Vote for the 2023 MVHS Board of Directors

Graham Davis

            Graham grew up in Mill Valley, attended Strawberry Point School, Mill Valley Middle School, and Tam High. While in high school, he worked as the assistant manager of the Sequoia Twin Movie Theater downtown.

            After graduating with an art degree from The University of California at Irvine, he worked in San Francisco at both San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (where he met his wife) and the Exploratorium. He earned his teaching credential from Dominican University and has been teaching 2nd and now 3rd grade at Old Mill School (where his father also taught) for the past 14 years. He and his wife are raising two boys, a 5th grader at Old Mill, and a freshman at Tam High.

            He was honored to receive the Elizabeth Terwilliger award in 2015 for teaching, which was especially meaningful as he remembers how fun it was to have Mrs. T take his class on nature walks when he was a student at Strawberry Point.

            “I believe that my love of Mill Valley and my connection to some of its history would make me a constructive member of the MVHS Board,” says Graham.  He would like to work on activities to engage school age children.

Finn Does

            Finn is a Mill Valley resident and junior at Marin Academy High School in San Rafael. He is passionate about social and climate justice, multimedia journalism, and youth mobilization.

            He is the co-editor and founder of his student newspaper, co-leads the newsletter and logistics teams at a local organization, the Bay Area Youth Climate Summit, and runs track and cross-country.

            He joined the Historical Society in February of 2022, launching social media projects to bridge the gap with younger audiences—and increase outreach. As MVHS’ youth board member he will continue his social media work, collaborating further with the Historical Society to highlight the hidden histories of our town.

Nancy Emerson

            Nancy has been a Mill Valley area resident for 38 years. A member of MVHS since 1992, she is a History Room docent and has previously served two terms on the MVHS Board, the last term as secretary.

            She appreciates the Historical Society’s contribution to Mill Valley’s small town character and the preservation of its stories, and especially enjoys participating in the annual Walk Into History, the new expanded interpretive signage project, and the publications area.

            Nancy retired from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco after a long career in information technology, managing software development projects and systems.  She lives in Homestead Valley with her husband, Steve Quarles, who also loves history. Their two adult sons grew up in Mill Valley and return frequently for visits. The entire family enjoys summer holidays in Montana and looks forward to resuming travel to a long list of destinations.

Charlie Kelly

            Charlie is a Mill Valley native born in 1945. He attended Park, Edna Maguire and Tamalpais High School (class of 1963).

            After serving in the US Army (E5, Honorable Discharge), in 1968 he took a job as the “roadie” for Marin County rock legends the Sons of Champlin, a position he held until 2010.

            The Sons of Champlin took a 20 year hiatus from performing starting in 1977. During that period Charlie expanded his hobby of bicycling into promoting informal races for his friends on their modified Schwinn cruisers, or “klunkers” in the local nomenclature. In 1979 he joined Gary Fisher in a two man company called “MountainBikes,” building high quality bicycles for riding off-road.

            When every major bicycle company followed their lead, “mountain bikes” became a worldwide phenomenon. Charlie published the first magazine for the sport, the Fat Tire Flyer. His articles appeared in bicycle magazines around the world, and in 2014 his definitive history of the sport was published, “Fat Tire Flyer: Repack and the Birth of Mountain Biking.”

Lisa Newman

            Lisa was born in Seattle, Washington, and moved at a young age to California, where she grew up in San Jose and then Saratoga, surrounded by fruit orchards and ranches.  She has a bachelor’s degree in Land Resources Planning from Stanford University and a master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from UC Berkeley.

            For over 25 years she ran a planning consulting company, Newman Planning Assoc., and until her recent retirement, worked as a Senior Planner at the Mill Valley Planning and Building Department where she led the staff’s work on historic preservation, among many other responsibilities.  She has a deep understanding of Mill Valley’s history and the present-day community. 

Natalie Snoyman

            Natalie is a history enthusiast and has been working as an archivist for over a decade. From film studios to museums, she has enjoyed working in a variety of institutions and is passionate about advocating for the importance of and access to historical records.

            She was born in San Diego and earned a B.A. in Communications and Visual Arts from the University of California, San Diego, and hasa Master of Library and Information Science with a focus in Archival Studies from UCLA. She received her PhD in Media Studies from Stockholm University

            Natalie is currently records manager at Pisces. Prior to that she was the supervising archivist in the Lucretia Little History Room at the Mill Valley Library, where she focused on programming, outreach, and education. She also enjoys rock climbing, seeking out new restaurants, and cooking.