Recognizing WISR Leaders

The following topics are addressed on this page . .

Remembering Key WISR Leaders who have passed away

Recognition of Decades of WISR Leadership

Recognition of WISR Leaders in the successful Accreditation Effort

Recognizing WISR's Founders 

. . .

Remembering Key WISR Leaders who have passed away . . .

• Dr. Terry Lunsford

The following tribute to Terry Lunsford was written by his friend and colleague, WISR co-founder, John Bilorusky: "Long-time WISR Faculty and Board member, Terry Lunsford passed away on January 3, 2009.  He was a founding Board member of WISR, and served as a member of WISR’s core faculty beginning in WISR’s earliest years shortly after our institutional beginnings in 1975.  And, since 1970, before WISR’s founding, Terry was one of my very closest friends and colleagues.  

More than most institutions, WISR is much more than our policies, procedures and operational programs.  It is a community of learners, and to a large extent WISR’s story is the stories of the people at WISR—the learners—the students, faculty, Board and community people who come together to learn at WISR and to work toward everyday community improvements and larger scale social change.  It is important for me to share with you some of the stories about Terry Lunsford and his 34 years’ of contributions to WISR.  

When Terry passed away, Bob Blackburn, Chair of WISR’s Board, said, “Terry was our rock, so long as Terry was on the Board we knew that the decisions we made would be ok.”  Read More . . . 

[Reading more about Terry Lunsford . . .]

People pass away, and even institutions die, but their stories have a life of their own, because they live on in other stories, and in more ways than we can ever know.  Remember and share stories.  They are powerful, life-affirming and transformative.  Terry Lunsford’s story will live on in many other stories, and many of those stories that have not even yet begun."

Learn more about Terry Lunsford  

• Dr. Robert Blackburn

Dr. Robert Blackburn served as a WISR Board member for over 30 years. WISR was blessed with his wise council, his unequaled and loving sense of humor, and his unwavering commitment to social and racial justice and to quality learner-centered education. He passed away, September 11, 2016.

WISR President, John Bilorusky shares some of his recollections of Bob: "Bob served on WISR's Board for many, many years, going back to the 1980s (for over 30 of WISR's 41 years), until he had to retire a year or two ago, for health reasons. During much of that time, he served as Chair of WISR's Board. Bob also served on a number of dissertation committees and was often available to have advising consultations with students. Beyond this, we often called on him to lead and facilitate All School Gatherings and sessions of our annual conferences—because Bob always did this with a joyful, uplifting and non-pretentious sense of humor, and with a very down-to-earth grace." 

John goes on to tell us, "We had one Board meeting (near Halloween) when walked through the door to our Board meeting dressed as a Cardinal, right out of the Vatican. Another time, when he was participating in the Graduation Review Board of Richard Allen, he sat down at the conference table, with an old-style briefcase (hard cover, luggage type) in his hand. He dramatically placed the briefcase on the table and clicked open the lid of the briefcase. With a flourish, he pulled out a big linen napkin and wrapped it around his neck, then he pulled out Richard's thick dissertation and placed it on the table, and finally, he reached into the briefcase and pulled out a very big carving fork and knife. He rubbed and slapped the knife and fork together and said: "Now, let's carve this sucker up!" And as was so often the case when in Bob's presence, we all laughed, felt really good about ourselves and about life, and then we proceeded to have a wonderful and collegial discussion of Richard's outstanding dissertation. Bob knew how to live life fully, and I imagine he, more than most of us, always appreciated life. In 1973, when the Symbionese Liberation Army murdered African American Oakland School Superintendent, Marcus Foster, Bob (who was Marcus Foster's Deputy Superintendent and close friend) was nearly killed—many more than a dozen bullets went in and through his body. He once told me of the "out of body/near death" experience he had on the surgery table. He survived, and the world and so many of us, have been blessed that he went on to live for more than another 40 years. I know I have lived my life better because of my good fortune to have associated with Bob for so many years."  Also, until his death, Bob was very active in the important efforts of the Marcus Foster Institute to improve public education in Oakland.

Robert Blackburn earned his PhD in Leadership in Higher Education, at the Union Graduate School (1984), the MA in Intergroup Relations, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (1964), and his AB, in Sociology and Education from Oberlin College (1957). He went to high school in Roslyn, New York and at the Texas Military Institute, San Antonio. Bob's work history included civil rights, school improvement and citizen action, regional director for the Peace Corps in Somalia, central office leadership in the Philadelphia public schools, Deputy and Superintendent for the Oakland Public Schools, Professor and Chair, and Department of Educational Leadership and Administration, Cal State East Bay. He held Board memberships in various professional and civic organizations in Philadelphia and Oakland and served on the California Attorney General's Commission on Hate Crimes. He provided extensive mentoring and coaching for Oakland school principals through the Principal Leadership Institute of the University of California at Berkeley and Cal State. More about Bob Blackburn

• Dr. Fernando Alegria

Fernando Alegria was a widely celebrated Chilean writer, and one of the most influential figures in the U.S. from Chile and a key figure in the advancement of Latino culture in the USA.  Algeria's Viva Chile Mierda, the most recited poem of the era when Salvadore Allende was President of Chile, was written in the 1960’s when Fernando Alegria was a professor at UC Berkeley as well as at Stanford. Furthermore, he was cultural attaché from the government of Salvador Allende to the United States from 1970 to 1973.

Fernando was a founding Board member of WISR and was on WISR’s Board of Trustees for almost 20 years into the 1990s. At this time, he was also Chair of the Spanish and Portuguese Department at Stanford University.  

Learn more about Fernado Alegria

Fernando Alegria Eulogy by Marcia Campos, November 5, 2005 

• Dr. Art Warmoth 

Art Warmoth contributed greatly to WISR as a friend and colleague, and Board and faculty member over a period of more than 15 years, and passed away in April 2014. His academic degrees were: Ph.D. in Psychology, Brandeis University, 1967 (N.I.M.H. Predoctoral Fellow, 1962-65); B.A., Reed College, 1959 (Major: Literature/Theater). Art was involved in humanistic psychology since 1959, when he went to Brandeis University to pursue doctoral studies with Abraham H. Maslow. Over the years, he used his nationally recognized expertise in humanistic psychology to address local and national economic issues, to health care reform, to politics, and ecology. He joined the Psychology faculty at Sonoma State University in 1969, and became full Professor in 1985, and continued to teach there, sometimes serving as Chair of the Department of Psychology. Early in his career at Sonoma State University, Dr. Warmoth co- founded the Humanistic Psychology Institute (now the Saybrook Graduate School), which emphasizes training and research in humanistic psychology that addresses human potential at all levels. In 2005, he received “The Community-Based Learning Founders Award,” which is given annually to a faculty member for career achievements and contributions in linking Sonoma State University with the local community through teaching, scholarship, and service. Art was also involved in community service, including serving on the boards of The Family Connection (a transition services agency for volunteers mentoring homeless families), the Latino Commission for Alcohol & Drug Abuse Services of Sonoma County, and the Latino Democratic Club. He was a friend of WISR’s for many years, and worked with students in many topics related to social change, among them: the Economic Literacy of Citizenship, Social Entrepreneurship, The Postindustrial (Postmodern) Economy, Community Economic Survival Strategies, A Sustainable Economic Recovery, and inquires into The Epistemological Foundations of Community and Society. 

• Dr. Dennis Hastings 

The late, Dennis Hastings, was one of the Native Americans, who occupied Alcatraz in 1969. [For his interview about that, go to:  https://www.cinema.ucla.edu/collections/ktla/clips/dennis-hastings-interviewed-about-occupation-alcatraz-and-abandoned-missile .] He met WISR co-founder, John Bilorusky at University Without Walls-Berkeley in 1973, and he consulted with WISR’s co-founders during the process of creating WISR. He returned to his tribal homeland, the Omaha reservation, and then founded the Omaha Tribal Historical Research Project (OTHRP).  He continued as director of OTHRP until his death in 2023.  In 1998 he earned his Master’s degree at WISR, in part with assistance from a scholarship from the Association for Community-Based Education. This resulted in a book that he coauthored with an anthropologist, Robin Riddington, on Dennis’ successful efforts to return to his Tribe (from the Harvard Peabody Museum), the Sacred Pole of the Omaha. This book, Blessing for a Long Time, was published by the University of Nebraska Press.  Subsequently, in the early 2000s, Dennis and a colleague, Margery Coffey, pursued and earned their doctorates at WISR (in 2009), doing collaborative research in many areas of Omaha history.  Their 1,500 page dissertation (which included drawings, maps, and photos) was praised as a masterpiece by scholars of Native American history as the definitive history of the Omaha people in the face of the European invasion. Their dissertation, Grandfather Remembers, is available for viewing through WISR, but all rights to this dissertation are reserved by Margery Coffey. Their dissertation contained pivotal evidence that was used by the Omaha to win a dispute before the US Supreme Court in March 2016. Several years ago, their dissertation ended up being the definitive evidence in case before the US Supreme Court which resulted in a unanimous decision upholding the rights and authority of the Omaha people in case brought against the Tribe by the residents of Pender, Nebraska.

Dennis was the founder and Director of the Omaha Tribal Historical Research Project (OTHRP).  OTHRP became the designated Cultural Authority for the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska and Iowa in Perpetuity by Tribal Council Resolution.  Among his many awards and accomplishments are:

• Certificate of Award presented by the Pawnee Tribe in recognition of assistance and support leading to the enactment of the Nebraska Unmarked Burial Sites and Skeletal Remains Protection Act

• Honorable Mention of the Victor Turner Prize in Anthropology for Blessing For a Long Time: The Story of the Omaha Sacred Pole co-authored with Robin Ridington. (University of Nebraska Press, 1997 still in print). Dr. Hastings has collaborated on many books on the Omaha

• Genealogical Research: Paul Brill, Genealogist. Research into the Genealogy of the Omaha Tribe.

• Omaha Archival Photographic Project: John Carter, Nebraska State Historical Society

• Wax Cylinder Restoration and Reintroduction of Traditional Omaha Music: Dorothy Sara Lee, University of Indiana.

• West Meets West: Awarded 1993 Nebraska Arts Council's Governor's Art Awards for West Meets West, a collaborative performance with the City of Omaha Symphony Orchestra of contemporary Omaha tribal and symphonic music. Dennis coordinated the Omaha sector.

• "We Are One" Project: Dennis Hastings and Nebraska Educational Television (film of traditional Omaha life in 1800 designed for 4th and 5th grade curriculum in Nebraska public schools to educate both Indians and non-Indians).

• The Omaha's and the History of Anthropology: Joan Mark, Peabody Museum, Harvard University

• Bringing the past to the future: Placement of pictures in the various institutions on the reservation, OTHRP

• New Moon Moving, Interpretive Center/Museum, planned to house cultural artifacts and educational materials on the Omaha reservation: Starting in 1995, the proposed Interpretive Center/Museum was designed by native Nebraskan architect, Vincent Snyder with an actual model of the design completed in 2002. The design for this project won three awards: Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Faculty Design Award 2002, Boston Society of Architects' Unbuilt Architecture Design Award 2002, 50th Annual Progressive Architecture Award -- Architecture Magazine 2003.

• Dr. Peter Gabel

For six years prior to his death, he was a member of WISR’s faculty. At WISR, in recent years, he taught and organized seminars on social-spiritual activism, in conjunction with his involvement as a one of the leaders of Tikkun’s Network of Spiritual Progressives. Peter passed away in October 2022, and for decades prior to that he was a good friend and colleague of WISR co-founder, John Bilorusky, and others among the leadership and faculty at WISR. Peter's academic degrees were: Ph.D. The Wright Institute 1981 (Social-Clinical Psychology); J.D. Harvard Law School 1972 (magna cum laude); B.A. Harvard College 1968 (English Literature--phi beta kappa). 

For many years, Peter Gabel was President of New College of California and was a law professor at New College’s public-interest law school for over thirty years. He was Editor-at-Large of Tikkun magazine for much of the last thirty years, until has death in October 2022.  He was also co-chair of Tikkun’s Project for Integrating Spirituality, Law, and Politics. He was also founder and president of the Arlene Francis Foundation for Spirit, Art and Politics in Santa Rosa, and he was the prime energy behind the Noe Valley Farmers Market. He was the author of many articles on law, politics, and social change, including the following books: The Bank Teller and Other Essays on the Politics of Meaning (Acada Books 2000); Another Way of Seeing: Essays on Transforming Law, Politics, and Culture (Quid Pro Books 2014); and most recently, The Desire for Mutual Recognition: Social Movements and the Dissolution of the False Self (Routledge Press 2018). He received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from San Francisco State University in 2015 and has been described by Cornel West as “one of the grand prophetic voices in our day and a long-distance runner in the struggle for justice.” Peter Gabel is survived by his life-long partner Lisa Jaicks, who has spent much of her life working with the Labor Movement and defending workers facing abuse, and by their son Sam, a musician and artist.  

As a founding editor of Tikkun, long-term president of New College of California, and author most recently of The Desire for Mutual Recognition: Social Movements and the Dissolution of the False Self, Gabel was a constant source of inspiration to tens of thousands of Tikkun readers.

More about Peter Gabel.

• Dr. L.C. Calu Lester

The late L.C. (Calu) Lester earned his doctorate at WISR in 1984. He was briefly a part-time WISR faculty member, and very significantly, the founder of WISR's KWIC-FAN Project on AIDS education and prevention in communities of color (see details below). Previously, he led many community programs devoted to helping jail inmates, biracial youths, mentally retarded citizens, people of color, and others.  His dissertation was on the development of identity and self-esteem among biracial adolescents.  Calu received an NIMH Research Fellowship to a 1986 Paris conference on AIDS.  He was in NIMH's National Advisory Group on AIDS in Third World Countries, and co-authored a report, growing out of the 1986 conference, that examined AIDS from a multidisciplinary, multicultural perspective. Calu was born and raised in a large family in Oklahoma, and he identified as African American, Native American and European American. Much of his WISR studies focused on strategies to address the needs of multiracial youth. Very importantly, in the early years of the AIDS/HIV epidemic, he was a well-respected activist, globally, for organizing early educational efforts to prevent the transmission and spread of the HIV virus. He himself passed away abruptly due to an HIV-related illness. However, WISR continued his efforts in collaboration with other Bay Area activists whom he had organized. This effort became known as the KWIC-FAN (Kapuna West Inner City Family AIDS Network) project , and for a few years WISR operated a very successful AIDS-education project, which was one of the first to target health education efforts to prevent the spread of HIV-AIDS in African American and Latino communities. 

To learn more about Calu’s important ideas and efforts to address the HIV-AIDS epidemic read his paper on this matter [ https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07481188808252270 ] This paper was originally developed by Calu Lester, the founder of KWICFAN, which took a novel approach to grass roots AIDS education in the black community. Calu died of AIDS before completing the work and the paper was completed by Larry L. Saxxon, who was both a friend of Calu's and an AIDS program consultant. Here is the abstract of the paper which was published years later in 2007: “[This paper] presents a critical perspective of black America's response to the AIDS epidemic. The findings are frightening. Denial within the black community, coupled with a lack of support from the agencies responsible for funding AIDS education, has created a potential epidemiological nightmare. IV drug use continues to be a critical problem of frightening magnitude, allowing an efficient vehicle of HIV transmission. Most sadly of all, the social conditions that create and perpetuate the problematic drug abuse patterns still continue in black America. Black people are clearly becoming the new face of AIDS.”

• Ms. Dorothy Terrell

Dorothy was a key source of administrative support and coordination for WISR, during a critical period in the 1980s, after co-founder Barbara Valentino left, and until a decade or so later, after Dorothy passed away, and when Marilyn Jackson arrived at WISR and took on many such responsibilities.  Dorothy was always a source of energy and enthusiasm, including a creative knack with graphic arts. Her life included circumstances that would have been physically challenging for others, but which vanished in the midst of her life-affirming qualities and ability to accomplish much more than most. Beyond WISR, she made many valuable contributions to grassroots groups and non-profits, especially in West Oakland. 

• Mr. Michael McAvoy

Michael McAvoy, who passed away in 2018, was a core faculty member at WISR for the last decade of his life, and a friend of WISR's for several decades before joining WISR's faculty.. Michael received a Master’s Degree in Medical Anthropology from Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland) in 1983. Prior to that, he was a student activist in the 1960’s civil rights and anti-Vietnam war movements. After receiving his BA degree from St. John Fisher College (Rochester, NY) in Biology in 1970, Michael entered medical school at the Faculté de Médecine, Université de Bordeaux (France). Preferring to work on community health rather than individual change, he left in 1973 to create the San Francisco People's Health Resource Center and People's Medical School (1974-79) which provided access to medical care for the poor, along with a political-economic critique of the social causes of disease as well as education in self-care, holistic health and alternative medicine. Later, based at the Free Medical Clinic of Greater Cleveland and working with leaders of the African-American Hough neighborhood community, Michael helped develop a model community-based hypertension program, adolescent health clinic and radical health education program. In 1985 Michael joined the Core Faculty of the New College of California (San Francisco), and subsequently founded New College’s Center for Community Action, Research and Education, its North Bay Campus of Culture, Ecology and Sustainable Community, and its Activism and Social Change Program. During his three decades at New College, he also served for a while as Dean of the Humanities Program and co-Academic Vice President. In his later years, Michael was also seeking ways to theorize and create a social movement which combines a spiritual change in consciousness, with healing ourselves and others, while also resisting injustice, in line with Martin Luther King’s vision for a universal “beloved community.”

Recognition of Decades of WISR Leadership

• Charles Greene, MBA

Charles (Chuck) Greene, MBA, is Treasurer of WISR’s Board. He has served on WISR's Board for almost WISR's entire history--since just a few years after WISR began. Mr. Greene graduated from the University of Pittsburgh (Bachelor’s) and has his MBA from Harvard Business School. Chuck Greene is the Executive Director of the Cedars of Marin, which has model day and residential programs for adults with developmental disabilities. Chuck has more than 36 years of nonprofit management experience as co-founder and Administrative Vice President of World College West, Executive Director: of the Volunteer Center of San Francisco, of The Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, and the Goldman Environmental Prize. He has been an interim executive director for nine Bay Area nonprofits, including at CompassPoint Nonprofit Services. Previous interim assignments include Chinese for Affirmative Action, Angel Island Immigration Foundation, Zen Hospice Project and the Marin Institute. Chuck has provide invaluable guidance and leadership as an active Board member throughout WISR's history. 

• Dr. Cynthia Lawrence 

Cynthia Lawrence served as a key WISR core faculty member for 25 years, until about 12 years ago. Her academic degrees are: BS in Education, Massachusetts State Teachers College at Boston, 1960. MA in Multicultural Education, Pepperdine College, 1977. PhD, Higher Education and Social Change, Western Institute for Social Research, 1987. Cynthia is a former schoolteacher, and is expert in the areas of multicultural education, alternative education, and the teaching and learning of language skills. She is also a retired faculty member in Teacher Education at the University of California, San Diego. Cynthia was the co-author, with John Bilorusky, of two important published articles about learning and action-research "the WISR way": “Multicultural, Community-Based Knowledge-Building” in Community and the World: Participating in Social Change, Torry D. Dickinson (ed.), Nova Science Publishers, 2003, and “Participatory Action-Research, Inclusiveness, and Empowering Community Action” in Democracy Works: Joining Theory and Action to Foster Global Change. in Torry D. Dickinson and Terrie A. Becerra (eds.), Paradigm Publishers, 2008.

Over the years, she has developed materials and conducted training sessions to heighten teachers’ sensitivity to multicultural issues. She says that, "I've always been concerned about learners and how best to encourage self actualization, and making the most of the richness of one's ethnic and cultural experience. My work has centered and language development, and especially reading and writing success for children who have been marginalized. I also watercolor, sing, play guitar, and group women together to sing music by, about and in praise of women." She has conducted workshops on interracial issues for such groups as the Family Stress Center and the National Organization for Women (NOW). She founded the San Diego Women's Chorus in 1987, and on one occasion was the Grand Marshall for the San Diego Gay Freedom Day parade. She was appointed in 1991 to the San Diego Human Relations Commission.

• Vera Labat, MPH

Vera Labat, MPH, has served as a part-time member of WISR's faculty for 30 years. She was first involved with WISR in 1980 while she was working as the founding Executive Director of the Over 60 Health Clinic at Berkeley, and her initial work at WISR was to help educate community leaders and human service professionals in the use of the special action-research methods for which WISR has become highly recognized. For a couple of years, Vera assumed the key role at WISR as Chief Financial Officer, and also intermittently served during the past 20 years as a Board member, from time to time. Vera has her BS in Nursing from San Francisco State University (1964) and her Master's in Public Health from the University of California at Berkeley (1974). Vera recently retired after a long career in the field of public health. For many years, she was in charge of immunization for the City of Berkeley, and prior to that, she was school health consultant for the Berkeley Unified School District. She taught community health at the University of California, San Francisco, and taught in the School of Medicine at the University of Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania. 

• Dr. Marilyn Jackson

Marilyn has been involved at WISR for 20 years- -first as a doctoral student and administrative assistant. Then for 18 years, Dr. Jackson was Executive Assistant to WISR's President, and more recently, since 2021, she has served as Chief Administrative Officer/Chief Operations Officer. She has also been a Learning Support Instructor as part of WISR's faculty, for 18 years. Her academic degrees are: BA, Augustana College, 1981, Religion. M.A., Holy Names College, Institute in Creation Spirituality and Culture, 1989. PhD, WISR, Higher Education and Social Change, 2004. Her roles have included: marketing and outreach; document production (including minutes); IT research, innovations and training; faculty, student and alumni communications and coordination; seminar planning, coordination and production; supervision of institutional filing; policy development; survey development, implementation, data collection and analysis; State and Federal compliance; registration activities. In addition, until recently, she has worked for 25 years in two small law firms in administrative roles including document production, editing, court filing of legal documents, reception, legal research, preparation of legal exhibits, billing, and office filing. Prior to working in law firms, she had five years of experience in administrative, business and office management positions. For 25 years, while working for the non-profit Ecumenical Peace Institute, Berkeley, Dr. Jackson has acted as Board member and office manager and performed marketing and technology training. During this time also, she has done volunteer work in community nonprofits, providing education, fundraising, volunteer coordination and outreach services. Additional training received includes FERPA compliance, assertiveness and conflict mediation. 

• Dr. Ronald Mah, LMFT

Ronald has been deeply involved with WISR since the late 1980s. First, he was a student in WISR's MFT program, and earned his Master's from WISR in 1991. Several years later, he joined WISR's Faculty, and has remained as a core faculty member ever since. He is currently Co-Director of WISR's MFT program, and he earned his PhD from WISR in 2013.  His other academic degrees are: 

BA in Psychology and Social Sciences, University of California at Berkeley, 1975.Teacher’s Credential Program, University of California at Berkeley, 1976. 

Ronald has had a private practice since 1994 as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. He is a credentialed elementary and secondary teacher, and former owner-director of a preschool and daycare center. He does consulting and training for human service organizations, teaching courses and workshops for many community agencies and educational institutions around the California and the United States. He is a visible and active writer of books and articles in the field. His areas of special concern include child development, parenting and child-rearing, multicultural education, and teacher education. He previously served two terms on the Board of Directors of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT), and in June 2021, he has been elected to another term on the CAMFT Board. He also has served on the Board of the California Kindergarten Association. Ronald completed his PhD at WISR, writing on multiple topics on couple’s therapy, and for a potential twenty book series, possibly e-books. For more information about Ronald’s many professional endeavors, go to www.ronaldmah.com  

• Marcia Campos

 Marcia Campos has served several terms as a member of WISR’s Board of Trustees for over 20 years, and currently, she is the Chair of WISR's Board.  From 1980-1985 she was enrolled in the Political Sciences Doctorate Program U.N.A.M. - Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.  She received the following degrees: 1978: Master of Arts in Sociology, FLACSO - The Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences. Mexico D.F. 1973: Psychologist, MA, University of Chile - School of Psychology, Santiago, Chile. 

Marcia has been affiliated with WISR since 1998 as an adjunct faculty member and as a Board member. She is a Chilean born US citizen who was a student leader in her native country during the socialist government of Salvador Allende. She was a political exile in Mexico after the military coup of Augusto Pinochet of 9/11, 1973 where she pursued an academic career in the National Institute of Anthropology focusing on  the US/Mexican border. She was actively involved in the international movement of solidarity with the victims of the Pinochet terror regime. Upon her relocation in California in 1986, Marcia Campos has worked with migrant families and children at a grassroots and  legislative level. She has been involved  with multiple organizations such as UC Berkeley Health Initiative of the Americas, The National Council of La Raza, and the Obama Committee for the Latino Heritage Museum in Washington DC. She was a Board member of  Western States Legal Foundation, where she focused on developing further connections between the USA and Latin American countries as well as Latino migrants in the USA under the concept North of Tlatelolco, to advocate for a world free of the threat of nuclear annihilation.

• Dr. Torry Dickinson

Torry Dickinson was a long-time WISR core faculty member, serving for more than 20 years over a period of time from the early 1980s, and until as recently as 10 or so years ago.  More recently, she served for more than 5 years on WISR's Advisory Committee. She is a widely-respected interdisciplinary academic in gender studies, sociology, non-violence, and social change. Her academic degrees are: B.A. Sociology, Livingston College, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, 1975. M.A. Sociology, SUNY-Binghamton, 1977. Graduate Certificate in Women and Public Policy, Rockefeller Institute for Public Affairs, SUNY-Albany, 1983. Ph.D. SUNY-Binghamton, Sociology 1983. Torry is Professor Emeritus at Kansas State University (Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies and Sociology/Nonviolence Studies). She has authored, co-authored, and edited a number of books including: Transformations: Feminist Pathways to Global Change; Democracy Works;Community and the World; Fast Forward: Work, Gender and Protest in a Changing World; and CommonWealth. Torry has been a Revson Fellow in Women and Public Policy (1983) and an American Fellow (Susan B. Anthony Award) with the American Association of University Women (1980). In the past, she has taught or done research at a number of universities in California–in addition to WISR, at the University of California at Berkeley (School of Education, National Center for Research on Vocational Education), the University of California at Santa Cruz (Sociology, cross-listed with Women’s Studies), and San Jose State University in San Jose and at the former Salinas Campus (Sociology cross-listed with Women’s Studies). 

• Larry Loebig

Larry Loebig had a key role in helping to further develop WISR for well over 10 years-- when WISR was first making concerted efforts to move forward in the use of technology. He co-founded California.com years ago, and at the time, it was one of the premier internet access companies in the San Francisco Bay Area. California.com received awards from the City of Oakland, The California State Legislature and Senate and were honored by The U.S. House of Representatives. 

He went on to co-found Econetwork.net - the Socially Responsible Internet Company. Larry Loebig was born in Brooklyn New York and studied theater and broadcasting. In 1989 he began studying the art and science of coaching. He earned a Master’s Degree from Summit University in Organizational Behavior. He is a Master Coach [ www.mastercoach.com ], Certified Mediator and Master Trainer with Guerrilla Marketing International. He also earned the title of Master Certified Coach, a prestigious designation awarded by International Coaching Federation. Larry was also an instructor at WISR, where he used his very valuable expertise in developing online collaboration in conjunction with face-to-face coaching.

• Dr. David Yamada

David Yamada, a WISR PhD alumnus (2010), has been  significantly involved at WISR ever since receiving his WISR PhD--first as a part-time volunteer faculty member, then as a member of WISR's Board of Trustees, and most recently as Chair of WISR's Board during the final stages of our home stretch push in achieving accreditation. David is a Professor of Law and Director of the New Workplace Institute at Suffolk University Law School in Boston, where he is a globally recognized authority on workplace bullying and psychological abuse and has authored leading law review articles on the topic. He is a frequent invited speaker at interdisciplinary conferences in fields such as organizational psychology, health care, and labor relations, and he has been sought out often by the media on employment relations topics, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, Chronicle of Higher Education, National Public Radio, MSNBC, and ProPublica. David’s extensive academic and civic affiliations have included leadership positions with the Association of American Law Schools, Americans for Democratic Action, International Therapeutic Jurisprudence Project, Workplace Bullying Institute, and Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies Network. His blog, Minding the Workplace, is a popular source of commentary about dignity at work, employment and labor law, and employee relations. In addition to his WISR doctorate, David has earned degrees from New York University School of Law (J.D.), SUNY-Empire State College (M.A.), and Valparaiso University (B.A.).

Recognition of WISR Leaders in the successful Accreditation Effort

Many at WISR, including faculty, tech support staff, librarian, Board members, Advisory Committee members, and WISR's Chief Finance Officer, Julian Tao, MS, CPA, contributed greatly to WISR's accreditation efforts since May 2013. Still, David Ross, Brian Gerrard, and Marilyn Jackson deserve special recognition for their untold hours of energy, ingenuity and even-tempered collaboration toward WISR's "home stretch run" to, and across, the "accreditation finish line" in the past year and a half. 

• David Ross

David is WISR's Quality Improvement Officer (QIO) and Compliance Officer. His academic background is: EdD candidate in WISR's doctoral program in Higher Education and Social Change. Graduate Studies in Theology and Philosophy, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hampton, MA. BA in English, Westmont College, Santa Barbara. 

David’s background in Quality Improvement includes experience as Director of Continuous Quality Improvement, ACI (Addictions Care Interventions), New York City in a community healthcare clinic facility where he trained nurses and clinicians and where his directives resulted in renewal of accreditation and

improved audit statistics. In that role, he was a certified professional in healthcare quality. He was Director of Continuous Quality Improvement for the World School of Massage and Holistic Health and has served as Director of Operations for Andrew University in Berkeley. He has been a Continuous Quality Improvement and Strategic Planning Consultant for a nascent global humanitarian project, Sums Global, in Scottsdale, AZ. He was also Director of Admissions and Triage for ACI (Addictions Care Interventions) in New York City, and New England Memorial Hospital in Stoneham, MA, he received the Siegert Memorial Award for excellence in clinical psychiatry. In addition, David continues his professional career and work in life coaching and wellbeing. In that role he has developed novel, integrative approaches to holistic health and lifestyle coaching and self-coaching training. He has extensive experience developing course manuals and handbooks, and in web marketing. david.ross@wisr.edu

• Dr. Brian Gerrard

Brian is WISR’s Chief Academic Officer, Co-Director of WISR’s Doctoral Program and the MS program in Education and Community Leadership. Brian's academic degrees are: Ph.D. Sociology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, PhD Counseling Psychology, University of Toronto. M.A. Counseling Psychology, University of British Columbia. 

Brian is Emeritus Associate Professor, Counseling Psychology Department, University of San Francisco. He holds teaching awards from two universities. He has extensive experience teaching a wide variety of Master’s and Doctoral level courses in counselor education. Brian developed USF’s masters MFT program and for 14 years served as MFT Coordinator. His orientation emphasizes an integration of family systems and problem-solving approaches. He is an experienced administrator and has been Chair of the Counseling Psychology Department three times. 

Currently, he is a member of the Board, WISR Center for Child and Family Development. The Center, co-founded by Brian, has for years managed the largest longest-running School-Based Family Counseling program of its type in the USA. Its Mission Possible Program has served more than 25,000 children and families in over 100 Bay area schools. Brian is also Chair of the Institute for School-Based Family Counseling. The Institute sponsors the International Journal for School-Based Family Counseling and the Oxford Symposium in School-Based Family Counseling. He is also Symposium Director for the Oxford Symposium in School-Based Family Counseling which is an international association with members in 22 countries and which meets at Brasenose College, Oxford University in even years and other international sites in alternate years. Brian is senior editor of the books, School-Based Family Counseling: an Interdisciplinary Practitioner’s Guide (Routledge, 2020), School-Based Family Counseling with Refugees and Immigrants (Routledge, 2023), and School-Based Family Counseling for Crisis and Disaster: Global Perspectives (Routledge, 2023). He is co-author with Dr. Jacqueline Shinefield of Psychological Type Therapy: A Practitioner’s Guide to Strengthening Relationships (Routledge, 2022). Brian is Co-Facilitator of the Disastershock Global Response Team that developed 30 language translations of the book Disastershock: How to Cope with the Emotional Stress of a Major Disaster and made them available free globally during the Covid 19 pandemic. brian.gerrard@wisr.edu.

• Dr. Marilyn Jackson

Marilyn is WISR's Chief Administrative Officer. Her academic degrees are: BA, Augustana College, 1981, Religion. M.A., Holy Names College, Institute in Creation Spirituality and Culture, 1989. PhD,

WISR, Higher Education and Social Change, 2004. Prior to her current role, which she assumed in 2021, that, for 18 years, Dr. Jackson was Executive Assistant to WISR’s CEO; for the ten years prior to that, she served as WISR’s Administrative Assistant. For 18 years she also has been on WISR’s faculty as a Learning Support Instructor. 

Her roles have included: marketing and outreach; document production (including minutes); IT research, innovations and training; faculty, student and alumni communications and coordination; seminar planning, coordination and production; supervision of institutional filing; policy development; survey development, implementation, data collection and analysis; State and Federal compliance; registration activities. She has received training in FERPA compliance, assertiveness and conflict mediation.

Until recently, she has worked for 25 years in two small law firms in administrative roles including document production, editing, court filing of legal documents, reception, legal research, preparation of legal exhibits, billing, and office filing. Prior to working in law firms, she had five years of experience in administrative, business and office management positions. 

For 25 years, while working for the non-profit Ecumenical Peace Institute, Berkeley, Dr. Jackson has acted as Board member and office manager and performed marketing and technology training. During this time also she has done volunteer work in community nonprofits, providing education, fundraising, volunteer coordination and outreach services. marilyn.jackson@wisr.edu

Recognizing WISR's Founders

• Victor Acosta

Victor Acosta was born in Venezuela, and he became a community organizer and Chicano activist in California in the late 60s and early 70s. In the early 70s, he was a leader of the alternative, independent, non-profit college, University Without Walls-Berkeley (UWW-Berkeley). UWW-Berkeley grew to an enrollment of about 200 students, with a very diverse student body of roughly equal numbers of white, Black, Latino and Asian students, as well as a few Native American students (one of whom was Dennis Hastings, who participated in the occupation of Alcatraz Island, and who later earned a Master's and Doctorate at WISR, and founded the Omaha Tribal Historical Research Project).  UWW-Berkeley's largest program, by far, was its Bachelor's program, but it also offered a very innovative Teacher's Credential Program, and Victor was instrumental in UWW-Berkeley hiring John Bilorusky to be the Director of its new Master's program in Fall 1983.  

By late 1984, Victor along with his faculty colleagues, Joanne Kowalski, and John Bilorusky (see below), had become very dissatisfied with what they saw to be significant imperfections in UWW-Berkeley's administrative, and to some degree also, teaching practices. So, they left UWW-Berkeley to found the Western Regional Learning Center in 1975, which became known in 1980 as the Western Institute for Social Research (WISR). 

During the period 1975-1979, Victor and John provided pro-bono consultation assistance to two emerging farmworkers colleges--Universidad de Campesinos Libres in Fresno, and Colegio Cesar Chavez in Mt. Angel, Oregon. Sadly, neither institution was able to sustain itself.   

Victor left WISR, on good terms, in 1980--to pursue a law degree at New College's Law School. Victor pursued a number of careers and community involvements until his death. 

• Dr. Joanne Kowalski

Joanne received her PhD in Psychology from the University of Utah, and she met Victor Acosta and John Bilorusky, fellow co-founders of WISR, when they were on the faculty at University Without Walls-Berkeley from 1973 to 1974. By early 1975, because of their concern that UWW-Berkeley was not living up to its mission, and after their unsuccessful efforts to mobilize others at UWW-Berkeley to make significant reforms and improvements in UWW-Berkeley's practices, together, the three of them left to co-found WISR. 

As part of their efforts in creating WISR, Victor, Joanne, and John collaboratively wrote a number of unpublished discussion papers and manuscripts critiquing the state of US higher education and proposing directions for improved alternatives. One article, "Does Alternative Higher Education Need an Alternative?" was published in the Journal Alternative Higher Education (later re-named, Innovative Higher Education), June 1980.  4(4):299-307

DOI:10.1007/BF01079736. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/226199001_Does_alternative_higher_education_need_an_alternative  and https://drive.google.com/file/d/1J-LuhoGv5mcvUUWwMARaHHpqQPCAkIO6/view?usp=sharing

Here is the abstract of the article: The present movement in alternative higher education is predominantly an accommodation for the unrest which surfaced during the sixties. Generally, the creators and participants of alternatives, both inside and outside of conventional universities, fell comfortably into a process of cooptation which alleviated the more obvious symptoms of alienation and silenced dissent. This paper discusses alternative higher education in light of 1) improvement of communication within the "alternative community" and with others in the larger society, 2) attention paid to critical analysis, theory and research, to avoid the pitfalls of subjectivism, 3) development of the organization and power to survive, rather than becoming trapped by excessive preoccupations with criticizing the conventional or with justifying ourselves to those in positions of power, and 4) creation of an integrity in our purposes and methods by fashioning a systematic and socially critical methodology of theory-and-practice, involving in part a serious consideration of Marxist thought.

Joanne left WISR in 1980 to earn her law degree from New College's School of Law.  Joanne went on to practice law in Berkeley, pursuing her social justice and feminist commitments, and providing extensive pro-bono assistance to those in need, until her death. 

• Barbara Valentino

Barbara Valentino assumed the key administrative, coordination role, among WISR's four co-founders--during the period, 1974-1982.  During that time, Barbara's main paid position was as an Administrator for Goddard College's External Degree program. To learn more about Barbara's role in co-founding WISR and some of the human-side of the collaboration among the four co-founders of WISR, read this excerpt from John Bilorusky's letter to Barbara's sister, upon learning of Barbara's death on December 30, 2008.

• Dr. John Bilorusky

After the other three co-founders left WISR, on good terms, John remained at WISR, and since then, he has served full-time as President and member of the faculty at WISR. 

John's academic degrees are: BA cum laude, General Studies and Physics, University of Colorado, 1967. MA, Sociology of Education, University of California at Berkeley, 1968. PhD, Higher Education, UC Berkeley, 1972. After his experience in working toward educational reform and social justice as Student Body President at the University of Colorado, John changed his career plans and pursued graduate studies in Higher Education at UC Berkeley. 

In 1970-71, John taught senior thesis seminars in the Social Sciences Integrated Courses and Field Major, as a Teaching Associate at the University of California, Berkeley. Concurrently, he was also Postgraduate Researcher, Center for Research and Development in Higher Education, University of California, Berkeley. From 1971-73, he was Assistant Professor of Urban Affairs and Senior Research Associate in the Institute for Research and Training in Higher Education, at the University of Cincinnati. There he taught the required action-research course in the College of Community Services, created and coordinated the College’s Individualized Learning Program, and served as an in-house organizational and evaluation consultant for faculty at the University. Then, from 1973-75, he was Director of Graduate Studies at University Without Walls-Berkeley. 

John is the author of many published articles and papers on higher education and social change, adult learning, and practical, community-based and participatory research methods, including a co-authored book published by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education, May 1970: The Campus Aftermath of Cambodia and Kent State (with Richard Peterson) and two books recently published by Routledge Press in 2021—Principles and Methods of Transformative Action Research, and Cases and Illustrations of Transformative Action Research. 

He has served as a consultant for community agencies in the area of participatory action-research, including directing a major study of needs and services for low-income elders for the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency, and using participatory research in collaboration with the Bay Area Black United Fund on three occasions for their African American Health Summits. In addition, he has done collaborative consultations with dozens of Bay Area groups over the years. He has conducted evaluations of colleges and educational innovations, for such institutions as De Pauw University (Indiana), Macalester College (Minnesota), Colorado College, New College of California, and Fresno State University. He has conducted feasibility studies for such groups as the California Housing Trust Fund and Cleveland State University’s Department of Human Services. John serves on the Advisory Board of the global network of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies ( https://www.humiliationstudies.org/ ).  johnb@wisr.edu   For more information, go to: https://www.routledge.com/authors/i21042-john-bilorusky#books