See bios below for:
- Susan Stuart Clark Director
- Mony Flores-Bauer Associate
- Greg Keidan Associate
- Kathy Armstrong Associate
- Harriet Mayeri Research Director
- Erica Harrold Strategic Advisor
- Leslie Shelton Strategic Advisor
- Víctor Reyes Cultural Interpreter
Susan Stuart Clark, Director, has over 25 years of experience in social and consumer marketing, as well as pioneering work in “community-driven design.” She formed Common Knowledge to focus on stimulating public participation in complex areas such as public policy, voting, the environment, health reform and financial literacy via accessible, culturally competent communications and engagement programs. Susan is a recognized expert in community participation practices and presents frequently on topics of community engagement and increasing participation of lesser heard voices.
Susan’s marketing and communications experience includes serving as Vice President of Planning and New Products at Del Monte Foods, Director of Marketing at the California State Lottery and as a Brand Manager at Procter & Gamble. Her expertise in community engagement was developed as director of the Center for Civic Literacy, as an Associate of the Kettering Foundation and as director of the annual Public Policy Institute at U.C. Davis. Susan has worked with and for nationally recognized civic engagement experts at Viewpoint Learning and AmericaSpeaks among others and is an enthusiastic “reflective practitioner” in the field of dialogue and deliberation.
Mony Flores-Bauer, Associate, has more than 25 years of experience in organizational development, community engagement and capacity building for emerging organizations as well as established agencies throughout California. She has been a lead consultant in the implementation of several new initiatives at both the state and county level for First 5 Commissions and the Public Authority on In Home Support Services. She has worked with organizations such as the Social Security Administration, Head Start, and the California Department of Education, among others. Her skills in facilitation, training and strategic planning add to Common Knowledge’s range of technical support services for clients.
In her work with Common Knowledge, Mony has played multiple roles in expanding the reach and visibility of the Easy Voter Guide Project — assisting in outreach strategies, including a statewide ambassador program, Spanish speaking media exposure and corporate distribution contacts. As a fluent Spanish speaker and accomplished spokesperson, Mony has developed ongoing relationships with Spanish language media (radio and television). Mony has the added perspective of extensive service in leadership positions for the League of Women Voters, the City of Oakland’s Commission on Disabled Persons and the National Civic Leagues’ Model City Charter Review Commission.
Greg Keidan, Associate, is an independent consultant and researcher in civic engagement and public deliberation. Most recently he has been supporting the Institute for Local Government’s Public Engagement and Collaborative Governance Program, researching and educating local officials and staff in California about effective public engagement strategies. He is a regular contributor to the National Civic Review, Western City Magazine and California Counties Magazine. Greg’s recent publications cover topics such as online engagement strategies, involving the public in budgeting, developing effective youth commissions, engaging the public in regional climate change efforts, “embedding” deliberative democracy into local government agencies, and immigrant integration strategies.
A graduate of the Fielding University & University of Sydney Graduate Certificate Program in Dialogue, Deliberation and Public Engagement, Greg has extensive field experience leading and evaluating public forums for AmericaSpeaks and CaliforniaSpeaks. Greg did his doctoral work in neurobiology at the University of New Mexico and worked previously as a teacher, researcher, band manager, and concert promoter.
Kathy Armstrong, an Associate of Common Knowledge, is an experienced cross-functional program director for successful change initiatives. She coaches and leads teams to deliver outstanding results under difficult circumstances. Her experience includes over fifteen years working cross-organizationally in the private sector, including serving as Director of Customer Experience Research and Vice President for Process Improvement at Hewlett-Packard.
Kathy left the corporate world in 2007 to focus on applying her skills in the areas of civic engagement and non-profit organizational effectiveness. Her work in these areas includes strategic planning and online group collaboration consulting to the League of Women Voters, collaborating with Common Cause and Citizen Schools to develop and deliver civic education on redistricting, and facilitating community dialogue with the San Mateo County Threshold 2008 initiative on housing. Known as an energetic systems thinker, Kathy has worked as part of the Common Knowledge team to develop a comprehensive statewide engagement plan for California Forward. Kathy holds a masters degree in computer science & engineering from the University of Washington and a bachelors degree in psychology and human relations from Connecticut College.
Harriet Mayeri serves as the Research Director of Common Knowledge and is also a founding partner of Mayeri Research. She has 35 years of experience designing and implementing qualitative and quantitative research for non-profits, government organizations, corporations and in academic settings. Harriet is a nationally known expert on consumer perceptions, attitudes and behavior among all demographic, socio-economic and psychographic segments and she has been a featured speaker at American Marketing Association meetings in London and Chicago.
Harriet has worked extensively with non-profits and government agencies with Common Knowledge for such clients as Cool California, the Institute for Local Government, Next 10, California Department of Health Services Office of AIDS, Finelite and others. Prior to founding Mayeri Research, Harriet was Director of Consumer Research for the New Ventures Group at DDB Needham, helping clients to develop positionings, strategies and communications for the introduction of new products as well as for the re-positioning of existing brands within evolving markets. Harriet holds a B.A. in psychology from New York University and did graduate work in social psychology as a National Institute of Health Fellow at Columbia University.
Erica Harrold, Strategic Advisor, has two decades of experience in communications, project management and political organizing. She currently serves as the Director of Communications for 10,000 Degrees in San Rafael. She has also worked within the City of Oakland as Mayor Jerry Brown’s Press Secretary, the City Attorney’s Communications Director and the Communication Strategist (and Utility Infielder) for the City Auditor. Prior to her work in Oakland, she was the statewide Political Program Director for California Peace Action. In the last two years, Erica has combined the tools of social media and marketing strategy to help businesses, organizations and causes further their goals. She led the social media outreach with Harper’s One for New York Times bestselling author, Gary Zukav, as well as created a social media strategy for Green Cities California to bring best practices on sustainability to federal, state and local government staff and elected officials.
Erica has also assisted workshops and residency programs in Soul Motion™ and Gestalt Awareness Practice at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. The skills she developed from these somatic practices fundamentally inform her insights into the human condition as well as the political and business realm.
Leslie Shelton, Strategic Advisor, is an adult educator, artist, and college administrator, working in the fields of higher education and adult literacy for more than 35 years. In 1985 she became the founding director of Project Read at the South San Francisco Public Library, an adult and family literacy program serving five cities. Leslie has been honored as an innovator for her work in adult learner leadership and for the practical application of new learning theories to the field of adult education. In 2001, Leslie received a Ph.D. in Transformative Learning in 2001 with a focus on how to help students rediscover their resiliency and transform their lives.
Leslie began involving adult learners in National Issues Forums as a way to help them see that their voices mattered in their programs and communities. She then joined Susan Stuart Clark to lay the groundwork for some of Common Knowledge’s signature projects such as the Easy Voter Guide and Project Money. Her work in treating adult learners as peers and equal partners capable of co-creating learning materials and leading workshops for other students established a model of collaborative learning that continues in different forms today.
Víctor Reyes, Cultural Interpreter, grew up in Puebla, Mexico, moving to California in 1985. With a degree in Social Anthropology, he has done in-depth study of issues of diversity, minority groups and human migrations. Víctor has over fifteen years of experience as a counselor, journalist, translator, educator and community organizer. He now describes himself as a “cultural interpreter.” Víctor was a co-founder and Spanish editor of the bi-lingual community newspaper Visión Latina. For more than ten years, he has written a bi-weekly Spanish column for the Pulitzer Prize-winning Point Reyes Light.
Some of Víctor’s projects and clients include: drug and alcohol counseling, facilitating the creation of neighborhood guides by recent immigrants; editing the popular Guía fácil para el votante; consulting and interpreting for the San Rafael Canal Ministry’s Canal Healthy Neighborhood Project; consulting for the Proyecto Cholula on central Puebla migrants’ experiences in US; translating Pulitzer Prize winner Tom Knudson’s A Dying Sea series for the Sacramento Bee; Spanish translation and cultural adaptation of the Jeanne Gibbs’ educational book Tribes, A New Way of Learning and Being Together.
