Who We Are.
The Sacramento Literacy Foundation, formerly the Sacramento Public Library Foundation, has raised more than $11 million for the Sacramento Public Library and recently has changed its name and broadened its focus on Literacy. The Literacy Foundation remains a community literacy convener and will direct all future fundraising toward accelerating language literacy rates in the Sacramento Region. Through donor support we have been able to make strategic investments in children’s literacy with positive results.
Revenue is generated by the Foundation through an annual giving program supported by more than 5,000 donors; major gifts from individuals including donor-named and donor-advised funds; foundation grants and corporate sponsorships; direct mail; and many planned giving opportunities including outright gifts of securities and gifts of life insurance, bequests, Revocable Living Trusts, Charitable Gift Annuities, Charitable Remainder Trusts as well as gifts of property.
The Foundation is an independent charitable organization.
Meet The Board President
Ahamadou Bocar
Meet The Board Officers
Randy Getz
Vice President
Denise Timmons
Secretary & Interim Treasurer
Meet The At Large Board Members
Clark Carter
Chris Johnson
Dr. Sobha Kollipara
Carlos Marquez III
Christine Shelby
Mary Ellen Shay
Jeannie Wong
Education Advisory Committee
The Education Advisory Committee is a formal group of educators and experts that inform the Foundation as we fund and support literacy programs.
- Julius Austin, SHRA Program Manager – Resident Services/Resident Training Program/Sacramento Promise Zone
- Todd Collins, California Reading Coalition, Founder
- Elise Spang, Zaner-Bloser, Learning Designer
- Becky Sullivan, Sacramento County Office of Education, Project Lead: Literacy Coaches and Reading Specialists Educator Training Grant
- Maria Trejo, California Department of Education, Retired
- Elaine Wallace, Twin Rivers Unified School District, Coordinator of Curriculum & Instruction and Professional Development
- Tami Wilson, Sacramento County Office of Education, Director, English Language Arts Curriculum & Instruction
Foundation Staff
- April L. Javist, Executive Director, april@sacramentoliteracy.org
- Messiah Millares, Fundraising Associate, messiah@sacramentoliteracy.org
- Rigo Tovar, Program Associate, rigo@sacramentoliteracy.org
Denise Timmons
Secretary
Community Volunteer
Denise moved to Sacramento more than 50 years ago with her family. She spent most of her 25-year career with Wells Fargo here in Sacramento, except for a 5-year period when she managed three different branches on the Monterey Peninsula. She would eventually move back to Sacramento when she married her husband Donald Timmons. After leaving her Wells Fargo career, Denise felt a strong desire to be more involved in the Sacramento community and sought out volunteer opportunities aligned with her philanthropic interest to help children, whether that involved the arts, homelessness, education, health care, foster programs and hunger. Together Denise and her husband started Restoration House in 2003, a transitional living facility for male parolees. Denise has served on the Crocker Art Museum Board, Crocker Foundation Board, as well as the Verge Center for the Arts Board. When asked to join Sacramento Literacy Foundation’s Board, she felt it would be a good fit for her personally and that the Foundation’s strategic focus on children’s literacy aligned with her long-term charitable contribution plan.
Ahamadou Bocar
Ahamadou Bocar first began volunteering for the Foundation’s annual audit committee in 2012. Ahamadou, an audit partner at CohnReznick, received his education in both America and Europe and holds degrees from San Jose State University and the University of Nancy in France. He has more than 28 years of audit, finance, tax, and accounting experience with public accounting and investment banking organizations. A native of Mali, West Africa, he has traveled the world through his educational and career engagements. Ahamadou is “very interested in literacy and improving early child education and learning.”
Clark Carter
Clark Carter teaches at Estrellita High School, which is a continuing education high school in Galt. There he teaches US History and American government, where his main objective is to “help students realize their academic goals whether it be returning to their original high school or getting a diploma from Estrellita.” Carter has had a long standing relationship to the Foundation, having attended his first of eight consecutive Authors on the Move galas in 2006 where he enjoyed the musing of an up and coming author, now New York Times best selling author, Dave Eggers. Six years later Carter was invited to join the board. Clark is a tennis coach at Galt High School and a golf coach at Liberty Ranch High School. Carter also likes to read and travel, and in the last several years he has combined his travel with international humanity efforts.
Randy Getz
Randy Getz is an investment broker with CBRE, Inc. He is married to the artist Pat Mahony and together they are the parents of Camille, a film editor in Los Angeles. Randy is also on the boards of LAI-Sacramento, an international invitation-only land economics society, as well as the American River Natural History Association. Randy believes that “one’s ability to read deeply and well and to think critically have never been more important. The Sacramento Literacy Foundation is an important source of support for the development of important learning skills that will lead to a better informed, more knowledgeable and perceptive community now and into the future.”
Chris Johnson
Chris joined Principal® in 2015 with more than 18 years of experience in the financial services and mortgage industries. Chris worked with a financial services firm outside of Baltimore, MD for four years while attending college. Chris spent 10 years as a mortgage originator, with the last five and a half years as a brokerage owner. He and his wife relocated to Northern, CA in early 2014 where he began his second career as a Financial Professional.
Chris has developed an understanding of what it means to have a responsibility to his customers. His goal has always been to help as many people as possible. He looks forward to helping individuals, families and businesses with their financial goals.
Currently Chris, his wife, May, and their children Koda and Kalissa reside in Elk Grove, CA. He enjoys living in California and raising his children here where they are closer to his wife’s family. When he is not helping his clients, Chris enjoys spending time with his family and participating in charitable events.
Sobha Kollipara
Dr. Sobha Kollipara joined the Board on July 1, 2024. Her biography will be posted soon.
Carlos Marquez III
Carlos Marquez III is currently a full-time candidate for the California State Assembly. Prior to launching his campaign, Carlos served as the inaugural Executive Director of ACLU California Action where he advanced the statewide advocacy and policy objectives of California’s three ACLU affiliates in the State Capitol. While on the campaign trail, Carlos is actively advocating for children’s literacy.
Prior to joining ACLU California Action, Carlos represented public education and healthcare stakeholders as Founder and Principal of CM3 Advocacy LLC, a Sacramento-based government affairs consultancy. He served as Senior Vice President, Government Affairs and Political Director for the California Charter Schools Association before that, where he negotiated a major overhaul to the Charter Schools Act and helped secure a $300 million block grant for low performing students. Carlos’ career in advocacy has spanned leadership across the LGBTQ equality movement, labor movement, and education equity movement. Other past roles include serving as Government Affairs Representative for SEIU Local 221; Deputy Political Director, Western Region for the LGBTQ Victory Fund & Institute; Executive Director of HONOR Fund, a sponsored initiative of the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund (MALDEF); and Public Policy Fellow at United Way Worldwide. Carlos holds a B.A. in Political Science & Journalism from San Diego State University. He was named “40 under 40” by the
Sacramento Business Journal in 2019.
Mary Ellen Shay
Mary Ellen Shay’s professional background is in affordable housing and community development initiatives. Previous titles include State of California Housing and Community Development Department Program Manager and City of Redding Planning and Community Development Department Director. She is a licensed real estate agent and has been affiliated with the Federal Home Loan Bank Affordable Housing Program, California Housing Consortium, Northern California Association for Non-Profit Housing, Southern California Association for Non-Profit Housing, and Sacramento Habitat for Humanity (Past President 1989-1991). She is a co-Author of California Affordable Housing Handbook (1998). Her degrees are from San Francisco State College and University of Southern California. Mary Ellen is the Owner and President of M.E. Shay & Co.
Christine Shelby
Christine, a Sacramento native, holds a master’s degree in Communication Studies from Sacramento State. She is a dedicated wife and mother of four, and has a thriving career as a Digital Strategist and journalist for the Sacramento Observer. Christine has been a passionate supporter of the Literacy Foundation for many years and is excited to further her commitment by joining the board. She is an advocate for literacy and fondly remembers her childhood visits to the Rancho Cordova Library. Christine is an avid user of Libby and is known to get lost in a book to avoid housework weekly. She has instilled a love of reading in her children, who also avoid housework but can’t blame anyone but herself. Besides her professional work, Christine also coaches youth sports, teaching soccer and softball to kids in Sacramento. In her free time, she enjoys reading, watching sports, and spending time with her family.
Jeannie Wong
Jeannie Wong brings a wealth of expertise in journalism, communications and marketing. We are grateful that Jeannie is willing to explore, with us, how we can better shape our messaging. As a Senior Associate Vice President at Sacramento State, Jeannie oversees university-wide communications and marketing, including media relations, crisis communications, social media, multimedia, and brand and visual identity. She helped develop the award-winning campaign Made at Sac State. In 2018, President Robert S. Nelsen appointed her to his Cabinet, where she continues to serve as a member of his senior leadership team.
Prior to joining Sacramento State, Jeannie served as part of the upper-management newsroom team at The Sacramento Bee. A lifelong learner, Jeannie is a passionate advocate for literacy, education, equity and community. She is a Vice Chair of the Board of Directors for the Sacramento Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce and a Senior Fellow of the American Leadership Forum, Mountain Valley Chapter (ALFMVC). She helps coordinate the ALF-MVC Racial Equity & Inclusion affinity group. Born and reared in Los Angeles, Jeannie graduated from the University of Southern California and is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa academic honor society. She lives in Sacramento with her husband and their two daughters.