Board of Directors

CHERYL STEVENS, president

Cheryl has been a member of The Potters' Studio since December 2021 and has been taking classes since April 2021. For more than ten years she made jewelry and small sculptured pieces in metal clay and decided to branch out to hand-building during the pandemic working out of her home studio. Cheryl is a lawyer/arbitrator and has been on the board of several other organizations including the Allen E. Broussard Scholarship Foundation, the Alameda County Lawyers Toy Drive and the Alameda County Women's Lawyers Association.

Cheryl became a board member in 2022 and currently serves as President/Chair.

Sue Meinke, secretary

I am retired from a career in healthcare which included being the director of hospital laboratory services, pathology and nuclear medicine. Additionally, I participated in the design and implementation of hospital and laboratory information systems. I worked on the development of new hospital-based programs which introduced alternative medicine into the traditional hospital setting.

Many years ago, I was drawn to ceramics as it fit into my desire to explore what I saw as a universal human process, the making of the essential tools of life. After a long break from pottery, and after retiring from my career, I decided it was time to rekindle my love of working in clay. I started back where I left off, making functional ware and then soon shifted to nonfunctional and figurative work that often incorporates found objects.

I joined The Potters’ Studio 5 years ago and have been a member of the board for approximately 3 years and currently serve as Secretary.

sachin Ganpule, treasurer

I started working in clay in San Diego, making mostly functional ware and eventually focusing on porcelain clay bodies. While I was there I was also able to take part in Raku firings, learned to mix glazes, helped build a kiln, surrendered pieces to a pit fire, and learned to fire Cone 10 kilns. After moving to the Bay Area in the 00's, I joined Ruby's Clay Studio as a member, continuing to work in porcelain, occasionally firing kilns, serving on the Board for six years, and once putting up a show in their gallery. I became a board member at The Potters’ Studio in 2024, and currently serve as Treasurer.

suhail chander

I joined The Potters’ Studio as a fledgling student and have really enjoyed the learning and process of creation. The unpredictability of clay and the patience it demands attracts and challenges me.

I have been a career banker and have worked in India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore and I currently sit on the board of a large bank and an asset management company in India. 

Since 2018, I have been spending a much of my time in building socially relevant institutions. In February 2018 I launched SOCH foundation, a trust that works with providing support to children with learning disabilities. The service is free and already covers 50 schools and supports more than 1100 children in New Delhi, India. I am a trustee at ITIHAAS, a trust that works in the area of Heritage Education, Tourism and Skill Development. I am also a trustee at the CMC hospital in India, a charity that works towards providing quality healthcare to low-income families.

Liz Grossman

I fell in love with The Potters’ Studio five years ago while taking Bob’s Thursday night class. I am a novice who hand builds vessels for food and drink. I joined the board three years ago and am inspired by my fellow board members who share energy and desire to keep the Studio a vibrant, diverse, and respectful community of artists. For thirty-eight years, I have proudly practiced as a criminal defense attorney from my Berkeley Office.

Haley Tessler

I took my first wheel throwing class about seven years ago at my local community college. I was instantly hooked and soon joined a community studio in my neighborhood in San Francisco. While there, I connected with a wonderful network of friends and mentors and four years later I moved over to The Potters’ Studio. My work is primarily wheel thrown, then altered to create dynamic forms that are enhanced by the various firing processes The Potters’ Studio offers. I now do ceramics full time and I’m currently a Raku instructor at our studio. 

Larry Cohen

I started pursuing ceramics in 2017 when I took a class at The Potters’ Studio. I've always been fascinated by the idea of craft: how the interplay of skill and creativity can come together to shape the objects we use in daily life. For years I collected ceramics, practical pieces that reflected the needs and cultural traditions of every-day people. My own ceramic work has necessarily, for me, focused on hand-building and on painting glazes, enabling the clay to take on its own and my personality.    

I have a lengthy career fostering public health policy, with an emphasis on social justice, equity, and keeping people healthy and safe. I’ve worked for government, local and national non-profits, and have done strategy consulting nationally. I founded and directed the national nonprofit Prevention Institute for two decades, retiring recently. I also serve on the Board of the non-profit Clear Water/Vallejo Zen Center.

Using my previous work experience, I was able to help transform The Potters’ Studio into a nonprofit to ensure its ongoing sustainability.

Beth RockmilL

As a geneticist/potter I have found ways to blend art and science. In the lab, I study the dynamics of chromosomes during the sexual division in yeast, a visually striking process. I started pottery classes while working in New Haven and since I moved to Berkeley six years ago, my obsession with the craft has grown immensely. In my current work, thrown forms with colored terra sigillata are fired using a Raku kiln in saggers. I experiment with metals and biologicals (e.g., lichen, seaweed) to create organic effects that are deeply satisfying to my scientist self.  

sandy sherwin

My great-uncle was a ceramic artist in NYC who taught at Greenwich House, and I grew up admiring his art in various family members’ homes and see it as formative in my decision to work in clay. My undergraduate degree in Japanese/Economics began a long history of visits to ceramics communities in Japan where I have seen the breadth of ceramics practices and styles. I briefly tried ceramics in graduate school, but it wasn’t until the early 2000’s that I started taking classes in earnest at The Clay Studio in San Francisco as a way to balance out the hectic pace of my work life. I started taking classes at The Potters’ Studio in 2018 and became a member in early 2020.

In my free time, I own and operate a two-year old nursery and organic farm in Oakland. My previous careers were in telecommunications and various aspects of energy efficiency work, in both operational management and programmatic and strategic development. I previously served on the Foto Forum board (SFMOMA), was a two-term member on the Urban Forestry Council (City of San Francisco) and am currently President of the CBC Foundation.

Philomena Bradford

Philomena Bradford began her ceramics journey in 2021 at the Glassell School of Art with Jeff Forster. After moving to the East Bay in 2023, she stumbled upon The Potters’ Studio, enrolled in Ahn Lee’s “Bug’s Life” handbuilding class, and became a member soon after.  

Philomena enjoys narrative sculpture, raku firing with Haley Tessler, and community crit. Her background in literature and performance studies informs her ongoing artwork—a practice of gift-giving and memorializing across space and time. 

She loves to meet and learn from the clay artists and makers who pass through The Potters’ Studio every day. 

Philomena became a board member in 2025 and serves on the Fundraising and DEIA Committees. 

Serene Fang

I joined The Potters’ Studio as a member in 2017, not long after discovering the magic of clay.  I still remember the first time I visited the studio and immediately felt drawn to the warmth of the community, the beauty of the space, and the unparalleled access to equipment the Studio offered.  I’m grateful to have had this special place to explore clay and dive deep into the niche areas of clay-making and soda firing. 

In a prior life, I spent 15 years working as a journalist, producer, and editor for national and international news organizations.  I joined the board of The Potters’ Studio in 2025.

Laura Leaverton

I found ceramics when my daughter invited me to a class during the pandemic.  I quickly found myself coming back to class with excitement. I love the infinite possibilities that one lump of clay offers, and the multitude of techniques for shaping and decorating clay. I've been a member of the Potters' Studio since 2021.  This studio has empowered me to make and sell my work as a new potter, and provided the resources to learn every phase of clay production.  

My professional career was in software engineering, and managing teams of web developers in both consumer-facing and business-focused product teams. I retired in 2023, excited to have more time for clay.  I joined the board in March of 2025, excited to contribute to the mission of our studio, and to help its succeed in this new phase!  This is my first non-profit board.