The SIBL Project Production Team

The production of The SIBL Project brings together a diverse and dedicated community of musicians, producers, managers, lawyers, corporations, accountants, graphic artists, reading tutors, learners and many more. Potential contributors to The SIBL Project from any sector are welcome to contact the production office at anytime.

To learn about the folks behind Mentl Music, click here.

SIBLFounder and Executive Director - Deborah Pardes

Click here for Founder's Statement

Deborah Pardes, singer and songwriter, was the 1999 grand prize winner in Lilith Fair's Bay Area talent search and a national talent-search finalist in the 2000 Roxygen contest, sponsored by Oprah Winfrey's Internet network, Oxygen.com. Also in 2000, Pardes released her third CD, "Blessing Or A Curse," which has received kudos and extensive national airplay. For the last 15 years, concurrent with her career as a musician, Pardes has produced and marketed music and media productions - from full-length CDs to concert series, product launches, electronic media projects including Internet and intranet sites, and on-line and in-store interactive product demos. For three seasons, she coordinated San Francisco Jazz Festival activities in 23 venues and managed 250 volunteers and staff. Since 1994, Pardes has been a Bread & Roses artist, volunteering her time as a performer in hospitals, rehabilitation centers and county jails

SIBL Board of Directors

Randall Weaver, director of Project Read of the San Francisco Public Library, formerly directed library-based adult literacy programs for the Riverside City and County Public Library and the Riverside County Library System. He was president of the Southern California Library Literacy Network and president and founding member of the Riverside County Literacy Network, and currently co-chairs the Bay Area Literacy Network and chairs the California Library Association Literacy Roundtable. Weaver also has worked as a professional musician, playing bass for recording sessions and performances.

Marcia Thomas is executive director of Changemakers, which supports and promotes community-based philanthropy. Formerly executive director of USA for Africa in Los Angeles (We Are the World and Hands Across America) and deputy executive director for programs at Oxfam America in Boston, Thomas currently is a board member of National Summit on Africa, JustAct and The Consortium for Global Development.

Merl Saunders, Jr., who grew up in a musical family in the heart of the 1970s San Francisco music scene, has been a tour manager/technician with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Michael Jackson, Robert Cray, David Crosby, Frank Zappa and others for 15 years. He founded Music for the People, which teaches at-risk youth and encourages them to explore music as an outlet, and has led marketing teams at Dean Markely Strings and Gibson Guitars; he produced Gibson's 100th anniversary celebration at the historic Fillmore Auditorium in 1994. Saunders is executive director of the San Francisco Chapter of The Recording Academy, which produces the Grammys, and assists his twin daughters' 6th grade girls basketball team.

Nadine Condon is a music-business veteran with 14 gold and platinum records from current chart popsters and superstars like Melissa Etheridge and Jefferson Starship. For more than 20 years, she has been a development coach and mentor to artists, music business consultant, seminar speaker and author. Executive director of Nadine's Wild Weekend music fest, she was named one of the top 100 Californians in the music business in 1998.

Marjorie Beggs is senior writer at the San Francisco Study Center, a nonprofit that provides editorial and graphic services to Bay Area foundations, government agencies and other nonprofits. For 25 years she has written and edited hundreds of brochures, reports, articles, monographs and books in the fields of human services and the arts. She plays cello with a community orchestra.

Sondra Cholach is senior software engineer for Alexa, a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon.com. She has more than 14 years experience in the software industry in Web design, development and graphic arts, and has developed a wide variety of applications.

Ann Dyer, a nationally recognized jazz vocalist and a music marketing professional, has been director of marketing for the San Francisco Jazz Festival for 11 years and has handled public relations for Cirque du Soleil, George Coates Performance Works, Kronos Quartet, and Paul McCartney. She has served on the Arts Council of the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Jazz Planning Committee of Lila Wallace Readers Digest Fund, and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation's Jazz Advisory Board.

Eric Ferraro, an attorney specializing in corporate, nonprofit and entertainment law, is also an accomplished musician and community activist. He as worked with the Homeless Advocacy Project, Glide Memorial Church, and is a member and panel attorney of California Lawyers for the Arts.

Roberta Guise, principal of Guise Marketing & PR and president of KTWT Productions, a video publishing company, has designed and implemented marketing and PR campaigns for small business and professional service firms for the last 10 years. She formerly produced award-winning corporate image, educational and promotional videos for Pacific Bell, Mervyn's, PG Enterprises and Litton. As a young adult in Israel, Guise studied drama and performed in Tel Aviv's primary repertory theatre.

Emily Keeler has been a dancer, choreographer, educator and arts administrator and advocate in the Bay Area for 25 years. She has performed with San Francisco Moving Company, Cliff Keuter's New Dance Company and Joe Goode Performance Group, and worked with choreographers Remy Charlip, Michael Smuin and Mark Morris. For the last 16 years, Keeler has been artistic director of San Francisco Arts Education Project, a nonprofit that places visual and performing artists in San Francisco public schools.

Sue Malone bio forthcoming.