Candidate for
Board Member; Campbell Union High School District

Since being elected to the Governing Board in 1998, I have been elected by the other Board members as Clerk in 1999 and as President of the Board in 2000. I have served on the District Curriculum Committee and helped write a Communication Plan for the District. I have been heavily involved in the key policy decisions in the district, discussed elsewhere on this web-site.

However, the Campbell Union High School District was important to me for many years before I was elected to the Board. I am a Campbell High School Graduate (1965). Four younger siblings also graduated from Campbell, the youngest in 1978.

My wife and I are parents of children in the Campbell Union High School District. One son, Justin, graduated from Westmont High School. Two other children are currently attending Westmont. Over the years we have had our share of back-to-school nights, parent conferences, graduation night volunteering, fund-raisers, and so forth. My service in our feeder elementary school includes a pro bono development day workshop for faculty, volunteering in the school library, and coaching the Odyssey of the Mind team.

I am a member of several statewide education committees that are relevant to the concerns of California High Schools. For example, I am a member of the K-18 Curriculum Committee (ICC) of the California Education Round Table. I previously served on ICC committees dealing with increasing tutors for high school students and Outreach, Admissions, and Transfer. Among the issues we struggle with are the admissions goals and profiles of high school graduates. I also served as a member of the CSU Academic Senate's committee on Teacher Education and K-12 Relations which, among other work, has studied ways to increase the number and quality of credentialed K-12 teachers. All of this has resulted in my gaining some understanding of the state-wide forces and personalities that have a profound effect upon the efforts of the Campbell Union High School District.

BRIEF RESUME

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

San Jose State University, Professor, Communication Studies, 1993 to present; Associate Professor, 1988-1993; Lecturer, 1984-1988, Department Chair, 1993-97; Interim Associate Dean, College of Social Sciences, 2002-03.

As Interim Associate Dean, have primary responsibility for curriculum development, program review, and scheduling, in the College of Social Sciences. Assist the dean with personnel, budget, and management of the college which consists of ten academic departments: Anthropology, Communication Studies, Economics, Environmental Studies, Geography, History, Political Science, Psychology, Social Science (including Women's Studies and Asian American Studies), and Sociology.

As Professor, taught upper division courses and graduate seminars in organizational communication and group discussion theory. Also taught the graduate research methods course and the lower division small group communication course. Coordinated undergraduate internship program in organizational communication.

Previously served on SJSU Academic Senate, representing SJSU on system-wide CSU Academic Senate.

Former Chair, Campus Planning Board.

University of Jyvaskyla, Finland; Visiting Professor, Communication. (January 1998).

Taught "Current Issues in Organizational Communication." Presentations for Faculty and Graduate Students in Tampere and Helsinki.

West Valley College, Saratoga, CA 1971-88.

Faculty Member and Department Chair.

President, District Academic Senate: Organized faculty representation on contingency budget committees, Represented the faculty at bi-weekly Governing Board meetings.

CONSULTING AND TRAINING--since 1974 with over 50 different businesses and other organizations.

Coached and worked issues one-on-one with key personnel,facilitated board retreats and staff planning sessions,helped organize and facilitate initial meetings of an"engineering council," facilitated strategy sessions in working with key customers, researched the communicative value of product labels, mediated inter-departmental disputes, evaluated and helped revise performance systems, facilitated organization-wide goal setting, investigated and recommended correctives for morale problems, conducted attitude surveys, and reviewed staff meeting procedures. Provided training in team building, selection interviewing, performance evaluation, Equal Employment Opportunity, management communication, managing meetings, customer relations, managing conflict, presentations, and advanced management training.

Board of Directors, Public Dialogue Consortium, a non-profit organization devoted to improving the quality of public discourse. Recent projects have been conducted in Cupertino, California; Los Alamos, New Mexico; Waco, Texas; and the Tri-Cities community in Washington state.

Pro bono consulting and training for KNTV (Channel 11); Second Harvest Food Bank, Forest Hill School, San Jose Symphony, and Children's Discovery Museum.

RESEARCH--author of over 50 journal articles, book chapters, and conference papers. Directed 8 M.A. theses. Principal current research interests: Organizational Democracy, Organizational Voice. One article dealt with communication in the public schools: "Perceptions of School Principal Communication Effectiveness and Teacher Satisfaction on the Job."(w/K.W. Whaley). Journal of Research and Development in Education, 1992, 25:224-231.