Board Chair
Keith Behner
Stiefel Behner Charitable Fund-Philanthropist & Retired City Planner
San Diego State University-B.A. & Master’s Degree Candidate, Political Science
Keith is the son of a career Naval Officer and was raised primarily in Coronado, as well as Hawaii and Brazil. He earned a B.A. in political science from San Diego State University, and is an SDSU Monty Award recipient. Keith is married to Catherine Stiefel, a CPA, graduate of the SDSU College of Business, and a fellow Monty Award winner. Keith and Catherine are active supporters to numerous nonprofits–at the local, national, and international level–with the focus areas of foster education, environmental sustainability, and social justice.
Vice Board Chair
Susy Villegas
SVPR Communications – President
Universidad del Valle de Mexico – B.A.
Susana Villegas is President of SVPR Communications, an award-winning public relations firm specializing in strategic English- and Spanish-language communications and media services, crisis management, and community stakeholder engagement.
Her firm helps clients in the areas of education, water, tourism, energy, economic development, cross-border commerce, news media, government, and affordable housing to create and deliver effective communications for regional and bi-national communities and media markets.
Ms. Villegas has extensive experience in San Diego city government and political campaigns. She is a former Policy Advisor to the San Diego City Council and has coordinated over a dozen local campaigns for mayor, city council, school district boards, the California State Assembly, and ballot propositions. Ms. Villegas also has experience in the non-profit sector and in the private sector, having worked on infrastructure project management and customer relations in Mexico City and the Tijuana/San Diego region for a leading global firm in tactical communications, avionics, electronic warfare, space, and intelligence systems.
Ms. Villegas received the 2019 Public Communications Achievement Award from the American Water Works Association and the 2019 California Association of Public Information Officers EPIC Award for excellence in public information and communications.
Born and raised in Mexico City, Ms. Villegas has a degree in Communication Sciences from the Universidad del Valle.
Treasurer
Keegan McNamara
McNamara Real Estate Ventures – Principal
UC San Diego’s Rady School of Management – MBA, Finance
Occidental College – B.A., Economics & English
Keegan is the Principal of McNamara Real Estate Ventures, which focuses on development and investment in urban neighborhoods in San Diego. Mr. McNamara founded MV Properties in 2008. MV Properties is a property management and real estate brokerage firm.
He previously was a guest lectures for “Frontiers in Real Estate,” the first undergraduate real estate course taught at UCSD. Keegan has worked in all aspects of real estate management, brokerage, development, and investment, including: Senior Consultant at Robert Charles Lesser & Co, a national real estate consulting firm; CityMark Development, an award-winning urban infill development company; and a private equity real estate investment fund.
Keegan is a licensed California real estate broker, and recently joined the Alumni Board of Directors for the Rady School of Management at UCSD.
Secretary
Alicia Quinn
United Way of San Diego County – Vice President of New Business Development
Columbia University – M.S., Social Enterprise Administration
Georgetown University – B.S., Business Administration
With more than 15 years of private and nonprofit experience, Alicia is passionate about leveraging the resources from both sectors to fuel social innovation. In her role at Natural High, Alicia is responsible for building corporate and community partnerships to expand and scale the organization's programmatic initiatives and national reach. Prior to joining Natural High, Alicia was Director of Programs for Mission Edge, where designed and implemented a corporate social responsibility program for Qualcomm to engage employees in skills-based volunteering in the nonprofit sector. She also implemented a social enterprise accelerator for nonprofit organizations to develop, test, and implement revenue-generating lines of business. Alicia was Director of Programs and Development for the Accion U.S. Network, a microfinance lender that provides access to capital for underserved entrepreneurs, and Director of Programs for San Diego Social Venture Partners, which helps philanthropists realize greater social impact through their collaborative investments of time and treasure in local nonprofits.
She started her career as an analyst at JP Morgan Chase and Director of Administration at Howard Head Sports Medicine in Vail, CO. Alicia holds a BS in Business Administration from Georgetown University and a MS in Social Enterprise Administration from Columbia University. She serves on the Executive Advisory Board for the Center of Peace and Commerce at USD and is the President of the Georgetown Club of San Diego. She is a finalist of the San Diego Business Journal's "2018 SD Next Top Business Leaders Under 40" and San Diego Magazine's 2018 Celebrating Women award.
Board Members
Jesus Cisneros
University of California, San Diego – B.A., Philosophy & Political Science
BLCI Alumnus Class of 2010 – Alumni Representative
Laura Deitrick
University of San Diego - Associate Director of The Nonprofit Institute; Professor of Practice, Department of Leadership Studies
University of San Diego - P.h.D, Leadership Studies
University of San Diego - M.A., Nonprofit Leadership and Management
San Diego State University - B.A., Economics
Dr. Laura Deitrick has been a nonprofit executive director, board member, management consultant, and researcher on major nonprofit trends. Her research has led to important reports on nonprofit ethics, nonprofits and public education, nonprofit human resource practices, executive transition, the economics of San Diego’s nonprofit sector, nonprofit public confidence, regional grant making. In her role, Dr. Deitrick oversees graduate programs, leadership development initiatives, and the work of the Caster Family Center for Nonprofit and Philanthropic Research. Under her direction, the Caster Center’s work is focused on research, evaluation, and understanding the economic landscape of the nonprofit and philanthropic sector in relationship to the broader economy. Dr. Deitrick is the director of USD’s Nonprofit Leadership and Management master’s program where she teaches nonprofit research methods, program design, and evaluation. She also serves as an adjunct faculty member at the University of California San Diego. She is the co-author of Cases in Nonprofit Management: A Hands- On Approach to Problem Solving, recently released by Sage publications.
Jesus Cisneros is a San Diego native. He enjoys post-Aristotelian, Hellenistic philosophy. Currently providing the students’ and community’s perspective on the board.
Ingrid de Llamas
Comic-Con Museum – Director of Philanthropy
Cal Poly Pomona – B.S., Specialized Communications
CFRE and IAP Certified
Ingrid is the Director of Philanthropy for the new Comic-Con Museum and is excited to be part of the team that is bringing a dynamic new attraction to San Diego’s Balboa Park. She has spent her career building fundraising and advancement programs for schools and non-profit organizations.
Ingrid serves the community as a Trustee for the San Diego Public Library Foundation, Board Member for the Epilepsy Foundation of San Diego County, and administrator for a private foundation. Former board service includes Pasadena Symphony & Pops, Leadership Pasadena, Junior League of Monterey County, the Collective Voices Foundation and Living Rooms at the Border (a Casa Familiar project).
She is a member of Rotary 33, the Association of Fundraising Professionals and San Diego Grantmakers. Among her service awards, Ingrid was named the Asian Business Association’s Member of the Year in 2018 and the San Diego Public Library Foundation’s Volunteer of the Year for 2019.
Ingrid is an eighth-generation Californian who resides in the Marston Hills area of San Diego.
Judy Halter
JH Resources – Educational Consultant
Georgetown University – B.S., Economics
Judy worked in Public Finance for 17 years, institutional sales, trading & banking for EF Hutton, Morgan Stanley and helped create the first Public Finance Department run by a woman. When her fourth child was born, she retired from public finance. Founding the Medical Needs Foundation in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey which still exists today having raised over $2 million dollars to distribute to individuals faced with overwhelming financial obligations due to catastrophic and chronic medical conditions. She and her family moved to San Diego in 2005. Her children were fortunate enough to attend The Bishops School. During that time she served in various leadership roles at Bishops, but also served on the Board of Nativity Prep Academy and the Refugee Network.
She has worked part time as an independent college counselor for the last 8 years and has served on Georgetown's Alumni Admissions Board for the last 13 years, serving as San Diego’s Chair for 10 years. Most recently, served as Race Director of The La Jolla Cove Swim bringing back one of San Diego’s most treasured traditions of competitive swimming in La Jolla Cove. The proceeds are dedicated to funding youth swim lessons in underserved neighborhoods as well as cultural and beautification enhancements for La Jolla Cove Scripps Park.
Her greatest contributions revolve around empowering others through education or improving healthcare outcomes. Her greatest joys come from spending time with her husband and four children who reside in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, and Seattle.
Adelita Jasso
Licensed Vocational Nurse, State of California
Parent Representative – Parent of two BLCI students
Adelita Jasso has an extensive background in nursing for the Sheriff's Department. She is an active member of her church, and dedicates her time to the Plaza Comunitaria for the parents of BLCI.
Andrew H. Motiwalla
Terra Education - Founder & Chairman
Lawrence University - B.A., Anthropology and Spanish
Andrew serves as the Executive Chairman of Terra Education, the organization that operates Summer Springboard (academic summer camps for teens), Discover Corps (volunteer vacations for families) and Global Leadership Adventures (international volunteer trips for teens). Andrew has extensive experience managing and catapulting the growth of international education and volunteer programs. He served as senior vice president for the non-profit international volunteer program Cross-Cultural Solutions, where he helped build programs from scratch into a network of 14 countries and 2,500 volunteers. Throughout his career, he has worked with several tech startups, but his passion has always been international education. Andrew is a graduate of Lawrence University and has done graduate studies in non-profit management at New School University in New York City. He speaks Spanish and Portuguese.
Joyce Ross
Ross Partners – Founding Partner/Retired University Professor
University of Southern California, Ph.D. & M.S., Health Services Administration
Joyce has over 30 years experience in organizational development, leadership training, and human resources consulting. In addition to her role at Ross Partners, she was also a Professor of Public Administration at San Diego State University. Joyce currently devotes a majority of her time providing pro-bono consulting to nonprofit organizations through San Diego Social Venture Partners. She has also served as a Board Member with Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest, the San Dieguito School District Personnel Commission, and San Diego Social Venture Partners.
Victor Vilaplana
Renovate America – Principal
UCLA Anderson School of Management – MBA
Stanford University – B.A., Political Science
Victor, a native San Diegan, currently serves as Vice President, Financial Relations for Renovate America, a VC-backed technology firm that has developed a platform to promote the financing of energy and water efficiency home renovations. Through its HERO program, Renovate America lowered barriers for homeowners and has financed nearly $2 billion of home renovations helping consumers lower the operating costs of their homes and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Prior to Renovate America, Vilaplana was vice president of electric and fuel procurement at San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), a subsidiary of Sempra Energy. Previously, Vilaplana served as director of investor relations and manager of mergers and acquisitions for Sempra Energy. Vilaplana started his career as part of an Institutional Investor ranked equity research team at Morgan Stanley.
Advisory Council
Andrew Achterkirchen
Vicki Baron
Trevor Blair
Christa Burke
Rafael Castellanos
Paula Cordeiro
Joyce Glazer
Lisa Goodman
Rodrigo Guevara
Maria Heredia
Linda Katz
Heather Lattimer
James Lauer
Kenneth Little
David Lopez
Alex Montoya
Cindy Olmstead
Eliot Peters
Pedro Reyes
Warren Ruis
Vic Salazar
Rana Sampson
Laura Talamantes
Frank Urtasun
Sara Vaz
Danitza Villanueva
Sid Voorakkara