BAYGANDA

Meet The Team

Executive Director

ERICA “EVarize” VARIZE

Director Domestic Partners

Teresa Lara - Hernandez

Teresa Hernandez-Lara graduated from San Francisco State University, with a BA in Business Communication. She has more than twenty years of corporate experience, with a background in corporate social responsibility. Most recently, she leads Global Marketing Creative Services, at Levi Strauss & Co., as the Global Director of Photo and Motion Production.

Teresa and her family live in Moraga, California, and enjoy the outdoors, family road trips, and hosting events in their home.

She has two daughters, who have attended the Sew What Summer camp, and she has great passion for educating women and children, globally. She is thrilled for the opportunity to serve on BayGanda’s board of directors.

Director of Domestic Operations

Josetta Jones

Josetta Jones is Managing IP Counsel, Downstream, Chemicals & Midstream Law. She has responsibility for a team of trademark attorneys, patent attorneys, and patent agents who support the Downstream & Chemicals business, ETC – Downstream Technology & Services, and Enterprise trademarks and copyrights. In addition to her managerial responsibilities, she supports Oronite’s IP needs which include patent risk assessments, preparing and negotiating agreements, and client counseling.

Josetta joined Chevron in 2002 as a patent attorney in the Intellectual Property Law Group, supporting Oronite. Prior to joining Chevron, Josetta was as an environmental engineer for a petrochemical company in Channelview, Texas; and, she also was a patent examiner at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), examining patent applications for methods of making semiconductor devices.

From 2008-2014, Josetta served as the Chair of Chevron’s Law Function Diversity Council which promotes diversity and inclusion in the legal profession, within Chevron and within the legal profession. She has been a role model volunteer for Techbridge since 2003 and is a member of Techbridge’s Advisory Board.

In February 2011, Josetta was named Best Bay Area Counsel – Diversity Champion -- by the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal and San Francisco Business Times. In July 2011, she received the Diversity Champion Award from the Bar Association of San Francisco’s Barristers Club’s Diversity Committee.

Josetta received a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University; a Juris Doctor degree from Texas Southern University, Thurgood Marshall School of Law; and, a Master of Laws in Patent and Intellectual Property Law from George Washington University.

In her spare time, she likes to read, travel, bake, and spend time with her family and friends.

Director of Communications

Rachel Boyce

Rachel Boyce is a transnational attorney focusing her practice on all stages of real estate transactions including financing, acquisitions, joint ventures, purchase and sales, corporate reorganizations, and leasing. She also works on project finance, debt finance, and advises clients on prop tech.

Prior to entering private practice, Ms. Boyce worked at the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington D.C., where she focused on financing agricultural projects and property rights, and has co-authored several publications on those areas. Ms. Boyce has also advised government ministers and other officials in Central America, South America and the Caribbean on project finance and projects geared to promoting economic growth.

Ms. Boyce is committed to diversity and equity. She defends pro bono clients facing eviction defense and provides pro bono assistance to tech start ups. She is an active participant in the California Minority Counsel Program and the Bar Association of San Francisco. While a student at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, Rachel volunteered at the East Bay Community Law Center and the Berkeley Immigration Group.

Rachel holds a Master of Laws from the University of California, Berkeley, a Masters and Bachelors in Science in International Relations from University of the West Indies, and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of London. In her free time, Rachel travels the world, hikes frequently, and promotes everything Caribbean!

Ms. Boyce joined the BayGanda Foundation Board of Directors in September 2019.