Our Board

Dr. Omai Garner (Chair)

Dr. Omai Garner – Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Pathology, UCLA A former McNair Scholar, Omai obtained his doctorate in Biomedical sciences from the University of California at San Diego in 2007.  Omai is currently a postdoctoral researcher at UCLA in the department of pathology.  He work's in the lab of Dr. Linda Baum and studies the role of glycosylation in innate immunity and viral pathology.  His research focus is infectious disease and glycobiology with a specific emphasis on the role of glycosylation in viral protein biology.  

Ben Allen

SM-MUSD School Board Member, Director of SPARK LA

In 2006, Ben Allen was selected to serve as the 33rd student member of the UC Board of Regents, with full voting privileges. While on the Board, Ben pushed through several important reforms aimed at strengthening public interest loan forgiveness at the UC's professional schools, promoting waste reduction, strengthening the University's environmental standards, and creating a new committee at the Regents' level to address issues of student/campus life and alumni affairs. Ben also served on several key executive search committees, including those for the UC's new President and the new Chancellor of UC Riverside, and was involved with an important initiative to expand the University's relationship with California's K-12 educational system and another one devoted to improving diversity in the University. His academic research while at Berkeley focused on the law and politics of California school finance.

Ben is fluent in Spanish and is a senior fellow with the human rights organization Humanity in Action.

Dr. Nancy Greenstein

Dr. Nancy Greenstein - Board of Trustees, Santa Monica College

Nancy Greenstein is the Director of Police Community Services for the University of California Police Department, Los Angeles.  She recently was recognized nationally with the prestigious Jeanne Clery Award from Security on Campus for her campus safety work including in the area of sexual assaults.   Previously, she served as the Public Safety Administrator for the City of West Hollywood and is responsible for initiating many successful community policing programs with the L.A. County Sheriff's Department. Due to Nancy's extensive work experiences with colleges, local municipalities and organizations, she is routinely called upon to consult with local law enforcement agencies and community groups regarding public safety topics, community partnerships and community relationships.  Nancy was honored by the California State Assembly as a Woman of the Year 2010 and is a recipient of the UCLA Educational Leadership Program award.

Nancy is serving in her third term on the Santa Monica College Board of Trustees, where she recently sponsored the founding of their Public Policy institute focusing on regional issues.  She is involved with community initiatives and participates with local government and organizations in areas, such as affordable housing, civil liberties and civil rights, public safety, education, youth, social services, transportation and the environment including, for example, serving on the Southern California ACLU Board  of Directors(past president) the Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center Board of Advisors and the West Los Angeles County Vector District Board.  She routinely provides organizational consulting and coaching to nonprofit organizations and leaders.

Nancy has a Bachelor in Science from Boston University, a Master of Social Welfare from UCLA, and a Doctorate in Education from UCLA. 

Brian Selmo

CFA, Vice President, First Pacific Advisors

Brian earned a bachelor’s in Economics (with honors) from The John Hopkins University, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa.  He joined First Pacific Advisors, LLC (FPA) in 2008 as a research analyst for the FPA Capital Fund and separate accounts in the Small/Mid-Cap Absolute Value and Small-Cap Absolute styles as well as the FPA Crescent Fund in the Contrarian Value style and FPA Hawkeye Fund, LLC. He was previously a founder and managing member of Eagle Lake Capital, LLC, from 2006 to 2008. He was a portfolio manager at Coast Asset Management from 2003 to 2006, a senior analyst at Third Avenue Management from 2001 to 2003, and an analyst at Rothschild, Inc. from 2000 to 2001. 

Bowe Kurowski (Secretary)

 Early in his career, he worked for three years with urban youth in South Los Angeles where he was responsible for and mentored approximately 50 teens, helping them in setting and achieving goals, improve academics and leadership.  Bowe currently manages the Practice Support Department for the Los Angeles Office of Proskauer LLP based out of New York, and has worked over a decade in the legal community on large complex litigation for top-tier firms and on some of the most famous and largest cases in the history of the United States.  He currently consults corporate clients on how to harvest, process, and review data using forensically defensive methods along with statistical and conceptual searching to drastically reduce the cost of litigation in the newly evolving field of e-discovery.  He was recently named to the Board of Advisors for California State University's Continuing Education program and is slated to teach E-Discovery and Technology there in the Fall.  He also has been a guest speaker at numerous events such as the Los Angeles Paralegal's Association's annual celebration.   He currently coaches soccer for AYSO, teaches Sunday School at his church and serves on the Board of Directors for Hands Across Nations.

Owiso Odera

Actor, MFA in acting from the University of California, San Diego. Computer and technology specialist.

Joyce Rushing

Assistant Principal at Morningside High School, Director of MACS, Inc

Dr. Linda Baum

Linda Baum is an immunologist and pathologist who joined the UCLA Dept. of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in 1989 as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Baum became a full Professor in 2002. Dr. Baum attended Stanford University, where she received a B.S. in Biology in 1979. She received her Ph.D., with Peter Cresswell in Immunology, and M.D. degrees from Duke University in 1986. Dr. Baum completed her residency in Clinical Pathology at UCLA in 1989, and is Board Certified in Clinical Pathology. She was a post-doctoral fellow in James Paulson's lab during her residency, where she investigated host effects on influenza virus tropism. As a faculty member at UCLA, Dr. Baum teaches in the Medical School and the Graduate School, and received the Excellence in Education Award. She is the Medical Director of the UCLA Clinical Laboratories and head of the Division of Laboratory Medicine. Her current research focuses on the biochemistry of cell-cell interactions, especially those mediated by protein-saccharide interactions, in immune system and cancer models. She collaborates with UCLA investigators in the California Nanoscience Institute, the Center for Muscular Dystrophy, and the Dept. of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics. She is a member of several training programs, including the Hematology/ Oncology, Tumor Cell Biology, and Tumor Immunology programs. She is also a member of the Medical Scientist Training Program Steering Committee, the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the Molecular Biology Institute.

Antoinette Mongelli

As the founding Executive Director of the UCLA Volunteer Center, Antoinette Mongelli works with community organizations and volunteer programs in Los Angeles to increase the involvement of the UCLA family and the public in civic life. Previously, Ms. Mongelli served as the Assistant Chancellor/Chief of Staff under three chancellors. Before that, she served as the Executive Director of UCLA Special Events and Protocol. Prior to UCLA, Ms. Mongelli inaugurated and led Union Bank in that company’s largest ongoing philanthropic event, benefiting the American Heart Association. Ms. Mongelli served as a VISTA volunteer in the Pacoima/San Fernando area where she coordinated projects designed to resolve immigrant housing disputes and increase community involvement in redevelopment projects. 

D’Artagnan Scorza (Executive Director)

D'Artagnan Scorza entered UCLA in 1998 as a graduate of Morningside High School in Inglewood, CA. His studies were interrupted immediately following the events of September Eleventh, when he decided to join the U.S. Navy and became an Iraq-War Veteran. In April of 2006, he returned to UCLA to resume his studies and became a McNair Undergraduate Research Scholar where he developed curriculum for culturally relevant for African-American male youth and worked to reduce recidivism, imprisonment and death rates in the community. He was appointed as a representative on the Chancellor's Enrollment Advisory Committee, served as a participant in the Alliance for Equal Opportunity in Education (AEOE) and the UCLA Task Force on African American Enrollment which helped to increase enrollment from 96 African-American students in 2006 to 213 African-American students in 2007.

D'Artagnan is a UCLA graduate with a B.A. in the Study of Religion and also has a B.S. in Liberal Studies with an emphasis on Business Management from National University. Currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Education at UCLA, he established the Black Male Youth Academy (BMYA) at Morningside High School, a literacy program designed as a localized replicable model in order to provide education which supports positive identity development, increases academic achievement and expands opportunities for civic engagement.

D'Artagnan served a two-year term as a UC Regent from 2007 through 2009. As a member of the Board of Regents, University of California, he participated in the governance of the University. He was an outspoken advocate for equity and inclusion, affordability and access for future generations of students. His emphasis on clean energy and sustainable practices supported the University's policies on being climate friendly. He was also a strong supporter of academic preparation programs for grade levels P-16 and believes they help create a level playing field. He was a 2010 Education Pioneer Fellow and worked at the California Community Foundation (CCF) supporting their scholarships program area.