Board of Trustees Members
Greg Holt
President
Jayson Wedge
Vice President
Sarah Brichler, M.Ed.Clerk
Term Year 2024
Sarah Brichler was elected as a Trustee in 2020. She is the parent of a current AUSD student and is deeply invested in quality public education for all students. She served on the Alta Vista Community Charter School Governance Council, and volunteers with the Bucks Booster Club Parent Teacher Club, the Sight Word Busters and as a member of the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) team.
Sarah earned a Bachelor’s degree in Finance from Santa Clara University and a Master’s degree in Education from the University of Virginia. Her professional experience includes a decade in the Public Behavioral Health System working with counties and community organizations as a program evaluator and contract manager. Promoting the social-emotional well-being of the school community is a high priority.
Renee Dowd
Trustee
Renee grew up on the Georgetown Divide and knew early on that she loved the Auburn area. While working at a local supermarket, she grew to love the community and its members. Renee moved to Auburn shortly after and worked locally at other well-known stores and restaurants. Simultaneously working multiple jobs and going to Sierra College for marketing, Renee spent many years building a loving connection with Auburn, and its members. After becoming a mother, Renee knew there was a need for more education and went back to school for business management.
Renee spent a couple more years working in the Auburn area while raising her growing daughter, but Renee and her family had a business opportunity in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In Ann Arbor, she not only grew her work experience by working in multiple management positions, and a publishing company, but grew her family by having her second child also. Ann Arbor and the school system were amazing, but they were not Auburn, California and she decided to move back to the community and families that they love and missed.
Upon returning to the Auburn Area, Renee found a position with a non-profit retirement community and worked hard to improve her and her family's lives regularly. Returning to Sierra College yet again to pursue Accounting while simultaneously overseeing her children's at-home education, took Renee into an era of seeing the issues with the school, and the break in the system that parents needed to be more involved in. Now that Renee is working at her second non-profit and serving the community daily, she realized that the schools and the education of our community needed her to be involved.
Jamie RossTrustee
Term Year 2024
A mother, an educator, and an award-winning recording artist Jamie Ross, aka J. Ross Parrelli, has a passion for bringing creative teaching and cultural equity to the forefront whether in a classroom or on a stage. Raised in Auburn and a graduate of AUSD schools, Ms. Ross received her teaching credential from Long Beach State and is currently working towards her Master’s Degree in Policy and Leadership in Education at Mills College.
Ms. Ross founded Beats Lyrics Leaders, an organization that works to empower young people through exposure to cultural arts, music production, and entrepreneurship and works alongside the California Department of Education to build a Teaching Artist Initiative to get artists in the classrooms. She is currently an Artist in Residence with the Office of Arts and Culture in Sacramento working in the Oak Park Community Center, as well as Sacramento City Unified School District and Twin Rivers School District. J Ross is Executive Strategic Planning and Artist Relations for Innervoice Media. J Ross has performed thorough out the globe giving keynote speeches, performing at Assemblies, teaching workshops, and producing Conferences for Youth and Teachers all throughout the globe. Ms. Ross is dedicated to cultivating a safe, inclusive, and engaging educational experience for all students.
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