Soroush Ghahramani, Int'l Associate A.I.A.
Department Chair & Professor of Architecture
Prof. Soroush Ghahramani is a registered architect in Italy and an international member of the American Institute of Architects. He is also a member of the following professional societies: The Architects, Urban Planners, Landscape Architects, and Preservationists Society of Rome Italy, The Santa Clara Valley Chapter of The American Institute of Architects, The California Council of The American Institute of Architects, and The National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Dr. Ghahramani received his Master's degree in Architecture from the University of Rome, "La Sapienza," with the maximum G.P.A. in 1983. He began his professional activities immediately after graduation. In 1984, he passed the "State of Italian Architect Registration Examination." As a result, he became certified to practice as an architect. For four years, he served different architectural and engineering firms in Rome, Italy, where he learned a lot working on a variety of projects with several renowned experts specializing in different fields.
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ARCHITECTURE FACULTY
Bruce Biordi, A.S.L.A.
Carol Buhrmann, A.I.A.
Prof. Buhrmann holds a Master of Science in Architecture from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University. She is a member of the American Institute of Architects and the San Francisco Chater of the A.I.A.
Mrs. Buhrmann has been teaching at West Valley College since 2009. She has many years of experience teaching architecture, most recently at Florida Atlantic University, U.C. Berkeley and California College of the Arts. Her research explores the connection between architecture and site planning She was a Fulbright Lecturer in 1996 at the Urals Academy of Architecture in Ekaterinburg, Russia, and returned to Ekaterinburg in subsequent years to conduct funded research. One of her research topics is early Soviet architecture in Ekaterinburg and Uralmash, 1925 -1932, its connections to the OSA (Union of Contemporary Architects) in Moscow and its varied success in advancing a Soviet socialist ideal.
Jimmy Chang
Prof. Jimmy Chang attained his Bachelor of Architecture degree at the California College of Arts and Crafts, San Francisco. His cumulative professional experience includes: residential, institutional, corporate campus and large scale urban projects. In addition to his extensive practical and field training, he’s diverse background includes graphic design, furniture design and fine carpentry. Contact...
Christopher Clancy, A.I.A.
Prof. Christopher Clancy is a registered architect in California and a member of the American Institute of Architects. He is also a member of The Santa Clara Valley Chapter of The American Institute of Architects and The California Council of The American Institute of Architects.
He received his Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Michigan College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Ann Arbor, Michigan. He pursued additional studies at the Architectural Association School of Archtecture, London, United Kingdom. He recieved his Bachelor of Architecture from the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Art & Science, New York City, New York. Contact...
William Liskamm, F.A.I.A.
Prof. William Liskamm is a San Francisco Bay area architect and environmental planner who has been responsible for major planning and urban design projects in this country and abroad during the twenty-five years of his practice. Much of his work has focused on increasing the use of architectural design competitions in the United States.
He has led more than sixty design competitions; many sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, and served on NEA's Competition Advisory Panel. He has authored numerous articles on competitions, and his work in this field has been recognized by the Architectural League of New York's exhibit "The Experimental Tradition: Twenty-Five Years of American Architectural Competitions, 1960-1985" shown at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. The Los Angeles City Council commended Mr. Liskamm for his work as Competition Advisor for the Pershing Square Park Design Competition. Mr. Liskamm was the Competition Advisor for the Fresh Kills Landfill to Landscape Design Competition in New York City, which will be one of the largest reclamation projects in the world. He served as the Competition Advisor for the recent design competition for the new University of California campus in San Francisco's Mission Bay District. He also serves on the editorial board of Competitions magazine.
Al Parsano, Associate A.I.A.
Glenn Rock, A.S.L.A.
Richard Smith, A.I.A.
Prof. Richard Smith is a registered architect in California and a member of the American Institute of Architects. He is also a member of The Santa Clara Valley Chapter of The American Institute of Architects and the California Council of The American Institute of Architects.
He received his Bachelor degree in Architecture from the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Contact...
ENGINEERING FACULTY
Thomas Sanford
Prof. Thomas Sanford is licensed in mechanical and civil engineering, he has worked in the electrical field with Intel, Toshiba, and at HP/Agilent. He holds three post-graduate degrees in engineering, business, and law.
Mr. Sanford has started as a production machinist at a solar-energy firm then gained civil engineering work-related experience as a captain with the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers. There, he worked in bridging, horizontal and vertical construction while being trained in atomic demolitions, recondo, breaching, and explosives as a combat engineer- airborne ranger. As a civil engineer with the City of San Mateo Public Works Department. Mr. Sanford worked with citizens in pavement management, traffic engineering, and took courses in trip, accident, and traffic analysis while putting projects out to bid in water run-off or wastewater projects. He worked for nearly a half-decade in aeronautical and commercial aircraft engineering at United Airlines using McDonnell Douglas, Boeing, and Airbus aircraft with Pratt Whitney and GE turbine engines. During Prof. Sanford's automobile engineering tenure, he ran the final engineering assembly followed by the trim-line for the Chevrolet Nova, FX Corolla, Geo Prism, and Toyota Corolla before the Tundra Truck line was emplaced at Nummi, a joint-venture of General Motors and Toyota. He has been at West Valley-Mission since 1997, which began as teaching and chairing California's first community-college semi-conductor manufacturing degree. Mr. Sanford served as chair of engineering prior to college wide consolidation of departments. Contact...
Nikola Djordjevich
Prof. Nikola Djordjevich received his B.S degree in Engineering (Heat and Mass Transfer) from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1976 and his M.S. degree in the same major and from the same university in 1982.
He has been teaching on a part time basis at West Valley College since 1991. He currently teaches Introduction to Engineering, and Vector Mechanics- Statics. There he has taught classes in AutoCAD, MathCAD and MATLAB as well. In addition to West Valley College, Mr. Djordjevich is an Adjunct Faculty in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at San Jose State University, and at Santa Clara University. He teaches graduate classes in spacecraft design and analyses, and thermo-physical sciences. He has been with Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company since 1983. He is currently a manager of the Aerodynamics, Fluid Mechanics and Performance group in the Flight Sciences Directorate in the Engineering organization. His prior assignments include a manager of the Engineering Design Guidance group, and a Space Technology Project Engineer on the NASA Space Station program, responsible for all thermal, structural, mass properties and chemical contamination design analyses under the Lockheed Martin contract. He has worked as a Mission Operations lead engineer during the launch and deployment of two communication satellites under contract to the U.S. Air Force. He was a member of the management team overseeing the merger of Lockheed and Martin Marietta Corporations’ spacecraft lines of business during the mid-1990s. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Mr. Djordjevich helped develop a comprehensive set of engineering processes covering all aspects of the space business at Lockheed Martin.
Yung Feng
Prof. Yung Feng received his Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering in 1966 and Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering degrees in 1968.
Mr. Yung Feng has been teaching Introduction to Circuit Analysis, at West Valley College since 1997. He has also taught circuit analysis and electronic courses at Mission College and San Jose State University. He has worked as design engineer, manager of product engineering, director of manufacturing and director of operations at several companies in the semiconductor industry including 13 years at the microcomputer operations of Intel.
Ronald Gerola
Prof. Ronald Gerola holds BS, MS, and Doctorate degrees, is a Licensed Professional Engineer in multiple states, is a Certified Project Management Professional, a Certified CSM for Agile software development, and carries additional technical and academic credentials. Cultivating new talent for Silicon Valley’s workplace and improving our nation's global competitiveness has always been one of his primary passions.
Dr. Gerola brings a career of leadership and innovation to West Valley from his 29 years of professional experience in over twenty countries on four continents. He has held key roles across diverse industries on major technical projects at Exxon-Mobil, Lockheed-Martin, and IBM, including the Alaska pipeline, alternative energy systems, space shuttle payloads, and enterprise information architecture. His academic research has focused on ways in which humans process semantic concepts as they solve technical problems, and he has been an elected Board Member of the Silicon Valley Chapter of the International Society for Performance Improvement, a network of professionals focused on results-oriented execution in the workplace. Contact...