Meet the Board
Gerald Turetzky
PRESIDENT
Gerald has moved to Northern California 23 years ago. Desperate to find a home in a market without much availability, they fell in love with Rancho San Miguel the minute they turned down Los Cerros Avenue. It became their home with his wife, Patti and daughters Ali and Tatum.
Gerald has a passion for mid century modern design having grown up in a post and beam home in Del Mar. This wonderful neighborhood has provided him with many opportunities to explore this design and create a fun place to live.
This is his second stint on the RSM Board. He served for 10 years on the RSM Swim Club Board with 6 years as president. Gerald served many years as Coach and Vice President on the Board of Walnut Creek Soccer Club.
Michael Balistreri
VICE PRESIDENT
Michael moved into their Eichler in RSM in 2012. Michael and his family are enormous fans of midcentury architecture and the community that is RSM.
Having served on the board these recent years, Michael is proud of the continued legacy that he has contributed to, in furtherance of the decades of leadership that have preceded him.
He is looking forward to continuing his contributions to the RSMA board, navigating the most effective path to address myriad neighborhood perspectives and capitalize on the resurgent energy and attention on the RSMA. With firsthand knowledge of RSMA’s efforts these past few years, as well as the ability to provide legal color to the issues affecting our neighborhood, he brings another set of resources to the RSMA to complement the other board members.
Dean Lundstrom
ARCHITECTURE & HISTORY
Dean moved to Rancho San Miguel in 2008 and immediately discovered the strong sense of community and friendly neighbors that make this neighborhood such an enjoyable place to live. He joined the RSMA Board in January 2013 to become more involved. Since then he has sat on the Civics Committee and has helped to put on multiple events for the community. His passion for mid-century architecture came through as the chair for an informative discussion panel on Home Renovation, and as a docent on the Mayor’s Second Saturday guided walk of several homes in our neighborhood.
Dean believes it’s important to develop and strengthen relationships not only between ourselves as neighbors, but also with our local schools, hospitals, businesses, and the City government.
Darren Murata
SECRETARY
Darren has been a resident of Rancho San Miguel since 2013. Darren and his wife fell in love with the mid-century modern houses and the wonderful neighborhood that surrounds them. He has always loved that the RSMA puts on fun and informative events, while also providing a channel for civic discussion and helping to safeguard our community.
Darren has a creative background, founding his own agency, and currently serves on the Oakland Asian Cultural Center board, as he enjoys supporting arts and humanities. He is looking forward to helping organize and strengthen the RSMA and having a direct influence on outreach and marketing.
Charlotte Rawa
BOARD MEMBER
Charlotte has been a resident since 2005 and has loved making wonderful friends in this neighborhood. For the last six years, you’ve known her as Easter Bunny. She has been undercover as the Bunny during the annual Easter Egg Hunt in the park! It’s been something she looks forward to every year. She also has volunteered for many of the events and donated wine to the events.
As a Board member, she is looking forward to volunteering for all of the various events.
Sean Duffy
TREASURER
Sean moved into Rancho San Miguel in 2021 after first living in an Eichler in Concord. He loves everything about Eichlers — quirks and all. Often he and his wife Janice reflect on how lucky they feel to be in the Rancho community and couldn’t imaging feeling at home in any other neighborhood in East Bay.
By day, Sean is the founder of a healthcare company and cares deeply about his industry, community, warm people, bettering humanity, and more recently, how to build and fly first-person view drones.
Gerard Lozano
BOARD MEMBER
Gerard is relatively new to the neighborhood, moved in Summer of 2021. Although new to Eichler ownership, Gerard and his wife DiAnne have been fans of them since out of college almost 20 years ago. For fun they would drive to different cities to visit Eichler hoods dreaming that one day they’ll be in one. Gerard’s first professional job was at a creative agency in Palo Alto and reported to an MCM lover who owned an Eichler. His office was decked out in all MCM furniture in an older MCM building on California Street — inspiration and seed planting all day!
Gerard is a Product Design Leader who has been continuously inspired by anything old, thoughtful design and least accessible to the masses — more rare which also extends to his other passion of vintage cars. Taking something old and enjoying it in today’s standard is definitely not for everyone but an experience each day like no other. Owning and maintaining Eichlers = vintage cars. Many residents here at RSM shares the same path in creativity in a close-knit community who truly cares.
Dara Buzzard
BOARD MEMBER
Hi! My name is Dara Buzzard. I’m a Bay Area native, born and raised in Walnut Creek/Danville. In fact, the very first home I lived in was an Eichler in this neighborhood (many years ago), and it still amazes me that I’ve come full circle. I’m A 13 year resident of Rancho San Miguel and we love raising our family in this community. We have two active teenage boys who keep us busy with school, baseball, water polo and swim team. Sometimes you may hear us walking the neighborhood with our two loud, but very sweet miniature dachshunds… if they bark at you, they are just saying “hi.”
Community is so important, it’s what connects us, and I love being a part of this community. I spent years as a Room Parent at school, being a part of the PFC at Walnut Acres, and helping as a Team Parent for various sports. I’ve also enjoyed coordinating the Community Service Day between our neighborhood and the City of WC to collect food for the CC Food Bank, and recently the neighborhood garage sale. I look forward to working together with the RSM Board to continue to build and create connections throughout our community.
Theresa Lee
BOARD MEMBER
Theresa trekked to the Golden State 20 years ago from the midwest to pursue design.
A lover of design and all things mid-century, driving around Rancho San Miguel for the first time was an awe inspiring experience for her. She marveled at the homes and was immediately transported to a different era. This feeling of inspiration and aspiration is what compelled her and her husband to pursue purchasing an Eichler.
With their newborn son on the way, RSM was also an ideal place to raise a family with the nearby parks, good schools and safe community. Two weeks before their son was born, they moved into their Eichler and have been renovating their passion project ever since. By being on the Board, Theresa strives to serve the community and make a positive impact for families.
Jessica Ahlstrand
BOARD MEMBER
Jessica is an Oakland native who moved to Rancho San Miguel with her husband Tony in 2015. Their son Cameron is a kindergartner at Walnut Acres.
Jessica is a professional quilter who is currently writing a book on modern quilting. Other interests include spending time in the mountains, travel and food. She has been on the RSMA board for 3 years
Leanne Liang
BOARD MEMBER
Leanne grew up in San Francisco but has lived in the East Bay since 2007. With a background in design and fine art, Leanne has always appreciated the sleek clean lines and modern aesthetics of the Joseph Eichler built homes in Rancho San Miguel. She and her husband Justin still talk about how lucky they are to have had the opportunity to purchase an Eichler in 2019. Together with their two children, Desmond and Nomi, they’ve enjoyed meeting all the friendly neighbors in both the Eichler and Jordan Reed homes. One of the unexpected things Leanne discovered was the number of artistic and creative people in the neighborhood. Leanne hopes to give back to this vibrant community by being on the board and volunteering for events to bring the community together.
Raj Golawar
BOARD MEMBER
About 10 or so years ago, Raj and his wife Priyanka, who has an industrial design and UX background, were thinking about their dream home. As a design student, Eichler Homes was at the top of their list someday.
That dream became a reality when they discovered Rancho San Miguel Neighborhood's rich mid-century history. After much research and connecting with the friendly community, they moved to RSM in 2022 and love every bit of the Eichler experience!
By the day, Raj is an engineering leader in Cancer and Genetics and is highly passionate about health care. Raj believes it is vital for our residents to have a sense of belonging and looks forward to working with the RSM board to help build a stronger community and bring newer experiences around Eichlers.