Board & Staff
Project H.E.L.P. board members bring a broad base of knowledge, experience, professional expertise, and personal dedication to their roles with the agency. In addition to providing governance and counsel, they consistently serve as personal advocates and supporters for the organization.
Project H.E.L.P. Board of Directors and Affiliations
Mr. Bart Bacolini, Good Shepherd CommunitiesMr. Ward Bullard, Harrah's Resorts
Mr. Christopher Glover, Santa Clara Unified School District
Dr. Jim Hessler, Shamrock Company, LLC
Dr. Mike Hill, Spansion, Inc
Mr. Riley Howard, Apple
Ms. Erin Lavering, Maxim Integrated Products
Ms. Catherine Mack, Bishop Elementary School
Mr. Walt Maclay, Strawberry Tree, Inc.
Ms. Teresa O'Neill, Hewlett Packard
Mr. Jim Slevin, AMD
Project H.E.L.P. Board Emeriti
Ms. Frances Dampier, Sunnyvale Middle SchoolDr. Gary Moore, Moore Assessment and Testing Services
Project H.E.L.P. Administrative Staff
Mr. Michael Goltzer, Founder and DirectorMs. Dyan Chan, Community Outreach Coordinator and Webmaster
Ms. Megan O'Mahony, Assistant to the Director
Mr. Matt Scott, Director - School Based Math Centers
Ms. Theresa Wilson, Community Relations and Special Consultant to the Director
Bart Bacolini
President, Board of Directors
Board President Bart Bacolini brings an unusual breadth and depth of work experience and nonprofit leadership expertise to his role at Project H.E.L.P.
Mr. Bacolini spent more than 33 years with the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s department, where he served as lieutenant and handled a multitude of law enforcement responsibilities, including supervising the transportation division and serving as watch commander. Mr. Bacolini also received specialized training and served as a Rescue and Recovery diver during his time with the agency.
Mr. Bacolini also served for more than nine years on the board of directors for Good Shepherd Communities, where, as board president, he lead the agency in providing care and housing services for nearly 2,000 developmentally disabled residents. Under his leadership, the agency adopted a policy-driven model for effective and efficient program management.
In his spare time, Mr. Bacolini plays Santa for disadvantaged children and serves as Chairman of the Board of Elders for his church.
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Ward Bullard
Director
Ward Bullard has been involved with Project H.E.L.P. since 2003 and while he was working for McAfee Inc, and joined the board in 2008. During the past five years before joining the board, he worked with Project H.E.L.P. Founder/Director Mike Goltzer as a friend of the program, and general advisor on organizational development and ways to potentially scale the organization.
Mr. Bullard is Vice President of Marketing for Harrah’s Entertainment in Lake Tahoe, with marketing responsibilities for Harrah’s three South Shore properties – Harrah’s, Harveys and Bill’s. He joined the company in 2006 as a President’s Associate.
Mr. Bullard holds a MBA from Harvard University and a BA in History and Economics from Stanford University. Mr. Bullard lives in Zephyr Cove, Nevada with his wife and son.
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Dyan Chan
Communication Consultant
Dyan Chan has been an advocate of Project H.E.L.P. since 2000, when she was working at local technology company wrote a story about Project H.E.L.P. for the company’s community newsletter. Since 2004, she has worked with Project H.E.L.P. on various communication and outreach projects, including the agency’s communication plan, fundraising plan, volunteer plan, the agency newsletter, and community collaboration meetings. She recently became the agency’s webmaster.
Ms. Chan is a co-founder and partner of Lighthouse Blue Communication and Community Relations. Her previous experience includes 10 years in communication and community affairs at AMD and several years as editor and reporter of the Valley Journal. She has served on the boards of Sunnyvale Community Services, the Sunnyvale Chamber of Commerce, Leadership Sunnyvale, and the Education Committee of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group (formerly the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group). She also volunteers at the Village School, a parent participation elementary school in Campbell.
Back to topFrances Dampier
Director Emeritus
At 12 years of age, Frances Dampier heard Dr. Martin Luther King speak at a park near her Greenwood, Mississippi home. Since then, she has believed in the possibility of making dreams come true, and has employed that belief every day of her distinguished, 38-year career in education. Ms. Dampier has dedicated her life to enabling children to realize their dreams.
Moving to California after college, she taught honors English, leadership and ethnic studies at Sunnyvale Middle School. She went on to become an in-service trainer, coaching others in specialty areas such as learning styles, multicultural education, classroom management, G.A.T.E. and more. After seven years as principal at Bishop Elementary School, the "School Where Miracles Happen", she has returned to Sunnyvale Middle School as principal.
Ms. Dampier holds a BA degree from Jackson State University and a MA from Laverne. She is presently on ACSA’s Middle Grades Council for the State of California. She is listed in Who’s Who of American Women and International Professionals and has worked with Project H.E.L.P. since its inception.
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Michael Goltzer
Project H.E.L.P. Founder and Executive Director
A teacher since 1968, Mike Goltzer is a natural educator with an entrepreneurial spirit, who holds fast to his belief that all students deserve, and can achieve, academic success.
Never letting the constraints of the public school system prevent him from providing the best opportunities for his students, Mr. Goltzer has always combined the best of traditional teaching methods with the most promising new learning tools and practices.
Among his innovations was the implementation of his district’s and the Silicon Valley's first-ever computer lab in an elementary school in the 1970s — a concept that seemed foreign at the time but provided both students and teachers with early technological literacy.
In later years, when he noticed that some children needed “something more and something different” from what could be provided through the traditional school day, he once again put his entrepreneurial spirit to work. Mr. Goltzer launched Project H.E.L.P. in 1991, a program that has since served more than 3,000 children.
Mr. Goltzer was named the city of Sunnyvale’s Outstanding Educator of the Year in 2007 for his longstanding and effective work serving local schoolchildren. He holds a BA degree from San Francisco State University and a California Lifetime Teaching Credential.
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Christopher Glover
Director
A member of the Project H.E.L.P. board of directors since 1993, Christopher Glover brings invaluable and specialized skill-sets to his advisory role with the agency.
A credentialed school psychologist, and licensed educational psychologist, Mr. Glover is employed by the Santa Clara Unified School District. In addition to providing general psychological services, he assesses and diagnoses students with special needs, developed and coordinates the district wellness committee, and serves as parent education instructor and in-service trainer, lecturer and consultant on a variety of educational topics.
Recognized repeatedly for his outstanding contributions in the field of educational psychology, Mr. Glover has received many honors and awards, including the California Congress of Parents, Teachers, and Students’ Golden Oak Service Award; the Santa Clara Unified School District’s Special Educator of the Year award; and the Michael Goodman award, bestowed by the Santa Clara County Association of School Psychologists.
Mr. Glover holds a MA from San Jose State University.
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Mike Hill, Ph.D.
Director
Dr. Mike Hill has been a Project H.E.L.P. board member for more than 10 years. During that time, he has served as president of the board and used his expertise in organization development and effectiveness to the benefit of the agency.
A master facilitator, Dr. Hill works with organizations and groups on organizational design, leadership development, strategic planning, group development, and executive coaching. He is currently the director of learning and organizational development for Spansion, Inc., a $2.5B, 9,000-employee Flash Memory manufacturer with headquarters in Sunnyvale, CA.
Dr. Hill holds a Ph.D. in human and organizational systems from Fielding Graduate University, a MBA from Southern Methodist University, and Masters in education from the University of New York at Buffalo.
Dr. Hill’s long-term support of this agency stems from his desire to see children succeed in school and in life; he believes that Project H.E.L.P. has the potential to bring opportunities for educational success to all children
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Riley Howard
Director
Riley Howard is a relative newcomer to the Project H.E.L.P. board. A lifetime Sunnyvale resident and a product of local schools, Mr. Howard is enthusiastic about beginning his involvement with the agency.
A 10-year veteran of Apple, Mr. Howard has prior experience working with a number of Silicon Valley companies. He attended Sunnyvale and Santa Clara schools before earning his computer engineering degree from California Polytechnic, San Luis Obispo.
In addition to his active involvement with Cub Scouts, Mr. Howard volunteers to help his sons' school, assisting in the classroom and working with other parent volunteers, teachers and administrators to bring advanced math curricula to the third and fourth grade classes.
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Board member Jim Hessler is involved with Project H.E.L.P. because of its potential to enable all students to be successful. A longtime professional educator, Dr. Hessler understands the need to provide for students’ individual needs and learning requirements.
Dr. Hessler has been a member of Project H.E.L.P.’s board of directors representing Applied Materials since the program began in 1991. He continued as a board member after he left Applied Materials in 1998.
Dr. Hessler’s 15 years in public education as a secondary school teacher and in various administrative positions include research and evaluation, secondary curriculum, psychological services, computer services and health services, all in the Palo Alto Unified School District. Jim also spent more than 15 years as an executive at Applied Materials managing customer support and corporate education programs. He is currently managing partner of The Shamrock Company, LLC, where he provides consulting services to high technology companies on executive development, organization capability development and customer service.
He holds a BA in social science from UC Berkeley, as well as a MAT in teaching and a Ph.D. in design and evaluation of educational programs from Stanford University.
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Erin Lavering
Director
Erin Lavering began her involvement with Project H.E.L.P. as a classroom volunteer in 2003. A few years later, seeing first-hand the difference that personalized attention can make for students, she agreed to deepen her involvement with the agency as a member of the board of directors.
Elementary education has recently become an even higher priority for Ms. Lavering, as she has just welcomed her first child!
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Catherine Mack
Director and Project H.E.L.P. Lead Teacher
Ms. Mack brings enthusiasm and a wealth of practical experience to her teaching role at Bishop School. In addition to her 15 years as a classroom teacher, Ms. Mack spent several years in industry, instructing teachers in the use of technology to benefit visually impaired students as well as advising Telesensory Corporation how to make its Braille equipment more user-friendly for children. Ms. Mack holds a California lifetime teaching credential and a master’s degree in special education.
After many years as a Project H.E.L.P. educator, Ms. Mack took on a leadership role with the agency as a lead teacher and a member of the agency’s board of directors. She is pleased to play a part in guiding the organization toward its goal of broadening its reach and impact to make its intervention services available to every child who needs them.
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Walt Maclay
Director and Finance Chair
He has served on the Board of Directors of the Professional and Technical Consultant’s Association as Secretary since 2006, and now as President. He has been a member of the board of directors of Project H.E.L.P. since 1992, serving most of that time as the finance committee chair.
Mr. Maclay has a deep interest in educating children, since that is both a key to having a successful and productive workforce and a way to reduce many of the social problems of our society.
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Gary Moore, PhD
Director Emeritus
Over the past 35 years, Dr. Moore has taught eight different measurement courses in four different universities. He has conducted more than 45 major evaluations related to program effectiveness over the years. He currently owns his own company, MAATS ( Moore Assessment and Testing Services), which specializes in program planning and evaluation.
Dr. Moore has been involved with a number of professional organizations and volunteered with community groups, including serving as current president of the South Bay Civil War Roundtable. Fluent in Spanish and well-traveled in Mexico and a number of South American countries, Dr. Moore is also currently a teacher of Spanish-speaking adults at a local bilingual church.
Recently retired from the Project H.E.L.P. board, Dr. Moore remains an avid supporter of the agency and is passionate about its promise for helping children to achieve success.
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Megan O’Mahony
Assistant to the Director, Project H.E.L.P.
Ms. O’Mahony graduated from UC Davis in 1998 with a BA in English and a focus in creative writing. Previous to joining Project H.E.L.P., she worked for five years in the development department at the Marine Science Institute, a non-profit organization that offers hands-on environmental science education programs to students of all ages.
Ms. O’Mahony is passionate about providing learning opportunities to children and is also a committed volunteer for the Family of Women, a not-for-profit organization that serves women, men, families and communities.
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An active community volunteer, Teresa O’Neill has a special interest in supporting and improving education. Her advocacy and involvement stem from her belief that the American public school system is the backbone of our society, and that quality education is the answer to almost every problem we face.
When not at work in her position as contract relations manager at Hewlett Packard, Ms. O’Neill spends time serving her community through a multitude of activities: She serves as a planning commissioner for the City of Santa Clara, is on the board of directors for the Triton Museum of Art, chairs the AIDS Coalition of Silicon Valley, and volunteers to serve disadvantaged members of the community through her local church. She also has an extensive history of supporting education, having served as president of the board of trustees for Santa Clara Unified Elementary School District, and an executive board member of the Santa Clara County School Boards Association.
Ms. O’Neill holds a degree in communication from Stanford University. She has served on the board of directors for Project H.E.L.P. since 2000.
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Matt Scott
Project H.E.L.P. Math Center Director
Before joining Project H.E.L.P, Mr. Scott taught fifth and sixth grades in the Fremont Unified School District. In addition to his classroom experience, Mr. Scott brings to his teaching the benefit of his years of work experience as a budget analyst, copywriter and marketing director for various San Francisco Bay Area companies.
In addition to his CLAD-certified California Elementary Education Credential, Mr. Scott holds a BA in advertising, with a minor in psychology from San Jose State University.
When he is not in the Math Center, Mr. Scott coaches little league baseball. He is also an avid military history buff and recently traveled to the D-Day beaches of Normandy, as well as the Civil War Battlefields in Gettysburg, PA and Sharpsburg, MD.
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Jim Slevin joined the Project H.E.L.P. board of directors in 2007. He brings to the agency a wealth of business experience as well as a passion for community service and quality education.
Mr. Slevin holds a BS degree in physics and electronics from the University of Manchester, and has spent more than 20 years in the semiconductor industry in the U.S. and Europe. He is currently Director of Market Research for AMD, where, in addition to his job responsibilities, he serves as a member of the company’s executive Community Affairs Council, overseeing charitable giving and community outreach activities for the California region.
Mr. Slevin is also an active volunteer at his children’s school, where he has served as head of its parent-teacher group, and also volunteers for Habitat for Humanity’s community housing programs.
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Theresa Wilson
Communication Consultant
Co-founder and partner of Lighthouse Blue Communication and Community Relations, Theresa Wilson has more than 25 years of experience in the fields of community involvement, communication, academic relations and human resources. She has served on boards of directors for a number of nonprofit agencies, including Sunnyvale Chamber of Commerce, Sunnyvale School District Education Foundation, and Leadership Sunnyvale. She has also served on the Sunnyvale Mayor’s Council for Economic Vitality and the Cooperative Education Advisory Council for Santa Clara University.
Ms. Wilson remembers pitching Project H.E.L.P. to her executive contributions committee in 1991, while working as corporate philanthropy manager for a Fortune 500 company. She has remained an enthusiastic advocate for the agency throughout the years, and is very honored to now be directly associated with its work.Back to top
