Phillip Merlo

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Phillip was born and raised in Stockton, California, where he currently is the Executive Director at the San Joaquin County Historical Museum. His passions include local history, youth empowerment, cultural bridge building, environmental science and policy, and East Asian languages and history.

After graduating from Franklin High with his IB diploma, Phillip attended UC Berkeley, studying abroad at Peking and Minzu Universities in Beijing, China. He graduated from Berkeley with degrees in Geography and History, and wrote his honors thesis on the creation of civic identity in a culturally diverse area of Southern China. At Berkeley he worked as a Resident and Community Leadership Assistant at Bowles Hall, and was nationally recognized for his programming and community development work by the National Residence Hall Honorary Society. He has taught seventh and tenth grade history at Franklin High School. He moonlights as a local historian and Science Olympiad Coach.

His experiences growing up in South and Midtown Stockton, as a student at Berkeley, and in China motivate him to use history to empower and provide opportunities for young people. While working in Stockton he hopes to continue his research on the municipal government’s history of disinvestment in low income communities, and to partner with other educators to build new forums for youth civics and local history education.