Meet the Oakland Tech College Essay Mentors
The College Essay program involves many skilled mentors, including:
Deepi Brar grew up in India and Arizona but loves California the best. She majored in biology at Caltech and worked in a gene therapy research lab for a few years, but decided it would be more fun to write about the cool science happening in labs and hospitals. She earned a master's in journalism at UC Berkeley and has worked as an award-winning writer, editor, and content designer for many websites and apps including CVS Health and Rally Health. She is the parent of a Tech graduate and has been helping students tell their stories since 2018. Deepi also teaches fused glass classes at The Crucible.
Gayle Buckles helps students navigate the stressful college essay process and believes that everyone has a unique story just waiting to be told. Taking a calm, positive approach comes naturally to her, as a former OUSD teacher and administrator whose work focused on providing academic support to students experiencing medical challenges. She now volunteers with the Make-a-Wish Foundation, continuing to connect families in times of need. Gayle graduated from UC Berkeley and earned her teaching credential at Mills College. In her free time she can be found in the ceramics studio or contemplating her next craft project.
Melinda Clemmons is a freelance writer and editor for nonprofits. Her first poetry collection, Closer, will be published by Pine Row Press in 2026. Her stories and poems have appeared in One Art, Rust + Moth, Midwest Review, Shrew, West Trestle Review, The Imprint, and elsewhere. She was a finalist for the 2025 Richard-Gabriel Rummonds Poetry Prize from Ex Ophidia Press as well as the Wandering Aengus Press Book Award. She loves working with students in the Oakland Tech college essay program.
Lisa Fernandez has been a journalist for more than 30 years. She has worked at the San Francisco Chronicle, the LA Times, the Mercury News, Reuters, and currently writes, reports and produces for KTVU, Channel 2. She won the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists ' "Journalist of the Year” award in 2024 for her reporting on a sex abuse scandal at a now-closed prison in Dublin, Calif. She has coached students to write college essays for many years, helping them find their authentic stories and then organizing those ideas onto paper.
Jana Good is a former marketing professional with a BA and MBA from UC Berkeley. She currently focuses on neighborhood advocacy and democracy reform efforts. Jana has been a college essay mentor for many years. She loves coaching students to identify stories that reflect their authentic selves and organizing them into beautiful essays.
Carolyn Jones is a longtime reporter and writer currently working as an education reporter for CalMatters. She was a 2023 Fulbright Specialist in media literacy in Albania and the 2025 Daily Californian Alumnus of the Year. She has a bachelor’s degree in English from UC Berkeley.
Star Lightner is an attorney and the senior editor of Miller & Starr, California Real Estate 4th, a 45-chapter treatise on real estate law. She edits the treatise and also updates several of the chapters. In addition, she writes Miller & Starr, Real Estate Newsalert, a bi-monthly publication on current real estate developments, and has been a regular contributor to the California Real Property Journal. Star is also on the board of the Rockridge Community Planning Council and is a writer and editor for RCPC’s publication, the Rockridge News. A Berkeley Law alum, Star is an Oakland native who attended California public schools at every step of her education. Her favorite volunteer activity is essay mentoring.
Laura Marlin is a playwright, director, and theater teaching-artist. As Resident Youth Stage Director at Berkeley Playhouse, she’s directed kids in musicals for over ten years, and, as a teaching-artist, has taught with local theater companies Cal Shakes, and Word for Word. Laura was a long time writer-coach with Writer Coach Connection, and was a teacher of new coaches, guiding them on how to work one-on-one with a writer. She holds a BA in English Literature from University of Michigan, and a MS in Education from Bank Street College in New York City. This is Laura’s sixth year with Oakland Tech Mentors; she loves meeting the Tech seniors and helping them shape their stories as they move forward in their education.
Peggy Phillips works in gift planning at the Sierra Club in Oakland. Prior to that, she had a long career in the commercial insurance industry, and she has freelanced as a property manager, trust administrator, and copyeditor. She has been a Tech essay mentor for the past five years. She previously volunteered with College Is Real in Richmond, helping seniors with their application essays, and she was an eighth-grade coach with Writer Coach Connection in Berkeley. She loves helping students with their college essays. Peggy has a BA in history from UC Berkeley and an MBA in finance from SF State University. In her free time, she enjoys running, hiking, cooking, quilting, and traveling.
Dane Lewis earned a B.S. from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. He was the first person in his family to attend college and spent the majority of his career in the investment industry. He began his career as an analyst at Robertson Stephens, where he published research on public companies and was recognized by the Wall Street Journal as an All-Star Software Analyst in 2001. He later worked on the buy-side at Crosslink Capital. Dane is dedicated to helping students find and write their stories.
Sarah Weld is a longtime writer and editor, who recently retired from working in communications for universities, including at UC Berkeley Law, Saint Mary’s College of California, and Cal State East Bay. Before that she worked as a daily newspaper reporter for the Oakland Tribune and the San Mateo County Times, as editor of The East Bay Monthly, and associate editor of Oakland and Alameda magazines. She also writes nonfiction essays, which have appeared in The Monthly, Using Our Words, and on KQED Perspectives. Sarah also taught high school English and loves helping students tell their stories through the college essay process.
Hilary Zaid is a serious writing nerd who has written everything from TV commercials to essays, short stories and novels. Hilary’s work has won awards including an Independent Publishers' Gold Medal in LGBTQ fiction and been short-listed for the 2023 Northern California Book Award. Hilary loves working with writers and has mentored aspiring writers through AWP's Writer-to-Writer Mentor program, the Golden Crown Literary Society and as a volunteer mentor and mentor-coordinator of Tech’s College Essay Mentors. Hilary holds an AB, summa cum laude, from Harvard and Radcliffe, and a Ph.D. in English from UC Berkeley, where Hilary taught for many years in the English Department’s undergraduate writing program. Hilary spends a lot of time outdoors, hiking, swimming and playing pickleball, and even more time reading, writing, baking and chilling with dogs.
Lucy Leong Chen is the Program Coordinator and Technical Lead behind the Oakland Tech College Essay Mentor Program. She holds a BA from UC Berkeley and an MBA from NYU Stern and built a career in consulting and finance. Growing up in an immigrant family and as a first-generation college student and product of public schools, she never had the kind of support this program provides — and that's why she gives back. She has been volunteering with Oakland public schools since her kids were in elementary school, and continued her commitment through the Oakland Public Education Fund even after they left. She most recently conceived and built the digital platform behind this program.
Questions about the Essay Mentor Program can be directed to your senior English teacher, senior advisory teacher, the Assistant Principal for seniors or to the Oakland Tech College and Career Center.