NSBA Director
Dr. Kerry Clegg, a board member in the Sulphur Springs Union Elementary School District in Los Angeles County, is the 2005-06 Immediate Past President of the California School Boards Association.
Clegg has served on the board of trustees for the Sulphur Springs Union Elementary School District since 1989, with three terms as president. He has also served as president and secretary-treasurer of the Santa Clarita Valley School Trustees Association. He represented Region 22 as a member of CSBA’s Delegate Assembly, and was on the association’s Board of Directors from 1998 to 2002.
Clegg’s service as chair of CSBA’s School Facilities Task Force, which was instrumental in determining the facilities needs of school districts across the state and helped to develop strategies that led to the passage of Proposition 47, led to his appointment to the advisory board of the Division of State Architects. Clegg has also served on CSBA’s Budget Committee, Nominating Committee, Policy Platform Committee, Federal Issues Council, K-Higher Education Remediation Task Force, and as a site validator for CSBA’s Golden Bell Awards.
In addition, Clegg chaired CSBA’s Legislative Committee in 2004 and in 2005 chaired the association’s Joint Task Force on Science, its Education Legal Alliance Steering Committee and its Superintendents Council. In 2006, Kerry is chairing the School Facilities: Construction Management Task Force. As an officer of the association, he also serves on the board of the Cities, Counties and Schools Partnership. In April 2006, Clegg was elected to serve a three-year term on the Board of Directors of the National School Boards Association.
“I would like to see that the school facilities bonds are fully implemented and that the state maintains a strong commitment to school construction and renovation,” said Clegg. “I am also very concerned that implementation of the Master Plan for Education be accomplished with a strong consideration for local governance and not a centralizing at the state level.”
Clegg has a doctorate in biology from the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the CEO of the Sepulveda Federal Credit Union. He and his wife, Rosanna, have five children.
Director-at-Large, API
Ben Liao, a board member in the Cupertino Union School District in Santa Clara County, is the Director-at-Large Asian/Pacific Islander of the California School Boards Association. He was elected by the Delegate Assembly in December 2004 and again in December 2006.
Liao has served on the board of trustees for the Cupertino Union High School District since 1997, including serving as president from 2001-2003. He established and led the Asian American Parents Organization, which bridges the API community and the school districts. He is also very active in serving several local and international non-profit organizations.
He is very involved in CSBA, serving on the Delegate Assembly since 2001; Liao has also served on the Audit, Golden Bell and Annual Conference Committees, as well as participated in many CSBA professional development workshops and trainings. Liao has been in the Asian/Pacific Islander School Board Member Association since 1997.
Liao has a Bachelor’s of Science and a Master’s in Computer Science. He has worked in software research and development at Data General, Apple and Taligent. Liao currently works for Hewlett Packard in worldwide technical marketing.
He and his wife, Ellen, have been married for 25 years. They have a son and daughter.
Director-at-Large, Hispanic
Dr. Susan M. Heredia, a board member in the Natomas Unified School
District in Sacramento County, is the Director-at-Large, Hispanic
of the California School Boards Association and was elected by the
members of the Delegate Assembly in December 2004.
Heredia has served on the board of trustees for the Natomas Unified
School District since 2000. She is Board President, board representative
for the district on the Strategic Planning, English Language Learner,
Acheievement Gap, as well as County Committee on School District
Organization. She is very active on the Hispanic Research Special
Interest Group for the American Educational Research Association,
and a member of the California Association of Bilingual Educators
and National Association of Multicultural Education. She served on
the PTA for her local elementary and high schools. She has more
than 25 years as an educator in the area of bilingual education and
on issues related to ethnic-minority students. She has participated
in many CSBA professional development workshops and trainings,
has served on CSBA's Bylaws Committee and currently is serving on
CSBA’s Policy Platform.
Heredia earned a doctorate in socio-cultural studies from University
of California, Davis, and a master of arts in education and a
bachelor of arts in liberal studies from California State University,
Sacramento. She holds a teaching credential with an emphasis on
bilingual education from CSU, Sacramento, as well. She is currently
an associate professor and the coordinator of the McNair Scholars
Program at CSU, Sacramento.
Director-at-Large, American Indian
Shelley Yarbrough, a board member in the Val Verde Unified School District in Riverside County is the Director-at-Large, American Indian for the California School Board Association.
Shelly is the second American Indian Board of Director to serve CSBA and was elected in 2003. She is a 2004 graduate of CSBA’s Masters in Governance program and has participated in several professional development trainings and workshops. She served on the Policy Platform Committee, the Federal Issues Council and was a NSBA Delegate. In 2007, she served on the Board of Directors Handbook Committee, School Construction Task Force and Annual Education Conference Committee. She is currently the American Indian Student Issues Conference chairperson.
In addition, she is President-elect of the American Indian/Alaskan Native School Board Member Caucus of the National School Boards Association and the California and National Indian Education Associations.
Shelley has served on the board of trustees for the Val Verde Unified School District since 1999, including several years as President. Val Verde is a growing district which has doubled its student population in six years. School construction is constant with two or three new schools opened each year.
Very active in her local community, Shelly is President of the Perris Valley holiday parade and is the Past-President of the Perris Valley Optimist Club.
Shelley is Ojibwe Indian, she and her husband, Perris City Councilman R. Mark Yarbrough, have four children and two grandchildren. She began her career in banking and worked her way from file clerk to manager of the General Ledger Operations department. Currently, she and her husband own two businesses and Shelly is CEO of Swedish Speed, Inc., Champion Towing and Warrior Motorsports.
Director-at-Large, County
Sara Wilkins is the Director-at-large, County for the California
School Boards Association. A member of the Madera County Board of
Education of the past 17 years, serving 13 years as board president,
Wilkins is a former president of the California County Boards of
Education association and in 2003 served on the CSBA Board of
Directors representing county boards.
Wilkins served as liaison to the Education Coalition for Special
Education and has been a member of the Eastern Madera County
Chamber of Commerce Education Committee for the past 10 years,
including two years as president.
She was a member of the CSBA Small Schools District Committee,
the Golden Bell Committee, the Federal Relations Network and
the Federal Issues Council. Wilkins has been a member of CSBA’s
Delegate Assembly for eight years, served on the association’s Annual
Conference Planning Committee and has worked as an evaluator for
the Golden Bell Awards program.
Director - CCBE President
John “Jack” Bedell, a board member for the Orange County Board of
Education, is the 2008 California County Boards of Education President
and a member of CSBA’s Board of Directors.
Dr. Bedell was first appointed to the Orange County Board of Education
in July 2003. In June of 2004 he ran and was elected Trustee of district
four of the Orange County Board of Education. In June of 2005, Dr.
Bedell was elected Vice President of the board and in 2006 was
unanimously elected President.
Dr. Bedell is chair of the Department of Anthropology at CSU Fullerton
and has chaired the Departments of Child Development, Sociology
and Electrical Engineering. At CSU Fullerton, he has chaired the
Academic Senate and served as Associate Vice President. For the CSU
system he chaired the statewide Academic Senate and was acting
Vice Chancellor. He is past president of the Fullerton School District
Board of Trustees.
Director-at-Large, Black
In December 2007, Emma Turner, Psy.D. was elected by members of the
Delegate Assembly to the position of Director-at-Large, Black. Turner,
a retired military officer, was elected in 2006 to the La Mesa-Spring
Valley School Board in San Diego County.
Turner has been involved in the La Mesa-Spring Valley School District
since 1998. Her participation has included terms as a president and vice
president of the school site council, a member of the district advisory
council from 2002-2004 and PTA president and program director for
the Mt. Helix Council PTA from 2003-2006. In addition, she served as
a member of the citizens' bond oversight committee for the district's
modernization bond from 2004-2006.
Currently, Turner serves as
a board representative on the district budget committee as well as
representative to the Mt. Helix Council PTA. Emma was elected to the
La Mesa-Spring Valley School District in 2006.
In addition to the above commitments, Turner facilitates a self-esteem
college preparation course for middle school students for the University of
California Upward Bound program. She has coordinated and sponsored
a scholarship oratory contest for community high school students and
has coordinated programs for the Pathways2College Foundation for
middle and high school students. Since 2004, Turner has assisted with
developing and implementing a literacy writing program for parents
and students in a disadvantaged area in San Diego.
While on active duty in the Navy, she taught military law courses to
undergraduate and graduate students from 2000-2004. Currently,
Turner teaches diversity, communications and psychology classes to
undergraduate students as an adjunct professor for the University of
Phoenix. She has three daughters.