Leadership

Our Parents Leadership Council chairs for 2012–2013 are Tom Ong, P'11 and '14, for the West Coast and Sheila Tucke, P'15, for the East Coast. 

Tom and Debbie Ong with their students, Bonnie '14, and Evan '11.

Tom Ong, originally from Phoenix, Arizona, currently lives in Pasadena, California with his wife Debbie. Their son Evan graduated from Emerson in 2011 with a B.A. in studio television production. Evan currently works at DreamWorks Animation in Los Angeles. Their daughter Bonnie is currently a junior at Emerson, majoring in communication disorders. Both Evan and Bonnie enjoyed semesters abroad at Kasteel Well in the Netherlands.

Tom has worked at CBS and Studio City in Los Angeles for the last 35 years in various areas of broadcasting and production. He enjoys restoring his 1967 Plymouth Barracuda, fishing, sports (including Quidditch) and grilling with his Big Green Egg. In addition to co-chairing for the PLC, Tom is involved in various activities promoting electric vehicles. Debbie enjoys reading, the theater, and cooking with Tom. She works at SCAN Health plan as a senior project manager.

The Parents Leadership Council helped Tom and Debbie adjust to having a student 3000 miles away and gave them a conduit to stay in touch with Emerson’s administration, faculty, and other parents. For them, the PLC is an opportunity to live vicariously through their daughter without hovering. Tom and Debbie have almost seven years of experience with the PLC.  

As co-chair, Tom's goal is to increase the number of families in the program and engage them in functions and activities in support of Emerson College on campus and wherever they live, near or far. 

Sheila Tucke with her husband Phillip Pears and their daughter Catherine '15.

Sheila Tucke, born and raised in Massachusetts, currently lives in Westford, MA with her husband Phillip Pears who is originally from England. Their daughter, Catherine, is a sophomore at Emerson College majoring in journalism. Catherine’s focus is on fashion writing, and she works on the Boston magazine, Dirty Water.

Sheila works part-time as a psychotherapist, and Phillip is a senior engineer at AMD Advanced Micro Devices. They both enjoy living an active and healthy lifestyle, in particular skiing, which is how they met. They also really enjoy traveling and visiting theaters all over the world! They are very excited to visit Catherine in Paris where she will be attending the American University’s Paris Program in the spring.

Sheila and Phillip have always been involved with Catherine’s education and with parent activities and fundraising. Sheila enjoys the social aspect of working with Parent Programs. The PLC allows Sheila and Phillip to be involved with Catherine’s life without intruding on her Emerson experience.

Sheila wants to establish internships for students through the PLC both abroad and domestically. She also wants to raise money for scholarships so that more lower-income students can study at Emerson College.