Board Members

Laura Calandra, Board Director, laurac@friendsofbroadwayschool.org

Laura Calandra is the mom of a first grader in the SI program. She's lived in Venice for 13 years. Laura studied abroad in Spain and loves the Spanish language and culture.

Patty Elizalde, Board Director, patty@friendsofbroadwayschool.org

Patty is the mother of a 3rd Grader in the SI Program. She helps translate our correspondences into Spanish and hosts "FOBES in Español" Coffees to help answer questions from our monolingual Spanish parents. Patty was working on an artistic project to showcase our Family Giving when the Pandemic hit.

She has volunteered in classrooms helping teachers, teaching Art in Action, working with Kristen in the Beautification Committee, cooperating with our Hispanic Heritage Committee, and assisting Alfonsina with the dance classes for our Ballet Folklorico Committee. From Patty’s time working as a TA, she is an asset as a volunteer teacher and keeps children focused on the task at hand. Patty has been instrumental in working to establish the Spanish Immersion Community through park potlucks. This year, along with various school committee speakers, she was able to organized a potluck for all Spanish Immersion families to attend. Patty also initiated a school wide cleaning campaign before the stay at home order, in which parent volunteers started cleaning every classroom. Since many parents do better with in-person outreach, Patty helps connect our school communities and is a vital link between our monolingual Spanish parents and the FOBES board.

Tamra Johnson, Board Director, tamra@friendsofbroadwayschool.org

Tamra is the mom of a first grader in MI, as well as a 3 year old future Broadway student. She has been the chair of giving campaigns for her college alumni association, so is bringing that experience and knowledge to help with fundraising and grant writing. Tamra is an aerospace engineer by training, and a consulting & software business owner the last 10 years. She's lived in Venice since 2004.

Marsha Joyce, Board Director, marsha@friendsofbroadwayschool.org

Marsha is the mother of a 3rd grader in the SI Program. She currently works at a local Ad agency in Santa Monica. In her current role as an Associate Media Director, she manages multi-million dollar advertising budgets across various clients in General Market and Hispanic television. Marsha also has several years of experience in event planning leading various corporate events including an annual Dia de los Muertos celebration for her former agency. Since joining the Broadway family in 2017, her planning skills have been actively contributed to the Broadway DDLM team.

Laura Kunin, Board Director, Corresponding Secretary, secretaryc@friendsofbroadwayschool.org

Laura Kunin is the mother of 2, Chloe, who is in the 3rd grade SI program at Broadway, and Asher, who is in the 1st grade SI program. Laura grew up in Michigan. She graduated with Communications, Theater and Film degrees from Eastern Michigan University. After college, Laura moved to the Windy City of Chicago to work in video postproduction on television, documentaries, and even political campaigns. Laura kept her love of theater alive working with Redmoon Theater’s Dramagirls teaching theater, including puppetry, to middle-school girls. She moved to Los Angeles in 2005 to work on feature films as a Flame artist. While working in visual effects she met her husband, Bill. After having her first child in 2012, she started her own photography company. Laura has a deep appreciation of yoga and is certified Iyengar yoga teacher. She has volunteered at Broadway Elementary in beautification, recruitment, and Dia de los Muertos.

Yvonne Leung, Board Director, Co-Treasurer, yvonne@friendsofbroadwayschool.org

Yvonne is the mother of a 2nd grader and 1st grader in the MI program. She is our Social FUNraising Chair and also works on donation receiving and expenditures. She has also helped or run fundraisers with Jamba Juice, Legoland, Frozen II, Spiritwear and more.

Jean Liao, Board Director, jean@friendsofbroadwayschool.org

Jean is the mother of a third grader in the MI program and a 7th grader in MI at Mark Twain. She helps with Boon products and has also been working with our treasurers to become a strong part of the finance team.

Chuck Nwoko, Board Director

Chuck is the father of a second grader in the SI program. He has worked with his church in fundraising. He loves to inform our parents about the important role that FOBES plays for our community and our school. He works in security and wants to bring a new perspective to the Broadway board.

Jenny Phelps, Board Director, Vice President, jennyp@friendsofbroadwayschool.org

Jenny is the mother of a 2nd grader in the SI program. She is an educator, and artist, and business owner. All of her work involves strong communication skills, creativity in problem-solving, and loads of patience. She teaches Art in Action for her SI grade level, as well as volunteering for many other aspects of the school. She aspires to continue working hard to help Broadway be the best school for our kids that it can be.

Cidalia Reis, Board Director, cidalia@friendsofbroadwayschool.org

Cidalia is the mother of a 2nd grader in the MI program. She is our Scholastic Book Fair liaison and has helped with the Book Fair, Spiritwear, the Panda movie and more. She was also working on an artistic project to showcase our Family Giving when the Pandemic hit.

Joe Traba, Board Director, joe@friendsofbroadwayschool.org

Joe is the father of first and second grader in SI. He wants to help Broadway be the best it can be. He manages money for advisers/institutions and helps with the finance team and fundraising.

Laura Weissbecker, Board Director, laura@friendsofbroadwayschool.org

Laura is the mother of a first grader in the MI program. She created and helped run our Panda movie fundraiser. She was also working on an artistic project to showcase our Family Giving when the Pandemic hit. She helps to organize fundraising events, and is working on creating a network with other schools so we can organize fundraising events together. Laura grew up in France where she got a master degree in engineering. She has been working as an actress all over the world (France, Germany, Spain, US, China, Bolivia...); she started to learn mandarin while working on a movie in China. She is passionate about languages, cultures and public education.

Holly Yang, Board Director, President, board1@friendsofbroadwayschool.org

Holly has two daughters in the MI program: Journey culminated last year and Avalon is in 3rd grade. Holly is originally from North Carolina and moved to LA in 2006 after some strong persuasion from one husband-to-be. She uses probably nothing from her majors in Chemistry and East African Studies, but has never been happier as a stay at home mom. She has a hard time saying no, so you may have seen her running around campus teaching Art in Action, attending Friends of Broadway, School Site Council or Beautification meetings, helping run the Spring auction or a couple of Girl Scout troops, or sometimes being a room parent. Her other love is performing, both dancing and singing; performing has been a huge part of her life. With Friends of Broadway she works on lots of things, including the Family Giving Campaign, Spiritwear, the Spring Auction and more.