BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Eric Rajasalu (President)

Eric Rajasalu serves as Vice President of Marketing for Heald College. In this capacity he oversees the development of network-wide and local marketing plans to promote the Heald image and services to Heald’s target audiences, including potential students, employers, academic decision makers and other influencers of the education decision.  Mr. Rajasalu previously served as the Sr. Vice President of Admissions and Vice President of Business Development for Heald College and its eleven campuses in three western states.  Prior to joining Heald, Mr. Rajasalu served as director of sales and vice president of strategic accounts for the Northern California Division of Corporate Express; a multi-national, multi-billion dollar distributor of office products, furniture and custom printed collateral. Mr. Rajasalu began his career in procurement for food services distribution to educational institutions and the hospitality industry. Mr. Rajasalu's breadth of "hands-on" business experience, combined with two degrees from San Diego State University, an M.A. in Education (Multicultural Counseling focus) and a B.A. in International Business (Latin American Studies focus), provides him with a deep understanding and capacity to better serve the diverse needs of the Heald student population. Mr. Rajasalu is a member of the Commonwealth Club of California, the Human Rights Campaign and the Career College Association.

Mirissa McMurray (Treasurer)

Mirissa McMurray graduated from UC San Diego and received her law degree from UC Hastings. During law school and afterward, she worked for Latino Issues Forum in San Francisco working on utility issues for consumers with limited-English proficiency. After deciding she wanted to work directly with people, Mirissa worked at Bay Area Legal Aid as Project Coordinator/Staff Attorney for the opening of their Domestic Violence Restraining Order Clinic. She set up the clinic's procedures, coordinated volunteers and led daily workshops with litigants filing for restraining orders. She helped over 2000 people successfully obtain temporary restraining orders. In September 2007, Mirissa was hired as Staff Attorney for the San Mateo Superior Court's Family Law Facilitator/Self-Help Center where she currently assists self-represented litigants in Family Law cases including domestic violence, paternity actions, child custody and visitation, divorce, support issues and more.

Mirissa has proudly been a tutor for Each One Reach One's ADAPT program since 2004.

Mirissa’s personal interests include working with animals, signing, and arts and crafts.

Dennis Rojas (Secretary)

Mr. Rojas has considerable experience evaluating programs for at-risk and underserved youth in areas of drug, violence, pregnancy, and gang prevention. He also possess expertise in understanding evaluating approaches that are both culturally sensitive and cost-effective, as well as designing data collection procedures that address cultural diversity. He earned a master’s degree in Developmental Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles, with a focus on how risk and protective factors apply to youth of color.

As a research associate for WestEd, Mr. Rojas both participated and lead numerous evaluations that covered violence prevention, ATOD prevention, victim-youth offender mediation, community capacity building, after-school initiatives, and school retention. Many of the evaluations focused on how community-based interventions influence broader community outcomes such as school performance, crime, drug use, employment, and community pride. He was the lead investigator for Connections, a drug and violence prevention program targeting adolescent females of color on probation. The program was funded by a grant from the Center for Substance Abuse and Prevention (CSAP). Mr. Rojas not only evaluated the program but also designed the program’s logic model and worked with the CSAP field representative in establishing the program’s benchmarks and outcome measures. He administered both the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and the Cognitive Test on Basic Drug Facts as instruments for measuring changes in youth behavior.

Mr. Rojas served as lead evaluator and consultant for several gang prevention programs run out of the Inglewood’s Coalition for Drug and Violence Prevention. Services were provided to youth through a collaboration of community-based organizations and were designed to address risk and resiliency factors of the youth, their parents and family, their peers, and their environment. Services included family and peer mediation, mentoring, counseling, tutoring, job placement, recreation, and community service. He worked closely with program coordinators in developing and reviewing data collection instruments and procedures and provided technical assistance to the staff of agencies on research and evaluation methods.

As a policy analyst for Social Policy Research Associates, he participated on both the process evaluation and community ethnography of the Department of Labor’s Youth Opportunity (YO) Initiative. He visited four high poverty communities and documented how community resources were mobilized for a common effort to impact youths’ employment, educational achievement, and social development, as well as enhance the communities’ sense of well-being.

Joilene Grove

Joilene has served on our Board of Directors since August 2000, and has been President of the Board since October 2004. Joilene first became involved with Each One Reach One after providing pro bono legal services, including helping EORO attain its 501(c)(3) status. She also participated in the pilot program for ADAPT at Hillcrest Juvenile Hall. Joilene is the Program Director at the Foundation of the State Bar of California where she oversees the Foundation's grants, scholarships, and civics education programs. Prior to joining the Foundation, Joilene practiced corporate law for 8 years. Joilene loves traveling and taking Bay area hikes and trips to Tahoe with her husband David, her daughter and their dog.

Dan Shields

Dan Shields has been providing financial, operational and tax services in the Bay Area for over 20 years. He has also held senior management positions in technology, pharmaceutical and manufacturing companies with responsibilities encompassing experience finance, legal, operations, information systems and human resources. Dan has worked for such companies as Ernst & Young, Oracle Systems and other publicly traded companies. He is a Certified Public Accountant and supports other organizations including the Coastal Repertory Theatre in Half Moon Bay, the Coastside Collaborative for Children and the Marine Mammal Center.

Barbara Lamb Hall

Mark W. Zafra

Mark Zafra serves as a Director of Supply Chain for Verigy, a technology firm in Cupertino, California.  He leads the strategic procurement operations for their Memory Test Solutions division.  Prior to Verigy, Mark worked for a variety of technology firms including Hewlett-Packard, Honeywell, and Bookham.   He earned his two master's degrees from Arizona State University and Thunderbird, the American Graduate School of International Business; he did his undergraduate work at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut were he was recognized for his community service work with urban youth with a Presidential Award from President Bill Clinton in 1993.

Mark spent two years as a development worker with the US Peace Corps in rural Southeast Asia and has volunteered with many local Bay Area non-profits including: Larkin Street Youth Services, American Red Cross, Hands-On, OneBrick, and the United Way.   He currently is a volunteer with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, assisting with their FirstConnection and Team-In-Training programs.  He has completed more than seven seasons of marathons and triathlons for them.  Mark is an avid world traveler, having visited more than fifty countries on six continents and speaks several languages.

Robin Sohnen

Before starting Each One Reach One (EORO) in 1998, Robin was a theater artist, an event producer and a marketing specialist. In 1987 she founded and directed Centre 4 Events, a Los Angeles-based group that specialized in designing, producing and marketing live theater as a unique and effective vehicle for companies to communicate their message to employees and clients alike. As the company's Director she produced over 50 theater-based programs designed to improve internal relations, boost employee moral, support recruitment efforts, and enhance company productivity for organizations such as the Unocal Corporation, Merrill Lynch Corporation, First Interstate Bank, Coca Cola, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, Los Angeles Visitors and Convention Bureau, SNK Home Entertainment Inc., Reebok, Sega, Mindscape, Electronic Arts, and the Missing Children's Foundation.

After moving to the Bay Area in 1991, Robin worked as a freelance producer, planning and staging public events ranging in size from the City of Los Angeles Marathon to the Richmond Neighborhood Community Festival, from the United Nation's 50th Anniversary dance and music concert in San Francisco's Union Square, to the first Alzheimer's Foundation Walk-a-thon in Los Angeles. Since 1986 Robin has been a mentor to young people through Soka Gakkai International, an organization dedicated to the development of peace, culture and education. In 1998 Robin decided to start a non-profit organization to address the escalating rate of incarcerating youth, especially youth of color by exploring theater-based strategies that could effectively break the cycle of violence and divert youth from the adult prison system. Robin is a member of the Skyline College Administration of Justice Advisory Committee and received the 1999 National Council on Crime Delinquency New American Community Award for EORO's creative efforts to reduce crime. She is Commissioner for the Commission on Status of Women of San Mateo County.

Nnennia Ejebe

Nnennia has served on our Board of Directors since October 2007.

Nnennia is an Associate at Sverica International, a lower middle-market private equity firm.  In her role, Nnennia evaluates and executes new investment transactions, as well as supports portfolio operations.  Prior to Sverica, Nnennia was at Monitor Group, a strategic consulting firm, where she advised clients on operational improvement, customer segmentation, acquisition due diligence, and growth strategy.  Besides her work with EORO, Nnennia has been involved with community organizations focused on the taking a "business approach" to solving community issues - the Initiative for Competitive Inner City and Social Venture Partners Boston.  Nnennia grew up in Plymouth, Minnesota, attended MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts where she majored in chemical engineering, and now resides in San Francisco.

Krystal Kiremit

Krystal Kiremit, Event Service Manager for Hilton Hotel, San Francisco where she services convention functions for up to 2,000 attendees. Graduate from San Francisco State University with a BA in Child Psychology and Nonprofit Management. Background includes work with various CBO’s, San Francisco Youth Commission, and transitional housing. A recent addition to Each One Reach One’s board of directors who enjoys working on Fundraising Events, Development and Public Relations as it relates to youth underserved and at risk.

ADVISORY COUNCIL

Richard Kamler

Richard has been making issue-driven art since 1976 when he made his first major installation, Out of Holocaust. Since that time his public installations, sound pieces, actions, events, drawings and public presentations have dealt with a series of social issues and environmental considerations. Richard has received many awards and grants for his work; among them are two National Endowments for the Arts fellowships and several California Arts Council Artist in Residence awards. In 1981 Kamler spent two years as Artist in Residence in San Quentin Prison. This experience dramatically changed the focus of his art as well as his thinking about the way art might be integrated into the fabric of our culture. Currently Richard teaches at the University of San Francisco where he is responsible for an outreach program placing artists into various communities.

Yvette Clark

Yvette developed her visual communication skills through hands on experience, having been apprenticed from the early age of 16, and has consistently worked since then to create innovative visual work for clients in entertainment and commerce. Recently, she served as Marketing Director for the prestigious Quincy Jones' Listen Up Foundation's We Are the Future Concert held in Rome, Italy in May, 2004. A star-studded event that included Oprah Winfrey, Angelina Jolie, Santana, Naomi Campbell, Josh Groban and many others. The concert was broadcast worldwide on MTV, Yahoo! and XM Radio. Attended by over 750,000 people, the record-setting event served as the springboard for a new world organization to benefit children in war-torn countries.

Yvette was on the founding team of CarsDirect.com, the phenomenally successful online startup. She served as the Creative Director, and eventually Executive Creative Director designing the original specifications for the CarsDirect.com web site and working with industry leaders to create a brand identity, positioning, and user experience. Since then, the CarsDirect.com web site has won numerous awards including Forbes Favorite, #1 from Gomez Advisors, and MVP from PC Magazine. As Creative Director at En Pointe Creative, a boutique marketing firm, Yvette designed 70% of Warner Home Videoðs DVD European Launch, and 30% of the American campaign. She has worked on over 30 political campaigns including victories for Senator Paul Wellstone and Caroline McCarthy. Yvette has worked closely with entrepreneurial teams and facilitated the development and growth of several small companies from the ground up. Including; Lickerish, Smarty Pants Web Design, Project Flint which later became BTOAuto.com, Dental Advantage, Gartner Graphics, Grandpa Gðs, Symphony In Movement, Vantage Magazine and Aviation Audio Visual Library which was eventually acquired by DoubleDay. Additionally Yvette has done extensive and award-winning work in the Theater Arts, having worked on over 40 theatrical productions. Her production design efforts helped garner the prestigious Lumiere Award for the film "First Daughter" and she was awarded the Most Promising Newcomer award by Women in Theatre.

Mario Rocha

Mario Alberto Rocha is a 23-year-old Chicano prisoner serving a sentence of two consecutive life terms at the Calipatria State Prison in the southern California desert. In 1996 he was arrested for murder and attempted murder. From 1997-1998 he was an originating member of the Inside Out Writers program at Central Juvenile Hall in Los Angeles. There he was taught by Duane Noriyuki, LA Times staff writer, and received acclaim for his work from staffers and spiritual volunteers, including from one of LA's great teacher-activists, Sister Janet Harris. His contributions to the program served a significant role in the publication of Inside Out's first book, What We See: Writings from Central Juvenile Hall (Karen Hunt, ed.). During this time he also participated in the institution's educational theater program, where he wrote and performed scenes, eventually writing and directing his own plays. In 1998, after getting convicted of the crimes charged as well as sentenced, he wrote and directed Beyond the Darkness, in which he worked under the guidance of Create Now! volunteer David Johnson, a professional screenwriter and co-director of the Hollywood film Riot. This play was credited as the inspiration of Each One Reach One (EORO), a theater arts mentoring program for at-risk youth in the Bay Area founded by Robin Sohnen, a former actress and production specialist who was among the invited guests at Beyond's premiere in Central Juvenile Hall. Rocha has since then become an advisory member of EORO (www.each1reach1.org), and his continued work with Sohnen has appeared in several Bay Area newspapers, including the San Francisco Examiner. From 1998-2003 he has continued to write in prison. In 1999 the prestigious international law firm Latham & Watkins accepted his case on a pro-bono basis at the request of California appellate attorney Susan Nash, who was persuaded to review the case by Sister Janet Harris. For the past four years a team of five Latham attorneys have petitioned the courts for Rocha's freedom. In fact, the story of his wrongful conviction has been featured in Los Angeles-New Times (2001) and has led to a documentary-in-progress by filmmaker Susan Koch for MTV Films. In short, Rocha may well be the next Mumia Abu Jamal: that prisoner whose case is so clearly unjust that it ignites a nation in protest.

Paul Bradley Shinn

Paul Bradley Shinn joined Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati as an associate in 1997 and has been practicing corporate and securities law since 1995. He represents clients from entrepreneurs to Fortune 500 companies on mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances, public debt, equity offerings, venture capital finance, the structuring of start-up companies and other matters. His clients have included Commerce One, Concentric Network Corporation, E. Piphany, Palm Computing and Silicon Valley Group.