Leadership

Donald Ambrose founded and is president of Del Mar Healthcare, Inc., a 501(c)(3) private foundation investing in innovative programs for older adults in San Diego and elsewhere across the United States. He also founded and operated Ambrose Capital Group, Inc. for nearly 30 years. Ambrose Capital provided financial advisory services to the seniors housing and care industry, providing equity, debt and strategic planning for developers, owners, and operators of seniors housing and healthcare facilities. Don has a B.A. in Economics from Albion College and a Master of Health Administration from the University of Michigan.

Ken Krug’s practice has focused for more than 25 years on the debt and equity financing of multifamily housing with a heavy emphasis on residential rental housing with governmental subsidies and limitations on the income earned and rentals payable by residents.

Mr. Krug has represented most of the largest commercial banks in connection with the origination of construction and permanent loans secured by multifamily real estate and tax advantaged equity investments in the owners of the real estate.

In the course of such representations Mr. Krug has advised clients in connection with the preparation and negotiation of loan documents, tax exempt and taxable bond transactions and partnership and limited liability company agreements.

Among other transactions, Mr. Krug represented a major bank in the debt and equity financing of the privatization of the public housing portfolio of the San Francisco Housing Authority, the largest transaction of its type in California history.

Mr. Krug graduated from Duke University and obtained his law degree from the University of Chicago Law School.

A veteran of the commercial banking industry with over 25 years of experience, Sanat Patel is the Chief Lending Officer of AVANA Companies, as well as a Co-founder of our legacy company, AVANA Capital.

In his position as Chief Lending Officer, Sanat oversees credit and risk administration, as well as the origination and syndication of commercial debt. Sanat excels at navigating the complexities of commercial debt management, as well as creating opportunities for entrepreneurs to realize their dreams and create wealth for their businesses to thrive.

Prior to AVANA, Sanat served in various functions of commercial banking, supporting clients across segments of corporate banking within Wells Fargo Bank, Citibank, and JP Morgan. His competitive drive resulted in him being ranked in the top 10% of bankers nationwide within these institutions.

Sanat earned a Bachelor of Science degree with a dual major in finance and management science, and a minor in economics, from California State University, Fullerton. In 2008, Sanat completed the Banking Degree offered by Pacific Coast Banking School, held at the University of Washington. Currently, Sanat is pursuing an Executive MBA at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management.

Sanat was a founding member of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) Arizona and served as its President from 2014-2016. He also served as a Board Member for Make-A-Wish in Arizona and is the current President of the Phoenix chapter of Pratham USA.

Christie Ault serves as the Community Development Coordinator for Pacific Premier Bank and is responsible for overseeing the Bank’s volunteer activities, coordinating volunteer and community events throughout the Bank’s market areas, and assisting with the Bank’s Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) Program and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives. Christie earned her Bachelor’s Degree in International Security and Conflict Resolution from San Diego State University with Cum Laude. During this time, she was a member of several honor societies including Phi Kappa Phi, Scholars without Borders, and Golden Key. Previously, Christie served in the United States Navy as a Casualty Evacuation Hospital Corpsman for seven years. She was the Leading Petty Officer for HMM-166 (SOC) during deployments to Iraq during 2004 and 2006. She flew over 90 missions to provide expedient extraction of the wounded in combat with a 100% survivability rate. She also served as the training petty officer to military and White House staff. After an honorable discharge from the Navy in 2007, Christie experienced the financial struggles of raising her daughter in San Diego as a single mom. She lived in a bedroom with her daughter and struggled to make ends meet. That experience taught her about humility, perseverance, and the importance of a community. Christie has served on our Board since 2019.

Angela Nugent joined our board as a proud resident of a CHW community in San Diego. She is a licensed realtor with Keller Williams Realty Orange County, specializing in Commercial Multi-family Sales and Management. Prior to Keller Williams, she aided seniors with affordable housing as an Onsite Manager for WSH Management. Her expertise in community building stemmed from working as trustee of a portfolio of properties. Simultaneously, she owned and operated North County Massage and Spa for 20 years.

As part of her practical education, Angela holds a Holistic Health Practitioner certification from The Natural Healing Institute. She completed medical training at Palomar Pomerado Hospital in Poway in 2011. Wanting to combine career paths, vocations and personal passions, Angela returned to school and graduated from Mira Costa College with a major in Real Estate Entrepreneurship, where she was a recipient of the Emerging Leader Award for her vision to create holistic community opportunities and living environments that focus on the importance of overall health for individuals, families, and communities evidenced by her volunteerism.

Angela serves as an active member of the Vista Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Committee, the Vista Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), and a supporter of the National Association of Mental Illness (NAMI). She describes her focus as being God, Family and Community Centered in that order. Angela has served on our board since 2017.

Antonio Barbosa serves as Vice President for Wells Fargo’s Government and Community Relations Group and is responsible for implementing the company’s community and economic development programs in San Diego and Imperial counties. Antonio brings over 20 years of experience working with various community development initiatives in the U.S. and Mexico. Prior to joining Wells Fargo, Antonio oversaw Border Affairs and judicial cooperation for the General Consulate of Mexico in San Diego. He contributes his leadership and advice to various organizations and currently serves on the San Diego Mayor’s Latino Advisory Council, the City of San Diego Small Business Advisory Board, the Ocean Connectors Advisory Board and on the Board of Directors for the San Ysidro Chamber of Commerce. He is a LEAD San Diego graduate. Originally, from Mexico City, he graduated from the Iberoamericana University in Mexico where he graduated with a law degree. In 2009, Antonio was appointed by the President of Mexico Felipe Calderon to serve on the Advisory Board of the Institute for Mexicans Abroad. He has served on our Board since 2017.

Brandon Black recently published his first book called Ego Free Leadership and serves on the board of Axos Financial, formerly Bank of Internet.

Mr. Black retired as the chief executive officer and director of Encore Capital Group in 2013. Encore Capital Group, Inc. is a leading provider of debt management and recovery solutions for consumers across a broad range of financial assets and geographies. Prior to becoming the Company’s President and CEO, Mr. Black served as its Senior Vice President of Operations and Chief Operating Officer from April 1998 through December 2003. From June 1989 until joining the Company, Mr. Black worked for Capital One Financial Corporation and First Data Resources. At Capital One, Mr. Black led various operating units including credit, customer service, fraud and collections.

Mr. Black earned an MBA from the University of Richmond and a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from The College of William and Mary.

Silvia Calzada joined our board as a program recipient of a CHW community in her hometown of more than 20 years in the County of San Diego. She currently works as a Community Health Worker for the Environmental Health Coalition, empowering communities through education, organizing and advocacy achieving environmental and social justice. Silvia’s commitment in creating a just society and fostering a healthy and sustainable quality of life has extended throughout her career servicing in private, governmental and nonprofit organizations.

Her expertise in analytical and organizational support delivered effective operations in governance, risk management and compliance achieving objectives, addressing uncertainty, and acting with integrity for distinguished organizations such as Household International, Department of the Navy, Univision Communications, and ABC 10 News. She has earned a Bachelors of Science in Business Management and a Masters of Arts in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix, San Diego. Recently, she became Board Service certified from The Nonprofit Institute of the University of San Diego in partnership with the United Way of San Diego County, completed the NeighborWorks Community Leadership Institute, and completed leadership training from the Environmental Health Coalition. She’s been involved in many local and national initiatives such AB617 Community Air Protection Program Steering Committee, the AB617 Land-Use Subcommitee, and the Resident Leadership Academy Advisory Council.

Throughout her journey, she has overcome adversities, challenges, and obstacles which created first and secondary traumas but these same experiences shaped her into a strong, resilient woman of excellence and character. In every step she takes, she always returns to her faith that – “With God, All Things Are Possible.”

Eleanor Evans was elected to the Oceanside Unified School District (OUSD)Board of Education in November 2016. Ms. Evans believes quality public education is the greatest asset and greatest equalizer for achieving equity and human rights. She has devoted her 48 year teaching career to promoting high academic achievement, positive social-emotional wellbeing of her students, and equality.

Ms. Evans has been a resident of Oceanside for over 30 years. She earned her a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics/social sciences for teaching and a Master of Science in counseling and administration at San Diego State University. She has taught elementary and secondary education in the Oceanside Unified School District and the San Diego Unified School District. She was an adjunct professor in the School of Education at San Diego State University and has taught economics at Mira Costa and San Diego Community College Districts.

Ms. Evans advocates that OUSD prioritize and sufficiently fund our classrooms to enable our staff to empower and educate optimally our student – closing any and all achievement gaps. The shared benefits of her experiences, expertise, and professionalism will enable all educators and all students to help achieve their maximum potential.

Dinora Reyna Gutierrez is a first-generation Mexican-Salvadoran Chicana. Born and raised in California, she identifies as a fronteriza, “from the border,” since her family resided in the Nestor/San Ysidro region and moved to Tijuana for some time, as her mother was undocumented and her father worked in the United States.

Since graduating and moving back to San Diego, Dinora connected with the San Diego Organizing Project (SDOP), a multi-faith, multi-racial organization comprised of a network of 30 congregations and 70,000 families across San Diego County. It seeks to identify, recruit, train and deploy faith leaders and member congregations to use an organizing model to change policy and systems that are affecting the communities they live in. From San Ysidro to Vista/Oceanside, more than 30 member congregations are organizing around local, state and federal issues that have risen through listening to their congregations and communities. Since late 2019, Dinora has been SDOP’s executive director.

Ruby Harris is Senior Director of Capital Solutions and Partnerships with Enterprise Community Partners, a national organization focused on the production and preservation of affordable housing. In her role, she supports the local affordable housing ecosystem, including developer capacity, creative capital deployment and policy initiatives.

Ruby’s career has been centered in community-based real estate strategies, with experience ranging from nonprofit management, program and product design, project management, public policy, finance and grant-making. Prior to Enterprise, Ruby served as Director of Real Estate Solutions (Consulting) and Co-Director of Lending at Community Vision (a Northern CA regional CDFI) and created the Small Sites Program, an acquisition and rehab program, at the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development in San Francisco. Ruby holds a BA from the University of California, Berkeley in Ethnic Studies and City Planning.

Pauline Hassan Burkey is a South Sudanese American, third culture kid. She arrived in the United States in 1994 at three years old when her family sought asylum while living in a refugee camp in Kenya. She grew up in City Heights, a densely populated and vibrant community of immigrants and refugees in San Diego, California. In the early 2000’s she and her family moved to an affluent suburb in North County San Diego where she would attend high school. The neighborhoods where she spent her formative years; City Heights and later, Carlsbad would have a profound effect on her identity as a woman, a black person living in America, and an immigrant.

She studied Interpersonal and Organizational Communications and Journalism at Azusa Pacific University. Her work in the nonprofit sector started as she served as co-convener of the Episcopal Young Adult Delegation to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. later, her work expanded to programs working with immigrants and refugees in the US with Church World Service. She then served as a Development officer with Empowers Africa, funding programs across Sub Saharan Africa in the areas of human empowerment, wildlife protection, and land conservation. In 2016, she moved to Rwanda to continue working in international development serving on the technical team for microfinance programs with World Relief.

After moving back to the States, she served as a Program Director at Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon and launched a home sharing program serving house insecure and homeless seniors. She then transitioned to working as a Community Organizer in Sacramento where she organized communities to implement policies around housing and homelessness across the city. Currently, she works with PICO California, California’s largest multi faith and multi racial organizing network where she is a Project Manager.

Maria has been a CHW resident since 2008. A 2016 Ruby Award winner for Outstanding Advocate, Maria is experienced serving on boards and committees. She currently is a steering committee member of Resident United Network (RUN) at San Diego Housing Federation (SDHF).

Ted Holman is a financial professional based in San Francisco and devoted to developing double bottom-line solutions to maximize economic and social returns. Currently Ted manages institutional investments for Raymond James Financial, Inc. He previously managed all aspects of First Republic Bank’s Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program with a $1 billion portfolio consisting of over 1,000 properties located throughout the United States.

Prior to joining First Republic Bank, Ted worked as a relationship manager at Union Bank and Centerline Capital. In both roles he was responsible for originating, structuring and closing equity and debt transactions with affordable housing developers. Prior to his involvement in the LIHTC industry, Ted was a consultant at Deloitte.

He holds a B.S. from Rutgers University and an M.A. in economics from the University of Virginia. Ted has served on the CHW Board since 2017.

Noni Ramos joined Housing Trust as Chief Executive Officer in January 2021. In this role she provides strategic leadership and oversees all day-to-day operations. Prior to Housing Trust, Noni served at Enterprise Community Loan Fund as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, where she oversaw the lending, portfolio and risk management, finance, and administration functions to align the organization’s strategic direction. Prior to these roles she served as Vice President of Capital Solutions and Chief Lending Officer. Before joining Enterprise, Noni was Chief Credit Officer for Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF) where she was responsible for directing all lending and portfolio management functions for its national portfolio of community development loans. She also held various lending and programmatic positions of progressive leadership during her 14-year tenure at LIIF.

Noni currently serves as board chair of the California Coalition for Community Investment, a coalition of cross sector CDFIs working in California. She is also a board member of Mercy Community Capital, Community HousingWorks, SPUR San Jose, and Community Health Center Capital Fund.Noni received a bachelor’s degree from the Walter A. Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, and earned a master’s in public administration from the California State University, East Bay.