About
MitchDeArmon • About LeadershipWorks • About our Mentors • About
our Staff
Testimonials
Vicki DeArmon, Principal and Director
Vicki has 20 years of experience in business, nonprofit organizations,
and education. She is the co-founder of LeadershipWorks with her
husband Mitch DeArmon. Previously, she founded and served for 14 years
as the publisher of the San Francisco book publishing company, Foghorn
Press. The company was known for its comprehensive guidebooks to the
outdoors, and innovative marketing and service to the community through
strategic partnerships with the San Francisco 49ers, the Golden State
Warriors, the National Park Service, National Parks Association, Pacific
Bell, and Outdoor Retailer to name a few.
DeArmon was awarded the Bank of America Achievement Award from nominated businesswomen throughout San Francisco for her work in literacy and the environment. She was on the board of the National Parks Association and spearheaded the San Francisco March for Parks Earth Day event for three successive years, including the 25th anniversary of Earth Day in the Presidio.
Vicki served as president of the nonprofit San Francisco Bay Area Book Council for three years during which time she helped grow the San Francisco Book Festival to 35,000 attendees with 200 vendor booths and developed the Junior Publishers Program (for 13 to 17 year olds) and Reading Grants for Teachers. She established the cooperative Independent Travel Publishers Association and other cooperative ventures for publishers. She taught Introduction to Book Publishing at UC Berkeley Extension and was a member of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce board and graduate of City‘s respected Leadership Program.
She has her degree in English Literature from UC Santa Cruz and a year toward her masters in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. Formerly an education reporter, Vicki is the daughter of Sonoma County educators and a graduate of Montgomery High School (1977). She is the mother of three school age children.
Tori Coto, Parent, Agency, and School Liaison
Tori is a long time peace activist (40 years) with a special interest
in restorative justice. She has been working with youth, especially
boys, for over 30 years. For the past several years, she has been
a Restorative Conference coordinator, working with Restorative Resources
in Sonoma County. The organization provides an alternative to juvenile
hall to youth in trouble by working with them to develop a plan of
restitution and then monitoring the youth and plan through its completion.
She has worked with parents, families, schools, counselors, and law enforcement throughout Sonoma County. She has utilized Mitch DeArmon‘s expertise with young men in Family Group Conferences through Restorative Resources. She is also the mother of two men (ages 18 and 33).
Adam Donovan, Mentoring Programs and Curriculum Coordinator
Adam coordinates LeadershipWorks mentoring programs for youth and works
with Mitch DeArmon to develop the curriculum for these programs and the
trainings for mentors. Adam has been working with the Young Men‘s
Ultimate Weekend, a coming of age weekend for young men, for the last two
years as enrollment manager. He serves on the board of this nonprofit which
partners with LeadershipWorks.
His background includes 30 years as Pacific Bell and Mountain Bell, primarily in the Yellow Page Sales division. His education includes a major in English and Art History from Yale University and coursework towards a Masters in Art History at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. He worked as a teaching assistant at both Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey and CCNY, the City University of New York. The issues of male identity and the dilemmas of adolescent males have been important to him for much of his adult life.