Speakers

Sara Fashandi was born in Tehran, Iran.  She moved to the United States in 1977 to attend college at Ohio State University where she earned a graduate degree in biochemistry.  Fashandi currently lives in Northern California but considers herself a Buckeye. Sara Fashandi's first book Message in a Matchbox: Memories of a Childhood in Tehran contains 26 short stories of Mohsen voicing some of the most painful and joyful stories of his early life.

Community Education & Risk Reduction Manager- Los Altos Hills County Fire District (District) Fire Captain (Retired) Santa Clara County Fire Department (SCCFD)

Denise began her fire service career in 1995 as a volunteer for the City of Watsonville Fire Department prior to being hired by SCCFD. At SCCFD, Denise worked as a firefighter/engineer and paramedic before promoting to the rank of Fire Captain. Denise retired from SCCFD in December 2018 and joined the Los Altos Hills County Fire District as Emergency Services Manager in 2019. 

In 2022 Denise became the Community Education & Risk Reduction Manager for the District. Denise provides community education and information, to the residents of Los Altos Hills, including emergency and wildfire preparedness, teaching a variety of classes including personal preparedness and first-aid, the Firewise USA program, and Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) skills. She is also involved in various Hazardous Fuel Reduction projects including Home Ignition Zone (HIZ) program, annual Goat grazing at Bryne Preserve, Evacuation Route Hardening, and Community Strategic Fuel Break planning.

Cheryl Reinking has been with El Camino Health for 36 years. Cheryl has served in numerous positions in her career including clinical nurse, case manager, clinical manager, nursing director and vice chief of clinical operations before becoming the enterprise Chief Nursing Officer in 2013.

 

In her role of CNO, Cheryl oversees the nursing division with over 2000 nurses and support staff. Cheryl is the Chair of the Pathways Home Health and Hospice Board of Directors. She also serves on the board for the Los Altos Mountain View Community Foundation and on the advisory board for the Illinois Wesleyan University School of Nursing and Health Sciences. Cheryl is a member of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, American Organization of Nurse Executives, and the Association of California Nurse Leaders.

 

Under her leadership, El Camino Health earned its fourth consecutive ANCC Magnet designation, and is only one of two hospitals in the region to achieve this honor. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Cheryl led El Camino Health's incident command center.

 

Cheryl received the Silicon Valley Women of Influence Award in 2013, TWIN award in 2011 and The Distinguished Alumni Award from Illinois Wesleyan University in 2017. Cheryl completed a Doctorate in 

Colonel Patrick M. Biggs is a National Security Affairs Fellow at the Hoover Institution. His areas of professional expertise are East Asia, security cooperation, military engineering, and army operations and training. 

Colonel Biggs’s assignments have included as platoon leader, company commander and brigade engineer, Third Brigade, Second Infantry Division (Fort Lewis, Washington); brigade engineer observer coach/trainer and live fire operations observer coach/trainer (Fort Irwin, California); battalion executive officer, Third Brigade, First Infantry Division (Fort Bliss, Texas); command engineer, Combined Joint Operations Command–Jordan (Amman, Jordan); joint engineer planner, US Forces Korea (Yongsan, Korea); direct commission officer, 130th Engineer Brigade, and commander, 65th Brigade Engineer Battalion (Schofield Barracks, Hawaii); and task force senior trainer, Operations Group (National Training Center, Fort Irwin). 

His operational deployments include three deployments for Operation Iraqi Freedom (Iraq) and one for Operation Inherent Resolve (Jordan). 

Colonel Biggs is married to US Army captain (ret.) Beini Bao, and they have two daughters.

Dr. Nahal Zakerani is a California Licensed Pediatric Psychologist specializing in neuropsychology and health psychology. A Bay Area native, she pursued her undergraduate degree at UC Berkeley, followed by Master’s and Doctoral degrees at Palo Alto University. Her professional journey led her through a residency at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital at Oregon Health and Science University, followed by a neuropsychology fellowship at Kaiser Foundation Rehabilitation Center. Before joining El Camino Hospital, Dr. Zakerani worked at various prominent medical centers in the Bay Area. Over the past decade, she has played integral roles in El Camino Hospital’s ASPIRE program, an intensive outpatient mental health initiative for youth aged 11-25 and their families. Presently, as the ASPIRE Consortium Coordinator, she provides consultation to medical centers aiming to establish similar programs. She also serves as the Training Coordinator at El Camino. In addition to her hospital-based roles, Dr. Zakerani also runs a small private practice, where she extends her compassionate care to individuals seeking personalized mental health support. Beyond her professional commitments, Dr. Zakerani finds joy in family moments, and you can find her enthusiastically supporting her two children on the soccer sidelines or in dance performances.

Raghav Ramgopal (baritone), 17, hails from Los Altos Hills, California and attends Pinewood School. He is a vocal student at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Pre-College where he studies with Eun-Mee Ko, and he has also attended the Boston
University Tanglewood Institute (BUTI) Young Artists Vocal Program, where he was featured as a soloist in the BUTI Chorus. Among his musical accomplishments, Raghav was featured on Show 426 of NPR’s “From the Top,” placed second in the Pacific
Musical Society and Foundation Competition, was awarded a $25,000 competition scholarship at the 2023 Classical Singer National Vocal Competition, and placed second in the American Protégé International Vocal Competition, making his Carnegie
Hall Debut. Raghav also made his international opera debut with Opera Carolina in the summer of 2023 as Don Curzio in Le Nozze di Figaro. He was the only high school singer in the cast, which toured in North Carolina and Italy. Outside of music, Raghav enjoys volunteering on political campaigns, working for his town government, being active in his school community through various clubs, and spending time with family and friends.