Dr. Barke is a primary care physician in private practice in Newport Beach. He is a former 12 year elected School Board Member for the Los Alamitos Unified School District. Dr. Barke believes in community service and is a volunteer reserve Deputy for the Orange County Sheriff's Department serving as a tactical physician for the swat team. As Board Chair, Dr. Barke is actively engaged in recruiting our staff and public relations activities for OCCA. He also has a close relationship with Hillsdale College. Dr. Barke has 2 children ages 24 and 21. Dr. Barke brings years of educational governance and leadership to the OCCA Board.
STEVEN KING, BOARD SECRETARY
Steven is a professional civil engineer with over 20 years of experience in the design, construction, and management of large infrastructure projects. Mr. King has served as a member of the board of directors and is a past president of the American Society of Civil Engineers Orange County branch and Los Angeles section. He attended the University of Illinois and earned his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and graduated with a Master of Science in transportation management from San Jose State University. Steven and his wife met during their studies at SJSU and live in Anaheim Hills with their three sons.
BISHOP GALE OLIVER
Bishop Oliver was born and raised in Santa Ana. Bishop Oliver has served in the Ministry since May, 2000. He has served as an Associate Pastor, Senior Pastor, Bishop, and was ordained as an Apostle in 2019 for the Greater Light Family Church. In addition, he served as CEO of Dream Big & Make it Happen Media Ministries. Bishop Oliver brings a lifetime of experience in the faith community to the OCCA Board. He is a sought after speaker for invocations and inspirational messages.
KENDRA MEHR
Mrs. Mehr is a land use attorney with significant experience in public law. She founded her law firm in 2018 and specializes in representing private and public parties to develop, redevelop, and modify their property, government relations (helping private and public parties work with the government to obtain permits, approvals and process applications). She represents public and private clients before elected and appointed administrative bodies, hearing officers, civil and criminal courts, and State commissions. She earned her undergraduate degree from UCLA and holds both a Juris Doctorate and Masters of Law in Taxation from the University of San Diego School of Law. From her experience as a city attorney and general counsel to public agencies, Mrs. Mehr brings years of public governance experience to support OCCA. In addition to her legal career, Mrs. Mehr serves on the North Tustin Advisory Committee and she and her husband are blessed to be parents to two young sons.
MARK BUCHER
Mark Bucher has been active in education reform since working on Proposition 174 school choice campaign in 1993. In 1998, he authored, qualified, and chaired Proposition 226, which would have required government unions – including teachers’ unions – to receive permission to use their members’ dues for political purposes. He also played key roles in two other initiatives, Proposition 75 in 2005 and Proposition 32 in 2010, with the same purpose. He is the co-founder of the California Policy Center, a nonprofit organization that works for education reform, especially in low-income and minority communities.
Mark has also been active in the California charter school movement. He led the effort over the last four election cycles to elect a 5-0 majority of pro-charter candidates to the Orange County Board of Education. These pro-charter majorities have overseen a 300% expansion of charter schools in Orange County.
In 2020, Mark and his wife Bronwyn co-founded the Orange County Classical Academy, a classical education charter school in Orange affiliated with Hillsdale College. In operation for only three years, OCCA was recently named a California Distinguished School due to the extraordinary test scores of its students.
Mark obtained his undergraduate degree in Mathematics from Biola University, and his Juris Doctorate from Western State University, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude, first in his class, and with the additional honor of Valedictorian. He has business interests in software, real estate, property maintenance and human resources.
Mark and Bronwyn have five children, and live in North Tustin.
DR. MATTHEW SMITH
Matthew J. Smith is the founding president of Hildegard College, a new classical college in Orange County that combines study of the Great Texts of the Liberal Arts Tradition with Entrepreneurship. He is a scholar and professor of Renaissance literature and is the author of several books, including Performance and Religion in Early Modern England (Notre Dame 2016) and Literature and Religious Experience (Bloomsbury 2022). Dr. Smith speaks widely on classical learning and the future of higher education. He lives in Fullerton, CA, with his family. Read his full bio here: https://www.hildegard.college/staffandleadership.
