Tiffani Webster
President
A former Mountain Vista student herself, Tiffani is now a proud Mountain Vista parent with her two daughters in the preschool program. She has been a board member since 2019 and is happy to be a part of a great foundation that helps the Oracle community and students.
As a volunteer in elementary classrooms, preschool to 2nd grade, she has seen firsthand the benefits of early childhood education and the difference it makes in the students. She is a huge advocate for community outreach, having worked previously with non-profits like Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation and Arizona Theatre Company
Chris Crum
Vice President
Chris has been a member of the Foundation Board since 2016. She is a retired Juvenile Court attorney who has been an active child advocate for decades. She is also the Mt. Vista 3rd grade Garden Club sponsor. She and her husband Larry live in SaddleBrooke and spend the hot months in Wisconsin with their family.
Richard Borland
Treasurer
Richard has over 41 years of management experience in working in commercial/retail banks and credit unions. He also has expertise in all aspects of consumer and commercial and mortgage lending in addition to human resource and consumer issues for various financial institutions. Richard is a member of various chambers of commerce and community groups and a founder of a Co-Ed Soccer Program in New Jersey. He was a Rider College all-American soccer candidate as a player and team captain and is a member and officer of various local United Way programs.
Windy Messing
Secretary
In education for 20 years, Windy has taught junior high, second grade and intervention groups for K-6th grade in the Tri-Community. She currently teaches Kindergarten at Mt. Vista Elementary School. Windy sees first-hand the invaluable benefit of students receiving quality early education and is proud to be part of a group that works to offer this experience to all children in our District.
Crystle Nehrmeyer
Superintendent
Oracle School District
Crystle informally entered the education profession when she was five years old and went home each day after school to teach her dolls what she learned in school. She is a graduate of both the University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University. She was a middle school teacher, instructional coach, and assistant principal before becoming a K-8 principal. As the Superintendent of the Oracle Elementary School District, she proudly serves on the Oracle Schools Foundation Board and takes great pride in the support they provide for the children of our community.
Ann Vernon
Fundraising
Ann spent the majority of her career as a counselor educator at the University at Northern Iowa where she trained school and mental health counselors. She also had a private practice and specialized in counseling children, adolescents and their parents. She has written many books about counseling young clients, as well as two social emotional education programs which have been implemented in schools across the country and abroad.
Ann is Past President of the Albert Ellis Institute where she also received training in rational-emotive and cognitive behavior therapy. Currently she conducts training in RE&CBT applications with children and adults in affiliated training centers in many Latin American countries and India.
Her life-long experience as an English teacher, school counselor, and counselor educator fueled her passion for high-quality education, so she is glad to be a member of the Oracle Schools Foundation Board and Chair of the Gala event which raises money to support educational programs at Mountain Vista School.
Dale Farland
Corresponding Secretary
Dale was born and raised in the Cleveland, OH suburbs. Her undergraduate degree from Michigan State is in Urban Planning and was Planning Director of a suburb of Detroit. She also has her Master’s degree in U.P. from the University of Michigan. Her MBA from Michigan is in a concentration of Finance, Marketing and Real Estate Finance. She has worked as a commercial loan officer and trust and wealth management officer for three banks.
While living in Michigan, Dale was on the board and president of an organization for foster children who were emotionally and physically abused. Her last place she lived was Iowa City, Iowa. She has one daughter who is an Epidemiologist. She retired to SaddleBrooke Ranch, with her husband, to Tucson from Boston to teach and do research at the University of Arizona
Sherry Kaplan
Member-at-Large
Sherry Kaplan taught history, civics and English at Lane Technical High School. An all boys high school in Chicago, IL. She retired to raise her two children.
She also worked as a paralegal specializing in Estate Planning and real estate law for 20 years for 2 law firms in the Chicago area. When her husband became Mayor of Riverwoods, IL she quit her job and became his partner selling real estate in their community.
Upon moving to SaddleBrooke Sherry worked at “Kids Closet” and volunteered as a reading tutor at Mountain Vista school in Oracle. She has been both tutoring and reading to the children of the 3rd and 4th grade classes at Mountain Vista and also brings her therapy dog “Zoey” to visit the pre-school and kindergarten classes for the past 6 years. She and Zoey also have been visiting the patients at Sierra Tucson where Zoey has been a favorite.
Sherry is a member of SaddleBrooke Community Outreach Enrichment Committee and of SaddleBrooke Sunrise Rotary.
Donna Pedota
Member-at-Large
Donna, SaddleBrooke Ranch Resident, is currently a Strategy Director at Anthem Healthcare; she has spent much of her career in healthcare and as a consultant supporting many fortune 100 organizations. Donna has experience strategic planning including Technology and Consumer Trends. She holds a Masters in Organizational Management.
Donna supports charitable health clinics for underserved children across the US and has prior experience leading fundraising and community health education/outreach for underserved communities including well as women and infants. Her goal is to support and deliver on the OSF Foundation Mission and Vision.
Alan Levenson
Honorary Member
Alan practiced labor law for 50 years in Portland, ME, first 25 before NLRB and the U.S. Courts of Appeal including one oral argument before the U.S. Supreme Court. The last 25, he represented clients who had been discriminated against by employers. Alan also served on the Portland School Committee for 7 years to include as chairman. With his wife Betsy, he operates a commercial real estate company in Portland and suburbs. Alan has tutored in the 1st and 2nd grades at Mt. Vista Elementary for 10 years. Betsy and he also established the Reach Scholarship which they have supported for years..
Linda Lyon
Honorary Member
Colonel Linda Lyon retired from the Air Force in 2007 at Andrews AFB, Maryland (home of Air Force One) where she served as the Mission Support Group Commander (city manager) for a 20,000-person community with 2,000 people under her command.
After retirement from the Air Force, she managed a contract at the Department of Energy and was a deputy program manager for L-3 Communications on the Secure Border Initiative Program.
As of 2022, Linda has also served ten years as a member of the Oracle School District Governing Board. She was named the Arizona School Board Association’s (ASBA) Advocate of the Year for 2013 is a past-president of both ASBA and the Friends of ASBA.