Governor's Book Fund -- Fund Advisory Board Biographies

Board Member Biographies

First Lady Sharon Davis
Dr. Carole S. Talan, Executive Director
Amanda Carter
Lenore Daw
Barbara Jeffus
Maria G. Rangel
Marilyn N. Robertson
Loretta San Souci
Julie Song
Dr. Kevin Starr
Patty Wong

First Lady Sharon Davis

Sharon Davis focuses her attention on issues that affect children’s health, safety and well being. Both Governor Davis and the First Lady share a commitment to the State’s most precious resource, California’s children. The First Lady’s vision of ensuring that all children be nurtured and cared for in a safe, protective environment complements the Governor’s priority of strengthening education for California’s six million public school children.

As First Lady, Sharon Davis is an effective advocate for children by focusing on education and health issues. The First Lady visits schools throughout the state to encourage students to raise their expectations and performance as well as promote parental involvement.

The First Lady plays a key role in the California Mentor Initiative, a project designed to recruit one million new mentors for children across the state. For the First Lady, being a mentor is important because it offers young people encouragement, friendship and motivation to help them not only excel academically, but in every aspect of their lives.

For more information about the First Lady, please click here.

Dr. Carole S. Talan, Executive Director

Dr. Talan holds a B.S. in English, M.A. in reading and a doctorate in education with an emphasis in reading. She has taught at all levels, elementary, secondary, and university, as well as directed a public library-based adult literacy program. Currently she is the Library Literacy Programs Coordinator at the California State Library responsible for the California Literacy Campaign (CLC). The CLC provides adult and family literacy services in public libraries throughout the state. She has also served as the Director of the State Literacy Resource Center of California, a collaborative project between the governor's office and seven state agencies that provide literacy services.

Dr. Talan is a much sought after trainer and speaker in the area of adult and family literacy, having delivered training or keynote addresses in over 15 states, Great Britain, Canada and Micronesia. She has numerous literacy related publications, including a Literacy Needs Assessment (LNA), a co-authored parenting curriculum designed for family literacy programs (P.A.R.E.N.T.S.), and Founding and Funding Family Literacy (New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, 1999). In addition to her training and publishing, Dr. Talan has produced a 15 minute documentary film on family literacy, a highly acclaimed documentary short on adult literacy (Enrique's Story) and a documentary short about the 1997 California Adult Learner Conference (Adult Learners Leading the Way).

Amanda Carter

Mrs. Carter graduated from the University of California, Davis with an A.B. in English and is currently working on a masters degree in Library and Information Science at San Jose State University. She completed her single subject teaching credential in English at UC Davis and will complete a library media service credential at San Jose State in 2000/01.

Prior to beginning her present position, Mrs. Carter taught English for two years at Armijo High School in the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District. Currently she is employed as the library media teacher at Vanden High School in the Travis Unified School District in Fairfield, CA, where she taught English from 1993-1999, serving as department chair for four years.

As part of her professional work, Mrs. Carter has served as a Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment program teacher, as a Vanden High School leadership team member, a scorer on the Golden State Exam in Written Composition, a Master teacher for the Intel Teach to the Future program, and an Instructor for Josten’s Summer Yearbook Seminar. She is a member of CUE (Computer Using Educators), CSLA (California School Library Association), NCTE (National Council Teachers of English), and CTA (California Teachers Association).

Lenore Daw

Ever since I was a third grader I wanted to be a librarian. I was introduced into the library by a librarian in the East Liberty Branch Carnegie Library, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She taught me the Dewey System, how to shelve books, and how to file and use the card catalog. Above all, she introduced me to so many, many books above and beyond the books and stories my parents read to me.

It took me a long time to reach my dream, but with the support and encouragement of my husband, who was a minister (now deceased), I made it. I attended Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington and graduated from California State University Fresno with a B.A. I received my M.A. from the University of San Francisco, earning a teaching credential, librarian credential, and administrative credential.

Until a year ago, I was working toward a doctorate degree, but because of illness, I dropped-out of the program. I am hoping to re-enter the program in the near future.

Among my other responsibilities, I was district librarian for Fresno Unified School District for several years. I also have organized and given input for the African American Library in Fresno. I have been recognized and received a Certificate of Recognition by the California State Assembly, Certificate of Honor by the City of Fresno, served on the California State of Education Materials Evaluation Panel. I have also been recognized in Who’s Who of Women in Education and Who’s Who in America.

Barbara Jeffus

Barbara Jeffus is the first school library consultant at the California Department of Education in over two decades. She has been a school library media teacher for all grades, K-12, directed the library program for a school district, and directed the library and media services work for Fresno County Office of Education. Barbara has taught library-related courses for Fresno City College, San Jose State University, and Fresno Pacific University. She earned her B.S. at the University of Minnesota and a Master of Library and Information Science at San Jose State University. In addition to an expected love of reading, Barbara may be spotted roller-blading around the Capitol on Sunday mornings.

Maria G. Rangel

Maria G. Rangel serves as the Library Media Teacher at Sutter Middle School in the Los Angeles Unified School District. She brings over 20 years of educational experience and expertise to the library as a private and public classroom teacher and as a library at both the high school and middle levels.

Maria is active in professional organizations at the state and local levels. She is currently serving as chairperson of the California School Library Association's Leadership for Diversity Committee, as an area representative for librarians in the Los Angeles Unified School District and as a memeber of her school's Leadership Team.

She can be contacted by calling (818) 341-6661 during the day, via U.S. mail at Sutter Middle School, 7330 Winnetka Avenue, Winnetka, CA 91306 or via e-mail at mrherrera@msn.com.

Marilyn N. Robertson

Marilyn N. Robertson is the President of the California School Library Association during the year 2000, providing leadership to over 2000 members statewide. She also serves as a Coordinating Field Librarian for the Los Angeles Unified School District, serving over 700,000 K-12 students district-wide. She is responsible for direct services to schools including weeding, barcoding, data entry, collection and staff development. She brings over 25 years of experience to this work as a classroom teacher, library media teacher, grants advisor, and library coordinator. She served as an active member of the committee at the California Department of Education for developing the new Reading/Language Arts Framework for California Public Schools.

Marilyn is active in professional organizations at the national, state, and local levels. She presents at conferences and local meetings. She has served as past-president and awards chairperson for the Children’s Literature Council of Southern California. She was a member of the Hans Christian Anderson Awards Committee to select the United States’ nominee for this international award.

She is recipient of the Dorothy C. McKenzie Award from the Children’s Literature Council of Southern California. She is currently enrolled in the doctoral program at USC, working on and Ed.D. in Educational Psychology and Technology.

Loretta San Souci

Loretta San Souci is District Librarian for Hayward Unified School District in Hayward. She has been a school librarian for over 25 years, working at all levels, k-12 school libraries and taught high school English and history. She has worked as a children‚s librarian for the Oakland Public Library. She earned her Bachelors degree in English, School Library Credential and Teaching Credential at the University of San Francisco and worked on her Masters Degree at San Jose State University.

She is a member of the California School Library Association, American Library Association, Computer Using Educators and the California Teacher's Association and in her free time she likes to go to her son's rock and roll concerts.

Julie Song

Julie Song is the designee for the Interim Secretary for Education Sue Burr. She currently serves as a policy analyst for elementary and secondary education issues at the Office of the Secretary for Education. She is also the coordinator for the Governor's Reading Award Program which was created to encourage students to make independent reading a part of their lives.

Dr. Kevin Starr

Dr. Kevin Starr, the seventh State Librarian of California since the turn of the century, was born in San Francisco in 1940. After graduation from the University of San Francisco in 1962, Dr. Starr served two years as a lieutenant in a tank battalion in Germany. Upon release from the service, Dr. Starr entered Harvard University where he took his MA degree in 1965 and his PhD in 1969 in American Literature. He also holds the Master of Library Science degree from UC Berkeley and has done post-doctoral work at the Graduate Theological Union. Dr. Starr has served as Allston Burr Senior Tutor in Eliot House at Harvard, executive assistant to the Mayor of San Francisco, the City Librarian of San Francisco, and a daily columnist for the San Francisco Examiner. He currently holds the rank of University Professor at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and, is a contributing editor to the Opinion section of the Los Angeles Times. The author of numerous newspaper and magazine articles, Dr. Starr has written five books, three of which are part of his American and the California Dream series. His writing has won him a Guggenheim Fellowship, membership in the Society of American Historians, and the Gold Medal of the Commonwealth Club of California.

Patricia "Patty" Wong

Ms. Patty Wong was appointed Deputy Director of the Stockton-San Joaquin County Public Library in February 2001. Her library administrative experience includes management positions in the Oakland Public Library (CA) as Coordinator of Children’s and Youth Services and supervising librarian of the South Branch and the Tool Lending Library at the Berkeley Public Library (CA). She has worked as a school librarian, children’s librarian, cataloger, and special librarian. Ms. Wong continues to serve as a consultant for libraries in the areas of managing change, youth development, fundraising, cultural diversity, and developing joint ventures and collaborations between libraries and community agencies.

Ms. Wong received a Masters in Library and Information Science from the University of California at Berkeley and received a Bachelors in Women’s Studies from that same institution.

She is an active member of the American Library Association and currently serves as a Member of the Executive Board. She has also been active in the California Library Association, the Chinese American Librarians Association, REFORMA, (the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking), and the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA). She served as President of APALA, Board Member for the United States Board on Books for Young People, and has worked as a member and chair of many conference planning and working committees throughout several professional associations. Ms. Wong has been a keynote speaker at a number of professional conferences and a trainer for the California State Library. Prior to her work in San Joaquin County, Ms. Wong served on the board of the Spanish Speaking Citizens Foundation and was Board President of the Ohana Cultural Center, an Asian Pacific performing arts and community center.

Ms. Wong’s recent publications include: Joint Ventures: The Promise, Power and Performance of Partnering (California State Library, Sacramento, 2001), Cultivating Change: a Manual on Transforming Your Library (California State Library, Sacramento, CA, 1999), "Asian American Videos for Children and Young Adults," in Multicultural Videos for Children and Young Adults (Neal Schuman, NY, 1999), and Harmony in Diversity: Recommendations for Effective Library Service to Asian Language Speakers (California State Library, Sacramento, CA, 1998). Her passions include advocacy, programming, grantwriting and outreach. Ms. Wong has successfully garnered more than $1.75 million in support for libraries and nonprofit organizations throughout her career.