LEADERSHIP
Anabel Pelham, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Anabel Pelham, Ph.D. is past-president of the National Association of Professional Gerontologists (NAPG) and emeriti professor and founding director of the Gerontology Program at San Francisco State University. She is also Founding Director of the Center for Age-Friendly Excellence (CAFE), a project of the Los Altos Mountain View Community Foundation and a past member of the Foundation's Board of Directors. CAFE provides technical assistance to cities and communities to become AARP/World Health Organization (WHO) Age-Friendly.
Dr. Pelham is past-president of the California Council on Gerontology and Geriatrics (CCGG) and is an active member of GSA, CAG and IAGG. She is a former Chair of the Senior Commission for the City of Los Altos/Los Altos Hills, where she led the successful initiative to make Los Altos and Los Altos Hills the first WHO certified Age-Friendly in California. She and CAFE have worked with scores of cities since then; guiding them to become Age-Friendly certified.
Dr. Pelham has expertise in global issues in aging and gerontology, Age-Friendly Cities and community development, community-based health and human services, qualitative research methods, graduate gerontology curriculum development, geriatric care management, life-long learning, and credentialing and accreditation in the field of gerontology. She teaches and advises doctoral students around the world. Dr. Pelham's current interests are: creating Age-Friendly Cities and communities, professionalizing the discipline of Gerontology and compassion as a core value in aging. She recently contributed chapters: Creating Compassionate Communities: The Intersection of Resilience, Democracy and Age-Friendliness, in Sharing Compassion; and a chapter in Restorative Conscious Caring, Hunting for Human Nature with Artemis, Rainsford Press, Dublin, Ireland, 2018 and 2023.
Roy Earnest, MSW
Associate Director (on leave)
Roy Earnest has served as a gerontological social worker and program administrator since 1978 in a wide variety of community based non-profit senior services. This broad range of experience gives him an in-depth perspective on the continuum of senior services in the United States. In 2002, he was selected to serve as a program officer for the Northern California office of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), the federal agency that funds AmeriCorps, VISTA and Senior Corps volunteer programs. His work gave him valuable insights in the federal grant seeking process, the training needs of grantees and the important impact volunteers can have in addressing community needs. Since retiring from CNCS in 2018, he continues to give back to the community through volunteering as the Chair of Pacifica’s Age Friendly Community Task Force, as an advisory council member for UC Berkeley’s School of Social Welfare’s MSW-Aging Services concentration and other volunteer projects. In August 2019, he joined the staff of the Center for Age Friendly Excellence (CAFÉ).
A lifelong surfer, Roy teamed up with filmmaker David L. Brown to produce “Surfing for Life” (1999), a documentary that explores healthy aging through the unique perspective of 10 surfers ranging in age from 60 to 90 who continue to surf and remain vitally connected to their communities. The film won numerous awards at international film festivals and was broadcast on PBS throughout the country. www.surfingforlife.com.
Roy received his BA in Psychology with a minor in gerontology from Richard Stockton State University, Pomona, NJ in 1977 and then completed his Masters-of-Social-Welfare with a focus on aging services at UC Berkeley in 1982. He currently lives in Pacifica, CA.
Ann O’Brien Keighran, MSN
Strategic Alliance Lead
Ann O’Brien Keighran is a retired Councilwoman and four-time mayor of the City of Burlingame. She served the City from 2005 to 2022.
She was an acting City Liaison to the School District, Chamber of Commerce, and Central County Fire Board and a member of the Community Center Master Plan Advisory Committee. She helped establish the Economic Subcommittee in 2007 and has been quite active. She was also invited on behalf of the Board of Supervisors Blue Ribbon Task Force on Adult Health Care Coverage Expansion, which established recommendations to ensure health care access by many of its neediest community members.
Ann also served on the Planning Commission for almost eight years before the City Council. Ann was also a legislative aide to San Mateo County Supervisor David J. Canepa and focused on older adult issues. She collaborated with Supervisor Canepa to save Seton Hospital in Daly City and served as a liaison to the Commission on Aging, Middle Income Seniors, Emergency Services, and CAFÉ. She is experienced in researching legislation, developing policy issues, and summarizing complex policy topics. Ann has been an integral part of the CAFÉ core team in certifying cities in San Mateo County to become Age- Friendly. Her focus also is to develop action plans to assist cities in looking at developing policies and projects with an age-friendly lens.
Ann has a Master's and Bachelor's in Nursing from the University of San Francisco, focusing on Psychiatry. She currently lives in Burlingame and enjoys reading and playing pickleball.
Ann O'Brien Keighran
CAFE
650-522-0877
Diane Meiners
CFO
Diane retired from Transamerica Life Insurance Company with over 40 years of accounting and finance experience. She has overseen US corporate financial reporting, accounting integration of new acquisitions along with implementation of new reporting requirements and systems. She was often called upon to participate in new special projects such as Operational Risk, Solvency II capital reporting and Sarbanes Oxley implementations. These projects often required work with multiple US divisions as well as coordination with the Dutch parent company and other country units. With her experience, she would also support accounting staffing needs, spending well over a year as acting Chief Financial Officer of Transamerica's Canadian operation. Since joining CAFE she has provided accounting services and financial reporting to management and grantors. Designations include BA, FLMI and CPA. Diane works directly with Dr. Pelham, the foundation and the CAFE board of directors.