Lalit Balchandani has volunteered with World Bridges in various capacities since 2000. He also served as a volunteer on the Board of Directors for Just Act from 2001-2003. Lalit works at Adobe Systems in the Corporate Development group on various video related projects. He was born in Bombay (Mumbai), India and emigrated to the US in 1979. Lalit has lived in the Bay Area since 1989, with frequent visits toIndia and various other destinations.
Nancy Hernandez teaches art at the June Jordan Small School for Social Equity in San Francisco’s Excelsior District and volunteers with Homies Organizing the Mission to Empower Youth (HOMEY), an organization dedicated to addressing the root causes of gang related violence in the Latino and Chicano communities. She is featured in the new book by prominent author Betita Martinez, 500 Years of Chicana Women’s History (2008, Rutgers University Press). Nancy majored in Raza Studies at San Francisco State University and attended San Francisco City College where she helped build a student run center to support students of color and the Multicultural Center to serve as a center for Ethnic Studies and Activism on campus. She helped mobilize over 10,000 community college students from across California to converge on the Capitol in Sacramento to fight fee increases and budget cuts to education. Nancy has been blessed with opportunities to travel and views those experiences as life-changing. She was a representative to an Indigenous Women’s Conference on the environment to New Zealand. She traveled with JUSTACT (Youth Action for Global Justice) to Washington D.C, Panama, and Spain. She has participated in delegations to Mexico, Canada, Cuba, and Palestine and hopes to work with World Bridges to empower younger people to travel abroad.
Jennifer Keystone, World Bridges Co-Founder, has also worked in a variety of nonprofit and for-profit organizations over the past 15 years. Much of that time, she served as the Producer and Writer for a weekly educational television program about Chinese culture at D3 Productions in the Bay Area. Jennifer also serves as the Vice-Chairperson of the Board for another nonprofit international educational exchange organization. Additional volunteer work has included active involvement in a San Leandro School District Gay Straight Alliance, local community organizing, and teaching adult literacy. She received her M.B.A. with an emphasis on International Management and Chinese Culture from the Monterey Institute of International Studies inCalifornia, and her B.A. in Anthropology/Pshychology from theUniversity of California at San Diego. Jennifer speaks Mandarin Chinese and has lived and worked in China and Taiwan. She has traveled extensively throughout Asia and Europe.
Petra Loer has been a World Bridges volunteer since 2001 and has been an Advisory Board Chairperson for two years. Petra’s role in the organization includes travel advising, meeting facilitation, fundraiser coordination, and strategic planning. Outside of her volunteer activities, she is a director in the Valuation Services group at WTAS, an independent national firm specializing in tax, valuation, financial advisory, and related consulting services. Petra speaks three languages and has studied and worked abroad in France and Finland.Petra received her B.S. in Business Administration with an emphasis in Global Trade Management, has a minor in French, and successfully received a Chartered Financial Analyst designation in 2005.
Bettina Mok, Co-Founder, has fifteen years of professional experience in the nonprofit sector, primarily in youth development, service-learning, international educational exchange, volunteer management, diversity training and program evaluation. She is currently also serving as a Program Manager for SCA (Student Conservation Association) in Oakland, California. Former employers include Common Counsel Foundation, Youth Service California, Television Race Initiative, DiversityWorks, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Council on International Educational Exchange and the Volunteer Center of San Francisco. Bettina speaks conversational French, German, and Spanish and has an M.A. in International Administration from the School for International Training in Vermont. She is the sister of Co-Founder Jonas Mok.
Jenna Payne is the Program Manager for Inner City Advisors, where she is responsible for the management of advisory and education programs for ICA Portfolio Companies and for the coordination of business advisor resources. Previously, Jena spent six months working in the rain forests of Brazil as a photo journalist documenting organic coffee farmers for TransFair/FairTrade. Before traveling abroad, Jenna served as the Bay Area Program Director for the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, where she worked to develop and deliver entrepreneurship education programs for students from low-income communities. Jenna received her BA in Urban Studies and Planning from UC San Diego and has her bilingual teaching credential which she used to teach both junior high and high school in Santa Cruz County. Jenna loves to travel and has visited communities all over the world. She spent two years in South America, where she learned both Spanish and Portuguese.
FOUNDERS
Jennifer Keystone has been an active World Bridges volunteer for over 10 years. She has also worked in a variety of nonprofit and for-profit organizations over the past 15 years. Much of that time, she served as the Producer and Writer for a weekly educational television program about Chinese culture at D3 Productions in the Bay Area. Jennifer also serves as the Vice-Chairperson of the Board for another nonprofit international educational exchange organization. Additional volunteer work has included active involvement in a San Leandro School District Gay Straight Alliance, local community organizing, and teaching adult literacy. She received her M.B.A. with an emphasis on International Management and Chinese Culture from the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California, and her B.A. in Anthropology/Pshychology from the University of California at San Diego. Jennifer speaks Mandarin Chinese and has lived and worked in China and Taiwan. She has traveled extensively throughout Asia and Europe.
Bettina Mok has fifteen years of professional experience in the nonprofit sector, primarily in youth development, service-learning, international educational exchange, volunteer management, diversity training and program evaluation. She is currently also serving as a Program Manager for SCA (Student Conservation Association) in Oakland, California. Former employers include Common Counsel Foundation, Youth Service California, Television Race Initiative, DiversityWorks, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Council on International Educational Exchange and the Volunteer Center of San Francisco. Bettina speaks conversational French, German, and Spanish and has an M.A. in International Administration from the School for International Training in Vermont. She is the sister of Co-Founder Jonas Mok.
Jonas Mok has over 15 years’ experience in the non-profit sector. He has served as National Director of Operations at Sports4Kids, a national youth development organization; Director of Marketing and Community Relations at Noah’s Bagels; and Executive Director at Festival at the Lake in Oakland, California. He co-founded World PULSE, a predecessor organization to World Bridges, in 1997 and served as Director for the first three years. He currently manages the global database at Room to Read, an international non-profit organization partnering with local communities throughout the developing world to establish schools, libraries, girls’ scholarships and other educational infrastructure. Jonas has lived in China and speaks conversational German, Chinese and Spanish. He is the brother of Bettina Mok and husband of Jennifer Keystone, both Co-Founders as well.
Viviana Rennella has focused her work on supporting and expanding the consciousness that is emerging in grassroots communities migrating under globalization. For the past sixteen years, she has worked with youth in international education with a focus on participatory practices, and witth movement formations, organizing both locally and globally. Experience working with International Development Exchange, Global Exchange, La Fetra Operating Foundation, and Child Family Health International led her to co-found and direct World Bridges. Most recently, she has served as the Director of Transnational Programs at Transnational Insititute for Grassroots Research and Action (TIGRA) and has a private interpreting/translating practice. She emigrated with her family as political refugees from Argentina and has worked in many parts of the global South. Viviana is a Eureka/LeaderSpring Fellow and holds a degree in Psychology from Carnegie Mellon University.