Tumblehome, Inc. Board of Directors
Walter Simson, Chair
Walter Simson is CEO of Magnitude Lighting – a California based high tech developer of circuits to drive LED-based environmentally friendly lighting solutions for various markets. Previously, Walter was for many years, a coach and consultant to CEO’s of middle market and emerging companies. Walter’s expertise is in helping CEO’s to quickly analyze and thoughtfully implement the strategic, financial and operating plans that improve companies’ revenues, efficiencies and profitability. He also helps clients build powerful organizations, create effective teams, and ensure ongoing accountability at every level. This fosters confidence in the CEO as a leader.
His coaching is grounded in his turnaround expertise, which puts a premium on getting the strategy right and developing leaders at all levels.
Walter’s profit improvement strategy is called “Core Products/Core Customers,” a proprietary method that links direct costing, strategic imperatives and business process improvements to lead clients to profitability.
He started his career at the Chase Manhattan Bank, where he worked in investment banking, syndications and workouts. He managed the 1982 rescheduling of the $32 billion debt of the Republic of Venezuela, where he served as co-chair of the creditor’s committee.
Walter has recently been named CEO of Magnitude Lighting, Inc., based in Southern California, focused on environmentally friendly and innovative LED lighting technology and production.
Walter holds a BA from Columbia University and an MBA from New York University. He has lectured in turnarounds and venture capital at Columbia, NYU and UW-Madison graduate Business Schools.
Elliot D. Lobel, Secretary
Elliot D. Lobel, one of Prince Lobel’s founding partners and senior litigators, has more than 35 years of experience litigating in federal and state courts. His trial practice includes both civil and criminal court matters and extends to representing clients before both state and federal administrative agencies.
A former assistant United States attorney and Middlesex County Assistant District Attorney, Elliot has a wealth of trial experience in Massachusetts state and federal courts. At the United States Attorney’s Office, he prosecuted a broad spectrum of criminal matters but focused primarily on tax and sophisticated fraud cases.
In private practice, Elliot has represented principals of publicly traded corporations charged with various breaches of duty, misrepresentation, and related matters. He has served as counsel to individuals involved in various joint investigations (including accompanying parallel proceedings); Department of Justice, SEC, tax, and FDA investigations; and investigations into allegations of conspiracies regarding exercising undue influence with elected officials. Elliot has spearheaded internal corporate investigations at the request of outside directors, has been involved in private SEC investigations, and has served in a similar capacity on behalf of closely held corporations. His experience as a prosecutor informs his defense work on behalf of those charged with a wide range of white-collar crimes.
Elliot has a strong passion for education. Drawing on considerable advocacy experience, he has taught in various trial advocacy programs, sharing his knowledge by instructing courses at the National Institute for Trial Advocacy, the United States Department of Justice, Harvard Law School, Suffolk University, and other law schools. He was an instructor in the Experimental College at Tufts University where he taught innovative courses including “The Merging of the Theater and the Courts.”
At the request of the Supreme Judicial Court, he has served as special counsel to the Committee on Professional Responsibility for Clerks of Court. Elliot is a member of the strategic planning board of Justice Bridge of Massachusetts, as well as a member of the Board of Advocates of the Tufts University Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life. He has been recognized in Woodward/White Inc.’s The Best Lawyers in America.
Elliot received his LL.M. Taxation from Boston University in 1977, his J.D. from New York University Law School in 1973, and his B.A. from Tufts University in 1970.
Steve Rasmussen, Treasurer
Steven Rasmussen is an education professional with a long track record in curriculum development and publishing. Currently a Senior Associate at SR Education Associates, Steve advises clients in the education sector on business strategy, product development, strategic relations, mergers and acquisitions, sales, and marketing.
Steve was the Co-founder, CEO, and Publisher at Key Curriculum Press where he worked for four decades on software and textbook development. He was also president of KCP Technologies and worked with government, school and publishing organizations around the globe on technology initiatives related to mathematics education and inquiry-based learning. KCP was recently sold to Springer Publishing, based in Germany. Using the title “Publisher as Advocate for Change,” Steve championed the cause of access and equity in mathematics education and worked closely with teacher education projects in the U.S., Asia, Central America, and the Middle East.
Steve serves as a member, advisor or board member for numerous for-profit and non-profit organizations including: Impact Science; COMAP; the Young People’s Project; Teachers2Teachers Global; the Woolman Outdoor School; and Tumblehome Books. He lives in Napa Valley, California, where he farms grapes.
Bernadine Nash-McClam
Bernadine Nash has had a diverse and varied career including teaching at Simmons College graduate School for Social Work, working in private practice as a psychiatric social worker and acting as Director for Massachusetts Department of Social Services where she oversaw the care and protection of children at risk for abuse in the Cambridge-Sommerville area. She would later move into the broadcasting as President and CEO where she would create a hybrid radio station model at WILD 1090 am focusing on not only entertainment, but on educating, empowering and uplifting its urban listeners. Within this platform, she did public speaking, served on numerous boards in the Boston area as well as conduct seminars for minority entrepreneurs. Following her exit from the broadcast industry she entered seminary at Harvard Divinity School where she focused on writing as a path to spiritual formation. She is currently mentoring young writers and poets, and working on her memoir, “they call me lucky” and how-to book, “Writing as a Spiritual Practice.” She holds a Ph.D from the Heller School at Brandeis university, M.Div from Harvard Divinity School, M.S. in Psychiatric Social Work from Simmons school of Social Work and B.A. from Boston University in Fine Arts. Bernadine also has a love of literature and STE education; she has been actively involved in STEM education competitions in Massachusetts, including the NAACP ACT-SO competition as a judge in the STEM division.
Diana Burbano
Diana Burbano, a Colombian immigrant, is a playwright, an Equity actor, and a teaching artist at South Coast Repertory and Breath of Fire Latina Theatre Ensemble.
Diana’s play Ghosts of Bogota, won the Nu Voices festival at Actors Theatre of Charlotte in 2019 where it will be produced in 2022. Ghosts was commissioned and debuted at Alter Theater in the Bay Area in Feb 2020. Sapience, a Playground-SF 2020, Winner was featured at Latinx Theatre Festival, San Diego Rep 2020. Fabulous Monsters, a Kilroys selection was to premiere at Playwrights Arena in 2020 (postponed).
She was in Center Theatre Group’s 2018-19 Writers Workshop cohort and is in the Geffen’s Writers Lab in 20-21. She has worked on projects with South Coast Repertory, Artists Repertory Theatre, Breath of Fire Latina Theatre Ensemble and Center Theatre Group and Livermore Shakespeare Festival.
Diana recently played Leona in Brian Quijada’s Somewhere Over The Border online at Arizona Theatre Company. You can also see her as Viv the Punk in the cult musical Isle of Lesbos.
She is the current Dramatists Guild Rep for Southern California. www.dianaburbano.com
Recent Former Board Member / Advisory Board Member
Dr. Karen Collias
Karen Collias, Ph.D. founded Knowledge Without Borders™ to inform and challenge creative educators, entrepreneurs, philanthropists and students to share ideas and spark new innovations with the potential to transform life and work in the 21st century.
Karen attributes her creative, analytical and evaluative knowledge and skills to the multi-disciplinary nature of her education and professional experience. She has worked as a policy analyst at the U.S. Department of State, taught at Princeton University and served as deputy director at the Smithsonian Science Center. Her Ph.D. from Columbia University combined political science and international education.
Today she focuses on state and national education reform projects ranging from evaluations of state education policies to innovative applications of design thinking that engage first generation college students and university administrators as they search for solutions to the unique challenges first gens face in making transitions from high school to university to global workforce. A first generation student herself, Karen established Knowledge Without Borders gap scholarships at colleges in New York and Wisconsin to help fund study abroad experiences for first generation college students.
Ex-Oficio / Non-Voting Staff Board Meeting Attendees:
Dr. Pendred Noyce (Past Chair)
Barnas Monteith (Past Secretary)
More information about Tumblehome, Inc. key executive staff can be found at About Tumblehome: