Board of Directors
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Tida Violante
President Tida began working with RTE in 2018 and has served as the Grants Lead, Secretary of the Board, and Communications Lead. She has been instrumental in several successful grant requests, new fundraising efforts, and engaging new volunteers. Tida has over two decades of working in nonprofit organizations and transforming them to be more reflective of the community as well as more productive and efficient. She is passionate about public health issues, education, cooking, and eating! Tida is a graduate of Palo Alto High School where her sons also followed her footsteps. She graduated with a BA from the University of California at Santa Barbara then earned a Master in Public Health (MPH) focusing on Maternal and Child Health and a Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) from the University of California at Berkeley. Tida has worked on domestic and international reproductive health and HIV prevention programs with expertise in project assessment and evaluation. |
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Danielle Haas-Laursen
Vice President Danielle is one of the founders of RTE and serves as the Vice President for the past six years. A graduate of Stanford Law School, Danielle is a practicing corporate attorney in the area. Danielle and her husband, Kirk, have three children who graduated from the Palo Alto School District. Danielle formerly served on the Palo Alto Girls Softball board and the Orion School (now closed) in Atlanta, which focused on providing an enriching environment that met the needs of children with severe ADHD and/or Asperger's. |
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Nan Kim
Treasurer Nan joined RTE in November 2021 to serve as Treasurer. She currently has a child attending Paly. Nan is corporate attorney who has lived in Palo Alto for the last 10 years, and in the Bay Area for the last 20+ years. She volunteered as Treasurer for the Menlo-Atherton Co-Op Nursery School and Escondido Elementary School for 2 years each.. She also served in other various PTA positions at Escondido Elementary School. Nan was on the JLS Connections Board and currently serves as Secretary of PTAC. Nan received a bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University and a law degree from Georgetown University. |
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Deanna Chute
Secretary Deanna Chute has taught mathematics at Palo Alto High School for 20 years, including teaching statistics in the Social Justice Pathway (SJP) for the last six years. As a Teacher Advisor for 18 years, she has worked to support students in their post-Paly planning. She co-developed the Advanced Authentic Research (AAR) course and acted as the Paly AAR Site Liaison for five years, as well as serving as the Instructional Leader for the Career and Technical Education (CTE) Department and Teacher-on-special-assignment (TOSA) for Innovation Programs. She is currently working on her EdD in Educational Leadership and is excited to help deserving Paly students achieve their college aspirations. |
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Dawn Billman
Director Dawn began working with RTE as the Fundraising Chairperson for three years before becoming the President of the Board of Directors. She has significant management experience in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors. Following a successful international career, she brought her business talents to the non-profit world with a deep knowledge and consistent success creating excitement and managing large community events. As a twenty year plus Palo Alto resident, she has been an extraordinarily active volunteer in many Palo Alto projects and organizations. Dawn is passionate about supporting the social and emotional health and welfare of ALL children and teens and providing opportunities for our youth's continued learning and development. |
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Kimberly Schwan
Director Kimberly Schwan serves as the Mentorship Chairperson. She recently concluded a successful 16 year career as VP of Human Resources for a private equity firm. Since her retirement she dedicated 4 years to the Paly College & Career Counseling Center. Through this experience and helping her own daughters through the college selection and application process she became enlightened to the challenges that low income children face. She joined RTE hoping to break down some of the barriers for these young adults. She received her BS in Business from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. |
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Pallavi Homan
Director Pallavi Homan is the Alumni Liaison. She grew up outside Rochester, N.Y. and has been a resident of Palo Alto for over a decade. Her daughter began kindergarten at Escondido Elementary in 2005, and is now a Paly graduate majoring in Journalism at Northeastern University. In addition, her son is a student at Paly. Pallavi is grateful that her kids have had the opportunity to experience such an amazing school district. A graduate of both Cornell University and Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, Pallavi has worked in the tech sector in Product Management since moving to the Silicon Valley in 1998, including stints at companies such as Yahoo!, eBay and now Apple. Pallavi is excited about this opportunity to give back to the community and is passionate about leveling the playing field for low income students. |
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Brent Kline
Director Brent Kline began his high school principal career in 2003 as the principal of Mariner High School, in Washington State. Prior to becoming a principal, Brent was a high school band and orchestra director in Washington and California. In 2013. Brent was selected as Washington State High School Principal of the Year in 2013 and a finalist in the 2014 MetLife/NASSP National Principal of the Year Program for his significant contributions to improving student achievement at Mariner High School. After living in Washington State for 25 years, Brent and his wife Danielle returned to California where Brent began his position of Principal of Santa Cruz High School. Brent was named the Paly Principal in March 2020 and has focused on understanding the climate and culture of the entire Paly community with an emphasis on increasing student voice and participation. |
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LaDonna Butler
Director LaDonna Butler is an Assistant Principal at Palo Alto High School and serves as a representative of Principal Brent Kline. She comes to Paly from San José School District where she worked for 13 years. and has served in an administrative role since 2015. Prior to that, she was a high school teacher for 13 years. She holds a Master degree in Education Administration from National University and a bachelor's degree in Kinesiology from San José State University. LaDonna sees an opportunity at Paly to improve the number of students of color in Advance Placement and honors classes. She is excited to work with RTE to increase the number of first generation and low-income Paly students attending college. |
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Samuel Vasquez
Director Samuel Vasquez is a graduate of Paly, Class of 2016. He is a recent graduate of San Francisco State University with a degree in Visual Communication Design. He specializes in photography, videography, and graphic design, but also has a background in marketing and consulting. Samuel is on the founding team of LightGrid, has collaborated with multiple companies like 23andMe, and has taught at the Stanford d.school, He wants to bring his experiences and perspective to help other students who were like him and have a dream of becoming a college graduate. Prior to joining the Board, Sam also volunteered with RTE to help with marketing. |
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Dami Bolarinwa
Director Oluwadamilola “Dami” Bolarinwa grew up in Palo Alto and graduated from Paly in 2016. He attended Notre Dame de Namur University and played on the soccer team. With the help of RTE, Dami became a first-generation college graduate with a degree in Computer Science. He is currently working as an IT tech. Dami joined RTE as a Board Member in order to give others the opportunity that he was given. He feels that it was a gift to be apart of RTE as a scholar and now to continue to be a part of the organization. He hopes to give that same gift to many other Paly students and to help RTE continues to grow and improve. Dami will be working with other RTE alumni to create a supportive community for current college students. |