Board of Trustees

Overview February 24, 2015

Board of Trustees

The members of the Board of Trustees are volunteers, the majority of them parents of Country Day students. The Board is responsible for the hiring and support of the Head of School and for leadership in broad policy issues and fundraising. The Board is accountable for the fiscal health of the school. Board members typically serve three-year terms and are expected to participate on two committees. The Board and most committees meet monthly throughout the year. If you are interested in being considered as a trustee, please contact the Board President or the Head of School for an application.

post November 6, 2015

Julie Sloat
President

Julie grew up in Sacramento, attended La Sierra High School and CSU Sacramento, and earned a law degree from McGeorge School of Law. She is a veteran of Desert Storm and operated a KC-135 boom for the 940th air refueling reserve unit. Julie’s work experience includes public relations for PG&E, law and public policy for the California Cable TV association, and general counsel for Nationwide Health Plans of California.

Post August 3, 2016

Jenna Magan
Vice President

Jenna is a partner in the law firm of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe and specializes in municipal bond financings for public entities and 501(c)(3) organizations. She grew up in Visalia, California, where her family had a trucking and farming business, then moved to Southern California to attend UCLA. She and spouse, Luke, have two children, one in middle school at Country Day and one in high school.

post November 6, 2015

Loren Kaye
Treasurer

Loren grew up in Del Mar, in north San Diego County, and attended UC San Diego, graduating with a bachelor’s in political science. He is president of the California Foundation for Commerce and Education, a think tank affiliated with the California Chamber of Commerce. He and his wife, Cassie Gilson, have a daughter in the lower school at Country Day.

post November 6, 2015

Angela Donlan
Secretary

After growing up in Louisville, Kentucky, and graduating from St. Mary’s College in South Bend, Indiana, Angela moved west to attend UC Davis Law. She is an attorney with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, with an expertise in natural resource law. Angela joined the board three years ago, and she and her husband, Rob, have two children at Country Day.

post November 6, 2015

Billy Downing ‘98

Billy Downing is a proud Sacramento native who attended Sacramento Country Day School and Jesuit. After high school, Billy obtained his undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley and his graduate degree from the University of San Francisco before returning back home. His extensive non-profit board experience includes working with Wind Youth Services, Positive Coaching Alliance, San Juan Education Foundation, and the YMCA of Superior California. Billy and his wife Jessaca have two children, Costa and Korina, and live in Sierra Oaks.

post November 6, 2015

Steve Edwards

Steve is the owner/CEO of The Edwards Company, specializing in commercial real estate. Originally from southern California, Steve spent many years in Boston and is a devoted Red Sox fan. He returned to the Sacramento area for college at Sacramento State and has worked in the real estate field for several decades. Steve is a former co-president and vice president of the board of trustees, and he and his wife Cynthia are the parents of a Country Day graduate and a high school student.

Post September 5, 2017

Roxanne Elliott

Roxanne works for homebuilder Elliott Homes. A California native, she attended middle and high school in Sacramento, college in Los Angeles, and graduate school in Monterey. She spent over ten years as a teacher and translator in Italy, Germany, France, and Japan before returning to the US with her husband, Antonio Falcone. The couple’s two children attend SCDS. Roxanne joined the board in July 2017.

Post November 30, 2017

Amy L. Johnson ‘95

Amy Johnson is the Co-Founder and CFO of SkyLine Scaffold, Inc., a Sacramento-based family-owned scaffolding company. Currently, she is President of the Scaffold and Access Industry Association Education Foundation, a 501c3, and a member of Vistage International, Inc., a CEO Peer Advisory Board.

post November 6, 2015

Lee Mahla

Lee has spent time in many parts of the United States: she was born in New York, grew up in Greendale, WI, and Easton, PA, attended Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia, and has lived in Chapel Hill, NC, and Los Angeles. Lee is a realtor with Coldwell Banker, as well as the owner of RightSize Your Move, a senior move management company. Lee and her husband Chip’s two children both attended SCDS.

post November 6, 2015

Louay Owaidat

Louay is the president of Great Lakes Environmental & Infrastructure and on the board of advisors for CSUS’ College of Engineering and Computer Science. Louay attended high school in Beirut and college in the United States.

Along with his board of trustee service, Louay’s interest in soccer translates into his board membership on the Union FC soccer club, as well as his association with Sac Republic FC. Louay and Maya are the parents of three SCDS students: two graduates and one in middle school.

post November 6, 2015

Patrice Ratinoff

Patrice was raised in Los Angeles and graduated from California State University, Northridge with a degree in business administration and accounting. She moved north after her apartment was declared off limits following the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Patrice’s career path has taken her from an accountant with Ernst & Young to marketing and sales at Tiffany & Co., and Baume and Mercier.

post November 6, 2015

Lindsey Sackheim

Born in Portland, Oregon, Lindsey grew up in Northern California and attended the University of Southern California, where she received a bachelor’s in communications. Her successful fundraising skills are evident in her work in the community: she co-created Luxe for Life benefitting the Sacramento Children’s Home and directed the Chip in Fore Charity golf events, which raised funds for local children’s non-profits. Lindsey is a principal in the Catta Verdera Country Club, and her volunteer work for Country Day includes auction chair, parents’ association president, and chairperson of the head search committee. Lindsey and Andrew are the parents of a college student and a high school student.

Post August 3, 2016

Lokesh Sikaria

Lokesh Sikaria is the managing partner at Moneta Ventures, a Venture Capital firm, based in Folsom, California. After graduating from the University of California at Berkeley in electrical engineering and computer science, Lokesh started his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers in San Francisco. He later worked as COO at Rapidigm and was the founding CEO at Sparta Consulting prior to starting Moneta Ventures. He and his wife, Chanda, are the parents of two daughters, one an SCDS alumna and the other a Country Day high school student.

post November 6, 2015

Emily Stephenson

Emily was born in San Francisco and graduated from the University of California, San Diego, with a bachelor’s in sociology and a double minor in European history and physics/biology. She is retired from her position as a senior executive producer at the Intel Corporation and currently is the managing director of Stephenson Medical Consulting, Inc. She and her husband, Topher, have a son in lower school.

post October 6, 2015

Kelley Taber ‘84
Past President

After graduating from Sacramento Country Day, Kelley attended Harvard University, where she was captain of the varsity swim team and graduated magna cum laude with a major in East Asian Studies. She returned to California for law school at the University of California, Davis. Kelley is an attorney in private practice specializing in land use and natural resource law. She is the mother of two baseball players, both SCDS students, and a devoted St. Louis Cardinals fan, as well as a former Little League president.

post November 6, 2015

Francis Zhang

Francis was born in Shanghai, China, lived in Philadelphia, and calls Sacramento home. His undergraduate work was in mechanical engineering and his MBA is from Rowan University in New Jersey. He is the president and CEO of Promptar, Ltd., a business based in Elk Grove which involves space technology, particularly for the thermal protection coating of flying objects, and optical components for sensors and electronic systems.

General information February 24, 2015