Mission,History, Leaders - League of Women Voters of Oakland

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Mission, History, and Leadership

Our Mission

Our mission is to promote political responsibility through informed and active participation in government. We pursue our mission through education on major public policy issues and by influencing public policy through research and advocacy.

Through collaboration with community organizations and by advocacy with local government, we’ve been able to make a positive impact in voter education and engagement by:

Supporting more voter participation in under-served communities
Developing fair representation through nonpartisan re-districting and campaign finance reform
Creating new ways to evaluate citizen oversight committees

Our History

Dating to its founding in 1920, the League of Women Voters U.S. has a long, proud history of expanding voter access, fighting voter suppression, advocating for limits of money in politics, and opposing partisan and racial gerrymandering. We believe in the power of women to create a more perfect democracy.

The League of Women Voters Oakland is part of a national network of more than 700 local and state Leagues with more than 500,000 members nationally operating in all 50 states. With more than 300 members, League of Women Voters Oakland is the largest per capita membership of any big city League in the State of California.

Our Leadership

Our Leadership team, for FY26-27, displayed here reflects the approved slate of nominees presented by the Nominations Committee at our Annual Meeting, held in person on Thursday, June 11, 2026.

Officers and Executive Committee

Please click on the person's name to see more information.

Ernestine Nettles

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Ernestine Nettles

Ernestine is a life-long resident of West Oakland and very active in that community. Her life has been dedicated to equity, equality, and being of service to the marginalized, under-represented and underserved.

She has been active in the League of Women Voters for the past 15 years and a member of the board for “THE” last ten years. Ernestine has a long-standing relationship with the National Black Veterans Association and worked closely with Ms. Ethel Bradly to establish the Tom and Ethel Bradly Foundation. She has a BA and a MA in Human Resources and Public Administration from Golden Gate University.

In 2019 Ernestine was honored for 50 years of volunteering with GLIDE. She works closely with civil rights leader JT Johnson to promote non-violent political activism, empowerment of women, and the power of the vote. Through much of her career she has been responsible for the oversight of sexual harassment, discrimination, workplace harassment, and affirmative action investigations.

For the last 13 years, she has served the City of Oakland as an Assistant Contracts and Compliance Officer. Ernestine believes, "We must do all we can to make the world a better place for everyone and work tirelessly to ensure that no one is left behind."

President

Cheryl Ajirotutu

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Cheryl Ajirotutu

Dr. Cheryl Ajirotutu retired from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she served as a professor in the Anthropology Department and a University Administrator. Dr. Ajirotutu completed her degrees at UC-Berkeley. During my tenure at UC-Berkeley, I was a student activist and grew up in Oakland, CA. I attended Oakland Technical High School, where I was elected as the first female student body president in the city. Highlights from my professional career include national as well as international positions. A few highlights include teaching positions at UC-Davis, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and UW-Milwaukee. In each of these settings, I was able to build programs. During my tenure in Milwaukee, I planned and implemented programs that started with community restoration in the Walnut Way, Milwaukee’s historical African American community. Dr. Ajirotutu responded to the catastrophic events of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita with a campus-wide initiative that supported students’ participation in the recovery, restoration, and rebuilding efforts in New Orleans. I held the administrative appointment of Associate Vice Chancellor. In that position, Dr. Ajirotutu had oversight for diversity initiatives, study abroad programs, the implementation and monitoring processes for Title IX, a federal mandate. She also created initiatives that supported the growth and development of interest-based affinity groups. Dr. Ajirotutu retired in 2015 from UW-Milwaukee and returned to California, where she worked at Skyline Community College. In 2016, Skyline hosted 25 African entrepreneurs from 23 African countries. Financial Support for this was possible through the Mandela-Washington Fellows Program. Today, Dr. Ajirotutu is a Financial Literacy Educator, engaged in a national financial literacy campaign with the goal of reaching 30 million families by 2030. In the 21st century, financial literacy is a necessity. You must learn how money works and become your own Money Manager.

Vice-President

Mary Beth

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Mary Beth Whyel

Mary Beth Whyel has called Oakland home since 2023. She joined the League of Women Voters to deepen her roots in this community, support civic engagement, and help advance equity in local decision-making. She believes an informed, involved citizenry is the foundation of a just society, and sees the League as a meaningful place to put that belief into practice.

Professionally, Mary Beth serves as a Chief of Staff, a role that has sharpened her ability to align people, priorities, and processes in service of larger goals. She holds a Master's degree in Education Leadership from Yale's School of Management, a Master's degree in International Relations and Organizational Management from American University, and a BA in International Development from American University, a background that informs her commitment to systems-level thinking and community-centered leadership.

Outside of work, Mary Beth is a mentor in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program, an investment she finds both grounding and rewarding. She looks forward to bringing that same spirit of engagement and care to her work with the League.

Secretary

Dana Lang

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Dana Lang

Dana Lang grew up in East Palo Alto, CA. She earned a BA in Economics from Wellesley College, an MBA from Cal Berkeley’s Haas Business School, then married, and while raising three sons, spent 24 years securing millions in grants and contracts for local government, including City of Oakland, Metropolitan Transportation Commission, SF Municipal Transportation Agency, San Francisco International Airport, and the SF Police Department.

She has retired from government, but remains active as a business consultant. She currently serves on the BART Police Civilian Review Board, and recently completed service (2018 – 2023) as treasurer of her Wellesley College class. She has been a long-time member of the Northern California Chapter of COMTO, the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials. She also has earned a 3rd degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do martial arts.

Treasurer

Directors

Anna Mathai

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Anna Mathai

Anna grew up in Mumbai, India before moving to the US. Anna has lived in Oakland since 2003 and has been a member of the League since 2013. She joined the Speakers Bureau in 2016, worked on Ballot Measures Pros and Cons in 2020 and then led the effort in 2022 along with creating short videos. She has been increasingly alarmed by the authoritarian trends in India, United States and around the world. Democracy only works when citizens are engaged in the process and she wants to empower voters and fight disinformation through LWVO.

Anna has a B.Tech from IIT, Mumbai and a PhD in Physics from the University of Maryland at College Park. She has a US patent for scanning SQUID microscopy. She worked at KLA-Tencor, TeraBurst Networks and IBM before retiring early in 2018. After two years of travel in South-east Asia, Australia and New Zealand, her husband and she have settled back in Oakland. Her hobbies include pickleball and traveling.

Dondrea Morgan

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Dondrea Morgan

I’ve served the “beloved community” at the intersections of Community, Government and Law, defending our fair City, as a Paralegal in the City of Oakland’s Office of the City Attorney for the past 20 years. In the previous 10 years, I was employed with a nationally known Civil Rights law firm that filed and won multiple class action lawsuits for racial, gender and employment bias matters. I became a member of the League after frequent passing encounters at City Hall meetings. As I served around election season, I often used the League’s voter education resources to inform local churches and community organizations regarding various relevant issues.

Recently, I’ve come full circle working with the LWVO dynamic YOUth Decide (youth voter engagement) team providing voter registration info to teens and young adults to develop and encourage a culture of voting, including informing the re-entry community of their voting rights. I’m interested to further engage with LWVO & Open Oakland, to enhance the accessibility of government reports.

A few years ago, I attended the Delilah Beasley luncheon where the LWVO made a public apology for the historical failure to include women of color in the suffrage fight/movement. In light of the LWV Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) efforts, and the centennial anniversary of women’s suffrage, I believe it is serendipitous for me to partner with the LWVO now.

Gail Wallace

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Gail Wallace

B.A. Catholic University of America; M.A. Philosophy University of Toronto; J.D University of Colorado at Boulder. Gail began her legal career as a clerk on the Colorado Supreme Court and continued to a decade of practice in commercial litigation in San Francisco and Monterey. During that time she also taught several courses in legal ethics. Gail pivoted from legal practice to educating her two children through high school.

Since they departed for college, Gail served on the board of Luna Dance, a local arts organization serving families and public schools in the East Bay, before joining LWVO as co-chair of the Action Committee. In recent years, Gail is also pleased and honored to be part of the teaching staff at Mountain Yoga and Wellness in Montclair.

Karen Boyd

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Karen Boyd

Karen Boyd is a veteran communications strategist and civic leader with decades of executive management experience in the government, nonprofit, and corporate sectors.

Prior to founding Heart of the Matter in early 2024, Karen served as Communications Director for the City of Oakland, California’s eighth largest city serving 424,000 residents. For more than two decades she advised top Oakland officials and executive leaders – including five Mayors – on a wide range of high-profile, complex, sensitive, and urgent issues, including police reform and the rise of unsheltered homelessness. As a senior official and City spokesperson in a fast-paced, full-service municipal corporation with a $2 billion annual budget and a 4,500-person workforce, Karen is well-versed in a broad range of complex administrative, operational, technical, personnel, legal, and quality of life issues.

Karen is inspired by service to others and mission-driven work. She currently serves as Vice President of the Children’s Fairyland Board of Directors and previously served as President of the East Bay SPCA Board of Directors. A fourth-generation Bay Area resident, she has deep ties in Oakland and the region. Karen lives in Oakland with her wife and teenage son, along with their shelter-rescue cat and dog.

Kimberly Holtzinger

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Kimberly Holtzinger

Kimberly has used League of Women Voters resources to inform her vote since she cast her first ballot as a teenager. She was inspired to become a member of LWV Oakland when she was researching a local Measure and LWVO was the only organization to provide an objective, nonpartisan information about the Measure. She’s proud to be a member of an organization dedicated to democracy and the diverse Oakland community.

Since joining LWVO, she has seen firsthand how the work supporting good government and voter resources continues even when it’s not an election year. As a member of the LWVO Observer Corp, she has developed an interest in public ethics and traffic violence prevention. She aims to bring her expertise as a professional to contribute to the work LWVO leads.

In her spare time, Kimberly gives back to her community by supporting math and science youth mentorship, community clean-ups and being a member of a local animal service’s foster network.

Louise Anderson

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Louise Anderson

Louise started her involvement with LWVO in 2009 working in the office with Bonnie Hamlin learning League operations. She was drawn to the League because of her interest in voter education and civic engagement. Over the years Louise took on a variety of tasks e.g. coordinating distribution of the Easy Voter Guide, organizing candidate forums, and promoting candidate participation in the League’s Voters Edge platform.

She is a strong advocate for youth and is serving her second term as a Commissioner on the Alameda County Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Commission. She uses her League hat to facilitate youth voter education as well as registration for 18-year olds in the Juvenile facility.

Phyllis White-Ayanruoh

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Phyllis White-Ayanruoh

I am retired from the California Public Utilities Commission after a long and rewarding career in State public service. I began as an entry level regulatory analyst; eventually, became a supervisor, then a Commissioner Advisor, after which I was appointed Deputy Director for the Division of Water and Telecommunications in the Office of Ratepayer Advocates. I retired as the Chief of Staff to one of the Commissioners. I joined the League of Women Voters of Oakland in 2014 and, immediately, became active—distributing Easy Voter Guides; presenting pros & cons of ballot issues; helping in the office and outreaching to electoral candidates to help populate the Voters Edge website. I am on, or have been on, several committees—Reentry, Membership, Voter Services, Nominations, Unite & Rise 8.5 and, most recently, the Reparations Task Force. For a short while, earlier on, I was also a member of the Oakland LWV Board of Directors. At the level of California State League, I have been a Local League Coach and I have analyzed open government related pending legislation for consideration by the Legislative Committee. I have a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of California at Santa Cruz and a Masters of Science in Agricultural Economics from the University of California at Davis.

Stephanie Tran

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Stephanie Tran

Stephanie Tran is a first-generation Asian American born and raised in Oakland. Her
upbringing in an immigrant family reinforced the importance of community
representation, civic participation, and public service. She studied Political Science at
Louisiana State University and has long been passionate about public engagement and
strengthening connections across Oakland communities.

With a professional background in corporate marketing and event leadership, Stephanie
later became a small business owner dedicated to supporting local communities and
fostering collaboration. She believes civic participation and voting access are essential
to building strong, inclusive, and representative communities. Stephanie is committed to
encouraging civic engagement and helping build a stronger future for Oakland.