Michael has been involved actively on the SCVC board since 2006. He has served on the board as Chapter President (’06-’08). In 1998-1999 Michael was an Amigos volunteer and participated in a latrines service project in Piñal de la Cana, in the Dominican Republic.

Michael has since graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a Bachelor’s in Computer Engineering and Master’s in Computer Science. He is a senior engineer at a government defense contracting firm creating optical telephony processing tools. This year in his capacity as Chapter President, he will be leading parent meetings, acting as a liaison between the chapter and the International Office (IO), and acting as the official voice of the chapter in all public matters.

Michael is committed to the safety of the volunteers and the wealth of the Amigos experience. Please feel free to contact him with any of your questions and concerns.

Margaret and Jonathan Kerner (Webmaster) began with the SCVC in 2001 with their daughter Amy (‘01, Nicaragua, ‘02, Bolivia & ’03 staff, Oaxaca). Margaret has served on the Board as recruiting chairperson, and as chapter Co-President from ‘03-06. She is a child & adolescent psychotherapist in private practice locally, and serves as the Mental Health Consultant to the International Office, and the senior project staff in Latin America. As such, she does mental health screening of applicants to the program and, each year in the spring, she trains the project staff on the psychological aspects of cultural adjustment and on managing interventions in the field to respond to the most frequently experienced mental heath challenges of our volunteers.

This year Margaret’s role on the board as Vice President is to support the President and, more specifically, to assist the Training Directors with any issues that require board intervention or support. She also leads two of the training workshops related to volunteer mental health and partner relationships.

Lynn Kaminski joined the SCV chapter board as Treasurer last year and continues this year. She became involved in Amigos when her daughter became a volunteer and traveled to Valle, Honduras the summer of 2006.

Lynn has worked at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center as a senior occupational therapist since 1981, treating persons with neurologically based diseases and injuries.

Sandy has been a Board member for 3 years as Parent Coordinator.

Vera became involved with the Amigos SCVC "off and on" since 1998 when her daughter, Renée, started with Amigos. She joined the Board as Recruiter the following year and served as Secretary on the Board for the last three years.

Howard May is an attorney in San Jose, CA and lives in Los Gatos.

A passionate AMIGOS advocate, he truly believes that these volunteers make a difference.  No matter who they are or what they do, they leave a memory in the community in which they serve.  They are the best ambassadors we have to offer. They show those they touch how sincere we are in our desire to make this world a peaceful one. 

There are many organizations like AMIGOS that are doing good deeds and making the world a better place.  Our kids are lucky to have this one available to them.

Howard was fortunate enough to be a part of a similar group when he was young and thinks they made a difference.  Now he has chosen to be help recruit volunteers for this worthwhile experience, one they will never forget.

Jared Teo joined the SCVC Amigos in the Fall of 2006.  In his capacity as Ways and Means Coordinator, Jared manages the SCVC Fundraising activities.  He is responsible for developing fundraising strategies, looking for additional sources of revenue, and working closely with parents and volunteers.  

Professionally, Jared is involved in the Research and Development of novel medical technologies and is ultimately responsible for overseeing the development and commercialization of innovative medical devices.

Carol began serving on the Board of the SCVC after her daughter, Julia, participated in AMIGOS (Volunteer, Costa Rica ‘01; Project Supervisor, Intibucá, Honduras ’03; Associate Project Director, Michoacan, Mexico ’04). Carol has served as Parent Coordinator (2001-03), Co-President (2003-06) and as Co-Recruiting Coordinator (2006-07) of the Chapter. Carol is now retired and is enjoying volunteer activities after working as a corporate lawyer for over twenty years.

This year Carol’s role on the Board will be to develop new sources of funding by soliciting grants from organizations seeking to support non-profits like the SCVC Chapter of AMIGOS.

Jonathan has been involved actively in the SCVC since 2001. He has served on the board as Ways & Means chairperson (’02) and treasurer (‘03-06). He also provides board support to our overnight camp-in and our yearly "Life in Latin America" camp-out. He is always ready and able to pitch in on any problem that needs to be solved from repairing a cot to creating artistic signage for our activities.

Jonathan is a senior research scientist during his non-Amigos time. He truly enjoys getting to know all the volunteers and families each year. This year in his capacity as Webmaster he will be keeping you up to date on all announcements, changes and activities. So stay tuned to www.scvcamigos.org.

Kathy has been involved in the Santa Clara Valley Chapter of Amigos since Fall 1989 when her daughter expressed a desire to become an Amigos volunteer.  She followed the "leadership ladder" and in 1996, after graduation from college, was the Project Director in Guanajuato, Mexico.   

Kathy joined the Board as Publicity Chairperson in 1990. Since then she has held nearly every position on the Board, including Chapter President (2000-2003), and most recently Webmaster (2006).  She looks forward this year to working more closely with the volunteers in making their application to the program a successful experience.

Gladys was instrumental in starting the Amigos SCVC more than twenty years ago, after two of her daughters were volunteers in the Peninsula Chapter.  Gladys has occupied different positions on our Board through many years of change and expansion, including President, and was responsible for recruiting many of the present Board members.

She retired from Monte Vista High School as a special education teacher and is married to Dr. Alex Bernyk, retired pediatrician at Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara, who also served many years on the Chapter Board as Medical Director. They have four grown children and many grandchildren. She and Alex are avid world travelers and enjoy their visits to foreign locations

Renee Fagot began training for AMIGOS when she was 16 years old and served as a volunteer on the pilot project in Tarija, Bolivia (1998).  Renee graduated from Los Gatos HS in 1999 and went to the Dominican Republic as a veteran volunteer the following summer.  After studying in Europe during her junior year at Syracuse University, she served as Project Supervisor in Intibuca, Honduras (2002).  A year after graduating from SU with degrees in International Relations and Spanish, Renee was Co-Training Director with the San Diego Chapter, then served as the Associate Project Director in Masaya/Carazo, Nicaragua (2004).  She returned to the Bay Area to begin working in the medical device industry and assumed the role of Training Director for the Santa Clara Chapter as her "extra-curricular activity." 

Renee is in her 4th year as an AMIGOS Training Director and works for Evera Medical as the Product Specialist in Domestic and International markets.

Gilda Lange began with Santa Clara Valley AMIGOS in 2005 as the Spanish Language Coordinator.  Her son Luis was an AMIGOS volunteer in Nicaragua in 2005-06 and was a Training Supervisor (2006). 

Gilda was born in Merida, Mexico and moved to California in 2004.  Her professional experience includes Director and Business Administrator, Commercial Liaison between the US, other countries, and Mexico, and she has 6 years as a Spanish Language instructor and Director of the program "Liveandlearnspanish."  She currently works as Assessment Coordinator in a school that serves the Latino community in central San Jose. 

This year, Gilda is a Co-Training Director with Renee, and also continues to develop and support the Spanish Language component of training.  She will help volunteers to acquire the necessary vocabulary, confidence, and communication skills in Spanish, and is responsible for evaluating their Spanish speaking ability during the progression of training in order to identify volunteers who require additional help. 

Gilda is very energetic and really enjoys working with the AMIGOS youth.