HSC Board of Directors
We encourage anyone with an interest in HSC to join us at our quarterly board meetings. Contact HSC for specific scheduling information and directions if you would like to attend any meeting.
Contacting the HSC Board
Please contact the entire board only if the entire board needs to read your comments or questions. Questions sent to the entire board go through a process to determine the responsibility for replying. You will get a quicker response if you can direct your question to a specific board member or committee chair. If you're not sure which individual to send your question to, use HSC's general email address. All Board of Directors email addresses are listed below.
Board Terms and Election Procedure
Board members serve three year terms. Read about how to become a board member.
Katheryn Cullwell
President - contact
My husband, Mike, and I live in the foothills of the Cleveland National forest in our own little rural pocket of Southern California. We are the proud parents of 4 beautiful children. We were first introduced to homeschooling through our La Leche League group and knew from the beginning that we would homeschool. We "officially" became homeschoolers in 1998 when our first child was five years old.
I was first introduced to HSC in 2000, at an outreach event. After talking with them and reading several back issues of the California HomeSchooler, I promptly joined the organization. My family became regular campers and conference attendees. I later went on to volunteer at the conference and as a campout organizer for several years.
My family is active in the homeschool communities of Riverside, Orange and Los Angeles Counties. I truly feel that HSC has had a profound impact on my family's life. We have gained so many friendships and had so many wonderful experiences at the annual conference and the many wonderful campouts. My goal is to continue to spread the word about HSC and continue to see the organization thrive and grow.
Pam Sorooshian
Secretary - contact
Pam Sorooshian, and her husband, Cyrus, are parents to three grown homeschoolers Ð Roya, Roxana, Rose. Pam has read nearly every book ever written about unschooling. SheÕs participated in online homeschooling discussions for the past 15 years and has attended about 25 homeschool conferences. Pam is an economics and statistics professor and has taught at a number of different colleges and universities. She is especially interested helping parents avoid passing their own math anxieties on to their children. She also promotes peaceful family living without punishment and is a staunch defender of teenagers against common societal stereotypes.
Pam misses her little unschooling children, but adores her wonderful grown homesschooled children and considers them her best friends.
Meghan Anderson-Coates
Treasurer - contact
I started home educating my daughter in 1998 in the UK. I didn't know it then, but we were unschooling (at the time, I had never heard the term in the UK). We were an attachment parenting (extended breastfeeding, co-sleeping, etc.) family and home educating/unschooling seemed like a natural progression for us.
In October of 2000 I moved back to the US with my daughter. I attended my first HSC Conference in 2001. It was amazing! Up until then, I had no idea just how many home schooling families there were, and that was just a sampling in California!
In 2008 I was presented with an opportunity to be the Art Deck Coordinator for the conference. I jumped at the chance! I had a wonderful experience running the art deck. I have also been the Butte county contact since early 2008, and I have been a moderator on the HSC e-list since mid 2008. Now, as a board member, I maintain the e-list and I am the treasurer.
I believe HSC is crucial to many people's home schooling experience. A statewide, fully inclusive support network like HSC can make all the difference in a family's home schooling experience. I can honestly say that without HSC, and the connections I've made through it, our home educating life would look very different, and possibly not even exist. This is what drives me to devote time and effort to HSC. I am proud to call myself a member of this community.
David Engle
Board Member - contact
I have been homeschooling with my wife, Katzi, and our four sons, Anselm, Josh, Wayland and Wolfram, for the past 27 years. We didn’t – well I didn’t – realize it until Katzi came home from a "National Coalition of Alternative Education" Conference about 1986, but I did soon get on the boat. And the longer I am in that boat, the more I have paddled it — and the more I have enjoyed the exploration our boat has brought us. Anselm, Josh, and Wayland are now grown men and graduated from various universities; Wolfram is currently bound for UC Santa Cruz. I am still a professor of German and Folklore at California State University, Fresno; and I am still applying the things I learned in “homeschool” to my “job” in “education.” And I still come home to the proverbial kitchen table piled high with (also) educational projects.
I trust in our body politic, and I am a firm believer in openness and transparency in the Board of Director’s efforts to keep the Homeschool Association of California thriving and responsive.
Leslie Buchanan
Board Member - contact
HI, I am Leslie Buchanan, I have been homeschooling with my 4 children since 1995. I live with my fantastic husband and three younger children in the beautiful Sierra Nevada foothills.
We have used various means to homeschool over the years and this has served to strengthen my commitment to preserving homeschooling, in all it's incarnations, as a choice for families. I am active in my local support groups as well as having served HSC as a county contact, e list moderator, a conference presenter, and as Board President.
Currently I keep busy with baking, crafting, gardening and learning from and with my children.
Sarah Wilson
Board Member - contact
Sarah and her husband, Randy, began their homeschooling journey reluctantly. They originally planned to travel a more traditional path, but it quickly became apparent that would not work with their first son.
Sarah joined HSC in 2006 and attended her first HSC Conference in 2007. After seeing first-hand the diversity and excitement of the homeschool community, she and her husband were convinced homeschooling was the right path for them. They love the freedom homeschooling allows, as well as the natural learning it encourages.
Despite her most sincere efforts to school-at-home, Sarah has become an eclectic homeschooler, following the interests of her two boys, participating in formal and informal educational experiences, and learning how to let go of preconceived notions and accept life-enhancing spontaneity.
In addition to being a board member, Sarah is the Editor of California HomeSchooler magazine, the bimonthly publication for HSC members. She also works with the gifted homeschooling community and Cub Scouts.
Enriching her homeschooling and volunteering, Sarah and her family like to travel locally and abroad, walk through the redwoods, hang out at the beach, play games, and just be together.