The Team
Board of Directors
Steve Toll, President
Steve Toll
Stephen Toll joined the SVVA/SVOS board in 2019 as Executive Director following the retirement of Mel Thomsen. Steve is a landscape and nature photographer who has exhibited with SVOS since 2014 after a career as a tech company executive and management consultant. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Linda Toll
Linda Toll has her own firm providing general accounting services to small and medium-sized organizations. She received her MBA from San Jose State University in 1980 with a concentration in finance and accounting. A former Controller for an electronics firm, she was a Founding Member of the Montclaire Educational Foundation and was active on local school PTA boards. Linda joined the Silicon Valley Visual Arts, Inc. Advisory Council in May 2015.
Her interests include reading, outdoor activity, and needlework. Linda and her husband, a landscape and nature photographer, enjoy travel. She enjoys visiting and working with the many artists in the area.
Ida Gamban
Ida Gamban has been honored with international and regional photography awards for fine art landscape photography. You can see her work at luminousgalleries.com and idagambanphotography.com
Nancy Woods
Nancy Woods, after graduating from The California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland California in 1972, started a Graphics and Sign company in 1978 specializing in small business brand identity through logo design, collateral materials and complete signage.
Nancy served on the Civil Grand Jury in San Mateo County in 1993 for the term of one year heading up the group that inspected the Board of Education and the Board of Human Resources.
In the recent past 8 years, Nancy had an artist studio at the Peninsula Museum of Art in Burlingame California. She did all the signage for the Museum and studios inside and out and did all the signage for incoming shows on an ongoing basis. Since its closing in 2020, she now works on her art at her “in-home”
She joined the Silicon Valley Visual Arts group board in 2014 and works in various capacities. Her interests here include educating emerging artists to the various opportunities provided by the Silicon Valley Open Studios organization for them to sell their works and grow as professional artists. She is also working to help “grow” the SVVA’s audience of Art Lovers and introduce more artists to the benefits that SVVA offers to them through the Open Studios programs.
Barbara Peas, Secretary
Barbara Pease
I was born in Seattle Washington in 1951, and moved to Colorado in 1969. I’ve lived in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1977. I’m married with grown children and wonderful grand kids.
After graduating in jewelry design, a cramped apartment and a stint in jewelry manufacturing changed my mind about working in metal, so I’ve worked in other media for most of my career. I’ve painted in watercolor since 1992. In 2008 I had a chance encounter with silk painting and was immediately drawn to the vibrancy of that medium, and have largely been working with silk in the last few years.
In my nursing career, I worked in oncology from 1990 to 2012. I worked in Hospice from 2012 until 2017. I currently work part time in a small infusion clinic specializing in women with immunologically threatened pregnancies.
Bob Dorr
Currently: VP | Client Engagements at Brand World Creative, Strategic Marketing & Advertising Agency
Bob brings 30 years of strategic marketing communications expertise to Brand World Creative. He has created programs from both inside Agencies and inside Client executive teams. His combination of experience streamlines the Client/Agency relationship; by delivering a solid working relationship that is crucial for marketing programs to succeed. From launching innovative startups like Proformative.com, or leading corporate marketing for a $78M IPO at Aspec Technology, to guiding communications for non-profits like Green Earth Schools, Bob delivers integrated marketing programs that build brands, audience trust, and deliver measurable results.
He has held CMO, Director of Corporate Marketing, Director of Corporate Communications positions in companies ranging from startups such as YouMeThink.com and Proformative.com, to global Fortune 500 leaders including the Ricoh Innovation Center — Ricoh Silicon Valley, where he named and drove the Global Launch of their first flagship product, eCabinet in 2000. Other companies include Aspec Technology, Brightmail Anti-Spam and BeVocal Voice Automation. Several of these companies were acquired by industry leaders after implementation of his marketing initiatives, such as Brightmail’s acquisition by Symantec.
Roberta Kiphuth
Roberta is President and co-founder of Detati Digital Marketing and Pacific Light Studios. As an agency owner, Roberta has spent the majority of her career working as a branding, design, content and marketing consultant for businesses in the high tech, medical device, solar, start-up and non-profit industries.
She has been a presenter at the Women’s Networking Alliance Marketing Summit, the Small Business Digital Marketing Summit and for the National Association of Women Business Owners and has served on the Sunnyvale Arts Commission, the boards for California Music Center and Sunnyvale Community Services.
She has a B.A in Art, a J.D from Santa Clara School of Law and Certificate for Management Development of Entrepreneurs from UCLA Anderson School of Management.
Roberta started Detati Art in 2019 to give adults an opportunity to learn and create art in a safe, supportive environment. Detati Art offers weekend & remote classes as well as private instruction in drawing, painting, mixed media and photography.