Nominees for 2024 SCGS Board of Directors

Cast your vote for 7 candidates.
Vote online before Dec. 6th.
Please go to Member Log-In to vote electronically
To Vote by Mail: Call: 818-843-7247, for a ballot to be mailed to you.

Election results will be revealed at the Annual Meeting on Saturday, December 9. This will be a hybrid meeting, so be sure to register https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/2287739985311621207 if you plan to attend online.


Below are statements from the candidates who have submitted bios, in A-Z order:
Diane Adamson, Kathy Holland, Lyn Jensen, Louise Ratliff, John V. Richardson, Jr., PhD, Cathy Romero, Douglas Westfall, Lynde Su Young .

Diane Adamson
Diane joined SCGS in 2009 and is currently the society’s President and Jamboree Co-Chair. She is a native of Los Angeles and is a graduate of Cal State Northridge with a degree in Business Administration/Accounting Information Systems. After completing college, she worked for the Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO)'s IT Department for 22 years as a programmer and a manager. Later, she was employed by the Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center in the IT department. Along the way, she continued her academic studies, earning an MBA degree with emphasis on information systems from USC, and completed enough course requirements from Cal State Northridge to complete a second bachelor's degree in psychology and a master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. Previously, Diane was SCGS's Volunteer Coordinator and a member of the IT Department.


Kathy Holland
Kathy is a native Californian—born and raised in the San Fernando Valley. She have been searching for her ancestors since 1984, and found them all the way back to the mid-1600’s. On the education front, she completed the American certificate program at the National Institute of Genealogy (earning the PLCGS certificate), started the German certificate program at the NIGS, and completed the Pro Gen program and the DAR genealogy courses. She has attended the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG) every year since 2013, working on German studies and methodology skills. She is a member of NGS, SCGS, APG, the APG virtual chapter, and the So Cal chapter of APG, the DAR, and the DUVCW. She volunteers on the 4th Saturday at the SCGS library and participates in the German Interest Group. Kathy has a BA and MA degree in Political Science.


Lyn Jensen
Lyn Jensen has a lifelong interest in genealogy, writing two columns on her family's ongoing history, "Life After Mother" and "My Recycled Life."

I do genealogy because my mother started a family tree, then gave it up, and I took over. I went many years before I learned about the basics of pedigree charts, family group charts, color coding, and obtaining birth, marriage, and death records. Add to that how my family is littered with divorces, adoptions, and some eyebrow-raising secrets, and even basic organizing has been quite an adventure! Organizing genealogy is a never-ending project--from the most appropriate ways of documenting and preserving names and dates, to dealing with side issues and uncooperative relatives.

As for my background, I've been a freelance journalist in southern California since the 80s. My byline has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register, the Los Angeles Weekly, the Los Angeles Reader, Music Connection, Bloglandia, Senior Reporter, and many other periodicals. My blog is found at lynjensen.blogspot.com and I graduated from UCLA with a major in Theater Arts.


Louise Ratliff - 1st Vice President
A native of Los Angeles, Louise has lived in the Baldwin Hills, Palos Verdes Peninsula, Los Angeles, and the San Fernando Valley. She has been interested in family history since her parents began researching their families in the 1980s, but has only recently begun learning how to do her own research by attending Jamboree and attending talks and webinars. Both of her parents have traced their lines back to the 1100s, in England and Germany. One famous ancestor is William "Buffalo Bill" Cody! As a Librarian at CSUN and UCLA for over 40 years, Louise was active in library automation and cataloging, and was a map cataloger for 12 years until she retired in 2019. Now she helps in the SCGS Library by providing full cataloging for the maps and serving on the Library Ops Committee. She also serves on the Jamboree committee. Other interests include hiking, gardening with native plants, and serving as webmaster for the Los Angeles/Santa Monica Mountains Chapter of the California Native Plant Society.


John V. Richardson, Jr., PhD
An 8th generation Ohioan, John V. Richardson is a UCLA Professor Emeritus of Information Studies where he has taught "Genealogical Information Resources" for graduate students training to become archivists and librarians. Currently, he's the FamilyTreeDNA volunteer administrator for the Richardson Project.

His Die Weber Familie (ITA Press, 2020) about the Weber family who left Germany in the early 19th century won the Ohio Genealogical Society's 2021 Harrison Prize. He is a member of The General Society of Colonial Wars of the State of California, Sons of the American Revolution, and Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War plus many other genealogical societies.



Cathy Romero
Cathy has been a member of SCGS since 2010. She is a retired Graphic Designer after working for Kaiser Permanente Southern California Regional Offices in Pasadena doing desktop publishing and web support for 34 years. She has a BA in Design from CSULA.

Her family research is in New Mexico going back to the 17th century and in Zacatecas, Mexico, also going to the 17th century. She is a board member of the Genealogical Society of Hispanic America and a member the New Mexico Genealogical Society. She lives in Rosemead, California.



Douglas Westfall
I am a Congressionally recognized National Historian and have published 150 books on America's history now for three decades. Of those, I have written a third and 90% come from first person accounts in the form of letters, journals, diaries, memoirs and interviews. Our books reach back to colonial days. Prior to this I was a teacher for 20 years, from 4th grade through college and for half that time, I ran an Industrial Training Center for a billion-dollar computer company in Tustin, CA and had teachers working for me in 26 US States and 34 Countries. I have taught classes in two dozen states, Canada, Latin America, the Caribbean, Philippines plus ten cities in Europe.

As well, I wrote one book on the genealogy of America and published the third volume of Marie Northrop's series on Spanish & Mexican Families of Early California -- for the SCGS back in 2004. I have given classes at the Orange Pioneer Family Search Center and once at the SCGS library in Burbank. I continually use genealogy information in the research for the people in our books and hold an AA in Technology, a BA In Education and have a life-time secondary teaching credential. I was selected for the 2016 National Daughters of the American Revolution Historian award.


Lynde Su Young
Lynde Su Young was born in South Dakota and later raised in Portland, Oregon, before coming to La Crescenta in 1975. Her career as a hairdresser and business owner for over 50 years taught her problem solving, organizing skills, understanding the power of visualization, and learning through listening to people and their stories. Married to a motion picture technician who is also an avid pilot, they have 3 children, 3 grandchildren, and five great grandchildren.

In 2016, Lyn caught the genealogy bug when she discovered Ancestry DNA matches that were previously unknown to her. Since her retirement she has worked building her family tree and matching cousins by both DNA and paper trails. At SCGS she is a member of the DNA and German Interest Groups and volunteers at the SCGS Library, working as a Librarian Volunteer helping visitors with their questions and research. She is a member of the Library Operations Committee; and she looks forward to helping with the development and planning for the future of SCGS.