Former Healthcare Executive; Community Leader and Facilitator
Los Gatos, California

Wanda Kownacki has spent the past 16 years taking on leadership positions on non-profit boards and organizations in the Bay Area. She is passionate about improving the quality of human lives and has been an involved participant in driving change by collaborating with board members and with management and staff on initiatives that enhance operations, strengthen leadership, and increase organizational reach.

She has been active in a number of organizations and boards including the Women’s Achievement Network and Development Alliance and AchieveKids. She served on the board of the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art where she played a lead role in a successful capital campaign to purchase a new building. She is also VP and chair of the development committee on the board of trustees for the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive and is a past board member of the UC Berkeley Foundation Board.

Her success in her current work is based upon a career in health care planning and management. For over 13 years she was at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation. She left as the associate administrator directing half of the clinic’s operations. Prior to this, she worked in hospital planning.

Wanda holds a master’s degree in public policy from UC Berkeley and a bachelor of arts in sociology from UC San Diego. She is curious and constantly learning. Her interests include long distance trail running (she’s completed several ultramarathons), adventure travel, the visual arts, theater, and attending lectures and classes across a wide variety of topics. Wanda is very proud of her son, who enjoys living and working in San Francisco.