CITY COMMISSION APPOINTMENTS ANNOUNCED

From the Mayor's Office of Communications

November 18, 2005

Mayor Gavin Newsom yesterday announced new appointments of the following individuals to city boards and commissions:

Immigrant Rights Commission

Jamal Dajani is a journalist and community leader, a Palestinian American born in Jerusalem, and the first Arab American to serve on the city's Immigrant Rights Commission. Mr. Dajani received his bachelor's degree in political science from Columbia University in New York City before settling in San Francisco. Here he has risen to fame as the producer and director of Middle Eastern programming at LinkTV and was awarded the Peabody Award in 2004 for his show, "Mosaic: World News from the Middle East." Mr. Dajani also served as President of the Arab Cultural and Community Center of San Francisco for two terms from 2003-2004. Mr. Dajani will help to represent San Francisco's Arab American immigrants, a group that is part of more than 100,000 Arab Americans throughout the Bay Area, including more than 500 Arab American business owners in the city alone.

Landmarks Preservation Advisory Board

Courtney Ann Damkroger joins the Landmarks Preservation Advisory Board with an extensive background in Art History, Business, and City Planning. Ms. Damkroger currently teaches historic preservation to graduate and undergraduate Urban and Regional Planning students at San Jose State
University. She draws on her experiences as an Historic Preservation Officer for the City of San Jose and as the Assistant Director for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Western Region. Ms. Damkroger received her Master's of City Planning and Master's of Arts in History of Art from UC
Berkeley and her Bachelor's of Business Administration concurrently with her Bachelor's of Arts in Art History from Southern Methodist University. Ms. Damkroger currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the California Preservation Foundation.

Film Commission

As Director of Corporate Public Relations for LucasFilm, Ltd., Marlene Saritzky is intimately connected with the film and entertainment worlds. Ms. Saritzky is also the Communications Director for Business 2.0 Magazine and has past marketing and communications background with ICM Breakpoint and Sony Development/Metreon. Additionally, Ms. Saritzky has served on the Board of Directors of Artists for a New South Africa, a non-profit dedicated to furthering democracy and civil rights in South Africa and the United States, since its 1989 founding. Ms. Saritzky received her Bachelors of Arts in Social Sciences from UC Berkeley. She currently serves as a member of Workforce Investment San Francisco and is on the Executive Committee of the California State Alliance.

Local Homeless Coordinating Board

Ruth Nunez brings over six years of experience in service delivery and management of non-profit agencies bringing care to underserved populations in San Francisco. Ms. Nunez focuses on addressing issues of homelessness through the connected problems of substance abuse, domestic violence,
pregnancy, mental health, health care access, and family planning. She received her Bachelor's of Arts in Humanities and is completing her Master of Psychology, both from New College of California. Ms. Nunez also has previous experience on the Mayor's Disability Council, the Board of Directors for Dolores Street Community Services, and is currently on the Board of Directors for San Francisco In-Home Support Services.

San Francisco Finance Corporation

Marc Stad is an Investment Professional with a background in business and politics. He currently works at Texas Professional Group in San Francisco and previously held positions with Parthenon Capitol, McKinsey & Company, and Citigroup. Mr. Stad served in Vice President Al Gore's office
aiding Mr. Gore on issues related to the Latino community in the United States. Mr. Stad received his A.B. degree in Government from Harvard College. He is proficient in Spanish language and leads the Free Trade Policy Team of the Hope Street Group.

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