Vision and Mission

History

Accomplishments

What We Can Do for You

Our Core Values

Staff

Board of Directors

Staff

Mark Batenburg, Executive Director, has spent most of his professional life supporting young people as they grow and develop into adults. He taught high school in Chicago for seven years; started the Youth Service program at the Volunteer Center of San Mateo County, where he served as liaison among schools, young people, and community-based organizations; and worked for seven years at Stanford's Service Learning 2000 Center, developing publications and facilitating workshops. He co-authored The Evaluation Handbook: Practical Tools for Evaluating Service Learning Programs, which was awarded the Seal of Excellence from the Council on Service-Learning Excellence. He is currently writing a book on the role of service in various spiritual traditions. He has been at YSCal since 1995. His hobby is home renovation, and his volunteer work includes providing handyman services for other nonprofits.

Don Hill, Director of Service-Learning Programs, was director of the Service Learning 2000 Center at Stanford University from 1992-2001. Under his leadership, the Center became a nationally recognized leader in K-12 service-learning technical assistance and training. He is author of numerous articles on service learning including Death of a Dream: Service Learning 1994-2010. Don served as the Director of the Professional Development Center at the Stanford/Schools Collaborative; as a board member of the San Mateo Elementary School District; and as a high school social studies teacher and department head at Aragon High School in San Mateo, California.

Shannon Malone, Manager of Cesar E. Chavez Afterschool Service Clubs, joined YSCal from the National Youth Leadership Council, where she was Coordinator of the National Service-Learning Exchange and worked with the Pan-American Service-Learning Alliance as well as other international pieces. Prior to that, Shannon was the Program Assistant at Global Citizens Network, with whom she did sustainable community development work in Thailand and Kenya. She worked with Upward Bound writing the College Planning course curriculum. While in college, Shannon started an elementary afterschool Spanish club at the local YMCA, where she also taught preschool Spanish. Shannon holds a BA in Anthropology and Spanish from Hamline University in St. Paul, MN.

Morgan Mathewson, Operations Manage, has a diverse background in operations, programs and human resources management. Prior to coming to YSCal, Morgan was an Escrow Assistant with Fidelity National Title in San Luis Obispo. She has over ten years of experience in bookkeeping and office management. Her involvement with youth service and development began at the age of 12, when she was became a youth assistant leader for a local church youth group. From there, she assumed a variety of roles with steadily increasing levels of responsibility in the youth programs of the Episcopal Diocese of California, including team leadership, program design, event coordination and staff training. She has trained and served as a peer counselor.

Sher Moua, Programs Coordinator, comes to Youth Service California from the Cal Corps Public Service Center at the University of California, Berkeley, where he served as an AmeriCorps Bonner Leader for three years as an undergraduate at Cal. During his term as a Bonner Leader, he served as a BUILD (Bears United in Literacy Development) Tutor and Student Director at Santa Fe Elementary and Hoover Elementary in Oakland, CA. His experience as a Bonner Leader cemented his decision to pursue a career in service-learning following graduation. He is a recent graduate of Cal with a Bachelor’s Degree in Anthropology and a Minor in Education. In his free time, he enjoys playing football, fishing, and hanging out with friends and family.

Lisa Whitmer, Manager of the Pacific Region of the National Service-Learning Exchange, came to YSCal after teaching history at Aragon High School in San Mateo, California for six years. Last year, she received her MA in Education from San Francisco State, which is also where she completed her teaching credential program. She holds a BA in Anthropology from Brown University. Lisa’s current dream is to teach youth how to use video to document their lives and their communities.