California Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (ret.)
Sacramento, California

Jim Schoning is Executive Director of the California Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (ret.), which conducts a school-to-career Hospitality program in more than 100 California high schools, awards scholarships and provides food safety training and materials to California's restaurant industry.  He formerly served in California Governor Pete Wilson's Administration from 1991-99 as Chief of the Bureau of Automotive Repair and as the 1st Ombudsman at the California Air Resources Board.  Jim previously served California Assembly Speaker Robert Monagan as Chief Administrative Officer of the Assembly, as well as Assistant to the Assembly Republican Leader.

A 1966 graduate of the Southern California Coro Fellows Program, Jim spent a total of 16 years on the Coro staff, including service as Director of Programs and Training in Southern California and New York City, where he helped establish the Coro Fellows program from 1983-88.  In addition to the Fellows program, Jim designed and/or directed Coro programs to meet the needs of Southern California's reach for regional governance, newly-elected California state legislators and the California Business Roundtable; high school students, college undergraduates, Hispanic law students, and educators; mid-career women, Junior Leagues, African American women in South Central Los Angeles, women in Westchester County and Hispanic women in New York City.  Jim is a member of Coro National's Board of Governors, the board of the Coro National Alumni Association (CNAA), and the W. Donald Fletcher Trust, established to preserve and disseminate the written work of Coro's Co-Founder.  In 2001, CNAA presented Jim with the Van Duyn Dodge Award, named after Coro's other Co-Founder, for service to Coro.

Jim graduated from the University of Redlands, where he majored in Economics and Government, edited an All American college newspaper, and was elected to Omicron Delta Kappa, national leadership society.  He is currently a member of the Capital Athletic Club and the American Himalayan Foundation.  Jim completed the 1984, 1985 and 1986 New York City Marathons and in 1999 traveled to the Khumbu region of Nepal, twice ascending above 18,000'.  Jim established a fund in the memory of his first wife Virginia Jarrell Schoning in 2002 at Coro National to assist Coro's work.  Jim retired in 2005 to devote more time to travel and volunteer activities.