Dale Fleming has over 30 years of varied experience in public sector health and social services administration. She retired from the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency in 2018 after 33 years of service, including 20 years serving in an executive capacity. During her career, some of Dale’s roles included strategy officer for an agency of over 6,000 employees; director of self-sufficiency services. and executive director of the Community Action Partnership, a federally funded program for economically disadvantaged communities. Some of her responsibilities included issuing millions of dollars in benefits and employment services to thousands of residents monthly; oversight of refugee employment services for hundreds of families resettled to the county by the Department of State in coordination with local resettlement organizations, and partnering with local social services and health organizations to enroll county residents in health care, nutrition assistance and cash assistance. As executive director of the Community Action Partnership, Dale developed and administered federal, state and local programs to strengthen economically disadvantage communities and their residents through local partnerships with both residents and organizations that serve them. She was also a synergistic force for Live Well San Diego, helping to expand this vision with communities that are not always heard or understood.

Dale is passionate about diversity, inclusion, and trauma informed polices and is considered a trailblazer in the County in the integration of trauma informed policy and systems change. She is a tireless champion for community empowerment, and believes that government can better serve the community through strategic partnerships within the communities they serve.

One key partnership developed during her tenure is the business partnership with 2-1-1 San Diego to offer health care and nutrition assistance enrollment by phone. This pioneering partnership, unique to California, created an entirely new method for residents in need to access County benefits; inquire about their County benefits, and learn about other possible assistance in the community to which they might be eligible—all by telephone. The integration of the County’s ACCESS call center with the 2-1-1 San Diego Connections Center is a model of private and public partnership for other counties and states, and opened the door for similar partnerships with other service lines in the Health and Human Services Agency.

Dale is currently an associate with CSD Marketing, LLC, where she supports the Caleb with Curls brand, a kid-centric multi-channel educational project with an 8-year old CEO. She also currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Choir San Diego, a nonprofit volunteer choir that raises funds for educational grants to local high school youth by performing and sharing the historical and cultural significance of the Negro Spiritual, and other American music genres influenced by spirituals. An accomplished soprano vocalist, Dale has toured Europe with the MLK Choir of San Diego, and provided background and lead vocals for local artists, both in live and recorded performances.

Dr. Klein works as a strategic advisor to businesses developing their employee health and wellbeing programs, and to digital therapeutic and genomics companies aimed at improving the lives of working adults and their families. From 2011 to 2015, she led the strategic implementation of health services and wellness programs for Qualcomm Incorporated, including the development of award-winning health-promotion programs, the design of a state-of-the-art onsite health center in San Diego, and the launch of two onsite health clinics in India. Dr. Klein managed the company’s contracts with the healthcare systems providing services to its onsite clinical facilities, its executive health program, its tele-health, and second medical opinion services, and was involved in its efforts with Catalyst for Payment Reform.

Dr. Klein was a Commissioner of the Vitality Institute Commission which produced the 2014 report on “Health Promotion and the Prevention of Chronic Disease in Working-Age Americans.” She chaired the Qualcomm Life Advisory Council for Qualcomm Incorporated’s wireless health division, and was a contributing member to Qualcomm Incorporated’s wireless health patent review board. She created medical homes for children with asthma for the NYC Department of Health, Bureau of Child Health, and led Dukes County’s local public health system assessment as their first Associate Commissioner for Health. After graduating from residency, Dr. Klein was in private practice on Martha’s Vineyard where she made house calls, exchanged medical care for shellfish and home-grown vegetables, and where her youngest patients were newborns and her oldest was 104. Dr. Klein received her medical degree from Harvard Medical School and completed her residency at the Brown University Department of Family Medicine. She is a board-certified family physician, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Dr. Rodney G. Hood’s areas of expertise include health disparities, medical history and racism, health policy and advocacy, and cultural competency in healthcare. Beyond his new role at AHF, Dr. Hood currently serves as the vice chairman of the National Medical Association’s Cobb/NMA Institute, which works to develop, evaluate, and implement strategies to promote wellness and to eliminate health disparities and racism in medicine. He is also the current president & CEO of MultiCultural IPA, an organization designed to improve longevity and quality of life and to eliminate all ethnic and racial health disparities for the served population.

In August 2000, Dr. Hood became the 101st president of the National Medical Association (NMA) after serving as the association’s chairman of the board. During his tenure, he served as an advocate for strengthening African American physicians and for protecting the medically underserved.

Dr. Hood is an honors graduate of Northeastern University School of Pharmacy and a graduate of UC San Diego School of Medicine. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at UC San Diego Medical School, where he currently serves as an assistant clinical professor of medicine.

Atul Patel is the senior vice president and corporate treasurer at PriceSmart, a warehouse club operator. He has over 22 years of International Treasury Management Experience. Prior to joining PriceSmart, he served as Assistant Treasurer for a private investment management firm in Bahrain and Geneva.

Patel spent seven years with Imperial Chemical Industries in London, managing foreign exchange and interest rate risk, day-to-day treasury operations, as well as managing a portfolio of $2 billion in surplus funds. Patel is a graduate of the University of Wales, United Kingdom.

Dwight  Smith, advocates to strengthen communities. He serves as Executive VP and General Counsel for The Neighborhood House Association, where he is responsible for the nonprofit organization’s overall legal affairs, contract administration, quality assurance monitoring, and human resources functions.

Dwight has decades of experience as an attorney in the fields of employment and labor law, contract negotiations, corporate tax, insurance, and non-profit organizations. Prior to joining NHA, Dwight served as Associate General Counsel for the San Diego Convention Center Corporation. Previously,  Dwight  was Senior Corporate Counsel for The PMI Group, Inc., with responsibility for SEC compliance, and Corporate Counsel for the American Medical Association. He began his career as a Tax Associate with Arthur Andersen & Co., based in Chicago.

Dwight served on other boards and advisory groups, and currently is a board member of  Community Health Improvement Partners (CHIP) and the Congressional Black Caucus Institute 21^st Century Council Advisory Committee. Dwight is a graduate of DePaul University, receiving a B.S. degree in accounting, and a graduate of the University of Notre Dame Law School, receiving a Juris Doctor degree. He is a member of the California Bar Association, Illinois Bar Association (former member),  National Bar Association, and Association of Corporate Counsel. In 2013, San Diego Business Journal awarded Dwight the General Counsel award in the nonprofit category.

Alethea Arguilez, M.A. is the Executive Director of First 5 San Diego, the region’s primary organization for promoting the health and well-being of children 0-5 years of age and their families. Alethea has dedicated the past 20 years to the field of early childhood education, starting her journey in the field as an infant and toddler Master Teacher. Her early experience working to create and support pathways for families facing adversity to achieve self-sufficiency in direct services helped form the foundation for her work. Most recently, she was the Director of Child Development for the Metropolitan Area Advisory Committee where her responsibilities included oversight of contracts governing regulations for early childhood programs and working with key community stakeholders. She has been dedicated to program administration for the birth to five community delivering Early Head Start, Head Start and the California Department of Education Preschool Program services, and served as a board member of the California Head Start Association. She currently serves on the San Diego County Child Care and Development Planning Council as co-chair of the public policy committee.

James Beaubeaux served as CFO/COO for the San Diego County Medical Society from 2005 to 2016. His dedication to advancing health and wellness led him to serve and volunteer for many organizations and committees. As Board Chair for the Health Services Advisory Board, he worked with the charter group to inform the County Board of Supervisors on healthcare issues. He also served as the Board of Directors’ Treasurer for San Diegans for Healthcare Coverage, Board member for Community Health Improvement Partners (CHIP) and Board Treasurer and CFO for Mental Health America San Diego.

As a commission member for GERM (Group to Eradicate Resistant Microorganisms), he worked with the commission to monitor infectious diseases in San Diego. He was also a member of the Emergency Medicine Oversight Commission that brings together all of San Diego County’s hospital emergency departments to discuss best practices.

James was a Founding Domain Champion and co-chair of the Healthcare Domain for the San Diego County Childhood Obesity Initiative. In addition, he served as Committee Chair for United Way of San Diego’s Health Visions Committee and San Diego Community Needs Assessment Committee. He has also been a committee member for 211 San Diego’s Health Navigators Committee and for Healthy San Diego, a charter to oversee San Diego County’s MediCal population.

After his retirement in July 2016, James continues to serve San Diego’s healthcare community as a current member of AHF’s Program, Audit and Finance committees.

Elizabeth Dreicer is a humanitarian, environmentalist, conservationist, philanthropist, activist and entrepreneur. She is co-founder and investor in software, data, analytics, film/story and impact organizations.

Her professional and personal life is devoted to seeing, sharing, and developing solutions to creating a better world, including reforming systems.

Elizabeth is a creative leader and builder—of relationships, teams, organizations, coalitions, and systems. Her management and board experience spans enterprise, social enterprise, nonprofits, public/private partnerships and foundations; start-ups, transformations, scaling (including roll ups) through sale.

Over 25 years ago, Elizabeth perceived that the internet would provide a new substrate to facilitate collective intelligence. Since then, she’s worked to advance solutions that make use of this collectivity to modern challenges—in medicine, medical research, healthcare, and finance, to name a few. Elizabeth’s passion lies in leading teams creating organizations and systems that improve lives and society.

Since 2006, Elizabeth has been leading Kuity, a data, data science and product development (startup studio) company. Through this role, she is a co-founder of Consuli and Nobil along with other emergent Kuity projects.

Elizabeth is also a seasoned corporate governance executive and board member. As Trustee of the Alliance Healthcare Foundation (AHF) and previous Board Chair, Dreicer is a member of the Nominating and Governance Committee, Program Committee, Finance/Investment Committee (where she is presently Vice Chair and immediate past Chair), and the Impact Investing Committee.

She is a member and Co-Director of the E2 (environmental entrepreneurs) San Diego chapter, a national nonpartisan business leader group affiliated with NRDC (National Resource Defense Coalition) that advocates for good economic and environmental policies. Elizabeth is also part of Singularity University San Diego Chapter leadership (2019 – Present). Further, she is involved in a number of efforts to evolve stakeholder capitalism and future design initiatives.

Additionally, Elizabeth has served on numerous nonprofit boards, including, 211 San Diego and Just in Time for Foster Youth (where she was a founding member), previous Board member of the San Diego Exploratory Foundation, working to bring the American National Olympic Committee World Beach Games to San Diego, to name a few.

Dreicer received her Bachelor’s of Science degree in Organizational Leadership from Pennsylvania State University. She is also a graduate of Singularity University’s Executive Programs and Extreme Leadership Institute’s Executive Programs. A consummate student and lifelong learner, Elizabeth’s interests span all of the above plus cosmology (how the universe works), philanthropy (individual, groups and organizations), and indigenous wisdom broadly and specifically–diversity, equity, inclusion and collectivity.

In all, Elizabeth is devoted to bridging and developing systems and solutions to improve life.

Julianne R. Howell, Ph.D., is Senior Health Policy Advisor, County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA), participating in the development and implementation of an array of programs created by the Accountable Care Act and advising on County strategy and policy across health and human services issues.

Dr. Howell brings to her HHSA role 10 years of experience in Washington, DC. She was an RWJ Foundation Health Policy Fellow from 2002 – 2004, serving on Senator John Kerry’s staff and working with the staffs of the Senate Finance Committee and Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee. From 2005 – 2011, she was an Independent Technical Consultant to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and was then Senior Advisor in the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). From 1981 to 2002, Dr. Howell led strategic and major program planning for the Health Sciences at the University of California, San Diego, first as Director of Strategic Planning and Marketing and an Associate Director for UCSD Medical Center, and then as Director of Health Sciences Planning in the Office of the Vice Chancellor – Health Sciences/ Dean, School of Medicine.

Dr. Howell received her A.B. from Harvard/Radcliffe College, a Masters in Urban Studies and Planning from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Masters in Public Policy and Ph.D. from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Robert B. McCray has served the health care industry as a lawyer, CEO, investor and investment banker. Mr. McCray is Chair Elect of the HIMSS Enterprise Board of Directors and member of the Boards of Directors of MacroHealth and Alliance Healthcare Foundation (past Board Chair). He serves on the Board of Managers of PCHAlliance, a HIMSS operating unit and as President of the Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance (WLSA), which he co-founded in 2005.

Previously, Mr. McCray served as Managing Partner of Triple Tree, LLC, a merchant bank focused on the healthcare sector; Chairman, President and CEO of HealthCap, Inc., a venture capital-backed physician practice management company; as President, COO and early investor in Digital On-Demand, Inc., a technology company operating the RedDotNet music distribution system in major retail chains; as Managing Director of Caremark Physician Resources, a division of Baxter; and co-founder and Chairman of OnCall Medicine, Inc., a medical house calls company. Prior to his business career, Rob practiced healthcare regulatory and transactional law for 15 years and created a focused inter-disciplinary healthcare law firm and consultancy with a national client base (Weissburg & Aronson; Hunter McCray Richey & Brewer).

Some previous appointments include: Member of the Board of Directors and Chairman, Governance Committee at Midmark Corporation; Chairman of the Sacramento (County) Environmental Commission; Chairman of the Sacramento City Toxic Substances Commission; President of the Environmental Council of Sacramento; board member of the American Lung Association – Sacramento Emigrant Trails.

Mr. McCray holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of California, San Diego and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of California, Davis School of Law.

Joe W. Ramsdell, M.D., is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of General Internal Medicine at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Ramsdell was a member of the Alliance Board at its inception. He is a practicing general internist at the University of California, San Diego, and pulmonologist with a research interest in chronic disease management, with a specific interest in airways diseases such as asthma and COPD.

Dr. Ramsdell is Director of the UCSD Clinical Trials Center and Airway Research Center. This research center is funded by federal, foundation and industry grants. Dr. Ramsdell is also a working member of several important national networks including the Asthma Clinical Research Center, sponsored by the American Lung Association, and the UCSD COPDGene™ Study, a multi-center trial with the overall goal of conducting a comprehensive genome-wide association (GWA) study to identify genes influencing COPD. In addition to his personal practice, Dr. Ramsdell has an ongoing interest in general internal medicine, chronic disease management, and healthcare delivery. The Division of General Internal Medicine at UCSD includes over 120 general internists at the University of California, San Diego, and San Diego Veterans Administration Health Services system. Under the direction of Dr. Ramsdell, these UCSD faculty members are involved in cutting-edge health services research, as well as, personal care and most importantly, teaching.

Killu Sanborn, Ph.D., Managing Director at Oxford Finance, has over 25 years of experience of supporting life science and medical technology innovation as a venture debt lender, venture equity investor, banker, executive, entrepreneur and researcher. Her previous leadership positions include Managing Director of Hercules Technology Growth Capital, Senior VP of Life Science Venture Lending at Comerica Bank, Principal/Fund Manager with IngleWood Ventures, Director of Technology Commercialization at Stratagene, and first employee, VP of Business Development of Phenogenex. Over the years, Killu has advised entrepreneurial boards and management teams on operational, financial and strategic matters, and has and served on various local nonprofit boards and committees. Her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology is from Cornell University/Sloan Kettering Institute in New York City.

Jeffrey Willmann is a serial entrepreneur with a passion for non-traditional business models in health care & technology with a commitment to community. He has spent much of the last 20 years building and deploying care delivery models for the high utilizer and most vulnerable populations.

He serves as Senior Vice President, Innovation, for Med Data Quest (MDQ). MDQ is a leader in deployment Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the automation of key processes in the delivery of quality patient care, with an emphasis on Community Clinics. He also serves as Board Trustee & Audit Chair of Champions for Health, formerly the Foundation of San Diego’s Medical Society.

Jeffrey has held key executive positions in several organizations previously including, Founder & CEO, Qualitas Medical Management, San Diego; President & CEO, Opprime’ Consulting Group, San Diego; Vice President, MD4Me & Healthcare In Motion, San Diego; Vice President & CFO, Family Choice of New York, Buffalo, NY; Officer and Director, Trinity3 Corporation, Newport Beach, and Vice President and CFO, Sharp Health Plan, San Diego.

Jeffrey’s passion to serve inspired him to co-found the Urban Angels with a mission to nourish those in need, feeding the homeless downtown San Diego in 2 locations – the Salvation Army & Connections Housing. Jeffrey is a LEAD San Diego Graduate; holds a Master’s degree from Arizona State University in Health Service Administration, and a B.A. from Concordia College in Moorhead, Arizona.

Roque Barros, Jr. has more than 30 years of combined experience in nonprofit and foundation management and has developed and led community building approaches and frameworks in urban and rural communities.  He is the first Executive Director for the Imperial Valley Wellness Foundation (IVWF) and is leading its efforts to strengthen the voice and visibility of underrepresented communities and vulnerable populations in the Imperial Valley.

Prior to IVWF, Roque served as the director of the Ford Institute for Community Building, an arm of The Ford Family Foundation. Under his leadership, the Ford Institute supported communities in developing comprehensive community visions and building the capacity to implement them. At the Jacobs Family Foundation in San Diego, Roque worked as the director of community building and served as interim president. While at the Jacobs Family Foundation, he led resident teams to develop the vision and implementation of Market Creek Plaza in Southeastern San Diego, a resident-owned community building and economic development project. In the nonprofit field, Roque served as the director of U.S./Mexico Projects with Los Niños, an international community development organization and later served as its executive director for 10 years. He has developed and directed sustainable programs that assist communities in finding opportunities, addressing their needs and developing solutions. He has also designed capacity building trainings and toolkits for resident-led community building efforts.

Lisa Cuestas is currently Chief Executive Officer of Casa Familiar, a 501(c)(3) non-profit community-based organization in San Ysidro, CA. Lisa has worked for Casa Familiar for 20 years and nearly 25 years of experience in the non-profit sector. She is the embodiment of an emerging Latina leader. She is a Fronteriza – raised along the U.S./Mexico border. Her mother is from Ciudad Juarez and her father from Tucson, Arizona. Lisa’s parents and grandparents imparted on her the importance of community and the notion of rising by uplifting others, which are the values she and her husband are now passing along to their own children. Lisa has committed her life in service to her communities and this trajectory has led to becoming the Chief Executive Officer for Casa Familiar (Casa), a community service and development agency dedicated to ensuring residents of San Ysidro and the South Bay have a leading role in all aspects of the development and sustainability of their community.

As Casa Familiar’s Chief Executive Officer, Lisa oversees an annual budget of $5.0M+ with a growing portfolio of 1,300 affordable housing units in San Diego’s South Bay. Under her leadership, Casa Familiar secured $10 million of New Markets Tax Credit Financing in 2018 for its Living Rooms at the Border project completed in February of 2020 which is a 13,469 square- foot mixed-use project in San Ysidro, a predominantly Latino community in the City of San Diego. Also in 2018, Senator Hueso recognized Casa Familiar as the 40th District Non-Profit of the Year.

Lisa holds a bachelor’s degree in Human Services and Management from the University of Phoenix.

Deborah (Deb) M. Higgins is the President of Higgins Capital Management, Inc. She has spent more than 37 years in institutional fixed income trading and investment management. She directs company operations, resources, and is the Chief Investment Strategist and Principal Fixed Income Trader. She is a management consultant and investment advisor to California local governments.

Deb is a recognized authority on the investment of taxpayer funds entrusted to local governments. She was appointed by the California State Treasurer to serve on the California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission’s Technical Advisory Committee. The Committee established the official Local Agency Investment Guidelines (LAIG) for the investment of public funds. She is a member of the Investment Advisory Committee for the City of San Diego. She currently serves on the California Municipal Treasurer’s Association Investment Policy Certification Committee.

Deb served as Treasurer on the Boards of the Center for Community Solutions and the San Diego Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners. She is a founding member of the Miracle Circle’s Auxiliary for San Diego’s Miracle Babies.

Higgins Capital is a certified as minority woman owned business.

James M. Howell, CFA, CTP, is the Chief Financial Officer of San Diego Foundation. Previously, he served as Chief Investment Officer and Director of Finance at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), responsible for Investments, Treasury, Risk Management, Tax, and associated Audit and Control activities. In that capacity, Mr. Howell worked actively with TSRI’s Governance Committees, Chief Financial Officer, and staff, directing banking, insurance, and investment management relationships for over $1.6 billion of endowment, pension, and other assets.

Prior to joining TSRI in 2007, Mr. Howell spent 17 years at United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS) in progressively advancing capacities, most recently as Director, Capital Markets, from 2004 – 2006, and UPS Retirement Plan, Alternative Investment Officer, from 2000 – 2004. In earlier roles, Mr. Howell led treasury and acquisitions strategy for a start-up subsidiary as Vice President, Finance, UPS Capital Corporation, assisted coordinating the largest initial public offering at the time, a $5 billion issuance of UPS Class B shares and arranged in excess of $3 billion public debt and structured equipment financings.

A member of the Association for Financial Professionals, Certified Treasury Professional, and Chartered Financial Analyst, Mr. Howell earned a Bachelor of Industrial Systems Engineering degree from Georgia Institute of Technology and a Master of Business Administration degree from Georgia State University. Mr. Howell presently serves on the Investment Advisory Committee of Loma Linda University and is a former Editorial Board Member of The Institutional Real Estate Letter.

Kim Davis King is an accomplished professional in prospecting, managing and mentoring technology investments, including software, wireless and networking companies. She is results-focused and has effectively served on 15 boards with a successful track record of liquidated portfolio companies. This experience combined with her focus on software, infrastructure, healthcare technology, consumer, wireless and media-based technologies has been a strong basis from which to build and complement teams. Currently, Kim is a Partner with San Diego’s Launch Factory, a venture studio for which she helps entrepreneurs launch new businesses from the ground up. Kim is an active angel investments and advisor for OmniSync, Good Face Project, Founders First, FoyR, OnShore Technology Group, VinSocial and WOWMI. She is also a lecturer at SDSU, UCSD Rady Business School, Director of the StartR Programs and incorporating real-world experience, business models and student mentorship.

Shannon Nelson is a Vice President in Investment Stewardship at BlackRock, Inc. In her role, she engages with board of directors, executive management teams and sustainability professionals at 600+ publicly-traded companies in the Technology and Telecommunications sectors to drive sound governance and resilient business models. Prior to BlackRock, Shannon worked for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, most recently as a Treasury Markets Trader/Analyst. Shannon began her career at BlackRock, building and maintaining relationships with large institutional investors.

Shannon received an MBA from Harvard Business School. She earned a B.S. degree in Economics from Duke University.

A passionate advocate for her community, Shannon is a Board member of Community-Word Project (NYC-based arts education nonprofit); Co-chair BlackRock’s Black Professional Network for the Americas region; Young Alumni Development Council of Duke University, and Co-chair of Duke’s 10-year and 5-year Reunion committees.

Sydney Thomas is the Founder and General Partner of Symphonic Capital – a venture capital firm that invests in companies closing access gaps around health and wealth for overlooked communities. The launch of her fund was recently covered by TechCrunch. Within its first year of launch, the firm has already been recognized for its work. Symphonic Capital is a proud member of the inaugural Diversity, Equity and Inclusive Capitalism Power100 List (the “DEIC Power100”).

Symphonic Capital’s investment thesis follows Sydney’s expertise. She has built expertise in this thesis through her investing and policy work over the past two decades. Her investing strategy has yielded companies valued at $100M+. Sydney is a proven fund builder and investor. Prior to launching Symphonic, she joined one of Silicon Valley’s first pre-seed funds and scaled it from a Solo Operating GP with 10 investments to a 3-person team with 400+ investments and $200M+ in AUM.

Prior to her work in tech, she served in the Bloomberg Administration in NYC. Over the course of her tenure, she drafted federal legislation, negotiated a multi-million-dollar contract, and received a full-ride scholarship to her business school of choice.

She serves on the Board of Trustees of Oakland Museum of California – an art museum dedicated to justice and beauty in the heart of Oakland, a graduate of the prestigious Kauffman Fellows Program and a Venture Partner at The House Fund – a $100M+ fund created to invest in UC Berkeley backed startups. She is also the founder of the Black Women in VC List – a list she started that sparked change in the Venture Capital ecosystem when she realized she was often the only Black woman in these spaces.

Sydney graduated from University of California Berkeley with her MBA and Duke University with her BA.

Adolfo Ventura is the Vice President and Chief Programs and Operations Officer at MAAC, a social service organization that spans 40 sites across San Diego County, includes over 500 staff members, and has an annual budget surpassing $60 million. Adolfo has a broad range of responsibilities, including oversight of MAAC’s community charter high school, economic development, health services, safety and risk management, information technology, and labor union negotiations and management.  Throughout his career at MAAC, Adolfo has gained extensive experience and responsibilities for human resources, property and asset management, real estate development, including affordable housing, educational facilities, and commercial projects. Additionally, Adolfo plays a lead role in MAAC’s labor management and negotiations team, which works directly with the two unions representing more than 350 MAAC staff members.

Moreover, Adolfo is a Board Member of LEAD San Diego. As the leadership development arm of the San Diego Regional Chamber, LEAD San Diego offers a diverse suite of programs designed to mobilize leaders by enhancing knowledge of critical regional issues, strengthening personal leadership skills, and establishing strong community connections.

He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Media Arts Center San Diego, where he channels his passion for the arts to help provide youth with access to filmmaking education and technology. As a former Board President and member of the executive committee, he has leveraged his expertise in nonprofit management to support the organization’s operations, human resources, and fiscal management.

In 2017, Adolfo was one of thirteen individuals appointed to the San Diego City-County Reinvestment Task Force by the San Diego City Council and County Board of Supervisors, representing five lending institutions, five community organizations, and the North, East, and South parts of San Diego County. As a Board member, he represents the voice of South County and the nonprofit community in advocating for affordable housing, promoting economic development, and ensuring fair access to financial services for low and moderate-income residents of San Diego.

Alex Waters is the Executive Director of The Program Labs, a nonprofit that guides foundations and other nonprofits through the process of designing, developing and operating entrepreneurship and workforce training programs. Previously he was the Director of Economic Development and Innovation at the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation (JCNI), where he designed, launched and led San Diego’s first low-to-moderate income and diversity-focused business accelerator program. This award-winning City of San Diego and HUD-funded initiative served as a convergence point for community economic empowerment through an innovative 4-month business accelerator program and resource center that created jobs and helped small business owners receive over $3M in investment.

Before joining JCNI, he ran the Collaboratory for Downtown Innovation (CDI), an entrepreneur support initiative between the City of San Diego, UC San Diego, and the Downtown San Diego Partnership. He spent close to decade in Education Technology with several Director roles at 2U that focused on operations, support and innovation for teacher education programs.

Alex has taught business and leadership at the University of San Diego, served as an Enterprise Innovation Coach, supported business professionals through Seth Godin’s AltMBA program, mentored for Techstars, and currently serves on the boards of the SDSU Research Foundation and San Diego Neighborhood House Association.

He holds a BA in Philosophy from the University of Maryland – College Park and an MA in Philosophy from San Diego State University.