BOARD of TRUSTEES
Donn Merriam
President
Mr. Merriam is a licensed architect with over 20 years experience in school building design and construction. One of his most recent projects was the replacement and campus enhancement of West Contra Costa County's DeAnza High School. He has recently been elected to the Emeryville School Board and is participating in the development of Emeryville's new Center of Community Life, a very innovative use of space for the housing of a K - 12 school, and community-based health and recreational faculties for all ages.
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Elizabeth Isono
Trustee
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Ms. Isono, MSOTR/L is an occupational therapist currently in private practice in the East Bay Area with an undergraduate degree in neuropsychology from Santa Clara University and a master’s degree from Stanford University. Currently, she provides service to children, adolescents, and young adults with varying diagnosis impacting their functional performance at school, home or in the workplace. She works privately and also contracts with multiple schools throughout the Bay Area. Ms. Isono has been practicing since 1980, and her experience has dealt with children and adults with varied diagnosis in acute care, rehabilitation, educational and outpatient services. Her philosophical approach is based on the understanding of the neurologic, physiologic, motoric, sensory, and social cognitive aspects of a client, collaborative work with the team is essential to the multidisciplinary approach that she feels best supports her clients’ development. Ms. Isono has spent time presenting at conferences, publishing papers and writing chapters in books specific to educating therapists. Her patient/client contact includes working at Stanford Hospital for over 10 years, as well as with individuals at multiple hospitals in Southern California.
Liz has taken this vast experience and applied its foundational knowledge to her current work, which primarily addresses students’ functional and educational needs. Liz has worked to educate teachers, staff and parents in surrounding communities about sensory processing and its impact on learning, execution and functional level of independence.
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Allan Chatman
Principal and Board Staff Representative
Mr. Chatman has been working at The Phillips Academy for 27 years. He began his career as a teaching assistant and became an active, contributing member to the high school program as a special education teacher shortly thereafter. In addition to providing instruction in English and the Social Sciences, Allan coaches football, co-leads the Student Council, and serves as a mentor to many of The Phillips Academy students.
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Taka Yokoyama
Treasurer
Taka is the operations leader at Safehub, a post-earthquake building-specific damage notification platform. His broad professional experience includes operations, B2B lead-to-revenue consulting, sales, structural engineering, and disaster response. He has been an advocate for diversity in the workplace, and specifically for neurodiversity while at Salesforce. He organized student visits to Salesforce for both The Phillips Academy and the CSU East Bay College Link Program for career mentoring and mock interviews. His work contributed to Salesforce receiving the UCSF Shriver Award in 2020, an award that is presented to an "organization that is making a difference in the disability community". He has a Master's and a Bachelor's degree in Architectural Engineering with a minor in Psychology from Cal Poly SLO, and an MBA from The Wharton School with majors in General Management and Finance.
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Liana Grossman
Board Secretary
Liana Grossman has 10+ years of executive search and corporate advisory experience within both retained search firms and high growth technology companies. She is passionate about building diverse, talented teams and most recently ran the executive recruiting function within Hopin, a global events and collaboration platform. Liana served as a member of Upwardly Global’s Leadership Council, which supports efforts to eliminate employment barriers for skilled immigrants and refugees. Earlier in her career, Liana worked as an attorney in New York for Goodwin Procter LLP, and in Washington, DC for Keller & Heckman LLP. Liana earned a B.A. in Biology from Colgate University and a JD from The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law. She is passionate about supporting families and students through their academic journey.
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MaryAnn Pearson
Trustee
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MaryAnn Pearson has been with The Phillips Academy for over 25 years. She began her career as a head teacher in the Elementary Program, where she served for 15 years before transitioning to the Middle and High School programs. There, she took on roles as a Reading Specialist and later, Head of Learning Services and Fundraising. In addition to collaborating with teachers and teaching various English Intervention and Intensive classes, MaryAnn oversees the Sculpture and the Recycled Runway enrichment programs. She also serves as the Staff Liaison to the Board of Trustees, facilitating communication between the staff and the board. Outside of the school, she serves on the Board of Directors at Bishop O'Dowd High School.
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Mickey Branca
Parent Representatives
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Mickey Branca has had a professional career in the forprofit, nonprofit and public sectors, as a banker,
finance and management consultant, an officer on the board of directors of two nonprofits in the State of
California, and, finally, as a Director of Labor and Employee Relations at City College of San Francisco.
After graduating with honors from SUNY College at Purchase in 1978 (bachelor’s in Political
Philosophy), he worked for 3 years as a volunteer labor organizer with potato farmworkers in Long
Island NY. He then started a business career in banking in 1982 as a management trainee at Bank of
the West in San Jose, California. After 10 years, he joined a prestigious management and IT consulting
firm (located in Montreal Canada) and obtained a Master’s in Management from the Anderson School at
UCLA. He spent the next 5 years consulting on various banking and government projects, then became
an executive in the firm. For the next 5 years he worked throughout the U.S. and Europe, as a business
manager, human resources manager, and finance Director (predominantly working on mergers and
acquisitions).
In 2000, Mickey decided he wanted to take a different direction with the next phase of his professional
life. He took two years to explore various interests: nonprofit leadership, catering, high school history
volunteer, as well as whether he might pursue a legal career. In 2002, he entered law school at the
University of San Francisco. In April 2005, he wrote a winning appeal brief to the Immigration Court of
Appeals, which granted the refugee client asylum in the U.S. from El Salvador. He graduated in May
2005, with a J.D. and a Certificate in National and International Public Interest Law. He is a member of
the bar of the State of Connecticut.
His legal interests spanned the subjects of labor, international criminal law, international human rights
law, domestic and international refugee law and nonprofit law. He had completed an assignment with the
United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva (2005) which involved drafting and lobbying for
changes to international treaties on immigration. He completed an additional international assignment at
the International Criminal Court of the Former Yugoslavia at the Hague (2006) which involved preparing
a case against five former Serbian military leaders who committed violations of the Geneva Convention
and other international criminal laws after having executed 300 citizens on one night in Vukovar, Croatia.
Mickey then returned to settle in the bay area. He worked from 2006 – 2016 at various nonprofit and
public entities as a consultant on board leadership, financial management and labor negotiations, in
such fields as education, foster child services and other public interests. In 2012, he joined the
executive staff at City College of San Francisco, along with a team of executives from outside the
college to address serious organization, financial and accreditation issues. The team obtained
reaccreditation for City College from WASC.
In 2016, he retired to focus on raising his foster-adopted son, Andrés, who is a neurodiverse child
attending The Phillips Academy (TPA) for the past two years.
Having found TPA as an excellent choice for our son, Mickey is very interested in participating again on
a board of a nonprofit near and dear to his heart. What a better opportunity to do that than at TPA.
Mickey will bring his extensive professional experience and communication skills, as well as personal
values that are aligned with the TPA organization and culture: wisdom, creativity, collaboration, and
commitment commensurate with TPA’s Mission.
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To contact the Board of Trustees directly, please email us at trustees@thephillipsacademy.org
For general school information and admissions inquiries, please go to Contact Us.
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