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

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, Research & Evaluation

Virginia Miller
Senior Director, Technology

Caroline Newman Philips
Senior Director, Development

Sumi Sripatham
Senior Director, Finance

Grace Acuña
Director, Donor Relations & Engagement

Elizabeth Estrada
Director, Intake, Admin & Risk

Andrew Gansky
Director, Grants

Shawndi Johnson
Director, Evidence-based Programming

Reeanna Jones
Director, Marketing & Communications

Preston Petty
Director, Implementation & Innovation

Miranda Spiro
Director, Grants Compliance & Accreditation

Bree Torres
Director, Housing Development &
Property Management

Richard Williams
Director, Facilities & Maintenence

Board of governors

Lisa Richardson - Chair
Community Volunteer

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

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

Alan Hansford - Treasurer
Founder & CEO, Virginia Executives

Kelly McDonald - Secretary
Attorney, Reed Claymon 

Mary Beth Jester - Assistant Secretary
Community Volunteer

Christopher Aguilar
Corporate VP of Finance, AMD 

Crystal Barone
Founder & CEO, Amore Properties 

Eddie Blackwell, Jr.
Sr. Global Director, Snowflake 

Sara Canaday
Owner/Leadership Strategist,
Sara Canaday & Associates

Mario Albert Castro
Finance Manager, City of Austin

C.K. Chin
Founder, Chintertainment

Kacie Crowe
Strategic Areas of Focus Integration Lead, DPR Construction

Lisa Dow
Community Volunteer

David Kirchhoff
CEO, WorldStrides 

Kaye Knox
President, Knox Resources, Inc. 

Kerri Lang
Budget Director, City of Austin 

Katrina Austria Marrero
Corporate Partnerships Manager, Management Leadership for Tomorrow 

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

Glenn Neland
Community Volunteer

Sam Newman
Principal, Parallel Co. 

Sarah Prescott
Vice President of Business Solutions, American Campus Communities 

Angela Pringle
Community Volunteer

Llyas Salahud-din
Founder, GrantAppli

Lea Sims
Community Volunteer

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

Melinda Twomey
Community Volunteer

Greg Varnell
Vice President,
Product & Development, Q2