Advisory Board

  • Peter Zaballos

    Diamante Scholars Founder,
    DVC Alum

  • Dr. Monica Chahal

    President,
    Diablo Valley College

  • Cassondra Reinsel

    Dean, Student Equity and Engagement

  • Heather Fontanilla

    Director, College & Career Readiness
    Administrator, College Now  
    Mt. Diablo Unified School District

  • Jim Blair

    Director of College Advancement
    Executive Director, DVC Foundation

  • JJ Vanni

    Founder, Project EDGI

  • Clint Chao

    Cofounder of Moment Ventures

  • Deli Moussavi

    CEO of Heart Ventures

  • Rosa Amendáriz

    Senior Dean of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging
    Los Medanos Community College

  • Kevin Cervantes

    Student Representative

  • Ada Ocampo-Pedroza

    Manager, Early College Experiences and Student Engagement
    Diablo Valley College

  • Jorge Salinas-Tognetti

    Career Pathways Counselor,
    Mt. Diablo Unified School District

  • Alicia Navarrete

    College & Career Transition Specialist,
    Mt. Diablo Unified School District

  • Anna Ramos

    Manager, Youth Development Support Services
    Mt. Diablo Unified School District

  • Julissa Martin

    Program Coordinator, Diamante Scholars
    Diablo Valley College

Specific Expertise Areas

Entrepreneurship

The Diamante Scholars’ chief focus is enabling the overlooked students who have potential, to find a successful path through a complete educational experience – whether that’s completion of a four year degree, or vocational program. This should ultimately support each scholar in a fulfilling career. Personal entrepreneurship enables successful completion of these educational goals by teaching students to be adaptive thinkers to changing conditions – proactive problem solvers who are willing and able to advocate for their own best interests. We seek advisory board members who will help develop internship opportunities for the development of these skills.

Education

This program is ultimately about the educational experience our Scholars have, as well as ensuring the long term sustainability of the program. We seek to add advisory board members who have relevant experience in academic success along with experience building and growing programs within educational institutions.

Fundraising & Development

Ensuring the long term sustainability and impact of the program will rely on securing sources of corporate and philanthropic funding, as well as alignment with the strategic direction of DVC. We seek to have a member of the DVC Program Office on the Advisory Board to ensure funding stability and alignment.

Vocational Careers

The Diamante Scholars program helps students find their career path and there are many students who will find tremendous satisfaction with a career in a vocation. We seek advisory board members who have experience in vocational roles and who can help shape the program to ensure students who pursue vocational careers are supported.

Data Collection & Evaluation

Our program impacts multiple stakeholders, and we believe that it is important to our long term success to intentionally address the informational needs of each of those stakeholders to best serve our students, and the whole community that we are working within. To that end, our advisory board includes members with expertise in whole life cycle data collection and evaluation. This includes developing, organizing, describing, and evaluating meaningful data oriented to informing our understanding of how, and how well we are meeting our goals.

Emotional resilience

Generally speaking it is only with hindsight that career paths can be seen, and frequently they span a wide range of unexpected shifts along the way – change, setbacks, and frequent opportunities for emotional development. Our advisory board contains members who bring experiences and skillsets to our Scholars that help them develop their emotional self, to be resilient in the face of change.

Student Representative

The advisory board will also contain a student representative who can reflect the needs and perspective of the Diamante Scholar experience.

Board Charter

The Diamante Scholars Advisory Board serves to provide guidance and advice – within matters of their expertise – to the Diamante Scholars Executive Office on the structure, operations, and curriculum of the Diamante Scholars.

The Executive Office is composed of the Diamante Scholars founder, Peter Zaballos, and the Dean of Student Engagement and Equity at DVC, Rosa Armendariz.

The Advisory Board has a minimum of eight (8) members and a maximum of eleven (11) members, including the members of the Executive Office.

ROLE

The expectation of members of the Diamante Scholars Advisory Board are expected to:

  • Prepare for and attend 3–4 meetings per year

  • Contribute ~30 hours per quarter to program activities

  • Stay informed on program development

  • Share expertise, experience, and network connections

Terms of Service

2 Years
Standard term with automatic biannual renewal

30 Days
The amount of time requested from either party to end service

1 Year Term
Faculty and student members may request 1-year terms.