Providing dynamic, purposeful learning experiences for California students is no easy effort. We’re led by a talented team of leaders, all focused on a shared goal – inspiring and equipping young people with the necessary skills to build a positive future so they are ready to adapt to our changing world. Meet our FPS California board members.
When you review the list of roles Sandy has held in Future Problem Solving, you’ll know why she’s an invaluable part of our team. She’s literally at the center of everything we do!
2014-Current California Affiliate Director / California Evaluator Trainer
1999-Current International Evaluator (Global Issues & Creative Writing)
1989-2008 Affiliate Evaluator (CA, WA, TX)
1989-2008 Global Issues coach
1995-2008 Creative Writing/Storytelling Coach
1999-2008 Coach Trainer / Florida Future Scene Coordinator / Evaluator Trainer
2000-2008 FPS Florida, Brevard District Representative
2000-2008 Brevard District Competition Coordinator
2003-2008 Community Projects Coach
Beginning her Future Problem Solving journey as a participant in Michigan, Ariella competed for three years as a student. Her teams competed at the state level each year and advanced to the International competition twice, earning 4th place at the International level. After beginning her teaching career, she introduced the program to the Del Mar Union School District and started coaching at two schools. She developed programs at four of the Del Mar Schools and is currently coaching at Ocean Air School where she also teaches as part of the school’s STEAM+ teaching wheel.
Each year her program at Ocean Air enrolls around 100 students in Global Issues and Creative Writing. Her students have earned many awards over the years, including several world championships.
Ariella’s passion is introducing new coaches and students to the FPS program and seeing the excitement in their eyes and they begin their FPS journey! She has been involved with the program as a Board Member, Evaluation Coordinator, Affiliate Director and currently works as a Co-Affiliate Director training new coaches and coordinating the annual California State Finals.
After watching how much his young son was getting out of FPS California, Erwin began serving on the California Board in 2012 and currently serves as Board President. He is also Treasurer, Finance Chair, and Board Member of Future Problem Solving, our parent organization based in Melbourne, Florida.
He previously served as Treasurer for three non-profit organizations: Palo Alto Partners in Education (2009-2012); Palo Alto Little League (2005-2008); and Earthplace, a Connecticut pre-school and nature preserve, (2001-2004).
He is a private investor and previously worked as a Principal in private equity in New York City and before that at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, DC.
Looking for an activity that would academically challenge her curious 4th grader, Lisa stumbled upon Future Problem Solving and was recruited to help build out the program at Woodland School in Portola Valley. Since then she has; introduced FPS as an Elective to 30 middle schoolers, overseen two consecutive teams advancing to State Finals, and cheered on her son who’s team also placed 3rd in Creative Writing at the World Finals. Not wanting to see the program end at Woodland with the departure of their coach, she joined the Board to help with marketing and fundraising activities.
Lisa began her career at Apple in and has consulted for several start-ups including; Facebook, DropBox, Ribbit/BT, Skype, Business 2.0, Washington Mutual and many others in various marketing roles.
Cyrus began coaching FPS at the Harker School in San Jose in the late 1990s. He has been a Board member for more than a decade and also served as State Board Chair. He is passionate about the value of the process in challenging students to develop problem solving skills and ultimately life skills – with numerous former students telling him that “FPS may or may not have helped them get into college, but it has absolutely helped them get a job after college.”
Cyrus’ program at Harker has grown to encompass 70-90 kids in a given year with teams and individuals qualifying for International competition numerous times and finishing first at both the middle and senior level. A unique component of the program at Harker is that it is almost entirely student-run – with high school students coaching and training the middle school students. These students frequently continue on with FPS in high school and eventually become mentors themselves. Always willing to meet with and mentor new coaches on the process, his practices take place on the weekend to allow observers to come and learn along with the students.
In addition to coordinating FPS, he teaches US History at the Harker School and has worked in various areas of education and curriculum design as well as with a tech start up.
Leanne teaches 4th and 5th grade at Katherine Finchy Elementary School in Palm Springs. During a professional development meeting years ago, a speaker presented the challenge of preparing students for careers that don’t yet exist. No suggestion of a solution was offered, leaving Leanne to exercise her own problem-solving skills.
At that point, Leanne decided to sharpen her focus on the critical thinking skills that would best serve her students in a future yet unimagined. She examined her own educational career from elementary school to earning a master’s degree in Counseling Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, settling on her 4th through 12th grade experience in Future Problem Solving as the best means for “teaching kids how to think, not what to think.”
Leanne introduced team Global Issues to her school then, is now coaching Creative Writing, and has also enjoyed competing with three Community Projects teams. Community Projects consumes the mind and opens the heart like no other academic process Leanne has seen in an expansive teaching career. Her students in all branches of the program appreciate that FPS prepares them for a future invested in collaboration, time management, and critical thinking. It prepares them for life.
Mackenzie has been involved with Future Problem Solving since the age of 12 – competing in both Global Issues and Community Projects; placing Internationally, including World Champion for Community Projects. She coached several Woodland School teams/individuals with wins at both the State and International level.
Graduating from Stanford with a B.A. in Public Policy and Honors in Education, she joined the FPS California Board in 2019 to assist with fundraising and growth initiatives and also serves on the Board of our parent organization, Future Problem Solving.
Mackenzie is an operator with a management consulting background, focused on growth strategy and business operations. She spent four years in management consulting at Boston Consulting Group where she worked across four continents in public, social impact, and digital sectors specializing in project management, large-scale transformations and complex stakeholder engagement. She then joined Silicon Valley based startup Reforge as a Strategy Lead and is currently the Chief of Staff for Rowan.
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GLOBAL ISSUES – INDIVIDUAL
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GLOBAL ISSUES – SKITS
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COMMUNITY PROJECTS – TEAM
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COMMUNITY PROJECTS – INDIVIDUAL
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CREATIVE WRITING
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STORYTELLING
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Global Issues – Team
4th Place Middle – Maddie, Kathy, Feifei, Sophia (Canyon Crest Academy, Torrey Pines High School, La Jolla Country Day School)
9th Place Senior – Bailey, Ryan, Calvin, Nolan (Del Norte High School, Canyon Crest Academy)
Global Issues – Individual
2nd Place Junior – Brian (Sage Canyon School)
2nd Place Middle – Meera (Canyon Crest Academy)
5th Place Senior – Lucile (The Nueva School)
Global Issues – Action Plan Presentation
1st Place Senior – Bailey, Ryan, Nolan, Calvin, Sean (Del Norte High School, Canyon Crest Academy)
Global Issues – MAGIC
1st Place Middle – Edith with teammates from Florida, Kentucky, Washington)
2nd Place Senior– Yuva (Del Norte High School) with teammates from New Jersey, New Zealand, Washington)
3rd Place Senior – Colin (The Nueva School) with teammates from Kentucky, New Zealand, Washington)
Community Projects
4th Place Senior – Life of Laughter – Bailey, Ryan, Emily, Sean (Torrey Pines High School, Del Norte High School, Canyon Crest Academy)
GLOBAL ISSUES – TEAM
Junior
1st Place – Miles, Lily, Diego, Jack (St. Anne School) *
2nd Place – Adelise, Olivia, Gowri (Design39Campus, The Bishop’s School, Oak Valley Middle School) *
3rd Place – Ameya, Aria, Jocelyn, Nia (The Harker School)
Middle
1st Place – Aanya, Eesha, Jessica, Tanya (The Harker School) *
2nd Place – Allison, Eva, Lumi (The Nueva School) *
3rd Place – Ayansh, Brian, London, Will (Pacific Trails Middle School, Carmel Valley Middle School, Del Norte High School)
Senior
1st Place – Aarav, Calvin, Ryan, Yuva (Canyon Crest Academy, Del Norte High School) *
2nd Place – Akhil, Bailey, Emily, Sophia (Canyon Crest Academy, Del Norte High School, Torrey Pines High School) *
3rd Place – Colin, Lucile, Sierra (The Nueva School)
GLOBAL ISSUES – INDIVIDUAL
Junior
1st Place – Sienna C. (Community Roots Academy) *
2nd Place – Olivia M. (The Bishop’s School) *
3rd Place – Benjamin S. (Sycamore Ridge Elementary School) *
Middle
1st Place – Arush S. (The Harker School) *
2nd Place – Eric C. (Pacific Trails Middle School) *
3rd Place – Paul A. (William Annin Middle School) *
Senior
1st Place – Bailey L. (Del Norte High School) *
2nd Place – Calvin Y. (Canyon Crest Academy) *
3rd Place – Meera P. (Canyon Crest Academy) *
GLOBAL ISSUES – SKITS
Junior
1st Place – Annalise, Brody, Jude, Mia (St. Anne School)
2nd Place – Sofia, Zoe, Levi, Lucas (St. Anne School)
3rd Place – Nikkie, Luciana, Hasanya, Adeline (St. Anne School)
Middle
1st Place – Aditlya, Adityaa, Advay, Jay (The Harker School)
2nd Place – Arush, Olivia, Tvisha, Ushnish (The Harker School)
3rd Place – Ananya, Katelyn, Madeline, Pracheth (Design39Campus, Del Norte High School, La Jolla Country Day, Oak Valley Middle School)
Senior
1st Place – Akhil, Bailey, Emily, Sophia (Canyon Crest Academy, Del Norte High School, Torrey Pines High School)
2nd Place – Anirudh, Leana, Nirav, Pratulya (The Harker School)
3rd Place – Feifei, Maddie, Meera, Riley (Canyon Crest Academy, Torrey Pines High School)
COMMUNITY PROJECTS – TEAM
Middle
1st Place – Wyatt, Ben, Liam, Zosia, Olivia, Bayleigh, Clayton, Jack, Rhett, Cali, Sophie (Palm Desert Charter Middle School) Project True View *
Senior
1st Place – Meera, Feifei, Maddie, Shashwati, Riley (Canyon Crest Academy, Torrey Pines High School) Project Dine*
2nd Place – Grace, Elaine (The Harker School) Project The Art of Wellbeing
COMMUNITY PROJECTS – INDIVIDUAL
Junior
1st Place – Aashi S. (Nohl Canyon Elementary School) Project VIBE *
Middle
1st Place – Emi A. (William Hopkins Middle School) Project Bridge *
Senior
1st Place – Neev G. (The Harker School) Project BuddyBridge *
CREATIVE WRITING
Junior
1st Place – Alexandra S. (R .E. Willett Elementary School) “Unshackled” *
2nd Place – Olivia M. (The Bishop’s School) “Finding the Border”
3rd Place – Lily K. (St. Anne School) “Untitled”
Middle
1st Place – Lucy W. (The Harker School) “Unplugged” *
2nd Place – Ushnish C. (The Harker School) “Unit 087”
3rd Place – London B. (Pacific Trails Middle School) “Human After All”
Senior
1st Place – Kathy X. (Torrey Pines High School) “A Unifying Wobble”
2nd Place – Emily C. (Torrey Pines High School) “The Living Eye”
3rd Place – Nasia L. (Acaciawood Preparatory Academy) “Your Name is Riko”
3rd Place – Sidharth S. (Canyon Crest Academy) “The Probability of Guilt”
STORYTELLING
Junior
1st Place – Gowri H. (Oak Valley Middle School) *
Middle
1st Place – Amey A. (Hillview Middle School) *
2nd Place – Eric C. (Pacific Trails Middle School) *
3rd Place – Ananya R. (Oak Valley Middle School)
Senior
1st Place – Ryan S. (Canyon Crest Academy) *
2nd Place – Sidharth S. (Canyon Crest Academy) *
3rd Place – Emily C. (Torrey Pines High School)
Global Issues – Team
9th Place Junior – Isabella, Kyla, Adelise, Olivia (Stone Ranch Elementary, The Bishop’s School, Design39 Campus)
8th Place Middle – Eva, Allison, Lumi (The Nueva School)
9th Place Senior – Aarav, Yuva, Ryan, Calvin (Del Norte High School, Canyon Crest Academy)
Global Issues – Individual
7th Place Junior – Sienna (Community Roots Academy)
5th Place Middle – Eric (Pacific Trails Middle School)
Global Issues – Action Plan Presentation
1st Place Junior – Isabella, Kyla, Adelise, Olivia (Stone Ranch Elementary, The Bishop’s School, Design39 Campus)
3rd Place Middle – Aanya, Jessica, Tanya, Eesha, Arush (The Harker School)
Global Issues – MAGIC
1st Place Senior – Maithili (The Harker School) with teammates from Missouri, New Zealand, Texas
Community Projects
4th Place Senior – Project DINE – Riley, Meera, Maddie, Feifei (Torrey Pines High School, Canyon Crest Academy)
Creative Writing
5th Place Middle – Lucy (The Harker School)
Storytelling
3rd Place Junior – Gowri (Oak Valley Middle School)
2nd Place Senior – Ryan (Canyon Crest Academy)
