With many years of experience in leading nonprofit organizations, Ron will fill a role left vacant by Kenn White, who resigned last August.
Ron was born in Peru and raised in the Amazon jungle, much of that time with the Matsigenka tribe. He has lived and worked in Mexico, California, Texas, Indonesia and most recently in Costa Rica. Previous jobs have included Texas real estate broker, Director of a training center for people going overseas, Director of a cooperative program with Hasanuddin University in Sulawesi, and director of a gap program for university students.
“We selected Ron because of his experience, enthusiasm and creative ideas for potential classes…,” said Christina Wolf, President of Senior University’s Board of Directors. “We were looking for someone who would continue our efforts to expand our reach into local communities and clearly shares our passion for lifelong learning.”
Ron has degrees in anthropology and linguistics and an MBA from the University of Texas in Austin, but all of that is just his “formal” education. He is an avid reader, woodworker, and outdoorsman. In the interest of ongoing learning, he creates “classes” for himself, most recently on social insects and American Sign Language. “Learning is life,” he believes.
It was Ron’s interest in ongoing education that put him in touch with Senior University. He stopped by their booth at Poptoberfest and discussed the possibility of volunteering to teach a beginner’s Spanish class.
“One thing led to another,” Ron says, “and now I am their Executive Director. What has impressed me from the beginning is the passion, energy and commitment of the Board members, volunteer instructors, classroom volunteers, and volunteers of other kinds. It is an organization that has thrived largely because of volunteers who are enthusiastic about learning for life.”
