Meet the Joint Venture Team
Joint Venture Staff
Supported Initiatives Staff
Kara Gross
Director, Public Sector Climate Initiatives and Executive Director, Silicon Valley Economic Development Alliance (SVEDA)
Photo by Don Bishop
Institute Research Team
Institute Fellows
Annette Nellen
Institute Fellow at the Institute for Regional Studies
Annette Nellen is a Fellow at Joint Venture's Institute for Regional Studies. She is a professor in and director of San José State University's graduate tax program (MST), teaching courses in tax research, accounting methods, individual tax, property transactions, employment tax, leadership, ethics, and tax policy. Nellen is the recipient of the 2013 Arthur J. Dixon Memorial Award given by the Tax Division of the AICPA, the highest award given by the accounting profession in taxation.
Margaret O’Mara
Distinguished Fellow at the Institute for Regional Studies
Joint Venture has named Margaret O’Mara a Distinguished Fellow at the Institute for Regional Studies, its research arm. Considered one of Silicon Valley’s foremost expositors, O’Mara is the Howard & Frances Keller Endowed Professor at the University of Washington and a contributing opinion writer at The New York Times. An award-winning historian, she recently published a history of the Valley that is being hailed as definitive, The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America (Penguin Press, 2019).
Drew Starbird
Senior Fellow at the Institute for Regional Studies
Drew Starbird is Senior Fellow for the Institute. He is a frequent contributor to the Institute’s research on hunger and food assistance projects and provides continuing counsel and work on broader initiatives. Professor Starbird is executive director of the My Own Business Institute and a professor in the department of information systems & analytics at Santa Clara University.
Karen Trapenberg Frick
Distinguished Fellow at the Institute for Regional Studies
Joint Venture has named Karen Trapenberg Frick a Distinguished Fellow at the Institute for Regional Studies, its research arm. An expert on transportation planning in the Bay Area and beyond, Professor Frick is the director of the University of California Transportation Center and a professor of city and regional planning at the Berkeley campus.
Equity Advisory Committee
The Institute’s Equity Advisory Committee is made up of a diverse group of people, with a diverse set of lived experiences. Its primary function is to review the annual Silicon Valley Poll questions for any unconscious/implicit bias. The committee also serves in an advisory capacity throughout the year on other questions related to equity (e.g., equity in data, language).
Committee members have completed an extensive demographic survey to help ensure the diversity of the committee with respect to race, ethnicity, ancestry, cultural background, socioeconomic status, and other factors that impact the lived experiences they bring to the table. Efforts to increase the diversity of the committee through future recruitment of additional members are ongoing.
- Alex Andrade, Director of Economic Development & Strategic Initiatives, City of Milpitas
- Bhe Balde, Assistant Director of Student Services, Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability
- Dana Bunnett, Director, Kids in Common
- Mayra Cerda-Klinkhammer, Community Programs Administrator & Branch Manager, City of San José & San José Public Library
- Daniel Degu, Sr., Economic Development Manager City of Cupertino
- Shamsah Ebrahim, Founder and Principal, Leading Edge Advisors
- Darcie Green, Executive Director, Latinas Contra Cancer
- Noelani Pearl Hernández, Principal/Co-Founder, Pearl Hernández Consulting
- Ariana Perez, Senior Community Impact and Policy Officer, Silicon Valley Community Foundation
- Edith Ramirez, Assistant City Manager for Development Services, City of Morgan Hill
- Yosimar Reyes, Poet & Activist
- Héctor Sánchez-Flores, Executive Director, National Compadres Network/National Latino Fatherhood and Family Institute
- Usha Srinivasan, President, Mosaic America
- Tracy Weatherby, Founder & Managing Partner, Active Ingredient
- Jahmal Williams, Executive Director, Greene Scholars Program
- Aaron Tsai, Student, Georgia Tech (formerly Branham High School)
Academic Research Partners
Academic research groups working with the Institute on various regional health topics.
Community Researcher Partners
Partner organizations working on critical data-driven projects and programs affecting our region’s health and quality of life.
