Stanford Historical Society welcomes five new board members
The Stanford Historical Society membership elected five new board members and re-elected two current board members to the Board of Directors at the annual members' meeting on May 21, 2026. The new board members will begin their first three-year term on July 1. Among other responsibilities, they will serve on one or more committee, assume leadership roles, or undertake special assignments.
The following individuals are elected to serve their first three (3) year term:
Erik W. Charles is a distinguished chief revenue officer and chief marketing officer with over 30 years of expertise driving revenue growth, market expansion, and sales performance optimization across Fortune 500 companies and high-growth startups including Xactly, Canon, Sun Microsystems, and Apple. A Stanford graduate (Class of 1991), Charles has served on the Class of ’91 Reunion Committee for several years and moderates the Stanford Class of ’91 Facebook page. As a recognized Stanford Associate, he has remained actively engaged with the university’s ongoing story. What excites him most about joining the Historical Society Board is the opportunity to help Stanford tell its history through modern mediums.
Bernadine Chuck Fong is a two-time president emerita of Foothill College where she served as president from 1994-2006 and 2021-2023. She began her career at Foothill as a psychology and child development professor. She has been a lecturer at Stanford’s Graduate School of Education and Senior Scholar at the Stanford Institute for Higher Education. She was previously the director of the Preparing Future Professors shadowing program for PhD students and postdoctoral scholars for Stanford’s Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Education. She has also served as the Senior Managing Partner for the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Fong has served on the Board of Trustees of Stanford University and was vice-chair of the University’s Board of Trustees Minority Alumni Relations Task Force. She currently chairs the Emeriti Minority Trustees convenings. She has also served on the boards for the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, Stanford Healthcare Alliance, John W. Gardener Center for Youth and Communities, Silicon Valley Community Foundation, Menlo College, American Association of Community Colleges, and several other educational and non-profit boards. She is a fellow of the American Council on Education and the American Leadership Forum of Silicon Valley. She was an inaugural recipient of the Stanford Medal for Distinguished Service to Stanford. Fong was born and raised in Palo Alto and received her BA, MA, and PhD degrees from Stanford University. Her father also received all three degrees from Stanford and lived with Professor and Mrs. Cubberley while a Stanford student.
Bertrand Patenaude is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, where he is currently serving as Interim Head of Engagement at the Library & Archives. He is also a lecturer for the International Relations Program at Stanford. His first book, The Big Show in Bololand: The American Relief Expedition to Soviet Russia in the Famine of 1921 (Stanford University Press, 2002), won the 2003 Marshall Shulman Book Prize and was made into a documentary film for the award-winning PBS history series American Experience. His 2009 book, Trotsky: Downfall of a Revolutionary (Harper), was serialized for radio by the BBC. His most recent book, co-authored with Joan Nabseth Stevenson, is Bread + Medicine: American Famine Relief in Soviet Russia, 1921–1923 (Hoover Institution Press, 2023). Patenaude was educated at Boston College (BA, 1977) and at the University of Vienna, was a Fulbright Scholar in Moscow in 1982–83, and received his PhD in history from Stanford in 1987. He has contributed book reviews to the Wall Street Journal since 2004.
Francisco O. Ramirez is the Vida Jacks Professor Emeritus of Education and Sociology (by courtesy) at Stanford University. He has contributed to comparative studies of educational and political institutions and organizations. Recent research focused on transformations in universities has been published in Social Forces, Minerva, Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Annual Review of Comparative and International Education, and numerous chapters in edited books. Ramirez has been a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences (2006-07), the Swedish Consortium for Advanced Studies (2017), and the Free University of Berlin Cluster of Excellence Contestations of the Liberal Script (2022). He has been elected to the honor societies of both the American Sociological Association and the Comparative and International Education Society. His research has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, and the Stanford Institute for International Studies. Ramirez (Stanford, PhD, 1974) has served in the Academic Senate (1998-2000) and as Graduate School of Education Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs (1998-2000). He has received external and internal student mentoring awards.
Shayla Smith, originally from Los Angeles, earned her bachelor’s degree in Science, Technology, and Society with a minor in Spanish from Stanford University in 2012. During her time at Stanford, she studied abroad in Spain and participated in the Diversity Exchange Program at Spelman College. After graduation, she served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Panama. Her experience abroad inspired her to pursue a Master of Public Health at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. Professionally, Smith has built a career spanning the healthcare ecosystem—from working with clinical data in a hospital NICU to developing strategy at a health insurance company in New York. She now serves as an Engagement Manager at IQVIA, where she leads the development of medical affairs strategy for life science companies. In addition to her professional work, Smith remains deeply engaged with the Stanford community. She has volunteered for the Stanford OVAL Program for 9 years, connecting with prospective students to share her love of Stanford. She also served a three-year term on the Stanford National Black Alumni Association (SNBAA) Board, culminating in her role as Co-President.
The following individuals will serve their second three (3) year term commencing on July 1, 2026:
Larry Horton retired as Stanford’s senior associate vice president and director of government and community relations in 2013. He began his Stanford career working on student housing during a time of great change — single-sex housing converted to virtually all-coed housing, and the student body rapidly became more diverse. He took a year off to go to Washington to work for a cabinet secretary. On his return, he joined the Office of Public Affairs to help expand Stanford’s effectiveness in its dealings with the federal, state, and local governments. Over the next three decades he worked closely with four Stanford presidents on national policies and legislation, relationships with Stanford alumni in Congress and the administration, and congressional inquiries. The Sand Hill Road Project and the approval of the 2000 General Use Permit were two of the important accomplishments. Horton was honored with the Kenneth M. Cuthbertson Award for Exceptional Contributions in 2013 and the Karen Bartholomew Award for Exceptional Service to the Stanford Historical Society in 2022. Horton is a Stanford alumnus, receiving a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1962 and a master’s degree in history in 1966.
Steve Staiger was an SHS board member in 2012-2018 and currently serves on the Tours & Special Events and Publications committees. Until his retirement, he was a reference librarian for the City of Palo Alto for 24 years. He has been the part-time historian for the Palo Alto Historical Association since 1984. He writes a column for Tall Tree, the association's publication, and works on its Publications Committee. He offers talks on Palo Alto history to community groups such as Kiwanis and makes annual visits to 3rd grade classrooms in local schools. Staiger received a bachelor’s degree in history from UC Davis in 1972 and a master’s degree in library science from UC Berkeley in 1973. Staiger grew up in Marin County and for more than 40 years, he and his wife, Luana, have lived in unincorporated Santa Clara County near Rossotti’s on Alpine Road. They have a daughter who lives with her husband and 3 children in Palo Alto. He enjoys gardening, playing golf and softball, collecting bells and golf putters, and playing with the young grandchildren.
