The Dean’s Advisory Council (DAC) brings together a group of industry and community leaders who serve as individual and collective advocates for Cal Poly, and for the Robert E. Kennedy Library, and who provide advice to the library staff in their efforts to create and foster connections with foundations, corporate donors, and other private donors.
Chaired by Jeff Pulver, other advisory board members include Dr. Phil Bailey, Professor Emeritus Dr. Jay Devore, Bob Kitamura, Bob Tapella, Peter Wiley, Christine Young, Erin Steed, Christine Williams, and Rosey Parks.
Their impact on the Kennedy Library in just a few short years has been profound: DAC members have contributed to the renewal of the library atrium, the creation of the Data Studio, funding the Digital Publishing Pilot program, endowing library student assistant “Earn by Doing” positions, the creation of exceptional collaboration spaces in the library, and establishing a new award for Cal Poly faculty – the Learn by Doing Scholar Awards.
Members
Jeff Pulver
Former Vice President, Global Alliances, Workday
Jeff Pulver most recently spent a decade helping transform Workday from a 100 person start-up to one of the leaders in cloud enterprise software with over 1 billion dollars in revenue and 5,000 employees, as Workday’s first VP of Marketing. He went on to start Workday’s Global Alliances organization, training over 7,000 consultants during his tenure. Jeff spent his last three years at Workday in London building out the European Alliances organization and partner ecosystem before retiring in 2016.
Jeff has also held leadership positions at a number of Silicon Valley software companies such as Rearden Commerce, Siebel, E.piphany and PeopleSoft. Jeff was an integral part of the launch and marketing efforts for Rearden Commerce. He also served as vice president of worldwide marketing at Siebel Systems, leading a 130-person organization covering brand management, advertising, public relations, marketing communications, demand generation, and sales development. During his tenure, the Siebel marketing team received numerous awards, including IDC’s Best Practices and the ITSMA Marketing Excellence Award for Marketing Accountability. While at E.piphany, a leading Marketing Automation firm, Jeff was recognized as one of B2B Magazine’s Top Marketers. Jeff also spent seven years as VP of Alliances and headed PeopleSoft’s global marketing organization. He started his career in sales at IBM in San Francisco.
Bob Kitamura, AIA
Architect
Bob Kitamura is an architect and businessman, managing family-owned businesses and properties in California, Nevada and Hawaii. He was the Executive Director of Facilities Planning and Capital Projects for Cal Poly from 1993-2011. He was responsible for the development of the 2001Campus Master Plan along with the design and construction of over $800 million worth of projects. Bob was the executive editor for the book, The Architecture of California Polytechnic State University, 1980-2010. He was also the editor of the Campus Master Plan section of Association of Physical Plant Administrators (APPA) Body of Knowledge, a national web-based facilities management central information source for all universities in the United States.
Prior to Cal Poly, he was a Vice-President for RRM Design Group, a California architecture, planning, landscape architecture and civil engineering firm for 15 years, including serving on their Board of Directors. Between 1978-1993, Bob was a part-time lecturer at Cal Poly which included teaching architecture design studios. He was a Member of the Board of Directors of the Friends of Hearst Castle and is currently on the Foundation for the Performing Arts Center Board of Directors. He holds a Bachelor of Architecture and Master of Science degree from Cal Poly.
Philip S. Bailey
Dean Emeritus and Director of the Frost Fund, California Polytechnic State University
Phil Bailey is Dean Emeritus of Cal Poly’s College of Science and Mathematics and professor emeritus in Chemistry and Biochemistry. He joined the faculty in 1969 after earning bachelor’s and doctorate degrees in chemistry from The University of Texas (Austin) and Purdue University respectively. After 48 years at Cal Poly, 34 as dean, he retired in 2017 and has been Director of the Frost Fund ever since. The Frost Fund is the result of a $110M donation he brought to Cal Poly’s College of Science and Mathematics to support undergraduate research.
Dean Bailey and his wife Dr. Christina Bailey, former chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, are co-authors of a number of books together. They have personally supported many low-income students financially and otherwise in completing their college degrees including having almost 20 Cal Poly students of multicultural or multiracial backgrounds live with them over the years.
Dean Bailey’s accolades are numerous: The Disability Resource Center honored him for outstanding support, the Black Faculty and Staff Association recognized the Baileys for their support of African-American students and other students of color. In April 2012 at the African Goodwill Awards in Los Angeles, Dean Bailey received an Ambassador of Goodwill award for his support of African-American students and underrepresented students in general. In May 2012, he was awarded the Faculty Excellence in Advising award from the California State University Students’ Association for supporting student success and demonstrating compassion for underrepresented students. Last year he received awards from the undocumented student club, University Housing, Insight into Diversity magazine’s Giving Back Award and Cal Poly President’s Medal of Excellence.
Jay Devore
Professor Emeritus, Statistics
Jay Devore finished teaching his last classes at Cal Poly in March 2011, but he has not divorced himself from statistical activities. The second edition of “Modern Mathematical Statistics with Applications,” coauthored with Ken Berk, was published in January by Springer. First published in 1982, his book “Probability and Statistics for Engineering and the Sciences” is now in its ninth edition. He coauthored five more textbooks during his career.
He taught full-time at Cal Poly until 2006, including 8 years as department chair, followed by five years of part-time teaching. His teaching career also included summer classes at Stanford, Harvard, the University of Washington, and Columbia, and classes at NYU while on sabbatical in NYC. In 1991, Jay received Cal Poly’s Distinguished Teaching Award, and was elected a Fellow of the American Statistical Association in 1995. He served as an Associate Editor of both the Journal of the American Statistical Association and The American Statistician, and as president of the Southern California chapter of the American Statistical Association. Within the Cal Poly community, he was a member of the Academic Senate and served on the Academic Senate Library Committee for many years.
Jay graduated from U.C. Berkeley with a B.S. in Engineering Science and holds a Ph.D. in Statistics from Stanford University. Teaching at the University of Florida in Gainesville and Oberlin College in Ohio, Jay and his family returned to California and started teaching at Cal Poly. His wife Carol taught at the elementary level in the San Luis Coastal Unified School District.
Robert C. Tapella
Owner & Managing Director, Digital Technology Associates LLC
Bob Tapella is an accomplished CEO, with successes in high visibility leadership and ownership roles in both the private and government sectors. As owner and Managing Director of Digital Technology Associates since 2011, Bob provides business development, government relations, and technology procurement services to major corporations including Xerox and NXP Semiconductors, the City of New York and the United States Congress. Appointed by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to lead the U.S. Government Printing Office from 2002–2007, Bob served as Chief of Staff and Deputy, United States Government Printing Office, Washington, DC and from 2007–2010, as CEO — Public Printer of the United States.
In 2008, Bob received the Honored Alumni Award, the highest honor bestowed upon Cal Poly alumni by the University’s Alumni Association. Bob holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Graphic Communication/Printing Management from Cal Poly and completed the Executive Program in Corporate Strategy from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Peter Booth Wiley
Chairman of the Board, John Wiley & Sons
Peter Wiley has served on Wiley’s Board of Directors for twenty-five years. He has worked as a magazine and news service editor, journalist and newspaper columnist. His writings have appeared in dozens of newspapers and magazines and he has authored five books, all of which focus on the American West and the Pacific Basin.
Peter also serves on the boards of directors of the University of California Press, the Northern California Chapter of the National Association of Corporate Directors and the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library. He received his bachelor’s degree in English literature from Williams College and his master’s in United States history at the University of Wisconsin. Wiley is the parent of a Cal Poly alumnus.
Christine Young
Vice President, Century Tubes, Inc.
Christine Young is the Vice President of Century Tubes, Inc. The company was started 30 years ago by Christine and her husband, Dr. Conrad Young, as a manufacturing and research base for specialty precision tubing in medical, instrumentation and aerospace applications, and has a worldwide customer base.
As the mother of three, Christine has been very active in many philanthropic organizations raising awareness and donations for children with disabilities, families in need, environmental issues and especially, education in San Diego. Christine served on the Board of Trustees for the Bishop’s School in La Jolla for seven years and remains involved as a member of the Head of School Trust as well as the past parents group.
Christine has served in several capacities at Cal Poly, including the Cal Poly Alumni Association Board, the Parent Program Advisory Council, and on Centennial Campaign committees. Christine is a graduate of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a bachelor’s degree in History. Both Conrad and son David received their bachelor’s degrees from Cal Poly and are the parents of Cal Poly alumni.
Erin Steed
Erin Steed is an experienced transportation and warehousing executive, specializing in developing and implementing organizational strategy and effective and meaningful communications. She also has extensive experience creating, growing, and nurturing many successful in-house corporate philanthropic efforts, from local black-tie events to national disaster-relief drives.
As Chief Strategy Officer for California’s largest independent moving company, Erin helped oversee Meathead Movers’ finances and operations. Meathead Movers is well known in California and beyond for its obsession with customer service, relentless focus on safety, and careful attention to detail. Under her decade of leadership, the company increased its operation centers from one location to five, and successfully expanded the scope of the company with the opening of a chain of state-of-the-art storage facilities as well as a popular custom packing service.
Erin was the force behind Meathead Movers delivering on its commitment to community service, a cornerstone of the company’s values. As longtime advocates for victims of domestic violence, Meathead Movers started the #MoveToEndDV campaign to organize and encourage other businesses to provide free services and assistance to victims of domestic violence. The program received an immediate outpouring of national support, and has been profiled on The Today Show, The Megyn Kelly Show, The Real, and in hundreds of news features.
In addition to her work with victims of domestic violence, Erin’s personal community involvement also spans the fields of health care and the performing arts. She currently serves on the board of the French Hospital Medical Foundation, where she has chaired the Celebration of Caring Gala for the past decade, an event that raises $300,000–$500,000 annually. In addition to her board service, she spends time each week volunteering at French Hospital, assisting patients, visitors, and medical staff. She is also on the board of the Foundation for the Performing Arts Center, where she works to expand the PAC’s outreach to local students.
Erin has a degree in agricultural business from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Outside of work and volunteering, Erin enjoys tending to her Edna Valley farm, where she raises goats, chickens, cows, and sheep.
Christine Williams
Christine Williams was born and raised in Chicago, IL, and lived and worked there until she and her husband Bob, moved to Pismo Beach on California’s beautiful Central coast in 2011.
In 2008, Christine retired from a successful 30-year career as a health care business development executive, working at CIGNA, United Health Group, Medline and CVS.
An urban dweller in Chicago throughout her life, Christine has an intense and impassioned sense of community. She has served on various non-profit Boards here on the Central Coast, including Solvang Theaterfest, SLO Rep, SLO Film Fest, and Camp Kesem (Cal Poly Chapter).
Christine currently serves on the French Hospital Foundation Board of Directors as well as the Hearst Cancer Resource Center Advisory Board.
Christine is passionate about education and literature, and is fervent in her belief that libraries hold an important place in our community, evolving with an ever changing world.
Rosey Parks
Former Director of Development, Robert E. Kennedy Library
Roseann “Rosey” Parks grew up in Ohio and lived in Tennessee and Virginia before moving to California in 2000. She worked in academic and fundraising positions in community colleges and four year institutions, including The University of Memphis and the University of Virginia. Rosey worked at Cal Poly in alumni relations and in fundraising from 2001-2013. She returned in 2022-2024 to support the fundraising efforts of the Kennedy Library. She was Manager of Philanthropy at French Hospital Medical Center from 2013-2021.
Rosey holds a bachelor’s degree in music education from Baldwin-Wallace University’s Conservatory of Music and master’s and education specialist degrees in counseling and higher education administration from the University of Virginia. In her free time, she is a vocalist, singing and soloing at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church and Cuesta Concord Chorus. She sang with the Vocal Arts Ensemble for many years and the Mozart Festival Chorus, as well as performing with many ensembles and opera companies before moving to California. She has been married to Skip for 47 years and has three grown sons, Jason-Robert (Fiancé Katie), Grant (wife Molly) and Beau.
Having just begun retirement for a second time, Rosey is excited to support the fundraising efforts of the Kennedy Library through the Dean’s Advisory Council.
Erin Matheny
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