This area contains information about the individuals who help make up the IHAD-SF program. General contact information for the program can be found below or on the contact page.

See our printer-friendly fact sheet.

To Dream; To Empower; To Achieve

Sponsor Scott Parlee, co-founded the San Francisco IHAD chapter and recruited his friends and colleagues in the Bay Area, Khira Griscavage, Carter Montague and Tanya Capuano to join him on the board.

Together, they submitted a proposal to the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund and secured a $3.4 million commitment over a 14-year period to create and finance I Have a Dream - San Francisco.

IHAD-SF was established in an effort to ensure that local youth could acquire the life skills necessary to obtain a higher education, realize their full potential, and help improve their communities. It did this by partnering with the families, children, staff and the local community to provide enrichment programs and financial and academic support.

The Dreamers are a group of 62 young adults primarily from San Francisco’s Mission District. They represent diverse backgrounds – 75% Latino, 15% African American, 10% Southeast Asian. 75% of the Dreamers grew up speaking a language other than English at home and 77% qualified for free or reduced fee lunch programs throughout their school aged years. 80% of San Francisco’s Dreamers earned their High School degree, and 86% of these high school graduates are currently enrolled in a four-year university, a two-year community college or a post secondary vocational training program. Over 75% of the Dreamers were the first in their family to graduate high school and 92% are the first in their family to attend college.

The Board of Directors

The “I Have a Dream” Board remains committed and active, meeting quarterly to review the Dreamers’ progress, develop policies, and provide guidance on issues as they arise. 

Tanya Capuano - Founding Board Member

Tanya has been involved with the "I Have a Dream" Foundation - San Francisco from the very beginning, when she worked full-time on getting the foundation off the ground in the late 90’s. As a board member, she has advised the program throughout all phases of the Dreamers’ journeys, from elementary through high school and now into college. Because of her humble roots, she recognizes the doors that can open as a result of a solid education. Therefore, Tanya is passionate about access to a quality education for all, especially first generation college students. Tanya is an executive at Intuit focused on strategy and corporate development. She also sits on the board of the Los Altos Education Foundation and formerly advised Education Pioneers. She holds a BA, MA Education and MBA all from Stanford.

David Silberman, MPH

David helped start-up in IHAD in 2000 and joined the board shortly after assisting with the launch of the program.  Professionally he serves as Vice President of National Laser Institute, a business he co-founded in 2004 and has built into an industry leader. He is an expert on the business and regulatory issues surrounding medical aesthetic treatment and training facilities and is humbly learning how to manage a growing organization with close to a hundred employees.   Prior to going into business, David held management positions at non-profit organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area.  David has a BA in Politics from University of California, Santa Cruz and a Masters Degree in Public Health from University of California, Los Angeles. He currently Co-chairs the Parent Teacher Organization at his kids’ elementary school.

Andy Ballard joined the IHAD-SF board in March of 2004. Andy works for Hellman & Friedman in San Francisco, a private equity investment firm focused on long-term investments in companies. Prior to Hellman & Friedman, Andy held positions at Bain Capital and Bain & Company. Andy has consistently spent time focused on youth and education, and much of that time has been working with non-profits. He has been involved with camps and camp counseling, worked with several elementary school programs in Boston as a tutor, fundraiser, and assistant in program development, and been involved in IHAD as a volunteer since attending Stanford Business School.  Andy is also a Trustee of the San Francisco Foundation. Andy graduated from Harvard College and the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Purva Dandona is a Bay Area local hailing from Fairfield, CA. After completing her Bachelors degree in Human Development from UC Davis in 2001, Purva went on to teach middle school for a year in Oakland and later became an advocate for pregnant and parenting teens in her hometown. In 2005, she obtained her Masters in Counseling Psychology with an emphasis in Multiculturalism from Fordham University in New York City. While in NYC, Purva worked in Queens providing counseling services in Hindi to youth at an Asian outreach clinic. Since moving to San Francisco, Purva has been involved in career counseling and workforce development for youth and adults with disabilities.  She currently works for Goodwill Industries of San Francisco as a Career Advisor helping dislocated and low-income adults look for work.

Originally from Maine, Melissa Rawlins graduated from Yale University in 2001 with a BA in Psychology. At Yale, she participated in a variety of community service activities, including co-creating and co-coordinating a College Resource Center at Hillhouse High. This experience helped spark her interest in education and working with at-risk populations. She joined the staff of Summer Search Boston as a Program Associate in 2001, became Associate Director of the Boston office in 2005, and moved into the role of Executive Director of Summer Search San Francisco in July of 2006. Melissa just left Summer Search to pursue her MBA at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

Jane McClure holds an M.A. in Counseling Psychology from UC Santa Barbara and is a Licensed Educational Psychologist (LEP 1605).

Prior to moving with her family to the Bay Area, she was the school psychologist and college counselor at a K-12 independent school in Santa Barbara. She began working as an educational consultant in 1983 where the focus of her work was, and continues to be, on college counseling and conducting psychoeducational evaluations. Jane has been a partner at McClure, Mallory & Baron for more than 20 years.

In 1990, Jane was named Educational Psychologist of the Year by the California Association of Licensed Educational Psychologists. She conducts workshops and participates in sessions at the annual conferences of the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) and the Western Association for College Admission Counseling (WACAC). She has also, through College Board, presented workshops for guidance counselors related to counseling college bound students who have learning disabilities and/or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

Jane is also frequently invited to speak at schools throughout California on various aspects of the college admission process. She has worked as a consultant for College Board on issues related to services for students with disabilities. Jane was also an instructor for several years in the College Advising Certificate Program offered through UC Berkeley Extension. In order to inform her work, Jane spends time every year traveling throughout the country visiting (and re-visiting) colleges and universities; spending a week in the UK in order to become more familiar with British universities and their admission process.

Jane works with students from public and independent schools throughout the Bay Area, and beyond (including the central valley and the wine country). Despite the number of years she has been doing this work, Jane finds each student and each family to be excitingly unique. The most important aspect of Jane’s work with students, she believes, is to find the best fit between students and the group of colleges to which they apply.

The Staff

Abby Rovner has been the Project Director for the "I Have A Dream" Foundation project in San Francisco's Mission District since its inception. She is bilingual in Spanish and English and has extensive experience working with non-profit and education programs serving children and families in the Bay Area and elsewhere. Besides running the IHAD program for the past decade, Abby has taught Language Arts, Literature, and English as a Second Language to middle school students at a Newcomer’s program in Redwood City, worked in the administration of a Redwood City charter school, and served as mentor and guide for Waking the Village, a nonprofit that brought eighteen at-risk and homeless youth on a cross-country bicycle trip across the country. Abby holds an MA in Educational Policy Analysis and Evaluation from Stanford University's School of Education and a BA from Stanford in the Humanities. Besides leading programs and supporting youth to reach their full potential, Abby loves yoga, baking, the outdoors, her dog, Izzy, and her family.

Email Abby!

The IHAD-SF program is modeled after the nationwide "I Have a Dream" Foundation which over the past 30 years has served over 15,000 "Dreamers" in 27 states, Washington D.C., and New Zealand. “I Have a Dream’s” approach is unique in that we sponsor cohorts of students in under-resourced public schools or housing developments, and work with these "Dreamers" from early elementary school all the way through high school. Upon high school graduation, each Dreamer receives guaranteed tuition assistance for higher education.  Each project has individual sponsors who secure funding for the program and a project coordinator who runs the day to day activities and works directly with the kids. The sponsors and project coordinator stay with the program until the Dreamers graduate from college or achieve their academic, personal and professional goals. Currently, more than 3,158 Dreamers are on the way to college, following some 12,000 Dreamers who came before them.

For up-to-date news on National "I Have a Dream" Foundation activities and events visit www.ihad.org