Exemplary Leadership Celebration
2025 EXEMPLARY LEADERSHIP CELEBRATION
Presented by
On May 8, we’ll celebrate the impact and achievements of the 2025 John W. Gardner Award recipients Cindy Chavez and Mike Gaulke and the 2025 Greg Ranstrom Network Leadership Award recipient Asian Pacific American Leadership Institute: APALI, at this year’s Exemplary Leadership Celebration, presented by Sutter Health.
For thirty years, ALF Senior Fellows have recognized those among them who best represent American Leadership Forum’s core values at the Exemplary Leadership Celebration. This annual event brings this thriving, vibrant, and active network together once a year—along with colleagues, supporters, and friends— for an inspirational celebration of leadership that is among the most unique and inspiring in the Bay Area.
May 8, 2025
5:30 PM Reception | 7:00 PM Program
Sharon Heights Golf & Country Club, Menlo Park, CA
Registration opening soon!
Cindy Chavez, ALF Class XII
Under Chavez’s leadership, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors approved bail reforms for low-level and non-violent offenders, making Santa Clara County the first in the state of California to take action. The reforms are designed to reduce the number of people in jail and prompted the California legislature to take action.
Ms. Chavez worked to streamline and improve Santa Clara County’s foster care system to include schools and improve the dually involved youth system merging child welfare with juvenile justice. Under Chavez’s leadership, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors approved $6 million to build a resource center for foster youth.
Cindy Chavez was one of the two Santa Clara County Supervisors who authored the Children’s Advocacy Center proposal. The center encompasses a one-stop setting for law enforcement to investigate physical and sexual abuse of children while saving the children additional trauma of having to be transported between multiple locations while treatment, investigations, and interviews are performed.
As a former Downtown District Three Council Representative, Cindy chaired the Rules Committee and was on the Downtown Parking Board, Guadalupe River Park Task Force, Police and Fire Retirement Board, San Jose Beautiful, and the SJ/SC Treatment Plant Advisory Committee. She sat on local and regional bodies, including the Valley Transportation Authority as vice-chair, the VTA Policy Advisory Board, and the Nanotechnology Infrastructure and Assets Subcommittee.
Chavez was the director of education and outreach for the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council and helped found and was Executive Director of Working Partnerships USA.
Cindy currently serves as the County Manager for Bernalillo County, New Mexico. She is a graduate of San Jose State University and an ALF Senior Fellow from Class XII.
Mike Gaulke, ALF Class XXIII
Prior to joining Raynet, Gaulke was Executive Vice President and CFO of Spectra Physics, Inc., where he was employed from 1979–1988. From 1972–1979, he served as a consultant with McKinsey & Company.
In 2017, Mike and Judy Gaulke donated $20 million to Sutter Health to create a fund in support of innovation and human-centered care, establishing the Michael and Judith Gaulke Innovation Hatchery Endowment Fund at Sutter Health. The Gaulke gift is the single largest donation in the not-for-profit healthcare network’s history. Sutter’s Innovation Hatchery, part of the network’s deeper commitment to innovation, is an incubator for identifying creative solutions to healthcare challenges, validating their effectiveness in real-world settings, and integrating them into patient care as quickly and safely as possible.
In 2023, the Gaulke’s donated $20 million to the Oregon State University Foundation to establish the Gaulke Center for Marine Innovation and Technology, supporting innovative, interdisciplinary research and technology to help better understand, protect, and utilize the ocean and its environment.
Mike Gaulke graduated from OSU’s College of Engineering in 1968 and was inducted into the OSU Engineering Hall of Fame in 2008.
In addition to his bachelor’s degree from OSU, Gaulke received an MBA in marketing and operations from Stanford University Graduate School of Business in 1972.
Mike is an ALF Senior Fellow from Class XXIII.
2025 GREG RANSTROM NETWORK LEADERSHIP AWARD
The Greg Ranstrom Network Leadership Award, named in honor of the late Greg Ranstrom, ALF Fellows Program Director of 15 years, recognizes networks for the common good that demonstrate cross-sector collaboration and impact for equity.
Asian Pacific American Leadership Institute (APALI)
Elevating Asian American Civic Representation and Impact.
About APALI
When Dr. Michael Chang became the first Chinese American mayor of Cupertino in 1997, he established APALI to address the acute need for Asian Americans to serve as political and civic leaders. With strong support from successful and civic-minded Chinese immigrants from the tech sector, APALI’s inaugural banquet raised over $100,000 and was attended by over 400 public officials and community leaders.
Today, APALI’s mission is to build community power through developing civic-minded leaders, closing the leadership gap, and building a community of public leaders to increase representation, equity, and social justice.
The Civic Leadership Program (CLP) trains community leaders to be leaders in every sector of society, and the Board Leadership Academy (BLA) addresses the lack of APAs on nonprofit boards of directors. The Public Official Fellows program brings civic leaders together to discuss how to move all communities forward, and the Alumni Network creates a space for APALI program graduates to commune and get strength from each other.
APALI graduates are in leadership roles in nonprofits and foundations, law enforcement, business, education, and all sectors of society.
Recent Highlights
The first APALI associate director from 1999, Margaret Abe-Koga, and Betty Duong, a graduate of multiple APALI programs since 2000, were recently appointed to the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors.
APALI’s 2002 Youth Leadership Academy graduate, Evan Low, just finished serving in the California State Legislature and was succeeded by a 2013 APALI CLP graduate and ally, Patrick Ahrens.
Learn more at apali.org.
TICKET OPTIONS
Registration opening soon!
Early Bird Individual
Ends March 14!- $25 off full price ticket!
- One reserved seat
- Hosted cocktail reception with passed hors d’oeuvres
- Full event program
- Three-course dinner with choice of entrée
- Commemorative keepsake
Early Bird Table of Ten
Ends March 14!- $250 off full price table!
- Ten reserved seats
- Hosted cocktail reception with passed hors d’oeuvres
- Full event program
- Three-course dinner with choice of entrée
- Commemorative keepsake
Individual
Beginning March 15- One reserved seat
- Hosted cocktail reception with passed hors d’oeuvres
- Full event program
- Three-course dinner with choice of entrée
- Commemorative keepsake
Table of Ten
Beginning March 15- Ten reserved seats
- Hosted cocktail reception with passed hors d’oeuvres
- Full event program
- Three-course dinner with choice of entrée
- Commemorative keepsake
Presenting Sponsor
Bronze Level
Interested in becoming a 2025 Exemplary Leadership Celebration Sponsor or learning about our event advertising options? Contact Sumaiya Moosa to learn more.