Board of Directors
Mexico Board
- Cristina Covarrubias
- Ismael Chacon
- Alma Delia Abrego
- Claudian Contreras
- David Ribal
Advisory Committee
Staff
Tom McMillen,
President
Tom retired in 2008 from Chevron, after spending over 32 years in various
California locations as an Engineer, Research Supervisor, Assistant to
President of Oil Field Research, Reservoir Engineering Manager, and Research
Manager. He and his wife Nancy relocated to San Juan Capistrano and he
assumed the presidency of Corazón at the end of 2008.
He
has a B. S. Degree in Chemical Engineering from Kansas State University and
a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from CalTech. He has served as a Lecturer
at CalTech and has taught at the UCLA Extension School as well as internally
with Chevron in a variety of technical and management subjects. For six
years, Tom was also on the Board of Directors of Help for Brain Injured
Children, a non-profit agency in La Habra, California.
Tom and Nancy have been involved with Corazón as volunteers since January,
1994 and as Blue Shirts since late 1994. He has been a Member of the
Corazón Board since 1997. Tom was the Manager of Administration from
1997-1999 and Vice-President from 1999-2008. He has also acted as a truck
driver, trip coordinator, and sponsor. Nancy has also served in a variety of
leadership roles including Coordinator of Blue Shirts, and Newsletter
Editor/Publisher. Their daughter, Dana, was a blue shirt prior to relocating
to Virginia for a teaching career. She continues to be active in the
academic program in Corazón as a sponsor, and son Kelly serves on the
Fundraising committee and makes frequent trips to Mexico for construction
projects.
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Terry
is the President of Temak Construction Company, a company he has been with
for over 30 years. He graduated with a B. A. Degree in English from the
University of Notre Dame and a M. A. Degree in English from California State University
at Long Beach.
He and
his wife, Maureen, have four children -- Tris, Taryn, Emily, and Geof, all are Blue Shirts
and Tris and Geof are also Lead Builders. Maureen is also a Blue Shirt and
works in the Corazón office
and helping coordinate Saturdays in Mexico.
Terry
has worked with Corazón since 1992. He was given his Blue Shirt in 1993 and
has been a Lead Builder since 1992. Terry has served as the Coordinator of
the Lead Builders and leader of Mexican Operations. He has been on the Board
of Directors since 1997 and was President from 2000 - 2008.
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Don Mersch, Treasurer
Don retired from Paychex, Inc. in 2004 after 20 years
of service. He was a Regional Manager in Detroit, Michigan and Orange
County, California for 15 years and spent the last five years as Area
Vice-President Operations. Prior to working for Paychex he was Vice
President of Paxon Machine Company in Salem, Ohio and a manager with the CPA
firm of Arthur Anderson and Company in their audit and administrative
services division.
He grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio and attended Saint
Xavier High School and Xavier University. He has a Bachelor of Science in
Business Administration with a major in Accounting.
He is a member of Our Lady Queen of Angels Church in
Newport Beach and met his wife Pat while participating in a Corazon house
build in the early 90’s. He has two married children, Brad and Courtney,
and two grandsons, Evan and Brady.
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John Meagher,
Secretary
John is the Vice President, Division Manager of Traylor Bros. Inc, a
national marine / underground contractor and manages their west coast
heavy civil operations. He is a 1978 graduate of Oregon State
University and is a registered professional civil engineer.
John and his wife, Shaun have 3 children, Kevin, Annie and Michael and
live in Fountain Valley. Kevin, a Servite HS graduate is currently a
senior at Northern Arizona University, Annie a junior at Fordham
University and Michael is graduating from St Simon and Jude grade school
and heading to Servite HS next year. Annie was awarded a blue shirt
while attending Cornelia Connelly High School. All 3 children have
spent numerous Saturday afternoons covered in paint & sawdust in the
various communities Corazon serves.
John first became involved in Corazon in the mid /late 1990’s while his
older children were attending St Simon and Jude Grade School. John is
currently a lead builder in the organization.
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Lynn
Buhl, Member
Lynn is a consultant at Cognizant, a global information
technology consulting firm. She provides management and IT consulting
services to clients in the media and entertainment industry. Prior to
joining Cognizant in 2007, Lynn worked at Universal Music Group, Huron
Consulting Group, KPMG and Arthur Andersen. During those years, her focus
was on finance and operations. She graduated with a BBA in Finance from the
University of Notre Dame. In 2009, Lynn received her MBA from the Anderson
School of Management at UCLA.
Lynn began working with Corazon in 2001. She earned
her Blue Shirt in 2003. Lynn has worked as a Lead Builder during Super
Builds, and has also sponsored scholarships.
Mike
attended Cal State Fullerton from 1975 to 1978 working towards a degree in
Business Administration. He took a temporary leave of absence to assist
with the family business at Farmers Insurance. That leave of absence is
still ongoing today. He opened his own Farmers Insurance Agency in 1980
while also assisting in training full time agents at his father’s District
office. In 1983, he sold his agency and became his father’s full time
recruiter and trainer for Farmers Insurance. Together they built the
largest District operation in Southern California, committed to the success
of the young men and women who chose being an insurance professional as
their career. In 1997, Mike was asked to open his own District operation
and now operates in Orange County with over 40 offices to serve the Southern
California area.
Mike
has been married to Anita for over 26 years. They have three children;
Kristina (24) Trisha (21) and Michael (15). They live in Yorba Linda near
their extended family. The Corazón opportunity came through Mike’s father
in law, Bill Houben in 1986. Bill told Mike of a group of 15-20 men and
women building these homes in the hills of Tijuana in just one day. He
decided to help on one very hot Saturday and was hooked. Eventually, Mike
became one of the first blue shirts and in 1994 became the Lead Coordinator
for Corazón. In 1996, Mike was presented the Corazón “Order of the Grader”
award.
As a
parishioner at St Martin de Porres in Yorba Linda, Mike has volunteered in
ministries ranging from coordinating small groups in Parental Communication
to fundraising activities for the parish. He hopes to bring the same
enthusiasm and spirit of giving back to your world in his new position as a
Board member for Corazón.
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Irma E. Ramirez is an Associate Professor of Architecture at the
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Her professional
expertise is in the areas of Housing and Urban Design with a focus on
the social and cultural factors of housing and urbanism in developing
countries. Professor Ramirez holds a B.A. in Architecture from the
UCBerkeley; a Master of Architecture and Master of Urban Planning from
the UCLA. At Cal Poly Pomona Irma continues her research through in
collaborations Cal Poly Pomona's Habitat 21 Sustainable Settlements
Project and Corazon since 2005. Her teaching methodologies involve a
community-based design approach in which students experience and serve
disadvantaged communities through design-build projects in the Corazon
communities of Tijuana. In May 2008, she was awarded in collaboration
with Cal Poly faculty the National Council of Architectural Registration
Boards (NCARB) Grand Prize for "Low cost sustainable housing, Tijuana
Mexico". In June 2007, she received the National Lynton Citation Award
for Distinguished Engaged Scholarship from the New England Center for
Higher Education, and in 2005 and 2009 respectively, the Cal Poly Pomona
University's Faculty Award and the School of Environmental Design's
Distinguished Faculty Award both for Teaching Excellence through
community service. Professor Ramirez has lectured throughout the United
States, Mexico and China, and has published work in the areas of
housing, urbanism, and the scholarship of engagement, and vernacular
sustainable systems.
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Mike is a Principal Engineer at Alcon Research. He has been with Alcon
for 6 years and is responsible for leading the development of new
technologies and products for use in ophthalmic surgery. Prior to
joining Alcon, Mike was a Senior Scientist and then Product Development
Manager at Corning Incorporated where he worked for 7 years and was
located in Corning NY until being transferred to Fountain Valley CA in
2002.
Mike has a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Colorado
at Boulder, an MBA from UCLA and a BS in electrical engineering from the
University of Virginia. He holds 12 patents and has published
extensively in technical and trade journals.
Mike got started with Corazon about 5 years ago by participating in
builds sponsored by his parish, Saint Thomas More. After a few trips,
he was hooked and began to attend regularly, first on his own, then
joined by his wife Ann and two children. Mike was one of the first
people to go through Corazon’s Red Shirt program. Mike is also a board
member for the nonprofit social enterprise Materials Matter.
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María
earned a degree in Quantitative Business Analysis from the Pennsylvania
State University. Upon graduation she worked for a major oil company as a
Systems Analyst and Supervisor of Company Operations. After five years,
Maria followed her heart into the non-profit world. She has since worked as
a bi-lingual teacher and
brings her experiences and expertise from her two years in Costa Rica as a
Peace Corps Volunteer. Some of the projects she worked on included career
workshops for sixth-grade girls, self-esteem workshops for school-age
children and women, a theater group, a chess and arts and crafts club and
HIV/AIDS education and prevention with hi-risk populations.
María also worked for Orange
County's United Way where she managed the Somos Familia Initiative.
Maria was responsible for the researching, designing, implementing and
documenting of this initiative that focused on improving the lives of
Latinos in three targeted communities in Orange County.
María joined Corazón in 2002 and since then has implemented many changes to
make Corazón a more professional organization. Some of her accomplishments
include creating a policy and procedure manual, a 5-year and 3-year
strategic plan for both the U.S. and Mexican organizations, creating a board
manual, and finalizing Organización Corazón A.C., Corazón’s non-profit
organization in Mexico.
María’s husband Raúl, is also a Blue Shirt and volunteers his time
translating, assisting on builds and teaching part
of the construction class. María and Raúl also share one of their passions
with kids on both sides of the border by sponsoring an annual soccer clinic
and participating in the annual soccer tournament.
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John Torrence
John has been self-employed for over 25 years
[since graduation from high school] in the construction, real estate
management, and information technology industries. John and his wife,
Barbara, started and operate “A Stitch Above," an embroidery business they
run out of their home. John has earned the Eagle Scout award and speaks
reasonable Spanish.
John started with Corazón in December 1980 and
averaged one trip per month for several years. After a one year sabbatical,
John came back in 1988, believing that he needed Corazón as much as the poor
needed Corazón. John has worked with such significant and diverse areas as
the medical clinic, research, food distribution, border crossing and
government issues, finance, construction, scholarships, and the blanket
drives. Over the last six years, he has dedicated significantly more time to
Corazón management and organizational duties than the actual Saturday
projects, so as to help the group survive its transition to the next
generation.
John’s more significant contributions to
Corazón include instituting:quarterly newsletters, bimonthly board
meetings, annual meetings, the "blue shirt" concept, the multiple house
“Super Build," familia repairs, familia teaching including the
construction class, the familia Corazón program, computer database
development, and “Threaded Rods” -- the internal newsletter for Coordinators
/ Builder /Blue-Shirt /Researcher /Driver /Warehouse volunteers. Back
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Carolynn Rowe Ramsey
Carolynn has a Bachelors Degree in
Spanish/Latin American History from the University of New Mexico, an MBA from
California State University, Dominguez Hills, and a Masters in Special
Education [Deaf] from California State University, Northridge. She has
taught at the Utah School for the Deaf and is currently a teacher in
Oceanside CA. She is fluent in Spanish and Sign Language.
Carolynn has been on the Board of Directors of
the Albuquerque, NM, YMCA, served as a Vestry member and Bishop’s Warden at
her church, and also volunteered at the North [San Diego] County Hospice.
Carolynn has served Corazón as a volunteer
Researcher and a Village Coordinator. She was the Mexican Director, and has
been a member of the Corazón Board of Directors since 1996.
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Lee
Haviland
Lee has spent
over 35 years in the Information Technology field as a manager or executive
with such firms as IBM, KPMG, and Texas Utilities. Prior to starting his own
business consulting firm he was Vice-president of Sprint. He graduated with
a BS Degree in Industrial Engineering from Texas A&M, a MBA from Southern
Methodist University, and completed the Harvard University Summer Executive
Education Program.
He is active in his church [Finance Committee, Men's Bible Study, Lay
Pastor's Society] and his community of Poway [Chairman, Budget Committee;
Assistant Administrator of the Sheriff's Senior Volunteers]. He has been
involved with Corazón since 1996. He has been a Blue Shirt for the last six
years working on building over 110 homes. He has also been a Sponsor, Trip
Coordinator, Bookkeeper, and Manager of Administration for Corazón. Lee put
together Corazon's 5-year plan "Corazón 2003" and served as
Treasurer on the Board of Directors. Back
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Anne Kinney
Anne
has a B.A. degree in Liberal Arts from San Francisco State University and a
Multiple Subjects Teaching Credential from Cal State Fullerton. She taught
in the Orange County public school system for seven years before making a
career change. She worked as a technical writer for a local software company
for three years before turning her efforts to work full-time with her
search engine optimization company.
Currently, she works part-time for their SEO company and spends the rest of
her time taking care of her family, which now includes a young daughter,
Cassie.
Anne
started working with Corazon in 1996. She believed so much in the mission of Corazón that
she
decided to make it an active part of her life. Anne earned her blue shirt
in 2001 after co-sponsoring several builds and participating in many others.
Since then, she has worked as a Trip Coordinator, a group sponsor speaker
and has helped develop some of the training materials for trip coordinators
and the local Mexican teachers.
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Scott has worked in the elevator service and construction industry for 26
years and has held various positions in engineering, technology development,
business analysis and is currently the Vice President of Sales and Business
Development for ThyssenKrupp Elevator. Scott earned his Bachelors in
Business Management at the University of Phoenix.
Scott has been involved in Corazon since the year 2000 and has been a lead
builder since 2004. Scott is very committed to lead building and enhancing
the home building experience for the Corazon sponsors. Scott looks forward
to teaching construction classes in the coming year to expand his
involvement with other areas of Corazon.
Scott’s wife Janet, is a blue shirt and assists on builds on occasion while
being very committed to an executive management program at Washington
Mutual. Scott’s oldest son James is a blue shirt as well and assists in
builds and remodels.
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A
native Californian Steve was raised in Orange County and attended St Joseph’s
school in Santa Ana and Mater Dei graduating from Foothill High School in
Tustin. Steve attended Saddleback Junior College and UCI. In 1972 Steve moved
to Hawaii and Started Kona Book Store on the Big Island and it still survives
today. Since moving back to the mainland Steve worked for Mr. Jacuzzi in the
Swimming pool industry and than Paddock Pool Equipment Company moving to
Texas specializing in large pool consulting and building. A local project
that was completed by Paddock through Steve’s work is the Rose Bowl Aquatic
center. Since moving back to California Steve has been in the Insurance
industry and recently bought into a Insurance agency, Fidelity First Equity
Group specializing in institutional sales to Doctors Groups and the Banking
Industry.
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María
earned a degree in Quantitative Business Analysis from the Pennsylvania
State University. Upon graduation she worked for a major oil company as a
Systems Analyst and Supervisor of Company Operations. After five years,
Maria followed her heart into the non-profit world. She has since worked as
a bi-lingual teacher and
brings her experiences and expertise from her two years in Costa Rica as a
Peace Corps Volunteer. Some of the projects she worked on included career
workshops for sixth-grade girls, self-esteem workshops for school-age
children and women, a theater group, a chess and arts and crafts club and
HIV/AIDS education and prevention with hi-risk populations.
María also worked for Orange
County's United Way where she managed the Somos Familia Initiative.
Maria was responsible for the researching, designing, implementing and
documenting of this initiative that focused on improving the lives of
Latinos in three targeted communities in Orange County.
María joined Corazón in 2002 and since then has implemented many changes to
make Corazón a more professional organization. Some of her accomplishments
include creating a policy and procedure manual, a 5-year and 3-year
strategic plan for both the U.S. and Mexican organizations, creating a board
manual, and finalizing Organización Corazón A.C., Corazón’s non-profit
organization in Mexico.
María’s husband Raúl, is also a Blue Shirt and sits on the
Mexico Board of Directors and volunteers his time
translating, assisting on builds and teaching part
of the construction class. María and Raúl also share one of their passions
with kids on both sides of the border by sponsoring an annual soccer clinic
and participating in the annual soccer tournament.
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Victor previously worked for the San
Diego-Imperial Council of the Boy Scouts of America. His has more than 14
years of experience working with non-profit organizations in Mexico and the
United States. Some of the organizations he has contributed to are: Scouts
of Mexico, Los Angeles Mission College, The Fund-Raising School, Procura,
A.C., Fundación Demos, A.C.; and the International Ophthalmology Institute,
I.B.P. He is also a U.S. Air Force veteran who served during Desert Shield/Storm.
Victor has a Bachelor of Science from
California State University, Northridge in International Business
Administration and a fund-raising management certificate from The Fund
Raising School. He is a member of the Scouts of Mexico National Training
Team where he volunteers providing management training for volunteers
throughout Mexico.
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Julissa Espinoza was born and
raised in Los Angeles along with her only brother, Ramon. She currently
lives with her parents, Maria and Leonel, who are both from Mexico. Julissa
speaks Spanish and English, as well as some Portuguese.
In 2005, Julissa graduated
from UC Santa Cruz with a BA in Women Studies and a minor in Politics.
During her undergrad years, she studied abroad in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil
with the language and culture program. She was in Brazil for a total of four
months where she studied the Afro-Brazilian culture and learned Portuguese.
Julissa also interned for the Political Action Committee (PAC) with the
National Organization for Women (NOW) in Washington D.C. For the duration
of her internship, she researched potential candidates for NOW endorsements
and she even had the opportunity to pick-it the White House, right after
Senator Kerry’s defeat.
After UCSC, Julissa worked
for the law firm Wood, Smith, Henning & Berman, LLP where she assisted with
the firm’s largest client for two years. She was responsible for supporting
six attorneys with legal documentation and filing. Not completely satisfied
with the legal world, Julissa decided to pursue her passion of social
services.
With the assistance of great
people, Julissa came across Corazón. She looks forward to providing
Corazón all her skills and knowledge she has gained throughout her
non-profit experiences. All of Julissa’s
experiences have been guided by her humanitarian spirit of serving others
and now Corazón.
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Jorge was born and raised in Tijuana, he has three
sisters. His father’s side of the family is scattered across both sides of
the border, and because of that, he believes that both sides should be
considered one community. In general, what happens on one side affects the
other.
Community service in Tijuana has been part of his life
since he joined Scouts de Mexico when he was only 9 years old. He
also volunteered with Lions Club International, which his father was a
member of during the ’93 Tijuana floods when he was a teenager. This
volunteer work caused Jorge to realize the enormous inequality and lack of
opportunity throughout the city. Tijuana is a new city with many migrants,
who lack the education and resources they need to prosper; much needs to be
done and many hands are needed.
He is currently studying IT at Universidad de Baja
California, the largest University in Tijuana. He got involved with
Corazón as an intern, but as soon as he learned that he could work for the
organization he jumped onboard and discovered that he loved working for
others as part of his daily routine. For him, Corazó is an opportunity not
just to help people in Mexico, but to work side by side with people from
both sides of the border and learn about their cultural differences in order
to better understand each other.
