Once again SCVAS is holding an online election to choose its officers and directors. To learn more about this year's candidates, please take a few moments to read their bios below. Members will receive their ballots by email in early June. When you receive yours, please take time to vote.

Officers:
President: Barry Langdon-Lassagne
Vice President: Bill Walker
Secretary: Joan Leighton
Treasurer: Bob Hirt

Directors being renewed
Mike Armer
John Richardson

President

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Barry Langdon-Lassagne

Barry Langdon-Lassagne grew up in the foothills of Mount Diablo where he would frequently hike and camp. He started actively birding in the 1980s in college at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. He banded birds for SFBBO in the early 1990s and he's been participating in SCVAS's annual spring Birdathon since 2005.

In 2016, Barry retired from a software engineering career at Apple and now devotes more time to his love of nature and conservation. Since joining the SCVAS board, Barry has lead the effort to revamp our website, helped launch our new YouTube channel, contributed articles to The Avocet, and guided birding field trips. He has served as chair of the Birdathon Committee and participated in multiple committees including Personnel, Finance, Outreach, Development and Education.

Barry still enjoys software development, managing to combine it with his birding passion by authoring a bird checklisting app for the iPhone. His other interests include bird and wildflower photography, astronomy, astrophotography, and baking bread.

Vice President

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Bill Walker

Bill has been birding in California since 1996 and photographing wild birds and their environment since 2003. He teaches bird photography at Google, Point Reyes Birding Festival, and the Coastside Land Trust. His photos are published on Instagram and at birdwalker.com.

Since joining the SCVAS board in 2019, Bill has been active with the Field Trip committee and is helping create video content for SCVAS's YouTube channel. He credits the SCVAS 2012 trip to Costa Rica with opening a door to birding travel, which has been very rewarding. 

Bill has worked in software engineering at Apple, Cisco, Mozilla, and most recently, Google. Bill holds a PhD in Computer Science from University of Illinois, where he studied object-oriented software, jazz piano, and electronic music. Bill currently directs the choir at University Lutheran Church in Palo Alto.


Secretary

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Joan Leighton

Joan has been on the SCVAS Board since 2004 and has acted as its Secretary for most of that time. She also serves on the Executive, Nominating, and Personnel committees. 

A professional librarian, Joan started her career at Harvard's East Asian Library, went on to manage the several libraries of a national accounting firm, and then came to Stanford where she oversaw many of the programs and services of Stanford's main and undergraduate libraries. Retirement was followed by three years with San Francisco's Koret Foundation directing a national book award program.

Joan’s time is now spent birding while travelling, hosting emerging string quartets, collecting fruit stickers (one of the largest such collections in the world), and playing with family and friends up and down the California coast.


Treasurer

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Bob Hirt

Bob Hirt has been on the Board since 2003, serving both as  President and Treasurer. He is also active on the Nominating, Personnel, Birdathon, Finance, and Membership committees.

Bob has been involved in Bay Area Audubon activities since 1977 and has served on the Boards of Golden Gate Audubon (President), Farallon Island Foundation (Treasurer), and Friends of Richardson Bay (Controller) and Audubon Canyon Ranch. In his view, SCVAS is the leader in the South Bay in birding activities, wildlife education and environmental action. He sees SCVAS as assertive and collaborative in protecting bird and wildlife habitats.

Bob earned an MBA in Finance at Western Michigan University and a CPA certificate while at KPMG in San Francisco. His business career was in Corporate Finance specializing in Corporate Tax and Treasury with Bank of America, Lucky Stores, Measurex, Solectron and ending at SanDisk. After retiring from his international tax consulting practice, he is devoting his time to SCVAS, birding and his four grandchildren. 



Directors

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Michael Armer

Michael joined the SCVAS board in 2016. He is a founding member of the Outreach Committee, and also sits on the Membership & Development, Personnel, and Birdathon committees. 

Michael graduated from Cornell University with a degree in Linguistics. He then worked in the IT field for about 10 years, managing networks for a few dozen small companies. About 10 years ago Michael decided on a major career change and went to UC Davis to study Veterinary Medicine. He is now a small animal veterinarian in Campbell, CA.

From a young age, Michael has been a birder and bird photographer. His passion for birds has taken him to six continents – and he hopes to travel to Antarctica to complete the set! For the last 15 years he has also been a raptor bander with the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory in Marin County. 


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John Richardson

John joined the Board in 2017 saying he was ready to “commit quality time and energy to such an energetic, creative, and inspiring organization.” Good to his word, he now chairs the Development Committee as well as serving on the Membership Committee.

After finishing a degree in biology in Omaha, John made a calculated decision to move West and live out his dream of being nearer to the mountains. He added a history degree at a Washington university and then worked for six years with the US Forest Service in fire control in six western states. For the past 35 years, he has had a successful and rewarding career in industrial sales, mostly in executive level capital spending projects with Bay Area public schools, public and private universities, cities and counties, and large corporate firms.

Now retired, John is pleased to have more time to commit to birding, worldwide nature photography, cycling, swimming, hiking, woodworking, and reading. You can see some of his work at www.johnrichardsonnature.com.