Phyllis de Picciotto, Co-Chair, Santa Barbara
Phyllis has been actively involved in the film industry for 23 years as an independent film exhibitor with Laemmle Theatres, Metropolitan Theatres and other chains on the West Coast. Concurrently she owned and operated a marketing and advertising company specializing in foreign films and US independent films. At present she is a consultant for film-related projects. Phyllis is the founder, and was the director, of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival for 13 years. She also taught a Contemporary Film Class at Santa Barbara City College for 13 years. Her Santa Barbara community involvement includes serving on the Santa Barbara Grand Jury, the Santa Barbara Human Relations Commission, and the Steering Committee for Building Bridges: from hate to harmony. Phyllis is a member of the Santa Barbara Citizens Committee on Elections and she serves as an advisor to City@Peace, a unique project for youth at risk. She has organized and coordinated cultural and film exchange programs from many countries including Hungary, the former USSR and China. Phyllis was a guest lecturer at Shandong University, PR China in 1998-99. She and her husband, Stan Roden, have four children and four grandchildren.

Mike Farrell, Co-Chair Emeritus, Los Angeles
Mike is an actor, producer, writer and director. A political and social activist, he became involved with Human Rights Watch in the early 1980s, when his work with CONCERN/America, an international refugee aid and development organization, brought him face to face with the effects of U.S. involvement in Central America. Human rights and refugee aid issues have taken him, since the late 1970s, to Southeast Asia, Central and South America, the (then) Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and many prisons across the United States. Currently co-chair emeritus of the California Committee South of Human Rights Watch, he also serves as chair of Death Penalty Focus of California, spokesperson for CONCERN/America and periodically as Good Will Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Jonathan Feldman, Vice-Chair, Los Angeles
Jonathan Feldman is a playwright and screenwriter. His involvement with Human Rights Watch began in the early days when it was still called Helsinki Watch. In his twenties Jonathan volunteered his time and wrote letters to heads of state on behalf of many prisoners of conscience behind the Iron Curtain. After losing touch with the movement for a time, Jonathan moved to California and discovered the California branch of Human Rights Watch and through it has rededicated himself to the cause of human rights. As a social activist, Jonathan was instrumental along with Stephen Sondheim and the late Gerald Champman in creating the Young Playwright's Festival which in the late 80's developed a range of programs to teach inner city kids to express themselves by writing plays. Through the Dramatist Guild the festival sponsored a yearly contest to present the best of these plays in a professional theater setting. The program soon became a central piece in the campaign to increase and improve literacy among public school students in New York. To this day the program brings professional playwrights into New York City public schools.

Nancy Koppelman, Co-Vice Chair, Santa Barbara
Nancy is a longtime Santa Barbara resident and community activist. Her passion is international humanitarian aid, and she is involved with Direct Relief International as well as the UCSB Arts and Lectures Program. She is a founding member of the Santa Barbara chapter of the California Committee South of Human Rights Watch. She lives in Montecito with her husband Larry and their 14-year old daughter, Renee.

Jane Olson, Co-Founder, Los Angeles
Jane has devoted her life to international justice and humanitarian work. She co-founded and served as co-chair of the California Committee from its inception in 1989 until 2000. She also chairs the International Board of Human Rights Watch and serves on the advisory board of the Europe and Central Asia Division. Jane has been on many missions to the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, South America, South Asia, the Middle East and Africa to look at problems with refugees, human rights issues, HIV/AIDS and landmines. Using her journalism training in investigative reporting and photography, she documented and provided witness to the critical problems and needs of some of the most vulnerable people in the world. She has received numerous awards for her efforts in promoting peace around the world, including the Silver Achievement Award from the YWCA of Greater Los Angeles in 2001, the Community Achievement Award from Public Counsel and the Corita Kent Peace Award by Immaculate Heart College Center. Jane received a B.A. in history and journalism from University of Nebraska in 1964 and an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from California Lutheran University in 2003.

Zazi Pope, Vice-Chair, Los Angeles
Zazi is Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at Warner Bros, where she is in charge of the litigation department. She has a long-standing interest in human rights, and has worked for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States and the International Labour Office, and has conducted field research in Colombia and Brazil. She has been involved with Human Rights Watch since 1987 and participated in several fact-finding missions for the organization to Chile, Nicaragua, and Mexico. She has been a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is a founding member of the Pacific Council on International Policy.

Victoria Riskin, Co-Chair, Los Angeles
Victoria Riskin is past President of the Writers Guild of America, west. For almost 15 years she has been a television writer-producer and, before that, a psychologist in private practice for 15 years. Victoria's work in television production began in 1989 when she was executive producer of "The Last Best Year," a movie based on her experiences as a clinical psychologist. Her second production, "A Town Torn Apart," won a Christopher and an Emmy nomination for Best Director. In 1994 Victoria co-produced with her husband, David W. Rintels, the award winning miniseries, "World War II: When Lions Roared." Victoria's writing career began with the adaptation of the novel "My Antonia," for which she won the World Media Award Silver Medal for Screenwriting. She was also Executive Producer of an adaptation of Carson McCullers' famed novel, "The Member of the Wedding." Thirteen years ago she was instrumental in establishing the California Committee South, which she currently co-chairs with Mike Farrell and Sid Sheinberg. She also serves on the International Board of Human Rights Watch and the Advisory Board of the Asia Division. From 1989 to 1995 Victoria was Co-Director of the Tibetan Aid Project, a non-profit foundation that sends aid to Tibetan Refugees in India, Nepal and Tibet. In that capacity, she took frequent trips to India and Nepal to work in the refugee community. She is a Trustee of the American Film Institute, on the Board of the Museum of Radio and Television and Radio and a member of the International Women's Forum.

Stan Roden, Co-Chair, Santa Barbara
Stan Roden is a trial attorney and has worked as a litigator and mediator for more than 35 years. He recently founded his own mediation/arbitration firm and was a partner at Hatch & Parent, Santa Barbara's largest law firm, from 1983 to 2003. Stan is the former two-term elected district attorney for Santa Barbara County, former Chairman of California's Commission on Violence, former member of the California State Political Practices Commission, and past president and board member of the Santa Barbara Regional Chamber of Commerce. He has also been adjunct professor of political science at Santa Barbara City College and of law at Shandong University, PR China. He is married to Phyllis de Picciotto and they joined the California Committee South in 2000.

Sid Sheinberg, Co-Chair, Los Angeles
Sid Sheinberg presently is a partner in The Bubble Factory, an entertainment company he formed in July 1995 with his sons Jon and Bill. From its headquarters in Beverly Hills, California, the company has produced nine motion pictures. In June 1973, Sid was elected President and Chief Operating Officer of MCA, Inc. During the years of his tenure, Universal Pictures, a division of MCA, Inc., released the highest-grossing films of each of the past three decades, beginning with Jaws in 1975, following with E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial in 1982 and concluding with Jurassic Park in 1993. Sid attended Columbia College and later Columbia Law School, where he was both a Harlan Fiske Stone and a James Kent Scholar. In 1959, he joined the legal department of Revue Productions, MCA's former television subsidiary, and began his career in the entertainment industry. Sid is a vice-chair of the International Board of Human Rights Watch and co-chair of the California Committee South. He is also co-founder of The Children's Action Network. He has received many awards for his professional achievement and humanitarian work. Among them are the 1995 Simon Wiesenthal Center's Humanitarian Award and the 1998 Columbia Law School Medal for Excellence, the Law School's highest honor for achievements by its alumni/ae and faculty.

William Temko, Los Angeles
Bill is a partner in the Los Angeles law firm of Munger, Tolles and Olson. He received his BA degree from Williams College (magna cum laude/Phi Beta Kappa) in 1976, and his law degree from Columbia Law School in 1979, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. For the past 24 years, he has been engaged in a complex commercial litigation practice, in the areas of securities litigation, business torts, contract litigation, and anti-trust. In addition, he regularly provides pro bono representation to various community organizations in the Los Angeles area, and is a member of the Board of Directors of United Friends of the Children. Bill is married to Sarah Bowman and has two young children, Jamie and Jack. He joined Human Rights Watch California in 1996 and currently serves as the co-chair of the California Committee South, along with Sid Sheinberg and Victoria Riskin.