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...
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...
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,...
Sabrina Jarman
Student Board Member
Sabrina Jarman is a senior at Mercy High School Burlingame and was adopted from Xiaogan China. She first learned about the Farkas Center when she was in 8th grade and attended an event where she heard survivors of the Holocaust...
Sofia Tobiason
Student Board Member
Sofia Tobiason is a sophomore at Convent High School. Sofia is head of the Latin club and competes in ballroom and Latin dancing. She became deeply engaged in learning from Holocaust survivors as part of the Next Chapter Program...
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...
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...
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...
Susan Shear
Board Member
Susan Prinz Shear has a BA in Education and an MA in School Psychology. She studied at Yad Vashem’s International School for Holocaust Studies in Israel and Poland, interviewed Holocaust survivors for the Shoah Foundation and worked...
Makenna Kramer
Student Board Member
Makenna Kramer is a junior at Convent High school in San Francisco. She learned about the Farkas Center through her school’s Genocide Education & Awareness Club, for which she is now a co-leader. The Farkas Center’s approach...
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 senior at Archbishop Riordan...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Clementine Mohun
Student Board Member
Clementine Mohun is a San Francisco native and senior at Convent of the Sacred Heart High School. She was first familiarized with the Farkas Center when she participated in the JFCS Next Chapter Holocaust education program...
Kathryn Stoll
Student Board Member
Kathryn “Kat” Stoll was born in Boulder Colorado and her family moved to the Bay Area in 2007. Kat is a devout Catholic who attends Marin Catholic High School. Her greatest love is the arts, creating and appreciating all forms...