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Board of Trustees
Jody Wadhwa, Chairman
Joan W. DiLeonardi, Vice Chairman
William Stafford, Secretary
George G. Alexopoulos
Patricia N. Harada
Eric Staley
Ann E. Tennes
Theresa Bashiri-Remetio, Student Trustee
Contact
847.635.1600
Fax: 847.635.1992
E-mail
Jody Wadhwa, Chairman
A Board of Trustees incumbent since November 1987, Northbrook resident Jody Wadhwa was most recently re-elected in April, 2011 to serve a six-year term.
A native of India, Mr. Wadhwa came to the United States in 1956 after graduating from Punjab University. The father of three, he retired after serving 15 years as chief operating officer for the Chicago-based company, EZ Foil.
Mr. Wadhwa has been active at Oakton for nearly two decades. He established the Wadhwa Endowed Scholarship, which awards scholarships to engineering students at Oakton. He also has established a $1 million endowment in Gurgaon, India, near New Delhi, to provide assistance to local area orphans and students. Mr. Wadhwa is a trustee for the Indo-American Center and a past president of the Wheeling Rotary Club.
Joan W. DiLeonardi, Vice Chairman
Dr. Joan W. DiLeonardi of
Des Plaines was appointed to the Board of Trustees to fill a vacancy
after the death of Ami Mader in June 2001. In April 2003, she was
elected to the board to serve a six-year term and re-elected in April
2009 to serve a four-year term.
Dr. DiLeonardi is the retired executive vice president of Lifelink Bensenville Home Society, a nonprofit charitable health and human service organization. Her experience with large nonprofit organizations includes serving as the executive vice president for Children's Home and Aid Society, a leader in initiating and providing quality services for children, youth, and families in Illinois.
Dr. DiLeonardi's professional involvement includes serving on numerous charitable organizations including: the Council on Accreditation of Service to Families and Children; Council on Health and Human Services of the United Church of Christ; City of Chicago's Mayor's Advisory Council on Infant Mortality; and Child Welfare League of American Research Advisory Council.
Dr. DiLeonardi holds a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago in social work and a bachelor's degree in psychology from DePaul University. She also worked part time at the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois at Chicago, Loyola University Chicago, and the Institute for Clinical Social Work.
William Stafford, Secretary
Mr. William Stafford was appointed to the Board of Trustees in November 2007 to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of Michael Collins in September. In April 2009, he was elected to the board to serve a six-year term.
Professionally, Mr. Stafford is the chief financial officer of Evanston Township High School District 202. He also is a member of the Illinois Association of School and Business Officers Association and has served since 2003 as chairman of the National Economic Development and Capital Improvements Committee for the Government Finance Officers Association. Prior to assuming his position at Evanston Township High School District 202, he was the finance director for the City of Evanston and held several positions within the metropolitan Chicago financial market.
Mr. Stafford holds a master’s degree from the University of Michigan School for Public Policy, a bachelor’s degree in political science from Wittenberg University, and a certificate of professional accounting from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.
He is actively involved within the Evanston community, where he lives with his wife Ingrid.
George G. Alexopoulos
Dr. George G. Alexopoulos of Glenview was first elected to the board in April 2005 to serve a two-year term. In April 2007, he was re-elected to serve another six years.
A native of Greece, Dr. Alexopoulos was an adjunct math professor at Oakton for many years and a retired software consultant. He also is the founder of Hellenic Life Midwest, a nonprofit scientific, cultural, and charitable organization in Chicago.
Dr. Alexopoulos studied chemical engineering at the Royal Technical College in Scotland and received his bachelor's in physics and mathematics from Roosevelt University. He did graduate work at the Illinois Institute of Technology and worked as an applied mathematician at the IIT Research Institute's Computer Science Department. He holds a master's degree in physics and mathematics from IIT and a doctorate degree in teaching physics and mathematics from Western Colorado University.
Dr. Alexopoulos' academic career includes teaching physics and electronics at Roosevelt University and the University of Illinois at Chicago. He also taught physics for 14 years at Wright College in Chicago.
Patricia N. Harada
Elected to the Board of Trustees in April 2011, Patricia N. Harada is serving a six-year term.
The president of an energy reduction company that specializes in LED lighting and provides financing for energy efficiency projects, Ms. Harada also is an arbitrator in the Circuit Court of Cook County. Previously she was an attorney in private practice with an extensive entrepreneurial background in law, real estate development, and mortgage financing.
A member of the U.S. Green Building Council-Illinois, Ms. Harada engages actively in energy initiatives and policy in the Midwest region. She sits on the boards of the Midwest Buddhist Temple in Chicago and Zayos Global Ventures. Dedicated to her community, she works tirelessly on educational issues for local school District 39 and previously served on the New Trier High School Parent Board.
Ms. Harada holds a J.D. from Boston College Law School and a bachelor's degree from Colorado College — and is a member of the Chicago Bar Association. She and her husband, who live in Wilmette, have two grown sons.
Eric Staley
Appointed to the Board in August 2011, Eric Staley will serve until April 2013. A partner at The Organic Gardener, Ltd., Mr. Staley creates and maintains much of the hardscape for The Organic Gardener’s gardens, which includes raised beds, compost units, fences, and irrigation systems. He also specializes in gardening with youth of all ages at The Edible Gardens in Lincoln Park Zoo and at schools and after-school clubs from Lake Forest to Hyde Park. Mr. Staley honed his construction skills during many seasons building homes and decks on Cape Cod. In addition, he worked on several organic farms for many years where he developed his expertise in both organic farming and gardening. Following a 20-year hiatus, Mr. Staley recently returned to college to pursue a teaching degree in biology and earth science. At Oakton he is a member of Phi Theta Kappa and takes classes in the Honors Program.
Ann E. Tennes
Elected to the Board of Trustees in April 2007, Skokie resident Ann Tennes is serving a six-year term.
The Director of Marketing and Communications for the Village of Skokie, Ms. Tennes previously was the Assistant Executive Director of the Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County.
Professionally she serves on the boards of Chicago’s North Shore Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Centre East Metropolitan Exposition Authority, and the Skokie Festival of Cultures. A former chairman of the Northwest Municipal Conference Local Government Communicators Committee, Ms. Tennes also was a board member of the Glenview Chamber of Commerce and the City-County Communications and Marketing Association.
Ms. Tennes lived in Park Ridge from 1977 to early 2010. She was appointed to the Park Ridge Zoning Board of Appeals in 1997 and served as chair from 2002 until she and her family relocated to Skokie. She was active in the Lincoln Middle School PTO, Park Ridge, and served as PTO president at Washington School. She also has been involved with the Washington PTO Playmakers fundraising group since 1989.
Originally from Des Plaines, Ms. Tennes graduated from Maine West High School. She attended Oakton, where she met her husband Howard, who served as an Oakton Trustee from 2001 to 2003. She holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from Columbia College and a master’s degree in public administration from Roosevelt University.
Theresa Bashiri-Remetio, Student Trustee
Elected in 2012, Theresa Bashiri-Remetio, a senior staff accountant for Colliers International in Rosemont, is serving a one-year term. A native of the Philippines, Bashiri-Remetio moved to the United States in 2004 and enrolled at Oakton in 2006. In 2008, she joined Phi Theta Kappa, the honor society for two-year colleges, and was named to the PTK All-Illinois Academic Team in 2009. With her guidance and energy, the chapter engaged in a wide range of service projects, such as sponsoring Relay for Life, supporting medical teams in Guatemala, and organizing book drives to support schools in Africa, Asia, and in underserved areas of the United States.
Bashiri-Remetio graduated from Oakton with high honors in 2009 and transferred to Elmhurst College, where she graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in economics and marketing. At Oakton, she is currently working toward her certified public accounting certificate in order to prepare for the board exam. Bashiri-Remetio resides in Park Ridge with her husband Emmanuel and son Bryce Skyden.
