Dominic Gregorio, President

Dominic Gregorio is a retired environmental scientist and educator. In 2013 he retired from the State Water Resources Control Board’s Division of Water Quality in Sacramento, where he was a senior environmental scientist and statewide manager for watershed, ocean, wetland and CEQA programs. Prior to working for the State of California, Dominic was a college instructor and marine science researcher. Dominic holds an MS in Environmental Biology, a BA in Geography and Earth and Marine Science, and an AA in History.  He has taught at California State University, Cypress College, and Hartnell College. Dominic was a docent at Mission San Antonio and in 2015 he authored a book entitled Mission San Antonio and the Valley of the Oaks. He currently resides in north Idaho.

Joe Claus

Joe is a farrier, bee-keeper, blacksmith, wood worker and leather crafter in San Juan Bautista, where he founded Of The Land and is a docent at San Juan Bautista State Historic Park.

John Grafton

John is a docent at San Juan Bautista State Historic Park where he has a special interest in blacksmithing and in the history of California horse culture. John was born to a cattle ranching family and worked on ranches in Oregon and British Columbia. He was also in the Peace Corps in Ecuador where he worked in livestock production for four years. Later, John had a career in law enforcement in Sacramento, where he was also a docent at Sutter’s Fort State Park.

Bob Hoover

Robert L. Hoover received his A. B., M. A., and Ph.D. degrees in anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley, with a specialty in the archaeology of California. He has taught at Stanford Univerity and was a professor at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo from 1970 until his retirement in 1998. Since 1976, he has specialized in Spanish colonial archaeology, serving continuously as director of the Archaeological Field School at Mission San Antonio de Padua for over 30 years and training some 500 students. Dr. Hoover has also excavated at Missions Santa Ines, La Purisima, Santa Barbara, and at the Presidio of Santa Barbara. He is the recipient of the Award of Distinction from the California Council for the Promotion of History and the Norman Neuerburg Award of the California Mission Studies Association.

Dr. Hoover was a member of the State Historical Resources Commission for 18 years, from 1984 to 2002, serving three administrations. During this time he was instrumental in implementing the California Register of Historic Resources through the Office of Administrative Law and in establishing an additonal Archaeological Information Center in Humboldt and Del Norte Counties operated by the Yurok Tribe. He is past president of the California Mission Studies Association and has published numerous times on the topics of prehistoric and historic archaeology of California in English, German, Spanish. and Portuguese. Hoover has completed some 300 environmental projects for Federal, State, and local governments and for private entities. He is a member of numerous local, state, regional, national, and international organizations, including being an elected Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland He currently serves on the boards of the Santa Barbara Mission Archive/Library, the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation, and the California Missions Foundation.

Linda Hylkema

As an archaeologist specializing in the Late Holocene and Spanish Colonial eras in Central California, Linda Hylkema has been worked for the past 30 years as an archaeologist for various agencies including the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Cal-Fire (CDF), California State Parks and numerous Cultural Resources Management (CRM) firms. She has published articles in the Society of California Archaeology Annual Proceedings, American Indian Rock Art, Santa Clara County Connections, Historical Archaeology, California Department of Forestry Archaeological Reports, the Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, and co-authored Uncovering and Interpreting History and Archaeology at Mission Santa Clara. She is Santa Clara University's Archaeologist and Cultural Resources Program Director. During her twenty-five year tenure at SCU, Linda’s main priority has been overseeing the mitigation of archaeological resources on the university campus resulting from construction projects.  She received BA's in both Psychology and Anthropology from San Jose State University, and her MA from California State University, Hayward in 2005. She also serves as a founding board member of the California Rock Art Foundation and is the editor of the quarterly newsletter La Pintura for the American Rock Art Research Association.

Debbie Jewell

Debbie Jewell received her Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (1999) and graduated Magna Cum Laude. Debbie grew up in Minnesota and moved to California in 1986 to study drawing and painting at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco.  She transferred to California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo in 1995 and did her Senior Project on the water system at Mission San Antonio.  In 1998 Debbie traveledwith her Landscape Architecture class to study the history, culture, and urban design of multiple cities in Mexico and Central America.  Debbie has been working at RRM Design Group in San Luis Obispo as Landscape Architect and Urban Designer since 1999. Debbie has been a member of FHSAM since 2007, and served as secretary since 2012. She feels Mission San Antonio is a very special place and enjoys helping to preserve and protect this valuable link to the past for future generations to treasure.

Carol Kenyon

Carol Kenyon, is a noted art conservator, and the former director of the South Coast Fine Arts Conservation Center. In that capacity she was responsible for restoring pieces in numerous missions and other historic landmarks. She is currently a board member of the San Antonio Valley Historical Association and was a previous board member of the the California Missions Foundation.

Karen Jernigan

Karen has lived in the Salinas Valley since 1977 when she moved to King City to work as a reporter for the King City Rustler newspaper. She spent 40 years as a businesswoman working at her family business, King City Glass, along with her husband John. The jernigans own a cabin in the Los Padres National Forest at the area known as the Indians, 17 miles north of Mission San Antonio de Padua. They have spent many years hiking and exploring the area. For four years Karen served as a city councilwoman in King City. During that time she promoted the good things about the Salinas Valley and southern Monterey County.More recently she worked with John and their writing partner, Howard Strohn, to author a history book produced by Arcadia Publishing called King City Images of America. It features an historic photo of the mission in the chapter on "What Came Before." She also serves as an ambassador to Mission San Antonio de Padua for the California Mission Walkers, a group that promotes walking between California's 21 missions. 

Jessica Kusz

Jessica Kusz currently serves as Preservation Project Director for Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks.  She has worked closely on the restoration, interpretive planning and exhibit development for the Castro Adobe State Historic Park for many years.  She also works on other State Parks historic resources within the Santa Cruz District including the Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park and Wilder Ranch Cultural Preserve. Jessica has over twenty years of experience with historic resources and archival research in California. Working at a number of architectural and engineering firms, her experience includes primary research, writing, evaluation and planning for preservation projects. Jessica has a MS in Historic Preservation from the School for the Art Institute of Chicago and a BA in Cultural Anthropology from the University of New Mexico. She has served on the City of Santa Cruz Historic Preservation Commission since 2017.

Marilyn Merlino

Marilyn taught in the Albany Unified School District in fourth and fifth grades until retiring in 2016. Her focus was on teaching social studies, especially history, and created many hands-on activities for students, including singing, dancing, Rancho days, and visits to missions. She is currently a performing member of Los Arribenos de San Francisco. Our group performs authentic songs, dances, and children’s games of early California for various venus within the state. Prior to that, she was a performing member of Calicanto Associates, a group dedicated to bringing California history to life through music and historical plays. Calicanto Associates produced the classroom songbooks “They Came Singing” and “Days of Gold“with accompanying CDs and are used to teach social studies curriculum in many schools across the state.  Mission San Antonio has been one of her favorite performing venues, as it so closely represents what life in old California would have been like.

Dennis Palm

Dennis was born and raised in New York and graduated from Long Island University.  He earned an MA in Counseling Psychology while serving in the U.S. Air Force at Vandenberg AFB.  He has been retired as a Peace Officer for the State of CA for the past 20 years. During his 48 years on the Central Coast, Dennis has become a local historian serving on the Boards of the El Paso de Robles Historical Society, the San Antonio Valley Historical Association and the Ventana Wilderness Alliance.  He has also been active in the Partners in Preservation Site Steward Program (25 years), monitoring archeological sites in the Los Padres National Forest. Dennis and his wife Ollie have resided in Paso Robles for the past 48 years, and they also have a cabin at The Indians.  

Howard Strohn

Howard is the past president of the Friends of Historic San Antonio Mission. He was born in King City in 1939, graduated from high school there in 1957, and has spent most of his life in the rural areas of Monterey County. He is the co-author of the Images of America book King City.

Ann Beckett

Ann is a retired educator and is the co-author of the Images of America book San Antonio Valley. Ann is also the past co-president of the Campaign for the Preservation of Mission San Antonio de Padua and also a past member of the San Antonio Valley Historical Association.

James Larson

Jim is a member of the Salinan Tribe and is the monitor for the tribe on construction and archaeological digs at Mission San Antonio.