Board of Directors

Board of Directors

Meet our founding Board of Directors:

President

Christina Maehr

Trained in special education advocacy by COPAA, Ms. Maehr has served as a special education advocate since 2018, helping more than 200 families across 50 school districts. She holds a B.S. in Biology from MIT. She formerly managed public relations for Agilent Technologies.

Treasurer

Dave Richards

Currently at Asana Technologies, Mr. Richards serves as a parent representative. A 12-year tech veteran, he spent 5 years at Meta where he led Facebook’s non-profit and partner alliances group. He holds a B.A. in Accounting.

Secretary

Sharon Spivack

Currently Director of Special Education at Antioch Unified School District, Ms. Spivack has 25 years of experience in special education and site administration. She holds a M.A. in Special Education.

Vice President

Kerry Gardanier

Ms. Gardanier is a Slingerland©-certified teacher of students with dyslexia at Livermore Valley Academy. Before becoming an educator, she was a founding employee of Macys.com LLC with responsibility for generating hundreds of millions of dollars in site sales.

Vice President

James Bylund, Psy.D.

Dr. Bylund is a licensed clinical and educational psychologist who has served students with disabilities for 15 years as a school psychologist and now Director of the Bylund Clinic, which provides independent psychoeducational evaluations and consulting.

Vice President

Kristin Springer

Ms. Springer is special education attorney and trained mediator who has practiced law since 2000, originally in real estate law. She began her special education practice in 2016 and has resolved hundreds of cases on behalf of students with varying disabilities.