Executive Director
Pete Peterson, p.peterson@commonsenseca.org.
Pete Peterson is Executive Director of Common Sense California. He developed and manages the organization's annual Citizen Engagement Grant Program, which has provided over $200,000.00 in grants over the last two years to municipalities and school districts across the state. Pete has consulted on several of these "participatory planning" and "participatory budgeting" projects in cities ranging from Eureka to San Diego. Pete has co-created and currently co-facilitates the training seminar, "Public Engagement: The Vital Leadership Skill in Difficult Times" - a program offered to California leaders from city planners to regional officials. To date over 300 city, county, school district, and non-profit officials have attended these seminars. Pete earned his BA in History from George Washington University, and his Masters in Public Policy from Pepperdine's School of Public Policy. He was also a Public Affairs Fellow at The Hoover Institution in 2006.
Board of Directors (as of 1/1/2010 and participating as individual citizens, not as organizational representatives)
Co-chair. David Davenport, d.davenport@commonsenseca.org, Counselor to the Director for External Relations and Research Fellow, Hoover Institution. Former Distinguished Professor of Public Policy at Pepperdine University and former President of Pepperdine University, Malibu.*
Co-chair. Vincent Robinson, Founder and Managing Partner of The 360 Group, a consulting and executive search firm in San Francisco. He was formerly Executive Director of Social Venture Partners Bay Area.
Steve Weiner, s.weiner@commonsenseca.org, Co-founder, Campaign for College Opportunity, former Provost and Dean of Faculty, Mills College; former President of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges; former Associate Dean, Graduate School of Public Policy, UC Berkeley, Piedmont*.
Bill Hauck, President of the California Business Roundtable, former Chair of the California Constitutional Revision Commission, Sacramento.
David Wolf, Co-founder, Campaign for College Opportunity, Member of the Sonoma County Board of Education, former President of West, Metropolitan and Pierce Colleges in the Los Angeles Community College District; former Provost of the California Maritime Academy, Santa Rosa*.
Bev Perry, Assistant Director - Judith and John Bedrosian Center on Governance and the Public Enterprise, University of Southern California. Former Manager of Member Relations, Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), and Chair of the Democratic Governance Panel, National League of Cities, Los Angeles.
David Smith, Executive Director, National Conference on Citizenship, Washington, DC. Founder, mobilize.org.
Hanna Skandera, Executive Vice President at Higher Ed Holdings in Dallas, Texas and leads the Dual Credit initiative. Senior Policy Advisor at the US Department of Education in Washington, DC. She recently took this position after working at senior levels at both the California and Florida Departments of Education.
David Boatwright, Counsel, Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch LLP, San Diego. He is also fully involved in the leadership of the Monarch School in San Diego, a K-12 program geared towards homeless and at-risk youth.
City/Regional Task Force (as of 1/1/2010)
Bev Perry (Co-Chair - Board member)
Ed Everett (Co-Chair - fmr. City Manager - Redwood City)
Terry Amsler (Dir. - Collaborative Governance, Institute for Local Government - ILG)
Rick Bishop (Exec. Dir., Western Riverside Council of Governments - WRCOG)
Rod Gould (City Manager - Santa Monica)
Bridget Healey (Assistant City Manager - Indio, Retired)
David Knapp (City Manager - Cupertino)
Ken Hampian (City Manager - San Luis Obispo, Retired)
Mark Linder (Director of Parks & Recreation - Cupertino)
Tim O'Donnell (City Manager - Brea)
Mike Parness (City Manager - Napa)
Rich Ramirez (City Manager - American Canyon)
Sandy Holder (Assistant City Manager, Interim - Carlsbad)
K12 Task Force (as of 11/1/2008)
Jack McManus (Chair - Professor, Pepperdine's Graduate School of Education)
David Davenport (Board member)
David Wolf (Board member)
Hanna Skandera (Board member)
Funders
Common Sense California is most appreciative of the financial support received from organizations and individuals. These include:
- The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
- W.K. Kellogg Foundation
- The Whitman Institute
- The Wallace and Alexander Gerbode Foundation
- The Blue Shield Foundation
- The Rosenberg Foundation
- The Sidney Stern Memorial Trust
- The Ned Crosby and Pat Benn Challenge Grant
Many individual supporters of Common Sense California