The Board of Trustees is delighted to announce that four new Trustees have been named to the Board, who will begin their term in July 2018. Amy Liaw, Jed Lau, Rob Zivnuska, and Sheryl Nicol — welcome to the Board!
Our new Trustees have shown leadership in our community in a myriad of ways, and we are fortunate to have their talents and commitment to build our school together. Learn more about each below.
Meet Our New Trustees
Jed Lau
Jed and his wife Elisa have 2 kids at PKS, Emerson and Maya. Originally from Northern Virginia, Jed was dragged to Chinese school for 2 hours every Sunday, for over 12 years, only to be surpassed by his kids in their first year of preschool at PKS. He has been a room parent for both of his kids’ classes, and has served as the parent liaison for Admissions. Jed has 19 years of work experience in software engineering and product management, at both enterprise- and consumer-focused companies. Over the last 10 years, he has been with early-stage startups, and is now working on an education technology startup. Jed earned a B.S. in Mathematical Sciences from UNC Chapel Hill, and an M.Eng. in Computer Science from Cornell University. His interests include education, eldercare, travel, and karaoke, and he can often be seen biking the kids to/from school on the family’s cargo bike.
Amy Liaw
Amy Liaw is a marketer with expertise in digital marketing, brand management, and product development across consumer and retail industries. She has a proven track record of achieving significant revenue and market share gains in both global and domestic markets. She previously served on the board of directors at Adolescent Counseling Services which supports Bay Area teens. Amy also proudly volunteered as the PKS Parents Association Vice Chair and enjoyed helping to build the vibrant parent community. She holds a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management.
Born and raised in Taiwan, Amy’s early education experiences were in traditional Chinese schools with heavy emphasis on rote memorization. At thirteen, she immigrated to the Bay Area. She has a soft spot in her heart for Dr. Seuss’ One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish as this was her first exposure to English literature. Despite decades of living in the US, she still counts and dreams in Mandarin and misses most references to 80’s pop culture. When she and her husband Eric discovered PKS, they fell in love with the possibility of raising bilingual children through the progressive approach. She is excited and scared for fall of 2022 when she will be a mother of a PKS middle schooler (Jaclyn), an elementary schooler (Allison) and a preschooler (Nathan).
Sheryl Nicol
Sheryl Nicol has worked as a human resources executive in both tech and academia, and as an attorney in Canada. She has also served on the Board of Golden Gate Mothers Group and held roles as Treasurer and Membership Chair. Sheryl currently works with the admissions office at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. She holds a BA in Criminology and Chinese Studies from the University of Toronto, a law degree from Osgoode Hall Law School and an MBA from UC Berkeley.
Sheryl is a native of Canada who moved to the Bay Area in 1995. She and her husband Craig have been proud members of the PKS community since 2012, when their children Olivia and Jamie joined the preschool. At PKS Sheryl has been a room parent for several years and contributed to the yearbook and library committees.
Rob Zivnuska
Rob is a Partner at CamberView, where he helps boards and management teams understand how to partner effectively with their investors. Rob previously lead the Americas Corporate Governance and Responsible Investment team at BlackRock, where he advocated for the implementation of best practices by public company boards. Earlier in his career, Rob was an attorney with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom LLP focusing on mergers, acquisitions and other corporate matters. Rob holds a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and a B.A in International Relations from the University of California, Davis.
Rob and his husband John were delighted to join the PKS community in 2014, after their daughter Violet prophetically observed “This is my school!” at the start of her first preschool tour. They knew for sure that PKS was the right school for their family a few months later, when Violet broke into a duet with her grandmother to Teresa Teng’s classic 月亮代表我的心. Rob has served as a PKS room parent and on a sunny weekend afternoon can usually be found cheering on the PKS Pandas soccer team.