2008 NPC Steering Committee

NPC maintains an active steering committee comprised of park advocates from across the City who serve to inform policy and advocacy work for the organization.

Jean Bogiages
Jean's professional experience includes 10 years of teaching math in SFUSD and 25 years of software engineering serving as programmer, manager and systems engineer. Volunteer work includes 10 years as an Oakland Youth Orchestra board member, serving the roles of treasurer and president and 4 years as chairperson for the park committee of MUNA, Mariposa-Utah-18th-San Bruno Streets Neighborhood Organization.

Ryan McCarthy
Ryan McCarthy designs and manages programming at the West Sunset Rec Center as part of the Rec Connect Initiative, a citywide partnership between the Recreation and Parks Department, local non-profit community based organizations, and the Department of Children, Youth and Their Families. Ryan has over ten years of teaching experience, having taught students in Houston, New York, San Francisco, and Beijing.

Like all native Texans, Ryan has a great love of language and is conversationally fluent in English, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, HTML, and French.

Carol Maxwell
Carol Maxwell is a parks advocate and mother of school-aged children. As one of the founders of Friends of Duboce Park, she spearheaded fundraising and community organizing to rebuild the Duboce Park playground and served on the board for many years. She is also a founding member of Friends of Grattan Playground and has been actively involved in building a community stewardship movement for this park. Carol led a team of community volunteers on the Harvey Milk Rec. Center renovation and served as a community representative to select artists for the new Children's Playground in Golden Gate Park. As a public school supporter and parent, she has recently become active in developing a Green Schoolyard program at her kids' school. Her professional background is in Advertising and Marketing.

Dick Morten
Dick Morten lives in the Parkside with his wife, Madeline, and daughter, Ai Lin.  He is SPUR's representative to the Lake Merced Task Force devoting efforts to raising lake water level and quality, and developing a Watershed Master Plan.  Dick actively participated in the development of the Stern Grove and Pine Lake Master Plan.

Dick spear headed an effort to build a new Larson Park/Sava Pool as a replacement for the existing pool that was in violation of building codes and seismically unsafe.  The pool is schedule to open in late 2008.

As Vice Chair of the Citizens General Obligation Oversight Committee he has responsibility for monitoring the 2000 and 2008 Recreation and Park Bond measures.  Dick worked with City capital planning officials and Supervisor Sean Elsbernd to ensure that the 2008 Bond is transparent, has strong accountability provisions, and website public view of construction progress for individual projects.

He retired from Accenture Consulting's Strategy Group.  Other segments of his career included:  Vice President of Economic and Public Affairs for the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, Peace Corps Volunteer Sarawak (Borneo) Malaysia, federal Office of Economic Opportunity, and Solem and Associates. He is a world traveler having lived, worked and journeyed to over 60 countries.

Ahsha Safai
Ahsha Safai is a homeowner in the Excelsior District of San Francisco with his wife Yadira Taylor. He has been active in local San Francisco politics for the past 8 years.

Upon graduation from MIT in 2000, Ahsha decided to restart his political career in the Bay Area and accepted a job as the Legislative Liaison for the San Francisco Housing Authority (SFHA). In January 2003, Mr. Safai left the SFHA and joined Gavin Newsom’s campaign for mayor of San Francisco as his Deputy Director of Field Operations.

For two and one half years, Mr. Safai served as Mayor Gavin Newsom’s Deputy Director for the Mayor’s Office of Community Development (MOCD). MOCD is San Francisco’s recipient of both the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and Emergency Shelter Grant (ESG) programs totaling over $25 million in federal dollars that are directed towards low- to moderate-income communities and overall neighborhood revitalization.

In 2006, Mayor Newsom asked Ahsha to join the Department of Public Works Community Corridor Partnership team, a special Mayoral initiative designed to make San Francisco cleaner through public private partnerships. Through the initial success of this program, the Mayor refunded and expanded the Community Corridors program in July of 2007 to 200 city blocks and over 2.4 million dollars.

Currently, Mr. Safai works for a non-profit workforce development program: Mission Language Vocational School (MLVS). MLVS has been in operation for 39 years and has trained over 22,000 students access the local job market, focusing primarily on newly arrived immigrants from Latin America and China.

Mr. Safai’s career in public service began in his hometown Cambridge, Massachusetts while attending college and working as an aide to City Councilor William Walsh. Soon after, he moved on to work in the Massachusetts Legislature for State Senator Mark Montigny. Upon graduating from Northeastern University in 1995 with a dual Bachelor of Science: African-American Studies & Political Science, Mr. Safai accepted a job to work for President Bill Clinton as an assistant to the Deputy Director of Intergovernmental Affairs & Liaison to Native Americans, Loretta T. Avent. After his stay in the White House, Ahsha returned to Cambridge to manage multiple political campaigns for the Massachusetts Legislature. In 1998, Ahsha was accepted to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and graduated in 2000 with a master’s degree in Urban Studies & City Planning.

Kathleen Scanlan
Kate has been a long-time resident of the Inner Richmond and a daily user (together with her dog) of Mountain Lake Park and the adjacent Presidio. Initially a volunteer with the Friends of Mountain Lake Park, she now serves as a member of the Board of Directors and the President of FMLP. Kate came to volunteer with the Neighborhood Parks Council when Mountain Lake Park hosted NPC's Annual Gala in 2006. She is an attorney with the law firm of Keller Grover, LLP specializing in complex class action litigation frequently on behalf of consumers. Kate holds a B.A. from Trinity College in Hartford, CT and a J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.

Charles Spencer
As past President of the Fillmore Jazz Preservation District Merchants Association and a Member of the Western Addition Community Advisory Committee, Charles has worked to improve the open space and quality of life experiences in the Western Addition. Charles Spencer has facilitated the organization of park volunteers in the Fillmore Turk Mini Park and at 1100 Golden Gate which is part of the Buchanan Park Mall. In addition to his volunteer activities, Charles is the owner of the New Chicago Barbershop on Fillmore Street.

Denise M. Spielman
Friends of Upper Douglass Dog Park, Steering Committee Member
Denise is a founding member of the Friends of Upper Douglass Dog Park. Started as a group to simply improve park grounds and facilities, it has since expanded into an organization that also seeks to recognize and balance the needs of dogs, their owners and walkers, and the park neighbors. Denise, a 25 year resident of San Francisco, brings to her role a life-long love of animals, a deep respect for the rights of the community, an appreciation of the social diversity of users of SF parks, and a zeal for accomplishing ongoing improvement through communication and collaboration between established city organizations and motivated grass-root volunteers.

Arthur Tom
Arthur Tom graduated from UC Berkeley in Business Administration, and has since practiced as a CPA and Real Estate Broker in San Francisco for over 25 years. As San Francisco natives, Art and his wife have chosen to stay and raise their family in The City and wish more middle class families would do the same. A community activist and neighborhood leader, Art formed the 37th Avenue SAFE Neighborhood Watch group which has helped prevent crime and build a stronger community. Since Art believes families with children should have safe, clean and usable playgrounds in neighborhoods where they live he is organizing a Friends of West Sunset Playground group. Art is a member of the San Francisco Association of Realtors Governmental Relations Committee and a commissioner on the Assessment Appeals Board.