Leadership

Meet our Executive team and Board of Governors.

Executive & Senior Leadership

Liz Schoenfeld, Ph.D.  

Chief Executive Officer

Kate Bennett

Chief Operating Officer

William Rivas-Rivas

Chief Mission Officer

Courtney Seals

Chief Program Officer

Carmen Zayas

Chief People Officer

Daniela Daniel
Executive Assistant

LeShawn Arbuckle
Division Director, Mental Health & Well-Being

Andrew Fike
Division Director, Housing & Basic Needs

Krissy Perez
Division Director, Education & Workforce

Krystan Farnish, Ph.D.
Senior Director of Research & Evaluation

Virginia Miller
Senior Director of Technology

Caroline Newman Philips
Senior Director of Development

Sumi Sripatham
Senior Director of Finance

Grace Acuña
Director of Donor Relations & Engagement

Elizabeth Estrada
Director of Intake, Admin & Risk

Andrew Gansky
Director of Grants

Shawndi Johnson
Director of Evidence-based Programming

Reeanna Jones
Director of Marketing & Communications

Preston Petty
Director of Implementation & Innovation

Miranda Spiro
Director of Grants & Contracts Compliance

Bree Torres
Director of Housing Development &
Property Management

Richard Williams
Director of Facilities & Maintenence

Board of governors

Lisa Richardson - Chair
Community Volunteer

Trey Salinas - Vice Chair
Founder & Principal at 3 Point Partners 

Kyle Ali - Immediate Past Chair
Lead Sr. Program Manager,
Code Next at Google 

Alan Hansford - Treasurer
Founder & CEO at Virginia Executives

Kelly McDonald - Secretary
Attorney at Reed Claymon 

Mary Beth Jester - Assistant Secretary
Community Volunteer

Christopher Aguilar
Corporate VP of Finance at AMD 

Crystal Barone
Founder & CEO at Amore Properties 

Eddie Blackwell, Jr.
Sr. Global Director at Snowflake 

Sara Canaday
Owner/Leadership Strategist
at Sara Canaday & Associates

Mario Albert Castro
Finance Manager at City of Austin

C.K. Chin
Founder at Chintertainment

Kacie Crowe
Strategic Areas of Focus Integration Lead at DPR Construction

Lisa Dow
Community Volunteer

Alan Hansford
Founder & CEO at Virginia Executives

David Kirchhoff
CEO at WorldStrides 

Kaye Knox
President at Knox Resources, Inc. 

Kerri Lang
Budget Director at City of Austin 

Katrina Austria Marrero
Corporate Partnerships Manager at Management Leadership for Tomorrow 

Ana Moreno VanDiver
Senior Manager, Diverse Alumni Community Engagement at Stanford Alumni Association 

Glenn Neland
Community Volunteer

Sam Newman
Principal at Parallel Co. 

Sarah Prescott
Vice President of Business Solutions at American Campus Communities 

Angela Pringle
Community Volunteer

Llyas Salahud-din
Founder at GrantAppli

Lea Sims
Community Volunteer

Ashley Thomas
Founder and Managing Partner at Ashley Thomas & Associates, PC

Melinda Twomey
Community Volunteer

Greg Varnell
Vice President,
Product & Development at Q2