Board of Directors

Dawn Billman
President
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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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 two children who graduated from the Palo Alto School District and one current student. 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. 
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.
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.
Tida Violante
​Director
Tida Violante is the Grants Chairperson. She is a graduate of Paly and grateful for PAUSD and her teachers for helping her learn to speak and write English when she first moved here from Thailand. She is thrilled to be back in sunny Palo Alto after spending the last decade with her family living in Maryland. Tida is passionate about public health issues, literacy, cooking and eating! She has served on the board and worked in the trenches for many nonprofits in Montgomery County, MD and Marin County, CA. Currently, Tida was the Secretary for RTE for two years and is currently the Chairperson for the Grants Committee. Tida earned a Master and a Doctorate degree in Public Health from UC Berkeley,

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.
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.
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.
Elizabeth Mueller
Director
​Liz Mueller grew up in Palo Alto and attended Palo Alto schools. After college, Liz returned to work at Paly, first as a Special Education Paraprofessional and later as a teacher. Liz has worked at Paly for over 20 years, teaching Special Education and a range of support classes, and for the last 6 years classes for Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID). Liz has made equity a focus of her career at Paly, consistently working to narrow the achievement gap not only through her teaching but through participation on Site Council, Education Council, the Palo Alto Unified School District Equity Team, and Camp Everytown. She is very excited to work with RTE to drastically increase educational opportunities for many deserving Paly students.
​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.
Samuel Vasquez
Co-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. 
Stephanie Estrada
​Co-Director
Stephanie Estrada is a graduate of Paly, Class of 2015 and graduated Magna Cumme Laude from San Francisco State University in 2019. She also graduated with a Master degree program in Child Development at San Francisco State University in 2021. She was a Voluntary Transfer Student for her entire life starting in kindergarten until her high school graduation. Having enjoyed being connected to her home community of East Palo Alto, Stephanie is keen to serve on the RTE Board and to provide insights in how our organization can better serve its scholarship recipients. She is interested in helping more low-income students achieve their dreams of college graduation. Stephanie has come full circle in being the inspiration behind the creation of RTE, to now serving on our Board of Directors. 
 

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