Sarah Creeley, President
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Sarah Creeley has been a teacher at Hanna Ranch Elementary school since 1996. She fell in love with Hercules and was able to get a condominium close to Hanna Ranch so that her daughter could go to school there. Sarah was one of the founders for The Friends of Franklin Canyon and the 2004 March for Education. She serves on the Board of the Hercules Community Library Foundation and volunteers at the library every summer providing Wild About Writing classes for children. Sarah has been a Board member of the Hercules Education Foundation for more than 10 years.
Don Kuehne, Director
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Don Kuehne has served as a director of the Hercules Education Foundation since its inception in 2007. Don is married and has three children that attended our public schools (K-12) and graduated from Hercules High school. He is retired from Chevron and is active as a community volunteer.
Lynda Lopez, Director
Lynda is a native of Oakland and has lived in Hercules since 1995. She currently works full-time as a Sr. Payroll Analyst in the Accounting Department at Chevron Federal Credit Union and has been there for over two decades in different roles. She has been an active member of the school PTA/PTO, local events (especially for the H.E.F. and the Hercules Rotary Club), helping to establish new local businesses, and at bowling tournaments to help raise money for college scholarship funding. Lynda has also served on the Student Site Councils at Hanna Ranch & Hercules Middle Schools. In addition to being a newly added Board Member to the Hercules Education Foundation, she will be also squeeze-in volunteer opportunities at the Contra Costa County Food Bank distribution centers soon. Lynda serves as of Board Member/Assistant Association Manager for the Contra Costa County United States Bowling Congress where she helps wherever is needed, if/when she can. She enjoys chauffeuring her son around so she can watch him thrive at his bowling leagues/tournaments while she makes new parent friends and connections. Her passion/hobbies include cooking, catering, enjoying her newly renovated home/backyard, going to Disneyland, seeing people smile, and getting R&R—aka: something she never gets enough of!
Sylvia Villa-Serrano, Treasurer
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Sylvia Villa-Serrano is a native of San Francisco and has lived in Hercules since 1989. After a successful three decade career at Wells Fargo Bank she has dedicated her time and skills in supporting organizations and coordinating fundraising for worthy causes. She is a champion for small business in our community and has been active with the Hercules Chamber since 2009. She has been instrumental in forming the Bay Front Chamber of Commerce, an organization that merged the Hercules, Pinole and Rodeo Chambers of Commerce. Currently she is the Executive Director of the Bay Front Chamber and serves on numerous community boards.
Kimberly Dauer-Sargentini, Secretary
Kimberly Dauer-Sargentini has taught school in Hercules since 1997, when she started teaching at Hercules Elementary School. She previously worked at Valley Preschool and taught grades Kindergarten to 3rd grade at Hercules Elementary/Lupine Hills, substitute taught in other grades, and worked as an intervention tutor.
Her three children have attended or currently attend these schools: Lupine Hills, Hanna Ranch, Hercules Middle, and Hercules High School. She has lived in Hercules since 2007 and her husband grew up in Hercules. His parents were original homeowners here starting in the 1970’s.
She has volunteered in several capacities. She has assisted and taught Sunday School and Summer Night Camp at Valley Bible Church. She has served as a School Site Council teacher representative at Lupine Hills and as a parent representative at Hercules Middle and Hercules High School. She has previously been treasurer and secretary for the Lupine Hills PTA. She has also served as a field trip chaperone.
Jamela Smith-Folds, Director
Jamela M. Smith-Folds was born and raised in Alabama. She is graduate of Auburn University with a double major in English and Social Science and she holds a credential to teach. She is a veteran teacher with West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSD) and has been in the education field for over 15 years. Prior to moving to Hercules, she lived and worked in Richmond. She credits Gompers Continuation High School with providing her with the motivation to always be at the decision-making table when it comes to issues around education. She has been a resident of Hercules for a decade. She finds purpose and fulfillment in serving the students and families of Hercules. She is a long-standing parent volunteer and advocate for parents and teachers inside and outside her community. She is a married mother of three school aged daughters. In Hercules, she has held positions on School Site Council (SSC), Parent Teacher Organization (PTO), Parent Teacher Association (PTA), African American Parent Advisory Council (AAPAC), and School Climate Team. She has been the Equal Opportunity Schools (EOS) Coordinator for Hercules High School. She is a member of community organizations PHREED and HARP. She is a founding member of the community organization PEACH. She is a member of the Black Educator Network (BEN). She is an assistant volleyball, soccer, and girls’ basketball coach for Hercules Middle School. She is the Mafanikio Black History Teacher. She has held the position of Black Student Union (BSU) teacher advisor. She was also the Leadership teacher and Activity Director for Hercules High School 2019-2020. She has been recognized as Parent Volunteer of the Year twice. Jamela finds value in making sure others have good experiences. She believes, “Life is short and it should not also be hard.”
Maddie Yuen, Director
Although the plan was to live in Hercules temporarily for a few years, Maddie decided to stay way beyond, topping three decades. After leaving corporate law firms to pursue non-profit interests, she decided to explore the City & County of San Francisco, working alongside the Government Team at the City Attorney’s Office, and the Airport General Counsel’s Office with the Airports Commission in its Regulatory and Legislative Affairs Division, primarily on issues involving equity and access in contracting, and there she retired. Since 2004, Maddie’s outreach to numerous non-profit organizations and academic institutions in higher education within the Bay Area has delivered in-class, after-school programs and extracurricular activities to both private and public school classrooms, at either zero or minimal cost, in support of K-12 students. While her younger daughter attended Hercules High School, Maddie served on the School Site Council, and co-founded the Hercules High School’s Parent Teacher Organization (now conjoined with the Middle School) and began her partnership with the Hercules Education Foundation. She is married to an avid golfer, has a younger daughter in college, the older one in Texas, and six grandchildren. She enjoys spending time with family and friends, good reads, traveling, music, and ongoing cooking competitions with her husband!
Connor Lopez, Youth Director
Connor is a Hercules native who is a dedicated Herculean. He attended Pillow Preschool, Hanna Ranch Elementary School, and is currently attending Hercules Middle School. He will be off to Hercules High School this Fall where he hopes to continue to earn exemplary grades and expand his leadership capabilities & volunteer opportunities. He was also a student for many years at Yee’s Martial Arts in Hercules where hours of practice, discipline, and dedication lead him to performances that included the annual SF Chinese New Year’s parades. He joined the Hercules Cub Scout Pack 693 den for several years, where he began his community involvement work for various Hercules and other Bay Area organizations.
Connor, at age 7, took up the sport of bowling where he has and continues to thrive and participate in various leagues and tournaments including ones at Pinole Valley Lanes where it all started, which has earned him a multitude of friends and a healthy portfolio of college scholarship dollars from competing. He has been dedicated hundreds of personal hours by helping bowling tournaments run smoothly and helped raise thousands of dollars through fundraising/raffle drawings (many times by even donating his own personal items) for junior bowling leagues to fund college scholarships and fill monetary budget gaps. At age 12 he became the youngest Youth Director/Board Member serving the Contra Costa County chapter of the United States Bowling Congress and continues to be a part of it all.
At age 13, Connor started his first job at Taqueria La Cocina, a Mexican food cuisine in Pinole, where he works part-time as Front of House staff. He loves his job where he interacts with customers/colleagues, cashiers, serves, prepares, maintains, cleans, and of course eats & drinks—ALL with a huge smile. His other passions/hobbies include volunteering, mentoring, drawing/art, tennis, badminton, table tennis, football, basketball, bike riding, boxing, cooking, gardening, reading, playing chess, board & video games, and fishing to name a few.
