Kate Bartholomeusz
Member, Board of Directors
Kate Bartholomeusz is a stellar non profit fundraiser, focusing on long term relationship building with donors and volunteers, as well as large scale prospect research and development. She currently works as West Coast Regional Lead of Individual Philanthropy for Grameen Foundation, a global nonprofit using technology to combat poverty and hunger. Prior to Grameen, Kate was Director of Major Gifts for KQED, the PBS and NPR station broadcast in the San Francisco Bay Area, and has been a volunteer for other organizations including Room to Read and Homeless Prenatal Program. She began her career in fundraising when she was lucky to land an internship with the Tia Foundation in Phoenix, where she was attending graduate school at the Thunderbird School of Global Management, and never looked back.
Kate has a M.A. in Global Affairs and Management from Thunderbird and a B.A. in Political Science and Business Administration from the University of San Diego. In her spare time, she spends time with her husband and daughter, who keeps them on their toes, travels, and explores the Bay Area, from local breweries to the zoo.
Shelley Detwiller DiGiacomo
Member, Board of Directors
Shelley is an attorney specializing in securities law at the firm of Detwiller DiGiacomo & Pisaruk. Her practice focuses on advising private companies and investors with respect to securities transactions.
She assists her clients from start-up through exit, advising on a variety of business matters including commercial contracts, loan agreements, licensing agreements, supply and distribution agreements, and sale and acquisition of assets, securities, and companies.
Shelley graduated summa cum laude from Cornell Law School. She also holds an M.A. from New York University in Political Science and received her B.S. in Political Science and her minors in History and Spanish from Arizona State University.
Shelley has been an active member of the Phoenix community and served as the Board President for Community Information and Referral. She was selected by U.S. News and World Report for their Best Lawyers in America for 2013 and 2014 in Corporate Law.
Matt Jewett
Secretary, Board of Directors
Matt Jewett is the Associate Director of Grants at Mountain Park Health Center, providing oversite on $15 million in grants, a 30% increase in his three-year tenure with the organization.
Previously, Matt was the Director of Health Policy for Children’s Action Alliance, a non-partisan research and advocacy organization, where he oversaw research and communication with media, elected officials, and educated the community on children’s health issues.
He served as a Spanish language spokesperson for an outreach campaign that increased enrollment in KidsCare, Arizona’s Children’s Health Insurance Program, by 30% in 18 months after several years of flat enrollment. He also helped secure passage of legislation signed by the Governor of Arizona that clarified reduced liability for schools that open their playgrounds outside of school hours to promote physical activity.
Before that, Matt worked on political campaigns, an efficiency review of Arizona state government in the Governor’s Office, and as a staff assistant to two members of Congress.
Matt holds of Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of Arizona. Past community involvement includes six years on the governing board of the Creighton Elementary School District in Phoenix and several non-profit boards. Matt is a graduate of Valley Leadership Institute Class 37.
Dale Lillard
Treasurer, Board of Directors
R. Dale Lillard is the President of Lansdale Semiconductor, Inc., an Integrated Circuit aftermarket manufacturer.
Dale received his B.S. in Electronic Engineering from the University of New Mexico in 1972 and started his career in product management with Motorola. He spent two years with Fairchild, and in 1980 became President of Lansdale Semiconductor, a semiconductor aftermarket manufacturing company of military and wireless commercial integrated circuits.
He has been active in the American Electronics Association in Arizona and is a member of both the World President’s Organization and Boy Scouts of America.
Diego Milán
Member, Board of Directors
Diego is a CPA specializing in entrepreneurship at Corporativo Diemy. Currently, Corporativo Diemy invests and provides management in several industries such as biotechnology, Tequila, and Film-making. He also provides consulting in business development, strategic growth, organizational and financial plans.
Diego graduated from Universidad Panamericana Guadalajara campus and later completed his International Master’s degree in the Moore School Business from the University of South Carolina.
Diego leads Filantropía Diemy, a non-profit organization mainly focused on funding some projects that assist kids with AIDS and sometimes looks for funding for other entities that assist the elderly or homeless children.
Diego is based in Guadalajara and occasionally writes for local newspapers on travel and sports.
Scott Reising
Member, Board of Directors
Scott is Managing Director, Glacial Till Capital LLC. Relying on over 24 years of finance and development experiences and relationships, Scott advises banks, solar developers and other mid-market businesses on strategies of capital raising, deal structuring, and successful execution. Corporate clients are assisted by Scott’s leadership ability, capital introductions, and finance/credit specialization. His focus is growing successful relationships to grow successful businesses.
Scott is an Advisor to: Pacific Mercantile Bank (Energy group banking); New Resource Bank (recently acquired by Amalgamated Bank); BayKeepers (a SF environmental nonprofit).
Prior to forming his own advisory and investment practice, Scott created and led a highly successful renewable energy investment vehicle as Group Head/senior vice president of the Renewable Resources Group (RRG), formerly the Energy & Infrastructure Group (EIG). This vehicle was developed with a goal of growing a national practice by developing project financings in the cleantech and renewable space with a considerable focus on solar energy. The group extended commitments in excess of $450 million into the renewable energy space (residential, utility and commercial, distributed generation). The strong revenue growth generated from the group had a significant benefit in the sale of Bridge Bank to Western Alliance Bank, while the investments serve a critical niche in the renewable/sustainable industry.
From 2005 until joining Bridge Bank, Scott played a key role in deal execution and deal structuring in the NY offices of several very large European banks. His experience includes review, analysis, credit approval and/or funding of over $20bn of structured finance and project finance transactions in the renewable energy space (including solar, wind, biofuels and hydro), large infrastructure (including toll roads, bridges, tunnels, social accommodation) and other water and energy transactions. In addition, Scott developed his expertise by working through financial restructurings, credit administration and asset management functions. Prior to his MBA and work on Wall Street, Scott spent over a decade as a project manager, leading teams to the successful completion of construction and development projects for high technology clients, including internationally.
Scott earned his MBA from Thunderbird, is a registered professional civil engineer and a certified mediator. He is local to Silicon Valley and San Francisco and an alum of Santa Clara University.
Katie Smith
Member, Board of Directors
Katie is originally from Sparks, Nevada and has lived in San Francisco for 5 years. She is a bilingual project manager who runs the Agent Success Team for the Bay Area at Compass, a Real Estate Tech Company. She has spent most of her career in customer facing, implementation roles and she is passionate about people, process improvement, and managing change.
She enjoys traveling, spending time with her loved ones, cooking and dancing. She is even part of a group that performs flash mobs throughout the city! She loves to go explore, go to yoga, and plans on becoming a motivational speaker.
The Tia Foundation is very special to Katie. She has been enamored with Tia’s mission for nearly a decade and aligns very closely their values. As a Spanish speaker, lover of the latinx culture, and proponent for the empowerment of women and minorities, Katie feels “at home” with Tia. She became the first VEA for Tia in June 2016 when she visited the Tuxcueca municipio with the UVM brigade and then attended a second time in 2017.
Cindy Yeager
Member, Board of Directors
Cindy Yeager manages programs in Latin America and supports campus-based and off-site programs for Thunderbird for Good. She is a 2008 Thunderbird School of Global Management graduate and has a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations, French and Spanish from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Alex Nepogodiev
Member, Board of Directors
Alex Nepogodiev joined Abbott in February 2019 in his current role as DVP of Global Marketing, Structural Heart. Prior to joining Abbott, Alex spent 13 years at Medtronic in roles of increasing responsibility and most recently led the global marketing function for their $1.6 billion interventional cardiology franchise. He also worked in the pharmaceutical industry with Dey L.P. and Pfizer in marketing and project management roles. Alex holds a bachelor’s degree in Marketing from Western Michigan University and an MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management.
Cassie Chandler
Member, Board of Directors
Cassie’s bio will be here shortly.
Suzie Moreno
Member, Board of Directors
Suzie’s bio will be here shortly.
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