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President’s
Biography
When
Janet E. Harman founded the KDK-Harman Foundation in December 2004,
it launched her new career. After undergraduate work at
Cornell University and graduate work at Stanford
University, she
had a successful career as an electrical engineer and engineering
manager for high tech firms and later formed her own engineering
consulting firm. When
her children were young, she “retired” from the workforce to focus
on her family and philanthropic efforts.
Today,
Janet serves as Founder and President of KDK-Harman Foundation. She endowed the private
family foundation with $26 million, which has grown to $30 million.
KDK-Harman Foundation was created to support educational
opportunities for economically disadvantaged families through
education and academic programs at area nonprofits. Janet believes
education is the key to escape poverty and access higher-paid
employment opportunities. “Education is an essential means towards
achieving financial independence and enabling a better life for
families and their future generations. A better educated society
will result in lower crime rates, a reduction to the burdened
healthcare system, and increased economic productivity,” states
Harman.
Ms.
Harman’s involvement in philanthropy spans years of commitment and
service to others. She has been involved at the leadership level at
Center for Child Protection and Children's Medical Center
Foundation of Central Texas. In recent years, she has also
supported St. Stephen’s Episcopal School, Lifeworks, and
Girlstart. Throughout
the 20 plus years of living in Austin, Janet has volunteered and actively
participated in numerous organizations including Boy Scouts, Girls
Scouts, Eanes Elementary, Hill Country Middle
School, and Austin Civic
Orchestra. Additionally,
she participated as a panelist for the 2007 Grantmaker’s for
Education National Conference. Currently, Janet serves on the
Program Committee for the 2008 Conference of Southwest Foundations
Annual Conference as well as on the Advisory Committee for
KIPP
Austin College Prep Academy.
Janet
lives in Austin,
Texas, with her three
children, Kevin, David, and Kelly – the namesakes of the family
philanthropy (KDK). Her
hobbies include adventure travel, skiing, horseback riding, and oil
painting. She and her
children enjoy their two dogs, two cats, and four horses. Janet looks forward to
passing on her values of commitment to philanthropic efforts
and service to her children by involving them early in their lives.
Jo
Ivester—Board Member
Jo
Ivester is a founding board member of the KDK-Harman Foundation. Her
passion for education as a means of fighting poverty goes back to
her childhood when her family moved to an impoverished town in rural
Mississippi and her mother taught
in the local high school. She and her mother have recently completed
a book chronicling those experiences entitled From Cotton Fields to
Shakespeare which she is currently seeking to publish. Following
a fifteen-year career in the transportation and high tech
industries, she began teaching math on a substitute basis at the
middle and senior high school level. More recently, she has served
as an adjunct professor at St. Edward University’s undergraduate business
school teaching operations management. Jo received a B.S. in civil
engineering from MIT and an M.B.A. from Stanford. She has been
married for twenty-seven years and has four
children.
Eugene
Sepulveda—Board Member
Eugene Sepulveda is a
community activist dedicated to making Austin a better place to
live, work and play. He was indoctrinated into grass roots
activism as a child at the skirt of his aunt who helped organize
Houston’s Hispanic community. Over the last twenty five years,
he has served in leadership positions on the boards of the Austin
Community Foundation, Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce,
PeopleFund, Leadership Austin and the Austin Museum of Art, as well
as serving as a board member for over fifty other local, statewide
and national nonprofits and foundations. He currently serves
as the CEO for the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Central Texas.
During the previous seven years, he taught social entrepreneurship
and global business to undergraduates and MBA students in the
University of Texas’ McCombs School of Business. Prior to
teaching, Eugene was a CFO, consultant and banker in Austin’s high
tech community. Eugene
earned his BA from Texas A&M University.
Kevin
Sooch—Board Member
Kevin is the
oldest of Janet Harman’s children and has an active role
as junior board member of KDK-Harman Foundation. Kevin’s
interest in the foundation started in his junior year at St.
Stephen's Episcopal School. Kevin reviews grant applications,
participates in board meetings and attends site visits to learn
about the high engagement style that the KDK-Harman Foundation
utilizes in Austin and surrounding areas. Kevin is now
finishing his senior year at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School and
is looking forward to attending college in the fall of 2008,
majoring in electrical engineering. Kevin is an avid golfer, skier,
and world traveler.
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