Pseads Board - Pseads
Pseads Board of Directors
Dedan Gills
Founding Board Member, In Memoriam. continues to be a beloved, honored and guiding mentor, friend and inspiration to the Pseads team at the heart and every stage of the organization’s development. Dedan was an educator, poet, social justice activist, and pioneer of Green Recovery, a movement to address the healing of human communities and the planet through mediation and dialogue, environmental stewardship, and the cultivation and sharing of inner wisdom. His work incorporated principles of sustainability, permaculture design and the greening of the spirit as critical aspects of any recovery, healing, or learning process. Dedan was co-founder with Belvie Rooks of Growing a Global Heart, an organization dedicated to social and environmental justice, including through helping communities to plant a million trees along the transatlantic slave route and Underground Railroad. He served as a mentor to people of all ages, and worked over decades to address homelessness, drug addiction, incarceration, and despair. He was associate producer of the documentary film “Watts Up!”, and executive producer of the documentary “Search for the Everlasting Coconut Tree.” His poems appear in I Give You the Springtime of My Blushing Heart: A Poetic Love Song, published posthumously by Belvie Rooks. Speechify named Springtime one of the best poetry books of 2023.
Steve Uzzell
Treasurer, Chief Hope Officer. Steve is an operational precision specialist, inspirational speaker, and one of the top advertising and corporate photographers in the world. He started in the photography business over 40 years ago as the assistant to the editor of National Geographic and a member of their photographic staff before building his own corporation. Steve’s assignments have taken him to all 50 states and 30 foreign countries and led to an incredible portfolio of images, stories and experiences. His photographic work has garnered international acclaim and won numerous awards, including ten awards from Communication Arts. He has photographed multiple books and had his editorial work published in over 100 publications, including Newsweek, Smithsonian, TIME, and U.S. News. As an inspirational speaker, Steve’s travels are also global – in the past 25 years he has given the presentation that became his book Open Roads Open Minds – An Exploration of Creative Problem Solving to over 500 organizations in all 50 United States, as well as three Canadian provinces and five other countries, including India and China, to a combined audience of more than 600,000 people.
Chris Fong
Board Member. Chris is an experienced C-level executive whose career spans 25 years working at venture backed startups, billion dollar technology companies, and leading investment banks. He was headquartered in Los Angeles, Silicon Valley and New York and traveled extensively for domestic and international work. Chris’ expertise is in corporate strategy, private equity, and mergers & acquisitions, and has worked at companies including Credit Suisse, Citigroup, Synopsys and Planet Labs. Prior to his career in finance, Chris worked at Loud Records in Los Angeles, which was the largest rap label at the time and discovered groups like the Wu-Tang Clan, Mobb Deep, and Fat Joe. Chris now enjoys sailing, hiking and working on projects with friends who are actively involved in the entertainment industry, social justice and social impact.
Jelani Rooks
Board Member. Jelani Rooks is an experienced 3-time Emmy award winning Producer for CBS Sports, and the current Coordinating Producer for CBS Sports Soccer. He has produced 100+ live UEFA, Series A, NFL, NCAAB games, Super Bowls 50 & 53 and 2017 NCAA Final Four. Jelani’s most recent project with CBS, “Kickin’ It“, was nominated for a Sports Emmy “Outstanding Hosted Edited Series" in its first year. The show, featuring Kate Abdo, Clint Dempsey, Mo Edu, and Charlie Davies, aims to showcase a more “personal and relatable side to the biggest stars and celebrities in and around the soccer through unfiltered and organic conversation." Jelani recently was named the 2023 “Rising Star" by the North American Soccer Business and Media Awards. He holds a degree in Black Studies from Amherst College, where he also played collegiate soccer, and currently lives in New York City.
Paul Germeraad, PhD
Board Member. Paul served as the long-time President of Intellectual Associates, Inc., a professional advisory services firm specializing in integrated business, R&D and IP processes. Intellectual Assets was distinguished by using cutting-edge IP assessment tools and proprietary software, in addition to offering invaluable insight based on the depth and breadth of executive level management experience and industry coverage the firms’ members represented. Paul was previously Chief Operating Officer for Aurigin Systems, Inc., a software startup, and has worked for three Fortune 500 companies. He served as Vice President, Corporate Research for Avery Dennison, and was past Chairman of the Industrial Research Institute. He holds a PhD in Chemistry, and serves as an instructor and speaker at executive programs for CalTech, UC Berkeley and University of Southern California.
Richard ‘Rich’ Meyer
Board Member. Rich is an entrepreneur, visionary philanthropist, writer, and instrument-rated private pilot. He has participated in numerous book projects, and initiated development of the book Beyond Forgiveness: Reflections on Atonement (Josey-Bass). Rich supports a wide range of causes, from recovery-related programs to youth violence prevention programs and efforts for social and ecological justice. Over many years, he has held numerous offices in service clubs, worked on various task forces and chaired or co-chaired six nonprofit community efforts. He also co-founded three political organizations in Orange County and Riverside County, and in 2004 won the Democratic nomination for the 45th congressional district of CA. Rich was the first person to champion and support the movement of work that became Pseads.
William Woods, MA
Board Member. William is an educator and Human Resources Professional, whose life passion is, simply, to help others. A native of Memphis, Tennessee, William is an experienced education professional with a wide range of experience with non-profits, management, youth leadership development, and college counseling. Currently a Talent Engagement Specialist with 3Degrees, a renewable energy B-Corp company in San Francisco, William is instrumental in connecting students attending Historically Black Colleges & Universities to internship and job opportunities with the company. Although he has shifted career paths, his passion continues to run deep as he remains committed to supporting youth through organizations in Memphis, Marin City, and across the Bay Area. He holds a Master of Arts in Education and Curriculum Design from Union University (Jackson, TN).
Pseads Advisors
Belvie Rooks
Strategic Advisor, Community Building. Belvie is an essayist, educator and social justice activist whose pioneering work weaves social justice and healing with environmental restoration and community-building. Her understanding of and commitment to human and civil rights was profoundly impacted by a weekend with Martin Luther King, Jr. when she was teenager. During the anti-apartheid era, Belvie was one of the first women on national steering committees and Associate Director of the Third World Fund, for which she traveled throughout Africa and was honored to serve as an election monitor during the transition to majority rule in South Africa and attend Nelson Mandela’s inauguration. She was founding faculty at SUNY College of Social Justice, and faculty at Holy Names University and Naropa University’s Environmental Studies Program. She is also creator of Hey Listen Up, a groundbreaking urban eco-literacy project, and ConverZations That Matter, featuring thought leaders from around the globe. Belvie served on the Boards of Bioneers, Ella Baker Center and the Institute for Noetic Sciences, and as a founding staff member of Wild Trees Press with Alice Walker and Robert Allen. Her writing appears in numerous publications and anthologies, and she is co-producer (with Damani Baker, Danny Glover) of the award-winning film, The House on Coco Road. Belvie and husband Dedan Gills founded Growing a Global Heart (“to plant a tree is to plant hope”), and both have essays in Global Chorus, 365 Voices on the Future of the Planet. Belvie is Editor of I Give You the Springtime of My Blushing Heart, a poetic love story between her and Dedan. Belvie’s pioneering and visionary mentorship and work on educational programs like Hey Listen Up!, Journey of the Universe, and ConverZations That Matter, and Dedan’s poetry and counsel as Founding Board Member, have been the guiding influence for Pseads.
(Photo credit: Sharon Garner)
Nikos ‘Nick’ Yiangou, MA
Nick is of Greek descent, and grew up near Cape Town, South Africa. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in developmental psychology from the University of Sussex, a Master of Arts in transpersonal psychology, and a certificate from San Francisco State University in Multimedia Studies. Nick served as Senior Manager of Web Content, Process and Production at Adobe, where he spent over 25 years developing systems, analytics, products and mobile applications. Dedicated to meaningful dialogue about human consciousness and the relationship between religion and science, he served on the board of the Beshara School in Scotland for over 20 years, and as President of the Board for the Ibn Arabi Society. Nick is a published author and an invited speaker at conferences locally, nationally and globally on self-knowledge, contemplative studies, poetry, pilgrimage, and learning.