Our Center is dedicated to educating about the Holocaust
In 2007, long-time Holocaust educator Jim McGarry founded the Farkas Center in honor of Helen and Joe Farkas. Jim recognized the power of personal testimony and the impact that Helen Farkas made on the students who heard her story.
Meet Our Board
Adrian Schrek
Executive Director
Adrian Schrek is the first Executive Director of the Farkas Center. She was the Education Director for the Holocaust Center of Northern California providing resources to create and strengthen Holocaust education across the Bay Area...
Carole Touye
Treasurer
Carole Touye worked for many years in the Business Office at Mercy High School and served as a key liaison to the Mercy community. She has been engaged in secretarial work in San Francisco Catholic Schools for more than twenty years...
Cynthia Larsen
Board Member
Cynthia Larsen serves as the Director of the Academic Support Center at Marin Catholic High School. She has a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley and a J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley Law School...
Anne Grenn Saldinger
Board Member
Anne Grenn Saldinger, Ph.D. is former Executive Director of the Bay Area Holocaust Oral History Project for which she gathered hundreds of life stories of local survivors. She now works with families to preserve their legacies...
Lynne Schuman
Board Member
Lynne Schuman is originally from Chicago. She has a BA in Education and an MA in Law and Legal Studies. She works with her husband’s law office in San Francisco. As a 15-year-old she went with her family to Germany and they visited...
Sarah Barnes
Student Board Member
Sarah Barnes is a senior at Convent High School. She first learned about the Holocaust in history class, but seeking to learn more participated in the JFCS Next Chapter Program, which connects Holocaust survivors with students...
Natalie Martinez
Student Board Member
Natalie Martinez was born in San Francisco and is passionate about working for those who are impacted by ongoing social injustice. She is a Mercy San Francisco alumna and is currently a junior at Archbishop Riordan High School...
AnneMarie Yellin
Board President
AnneMarie (Feller) Yellin, was born in Chemnitz, Germany, and survived the Holocaust as a "Hidden Child." After Kristallnacht, she went to Brussels, Belgium where she was hidden in a Catholic Convent for the duration of the war...
Jane Mauchly
Board Member
Jane Mauchly is a social practice artist and arts educator, her individual and collaborative projects involve visual and performance based arts and storytelling, grounded in community, social and environmental justice. She has been...
Elaina Jo LeGault
Board Member
Elaina Jo LeGault is a high school theology teacher in San Francisco. Elaina received her B.A. in Religious Studies at Loyola University in Chicago and participated in the Ricci Scholars Program where she spent a year studying...
Michelle Satterfield
Board Member
Michelle Satterfield RN, BSN, is a native San Franciscan and has one son. She received her bachelor’s degree in Nursing from San Francisco State University. Her father, of blessed memory, was a Holocaust survivor and a Korean Army...
Ashley Travis
Board Member
Ashley Travis has been a Farkas Center Board member since 2018. She is a yoga and mindfulness instructor with an emphasis on creating a safe container for teen women to heal and grow. Currently taking a pause to explore life as a new mama...
Nikolas Chupkin
Student Board Member
Nikolas Chupkin is a senior at Stuart Hall High School with a passion for Holocaust education. Coming from a Ukrainian-Jewish family, he has worked with the JFCS Holocaust Center and participated in The Next Chapter...
Wolfgang Tobiason
Student Board Member
Wolfie Tobiason is a native San Franciscan and senior at Stuart Hall High School. His interest in Holocaust studies began in middle school English and history classes. He committed to personally making a difference when he spent time...
Andrew Scott
Board Chair
Andrew Scott was born in London. His mother was a Holocaust survivor from Berlin who lost 29 family members in Auschwitz. Andrew’s professional career includes work as a college instructor (University of London, San Francisco State...
Pauline Borghello
Board Member
Sister M. Pauline Borghello, R.S.M. is a native San Franciscan. After high school, she entered the Catholic religious order of the Sisters of Mercy. She has a BA in Education and an MA in Educational Administration/Supervision...
Martin Linder
Board Member
Martin Linder's commitment to education and community was formed through his experience as president of New Jersey's Temple Emanuel youth group. As Professor of SF State’s School of Design, Martin’s contributions to community...
George Schapiro
Board Member
George Schapiro first drove the eponymous Helen Farkas while serving as a volunteer driver for Jewish Family and Children’s Services in 2010. Over the next few years, he drove Helen to many school speaking engagements...
Miriam Zimmerman
Board Member
Miriam Zimmerman, Ed.D., served as the interim director of the Farkas Center from 2012 to 2014. Her father, of blessed memory, was a German-Jewish refugee who escaped Nazi Germany in 1937. As part of Patton’s Third Army, he was a liberator...
Sabrina Jarman
Student Board Member
Sabrina Jarman was born in Xiaogan, China and immigrated to the United States when she was adopted as a one-year old. She is an alumna of Mercy San Francisco and is currently a junior attending Mercy Burlingame...