Board of Directors

President
Nancy Smith, Council Member, Sunnyvale

Nancy Smith was elected to the Sunnyvale City Council in November 2016. She serves as the City’s representative to the Santa Clara County Water District, on the Caltrain Modernization committee and on the Executive Committee of the Silicon Valley Clean Energy Authority Board. She also serves on the League of California Cities Housing, Community, and Economic Development Committee.

She works in as a program manager at NVIDIA Corporation, the world leader in visual computing technologies, deep learning and artificial intelligence — and owns a small consulting business geared toward helping organization demonstrate their values through cooperative community efforts.

As a council member, Nancy Smith works on bringing about innovative solutions to problems like growing income inequality, equity, affordable housing, and working toward sustainable economic and ecological practices.

Nancy has a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from Olivet Nazarene University.

She and her husband have lived in Sunnyvale since 1994.

1st Vice President
Beatriz Dieringer, Council Member, Rolling Hills

Bea Dieringer has been a member of the Women’s Caucus Board since 2017 and is currently serving as its Second Vice-President. She was elected to the Rolling Hills City Council in March, 2013, was selected as Mayor in 2016 and began her second four-year term in 2017 after she ran for re-election unopposed. Each year for the past five years, she has been appointed to participate as a member of the Public Safety Committee for the League of California Cities. Bea is a member of the Board for the South Bay Cities Council of Governments and for the Los Angeles Division of the League of California Cities, where she also serves on the Division’s legislative committee and as the Division’s representative on Los Angeles County’s Countywide Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee.

Bea represents her city within other organizations as well, such as the Joint Powers Insurance Authority and the Contract Cities Association, where she is a member of the Association’s legislative committee. In addition to her duties as a city council member, Bea works full-time as a career deputy district attorney for Los Angeles County. Since 1985, she has continued to contribute to her profession as a member of the executive committee of the Criminal Justice Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association.

2nd Vice President
Ellen Kamei, Council Member, Mountain View

Ellen Kamei was born and raised in Silicon Valley and is the daughter of a Chinese and Puerto Rican American mother from New York City and a third-generation Japanese American father born at Heart Mountain Internment Camp in Wyoming.

Inspired by community service since youth, Ellen began volunteering in elementary school and hasn’t stopped since. Driven to service, her career has taken her from Japan to the East Coast and back home to Mountain View. Ellen’s professional experience spans city, county, state, and federal government. In November 2018, Ellen was elected to the Mountain View City Council, Member-At-Large.

Ellen completed her Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the University of Pennsylvania, Fels Institute of Government. She attended the University of California, Santa Barbara where she was a student athlete on the Rowing Team and received a B.A. in English.

Secretary
Jesse Loren, Council Member, Winters

Jesse Loren was elected to Winters City Council in 2016. She serves on the Yolo County WRA and Subbasin Groundwater Agency, Winters Hispanic Advisory Committee, and as liaison with the Winters School District. She serves the League of California cities as a Region 3 Representative, Environmental Policy Committee Member, Latino Caucus Member, and proud Women's League Board Member.

Jesse has a B.A. in English Literature from U.C. Irvine and an MFA from University of New Orleans. She has co-edited 2 books on themes of cultural writing, including Bombshells: Stories and Poems by Women on the Homefront and Mourning Sickness: Stories and Poems about Miscarriage, Stillbirth and Infant Loss. Jesse is a retired high school teacher with 3 grown children and 2 grandchildren.

Immediate Past President
Cheryl Viegas-Walker, Council Member, El Centro

Cheryl Viegas Walker has served on the El Centro City Council since 1997 and has served as Mayor of El Centro five times.

Council Member Viegas Walker serves on the statewide League of California Cities Board of Directors and is the President of the LOCC's Women's Caucus. She represents El Centro on the Imperial County Transportation Commission, Local Transportation Authority, and the Service Authority for Freeway Emergencies [“SAFE”]. Council Member Viegas Walker is also the ICTC representative to the California Association of Councils of Governments, where she serves as 1st Vice President.

Council Member Viegas Walker is past president of the Southern California Association of Governments (“SCAG”), the largest metropolitan planning organization in the nation, and is currently a member of the SCAG Executive, Transportation, and Audit Committees, as well as the Imperial County representative on the SCAG Regional Council.

Council Member Walker is President of the El Centro Regional Medical Center Board of Trustees, and serves on the Finance and Board Quality Committees at the Hospital.

Council Member Viegas Walker is also a member of the Juvenile Justice Commission, a state mandated citizens' commission which operates under the auspices of the Imperial County Probation Department. She also serves on the San Diego State University [Imperial Valley Campus] Dean's Advisory Board and is active with the Imperial Valley Food Bank. She is a graduate of the University of Washington.

Board Member
Jan Arbuckle, Council Member, Grass Valley

Jan Arbuckle was born and raised in Southern California and relocated to Sacramento in the 1970s. Her almost two-decade career in public safety included serving with the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department as a deputy sheriff. She remains a reserve deputy and participates in the department’s PEER Support Program.

Council Member Arbuckle became locally involved in public service through two consecutive terms on the Nevada County Civil Grand Jury. This experience, learning how local government operates and how it addresses pressing issues such as public safety, homelessness and substance abuse inspired her further.

In February 2007, Council Member Arbuckle was appointed to the Grass Valley City Council. Elected in November 2008 to a four-year term on the Grass Valley City Council, her colleagues on the council selected her as vice mayor. The Grass Valley City Council selected her as mayor in 2010, a position she held for two years until 2012, the same year she was re-elected to the council. Council Member Arbuckle was re-elected again in 2016.

Council Member Arbuckle is active in the League of California Cities where she has served on the board of directors since 2013. She is chair of the League’s Public Safety Committee, president of the League’s Women’s Caucus, co-chair of the League-California State Association of Counties Joint Homelessness Task Force and has served as Sacramento Valley Division president twice. In addition, Council Member Arbuckle was the first women to chair the League’s Public Safety Policy Committee and served as chair of the League’s former Administrative Services Policy Committee.

Engaged throughout Grass Valley and Nevada City, Council Member Arbuckle serves on the Nevada County Homelessness Process Improvement Committee, the Grass Valley Successor Agency Oversight Board, the Nevada County Transit Services Commission and the Nevada County Transportation Commission. She helped pass a half-cent sales tax earmarked for public safety and roads, implemented a succession plan for the Grass Valley Police Department, helped create the Grass Valley Police Department Peer Support Program and facilitated a major interchange public works project.

Board Member
Rachelle Arizmendi, Council Member, Sierra Madre

Rachelle Arizmendi, elected in 2014, was the first woman of color to be elected to the City of Sierra Madre City Council. She was selected by her colleagues to serve as Mayor in 2017 and was recently re-elected to the City Council in 2018.

Rachelle is the Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer at PACE (Pacific Asian Consortium in Employment). Founded in 1976, PACE is a nonprofit, community development organization that annually serves over 50,000 people through job training and placement; business development; early childhood education; financial education and asset building; affordable housing; and environmental services. As VP and COO, Rachelle oversees a budget of $30 million and a staff of over 300 employees.

She was appointed by California Governor Brown to serve on the California State Board of Food and Agriculture where she addresses key issues regarding California’s growers, community stakeholders, and citizens. Rachelle also serves in leadership positions on several Boards including, the League of California Cities- Women's Caucus, the Board President of the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council, the Foothill Workforce Development Policy Board, National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development, and an Advisory Member of the South Coast Air Quality Management District's Local Government & Small Business Assistance Advisory group.

Rachelle, her husband Fili, and dog Madison have resided in the City of Sierra Madre since 2016.