Our Oakland Team

Most of us on the Oakland team are Oakland / San Francisco Bay Area Natives with backgrounds in Project Management or a desire to help support the Project Management efforts in Oakland.

Sonja C. Stewart, PMP

Founder / Program / Project Manager / Instructor

Sonja is an Oakland, CA Native and a certified Project Manager since 2006. She’s managed projects since 1997 and has worked for companies such as The University of California Office of the President, Kaiser Permanente, The Port of Oakland, Chevron, Pacific, Gas & Electric, Johnson Controls, Mac Donald Bedford and Survey Monkey. The industries she’s worked for include education, healthcare, construction, energy and technology. She is the Owner, CEO & Principal for StarGazer Enterprise and the mother of a beautiful daughter.

In addition to teaching the Project Management and Leadership classes for kids, she uses her love for children and Project Management to designed the program, classes and projects.

Sherri Alphonso

Project Management Coordinator

A native of Richmond, CA Sherri has extensive experience with companies such as the City of Oakland, the Port of Oakland, UPS and the University of California Office of the President. She helps to coordinate speakers, special events, projects, program planning and snacks. She’s been with the kids program since 2017 (six months after the inception). She’s the mother of 2 sons and grandmother of 2 grandsons and 1 grand daughter. Her grand son, xxxxx, graduated from the program with the second set of graduates and helps teach and lead many projects.

Donna Jacobs

Project Management Coordinator

Another native of Oakland, CA Donna has over 26 management experience in the Telecom industries where she has lead teams on a number of projects at companies such as MCI, World Com, Verizon and currently Google. She is also a Navy Vet. Donna has been with the kids program since it’s inception helping with speakers, special events, snacks, program planning and is infamously known as the Voice (Shhh…don’t tell your kids).

Sophia Stewart

Another Oakland native, Sophia has over 25 year experience as an Implementation Manager in the Telecom industries and has worked for companies such as MCI, World Com, Verizon, Sungevity, and Good Search. Sophia helps with special events. She and Sonja have been planning projects since childhood which includes multiple carnivals, Painted rock sales , mobile Lemonade stands, Junior Achievement projects and more….

  • .Sonja C. Stewart, PMP
  • Sherri Alphonso
  • Donna-Jacobs
  • Sophia Stewart

Advisors / Special Instructors

Lam Thuy Vo – Video Story Special Instructor

Lam-Thuy-Vo

Lam Thuy Vo is a senior reporter at BuzzFeed News where she focuses on the intersection of technology, society, and social media data. She has reported for The Wall Street Journal, Al Jazeera America, and NPR’s Planet Money, telling economic stories across the US and throughout Asia https://lamivo.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/lamthuyvo/

Frank Koch – Decision Analyst

Frank Koch

Experienced Decision Professional specializing in coaching executives and senior decision makers in strategic decision making and evaluation of major capital projects.

Koch Decision Consulting Decision Coach 9 yrs Chevron 25 yrs

Samad Aidane MSc, PMP – Culture

We are a boutique leadership development consultancy bringing together the latest neuroscience research to help organizations build inclusive leadership cultures that fully engage an increasingly diverse array of stakeholders. We integrate insights from evidence-based research in cultural neuroscience, cultural intelligence, and cross-cultural team management to provide a brain-based framework for understanding how cultural values shape the way we make decisions, solve problems, and collaborate with others in a multicultural teams.