President, Denis Fama
Denis has more than 15 years experience as a college instructor and nonprofit consultant. He received a Masters Degree in Nonprofit Management from the University of San Francisco and a Bachelor’s Degree in History from San Francisco State College.
He currently teaches with Notre Dame de Namur University (Belmont) and John F. Kennedy University (Pleasant Hill). His fields are Management, Human Resources, Labor Relations, Conflict Resolution and Employment Law. He consults with many small community nonprofits and provides pro bono services in human resources, strategic planning, board development, and fundraising.
Denis has served on the Millbrae Planning Commission and is currently a Millbrae Elementary School Board Trustee. He also serves on a number of nonprofit Boards, including Ombudsmen Services of San Mateo County and Mid- Peninsula Boys and Girls Club. He is an advisor to the Millbrae Education Foundation, and the Millbrae Community Foundation.
He was the recipient of the Mayor’s 2010 Diversity Award for community service and has also been inducted into the Peninsula Basketball Officials Hall of Fame. In 2014, he was honored as the Millbrae Man of the Year and was recognized as the 2015 Educator of the Year by the Millbrae Lions Club.
Vice President, Monika Lee
Monika Lee joined the board of OSSMC in September. She first came to us in 2009, after she started practicing law in partnership with her husband in San Mateo, where she has lived since 1986. She became a volunteer ombudsman and in her three years learned much about how the system works, and that there is a lot of room for improvement.
Monika has been an attorney for 30 years, primarily representing corporate clients in litigation, often in disputes that involve large sums of money and take years to resolve. She used to work for a large law firm in San Francisco, but for the last six years have practiced in San Mateo in a small firm. Over the years she has also represented various constituencies on a pro bono basis, including women prisoners, tenants, minors and guardians. She is active in the high school mock trial program sponsored by the San Mateo County Bar Association.
Monika grew up in Germany and came to the US in the early 1970s. She did her undergraduate and graduate (Ph.D. Economics) work at the University of Kansas, worked for the government in Washington D.C. for a while, then studied law at UCLA. Monika and her husband have two daughters, one who is finishing her Ph.D. at Stanford and another that has just started graduate school there. They have a small vineyard in the foothills in Calaveras County where they spend their weekends working hard as farmers. She likes to read and to travel, particularly to Europe. Monika takes classes in yoga and Pilates, and tries to keep physically active going for walks and riding her bike.
Secretary/Treasurer, Cindy Safe
Cindy Safe is an experienced non profit manager with 10+ years of management, including founding executive director of the Health Van, a neighborhood health care provider, and Coda Alliance, the end of life care coalition of the Silicon Valley, where she continues as a volunteer board member. She also was program director of older adult support services at Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County for two years managing the county ombudsman services, a nursing home Friendly Visitor Program, and Handicapables, a social program for special needs adults. Cindy is now a government analyst with four years at the City of San Jose as a Parks Management Analyst and currently serving as Senior Management Analyst, finance and human resources manager, to the Town of Woodside Town Manager for the past two years.
Mitchell Bailey
Since 2016, Mitchell has served as a senior administrator at the Community College District, where he leads a number of strategic internal and external operations for the District.
Previously, he served for over five years as Chief of Staff and Assistant to the President at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio. He has also worked in government operations at the Ohio Department of Administrative Services, leading several government-wide initiatives for the Governor’s Office.
Locally, Mitchell is involved in various community and professional activities, including a serving on the San Mateo Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and as the District’s representative to the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. He is also a graduate of the Redwood City San Mateo County Chamber Leadership program.
In 2015, Mitchell was named as one of the “Forty Under 40” business and community leaders by the Dayton Business Journal.
Chet Lexvold
Chet Lexvold is a licensed attorney, currently working as a Research Consultant for LexisNexis. Previously, Chet was in private practice and also was a judicial law clerk, where he gained experience serving as a Guardian and Conservator for elderly citizens and worked on a wide variety of cases, including child protection, criminal cases, and civil litigation. Chet’s professional and personal experiences with elder care prompted him to volunteer for Ombudsman Services of San Mateo County. Chet enjoys continuously learning and staying active, particularly hiking the beautiful trails in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Bob Montevaldo
Bob Montevaldo, MBA, BSEE, is currently a program management and business consultant. He worked for many years with Hewlett Packard and Tandem Computers as a program manager. He also serves on the board of the Project Management Institute’s Silicon Valley Chapter and is the chapter’s vice president of Finance.
Sharmin Nabi
Sharmin Nabi is a licensed attorney and has worked in various large health care organizations in health care compliance and privacy. Sharmin is experienced at implementing compliance programs, managing patient complaints and privacy investigations. Sharmin specialized in health law in law school, and her coursework in elder law helped prompt Sharmin to become involved with Ombudsman Services of San Mateo County. Sharmin enjoys learning new things and being exposed to other cultures. She enjoys health and wellness activities such as hiking, biking, and meditation.
Emeritus
- Betty Brown
- Nancy Cronin
- Lance Reynolds