Click on any board member's name in order to email them directly.
Board Members
President, Gabriela Sanchez (president@proctorpta.net)
Gabby grew up in Los Angeles, California and moved to the Bay Area for school. She has lived in Castro Valley for the last 15 years with her husband. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology. Gabby works full time with Kaiser Permanente. She has twin daughters who are in 1stgrade at Proctor Elementary. She loves to spend her free time with her family and enjoys traveling. She enjoys volunteering and helping out.
Kat is the mother of a Proctor 5th grader and has been an active member of the PTA all six years that her family has been at Proctor. Her focus for this year is to support a thriving PTA that brings families together to connect with each other and creates opportunities for parents to be engaged in their students' education. Her own family has made lasting friendships from introductions made through the PTA and she hopes to continue to make that possible for others. As Executive Vice President, her role is to support and facilitate all the activities and work of the PTA. In addition to serving our school community, Kat works part time for Castro Valley Unified School District and is the primary caregiver for her older son with severe disabilities.
Jill Zilli grew up in Upstate NY before moving to the Bay Area in 2006 and has lived in Castro Valley for the last 10 years. She graduated from University at Buffalo with a B.S. in Biochemical Pharmacology and a minor in Marketing. Jill works for an insurance company as the AVP of Global Sales Support. She has a daughter who is a 2nd grader at Proctor and son who will soon be a Proctor student. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling, sports, crafting, and cooking.
Karen was born in Honduras and at the age of 6yo relocated with her family to the Bay Area and has yet to leave :) In 2005, Karen obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Social Welfare from UC Berkeley. In 2008, Karen obtained a Master’s degree in Social Work from the California State University, East Bay. Upon graduation, Karen worked as a Child Welfare Worker for Alameda County, for approximately 8 years. Karen is currently a Staff Development Specialist for Alameda County, Department of Children & Family Services where she is a part of the training team for newly hired Child Welfare Workers. In 2009, Karen and her husband Adam purchased their first home in Castro Valley and shortly after started a family. Now parents to two boys and Proctor students, a 4th grader and 1st grader - Castro Valley has become home.
Despite working full-time, Karen has found that the Proctor staff have welcomed creative ways for her to volunteer while being accommodating to her work schedule. Karen’s focus is to welcome new Proctor families to join the PTA and be involved with this school community. Above all to share the message that there is NOT just one way to volunteer but quite the opposite a wide range of opportunities to be involved. When not working, Karen is either volunteering, attending baseball games, or coordinating play dates for her social boys. Karen loves Peruvian food, enjoys traveling, and has a diverse taste in music from merengue, bachata, R&B, rap (bc who calls it hip hop?) and don’t get her started with 90’s music!
VP of Communications & Technology, Vacant
We are currently recruiting to fill this role. This role acts as our Google Suite Admin, maintains the PTA website, manages shared drives and email accounts, Facebook updates and compiling videos like the Talent Show. Please email vicepresident@proctorpta.net if you have any interest. Thank you!
Please email president@proctorpta.net if you have any interest in filling this position. This role is responsible for coordinating programs and events that provide parent education, as well as encouraging parents to participate in events like Back to School Night and Open House. The VP also facilitates community outreach efforts such as our Food Bank distribution partnership and annual Juneteenth event.
Janel Coughran grew up in the Seattle area, graduated from the University of Puget Sound in Comparative Sociology, and then moved to California where she met her husband. She taught high school American Sign Language until her first son was born, when she quit to stay at home with him. The family moved to London for nearly three years and came back in 2021 when her oldest started kindergarten at Proctor. He is now in 1st grade and the youngest is 2. Anytime her hands are free, Janel is knitting or learning to sew and crochet. Her dream is to open a yarn shop and teach others to craft.
Born and brought up in Pasadena, California, Josie has lived in Castro Valley with her spouse and twin boys for 7 years now. She is a founding member of Rise Up and started her tenure in public health 20 years ago working in Central America and Mexico with youth in the area of sexual and reproductive health and rights. Today she leads program and curriculum design, and oversees Rise Up’s monitoring and evaluation strategy, with the goal of capturing programmatic successes and lessons learned from our leaders around the world in gender equity and advocacy. She has a BA in English and Spanish from Stanford University and a Master's degree in Literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Josie spends her time enjoying the sunshine of the East Bay with her family and ideating revolutionary children’s books at the Proctor Book Fair every year!
Alex was born and raised in Queens, NY and moved to the Bay in '99. She has lived with her family in Castro Valley for the past 7 years. She graduated from the University of San Francisco with a degree in Sociology and Latin American Studies, and currently works for the Department of Psychiatry at ZSFG. Alex has a daughter in 3rd grade and a son in 1st grade at Proctor Elementary. This is Alex's first year on the PTA and she looks forward to gaining a better sense of how this exceptional community of parents comes together to help our school succeed and thrive year after year. In her spare time she loves to read (her favorite being historical fiction), listen to podcasts, and binge watch distressing shows, which she then goes out of her way to highly recommend.
Jeff Keller is beginning his first year as Principal at Proctor Elementary School. Jeff grew up in Livermore, but has lived and taught in Germany, Honduras, and Guatemala. He was a teacher for ten years (mostly in grades 3-5), an elementary principal for eleven years, and a district director for six years. As a district director Jeff supervised and coached principals, trained administrators and teachers in how to effectively collaborate, and planned district-wide implementation of AVID and Professional Learning Communities. Jeff is married and has five children. His wife and eldest daughter are both teachers, and four of his five children have gone through Dual Language Immersion programs.
Teacher Representative, Kamla Birusingh & Lori Winfrey
Bio to come.
Committee Chair Members
Click on any chair member's name in order to email them directly.
Jillian has lived in Castro Valley a combined 35 years. She is a former Proctor PTA President and has a 4th grader and two 3rd graders at Proctor this year. Jillian has a B.S. in Criminal Justice from Cal State University, East Bay and has recently completed her AA in Allied Health at Chabot College. Jillian has previously sat on the Castro Valley Parent Nursery School Board as both the Orientation 2nd VP Chair (2017-18) and as the Membership VP Chair (2018-19). Jillian currently works for a local Real Estate Group as the Marketing and Office Manager and is in the process of getting her Real Estate License. Her passions include music, crafting, continued education and reading.
Ebony grew up in sunny Southern California but came to her husband's hometown of Castro Valley in 2007. She is an All American track athlete and has a B.S. in Criminal Justice from Cal State University, Stanislaus.
When not busy working in her family business, she enjoys spending time with her two rambunctious boys, 8 and 11, interior designing, volunteering, traveling, and making memories in the beautiful Bay Area.
Rachael was born and raised in Oakland, California. She attended UC Santa Cruz for her undergraduate degree and San Jose State University for her graduate degree where she received a Masters in Social Work. She worked for the Veterans Administration with homeless veterans from 2002 to 2016. She decided to pursue her passion for homemaking full time in 2016. Rachael has a sixth grade son (Proctor Grad) and third grade & kindergarten daughters at Proctor. Rachael is a proud wife of an Oakland Fireman, Battalion Chief Anthony Sanders. She enjoys baking pies and treats for her family and friends in her spare time.
Ranjeeta has been a Castro Valley resident almost two decades. She was born in the beautiful Fiji Islands and moved to Southern California for higher education. She has been an active parent in the Proctor campus community and has also been a parent representative in the Parent Leadership Committee and School Site Council. She has two children, a middle schooler and fourth grader which allowed her to participate in both pre-pandemic, during pandemic and current school activities. One of many things she appreciates about the Proctor School community is its diversity and parent involvement. She values how the school keeps on initiating ways to improve and implement ways to help our children and serve our community by laying the foundation for our youth. She shares a passion for cooking and hosting parties, reading and journaling.
Michelle grew up in the Bay Area and is the mother of a Proctor first grader. She was formerly an elementary school teacher after graduating from UCLA and receiving her MA and credential from SJSU. She is now the primary caregiver of her three children. Her hopes for this year is to be actively involved and to help build a bridge between teachers and families in order to have a thriving community. In her spare time, she enjoys crocheting, traveling, crafting, and baking.
Katie was born and raised in Castro Valley and is delighted that she and her husband get to raise their family here. They have a first grader at Proctor and another in daycare. Katie has worked in nonprofits her entire career and is currently at Save The Bay. Outside of work Katie loves to go hiking, attend concerts and have dance parties with her family.