Steven Woodside, J.D., Board Chair
Steven joined the Board in 2015, having been impressed by the work Call of the Sea does to expose youth to the ocean and maritime world through experiential, environmental education under sail.
Steven has 50 years of legal experience representing local public agencies and decades of volunteer work with various Bay Area educational and environmental nonprofits. He served on a volunteer basis as Executive Director of Call of the Sea during the Covid-19 Pandemic.
Steven’s passion for sailing and maritime activities is “in his DNA.” His grandfather taught him to sail on SF Bay aboard a wooden sloop. His Irish and Scottish ancestors were sea captains and ship builders. His great grandmother, Marian “Polly” Woodside, sailed with her seven children around the Horn to California. Belfast built barque Polly Woodside (1885), pictured above, is a restored educational tall ship in Melbourne, Australia.
Alice Collier Cochran, M.Ed., Vice President
Alice Cochran has served as a consultant to facilitate interactive planning meetings of organizations since the mid 1980’s and is the author of Roberta’s Rules of Order and related workbooks. She conducts governance workshops for nonprofit Boards and staff members to align their roles and focus on the future. She is a past national Board member of Tall Ships America and currently serves on the Advisory Council. She is the past president of the nonprofit Golden Gate Tall Ships Society which dissolved to combine its membership and treasury with Call of the Sea. Alice earned her undergraduate degree from Longwood University in Virginia and her Masters in Education from Virginia Commonwealth University but is a life-long learner. For ten years she was the Director of Student Leadership Development at the Institute for Leadership Studies in the school of business of Dominican University of California. She is currently an adjunct faculty member. She and her life-partner Dave Hirzel own a small gaff-rigged catboat. They both serve on the Board of Sailing Education Adventures (SEA), a community sailing nonprofit based at Loch Lomond Marina in San Rafael.
John Arens, Treasurer
John Arens joined the board of Call of the Sea in May of 2022. John’s interest in the Call of the Sea is driven by his love of the sea and the belief that time on the water can be a transformational experience. John is an active sailor, campaigning his sailboat in San Francisco Bay and coastal races. John grew up on sailboats in southern California, but his sailing education also included climbing around and sailing folk boats in Denmark and learning maritime traditions. The classic ships of Call of the Sea serve as a natural extension to this background. John has many years of experience in finance and real estate, serving in executive legal and business roles for tech-enabled start-ups. John holds a Juris Doctor and a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of San Diego.
Dave MacGregor, M.D., Secretary
David MacGregor joined the board of Call of the Sea in 2005. He has a keen interest in sailing, nautical history and youth education. He is an avid sailor and boater with a passion for sailboat racing and wooden boats. David is also a board member of a non-profit school in San Francisco focusing on early childhood education. He is interested in and active in Development/Advancement for both these organizations. David is a Bay Area native and attended UC Berkeley and then Tulane University School of Medicine. He is a Dermatologist in San Francisco with a solo private practice. Professionally, he particularly enjoys teaching young physicians through volunteer positions with UCSF and California Pacific Medical Center.
Dave Anderson
Dave has served in a variety of management & executive positions in the Technology & Financial Services Industries including service with Bank of America, Capital One, Capital Group, Autodesk & Salesforce. His community involvement includes service as the Vice Commodore & Treasurer of the Tiburon Yacht Club. He was a Board member of the Dixie School District Investment Fund and Treasurer for Dixie Little League & several Dixie School Bond campaigns. As a Surface Warfare officer in the United States Navy, Dave operated surface ships in the Mediterranean, Atlantic & Caribbean. Dave taught Naval Engineering & Shipboard Management at the Navy Surface Warfare School in Newport, RI. Mr. Anderson earned a Bachelor of Arts, Economics from University of California Los Angeles and a Masters of Business Administration from San Francisco State University.
Terry Causey
Terry Causey is a lifelong ocean-cruising sailor and a patron of maritime causes and projects from Hawaii (where he lived for more than half his life) to California, where he now divides his time between Sausalito and Newport Beach. He holds his captain’s license endorsed for sailing all oceans. He has navigated throughout the Pacific, including the Hawaiian Islands, French Polynesia, New Zealand, Australia, and the Cook, Solomon, and Line Islands. Terry is a successful real estate developer and he continues to be a significant benefactor to Call of the Sea. He believes in teaching young people stewardship of the oceans and instilling in them mindfulness of their environment and compassion for each other.
Cori Currier
Cori is a marine science researcher and project leader, who has been working at the intersection of environmental science and community engagement for 15 years. She discovered tall ship sailing as an undergraduate and spent a few years teaching on brigantines and schooners around French Polynesia, South Carolina, California, and on ocean transits. Her experience has spanned marine science education, non-profit program development, and environmental consulting. While completing the Master of Marine Affairs program at UW in Seattle, she developed and implemented collaborative approaches to environmental problem solving in an urban estuary. Her more recent research has been on equitable coastal restoration as well as fisheries, studying impacts of both drought and offshore wind development on fish populations. Cori first learned of Call of the Sea in 2011, volunteering as a deckhand on Seaward. She joined the Board in 2022 and loves to volunteer on the Matthew Turner now and then. When not playing in the water, Cori enjoys cooking for friends, walks around San Francisco, and climbing in the Sierra Nevada.
Jason B. Henderson
Jason B. Henderson is vice president and district manager for Wells Fargo. He manages the financial, operational and customer experience of 12 branches located in Marin County. In addition to his business experience, Jason served his country in the United States Air Force Reserves from 1988-2013. He retired from the service achieving the highest enlisted rank of command chief master sergeant, where he was a senior member of the commander’s staff, advising on matters concerning 1,100 enlisted members. Jason is an active volunteer in his local community and serves as the co-chair of the Marin County Workforce Alliance board. He earned a Master of Business Administration from California State University at Sacramento and completed the American Bankers Association Graduate School of Banking. Jason’s hobbies are hiking, gym, and spending time with his family: wife Andrea, kids Liam and Geneva, and their dog Riley.
Gwendolyn Holst, J.D.
Gwen is a Bay Area native who returned in 2021 after nine years in Los Angeles and quickly became a regular sailing volunteer with Call of the Sea upon her return. While in Los Angeles, Gwen fell in love with tall ships, when a course during her final semester at USC introduced her to the twin brigantines Irving and Exy Johnson and the three-masted schooner American Pride at the Los Angeles Maritime Institute. Around the Bay Area, Gwen is actively involved in the sailing community, not only at COTS, but also through crewing on boats for various yacht club regattas and as a rigger on Balclutha for the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. She also sails on the gaff-rigged schooner Bill of Rights down in San Diego with the South Bayfront Sailing Association. Professionally, Gwen is an in-house attorney in biotech. She earned her juris doctorate from UCLA and has previously worked in-house at a medical device company and at a nationally ranked law firm in its Emerging Companies/Venture Capital group.
Matthew Johnston
Matthew Johnston joined the Call of the Sea Board in 2024. He comes to COTS with an extensive background in maritime law and marine insurance, and currently works for a major P&I Club. Mr. Johnston graduated from University of San Francisco School of Law with a focus on maritime law. He is also a member of the California Bar, Passenger Vessel Association, Maritime Law Association and the Pacific Admiralty Seminar.
Jack Lapidos
Regarded as a talented accountant in the San Francisco Bay Area, Mr. Lapidos brings years of expertise advising non-profits on financial matters. He currently serves as Treasurer for the San Francisco Maritime National Park Association Board of Trustees, and Treasure for The Potomac Association who operates the only fully operational US Presidential Yacht.
Alan Olson, Co-Founder
As Project Director, Alan brings his vision to the organization and 60 years of maritime experience, in construction, engineering, restoration and sailing. At age 22 he built his first boat in Minneapolis, a 40 foot catamaran, sailing her down the Mississippi and to the Caribbean. He next constructed Stone Witch, a 70’ brigantine. From 1977 on, he sailed Stone Witch over 40,000 miles, operating educational sailing programs for youth and adults along with public charters on SF Bay and on Pacific Ocean expeditions. Stone Witch was the flagship for Greenpeace and participated in environmental missions along the California Coast. In the 1990’s Alan restored a 1929, 54ft wooden staysail schooner to use in youth educational programs with Call of the Sea and on educational expeditions with adults. In 1992 they set sail on a one year 15,000 mile Pacific Rim Voyage through Hawaii and Pacific Islands entering Shanghai as the first American yacht to visit in fifty years. After three months cruising Japan they set out for Alaska returning along the coast to San Francisco. Alan also spent five years in a leadership and design position at a Buddhists monastery building elaborate temples and sculpting sacred art.
Carter Collins
Founding member emeritus
Graham Greene
Founding member emeritus