Bio coming soon

Bio coming soon

Paula has over 30 years of marketing, technology and advertising experience. Currently, Paula is the chief experience officer at GoHealth Urgent Care. She oversees the IT organization, as well as marketing, business intelligence, customer experience and business transformation. Paula is passionate about delivering an unparalleled patient experience, which is a perfect fit with the GoHealth vision and mission Prior to GoHealth, Paula served as the Chief Marketing & Merchandising Officer at Eyemart Express, a retail optical business with more than 225 locations nationwide. Prior to her role at Eyemart, Paula was EVP, Chief Marketing Officer at Michaels Stores. Paula holds a B.A. in Mathematics and Computer Science, and an M.B.A in Marketing.

A graduate of Boston University with an undergrad degree in Accounting and Business Administration and a master’s in computer information systems from Boston's Bentley University, I wanted to take the uncertainty out of marketing spend. As CFO of a multinational, billion-dollar traditional ad agency, I saw clients spending millions of marketing dollars with little to no direct connection to sales. I was motivated to build a new type of agency that uses conversion optimization to drive predictive modeling. My goal was to take the guesswork out of advertising spend resulting in predictive modeling and attribution from online targeting, messaging, and ultimate sales - both in-store or online.

My team and I transformed a 14-person traditional advertising agency into a 200-person advertising technology company, in little over five years, which was sold to a private equity firm and is now part of an 800-person AdTech firm.

After spending most of my professional life creating value for companies, I am now focusing on a single mission –

To leave this planet in a better place than it is currently by focusing on non-profits that help those currently underserved such as The Bridge School.

Bio coming soon

Frank DeRuyter, PhD is Professor Emeritus of Surgery at Duke University School of Medicine. He received his degree from the University of Washington in 1978. He spent 3 years at the University of Utah and 15 years at Rancho Los Amigo Medical Center. In 1995 he was recruited to Duke University until retirement in 2018. While at Duke, he was Professor, Department of Surgery; Chief, Department of Speech Pathology & Audiology; and Section Head, Division of Head and Neck Surgery & Communication Sciences. Throughout his career he has also served as Principal Investigator of 10 federally funded, multiyear extramural awards, totaling over $30 million dollars that focused on the research and development of assistive technologies for the disabled.

Following retirement, he has continued his research interests as the Senior Research Scientist at the Shepherd Center Rehabilitation Hospital in Atlanta. This work is currently emphasizing promoting access to emerging disruptive technologies and mHealth/mRehab for all people regardless of ability.

He has over 100 major publications; presented over 330 keynotes/professional papers at national/international conferences; and serves on numerous professional committees and advisory boards. He joined the Bridge School Board in 2016.

Frank Gironda is a music industry veteran with more than 40 years of experience as an artist manager. He began his career as chairman of the University Program Council at UMass Amherst where he promoted acts such as James Taylor, The Allman Brothers, and U2. After which, he worked at the New York-based talent agency American Talent International before moving to Los Angeles to join Elliot Roberts at Lookout Management in 1984. He served as a producer of the Bridge School Benefit concert from its inception in 1986 to 2016 and is passionately committed to helping The Bridge School carry out its mission of helping individuals with severe speech and physical impairments achieve their maximum potential in their communities.

Lateef McLeod is building his career as a writer and a scholar. He has earned a BA in English from UC Berkeley and an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College. He is a eighth-year graduate student in the Anthropology and Social Change doctoral program at California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco graduating this year. He published his first poetry book, entitled A Declaration of A Body Of Love, in 2010 chronicling his life as a black man with a disability. He also published another poetry book, entitled Whispers of Krip Love, Shouts of Krip Revolution, in 2020. He co-authored another book of poetry called Studies in Brotherly Love in 2021. He currently is writing a novel tentatively entitled The Third Eye Is Crying. He was in the 2007 and 2016 annual theater performances of Sins Invalid and also in their artist-in-residence performance in 2011 entitled Residence Alien. In 2019 he started a podcast entitled Black Disabled Men Talk with co-hosts Leroy Moore, Keith Jones, and Ottis Smith. The podcast website is www.Blackdisabledmentalk.com. In 2022 he was an award recipient of the Wynn Newhouse Award for his long career as a disabled artist. More of his writings are available on his website Lateefhmcleod.com.

Bio coming soon

Annie Noonan, Esq.

Annie recently joined the Board of Directors of The Bridge School after serving for over two decades on the Board of The Community Alliance for Special Education (“CASE”), a Bay Area non-profit providing low or no-cost training and advocacy to families seeking educational services for their children. She served as CASE Board President since 2021 and helped guide the transition of the agency to new management when the Founder retired after 40 years at the helm.

Born in Nottingham, England, Annie is the proud daughter of a Nurse-Midwife and a Physician from Ireland. She received her law degree from the Polytechnic of Central London School of Law (now University of Westminster), graduated a year later as Barrister-at-Law from the Inns of Court School of Law, and was called to the Bar of England and Wales.

After relocating to California, Annie worked in the Employment Law Department of a large San Francisco law firm, during which time she passed the California Bar. She served as Vice-Chair and Chair of The Labor and Employment Law Committee of the Barristers Club of San Francisco, continued her practice at two other firms in the City and was certified by the Human Resources Management Program at San Francisco State University.

Annie brings to Bridge her very personal passion and devotion to supporting and elevating the lives of children and young adults with disabilities - as well as their families. Her son, Sam, who has had cerebral palsy since a devastating illness at 14 months, attended a San Mateo County Early Childhood Education program until the age of five, when he was fortunate to be accepted by The Bridge School. Concerned by the lack of appropriate education available post-Bridge, Annie helped develop a vision of another school which would address all areas of continuing need in one integrated setting. Her son inspired this vision so that he, and children like him, would have the opportunity to be happy and productive in a fully supportive environment for as long as possible.

So, in 2005, while her son was still at Bridge, Annie, co-founded The Avalon Academy in Burlingame, a California certified K-8 (and then K-12) school dedicated to providing Special Education and therapies to children with movement disorders such as cerebral palsy. She volunteered as Co-Executive Director for 10 years and served as Board President for 16.

Annie’s interest in social justice includes volunteering for almost 20 years with former Congresswoman Jackie Speier (now member-elect of San Mateo County Board of Supervisors). She is a founding member of Bay Area Border Relief, inspired by the Congresswoman’s 2018 call to action to provide humanitarian support to asylum seekers separated from their families at the Texas border. More locally, she supports ALAS in Half Moon Bay – Ayudando Latinos A Soñar – a nonprofit dedicated to assisting immigrants in social wellness, focusing on mental health and practical needs such as shelter, clothing, food, education, and employment - especially within the local farmworker community.

For fun, Annie enjoys music, theatre, dining out and cooking, reading, travel, swimming, Pilates and walking her dog, Lucy.

In addition to her son, she is blessed with a wonderful daughter who is working in Global Communications in Southern California after being awarded her MBA. Her husband, also an attorney, happily endorses Annie’s dedication to causes close to her heart and has been a massive supporter of both Avalon and Bridge.

Bio coming soon

Bio coming soon

Bio coming soon