Maryknoll Affiliates

David Schaffner joined the Affiliate Board in November 2009 and is serving on the Finance Committee. Schaffner is a rather recent Affiliate member who, along with his wife, Paula, started an Affiliate chapter located on the California Central Coast in 2008. He and Paula served on a short term mission in Nyangana, Namibia, in early 2010. Other Maryknoll connections have been in Thailand where Paula taught English with Br. John Beeching and assisted lay missioners Billy and Kathleen Doerner in Chiang Mai. These experiences were coordinated with David’s stays in Thailand on a Fulbright Senior Specialist assignment (2002) and as a teacher of students from Cal Poly State University on the university-sponsored Thai Studies Program (2004 and 2008).

Schaffner was raised on diversified family farm in Northern California near the Oregon border. Graduating from the University of California at Davis with a major in Agronomy, he then earned an MBA at UC Berkeley and worked for food and fiber marketing firms for a few years before joining the Agribusiness faculty at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. He taught various agribusiness subjects but specialized in food marketing. He is co-author of a textbook, Food Marketing an International Perspective, and several articles, but his proudest achievements came from working with students: he was coach/advisor to student teams that won five national food marketing case study championships.

One of his sabbatical leaves was devoted to earning the PhD in Business Administration at Golden Gate University, San Francisco. He retired from Cal Poly in 2008 after 35 years and has found Maryknoll and the Affiliates a nourishing activity. David and Paula have four children and about as many grandchildren (About because the number is always changing).