Emeritus Board Members

Elaine Uang
Board Member and Co-founder

Elaine arrived in the South Bay in 1988 as a fourth grader, and credits all the house hunting during the move with cementing her interest in architecture. She has spent most of the last three decades bouncing up and down the Peninsula, before returning to Palo Alto in 2011. She currently resides in the first post-office of Palo Alto/Stanford, which she renovated inside and out (with an edible garden!) to serve as a dwelling for her, her husband and two young daughters. As an architect and design thinker, she spends nearly all of her professional and spare time thinking about how our built environment can be improved, from street furniture to housing policies. She has BA in Human Biology from Stanford University and an Masters in Architecture from the University of Virginia. Elaine can be hailed at elaine@elaineuang.com.

Sandra Slater
Board Member and Co-Founder

Sandra Slater has lived in Palo Alto for the last 29 years. Her current position is Northern California Director of the Cool City Challenge, a project to achieve deep carbon reduction, create resilient neighborhoods, promote green economic development and reinvent our cities from the bottom up. Sandra has served as a consultant to the Golden Gate National Recreational Parks Conservancy, to Zeta Communities (a net-zero energy, LEED Platinum start-up), has led her own design firm, Sandra Slater Environments. Sandra lives in downtown Palo Alto in a home she designed to showcase green design principles. Sandra can be reached at sandra@sandraslater.com.

Owen Byrd
Board Member

Owen Byrd has been an advocate for, and developer of, dense infill housing on the Peninsula for most of his 35 years of Palo Alto residency. HIs land use experience began as the policy director and staff attorney for Greenbelt Alliance. He served as a member and chair of the Palo Alto Planning and Transportation Commission, member of the Community Development Block Grant Committee, and chair of the Housing Action Coalition. As a private attorney he represented developers of market-rate and affordable housing in obtaining sites and entitlements for new projects throughout San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. He has developed housing projects with partners and continues to do so, while also providing development consulting services, primarily on projects in East Palo Alto. He currently serves on the Peninsula/South Bay Board of YIMBY Action.

Gail Price
Board Member

Gail has broad public service and non-profit  experience as an employee and elected official. In Palo Alto, she served on both the Palo Alto Schol Board and the Palo Alto City Council. She has 30+ years experience as a city and regional transportation planner in Maryland, Sunnyvale, and Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA). She has served on the County Behavioral Health Board and the Arts Council Silicon Valley and is the former Executive Director of the AIA Silicon Valley Chapter. She has been a Cool Block Team Captain and mentor. 

Currently, she is a member of the Abode Services Board, the Co-Chair of the North Ventura Comprehensive Area Plan (NVCAP) and a member of the Kiwanis Club of Palo Alto. Gail is a strong proponent of urban planning and design, affordable housing, transportation, smart growth, and strategic planning. She believes responsible planning policies and actions are needed to address climate change, social justice challenges, and growing economic disparities.
Gail can be reached at gail@paloaltoforward.com.

Kelsey Banes, PhD
Board Member

Kelsey Banes grew up in the bay area and moved to Palo Alto when she began working for Veteran's Affairs as a psychologist. She provided mental health services at veteran’s homes, in shelters, or in public places - but rarely was able to help Veterans find stable housing near the services they needed in Menlo Park and Palo Alto. As a renter herself, she was forced to move multiple times because of our poor zoning policies and lack of renter protections.

Grant Dasher
Board Member

Grant Dasher is a native of Edina, Minnesota and has lived in Palo Alto for the last several years. He has worked as a software engineer at Google since 2009 both in Cambridge, Massachusetts and here in the Bay Area. He also served in the Obama administration as part of the United States Digital Service and has a long time passion for the fusion of technology and policy issues. He has an AB in Mathematics from Harvard University.

Amy Sung
Board Member

Amy Sung is a former NASA software engineer and current Silicon Valley real estate agent. She is committed to the community and is a skilled relationship builder. Amy is a former PTA board member of Duveneck Elementary School and Jordan Middle School in Palo Alto. Among her current interests, she serves as Palo Alto District Chair of the Silicon Valley Association of REALTORS®. Amy lives with her family in Palo Alto. An amateur ceramic artist and a news junkie, she also enjoys hiking and reading mysteries. A cook and loving gourmet food, she enjoys good company, good food, and good laughter.

Mehdi Alhassani
Board Member and Co-Founder

Mehdi Alhassani is a former Palo Alto Human Relations Commissioner. He is passionate about Palo Alto's land use and planning policies, has also served on the Comprehensive Plan Civic Leadership Group. Mehdi spent five and a half years working for President Barack Obama: first on then-Senator Obama's presidential campaign; and then for much of the President's first term, on foreign policy and national security issues. He is both a Fulbright Scholar and Truman National Security Fellow. He loves reading, traveling with his wife, and playing basketball (at the JCC, Cubberley Center, and Stanford among other places!). Born and raised in Massachusetts, Mehdi first arrived to California by way of marrying a native Bay Area lady named Deena. He is very thankful he did, and they love calling Palo Alto home.

Eric Rosenblum
Co-Founder

Eric Rosenblum is a native of the small town of Steubenville, Ohio, but has been a resident of Palo Alto since 2007. He lives in the Downtown North neighborhood with his wife, Titi Liu, who works for Stanford, and his two kids (at Palo Alto High and Jordan Middle School). He has spent his career working in strategic management and product management (for Palantir, Drawbridge, Google and Boston Consulting Group, among others). He has just completed a term as a Commissioner on the Planning and Transportation Commission. Eric received his AB from Harvard University and his MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Adrian Fine
Board Member

Adrian Fine is the former Mayor of Palo Alto has a Master's in City Planning and a demonstrated commitment to creating space and opportunity for new neighbors. Adrian joined Palo Alto Forward's board shortly after leaving Palo Alto City Council.

Diane Morin
Board Member

Diane Morin was born in Paris, France, to a French photographer and American secretary. She was raised in Rome, Italy, surrounded by her Italian family, and came to the United States for her higher education: college (Pomona College), graduate school (University of Michigan and University of California, Berkeley) and law school (University of San Francisco). She raised her only child in Palo Alto as a single mother. Her daughter, a journalist, just graduated from college and is working as an editor. For over thirty years, Diane has been an attorney and mediator and is a Certified Family Law Specialist (as certified by the Board of Legal Specialization of California). She has based her family law practice in Palo Alto for the last 25 years. Her interests have been climbing, sailing and traveling. Diane is interested in issues concerning seniors, affordable housing and diversity as they apply to the place she proudly calls home: Palo Alto.