New Lifeline: inRESPONSE Expands 24/7
Round-the-clock access to mental health, homelessness, and social work care.
Press Democrat
inRESPONSE Marks First Anniversary
Mobile support team connects hundreds of people to care in first year.
Press Democrat
Mary Jane Burke
Mary Jane Burke
Advisory Council
Mary Jane Burke began her career in education in Marin County. She held a wide variety of positions, including Instructional Assistant in Special Education, Teacher, Principal, Special Education Director, Assistant Superintendent, and Deputy Superintendent. In 1994, Mary Jane was elected to serve as the Marin County Superintendent of Schools and served for 28 years in that role.
Mary Jane believes in the importance of providing equitable educational opportunities for ALL children from birth to adulthood. She believes that doing so requires strong partnerships with businesses, local government, law enforcement, and community organizations.
Mary Jane is proud of her work developing community partnerships that improve programs and services related to safety, wellness, special education, early childhood education, college and career readiness and developing our teacher workforce. She currently sits on several boards of trustees including Dominican University of California, Dominican Sisters Charitable Trust, WestEd, EdSource, The Civics Center, Brewster West Foundation, the IBIS Group, and is a Consultant and Advisory Board Member to the UCSF Dyslexia Center’s Multitudes Project.
Laurel Collier
Laurel Collier
Laurel Collier (she/her) joined Buckelew Programs in September 2025 as Chief Operating Officer. She is an operations executive with more than 30 years of experience building and leading high-performing operational teams. Laurel began her career in industrial automation, serving as COO for Northern California’s leading provider of turnkey engineering solutions and products. She then moved into the startup world as Vice President of Operations at TCHO Chocolate, and went on to hold executive roles at several consumer packaged goods companies in the chocolate and bicycle industries. Most recently, she led Corporate Operations at Rinse, a technology-driven laundry startup.
Laurel graduated with honors from Cornell University with a B.A. in Biology as a pre-med student. She captained Cornell’s Division I soccer team to an Ivy League Championship and national ranking, and was inducted into the Cornell Athletics Hall of Fame as a three-time Division I All-American.
Laurel has served as Treasurer on the boards of multiple nonprofit organizations and is an advocate for survivors of traumatic brain injury. She lives in San Francisco, where she is an avid gardener. She enjoys co-ed soccer, golf, running, and swimming, including several swims from Alcatraz to shore, and travels the world with her family whenever she can.
Gracie Francisco
Gracie Francisco
Board Member
Gracie joined the Buckelew board in April of 2021. She currently manages all institutional giving for 10,000 Degrees, the leading college success and scholarship organization in northern California.
She has been with 10,000 Degrees for over a decade, first as a student and then as a full-time staff member beginning in 2015. Gracie’s background includes preschool teaching, working as a childcare professional, and managing student-facing college access and success work for middle and high school campuses in the North Bay. She currently resides in Marin but resided in Sonoma County for many years prior.
Gracie has been a community volunteer working with nonprofits in the greater Bay Area. She has a long-standing passion for serving the community and was honored to join the Buckelew Board of Directors to support the crucial mental health work Buckelew is providing in our community. She is a strong supporter of accessible mental health care due to her own diagnoses, and those of her close family, friends, and students.
Karen Hulsey, RN
Karen Hulsey, RN
Board Member
Karen Hulsey joined the Buckelew Programs Board of Directors in 2025. A nurse by training with over a decade of healthcare leadership experience, she currently serves as continuum administrator for Kaiser Permanente, overseeing a dozen post-acute services across Marin and Sonoma counties. Committed to improving patient care, Karen focuses on bridging gaps across the healthcare continuum to enhance quality and access.
She enjoys any activity that takes her to the mountains or out on the water. An avid music fan, she has attended countless concerts. Karen lives in Santa Rosa with her husband, their young son, and bonus daughter.
Jack Scott
Jack Scott
Board Member
Jack Scott, a fine arts instructor at the College of Marin, first joined the Buckelew Board of Directors in 2005. His longstanding commitment to Buckelew is deeply personal, as his sister lives with a severe mental illness and benefits from Buckelew’s supported housing services. His deep knowledge of the art world played a key role in MarinScapes, the popular annual art exhibition and sale benefiting Buckelew Programs. The long-running event’s grand finale was in 2020.
Jacob Swartz
Jacob Swartz
Board Member
Jacob joined the Buckelew board in January of 2026. As a Private Client Advisor and the Director of Research at Main Street Research, a Sausalito-based wealth management firm, Jacob works closely with individuals, families, and non-profit organizations to help them make thoughtful, long-term decisions around their wealth. Jacob says the core of his work is the same belief he learned while volunteering with Buckelew: consistent support and thoughtful guidance can make a meaningful difference when it matters most.
“Volunteering on Buckelew’s Suicide Prevention Hotline was a profound experience for me. Being present with people in their most vulnerable moments made one thing immediately clear: when compassionate, skilled support is available at the right time, it can change the trajectory of a life. Over the years, Buckelew has continued to reinforce that lesson through the breadth of its work—proving how effective, community-based mental health and recovery services can be for individuals, families, and the North Bay as a whole. Being involved with Buckelew gives me a meaningful way to support that impact in areas that deeply resonate with me.
My late father always emphasized the importance of helping those in need, and he was especially passionate about supporting people facing mental health challenges. My work with Buckelew is both a commitment to my community and a way to carry forward his legacy and spirit.”
David Wootton
David Wootton
Board Member
David Wootton joined the Buckelew Board of Directors in 2026. A friend of the organization for years, David has long admired Buckelew’s practical, community-based approach to mental health and social services that emphasize stability, dignity, and access to care as foundational to long-term well-being.
With 18 years of experience as a Financial Advisor, David has worked closely with individuals and families navigating periods of uncertainty, transition, and stress. This work has given him a clear view into how mental health, housing stability, and financial security are deeply interconnected, and how progress in one area often depends on support in the others. This perspective shapes his commitment to Buckelew’s whole-person approach to care.
David is especially motivated to support Buckelew’s impact in the community he calls home and continues to build his life. He brings to the Board a combination of financial acumen and a long-term view of organizational sustainability.
David lives in Petaluma with his wife, Emily, their young son, James, and their dog, Ella. Outside of work, he enjoys spending time on local trails throughout Northern California and is always training for his next race.
Dennis Ryan
Dennis Ryan
Advisory Council
Dennis has over three decades of experience as a financial executive / CFO in the venture capital, private equity, investment and real estate industries. A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in economics, Dennis also has an MBA from Santa Clara University. In addition to his nine year tenure on the board of Buckelew Programs, including two years as board president, he has fifteen years of board leadership experience with several other significant Bay Area nonprofits. Dennis brings significant leadership, governance and fundraising experience to the Advisory Council.