Richard Rudman
Vice Chair
Ned Branch
Chair
Ned Branch is the Director of the Blanchard Community Library. Previously, he worked in private post-secondary education for 27 years, having been affiliated with the institutions in Northern and Southern California and Oregon. During that time, he also frequently served as a member of accreditation review teams and worked extensively with state education agencies. During the most recent school year, he initiated a partnership amont the local school district, First Five of California, and the library to provide daytime ESL classes for parents and preschool instruction for children while the parents were in class. The district, First Five, and the library recently agreed to continue the program in the 2017-2018 school year.
Jose Luiz Melgar
Chair-Elect
Jose Luiz Melgar owns the successful Melgar Photo Studio and Palazzio Event Center. A resident of Santa Paula for 24 years, he is active in the community and is a member of Business Network International and Latino Town Hall.
John Chamberlain
Board Member
John Chamberlain is the Director of Marketing for Limoneira Company, a global agribusiness company with major real estate development projects. John has 25+ years marketing, brand development and communications experience with global multinationals; he lived and worked in Europe for 8 years – provided marketing solutions for clients in Europe, Eastern Europe, Russia, Asia and Latin America.
Marilyn Appleby
Board Member Marilyn Appleby is a principal architect at Anderson Kulwiec Appleby Architects (AKA). With a back-ground in design and publishing, Marilyn worked in the Washington DC area prior to earning a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Maryland. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Utah. She is a member of the Santa Paula Rotary Club, and Girl Scout Leader, former Santa Paula Planning Commissioner, former AIA Board Member, and is certified as a Cal EMA Safety Assessor.
Zahid Shah
Board Member
Zahid Shah is the President of United Shah Corporation, a land development, and automotive services company. He serves on the Workforce Investment Board and the Citizen Transportation Board Advisory Board of Ventura County. Mr. Shah was President of the Board of the Briggs School District and chairman commission on human concern ventura county. He graduated from Punjab University and City college of New York
Al Guilin
Immediate Past Chair
Al Guilin owns AG consultants which provide consulting services to the Agricultural industry. He received his BS degree from California Polytechnic University and worked for Limoneira Company for a number of years and retired as a Company Vice President.
Mr. Guilin is the published author of “The Lemon Thorn”, Sweet Lemons and “The Short Handle Hoe”. His latest book, “Conflict Lemons” was published in late summer 2014. He is also an Ordained Deacon in the Catholic Church and is very involved in the Santa Paula Community.
Brian Collins
Secretary/Treasurer
Brian Collins is the Operations and Maintenance Manager for United Water Conservation District and joined the district in 2006 as an instrument technician. Brian has an A.S. Water Science from Ventura College, B.S. Organizational Leadership from Colorado State University and holds T-3 and D-3 operator certifications with the State of California, State Water Resource Control Board. Brian and his wife Cheryl have lived in Santa Paula since 2002.
Tanya Torres
Board Member
Tanya Torres is a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch, a wealth management firm. She works closely with business owners to provide financial advice and guidance based on their goals and priorities for them, such as retirement planning and investing, their families, such as education funding, and their business, such as cash flow management and merchant services. Working for a Bank of America corporation, she can offer all the investing insights of Merrill as well as the banking and lending services of Bank of America.
Tanya was born and raised in Santa Paula, leaving briefly to complete her Undergrad at UC Irvine. She is also a member of Bank of America’s LEAD Program (Leadership, Education, Advocacy, & Development for Women) and HOLA, Hispanic Organization for Leadership and Advancement.
Meg Phelps
Board Member
Susan Kulwiec
Board Member
In my 30 years living in Santa Paula, Kulwiec Interiors has been my career as an Owner/Designer/Space Planner in Camarillo and Santa Paula until two years ago when I retired.
My second career has become the joy and challenge of my life as Director of Fund Development for SPIRIT of Santa Paula. SPIRIT is Santa Paula’s only Homeless Services Non-Profit serving our Homeless population and so many other struggling, vulnerable families in the Santa Clara River Valley. Every day is a new adventure and opportunity working with our City, County, and many other Non-Profits to continue our Mission to respond to the suffering of our neighbors and to end homelessness.