Rebekah Cearley, Partner at Murdoch, Walrath & Holmes

Rebekah is a legislative advocate for education entities including the Coalition for Adequate School Housing, the Community College Facility Coalition, and the County School Facilities Consortium. She has over ten years of experience in the state advocacy sector, helping clients from small associations to large companies navigate the state budget, legislative, and regulatory processes. She previously served as a consultant to school districts participating in the State School Facility Program, assisting them with accessing state grant dollars for facility projects. Rebekah has a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley.

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Leonard Kahn, Chief Business Officer at Lodi USD

Leonard Khan is the Chief Business Officer with Lodi Unified School District and is responsible for all aspects of district operations, risk and construction planning. He started his career as a financial securities professional in 1983 and moved into the public sector working for schools in 2001 at Val Verde Unified School District. Leonard has his CASBO CBO certificate, is a member of INACOL and a member of CCIS. He serves as the President of the Statewide Educational Wrap Up Program (SEWUP) JPA providing leadership to the largest public wrap up program dedicated for public education. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia and has received post graduate degrees at National University and the University of Southern California.

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Mary B. Pendleton, Partner at Ford, Walker, Haggerty & Behar LLP

Mary focuses her practice on counseling and advocating for companies involved in transactional disputes. Ms. Pendleton has significant experience litigating in diverse areas including professional liability, construction and real estate disputes, and property and product liability matters. Ms. Pendleton also has extensive experience in governmental (including inverse condemnation) and private premises liability issues. Ms. Pendleton performs as Adjunct Faculty at California Western School of Law, teaching second-year law students in the areas of Professional Responsibility, Legal Research and Legal Writing.

Ms. Pendleton was recognized as Attorney of the Year by the San Diego Defense Lawyers in 2007 and has been invited to present as a writer and speaker for the San Diego Bar Association, Defense Research Institute, Association of Southern California Defense Counsel, San Diego Defense Lawyers, and Professional Association of Specialty Contractors.

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Sherman Wong, Lawyer at Public Agency Law Group

 

Sherman was admitted to the California State Bar in 1980. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science, cum laude, from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1977, where he was also on the Dean’s list and received Departmental Honors. Mr. Wong received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of California, Davis in 1980, where he was a member of the U.C. Davis Law Review.
 

Sherman’s practice is devoted to representing public education institutions in construction, facilities and general business matters. Mr. Wong is a director of the Community College Facilities Coalition (CCFC). He is a member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association and is admitted to practice in all courts of the State of California, all United States District Courts in California and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

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Ron Martin, SEWUP JPA Manager at Keenan

 

Ron Martin, Vice President at Keenan & Associates, is the JPA Manager of both Northern California ReLiEF, one of the largest regional Property & Liability pools in California, and the Statewide Educational Wrap Program (SEWUP), the largest public education owner controlled insurance program in the United States. He has over 30 years of insurance industry experience with 26 years of service with Keenan in multiple capacities. Throughout his career his responsibilities have included Property and Liability Claims handling and Claims Management, Account Management, Sales & Marketing and JPA Management.
 

Ron has both Fire & Casualty as well as Life & Health licenses in the State of California. Ron graduated with a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Kansas.

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Ronald L. Lujan, J.D., OCIP Claims Analyst at Keenan

 

Ronald joined Keenan in 2015. He has an Independent Casualty Adjusters license in 32 states including California and has managed claims for Construction Defect, General Liability, Products, E&O and several other lines of business since 1990. He supervised Owner Controlled Insurance Programs (OCIPs) during his 14 years at Argonaut Insurance Company and, until joining Keenan, managed residential construction and commercial property defect losses for Pulte/Centex/Del Web. He graduated from the University of California, Irvine and received his Juris Doctorate degree from Western State University College of Law. Ron is responsible for oversight of all Builders Risk, General Liability, Pollution and Owner’s Professional Protective Indemnity losses under the Statewide Educational Wrap Up Program (SEWUP) managed by Keenan & Associates where he acts as client advocate and liaison with the insurance underwriters for the program and manages the claims under the Self Insured Retention.

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William M. Clayton MS-ESA, CSRM, ARM-P, CDP-Director of Loss Control/IMReady Services at Keenan

 

Bill Clayton joined the Keenan Loss Control team in October of 2014 after 27 years in public service. Bill began his career in the U.S. Navy and served in combat in Vietnam and later served in Guam as a police officer, field supervisor, and U.S. Customs Inspector for the Joint Armed Forces Police Detachment. He has real-life experience as a first responder and emergency manager. His assignments included environmental safety officer and emergency manager, and nine years as the safety and loss control manager for
a large school and community college risk management JPA.
 

Bill has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration, a Master of Science degree in Emergency Services Administration, is a Certified School Risk Manager (CSRM), and an Associate in Risk Management with a Public Entities (ARM-P) designation. Bill, a part-time faculty member of The National Alliance, teaches the Certified School Risk Manager core classes and has led a national webinar on Effective School Crisis Management.
 

Bill’s certifications include the Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) Professional Designation (CPD), and California P.O.S.T. Basic Academy Instructor. His extensive federal (FEMA & Homeland Security) and California state training and experience in risk and emergency management, makes him a subject-matter leader on the IMReady suite of services. He provides oversight to the Emergency Operations Plan Development and Update Service, After-Action Debriefs, and Incident Command System (ICS) exercise and executive-level training programs, which include services for public entity clients to help them in preparing for those unwanted, unexpected critical incidents and events.

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Jorge Burwick, Manager, CollegeBuys at the Foundation for California Community Colleges

 

Jorge Burwick serves as the Manager, CollegeBuys, an aggregate purchasing program that creates significant cost-savings for California community colleges. Mr. Burwick serves as the program’s first point of contact for inquiries regarding the Foundation’s piggybackable contracts and works with program vendor partners to ensure the specific needs of the districts are met.
 

Jorge has over 10 years of experience in higher education.  Prior to joining the Foundation, he managed student programs at the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities where he was responsible for corporate relations and campus outreach.  Jorge is a native Texan and earned his BA from Trinity University and MS from the University of Texas at San Antonio.

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Dena P. Maloney, Ed.D., Superintendent/President at El Camino CCD

 

Dr. Dena P. Maloney began her career in higher education at College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita. In 2007, she was named founding dean of the Canyon Country Campus, a new educational center within the Santa Clarita Community College District. Maloney later became Assistant Superintendent/Vice President, with responsibilities for the Canyon County Campus and economic development.
 

In May 2012, she became the Superintendent/President of the West Kern Community College District and Taft College. She led the college in preparing for successful reaccreditation of the institution, guided the integrated planning process, and produced a new Educational Master Plan, Facilities Master Plan, and a Technology Master Plan. Under her leadership, Taft College strengthened its focus on student learning and institutional excellence.
 

In February 2016, Maloney became the 6th Superintendent/President of the El Camino Community College District. El Camino College serves 33,226 students at its campus in Torrance, CA. Since joining El Camino College, Maloney has focused on building a culture
of innovation, collaboration and teamwork to support student achievement. New initiatives underway include the expansion of the South Bay Promise for entering freshmen students, plans for a South Bay Public Safety Training Center, strengthening of partnerships with four-year universities, and the implementation of Guided Pathways to ensure students entering the college have a clear pathway to completion and achievement of their educational goals.

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Brian Erdelyi, CPD -Director Safety Technology/IMReady/Loss Control/Risk Management at Keenan

 

In his current role, Brian and his Keenan IMReady team are responsible for providing targeted security and emergency management solutions to California school districts, colleges, municipalities, hospital districts, and other public and private sector organizations. Brian holds a current Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) Professional designation, and he is a certified California P.O.S.T. instructor. Brian is a subject matter expert in site security and emergency preparedness. He regularly speaks to organizations across the United States and provides consultation on related topics.
 

Before managing Keenan IMReady, Brian was responsible for managing the Keenan Loss Control technology initiative. Over three years, he implemented numerous tech-based solutions that increase internal accuracy and efficiency while providing better quality and more consistent products for Keenan clients.
 

Before coming to Keenan, Brian was founder and CEO of a small California based marine manufacturing company that was an EOM supplier for multiple top tier wake and ski boat manufacturers. Brian was responsible for all aspects of the business from product design to sales. Brian’s innovation and forward product designs led him to become a top competitor in that market.
 

Brian also worked as a municipal police officer in San Diego County. During his tenure as an officer, he worked in several specialized assignments including uniformed and plainclothes drug enforcement, targeted domestic violence response, the San Diego County Emergency Response Team, and the police cadet and explorer field training program. Brian also assisted with specialized gang enforcement details and assisted the Police K-9 program with agitation and training. Brian is a certified drug expert and is recognized by the State of California Superior Court as an expert witness. Brian is a member of the California Narcotics Officers Association (CNOA).
 

Brian also has extensive experience in private sector security. He regularly consults for Shiboomi LLC and Fidel Leadership Consulting on both global and domestic security issues. Brian is an active member of the Northern chapter of American Society of Safety Engineers. (#60356).