, and works directly with many schools across the Bay. Shawn brings 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.

Rob Zehner  

Rob and his wife Kristine have been members of the Helios community since their oldest child joined the school in 2014. Rob and his family have been active members of the Helios community for a decade, and both children are now proud Helios alumni! In addition to serving on the Board, Rob has enjoyed chaperoning on many Helios camping trips, volunteering in the iLab, judging speech and debate tournaments, and completing a variety of construction and beautification projects in and around the school. In his professional life, Rob is currently the Vice President of Engineering at Coco Robotics, a start-up developing autonomous robots for last-mile delivery. Rob earned his doctoral degree in physical chemistry from The University of Chicago after completing his undergraduate studies at the University of Richmond.