Meet Our Board

Miriam Schaffer is a college admission advisor. Her company, Colleges for You, guides students and their families through the college application process, including choosing colleges that are the best fit for a student, helping with completing college applications, and assisting with developing and finalizing college application essays, personal statements, and University of California personal insight answers. Miriam’s clients have been accepted at public and private colleges and universities nationwide, including all University of California campuses.

Monica Stein, founder and creator of Omthentic you, is an Intuitive Well-Being Coach helping women engineer a more joyful, authentic, and empowered life. After many years as an engineer at The Boeing Company, she decided to focus on her health and well-being and now brings her clients a well-rounded perspective to mind, body and spirit with a blend of certifications in yoga, meditation and ayurveda. When she is not teaching classes and coaching clients, she spends time with her husband and dogs and is looking forward to returning to the world of dog rescue.

Teresa Currivan, LMFT, is a licensed marriage and family therapist, parent coach, school therapist, and founder of The Right Place Learning Center and Help My Child Thrive LLC. She is the author of My Differently Tuned-In Child: The Right Place for Strength-Based Solutions. She speaks about differently tuned-in children to teachers, faculty, and parent groups, and has published extensively on the topic. Teresa is recognized for developing the Currivan Protocol™ used to assess, address, and accept symptoms and co-occurring conditions in differently wired children such as ADHD, giftedness, visual-spatial learning, dyslexia, Sensory Processing Disorder, autism, executive functioning challenges, school refusal, depression, and anxiety. She received her MA in Counseling Psychology using Drama Therapy from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco and completed post-graduate training at The Psychotherapy Institute in Berkeley. She lives with her husband and son in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Pamela is a seasoned accounting professional and certified tax preparer. She has worked in the bookkeeping and write-up accounting industry for over 30 years. Her current work is exclusive to small businesses, including sole proprietors, corporations, partnerships, nonprofits as well as income tax preparation specializing in individuals and small business. Pamela received her Bachelor’s degree in Business from JFK University. Pamela is an EA and is a member of the East Bay Association of Enrolled Agents. She is also an Ambassador to the Concord Chamber of Commerce and an educator with LEG, Life Skills Empowerment Group. She enjoys being involved in local community organizations, such as her community choral groups that help expose inner city kids to life influencing musical experiences. She lives in Concord with her 2 fur babies, Marco Polo and Gabe.

Lily Dong has been a portrait photographer for the past 11 yrs. Her first career was a couture bridal gown designer for twelve years. She loves photographing women, but works with men as well, for personal branding images. When she is not working, she loves traveling with her beau and hiking with her dog Molly, as well as enjoying the last month of her time with her two college age boys before she becomes an empty nester.

Mary Schulze has been a realtor for Intero since 2002.  She holds GRI and SRES designations, and finishing her CRS designation. She is a “green realtor” specializing in finding homes that meet the green standards for safe living. Mary is a graduate of California State at Hayward, with a BS in Health Science and Marketing. She has worked as a nurse, owned her own business, Bay Area’s Best, an advertising firm in Contra Costa.  During that time, Mary founded Mt. Diablo Business Women. She also served on the Lafayette Chamber Board of Directors for two terms, and the Walnut Creek Chamber of Commerce for three terms. Currently, she is participating in the Assistance League of Sierra Foothills, and acting Welcome Chair to the community where she lives. She is married, grandmother to three grandsons, loves music, plays the piano, enjoys cooking, and playing with her giant Schnoodle, Maxx.

Since joining our organization in 2004, Trudy Triner has served on the Board as Hospitality, President Elect, President and Past President. After retiring from Kaiser Permanente in 2014, along with her son, John Foley, Trudy co-founded Paleoventures, an outdoor teambuilding company. Their clients include AAA, Kaiser Permanente, Morgan Stanley and Facebook. Dedicated to being of service to the community, they have donated pro-bono services to CASA of Contra Costa County, Planned Parenthood, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and Ability Now Bay Area. She is currently on the board of directors of the Walnut Chamber of Commerce where she enjoys being involved with many local business owners and nonprofits. Trudy has been active in the Rotary Club of Walnut Creek since 2013 where she served as club President from 2017-2018. She still participates in club’s many service initiatives. 

Belma works as a Financial Adviser at Edward Jones. Her goal is to help bring order to her client’s financial life, putting their best interest at heart. Belma provides guidance on retirement planning, personalized strategies including estate consideration, college planning and insurance. She also works on making adjustments when life happens. She wants to be there for her clients to help them establish financial strategies to simplify their financial life. Belma loves helping successful women, business owners and families with children. As a woman and a mother, her vision is to be the person who is going to teach successful women about their retirement, estate planning, college savings and wealth strategies. She wants to empower women financially and be a symbol of female financial independence. Belma loves spending time with her family, taking her son for nice walks to the park, swimming classes and  travelling. She enjoys being involved in local community organizations such as Walnut Creek Chamber of Commerce, Mt. Diablo Business Women, Mt. Diablo Mothers Club and Rotary Club.

Diane Kaplowitz is an employee benefits broker and head of the benefits department at R.C. Fischer & Co. in Walnut Creek CA. As an employee benefits broker, Diane helps small to mid-size businesses customize a benefit package for management and employees which can be medical only or any combinations of medical, dental, vision, group disability and group life insurance. Working with the business owners’ budget and objectives, she can put together a comprehensive plan to meet the companies needs and comply with state laws. Diane has been a California resident since 2010 having roots in the Tacoma/Seattle area. She is a mother to four grown children, lives in Concord and enjoys gardening, hiking and golf in her free time.

Gordana Zura is a Communications Director at CASA of Contra Costa County, a nonprofit organization in Concord that recruits, trains and supervises volunteers who advocate on behalf of children and youth living in foster care. She sets and guides the strategy for digital communications, marketing, website, social media and collateral media to consistently articulate, promote, enhance and advance the mission, vision and goals of CASA. Gordana is an avid photographer, jewelry maker and website designer.

Zhangyang is a junior at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. She has served in leadership positions at many nonprofit organizations, including Student Government President at Diablo Valley College, California state officials at Student Senate for California Community Colleges and California Phi Beta Lambda, and Treasurer at Diablo Valley Rotaract. With the wide breadth of experiences, she aims to include multidisciplinary perspectives into her work for success.

Diane recently transitioned from product development and marketing in the fintech world, to helping individuals and organizations with their business writing needs. These can include everything from newsletters and email/online content to strategic plan documents, business proposals and grant applications. Diane is on the Advisory Board of Yours Humanly, a Walnut Creek nonprofit supporting education in underserved communities globally. She lives in Lafayette, where she and her family enjoy the many hiking and trail running paths.