Oak Grove School Education Foundation Announces New Board Members

Oak Grove School Education Foundation (OGSEF) recently announced the appointment of four new board members to serve during the 2011-12 school year.  The new additions to the OGSEF board include: Green Oaks resident Sam Kim; Libertyville resident Peng Yin, M.D., Ph.D.; Libertyville resident Craig Dowden; and Green Oaks resident John Goodman.

Kim, Yin, Dowden and Goodman join the following OGSEF Board Members to serve the Foundation during the 2011-12 school year:  Kim Moody (president), Anahis Mattson (vice president), Sandy Burkett (treasurer), Julie Jermakowicz (secretary) Cindy Gleason and Judy Egan.

Sam Kim

Sam Kim is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of SYKGroup LLC, an investment and business development firm specializing in online businesses. Prior to founding SYKGroup LLC, Kim served as a corporate officer and vice president at W.W. Grainger Inc. During his employment at Grainger Kim was responsible for Grainger’s online eCommerce business unit, the 19th-largest online retailer during 2010. Kim retired from Grainger in 2010.

Kim has been a Green Oaks resident for the past 12 years and received an MBA from Northwestern University Kellogg Graduate School of Management in 1998 and a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University in 1984.

Peng Yin

Peng Yin has been a resident of Libertyville for five years and has been actively involved in supporting Oak Grove School.  He was a District 68 Board of Education nominee in 2011 and served on the Oak Grove School strategic planning committee in 2009.

Yin currently serves as director of global scientific affairs at Abbott Diagnostics. He received his M.D. from Tianjin Medical School, China, and worked as a general surgeon for five years, then received his PhD in Molecular Virology from University of Manitoba, Canada, and his postdoctoral training at Harvard University, Medical School.

Prior joining Abbott, Peng worked as a Senior Scientist in biotech companies in Boston. He has many years of combined experience in clinical medicine and basic medical research, particularly in infectious diseases. He has patent, book chapter and publications in well-known scientific journals such as Nature publication, Cell and Journal of Virology. Also, he has been invited to give speeches in Scientific Symposia around the world, such as The National Serology Reference Laboratory Australia annual Meeting, China National Liver Disease’s Laboratory Diagnosis and Clinics Conference.

Craig Dowden

Craig Dowden currently serves as president of James Dowden & Associates Inc. a third generation landscape design firm based in Green Oaks. He is also a board member for the Libertyville Fire Protection District. A 1978 graduate of Oak Grove School, Dowden attended and graduated from and received his B.A. in journalism from Columbia College in Chicago.

Dowden and his family returned to Green Oaks in 2008 so that his family could experience the Oak Grove School community. Dowden has been instrumental in coordinating the foundation’s first OakGrove-apalooza, a multi-class reunion of Oak Grove students and faculty members with the goal of raising funds for the OGSEF.   Dowden aspires to coordinate the development of an e-directory of Oak Grove alumni to promote personal and professional connections, ease in the coordination of future reunions and to integrate Oak Grove alumni into future school programs and fund raising event.

John Goodman

John Goodman currently serves as vice president of sales for Merrill Communication and is a graduate of Northwestern University and DePaul University College of Law.  In addition to the Foundation, Goodman is on the Green Oaks’ Public Safety Committee and the Forest Glen Architectural Review Board.

Goodman is the principal percussionist with Full Score Chamber Orchestra and the drummer for Christ Church Lake Forest, The Bradburys and The Good.  He also coaches for the Greater Libertyville Soccer Association and Libertyville Boys Club flag football.

He graduated from Northwestern University in 1990 and obtained a graduate degree from DePaul University in 1993.

Established in 2005, the Oak Grove School Education Foundation serves as a supplemental funding source for Oak Grove School District 68 and is funded primarily by individual and business contributions that provide financial support to provide Oak Grove School with equipment and resources as well as mini-grants to classrooms to enhance the overall Oak Grove School educational experience.