Speakers

Rebekah Kalleen is a partner at Murdoch, Walrath & Holmes and a legislative advocate for education entities including the Coalition for Adequate School Housing, the Community College Facility Coalition, and the County School Facilities Consortium. She has over fifteen years of experience in the State advocacy sector, helping clients from small associations to large companies navigate the State budget, legislative, and regulatory processes. She previously served as a consultant to school districts participating in the State School Facility Program, assisting them with accessing state grant dollars for facility projects. Rebekah has a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Rebekah Kalleen is Vice President and partner at Murdoch, Walrath & Holmes and a legislative advocate for education entities including the Coalition for Adequate School Housing, the Community College Facility Coalition, and the County School Facilities Consortium. She has over fifteen years of experience in the State advocacy sector, helping clients from small associations to large companies navigate the State budget, legislative, and regulatory processes. She previously served as a consultant to school districts participating in the State School Facility Program, assisting them with accessing state grant dollars for facility projects. Rebekah has a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Since 2006, Ms. Diaz has made it a mission to work with every PB System™ client to ensure that all users are trained to get maximum usage of the system while complying with their internal purchasing guidelines. Working with everyone from small and local business advocate groups to assigned personnel at large agencies, Ms. Diaz is also responsible for on-site training, refresher training, webinars, and surveys to better serve all PlanetBids clients.

Prior to joining PlanetBids, Ms. Diaz worked in the San Jose State University (SJSU) Purchasing Department. She has earned a long list of accolades, including the SARA Gold award from the Dept. of General Services for being the top Small Business and Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise (SB/DVBE) Advocate of the year, and 3 No Matter What Awards in Excellence and 6 You Make the Difference Awards from SJSU. In 2006, Ms. Diaz was the first recipient of the Most Outstanding BidsOnline™ user award at the 1st Annual PlanetBids Users Conference, proof of her 360° knowledge of the PB System™.

Rod Herrera is a seasoned procurement professional with over 25 years of experience in the California Community College System and 15 years specializing in public procurement. As the Senior Buyer at Contra Costa Community College District, he brings a wealth of expertise in Furniture, Fixtures, and Equipment (FF&E), ensuring efficient and cost-effective acquisitions that support educational excellence.

Rod’s commitment to innovation and process improvement was recognized in 2017 when he received the California Public Higher Education Innovation Honors Focus on Efficiency Award. This honor came during his tenure as chairman of the Process Expert Team, where he played a pivotal role in streamlining procurement operations and driving efficiency across the district.

Rodney Taylor’s leadership journey spans 30 years in education beginning in 1991 as the Food Services Director for San Mateo Union High School District/ Compton Unified School District, while most recently retiring as Food and Nutrition Services Director, for the Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia, the 10th largest school in the United States.
Mr. Taylor takes a vision and makes it reality through sound strategy development. He inspires innovative ideas and concepts, and provides avenues to ensure change is managed effectively. He is an inspirational leader who tells stories that inspire action while at the same time ensures that stakeholders remain engaged in the process and are well-supported when change impacts their daily lives. He believes open and honest communication is essential to maintaining support for the strategy. As a seasoned consultant, Rodney has provided organizations in the public and private sectors with practical strategies that enable change management as an enterprise business capability. Respected as a credible voice in decision making, strategic thinking, innovation, and establishing governance boundaries.

Rodney has served on numerous boards such as the California State Board of Food and Agriculture, the University of California (UC0 President’s Advisory Commission for Agriculture and Natural Resources, and the Network for a Healthy California’s Executive Committee.

Rodney holds a Bachelor of Science in Public Administration from California State University, Dominguez Hills.

Ronnie Slimp is the Director of the College Finance and Facilities Planning Division’s new Student Housing Unit, which also oversees California Community Colleges’ climate efforts. Before starting this role, Ronnie was a Specialist with the Facilities Planning Unit for several years. On behalf of the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, Ronnie has served and/or advised a variety of statewide committees and workgroups, including the Institutional Effectiveness Advisory Committee, Metric Simplification Workgroup, ACBO Facilities Task Force, Affordable Student Housing Taskforce, and he was a founding co-chair of the Climate Action and Sustainability Steering Committee. Ronnie is a proud alumnus of California Community Colleges.

Rupa Saran, Vice Chancellor & CITO at Coast CCD, provides leadership and vision for the strategic planning and development of information and learning technologies. An advocate for higher education access ad student success, Rupa leads the Common Cloud Data Platform Demonstration Project for the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. She also drives essential systemwide partnerships and initiatives as President of CISAO. Additionally, Rupa services on the CCC AI Council, 4CIS EAC and more.