Community activist and Redwood City native Jason Galisatus has been appointed as the executive director of the Redwood City Education Foundation (RCEF), effective June 1, RCEF Board President Marilyn Ezrin has announced.
Galisatus has nearly a decade experience working in both the public and private sector, and has served on the RCEF board since 2015. He will lead the foundation in an interim capacity through June 1, 2020, Ezrin said. He’ll be tasked with working with the Board to execute the foundation’s mission to advance and enrich education opportunities in the Redwood City School District.
RCEF was founded in 1983 to prevent cuts to critical in-school programs in the district.
“As a Redwood City native and a graduate of the Redwood City School District (RCSD), he is delighted to give back to an organization that was instrumental to his own personal growth and development,” Ezrin said.
To assume his new role, Galisatus is departing his current role in government and community relations for Stanford University. He’s served as a member or volunteer on nearly a dozen local and regional committees, boards commissions and foundations, and he co-founded We Vote Redwood City and is co-chair of the San Mateo County LGBTQ Commission. At age 25, Galisatus was the youngest candidate for Redwood City Council in the November 2018 election, an unsuccessful bid that further augmented his exposure in the community. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Stanford.
For more details on his community service and experience, visit his campaign page here.
In an online post, Galisatus said he was both “thrilled and honored” to assume the role.
“…I simply want to express my sincere gratitude to the Board of Directors for your faith in my leadership and your commitment to our shared vision for the organization, as well as the former board members and volunteers whose work shaped my life as an RCSD alum in truly profound ways,” Galisatus said.
He said the announcement was bittersweet, as he valued his time at Stanford.
“It’s been an honor and welcomed professional challenge to work for an organization with such vast and deep global influence, and to leverage that influence to make a positive impact here in our local communities,” he said.
But then he quickly got to work in his new job. In his announcement, he asked the public to “help me celebrate my new role” by making a tax-deductible contribution to RCEF.
