Community members join Clark College Foundation boards
Announcing newest board of directors and an alumni board member
Local builder Jon Girod and manufacturing executive Brian Taylor ’98 joined Clark College Foundation’s Board of Directors in June. Additionally, Lucy Estrada-Guzman ’90, principal at Harney Elementary, joined Clark College Foundation’s Alumni Board in June.
Clark College Foundation Board of Directors
Jon Girod is a Clark College Foundation Board of Director. Photo by Jenny Shadley
Girod is a Vancouver real estate developer and owner of Quail Homes. He’s also the parent of Clark alumni. He first volunteered at Clark when his three sons were in middle and high school. His sons went on to attend Clark and play baseball for the college. He was impressed with the quality of education the institution provided. Two of his sons are now engineers. Girod appreciates that Clark gave them a chance to try different subjects and discover their interests without accruing debt. He also said Clark prepared his children to transition smoothly to a four-year college.
“The more I learned about it, the more I thought that this is such an incredible resource for our community,” Girod said. “That’s where I’d like to see our efforts here in the community—bring the kids into all the local businesses. At the end of the day, if you want to have quality jobs in your community, you need to have an educated workforce and education needs to be diverse, it can’t be linear.”
Taylor is the head of international sales for Siemens Industry. Taylor joined Siemens in 2003 in industrial business development, before becoming the Northwest industrial sales manager in 2011. He was promoted to head of international sales in 2019. He works with industries within aerospace, semiconductors, food and beverage, energy production, energy storage, municipal water, and oil and gas. Taylor is a lifelong resident of Clark County and is married to Kristi Taylor ’99, a Clark dental hygiene faculty member.
Brian Taylor is a Clark College Foundation Board of Director. Photo by Brian Taylor
The board of directors is a volunteer governing board for Clark College Foundation. It includes leaders in business and civic affairs. Ex officios include the president of Clark College, CEO of the foundation, two representatives from Clark’s Board of Trustees, and two foundation leadership executives.
Clark College Foundation Alumni Board
In addition to being welcomed to the alumni board, Estrada-Guzman is one of this year’s Outstanding Alumni Award recipients. The accolade recognizes those who deliver exemplary service to the community and Clark College and exhibit personal and professional achievements.
Lucy Estrada Guzman is a Clark College Foundation Alumni Board member. Photo by Harney Elementary
While she was a student at Clark College, Estrada-Guzman got a job at Clark County’s Head Start and Early Childhood Education and Assistance program. She realized then that she wanted to teach. She continued her college studies, eventually earning a master’s in education. While serving as an associate principal at Sarah J. Anderson Elementary School, she piloted a dual-language program for kindergarten and first grade. When she became the principal at Harney Elementary School in 2011, she added her expertise to strengthen the region’s first full-immersion dual-language initiative.
Last June, Estrada-Guzman joined Clark’s Dr. Debi Jenkins and former Vancouver School District teacher Linda Marie Gilliam for a panel discussion called “It Begins with a Child.” The educators spoke before a live audience about diversity and equity, getting parents involved with their children’s learning, dual language programs taking hold, and integrating a curriculum of humor. The panel was recorded in a podcast. Listen now.
The alumni board is the official advisory body for alumni activities at Clark College. Board members are graduates, attendees and alumni of Clark, with representation from faculty, staff and the Vancouver community.
