As a proud Board Member of Nation’s Finest, I play a pivotal role in shaping the organization'smission, strategy, and goals through strategic decision-making, as well as participating inpolicymaking and financial oversight to ensure a sustainable future. At Nation’s Finest, ourmission is to support America’s military Veterans and their families by providing acomprehensive approach to housing, health, and employment. Through our efforts, weempower Veterans to achieve self-sufficiency and reach their full potential.

Executive leader of one of America’s largest Red Cross regions, with combined workforce of 8,000 employees and volunteers across 14 sites, serving 10M people in 88 cities throughout Los Angeles County. Consistently introduce and manage strategic & tactical action plans to increase social impact & efficiency, supervising eight direct reports, four departments including executive directors and the boards of four LA chapters, managing $11M annual operating budget. Oversaw successful merger between Humanitarian Services and Biomedical Services facilities and fleet operations, ensuring organizational culture, standards of care, and equity-focused staff development and growth throughout the transition.★ Developed and institutionalized high-impact Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion programs, including Gender Pay Equity Initiative, Anti-Racism Action Plan, and Diversity Hiring Initiative, creating more fair, effective, and inclusive culture.★ Drove multi-year program redesign to transform outdated preparedness & response strategy to innovative, data-driven, social justice-oriented, community organizing model, increasing disaster resiliency throughout 32 targeted low-income socially vulnerable communities in LA County.★ Transformed internal processes and culture, standardizing cross-functional and geographic collaboration, reducing costs by 10%, expanding service delivery by 30%, and increasing employee morale and teamwork scores by 100%.★ Transitioned workforce from traditional office environment to flexible, staff-focused workstyle & culture, increasing employee satisfaction & retention, improving mission delivery, & expanding AmeriCorps workforce throughout California regions by 60%.★ Supported and co-led $5 million+ in fundraising from institutional partners & high net worth individuals.★ Led organization as Acting Chief Executive Officer during multiple extended leaves and deployments by CEO, and as Interim CEO during leadership transition.

I participated as a fellow in this executive leadership training program designed to produce effective leadership across the public (federal, state, and local), private, and non-profit sectors. It included instruction in a pragmatic, proven approach to leadership in high-stakes, high-pressure situations as well as interactive dialogues, case study discussions, and guest presentations by front line leaders from major events such as the H1N1 pandemic, Deepwater Horizon oil spill, super storm Sandy, the Boston Marathon bombings, and the Ebola outbreak.As an outcome of participation, officials and executives are prepared to cross geographic and organizational boundaries to deal with crises as well as day-to-day collaboration and problem-solving. They are equipped to guide the design of comprehensive, multi-agency, multi-sector and multi-jurisdictional emergency response plans. Participants became versed in the principles of meta-leadership in order to respond to significant adverse events whether natural or man-made.Key Accomplishment: My six-person team, comprised of senior executives from the U.S. Air Force, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Counterterrorism Center, the Singapore Armed Forces, and the American Red Cross, researched and developed a multi-disciplinary plan to create a nationwide infectious disease alert network to ensure healthcare practitioners and first responders receive timely, accurate, actionable information about infectious disease outbreaks such as ebola.

Impactful executive leader of multi-organizational (C3, C4, and PAC) alliance of 155 major chambers of commerce, trade associations, and corporate investors representing more than 275,000 businesses with three million employees throughout Southern California. Developed and trained high performing team of eight, establishing strategic guidance in meeting public policy development, education, resource, and advocacy needs for diverse group of business leaders, mobilizing the collective voices of hundreds of thousands of employers to win on major legislative issues.★ Doubled staff and increased membership and fundraising revenue by 25%, leading team of policy managers and associates driving aggressive grassroots outreach campaigns that delivered key victories for Southern California’s economy, including helping pass $7.1-billion State Water Bond and defeating $2.4-billion county development fee.★ Directed BizFed Southern California Business Coalition, with impact on wide-reaching regulatory bodies, resulting in the reshaping of South Coast Air Quality Management District policies and Governing Board, and billions of dollars in regulatory victories for key stakeholders.★ Directed programs for BizFed Institute, a non-profit collaboration between business, labor, and environmental-justice stakeholders to tackle housing, education, economic development, energy, and climate change issues.★ Oversaw BizFed Board of Directors and Advocacy Committee meetings and represented voice of business before city councils on regulatory, land use, taxation, and fiscal issues.

Elected to four terms as Virginia State legislator representing representing a socially diverse urban district. Leveraged grassroots mobilization and coalition-building abilities to deliver multiple legislative accomplishments:★ Major legislative victories: Smoking ban in Virginia restaurants and bars, secured equal rights for LGBTQ+ Virginians in hospital visitation, wrote state’s Green Jobs Bill, created state’s Advance Health Care Directives Registry, passed bipartisan Tax Credit Transparency and Accountability Act and Water Consumer Protection Act.★ Led multiple efforts to expand access to reproductive health care, promote equal rights, and defeat anti-choice bills, resulting in 100% career rating from NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia, 2009 Equality Award from Arlington Gay & Lesbian Alliance, and Honorary Young Democrat for Life award from Virginia Young Democrats.★ Elected Vice Chair of the Virginia House Democratic Caucus, named “rising star” by The Hotline and Legislative Hero six times by Virginia League of Conservation Voters.★ Led successful multi-year public and legislative advocacy effort that resulted in closure of coal-fired power plant that was poisoning children and medically vulnerable residents in my district.★ Developed anti-poverty policy and legislation as gubernatorial appointee to Virginia Poverty Reduction Task Force. ★ Developed groundbreaking policy and legislation as bipartisan appointee to Joint Study Committee on STEM Education, Joint Committee on Telework, and Geographic Information Systems Advisory Committee. ★ Helped established Virginia Housing Trust Fund to create and preserve affordable housing and reduce homelessness in the state.

During my term as a state legislator, my wife and I developed and directed a strategic planning, advocacy, and communications firm partnering with nonprofits and businesses to achieve desired policy outcomes.

I was a senior executive at a top-tier, boutique public affairs firm, leading development, strategic planning, and implementation of highly visible, integrated marketing, advertising, media, and social media campaigns for multiple clients. Established keen insight into client business needs, translating requirements into successful marketing strategies. Developed highly motivated and dynamic teams consistently meeting or exceeding timelines and business objectives and ensuring customer satisfaction.

Deputy Director, Your Guardians of Freedom Program, Secretary of the Air Force Office of Public Affairs, Washington, DCMay 2002 – May 2004Senior manager responsible for developing, planning, implementing, and promoting high-visibility, web-enabled national outreach programs designed to build and sustain grassroots support for U.S. Air Force. Managed five-person staff, $2.5 million annual budget, and relationships with multiple contractors.Chief of Public Affairs, 16th Air Expeditionary Wing, Aviano AB, Italy and deployed locationsDecember 2001 – March 2002Directed all public affairs activities for wing of 500 airmen deployed to Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Italy, France, Germany, and Cyprus conducting NATO operations. Traveled among deployed locations and directly advised wing commander and deployed unit commanders.National Strategy Officer, Secretary of the Air Force Office of Public Affairs, Washington, DCAugust 2000 – May 2002Developed, recommended, implemented, and managed strategies designed to win and sustain support for Air Force programs and operations. Promoted Air Force through news, entertainment, and sports industries and through national business and civic organizations. Orchestrated strategic planning for field offices in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Directly aided wounded during Sept. 11 attack on Pentagon; kept office of Air Force Director of Public Affairs functioning to ensure timely flow of information during national crisis. Implemented first-ever identity and branding initiative to unify Air Force communications under a new symbol and theme.