Joanna Landayan - Board Chair

Joanna Landayan is a mother, wife, daughter, and a sister to her family. She holds her family as an important core of her decisions. Secondary to that is her passion for cooking. Cooking Filipino food for her family brings the joy, kinship, and token of togetherness that makes everything in life wholesome. For those reasons she established Kusina Ni Javen Jesel, LLC to not only financially support her family during the Pandemic but also to draw attention to the Filipino culture. Joanna highlights the need to recover from the culture's loss of meaning in the hope that, as any immigrant would do, assimilate to American culture; the richness of the Filipino culture by not encompassing only the American culture that encompasses diverse collection of values, arts, and equal opportunity. ​

 

Kusina Ni Javen Jesel offers Filipino cuisine infused with a variety of different foods from different cultures which shaped the palate of Filipinos over the years living here in California. Joanna has tasted, eaten , and tried different flavors, ingredients, and cooking methods to bring her own experience back to the community. Her mission is to continue tradition; A tradition that underlines Filipino cuisine in a very diverse community.

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Ariel Mayormita

Music Director at St. Joachim Catholic Church

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Ariel is a liturgical musician and the director of music at St. Joachim Church in Hayward, California. He is a piano and voice teacher, a composer of liturgical music, and a choir director. He is an active member of the National Association of Pastoral Musician and is involved in addressing Asia-Pacific Rim Musicians concerns. Ariel is an active leader of the Diocese of Oakland and is delegated to direct music for diocesan events and liturgies. ​

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Marietta Ocampo

Retired Clinical Laboratory Scientist at Stanford Hospital Health and Clinics. She worked at Stanford at the Special Coagulation Laboratory working with patients that has been bleeding or clotting problems. 

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Marietta is also a realtor with Legacy Real Estate and Associates and is a Senior Real Estate Specialist. She is an active community leader and an instrumental part of St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church Filipino community in San Ramon. She started the Simbang Gabi ministry at her church and had successfully led a number of fundraisers including concerts of famous choirs from the Philippines. 

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Marietta is an active part of her community. She loves inspiring teens to learn and grow their faith. She is also an active part of Saint Joan of Arc Music Ministry. She is a cantor, sings in the choir, plays guitar with the St. Joan band and lately she just learned how to do the handbells. In her spare time, Marietta loves to play her violin, ukulele and piano. 

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Melinda Martin

Public Health Program Management- Community Advocate

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Melinda has over 15+ years of experience in strategic planning and partnership development. Melinda has a strong background in nonprofit grant procedure and implementation. She worked with various nonprofits including the Korean American Community Foundation of San Francisco, San Francisco Community Health Center, Asian Health Services, Asian & Pacific Wellness Center and the Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organization. She effectively managed and executed various aspects of fundraising events including securing sponsorship, live auction, VIP reception. She is a parent of a former GMAA student. She believes the importance of music education is critical to building one's confidence and tenacity.  

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Al Rincon

A musician, businessman, and healthcare provider, Al Rincon serves as an astounding board member. Al minored in music in college and worked as an apprentice pipe organ builder in his youth. Later on, he served as music director in many churches, directing choirs over the years and coaching voice in the recording studios in Hollywood. He recently served as a director for the Castro Valley Chamber of Commerce.​

 

Al works as a trauma surgical technologist at Eden Medical Center. He's been a surgical technologist for 30 years and now serves on an advisory board for Surgical Technologists in Southern California. Al also works at his local Dry-Cleaning business in San Lorenzo.

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Al's endeavor for our youth is outstanding and is captured by both his actions and values. Not only does he mentor youth and encourage them to go to college, Al also offers financial aid advice to parents, with a part of his workshops focusing on teaching Hispanic parents the affordability strategies of a four-year private college. Al believes that it is of utmost importance for kids to learn music. Not only does it create a balance between the left and right hemispheres of the brain but music serves as an outlet for youth to freely express themselves.

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Cynthia Goco-Nakar
Cynthia, is a passionate advocate for creative youth development. She was the former Executive Director and co-founder of Generation Music & Arts Academy (formerly Dandan Performing Arts Center) in 2016 with the mission to provide opportunities to enrich the lives of underserved youth in the unincorporated communities of Alameda County. 
 

She is a visionary leader known for driving innovation, growth, and mission-focused success. With a talent for optimizing resources and inspiring teams, she builds strong stakeholder confidence and fosters thriving organizational cultures.

 

Her entrepreneurial expertise extends to co-founding a usability-focused software company, where she spearheaded product strategy and user-centered design. Later, as a leader of a global alliance team, she delivered high impact solutions across industries, accelerating company revenue by double digits year over year.

A results-driven strategist, Cynthia excels at revenue generation, funding models, and scalable growth initiatives. Her ability to align teams, secure key partnerships, and execute high-impact strategies makes her a transformative force in mission-driven organizations

Vernon Miyata

Secondary Music Teacher at Arroyo High School

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Vernon is the Instrumental Music and Band Director at Arroyo High School. Vernon is in charge of the jazz band, concert band, intermediate band, orchestra, guitar, and the after school program that includes marching band, winter percussion, and winter guard. In 2014, Vernon led the Arroyo High School Winter Guard to compete in the Northern California Band Directors Association (CBDA) Winter Guard Competition. After a disappointing string of 6th place finishes earlier in the month, the guard put on an emotional performance. Competing in the Scholastic Division, the Arroyo Guard took first place honors

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Guido Fazio

Guido Fazio is a native of the San Francisco Bay Area. He majored in music at San Jose State University, Cal State Hayward, and Chabot College. He studied with prominent woodwind teachers in the Bay Area which include saxophone, clarinet, and flute. He also studied jazz piano with Frank Sumares (jazz educator and author).

 

Guido also studied jazz improvisation and co-authored a book with his mentor and author of multiple instructional books, the late jazz guitarist, Warren Nunes. Guido is a composer and arranger for big bands, small ensembles, duets, and solo pieces. Genres include classical, jazz, pop, Gospel, and ethnic styles. Guido has been teaching for more than 30 years and has surpassed 3,000 students to date.

 

Guido has been a woodwind clinician for students from elementary school through college level, including jazz improvisation clinics at local college and high school festivals. He has also taught beginning music recorder classes for third graders for 10 years. Guido is currently performing with the "Fog City Stompers," a traditional style of jazz with the intent to preserve our national treasures art form. Their newest CD release is entitled "All Fogged Up." Guido's music literature includes classical, jazz classics, big band, The American Song Book, Afro-Cuban, country, folk, pop, Italian, Jewish, Portuguese, and South American styles. Guido has performed with and backed entertainers and renowned jazz artists, including Steve Allen, Phyllis Diller, Mel Torme, Patsy Cline, Sarah Vaughn, Rich Little, Louis Bellson, Count Basie, Stan Kenton, Bill Watrous, Phil Woods, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Bruce Forman and Gordon Goodwin. He is currently writing a series of jazz improvisation books that are suit to fit a workbook for jazz ensembles, or for individual use.