Our Board of Directors

Diane McNutt is a native of San Jose with a B.A. in Journalism and M.S. in Mass Communications from
San Jose State University. She owned her own PR/marketing communications business and worked on
several community celebration milestone events in San Jose including the openings of the Convention
Center, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library and Guadalupe River Park. She founded and served as Faculty
Director of the SJSU Certificate in Marketing Communications program. Diane also has experience as an
elected official, serving on the Los Gatos Town Council for 12 years including two stints as Mayor. She
joined the League in 2018 and became Communications Director in 2020. She has served as President of
the League since 2021.

Carol joined the League in about 1994 after retiring from IBM while living in Los Altos. She
served on the board of LWV Los Altos/Mountain View for several years including two years
as president. She worked on the first or very early editions of several League web sites:
local, state, SmartVoter, and League Easy Web. Moving to San Jose in 2004, she joined our
League. She was honored to serve as president from 2019-2022 and enjoys working with
such a talented and dedicated board and active members. Currently she is co-chair of the Membership
Committee and chair of the Leagues of Women Voters of Santa Clara County.

Tom joined the League in early 2023 after getting to know LWV members around the state through his
involvement in the ranked choice voting reform movement. He started working on Pros and Cons for the
March primaries and really enjoys the voter education aspect of the League's work. He's a father of a 9-
year old and a <1 year old but makes time to volunteer to make elections better because he believes
systemic change at all levels of government is the durable way to improve our politics. He co-founded
the California RCV Coalition in 2021 and is active in the effort to expand RCV and Proportional RCV
around the state.

Anita joined the League in 2020. She retired from Silicon Graphics in 2007. For the last 15
years of her career, she managed a multi-million dollar remarketed workstation business.
She has admired League of Women Voters from afar for many years, appreciating their
insightful and comprehensive election information. She is especially interested in
supporting voter registration efforts.

Martha Beattie joined this League in 2004 when she retired from Santa Clara County Drug and Alcohol Services, having served as Director of Evaluation. She was previously a member of LWV in Youngstown, Ohio and Providence, RI. She most enjoys working on local, state and national studies and, for LWV California, as Legislative Analyst/Policy Director for Open Government bills. In our local League she has been Action Chair, President, Treasurer, and now director of our Pros and Cons team for several years.

Roma is Chair of our Housing/Homeless Committee and currently serves as president of the LWV Bay Area which includes all Leagues within the nine Bay Area counties. Her portfolio is social policy. In 2020 she added the LWVC Housing and Homelessness Committee as a legislative analyst. In the community, Roma is Vice Chair of the City of San Jose Housing and Community Development Commission. She previously served two terms on the San Jose Arts Commission. Roma has a extensive background as a policy analyst and chief of staff for several City of San Jose officials and for Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren. She also has held marketing positions with the San Jose Downtown Association and San Jose Conventions and Visitors Bureau.

Gloria is 2nd Vice President for Program and Advocacy for LWV California and sits on the State Board. She served as president of our San Jose/Santa Clara League (2013-2015) and has served in a variety of roles with League. Now retired, she worked in marketing and public relations in both the private sector and in the museum field. For ten years she produced and hosted a public affairs program “Asian Focus” for the Boston CBS affiliate. She has served on the national board of the YWCA, the City of San Jose Planning Commission, and the Citizens’ Advisory Committee of the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority.

Gloria became a member of the League in 2020 and was honored to join the Board in 2022. She serves as Co-Chair of the Membership Committee and believes that the work of the League is very important to support educating the members and the public about the importance of voting and making good decisions. A quote that guides her: “None of us are free, until all of us are free.” (Emma Lazurus).

Linda joined the League in July of 2022 after retiring from Lam Research. She knew of the League of
Women Voters through her mother and she also used information provided by the League to help make
an informed vote. She is very passionate about keeping voting rights and providing correct information
on the candidates and the issues, so she joined the League and works on our Vote411 project. After
attending some in-person events, she decided to become a member of the Climate Change Committee
and was encouraged by that committee to join as a volunteer of the Santa Clara Valley Open Space
Authority as a Trail Patrol and a citizen member of the Expenditure Oversight Committee. She served
as Secretary, and now is heading the Vote411 project for our League.

Sandy has been a League member since 2002, holding positions of Co-president, Voter Service chair and Vice President. Sandy has been the co-chair of the state convention and secretary/treasurer of the League County Council. Her current main interests are organizing candidate forums and promoting Voter Registration.

Julie is chair of our active Action Committee. Now retired, she worked in aerospace for the federal government, spending 25 years at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). As an engineer at NASA, she had a varied career, that Included technical program/project management while working locally at Ames Research Center, then on the policy and planning side while at Headquarters in Washington, DC. She was the lead of strategic planning and performance management, was a member of the NASA Administrator’s Strategy Team recommending future directions, and had a stint as the Deputy Budget Director, developing the budget request to the US Congress. Prior to moving to NASA-HQ, Julie spent a year working as US congressional staff in an Ohio office writing law on military aerospace and defense, specifically to govern decision-making at the Air Force on science and technology investments. Ms. Pollitt also was the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act Implementation Executive responsible for the successful implementation of this Presidential priority at NASA. She formulated the objectives and priorities for NASA’s implementation, and assured compliance with the Recovery Act, at all 10 NASA centers. Upon retirement, she returned to California to lay a foundation for a possible future career in wine making.

Charlene has lived in San Jose for 50 years in multiple neighborhoods including Almaden Valley, Willow Glen, Naglee Park and downtown. She is a retired Physician who trained at UCSF and Stanford in Pediatrics. She worked as a Pediatrician at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center with expertise in Pediatric Endocrinology for nearly 40 years. She served as a Stanford Clinical Professor and was also in private practice in Almaden for 14 years. She is interested in voter education and registration and looks forward to working with the women and men in our organization.