Board of Trustees

List of 18 items.

• 

  Alix Merkley ’75

  Alix Merkley ’75 is one of our founder Isabelle Buckley’s five grandchildren; her mother, also Isabelle, was one of Isabelle Buckley’s four children. Alix attended Buckley on the Stansbury campus during elementary school and graduated from Dominican University of California. A former school teacher, Alix currently resides in Napa where she works as an interior designer and, with her husband, owns Shackford’s Kitchen Store. She joined the board in 2016.
• 

  Anne-Marie Balzano

  Anne-Marie Balzano, EdD is Mission and Data's Senior Governance Strategist. In her role, she designs learning opportunities for heads of school and boards and leads Mission and Data's Strategic Planning practice and Governance Support services. A former teacher, head of school, associate professor, and most recently, Director of Leadership and Governance at the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), Anne-Marie is a trusted advisor to schools across the country, facilitating board retreats and educating boards of trustees on effective governance practices and trends, supporting leadership sustainability for heads of school, and building a positive board culture. She joined the Buckley board in 2020 and chairs the Committee on Trustees.
• 

  Ben Vega

  Ben Vega is the general counsel and corporate secretary for Glass House Brands. Ben graduated from Harvard College in 1995 and Harvard Law School in 1999. He and his wife Belinda are the parents of a Middle School student. Ben joined the Buckley board in 2019.
• 

  Brian Nussbaum

  Brian Nussbaum is a partner in the audit and assurance practice of Deloitte & Touche LLP with more than 20 years of public accounting experience. Brian serves clients ranging from emerging growth start-up businesses to international public companies and is the leader for the Deloitte Los Angeles emerging growth company practice. He graduated from the University of Southern California with a BS in business administration and a masters in accounting. Brian chairs the investment sub-committee of the budget and finance committee. He joined the board in 2019.
• 

  Chip Sellers, Treasurer

  Chip Sellers is the executive vice president of LaSalle Mortgage Real Estate Investors, Inc., formerly Latitude Management Real Estate Investors. He served as a trustee at Hollywood Schoolhouse, serving for several years as chair. He graduated from Carleton College with a BA in economics and received his MBA in finance from the University of California at Los Angeles. Chip and his husband Brett have two Buckley students in Upper School and Middle School. He joined the board in 2017.
• 

  David Sadkin, Chair

  David Sadkin is president of Bel Air Investment Advisors LLC. He is responsible for advising individuals, families, endowments, and foundations, as well as managing the firms’ day to day operations. He is a member of the Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors Executive Cabinet, and served as chair from 2020-2022 during which he led a $50 million campaign to create the BOG Innovation Center, a research facility focused on developing customized treatments using single cell biology. He was previously a trustee and officer at Temple Israel of Hollywood Board of Trustees. He participated in the Geller Leadership Project at the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles and was a director at Terror Free Tomorrow, a Washington, D.C. based non-profit organization which researches and advises on practical solutions to extremism world-wide. David received a B.S. in Economics from the University of Illinois and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He and his wife Liz are parents to two Buckley students, Brandon (‘24) and Blake (’26). David joined the Buckley board in 2019.
• 

  Frank Jung

  Frank Jung is the Founder and CEO of FMC (Franchise Media Collective) a highly curated, tech enabled, professional network and marketplace that features elite executives, consultants, advisors, and founders in their fields of expertise. The platform will offer cultural insights and host engaging/inspiring events (CULTURAL SALONS), backed by an infrastructure and data analytics capabilities to navigate and flourish amidst the fast-evolving Creator Economy and Entertainment Landscape. FMC is "Where Culture Creates Commerce.”

   

  Jung dedicated two decades to Creative Artists Agency (CAA), where he not only represented a diverse array of influential talent and media firms, but also co-founded the Digital Media Department, which includes divisions for Talent Representation, Corporate Advisory, and Strategic Partnerships. A graduate of the University of Washington and a trustee at Hollywood Radio and TV Society (HRTS) and the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment (CAPE), Frank is the father of Buckley Lower School students Preston and Viviana.
• 

  George Ellis

  George Ellis is the Director of Program Management in the North America Strategy team at Kenvue, formerly the consumer health care division of Johnson & Johnson that oversees brands such as Band-Aid, Neutrogena, Tylenol, and many more. A technology professional for more than 16 years, George started his career in the Finance Division at Goldman Sachs as a Senior Associate in the Controllers Technology Office before moving on to Johnson & Johnson, where as IT Director he helped innovate the company’s Skin Health technology strategy. A graduate of Syracuse University, George is the father of three Buckley students, Alexander, Cameron, and Sebastian.
• 

  Jackie Goldberg ’91

  Jackie Goldberg ’91 is Design Director of Alexa at Amazon. She is dedicated to defining exceptional customer experience and developing outstanding teams by partnering design with technology. She is an active advocate of the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, ArtCenter College of Design, and is a graduate of Yale. Jackie sits on Buckley’s Alumni Engagement Board and joined the Board of Trustees in 2020.
• 

  Jennifer Sheffield, Parliamentarian

  Jennifer Sheffield is an experienced commercial attorney and the Chief Executive Officer of HeyTutor Inc., an edtech company that partners with school districts across the country to serve students with a range of academic backgrounds and socioemotional skills. She is passionate about education and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives having previously served on the Board of Directors for The Sherman Oaks Nursery School and as President and a Board Member for the Latina/o Bar Association of Washington. Jennifer and her husband Ted are parents to two children in the Buckley Lower School. A dedicated volunteer, Jennifer has held various positions in the Parents’ Association and serves on the Admission Welcoming Committee and Buckley Fund Volunteer Team. 
• 

  Joss Hastings

  In her current role, leading campaign strategy and execution for Disney’s global consumer products business, Joss is responsible for creating integrated marketing campaigns to drive retail sales, build brands and optimize commercial impact for The Walt Disney Company’s portfolio of franchises around the world. Since joining Disney in 2007, Joss has held a number of senior positions across the company. Initially responsible for leading Communications for the company’s TV business in EMEA, she went on to head Communications for The Walt Disney Company in the UK before moving to the U.S. in 2014 as Vice President, Franchise and Retail Communications.
• 

  José-Manuel de Castro, Vice President

  José-Manuel de Castro is an experienced employment and business litigator, and the Managing Shareholder of De Castro Law Group, P.C.  He is a graduate of New York University School of Law and has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan. Before joining The Buckley School Board of Trustees, he served for a number of years as a Trustee and the Chair of the Board of Trustees of Hollywood Schoolhouse. José-Manuel and his wife Gina are parents to a Buckley graduate from the class of 2024.
• 

  Karen Richardson ’95

  Karen Richardson ’95 is a former official in President Barack Obama’s administration, having served as an advisor in the White House and deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of Public Affairs at the U.S. State Department, as associate director in the Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs, and as an advisor to Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett on international issues. Karen has a BA from Howard University, a JD from Howard University School of Law, and a masters in international affairs from the London School of Economics. Karen graduated from Buckley in 1995 and joined the board in 2016. She chairs the diversity, equity, and inclusion committee.
• 

  Kirsten Berkman Winikoff

  Kirsten has been an active part of the theatre community for over twenty years with a passion for discovering, developing, and producing new work. She currently serves as a Producer for Olympus Theatricals. Previously, she served as the Theatrical Head of East of Doheny, the New Works Director at the National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT), the Head of Development and Marketing Manager at The Araca Group, and Director of Arts Learning and Community Relations at The Lark Play Development Center. Before her theatre career she taught middle and high school history and drama. Kirsten holds a BA from Northwestern University and a Masters degree in Educational Theatre from NYU. She has been an active board member of New Dramatists playwrights center for fifteen years and a board member of Congregation Temple Judea for the past five years. Recently, Kirsten won her first Tony Award for the musical The Outsiders.
• 

  Mark Nehoray

  Mark leads the family office that serves an ultra-high-net-worth family. He is also a Public Works Commissioner for the City of Beverly Hills. Until May 2022, he was a tax partner in the Los Angeles office of Deloitte Tax LLP and a founding member of Deloitte’s global transfer pricing practice. 

    

  He has over forty years of public accounting and private industry experience, primarily in the international tax and transfer pricing areas. He was the transfer pricing advisor to three of the world’s largest multinationals, and for over thirty years conducted a significant number of studies in a variety of industries (e.g., media and entertainment, gaming, software, retail apparel, hi-tech, e-commerce, and nonprofit). From 2002 until 2022, he was the executive producer and the host of Deloitte’s Transfer Pricing Dbriefs, a monthly Internet program that attracted close to 2,500 viewers every month. Mark served as a non-trustee member of the board’s Audit Committee for three years before being named a trustee in 2017. 

    

  He graduated from the University of Southern California with a BS in business administration and a masters in tax. Mark and his wife Farah are parents to alumni from the classes of 2011 and 2016 who were lifers at the Buckley School. 
• 

  Peggy Procter

  Peggy Procter is a lifelong educator who presently serves as head of Echo Horizon School, a pre-K-6 school in Culver City. Peggy holds a bachelors in government and Spanish from Dartmouth College and and a masters in Spanish language and culture from Middlebury College. She is passionate about multicultural global education; diversity, equity, and inclusion;  innovative, student-centered curriculum and pedagogy; and teacher development. Peggy joined the board of trustees in 2020.
• 

  Shari Rosenthal, Vice President

  Shari Rosenthal recently retired as a practicing litigator after 35 years. She presently dedicates her time engaged in handling various types of pro bono matters. In addition to serving as a Buckley Trustee since 2019, Shari serves on the board of the Willows Community school where she has served in various capacities over the past 12 years. At Buckley, Shari serves as vice president of the board, a member of the executive committee, B & G, and the legal committee. Shari and her wife Marlene are parents to two college students, one of whom is a class of 2022 Buckley alum.
• 

  Vincent Travaglione, Secretary

  Vincent Travaglione is an educational administrator and consultant with more than two and a half decades of experience. He is the founder of and senior consultant at Agile Enrollment Solutions and joined the Board of Trustees during the 2021-2022 school year. Vincent has served as a Consultant, Director of Admission and Director of Enrollment Operations and Data Management at La Jolla Country Day School (San Diego), UWC ISAK Japan, The Elisabeth Morrow School (New Jersey), and a variety of independent schools throughout Los Angeles. He has also served as a board member at KIPP: Adelante (a public charter middle school) and the San Diego Tennis Federation, as well as a reader and/or selection committee member for the Caroline Bradley and Point Foundation’s educational grant programs. Vincent deeply believes in educational environments which take seriously their role in contributing to a better world and cites this as a key reason he has joined The Buckley School Board of Trustees.