John Esa currently runs a philanthropic video production company, travelling to children’s hospitals around the country to help patients and their families share their stories and help hospital foundations enhance their marketing and capital campaigns. He previously worked for PeaceHealth Medical Center as their Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Program Director.

Esa has been involved with public education since his college days, where he volunteered with the students at his former high school by assisting with their Children’s Miracle Network fundraising efforts. 

He has served on the PLI Board since the beginning of Redmond Proficiency Academy, currently serving as the Board’s President.  

Esa earned a bachelor's degree at the University of Oregon where he played for the school’s football team from 2001-2003, earning academic honors, helping the Duck’s win the 2001 Pac-10 Championship and being inducted to the U of O Sports Hall of Fame.

Bert Eliason serves as a research associate at the University of Oregon, promoting the use of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support (PBIS) in classrooms around the world encouraging school-wide, classroom and individual behavior and academic support to foster environments that are safe and respectful and build success for all students. 

Eliason brings decades of education experience to his director role, having worked in public education for 38 years. He retired from Bethel School District in Eugene, Oregon after serving 15 years as a middle school principal. 

He has been on the PLI Board since the founding of Redmond Proficiency Academy, currently serving as Vice-President.  

Eliason earned his Bachelor of Science in elementary education from Oregon State University and a Master’s and Doctorate of Education in educational leadership from the University of Oregon.

Diana Barker has lived in Redmond most of her life and has worked as a real estate broker in Central Oregon for the past four decades.

In addition to her service on the PLI Board, Barker has served on the Board of Redmond Economic Development, Redmond Chamber of Commerce, including serving as chamber president in 2005. She currently serves as President of the Redmond Community Concert Association Board of Directors and as a member of Redmond Committee for Arts in Public Places. Barker also serves on the Housing and Community Development Committee for the City of Redmond. Due to her many civic contributions, she was awarded with the Citizen of the Year Award in 2017 by the Redmond Chamber of Commerce.

A Redmond Union High School graduate, Barker’s two children later graduated from the renamed Redmond High School, giving her valuable, local experience as a Board Director.  

Now in her second term, Barker has served on the PLI Board 2013.

Josh Evans has worked in the financial services industry for many years, currently working as a financial advisor with Carrano & Associates, a small team at Merrill Lynch that assists families and small businesses with their financial planning needs.

He has served in various educational capacities over the years, including coaching basketball and providing proficiency-based education to high school and college-age students through his work as a tutor.

Wanting to continue his involvement in education, Evans accepted a position on the PLI Board in 2017.

He earned a bachelor’s in sociology from the University of Oregon.

Sally Claridge is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Biomedical Sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, where she studies cancer signaling and therapeutics.  

Claridge grew up in Redmond and attended Redmond schools from kindergarten until she graduated from Redmond Proficiency Academy in 2013, as one the valedictorians that year.  

She went on to receive a B.S. in Biology and M.S. in Bioinformatics and Genomics from the University of Oregon.  

Claridge credits RPA with providing her the critical support needed to take advanced coursework and apply for scholarships to fund her college education. She is the first RPA alum to serve on the PLI Board.

After a career of teaching journalism, natural resources and environmental sciences at Oregon State University, Sally Duncan is now a retired farmer and writer. She and her husband, Bob (a retired oceanographer from OSU) grow blueberries and heritage apples for dry cider.

Duncan is a founding PLI Board Member and served for seven years after RPA’s inception. After some time off the board, she is looking forward to serving once again. She rejoined the board in 2021.  

Outside of her own classrooms, Duncan has spent pieces of her life over the last 40 years volunteering in K-12 schools, day care centers and children's theater. 

Duncan holds a Ph.D. from Oregon State University. 

John Hannan works for Salem Clinic, in Salem, Oregon, currently serving as the Director of Information Systems. 

Hannan and his wife, Toni, have three children, all who have attended or are currently attending public schools. Toni is a counselor at Dallas High School and his brother and sister-in-law both work for the Silver Falls School District. His close ties to public education have informed his long standing commitment to public schools and serving on the PLI Board. 

He has been on the PLI Board since Redmond Proficiency Academy’s founding, currently serving as Board Secretary.  

Hannan graduated from Oregon State University with a bachelor’s in healthcare administration.

Patrick MacKelvie serves as the regional Vice-President for Cornerstone OnDemand, a leading learning and talent management software firm. He previously worked for several software companies on the development and implementation of curriculum, process improvement and institutional reporting software. 

He has spent his entire career working to improve education at both the K-12 and post secondary levels, previously working as an ESL instructor and later in curriculum development. 

He is a founding member of the PLI Board and past President, serving since 2008. In addition to his role on the board, Patrick has also served on the Board of the Oregon Association of Student Councils, a statewide non-profit focused on cultivating and supporting high school leadership.

MacKelvie earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science and Japanese from the University of Oregon.

Peter Nelson currently serves as the Supply Chain Manager for RENA North America in Albany, Oregon.  

A long time advocate for education, Nelson’s interest in serving as a board director stems from having three children of his own and wanting to ensure that they and all K-12 students receive the high quality education they deserve. 

In his first term, Nelson joined the PLI Board in 2016.

Nelson earned a business management degree from Northwest Christian University and a master’s in global supply chain management from Portland State University.