Oral Lee Brown Foundation Board of Directors

Officers

Oral Lee Brown – Founder / President

  • Held a managerial position at Blue Cross Insurance Company where she supervised 55 employees.
  • Owner Real Estate Office in Oakland
  • Owner and Manager Cobbler’s Restaurant
  • Member Harmony Missionary Baptist Church, Oakland Community Housing Resource Board, Oakland Board of Realtors, Associate Real Property Brokers, and and Cal-Pak Association
  • Created the Oral Lee Brown Foundation – 1987
  • Named Woman of the Year for the year 2000 by Senator Don Perata and Assembly member Audie Bock
  • Honored at the Black History Month Awards sponsored by Union Bank of California and KQED
  • Selected as among the “Ten Most Influential African Americans in the Bay Area”
  • Diamond of the Bay Award for Community Service by the National Basketball Wives Association
  • California Lottery Award
  • The Pioneer Achievement Award by the National Coalition of 100 Black Women
  • Humanitarian Of The Year by the East Bay Agency for Children
  • John Stanford Education Heroes Award by the U.S. Department of Education.
  • The Minerva Award 2010, Bank of the West Community Award(2011)
  • Inducted into Alameda County Hall of Fame (2102)
  • Featured in People, Glamour Magazine (3) times, Ebony and Essence magazines
  • Seen on ABC Later Today, NBC Nightly News, Extra, CNN, Courage, and Channels 2, 4, 5, & 7
  • Associate of Arts degree from Laney College
  • Bachelor of Science from the University of San Francisco
  • Bachelor of Arts degree from Hawaii
  • Honorary Doctorate from Columbia College, Merrimack College in Boston and University of San Francisco

Geraldine Ashley – Secretary

  • Retired Educator, Oakland, California

Phyllis Opara

  • Oral Lee Brown Foundation, Oakland, California

Board of Directors

Philip Palmer

  • Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. Commercial Real Estate Agent, Oakland, CA

Desiree Shaw

  • The University of San Francisco, Pleasanton, CA

Phyllis Opara

  • Director – OLBF, Oakland, CA

Advisors

David Osborne 

  • BSEE San Jose State
  • MBA Santa Clara University
  • Board of Directors nLight Photonics Corporation
  • Board of Directors OLB Preparatory Charter School
  • Chairman of the Board Oz Foundation
  • JDS Uniphase
    • 996 – 1998 Vice President Business Development
    • 1995 –  1996 Vice President and General Manager Solid State Lasers
    • 1992 – 1995 Vice President International
    • Member of road show team for initial public offering
    • 1984 – 1992 Vice President Sales and Marketing
  • Osborne Associates 1981 – 1984
    • Wrote business and marketing plans for start-ups.
  • Spectra-Physics 1973 – 1981
    • Development engineering and marketing of bar code scanners and component lasers.
  • Storage Products 1969 – 1973
    • Start-up founded by Alan Shugart. Developed disk drive systems. The company was acquired and became the disk drive business for Memorex.
  • IBM: 1961 – 1969
    • Developed LAN systems and disk drive systems.

Georgia J. Osborne 

  • 1966 B.A. San Jose State University
  • 1967 California Teacher’s Credential – Elementary Education
  • 1979 Co-Founder – Hicklebees – a children’s book store in San Jose
  • 1983 – 1987 Teacher – St. John Vianney
  • 1987 – 2001 Teacher – Santa Clara School District
  • 1998 Established Oz Foundation – a non-profit focused on educating children from low income families