Committee
The Joint Community Volunteer Service Awards Committee is appointed by the City Councils of Los Altos and Los Altos Hills. Our committee members are active in their community and passionate about volunteering. Learn more about them below.
Benjamin Gikis
Associate Member, Los Altos Hills
Benjamin Gikis has spent a lifetime of volunteerism focusing mainly on youth activities especially youth sports! He is currently on the Little League District Board and a Board Member of Sons In Retirement. His professional experience was in engineering and management especially in environmental areas. He retired from Applied Materials as the General manager of Hazardous Waste Operations in 2008.
His other activities include adult softball, youth baseball and soccer, scouting and PTA-related physical plant projects at Bullis School (internet wiring of school in 1998-1999) as well as plus fund raising (Silent Auction).
Donald Mattson
Los Altos Hills
Don Mattson and his wife Barbara have lived in their home in Los Altos Hills for 50 years and has a BS and MBA degrees from UC Berkeley. Don is a retired executive from the Computer Data Storage Industry and most recently as the COO of InVision Technologies, developing and manufacturing CT Devices for Airline Security worldwide. He has a variety of volunteer activity from youth sports as coach and manager, treasurer of Little League, Home Owners President, Director for community-owned facilities and officer for SIR Branch 35.
Jonathan Weinberg
Los Altos Council Liaison
Jonathan Weinberg was elected to the Los Altos City Council in 2020 and is serving as the City’s Mayor in 2024. Community involvement has always been an important value for Jonathan. In 2015, he was appointed to the City’s Parks and Recreation Commission where he served until his election to the Council.
Jonathan and his wife, Iditt, moved to Los Altos in 2009. Their son, Noah, is a rising junior at Los Altos High School and their daughter, Emma, will be a freshman at Los Altos High School.
A Bay Area native, Jonathan was born and raised in Oakland. He attended college in Southern California and received his law degree from Hastings College of the Law in 2001. Jonathan has practiced law for more than twenty years and is now a partner with the law firm Finkelstein & Fujii in San Mateo. Jonathan’s practice focuses on real estate law and trust and probate law.
Kelly Davis
Los Altos Hills
Kelly has lived in Los Altos Hills with her husband for 27 years and is an active member in the community. She currently serves on the Board of the Foothill-Deanza Foundation Board, The Los Altos History Museum Board, The Los Altos/Los Altos Hills Joint Community Volunteer Service Awards. She has previously served on the Red Cross Board of Palo Alto, The Los Altos Village Association Board and the Junior League of Palo Alto Mid-Peninsula Board. Kelly has worked for over 40 years in the Banking/Financial Services Business. She is a passionate equestrian and competes in multiple disciplines of riding.
Linda Swan
Los Altos Hills Council Liaison
Linda Swan has lived in Los Altos Hills with her husband for 36 years and was elected to Los Altos Hills City Council in 2020. She serves as the Council liaison to the Town’s History Committee, the Joint Volunteer Awards Committee, and the Pathways Committee.
Linda was born in Alabama and grew up in Scottsdale, Arizona. After she graduated from Arizona State University with a B.S. in mechanical engineering, she decided to follow the California dream and moved to San Jose and began working for General Electric. She also attended the University of California at Berkeley and received an M.S. in mechanical engineering and then an M.B.A. at Santa Clara University.
Linda first volunteered for Los Altos Hills by working on the Town float for the Festival of Lights Parade and the first Town picnics; was president of the Los Altos Hills Historical Society and wrote grant applications to the Packard Foundation and the Santa Clara County Historical Heritage Commission to secure funds to build a packing shed to house the Town’s historic farm equipment at Town Hall; and was the last president of Friends of Westwind, a not-for-profit organization that ran Westwind Barn from May 1977 until the Town took over the barn and renovated it in 2008.
Lindsay Carpenter
Los Altos, Secretary
Lindsay and Craig have been residents of Los Altos since 1968. She has always been very active in her community, as President of Los Altos Junior Women’s Club, and then on the board of the Junior League of Palo Alto. Lindsay is currently on the boards of the Los Altos Rotary Club and the Garden Club of Palo Alto and is active at the Los Altos History Museum where she was President from 1979-81! Lindsay retired after 25 years with Nordstrom serving as Director of Education and Employee Recognition for 7 western states. Among her awards have been a Kellogg Foundation Grant to study adult education at Santa Clara University, a California Department of Education award as an outstanding Adult Vocational Educator, election to the Junior League Area VI Council, overseeing Training for 46 Leagues, the Los Altos Rotary Guy Shoup Award and the Joint Community Volunteer Service Award.
Rebecca Lowell
Vice Chair, Los Altos
Rebecca Lowell and her family moved to Los Altos in 2013. Since then, Rebecca has volunteered for numerous local projects and organizations including: Loyola Elementary School PTA Board, LAEF Board of Directors, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Project Cornerstone, and the AVID program at Los Altos High School. Currently, Rebecca serves as the President of the MVLA High School Foundation. She has been a member of the MVLA Foundation board since 2016. In addition, Rebecca drives food to the LASD Gives Back Food Bank and is a site host for Tera Farm. Rebecca's professional background is in fundraising and event planning. In addition to volunteering, Rebecca enjoys gardening, hiking, reading, baking and traveling.
Sandy Mingia
Chair, Los Altos Hills
Sandy Mingia is retired from a variety of high-tech jobs: Computer and Network Sales, Artificial Intelligence Marketing, International tech marketing. She worked for 12 years on a luxury cruise line as a Guest Lecturer teaching technology to both guests and ship staff.
She has lived in Los Altos Hills since 1991. An active member of the Rotary Club of Los Altos, Sandy has served in a variety of positions: Chair of Public Image, Marketing and Branding, twice Director of the club’s major annual fundraiser, Fine Art in the Park. She currently serves as Director of Operations.
In addition to volunteer work for a variety of Rotary projects in the U.S. and internationally, she is also a member of and volunteers for the Chamber of Commerce and the Los Altos and the Los Altos Village Association.
Before establishing a Neighborhood Watch program, Sandy was dedicated to keeping her fantastic neighbors in communication and united in keeping the area safe.
Sumita Chandra
Los Altos
Sumita Chandra has been living in Los Altos with her family for over 20 years. She is currently a program manager at Stanford University. Sumita has had a long career in volunteering at non-profits ranging from her children's schools to Palo Alto Hills Club. More recently, Sumita has held several leadership roles at the Stanford Parents' Club including being President-Elect, Treasurer and Board member.