Founders, Board, & Funders

“The Galef Institute is helping to fulfill a dream Bronya and I share. A dream where children will be healthy and safe, where they will stay in school, challenged and vitally engaged in learning, where they will want to continue learning all their lives, and enter careers and a workforce knowing they can care for their families and give back to their communities. . . . It is our dream come true that we have found a way to help young people become literate, considerate, and productive members of our society.”

Andrew G. Galef

In 1989, acting on a shared desire to make a difference in the lives of children, Andrew and Bronya Galef founded the Galef Institute. Dedicating their time and resources to their commitment to children and the improvement of educational communities, they organized the Galef Institute as an educational nonprofit whose primary goal is to work with educators in public schools, schools of education, and other organizations to improve student achievement by strengthening the teaching profession.

Together, they assembled a leading team of educators and researchers who developed the school improvement initiative Different Ways of Knowing. Today, across the country, schools, cultural institutions, foundations, and corporations recognize the Galef Institute’s Different Ways of Knowing as a source of hope and promise for public education.

Andrew G. Galef is Chairman and President of The Spectrum Group, Inc., and serves as Chairman and Director of several major corporations. He is a graduate of Harvard Business School and Amherst College. Mr. Galef served on the California State Commission for the Establishment of Academic Content and Performance Standards. He is Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Advisors to the Entrepreneurial Studies Center of UCLA’s John Anderson Graduate School of Management. He also serves on the Board of Directors and chairs the Educational Committee of the Los Angeles Center Theater Group.

Bronya Pereira Galef is actively involved in education and the arts both locally and nationally. She was Co-chair of the California Department of Education’s Visual and Performing Arts Task Force and is a member of the Los Angeles Blue Ribbon Committee for the Arts. She is also Chair of the Board of Trustees of Otis College of Art and Design. She serves on the Advisory Board of the RAND Institute of Education and Training and on the Blue Ribbon Committee of the Los Angeles Music Center. Mrs. Galef is a board member of Reprise!, an organization dedicated to the production of Broadway musicals in concert. She is also a member of the Board of Comite International pour les Musées d’Art Moderne, a former Trustee of the New School for Social Research in New York, and a past Director of the Barnsdall Municipal Arts Gallery in Los Angeles. Mrs. Galef has worked as a professional photographer and journalist.


Board of Directors

Andrew G. Galef, Co-founder and Chairman
Andrew G. Galef is Chairman and President of The Spectrum Group, Inc., and serves as Chairman and Director of several major corporations. He is a graduate of Harvard Business School and Amherst College. Mr. Galef served on the California State Commission for the Establishment of Academic Content and Performance Standards. He is Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Advisors to the Entrepreneurial Studies Center of UCLA’s John Anderson Graduate School of Management. He also serves on the Board of Directors and chairs the Educational Committee of the Los Angeles Center Theater Group.

Bronya Pereira Galef, Co-founder
Bronya Pereira Galef is actively involved in education and the arts both locally and nationally. She was Co-chair of the California Department of Education’s Visual and Performing Arts Task Force and is a member of the Los Angeles Blue Ribbon Committee for the Arts. She is also Chair of the Board of Trustees of Otis College of Art and Design. She serves on the Advisory Board of the RAND Institute of Education and Training and on the Blue Ribbon Committee of the Los Angeles Music Center. Mrs. Galef is a board member of Reprise!, an organization dedicated to the production of Broadway musicals in concert. She is also a member of the Board of Comite International pour les Musées d’Art Moderne, a former Trustee of the New School for Social Research in New York, and a past Director of the Barnsdall Municipal Arts Gallery in Los Angeles. Mrs. Galef has worked as a professional photographer and journalist.

Jere A. Jacobs
Jere A. Jacobs is a board member of the Santa Rosa High School District and a member of the Sonoma County Business Education Roundtable. Mr. Jacobs is retired after thirty years with the Pacific Telesis Group and is currently working as a consultant to the California Business Roundtable. Mr. Jacobs’s telecommunications career spanned many disciplines, including operations, customer service, and human resource planning. Prior to his retirement, he served as President of the Pacific Bell Foundation and Assistant to the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Pacific Telesis Group. In that capacity, Mr. Jacobs served as the Chairman’s Deputy to the Education Task Force of the California Business Roundtable. Mr. Jacobs has also served the national Business Roundtable Education Task Force, the National Alliance of Business Policy Council, Jobs for the Future, EdSource, the University of California Outreach Advisory Board, and the Governor’s School-to-Career Task Force.

Murray Pepper
Murray Pepper is President of Home Silk Shop, Inc., one of the largest retail textile firms in Southern California. He has an extensive background in the retail textile industry, designing and importing textiles for the quilting, home decoration, and garment trades. A practicing psychologist, Mr. Pepper is also a private investor in the retail, industrial, and residential real estate markets in Southern California, Arizona, and Colorado. His active support of community efforts in education includes positions as Life Trustee of Pitzer College; member of the Board of Overseers at Hebrew Union College; and co-sponsor of the Cotsen-Pepper Master Teacher Award in Jewish Education and the UCLA Grotstein Lecture Series. His affiliations include Research Psychoanalyst, Medical Board of California, division of Allied Health Professions; California State Bar Association Member (inactive); member, Chief Executives Organization; Former Chair, Los Angeles Chapter, Young President’s Organization; and Founder, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. He received a J. D. from University of Southern California School of Law and a Ph.D. in Psychology from the California Graduate Institute.

Warren W. Valdry, Ph.D.
Dr. Warren W. Valdry is President of Valdry and Associates, a multi-faceted, private enterprise focusing on education; real estate investment; land development and management; and airport policy, governance, and facility administration. A committed public servant, Dr. Valdry works to foster collaboration among leaders in business, education, the aviation industry, and the community to improve the quality of education in California and to enhance the social and intellectual development of children, which are critical to the state’s long-term cultural and economic well-being. In 1985, Dr. Valdry was instrumental in conceptualizing the 100 Black Men Young Black Scholars Program, considered one of the most innovative initiatives to emerge from the African-American community in the twentieth century. The program works to enhance the academic performance of African-American high school youths through enrichment workshops and programs that prepare students to be competitively eligible for university admissions. Dr. Valdry has served as Commissioner of the California Teachers Preparation and License Board, Vice President of Los Angeles World Airports, Chairman of the Board of the Airport Council International of North America, and on the American Association of Airport Executives Commissioners Committee, an international nonprofit professional organization. A UCLA Alumni Life Member, Dr. Valdry has participated in the University of California’s Statewide Outreach Taskforce. He currently serves as a Trustee of the Galef Institute, President Emeritus of 100 Black Men, Inc., member of the Board of Directors of the Dasher International Center for Student and Scholar.

Morley Winograd
Morley Winograd is an internationally recognized authority on the impact of technology on life and work. He is the co-author of Taking Control: Politics in the Information Age (Holt, 1996), the first book to identify a new type of voter, “wired workers,” whose values, derived from their experiences with technology, would become the driving force in changing American politics. In December 1997, he was asked to apply those ideas to the task of reinventing the Federal government as Vice President Gore’s Senior Policy Advisor, National Partnership for Reinventing Government. Since then, governments in Italy, Mexico, Israel, Costa Rica, and Argentina have asked Mr. Winograd to help with their own reform efforts. His lectures on the topic of technology’s reshaping of America have won wide praise in forums as diverse as the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco, Los Angeles’s Town Hall, Harvard’s JFK School of Government, and Bologna University’s Johns Hopkins School of International Affairs. Prior to his work in government, Mr. Winograd spent eighteen years with AT&T, retiring as a Regional Vice President for Commercial Markets. Prior to that assignment, he was President of AT&T’s University of Sales Excellence, a two-campus corporate training center that he reshaped into a university environment. His innovative approach to management has been recognized in management training books such as Stewardship: Choosing Service over Self-Interest, by Peter Block (Berrett-Koehler, 1993), and The Monster under the Bed, by Stan Davis and Jim Botkin (Touchstone Books, 1995). He also served in numerous sales and marketing positions at Michigan Bell Telephone and AT&T.

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Our Funders

“In spite of daunting challenges, your efforts to elevate the profession of teaching, and to embed the arts into every aspect of K–12 curriculum, are fostering educational values that may, in the words of our own mission, ‘help make society more humane and the world more livable.’ The arts-rich curriculum along with an approach to organizational development that relies on substantial one-on-one coaching, leadership development, and artists-in-residence, is what inspired us to support this work.”

David Grant, Executive Director, Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation

We gratefully acknowledge the following partners and donors for their generous support:

Foundation and Corporate Sponsors

Distinguished Benefactors ($1,000,000 +)
Ahmanson Foundation
Annenberg Foundation
AT&T Foundation
John S. & James L. Knight Foundation
U.S. Department of Education

Benefactors ($500,000 – $999,999)
Alliance for Education
Heinz Endowments
Philip Morris Companies, Inc.
The Stuart Foundation
Emily Hall Tremaine

Foundation Patrons ($250,000 – $499,999)
American Honda Foundation
Anonymous
Authentic Fitness
Collaborative for Teaching and Learning
Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation
Grable Foundation
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
W.M. Keck Foundation
Magne Tek, Inc.
Warnaco
Washington Mutual

Sponsors ($100,000 – $249,999)
Bank of America Foundation
S.H. Cowell Foundation
Ford Foundation
William Randolph Hearst Foundation
Kentucky Arts Council
National Endowment for the Humanities
Pittsburgh Center for the Arts
San Francisco Foundation
S. Mark Taper Foundation
Times Mirror Foundation
United Parcel Service Air Group

Contributors ($25,000 – $99,999)
ARCO Foundation
Ashland Oil
Badgett Center
California Community Foundation
Mary Crocker Trust
Deposit Guarantee National Bank
Fred Gellert Family Foundation
Clarence E. Heller Foundation
Knapp Foundation
Los Angeles Educational Partnership
National Endowment for the Arts
The Norton Foundation, Inc.
People’s Bank
Public Education Foundation
The Rose Hills Foundation
Satellite Educational Resource Consortium
Shinnyo-En Foundation
Telesis Foundation
Weingart Foundation
Wells Fargo Bank

Friends (up to $25,000)
Arco Aluminum
Lawrence T. Baker
Baszik
Century Income Association L.P.
Chevron U.S.A., Inc.
Conimex Aviation Services
Greenville Foundation
Humana
Institute for Educational Inquiry
L.A. Louver Gallery
Lincoln Foundation
Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Fund
Marketing Strategy
McKesson Foundation
McKinley Foundation
Mississippi Arts Council
Mississippi Power & Light
Neutrogena Corporation
Northrop Grumman
Petco
Plum Foundation
Pritchard Committee
Ronald McDonald House Charities of Southern California
RCM Capital Management
Reprise!
Salomon Brothers
Toyota Corporate Contributions/Toyota Sales, Inc., U.S.A.
United Way
University of Kentucky


Individual Donors

Founders
Andrew and Bronya Galef

Benefactors Circle ($10,000 +)
Royce and Jennifer Diener
Bram and Elaine Goldsmith
Ron and Diane Hoge
Fred and Suzanne Rheinstein
Fred and Kim Ulrich
Allan and Barbara Vizvary
William Yates

Sponsors Circle ($5,000 – $9,999)
Robert and Diane Davidow
Stephen F. and Ann Hinchliffe, Jr.
Richard Kagan
Richard Kayne and Jerry D. Kayne
Barbara Lindeman, Esq.
Caroline Nahas
Nicholas and Amanda Stonnington
Ron and Eileen Weiser

Contributors Circle ($1,000 – $4,999)
Donna Arnold
R. Scott Johnson and Dr. Margaret Bates
Dr. Toni Bernay
Andrew Bogen
Frank W. and Dorothy Clark, Jr.
Brian Conway
Marina Day
Jack and Bobbi Elliot
Gerard B. Finneran
Henry and Arline Gluck
Richard and Harriet Gold
Peter and Elizabeth Goulds
Em Tardy Green
Arthur and Audrey Greenberg
B. Kippling Hogopian
Jere and Sally Jacobs
David T. Johannesen
Jerry and Carol Katzman
Su Lesser
Mickey and Phyllis McCray
Robert and Barbara Myerson
Lawrence and Lee Ramer
Murray Pepper and Vicky Reynolds
William and Laura Siart
Alan Sieroty
Anthony Skvarla
Anwar and Mary Ellen Soliman
Peter and Cam Starrett
Steven and Mary Swig
Allan and Barbara Vizvary
Frederick and Magda Waingrow
William Wasserman

Friends Circle (up to $1,000)
Valorie Armstrong
Daniel Baer
John and Jill Bauman
Tom and Judy Beckmen
Michael Bobrow and Julia Thomas
Mr. and Mrs. Maynard M. Brittan
Stan and Marge Bulmer
Melanie Catudan
Jacqueline Cooper
Sam and Sharon Denoff
John Doherty and Michael Learned
Jerry Engel
Vernon S. Evans
J. Robbie Fabian
Fort Mason Foundation
Bert and Benita Ginsberg
Ronald E. and Barbara Gordon
Karen B. Gould
John Gray and Donie O’Carroll
Benny and Lenny Greenberg
Bob and Bobbie Greenfield
Susan Grode
Michael and Phyllis Hennigan
Jeffrey Herr
Herbert and Juli Hutner
Patricia Hynes
Daniel Jaffe and Cynthia Monaco
Jeffrey Jones
Mary Keller
Adele Kimura
Steve and Enid Koffler
Martha Koplin
Ambassador Lester and Carolbeth Korn
Louis A. Kwiker
Chuck and Lydia Levy
Maureen Manning
Ilse Metchek
Merle Miller
Jaime Miranda
Graham Morris
Jack and Elly Nadel
Bryce R. Noel
Peter and Eileen Norton
Dottie O’Carroll
Laura Ornest
Barry Parnell
John Pohlmann
Robert B. and Melissa Resnick
Carolyn N. Rozelle
Stanford Rubin
Fred Sands
Martin E. Segal
Stanley Sheinbaum
Moire Sher
Ken Sherman
Sandy and Betty Sigoloff
Barry Smooke
Debbie Spacek
Philip L. Spalding
Pamela Strain
Susan Swerdloff
Steve and Kirsten Tellez
Larry and Lauree Turman
Dr. Jeff and Chris Weiss
Morley Winograd