The board of directors of the Friends of Port Chicago National Memorial:
Reverend Diana McDaniel, President – Rev. Diana currently serves as senior minister of Unity Church of San Leandro, in the San Francisco/Oakland Bay area . She also serves on the Board of the West Central Region of Unity Churches She has also served the Association of Unity Churches International Board of Trustees. Rev. Diana has a B.A. in Religious Studies and completed her master’s level ministerial studies at Unity Institute. She is a licensed and ordained minister who has weekly radio broadcasts in seven countries in southern Africa. Rev. Diana’s uncle served at Port Chicago at the time of the explosion.
David Salniker, Treasurer – David is a Senior Advisor and the Director of Administration and Finance for the Equal Justice Society. David brings over 25 years of experience as a nonprofit executive and manager. From 1996-2003, David served as the Executive Director of the Tides Center, and before that was for seven years the Executive Director of Pacifica Foundation. David was initially a practicing attorney specializing in civil rights and employment law. He is one of the original members of the National Lawyers Guild Affirmative Action Committee formed in 1978. David has a J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley (Boalt) and a Masters of Law (in Labor Law) from New York University School of Law.
Marc Bruner, Board Member. Marc Bruner is an environmental and land use attorney with the law firm of Perkins Coie in San Francisco. Marc represents public agencies and private clients undertaking a wide variety of projects and advises on permitting strategies, long-range development plans, environmental reports and analyses, and addressing the requirements of local, state and federal regulations on a wide range of issues. Marc has been practicing since 1995 and has been involved with the Friends of Port Chicago as pro bono legal counsel since 2007, in their efforts to develop a visitors and interpretive center on the former grounds of the Concord Naval Weapons Station. Marc is a graduate of Harvard College and earned his J.D. from Yale Law School. Marc loves to travel and his journeys have included a yearlong honeymoon in 1999 and year-around-the-world adventure with his wife and two small children from August 2010 to August 2011.
Camarin Madigan, Board Member. Camarin is a Partner in the Real Estate and Land Use practice of Perkins Coie in San Francisco. An experienced real estate, land use and energy attorney, Camarin advises developers, landowners, lenders, and public agencies on acquisitions and dispositions and leasing for complex development projects and commercial properties, as well as land use entitlements and environmental permits. Camarin lives in Walnut Creek and is excited to be involved with this new national park in the East Bay. She also serves as president of Contra Costa County Senior Legal Services. Camarin has a J.D. from the University of California at Hastings and a B.A. from Grinnell College.
Robert L. Allen, Ph.D., Advisory Board Member. Dr. Allen is an adjunct professor of African American studies and ethnic studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of The Port Chicago Mutiny, which the San Francisco Chronicle called “apocalyptic…stirring…part history, part investigative tract, part courtroom drama, and part psychological analysis…Definitive.” His other books include Black Awakening in Capitalist America; Reluctant Reformers: The Impact of Racism on Social Movement in the U.S.; Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men in America; Strong in the Struggle; and Honoring Sergeant Carter: A Family’s Journey to Uncover the Truth About an American Hero. Allen is also editor (with founder Robert Chrisman) of the journal The Black Scholar. He has been the recipient of many honors and awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship and an American Book Award (shared with co-editor Herb Boyd for Brotherman).
John A. Lawrence, Board Member. John Lawrence served for 38 years as a staff member in the US House of Representatives, the last eight as Chief of Staff to Speaker/Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). Upon his retirement in February 2013, Speaker John A. Boehner and Speaker Pelosi recognized his dedication and bipartisanship by conferring on him the John W. McCormack Award for Excellence. He served as Staff Director of the Committee on Education and the Workforce (2001-2005), and Chief of Staff and Legislative Director to Congressman George Miller (D-CA) (1975-2005). As Staff Director of the Committee on Natural Resources (1993-2001), he played a major role in the creation of the Port Chicago National Memorial and in securing a presidential pardon for Freddie Meeks, one of the 50 sailors court martialed following the explosion. He is a visiting professor at the University of California campus in Washington, DC and writes and speaks on public policy and politics, and is author of the blog, DOMEocracy. Born in Paterson, N.J., John holds a Ph.D. in American History from the University of California (Berkeley), and an A.B. (with high honors in history) from Oberlin College.
Tom Leatherman, NPS Liasion to the Board. Tom Leatherman is currently the Superintendent at four National Park Service historic sites in the East Bay – Eugene O’Neill National Historic Site, John Muir National Historic Site, Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial and Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park. He started his National Park Service (NPS) career in 1989 as an intern at Pinnacles National Monument. He went on to work in several parks in the West as a seasonal employee before getting his first permanent job back at Pinnacles in 1995. Years later, as the chief of natural and cultural resource management at Pinnacles, he was able to build a nationally recognized natural resource program, including the reintroduction of California condors and red-legged frogs. In 2005 he was selected as the superintendent of Manzanar National Historic Site in the Eastern Sierra. He served in this position for three years before coming back home to the bay area (he grew up in Santa Cruz) to take the position as the Deputy Superintendent of the four historic sites in the East Bay. He was selected as the Superintendent of these sites in January of 2011. Tom lives in Pleasant Hill and while not at work he enjoys spending time with his family, hiking and cooking.
