| Board of Directors |
 Greta K. Nagel, Ph.D., President
Dr. Greta Nagel, MOTAL’s founding director and curator, is an educator with over 40 years of experience as a teacher, learning specialist, elementary principal, and college professor. She is a professor emerita of California State University, Long Beach, and author of The Tao of Teaching, The Tao of Parenting and Effective Grouping for Literacy Instruction in addition to dozens of articles related to teaching and learning. Dr. Nagel received her master’s in education from California State University, Fullerton, and her doctorate in multicultural curriculum and instruction from San Diego State University jointly with Claremont Graduate School. Awards Dr. Nagel has received include the Robert E. Kelly Award and the International Reading Association Celebrate Literacy award.
Dr. Deming retired in 2011 from her position as manager of Planning and Strategies in the Environment, Health & Safety Division of Southern California Edison (SCE), where she worked for 30 years. Prior to joining SCE, Dr. Deming held a research staff position at the University of Southern California in the fields of demography, criminology, and gerontology. She was assistant professor of sociology at the University of Vermont and an assistant planner with the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission. Dr. Deming also serves on the Advisory Board for the Demographic and Social Analysis Program at University of California at Irvine. She earned master’s and doctorate degrees in sociology/demography from the University of Chicago.
Dr. Loren Doll has worked as an engineer, management consultant, and computer systems manager. He is currently a partner in LCPtracker, Inc. a small business providing specialized web services to government and major construction contractors. Community activities include serving on the Traffic and Circulation Commission of the City of Fullerton, California. Dr. Doll is a graduate of Oregon State University and Purdue University with degrees in electrical engineering and operations management. He joined MOTAL to promote knowledge of the critical role education and learning has played in American history and to help ensure continued support by the public and by policy makers.
Minard Duncan’s 54-year career in the Fullerton School District includes serving as principal for 33 years and being a board trustee. His volunteer efforts include the Rotary Club of Fullerton, Boys and Girls Club, Fullerton College Foundation, Southern California College of Optometry Board, Fullerton School District Science Advocacy Council, the Fullerton Collaborative, and the Phi Delta Kappa Board. Awards include a Spirit of Volunteerism Award, Orange County Department of Education Outstanding Contribution to Education Award, the Association of California School Administrators’ Robert E. Kelly Award for Significant and Continuing Volunteer Work in the Community, and Educator of the Year Award from the Fullerton Chamber of Commerce. Duncan earned a master’s degree in elementary education from Long Beach State College.
Jack E. Sorokin, Esq, is assistant general counsel at Beckman Coulter, Inc., where he has worked since 1979. His responsibilities have included corporate law and governance, corporate finance, general commercial and business law and regulatory law litigation management. His education includes a B.A. from the University of California at Irvine and a J.D. from UCLA School of Law. He was admitted to the California Bar in 1975. His volunteer and community service activities include attorney-mentor for a UCI Law School student and volunteer judge for the UCI School of Social Sciences moot court competition (2010). He also assists at various events of the Placentia Library Friends Foundation.
Dr. Dorothy Taguchi is a veteran of developing award-winning educational products for the home and the classroom. Her experience includes 14 years as editorial director for the Hooked on Phonics product line, as well as roles including producer, editorial director, and curriculum developer for Sylvan Learning’s line of more than 50 workbooks and related products. Dr. Taguchi has served as educational advisor for Treasure Bay’s We Read Phonics leveled book series. She also consults as editorial project manager with a company helping highly regarded brick-and-mortar universities convert their master’s degree courses to online degree programs. She earned a doctorate in linguistics from The University of Texas at Austin.
Dyan Venters is the national accounts manager for ConAgra Foods, Inc. She has been in the food service industry for 30 years, working in sales and sales management. In this position, Venters has been instrumental in growing a sales portfolio of more than 40 million dollars. Having grown up in segregated schools in the South, she is an advocate for equal, quality education for all students. Venters is also a motivational speaker teaching high school students about the values of a good education. She is a member of the Women’s Foodservice Forum Committee and the Food Service Advisory Council.
Albert Wallace has 28 years of experience as chief financial officer of five closely held businesses. His experience includes working with new ventures and emerging growth enterprises, federal contracts, small business enterprise systems, product cost models, cost accounting systems, cost management, and cost reduction. Wallace has also worked with mergers and acquisition negotiations and execution and integration, human resources, customer contracting, small business turnaround plans and execution, and business sales and marketing programs. Wallace’s industry experience includes managed care, occupational health and safety, wholesale, not-for-profit, and biotechnology. A graduate of Johns Hopkins University and California State University, Long Beach, he is a certified public accountant and certified management accountant.
Emerita Board Members
Dr. Claire Cavallaro has served as dean of the College of Education at California State University, Fullerton since 2006, after more than 30 years of experience in education. She was professor and chair of the Department of Special Education at California State University, Northridge from 1982 to 2003, and chief of staff to the university’s president for the next three years. Dr. Cavallaro founded the CHIME Institute, a national leader in the development and delivery of quality inclusive education, and was a professor at Binghamton University in New York and Tennessee. She received her doctorate in special education from Peabody College at Vanderbilt University, and her master’s degree at the State University of New York College at Buffalo.
Dr. Bobbi Mahler’s 42-year career in public education, started as a school cafeteria cashier and led to teaching at the doctoral level at California University at Long Beach. She is a former interim superintendent for Westminster and Capistrano Unified School Districts. A proponent of balanced curricular offerings, Dr. Mahler developed the Fine and Performing Arts Foundation while working as superintendent of Centralia School District. She also served in a variety of administrative positions in the Irvine Unified School District, and spent her early teaching years in Saugus, Downey, and Fountain Valley, California.
Dr. Vezzuto’s is coordinator of research and development at the Orange County Department of Education. She established and directed an alternative multiple-subject credential program serving Orange County school districts. Dr. Vezzuto has served as a teacher educator at universities in California, Washington, and North Carolina. As the first Fulbright Scholar in elementary education and curriculum development at the University Brunei Darassalam in Southeast Asia she trained teachers, consulted with the Ministry of Education, and worked with the Brunei Narcotics Control Bureau on drug prevention research. Dr. Vezzuto was a candidate in the Fulbright Senior Specialist Program sponsored by the U.S. State Department. She was founding president of North Carolina’s Appalachian State University’s chapter of Phi Beta Delta, Honor Society for International Scholars.
Our thanks to Joel Maus for volunteering his time and expertise for the photography.
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
, Photographer
|
Mary Beard Deming, Ph.D.
Charles Loren Doll, Ph.D., Secretary
Minard Duncan, Treasurer
Jack E. Sorokin, Esq.
Dorothy M. Taguchi, Ph.D.
Dyan Venters
Albert L. Wallace 
Claire Cavallaro, Ph.D.
Bobbi Mahler, Ed.D.
Lucy A. Vezzuto, Ph.D.