CollegeSummit :: Regional Team & Board

Regional Team & Board

Paul Collins, Executive Director of College Summit – Northern California
A graduate of Duke University (BA, Psychology, 1986) and the California Institute of Integral Studies (MA, Organizational Development, 2000). After teaching at PS 50Q in Jamaica, New York (1986-1987), Paul joined ChaseMellon Shareholder Services, where he was an Assistant Vice President, managing large corporate equity relationships (1988-2000). Upon completing his Master’s degree, he traveled extensively throughout Mexico with his wife and two young children. Paul joined College Summit as Program Director in 2003, after serving as a Writing Coach at the 2002 Summer Workshop at Stanford University. He is currently a Community Fellow at the Full Circle Fund in San Francisco, and has served as on the School Site Council and as Pledge Coordinator at Buena Vista Alternative Elementary School in San Francisco. At College Summit, Paul has developed an extensive network of school and college partners, currently serving over 2,500 students statewide.

Michael Magnaye, Development Director for California
Michael is responsible for philanthropy throughout California for both the Northern and Southern regions, as well as for fund development at the National level. He has more than 20 years of fundraising and communication experience in the fields of health care, international development, media and education. He has held staff positions at many organizations, including Southwest Community Health Center, The Girl Scouts, and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Born and raised in the Philippines, he attended the University of the Philippines (BA honors, 1985) and Stanford University (MA, 1993). In his spare time, he sings as a first tenor at the Basilica Choir of Mission Dolores, the oldest church in San Francisco, California and is a proud owner of a large snow globe collection.

Diedra Barber, Program Manager
Diedra was born on Long Island, New York. Attending high school in Orange County, California where she experienced severe culture shock she resiliently survived to graduate and attend Dominican University of California in San Rafael (1996). As an International Relations major she focused on pacific basin studies and women’s human rights issues internationally. After two years of graduate school at San Francisco State in Women’s Studies focusing on the impact of menarche experiences as related to resiliency and self-esteem in adolescent girls of color, Diedra joined Education Unlimited a for profit academic summer camp company. For 3 years she served as their Chief Operations Officer until deciding her real calling was to work with public school students in higher education access and justice issues. She currently volunteers weekly as a college advisor and co - facilitates a high school girls’ group called the Sisterhood at an academic after school program in Oakland.

Leora Wolf-Prusan, School Partnership Manager
Leora is a native San Franciscan, and a graduate of UC Davis (2006) with a B.A. in Spanish and International Relations and a minor in Social and Ethnic Relations. She spent much of her undergraduate experience working in student affairs, specifically with the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) Information Office, working both as a Peer Advising Counselor and then as the Coordinator. Dedicated to higher education access, she continued her work with urban education while at Mills College earning a 6-12 social studies teaching credential in the Teacher's for Tomorrow's Schools program. After teaching in small essential schools and public and private schools, she moved to Jerusalem for a graduate research fellowship in Non Profit Management, Community Leadership, and Education at Hebrew University. She is now happy to be back in San Francisco.

Damien Basey, School Partnership Manager
Damien Basey, originally from Oakland, CA, graduated from University of California, Berkeley in 2006 with a BA in Social Welfare. During his undergraduate experience, he had the opportunity to assist and advise a diverse student body including transfer students, student parents, and student-athletes. Drawing from his own personal experience in navigating through barriers of college access and issues within higher education, Damien went on to pursue and graduate with an MA of Education from the University of Washington in 2007. In addition to serving his community, Damien has honorably served his country as a member of the United States Navy. After assisting student- athletes in areas such as college access, leadership development, and athletic training, Damien proudly joins the College Summit Northern California team to continue the ongoing support of college access with the youth of his very own community.

Amy Pimentel, Community Engagement Coordinator
Among other projects, Amy leads alumni and volunteer recruitment and engagement for the Northern California team. She is excited to build a strong alumni base for the Northern California office and recruit local volunteers for summer workshops. Amy was born and raised in the small town of Hanford in the heart of California's Central Valley. Her journey through higher education began at College of The Sequoias in Visalia. In 2001, she moved to Washington, D.C. where she was an idealistic City Year Corps Member participating in the implementation of a drug education and HIV prevention program in public schools, as well as working in after school programs. Amy later transferred to New York University's School of Social Work and graduated in 2004. Amy is honored to be part of June Jordan's legacy as a Student Teacher Poet with Poetry For The People at UC Berkeley from 2008-09. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University in June, 2010.