Jenn Sherer

CEO

Jenn has devoted her life to guiding others in their journey towards holistic well-being. As founder and instructor of Spinefulness, she specializes in unraveling the complexities of back and joint pain, transforming these challenges into opportunities for holistic health and spiritual enrichment. Her innovative approach and Spinefulness' impact have gained recognition on platforms such as CNN, Good Morning America, NPR, and TEDx Manhattan Beach. She teaches privately and for corporations, including but not limited to Google, Stanford University, and Esalen Institute. Most recently, she spoke at a wellness retreat for 400 Northern California physicians and their families. Jennifer's quest to comprehend back and joint pain has led her to delve deeply into the wisdom of the ancients regarding spinal alignment, and its connections with human alchemy and energetics.

Jenn graduated with a BS in Product Design Engineering from Stanford University. Her career has spanned multiple sectors including finance, product design engineering, parenting, teaching and wellness. This diverse background enriches her holistic perspective, enabling her to bring a unique and multifaceted approach to her teachings, her practice, and Banyan Tree Women's Collective.

Dr. Elizabeth Howard

Chairperson

Elizabeth is Executive Vice-President, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Arbutus Biopharma, and has been practicing law for more than 20 years. Prior to joining Arbutus in March 2016, Dr. Howard was a partner at the law firm of Orrick Herrinton, where, in addition to her focus on intellectual property and trade secrets disputes, she was an active participant in Orrick's pro bono program, including leading Orrick's pro bono program working with the homeless at St. Vincent de Paul's in San Francisco, and as lead lawyer on multiple predatory lending cases, for which she received the firm-wide pro-bono award. Dr. Howard also served as a director for the non-profit organization Bay Bio. Before law school, Dr. Howard was an NSF Plant Molecular Biology Postdoctoral Fellow at the CSIRO Division of Plant Industry in Canberra Australia and a Research Geneticist at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Howard obtained her doctorate in Molecular Biology from the University of California Berkeley, and a J.D. from the University of California Hastings College of the law.

Annie Wang

Secretary

Annie Wang is the Secretary of Banyan Tree Women’s Collective. As a healthcare provider who focuses on women, she believes that physical and emotional health are equally important, and that they develop from having balance in life and a supportive community; everyone, regardless of socioeconomic background, should have access to the knowledge and resources that promote good health.

Annie is a California and National Board Certified Acupuncturist, and the founder of Annie Wang Acupuncture, Inc. in Los Altos, California. Annie is dedicated to helping patients gain a greater awareness of what health means. She provides them with the knowledge and tools to make educated, self-empowering decisions and to incorporate wellness principles into their lives. In addition to acupuncture, she educates and supports patients using natural modalities such as relaxation techniques, exercise, and a healthy diet to achieve optimal health in a safe and supportive environment. Annie received her BA in architecture from UC Berkeley and her Master of Science in Traditional Chinese Medicine from The American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in San Francisco. 

Favorite Quote: “It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be.”

— Master Oogway, Kung Fu Panda

Rashmi Bagchi

Development

Rashmi brings 15+ years of experience supporting various non-profit organizations in the Bay Area with volunteering, fundraising, and organizing. She is also an entrepreneur with 10 years’ experience founding and running two successful cause-driven businesses. Over her professional career, Rashmi has always been drawn to causes that level the playing field for people with various disadvantages so that they get the opportunity to bring out their best. This has driven Rashmi to volunteer, raise money, and organize for a national non-profit organization in the USA that helps students with learning disabilities and visual impairments, raise funds for an International non-profit organization to help low-income students in India, and work for an organization in the Bay Area that helps micro businesses with funding and training for growth and expansion. The same passion led her to start a wholly women owned business early in her career in India and later start another business in the USA that brought the craft of the handmade paper artisans in rural India and Thailand to the markets in the USA and the U.K. Rashmi believes in pulling people up and moving forward together.

“Be yourself, everyone else is taken.”

— Oscar Wilde

Vandana Ramakrishnan- Nathan

Vandana has a bachelor's in nutrition and a double masters in both Chemistry and Biochemistry from San Jose State University. She is currently the Associate Director of Regulatory Affairs at Jasper Therapeutics. She has 10 years of being a volunteer coordinator with her local religious organization and most recently in helping out at a domestic violence shelter. She is passionate about empowering the community, especially women, with the knowledge, information and resources imperative to holistic mental and physical health, exercising and sustainable nutrition practices. She is thrilled to be a part of the BTWC community and help with the ongoing ventures to promote wellness.

Tu (Chou) Mai

After attending an event in 2022 organized by Banyan Tree Women’s Collective, Tu was inspired to get involved and give back to the community in whatever capacity she can. Currently, Tu is a senior principal scientist at Genentech. Being trained professionally as a clinical pharmacologist, Tu has a passion not only for collecting data but also for presenting the data truthfully, meaningfully, and aesthetically to deliver important stories. Tu plans to utilize this skillset to help her colleagues at BTWC expand the organization so that Banyan can have both wider and deeper connections within the communities we serve. Tu earned her PhD degree from Vanderbilt University.

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”

— Mark Twain

Shara Watkins

Shara has dedicated her life to education and to the students in her local communities. After graduating from Wellesley College, she participated in the Teach for America program in New York City. She later went on to support schools and districts all over the country as a success manager for an education technology company.

As a SMFCSD School Board Trustee, Shara has been a champion for equity. Shara authored an Equity Resolution in collaboration with community leaders that helped to create the District's Equity Task Force. With the District's superintendent, she created an equitable scope and sequence to guide her Board in addressing student achievement and outcomes in a consistent way.

In addition to her role at Goalbook and on the San Mateo-Foster City School Board, Shara is a community advocate focused on ensuring law enforcement accountability and highlighting the data and stories of those impacted by the system.

Shara loves to dance and practice yoga and is passionate about sustainable living, clean products, and local and regenerative farming. Shara lives in San Mateo with her husband, Rob, and two daughters, Kaiya and Kennedy.

Dr. Veronique Chastenet de Gery

Community Outreach

Dr. Veronique Chastenet de Gery is the founder of Ta Vie Coaching and a Feminine Power Coach. She is dedicated to working with women who find themselves at a transition point in their life - they’ve often undergone a major life change and know what they want to leave behind but don’t yet know what they want to move towards. Though they are ready and committed to step into a new life, women have been so conditioned to take care of everyone else’s needs, they’ve often lost touch with their own yearnings and desires.

Veronique believes that every person has the possibility within themselves to manifest the life they desire, but they often cannot do it alone. She’s committed to helping women connect to their deeper wisdom so they can discover their new path and develop new skills and courage to live it. 

As a Certified Life Coach with a background in health and education, she creates a safe and supportive environment using a combination of coaching, meditation, breath and bodywork. Veronique offers one on one online coaching programs and online and in=person interactive workshops. She offers free 30-minute Discovery Calls which can be scheduled on her website: www.taviecoaching.com