Meet Pat Kernighan's Council Staff


Jennie Gerard, Chief of Staff

Jennie comes to Councilmember Kernighan’s office after 23 years at the Trust for Public Land where the Land Trust Program she built brought land trusts to the West and helped launch a quarter of the nation’s 1200 trusts. She worked closely with Pat Kernighan and former councilmember Danny Wan to put together Measure DD, the Safe Parks, Clean Water Bond for $198 million, which 80 percent of Oakland voters approved in 2002. She formed the Measure DD Community Coalition to make timely input to the City on implementation of projects funded by the bond measure, and to advocate for matching funding. She has been a leader in building the Oakland Parks Coalition, an all-volunteer organization formed to bring meaningful improvement to the condition of the City’s parks. She is a board member and the former chair of the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, a national organization committed to creating trail systems using abandoned rail corridors. She is a board member and the former vice-chair of the Conservation Campaign, a national organization formed by the Trust for Public Land to assist cities, counties and states intent on passing public finance measures to acquire and improve park lands. She is a graduate of Wellesley College and holds a Master’s degree in City & Regional Planning from the Illinois Institute of Technology. She and her husband have lived in Oakland for the past 28 years. You can reach Jennie at jgerard@oaklandnet.com or (510) 238-7023.


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Kevin Liao , Legislative Aide

Kevin Liao has joined the District 2 Council staff as Legislative Aide. In his previous life, Kevin worked as a patent attorney for Bay Area law firms. Currently, he is focused on public safety, pedestrian safety, urban planning, and parks and recreation issues in the Chinatown, Eastlake, and San Antonio neighborhoods. In his spare time, Kevin enjoys catching up on current events and political/historical non-fiction, training at the gym, playing the electric guitar and tending to his better half. Kevin studied Molecular Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley and earned his J.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Kevin has lived in the Eastlake area and speaks fluent Mandarin. He can be reached at (510) 238-7022 or kliao@oaklandnet.com.


Joanne Karchmer, Council Aide

Joanne Karchmer has joined the District 2 Council staff as Council Aide, replacing Eva Paul, who retired in July after many years of dedicated service to the City of Oakland. Joanne is an attorney, who focused on litigation and public interest issues in the early part of her career. Just prior to joining us, she was the Executive Director of Career Development at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall), where she developed career-related programs, counseled law students and alumni, and managed a staff of seven people. Joanne will focus on public works projects, urban planning, code enforcement and constituent services. She is a graduate of Cornell University and earned her J.D. at Boston College Law School. Joanne is an Oakland resident and enjoys spending time with her husband and her two young children in our local parks, volunteering with non-profit organizations and in the classroom at her son’s school in the OUSD. Joanne works on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. She can be reached at (510) 238-7021 or jkarchmer@oaklandnet.com.

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Sarah Lin, Executive Assistant

Born in Hong Kong and raised on the San Francisco Peninsula, Sarah came to the East Bay to study and pursue a career in the helping professions. She has been active in helping the monolingual Chinese community in addressing seniors' concerns on behalf of the City’s Department of Human Services. Through her work for the City of Oakland's Senior Companion Program in partnership with the Oakland Fire Department, she has conducted the 9-1-1 Disaster Registry and has gotten to know various communities throughout District 2. In addition to English, she speaks fluent Cantonese and Mandarin. She can be reached at (510) 238-7246 or SLinD2@oaklandnet.com.

Sarah works in the Council office mornings from Monday through Thursday, and afternoons on Friday. If you would like to schedule a meeting with Pat, please contact Sarah.

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