2022-2023

Ragazzi’s Board of Directors is an all-volunteer organization that meets monthly. We thank our board members for their dedicated service to Ragazzi’s choristers.

Mark Hurwitz, Co-President

Mark moved to the Bay Area for graduate school in Astronomy at U.C. Berkeley, following an undergraduate education at Rice University. As a graduate student and professional researcher, he became the principal investigator of various ultraviolet telescopes flown aboard the space shuttle and small satellites. He later earned a J.D. from Berkeley, and practiced intellectual property litigation at Heller, Ehrman, White & McAuliffe. He now teaches physics to upper school students at the Nueva School, including many Ragazzi choristers. He has served on the board of Larkin Street Youth Center (now Youth Services) and of his property owner’s association in Montana. Mark and his husband Alan have four children from the foster care system. Todd, the youngest, joined Ragazzi in the fall of 2015. Mark has volunteered as a classroom assistant in Primary, chaperoned concerts and other events, and masqueraded as a knowledgeable Ragazzi Virtual Studio (Jacktrip) tech guru. He hopes to continue to support the organization by bringing to bear his experience in grant-writing and working with a diverse group of young people in a high school setting.

Alan Hu, Treasurer

Alan Hu is the father of a Ragazzi chorister, and joined the Ragazzi board in 2017. He is the retired co-founder of QuantumLeap Healthcare, a charitable foundation in cancer research which applies Silicon-Valley style entrepreneurship to health care research so that new treatments can reach patients sooner. Previous to this, Alan had a long career in the high-tech industry, in both established multi-nationals and Silicon Valley startups. He currently serves as advisor to three startup companies in diverse industries.

REBECCA TAYLOR, Secretary

Rebecca has been a Ragazzi mom since 2010, and joined the board in 2019. She has volunteered in several capacities, most notably as concert chaperone, which she enjoys because seeing the same concert three times running doesn’t get old when you have an up-close-and-personal view of the joy the boys have for performing. She still gets chills at least once every concert. She is passionate about the life skills the boys build as they traverse the chorus levels with the gradually increasing expectations for responsibility and maturity. Professionally, Rebecca works in aerospace, where she builds rockets and spacecraft for a living. She holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Virginia Tech and a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley. She lives in San Carlos with her husband, her Ragazzi boy and his two siblings, and guinea pig Truffles.

Nagesh Hatti, Development Chair

Nagesh’s son Talinn (Choral Scholars, Young Men’s Ensemble) has been singing with Ragazzi since 2014. Nagesh has volunteered as a Cubmaster and Range master for Pack-78 and soccer coach for AYSO. He works for Amazon Web Services and has spent most of his career in enterprise sales focused on healthcare, manufacturing, and software.

Travis Culwell

Travis is a 4-year Ragazzi parent, with son Chris now a member of the Young Men’s Ensemble. As a Ragazzi volunteer Travis has most enjoyed stage crew assignments, supporting our staff and choristers in backstage roles. As a lifelong amateur pianist and choral singer, he finds deep inspiration in the musicianship and commitment shown in the whole organization.

Travis leads the design and marketing groups at A3Ventures, which is the innovation lab of AAA NCNU. Originally trained as an architect, he has held strategy and design roles in various creative agencies, with clients including several mission-driven organizations. He earned bachelors and masters degrees in architecture from UC Berkeley, and an MBA from Stanford University.

MIKE DICKEY

Mike has a son in Young Men’s Ensemble, who has now has spent most of his life with Ragazzi. Mike started his first software company in high school, and has since built and sold multiple startups. Mike has served on the board of various non-profit organizations, including The Clarence Foundation, Foundation for Sustainable Development, and Circles.org. He co-founded JackTrip Foundation to help musicians perform together over the Internet, and currently works as the CEO of JackTrip Labs.

Kent Jue, Artistic and Executive Director

Kent Jue is thrilled and honored to lead Ragazzi’s artistic and administrative arms. During his tenure as Artistic and Executive Director, Kent guided Ragazzi’s growth plan as it became the largest boy’s chorus program in the Bay Area. He created two satellite programs for entry-level families, increased grant and foundation support, established Ragazzi’s first endowment, and achieved consecutive board surpluses. Showcasing innovation and adaptability during the spring of 2020, Kent reimagined a program that kept Ragazzi boys safely singing. He pioneered new technology, maintained enrollment, and established Ragazzi’s health and safety plan. Under Kent’s leadership, overnight activities, including local, domestic and international touring, and camps resumed in 2022 after a three-year hiatus.

COLLIN LEE

Collin joined the board in 2019, and is an alumnus of the Ragazzi Boys Chorus. He credits Ragazzi for his love of singing and choral music, and sang in Ragazzi from the age eight through the end of high school. Collin went on to study engineering at Santa Clara University but continued to sing, joining the Santa Clara Chamber Singers and Concert Choir. After college, Collin reconnected with Ragazzi, and now sings in Ragazzi’s alumni group, Ragazzi Continuo, where he served as the group’s president for three terms.  Collin currently works at an early stage Silicon Valley startup. He received a PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University and a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science & Engineering from Santa Clara University.

Kathy peden-statton

Linda Enger

Linda Enger is retired after a long career in Operations Management, 30 years with Bank of America and 16 years with the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.  She has served on various community boards, including boards of the Bay Area Girl Scouts, the First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco, and Ragazzi Boys Chorus.  She is currently the President of the William and Alice Hinckley Fund, a small charitable trust that is the first one authorized by the state of California. After her son graduated from Ragazzi, she has enjoyed assisting as chaperone or tour manager on many Ragazzi tours.