Kermit Cuff

President

Kermit is a transit planning supervisor and former Employee of the Year for the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA). He is also an ultramarathon runner and a team captain for the 500 Mile American Indian Spiritual Marato young people. Kermit was recently honored for his nomination for a youth service award from Project Cornerstone.

Marilyn Pimentel

Secretary

Marilyn is an energy healer, massage therapist and artist. She is a product of alternative education. She likes to help youth and volunteers as a part-time art instructor at Sunrise Middle.

Lex Lauron

Treasurer

Lex became aware of the importance of providing alternatives to youth when he was not “fitting inside the box” and succeeding in high school. He found success at Pegasus High School and now is an artist and musician. He is passionate about finding new educational alternatives for youth.

Deisy Flores

Board Member

Ms. Flores is the Parent Representative of the Sunrise School Board. She is a graduate of San Jose High School and received education and training at San Jose City College for Early Childhood Education. Unfortunately, she never received her diploma due to her previous status, but she has pushed her children to take advantage of any opportunities that come their way. She says, “I want my children to have everything I couldn’t have as an immigrant child and student growing up. I want them to push themselves to their fullest potential because I know they will be super successful in their lives.”  Ms. Flores previously worked for a daycare center but has since taken the opportunity to work at a dental office.

Jorge Sosa

Board member 

Jorge is a former Sunrise student who went on to graduate from Bellarmine College Prep. He currently attends Foothill College, preparing to transfer to a university to major in Kinesiology. He is an avid soccer player and runner and is a captain on the 500 Mile American Indian Spiritual Marathon team. A born leader, his passion is to motivate Sunrise students to be the best that they can be.

Advisory Board

Dr. David Johnson

David Johnson is a social psychologist who holds a Ph.D. from Stanford. His research had to do with how girls and members of minority groups are affected in their academic performance by adverse factors not under their control. He served as chief of staff to Congressman Mervyn M. Dymally (D-CA) for six years and worked on public policy in science and education. During his time on Capitol Hill, he was responsible for developing the legislation that paid reparations to Japanese Americans and Aleutian Islanders for their time in concentration camps during World War II, for revisions to the Higher Education Act that defined minority-serving institutions in a way that provided funds to colleges in the West and Southwest serving large number of Latino students, and for working with other legislative aides to allow previously classified satellite photos to be made available to the public, a change that eventually led to public access to satellite imagery. He went on to direct for 14 years a nonprofit called the Federation of Behavioral, Psychological and Cognitive Sciences which represented the public policy interests of 20 scientific societies and 150 graduate departments of psychology, cognitive science and education. While director, he was one of a group of scientists and educators asked by President Clinton and Vice President Gore to develop their administration’s policy on the use of scientific research to enhance economic development. He returned to the Bay Area in 2003 to become development director for science initiatives at National Hispanic University. While there, he founded and chaired the Department of Mathematics, Science and Computer Science. In retirement, he writes grants for several nonprofit organizations including Sunrise. He also manages Sunrise’s academic performance assessment called Measures of Academic Progress.