Advisory Board

Jorge obtained his BA and his MPhil in Applied Economics in Spain and his MSc in International Health Policy and Health Economics at the London School of Economics in the U.K.

He started his career in health services research working for a Regional Government in Spain in 1999 and joined the Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology industry 17 years ago, where he specialized in Health Economics and Outcomes research (HEOR), Pricing and Market Access. He gained direct experience in European, Asia-Pacific and Latin American markets while working for Eli Lilly in the areas of Oncology, Endocrinology and Neuroscience. Jorge joined Amgen in 2010 in the U.K and moved to California in 2011 where he led HEOR researchers generating evidence in support of US and Global commercialization. In 2017 Jorge was promoted to Executive Director and since then he has lead HEOR Teams generating evidence in the areas of Oncology, Cardiovascular and Bone Health in the U.S. and Globally. Currently Jorge is the Head of the Value, Access and Policy organization in the Intercontinental Region for Amgen, with responsibilities in 30 countries for all Amgen biopharmaceuticals.

Jorge’s expertise includes Access and Reimbursement of pharmaceuticals, Health Policy and Evidence Generation. He has published multiple articles in international medical and health economics journals and presented in specialized conferences. Jorge lives in Los Angeles area, California with his wife Carmen, founder of a non-profit organization that helps women reintegration to society after prison in Mexico City.

Lauren Arzu currently serves as the Director of Human Resources and Operations at First 5 Ventura County. In this role, Lauren oversees hiring, professional development, benefits, payroll, leases, IT, policy, advocacy, and communications. After beginning her career in the public and private sectors, Lauren was interested in having a more meaningful career. She quickly realized that the best way to make an impact locally and gain insight into the nonprofit sector would be to work with Dena at the Center for Nonprofit Leadership! Attending (and later teaching) workshops while serving as the Program Coordinator at the CNL allowed Lauren to develop a variety of nonprofits skills, from social media to grant writing, while working closely with nonprofits in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties.

Lauren completed her undergraduate work at the University of San Diego and earned a Master of Public Administration from USC.

Lauren appreciates the opportunity to serve the CNL again as an Advisory Board member and Marketing Committee Chair.

Fred Bauermeister is the Co-founder and Executive Director of the Free Clinic of Simi Valley, providing medical, dental, legal and counseling services to individuals and families regardless of their ability to pay. Fred has served the clinic since its inception in 1971.

Fred currently serves on the Executive Board of the California Association of Free and Charitable Clinics, an association he co-founded that is comprised of Free Clinics throughout the state of California.

Fred also serves on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Free and Charitable Clinics, the only national voice working on behalf of Free Clinics throughout the United States.

In Simi Valley, Fred is a member of the Leadership Simi Valley Steering Committee and is a recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award bestowed by the Simi Valley Community Foundation. 

Ms. Chadwick is a long-time resident and retired veteran Ventura County banker, with a 42 year financial services career. For the 21 years prior to joining former Santa Barbara Bank & Trust, she held a variety of positions with the former Bank of A. Levy.

Her commitment to local civic and charitable organizations in Ventura County continues to distinguish her among the community’s most dedicated residents. She has received Ventura County Leadership Academy’s first Distinguished Community Leader Award.   She has received the “Carl F. Lowthrop – Golden Eagle Award” from the Ventura County Economic Development Association; the “Woman of Distinction Award” from the Girl Scouts of Tres Condados; the “Women Helping Women Award” from Soroptomist International of Oxnard; the “Woman of Achievement Award” from the Buena Center Business and Professional Woman’s Organization; 2006 Oxnard Woman of the Year, Top 50 Women in Business, 2007 Clara Barton Spirit of Community Volunteer of the Year Award, 2007 Woman of the Year for California State Senate District 19 and United Way Women’s Leadership Award in 2011.

Ms. Chadwick has served on the California Lutheran University Board of Regents, and is a member of the California Lutheran University School of Management Board, KCLU Advisory Board, lifetime member of Ventura County Economic Development Association, Interface Advisory Council and Carnegie Art Museum,  She is also a member of the Oxnard Rotary Club. She is a former board member of Ventura County Fair Foundation, Ventura County Farm Bureau Foundation, Economic Development Corporation of Oxnard, and the Community and Foundation boards at St. John’s Regional Medical Center.

Steve Elson is an independent consultant helping mission-driven nonprofit organizations build capacity, develop new lines of business, improve service performance, strengthen Board knowledge and skills, and create strategies/plans in sync with community needs and market trends. 

Steve’s career includes thirty-five years’ experience in executive leadership of organizations providing mental health and residential services to children and youth with complex trauma and/or presenting challenging and disruptive behavioral/emotional issues. Steve was the founding director of Casa Pacifica Centers for Children & Families in Ventura County and served as CEO for 26 years.  Prior to that he was the executive director of Sycamores in Pasadena.  He holds a doctorate in counseling psychology from Michigan State University. 

Steve has been actively involved in all significant public policy initiatives affecting child welfare and children’s mental health in California.  Industry leadership includes serving on the Board of five state-wide and one national association.  He served as President of each of these six associations.  

A member of the Board of Directors of the Ventura County Leadership Academy (VCLA), Steve is Treasurer of the Board. 

A native of the San Francisco Bay area, Geoff came to Santa Barbara in 1990 as a UCSB student where he began work in community organizing on issues of racial equity, access to education, environmental health and LGBTQ equality.

In 1994, Geoff was elected to a four-year term on the Isla Vista Recreation and Park District Board of Directors where he served until pursuing a career as a Park Ranger/Naturalist in Yosemite National Park. Upon returning to Santa Barbara in 1997, Geoff began work with the Fund for Santa Barbara where served in a variety of roles for nearly 18 years including Executive Director from 2003 to 2015.

Geoff's served as President of the Board of the Santa Barbara Ventura Counties Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals in 2012 and as President of the Foundation Roundtable of Santa Barbara County from 2014 to 2015.

Geoff has also served on numerous boards and has advised hundreds of nonprofit organizations, foundations, public agencies, and labor organizations in the areas of organizational development, fundraising, event-planning coalition-building, board development, strategic planning, lobbying and advocacy, effective use of media, public speaking, executive searches, conference planning, and meeting facilitation.

For 2016 Geoff is serving as Chair of the Board of Directors for the California Association of Nonprofits, on the Board of Commissioners for the Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara, and on the Board of Directors for the Chamber of Commerce of the Santa Barbara Region.

Dr. Guerrero has over 20 years of experience in higher education program management and was most recently the Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies within the School of Management (SoM), and a full-time, tenured Professor of Management and Marketing at California Lutheran University. As Associate Dean (AD), she has coordinated SoM undergraduate student participation in the Festival of Scholars (a week-long, campus-wide series of events to highlight the academic achievements and research endeavors of students across all programs at the University) and was responsible for the academic scheduling of all undergraduate team taught, fully online, hybrid, and/or face-to-face classes in the school, including faculty participation in the first-year seminar courses. Dr. Guerrero taught in CLU’s Executive MBA in Austria and was elected by the full faculty to serve a term as Faculty Executive Committee Chair for two years. In 2017, she was awarded the California Lutheran University School of Management Advisory Council Award for Outstanding Achievement in the area of Service. Dr. Guerrero chaired the Task Force that recently change university policies for the RTP process at the request of the Faculty Senate leadership. She was asked to serve on the HSI task force and played an active role in university-wide initiatives to recruit, hire and retain students, faculty and staff that mirror the demographics of the state of California. She was subsequently invited by the University President to serve on the Inclusion implementation committee for the University’s Strategic Plan as well as a past member of the Strategic Plan Leadership Team.

Dr. Guerrero served at Cal Lutheran for over 15 years and has held in a variety of roles on various faculty and university committees. Her research interests include women and leadership, digital storytelling and entrepreneurial education. Dr. Guerrero has over 20 years of Marketing Communications experience in the technology, non-profit and education industries. She has developed and implemented marketing programs and campaigns in support of strategic partnerships between both small and large organizations.

Dr. Guerrero attended Cal Poly San Luis Obispo where she studied Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing. She earned her MBA from San Jose State University while working in the Silicon Valley. She went on to attend Pepperdine University where she earned her doctorate in Organizational Leadership. Veronica was born in Oxnard, and raised in Ventura County. She is married and has two sons. Veronica enjoys spending her free time with friends and family and being outdoors exploring in the Eastern Sierras.

Jessica Halloran is a long-time resident of Ventura County, with 20 years of experience in Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability. Jessica currently serves as Amgen’s Director of ESG Strategy. In this role, she is responsible for keeping a pulse on environmental, social and governance drivers to inform, build and evolve the company’s priorities. Jessica manages ESG governance, monitors stakeholder expectations and collaborates with colleagues across the company to drive progress.

Prior to joining ESG, Jessica worked with Amgen’s Corporate Philanthropy team to further the work of the Amgen Foundation and engage staff in community programs. She deeply enjoyed her work with nonprofit organizations across Ventura County as a funder and facilitator of staff volunteering and giving opportunities.

Jessica holds a master’s degree from the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and a Bachelor of Arts in English and History from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Jill Haney is the Vice President/Branch Manager for Montecito Bank & Trust’s Westlake Village Office.  She has been a Conejo Valley resident since 1959 and has been in the Banking Industry for over 45 years.

Jill currently serves on the Board of Directors for The Simi Valley Chamber of Commerce, The United Way of Ventura County, The Governing Board for Adventist Health Simi Valley, The Moorpark College Foundation, The Simi Sunset Rotary Foundation and The Boys & Girls Club of Greater Conejo Valley.  She is a member of the Rotary Club of Simi Sunset and is the President Elect Nominee.  She is a graduate of Ventura County Leadership Academy and Simi Valley Leadership.

She is the recipient of The Strathearn Lifetime Achievement Award, The SV Community Foundation Humanitarian Award, The Michael Towbes Outstanding Community Service Award and Rotarian of the Year from her Rotary Club.

Jill is very proud to be a member of the Center for Nonprofit Leadership’s Advisory Board.

Khan is a scholar-practitioner, with expertise in American philanthropy, civil society, international development, religion and culture. He has worked across the nonprofit, for-profit and government sectors in India, UAE and the US. 

Currently, he is an Associate Professor and Program Director of the Masters in Public Policy & Administration program (MPPA) at California Lutheran University.

Khan has served as a Board Member of The Community Impact Fund, a Washington DC based community foundation and is an active member of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) and the Chair of South Asia Section of American Society for Public Administration (ASPA).

Khan is also a founding member of IOREM, a research organization focused on research and migration (iorem.org).

More about him at sabithkhan.com

Tina Knight is currently the Director of Institutional Advancement & Community Relations at Oxnard College.  Previously, she served as the Contracts & Grants Manager at the County of Ventura, Human Services Agency (HSA), where she oversaw the Contracts & Grants Department, raising external funds for HSA and manages over $23 million annually in contracts to support children’s, adult and workforce development services. Prior to work at the County, Tina was the Director of Research & Sponsored Programs at CSU Channel Islands, overseeing development, submission, administrative review & approval and institutional compliance for $5-$12 million annually in grants to the university and sub-awards from the university to partner institutions.

Before moving to the university, Tina was the Vice President for Programs & Grants at the Ventura County Community Foundation, where she worked for 9 years, providing program development and strategic oversight and evaluation of VCCF’s grant programs. Prior to VCCF, as the Department Administrator for the Department of International Health at Boston University, Tina managed programs focused on providing education and training for public health professionals from developing countries. Later, Tina became a Project Manager and the Program & Finance Director for Sustainable Sciences Institute, a nonprofit organization that provides training, education, grants and resources for public health researchers in developing countries. She volunteered overseas doing international relief and development during the 1999 Kosovo crisis and has traveled extensively for both work and pleasure.

Tina holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a Master’s degree in Social Psychology, and is on the CNL Advisory Board in addition to being an active faculty member.

I was born in Valencia Venezuela and came to the United States around age two. I am the second oldest of six kids and grew up in San Bernardino California and attended the Boys & Girls Club there. I got my B.A. in Developmental Psychology and MPA from CSU San Bernardino. I lived in Washington D.C. for a brief period in college while interning with the USDA and began working with non-profits in 2001. I began my career with Boys & Girls Clubs in 2003 in San Bernardino and came to Camarillo in 2011 to work for our Club. My wife Vicky and I have a 10-year old daughter who attends the Club daily and loves it here. I enjoy nature and sports, especially baseball, and cheer for most So-Cal teams, especially the Dodgers! In addition to working with the Club, I serve on the Board of University Prep Charter School, the Camarillo Chamber of Commerce Board, and am very involved in Rotary. What I like most about the Club is the educational impact we make on youth as I feel education and confidence can really change the trajectory of our kids’ lives.

Kate McLean provides consulting services to nonprofit organizations and foundations in areas of executive coaching, strategic planning, community assessment, board development and program design.  She helped create Ventura County’s most comprehensive child, family social services agency where she served as Executive Director and she was the President of the Ventura County Community Foundation where she increased assets from $300,000 to more than $70 million in current and future planned gifts. As a seasoned advisor and facilitator, she has led numerous organizations and collaborative initiatives through successful planning and organizational change. She currently is on the Boards of a national women’s health organization and a child, family social services organization.

Kate has her bachelors in sociology, her master’s in business administration and an honorary doctor of laws.

Shana McMorran is a finance professional with a comprehensive background in banking, public accounting, and corporate finance. Raised in Hawaii, she graduated with a bachelor's degree from Hawaii Pacific University before earning her MBA in Finance from California Lutheran University. Her career began in the banking sector, where she spent five years gaining valuable experience in financial services. McMorran then transitioned to public accounting, dedicating six years to specializing in tax. Her expertise in this area led her to a position in in-house corporate finance focusing on tax, where she has made significant contributions for the past two years.

Shana currently resides in Ventura County with her husband and son, where she is actively involved in the local community. Her commitment to service is demonstrated through her roles on the board of a local nonprofit and her volunteer work with the Ventura County chapters of Make-A-Wish and Big Brothers Big Sisters. These engagements reflect her dedication to leveraging her professional skills for community betterment.

Shana McMorran's career path showcases her adaptability, expertise in finance, and a deep-rooted commitment to social responsibility, making her a valued leader in both her professional and personal communities.

Becca Merrell is an executive vice president for Netzel Grigsby Associates. She works with a wide variety of nonprofit organizations, among them environmental groups, health and human services, educational institutions, religious organizations, and youth services, guiding them to achieve their goals.

Becca believes that empowering nonprofit volunteers and staff with tools and knowledge will ensure long-term organizational stability. Her extensive knowledge has been valuable in creating and implementing dynamic programs to fund services, while helping donors enjoy their giving.

Becca has partnered with nonprofits in fundraising and planning to impact communities. She has secured significant dollars and exceeded goals on important fundraising campaigns. Those who have benefitted from her expertise include Arroyo Grande Community Hospital Foundation, Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Oxnard and Port Hueneme, Casa Pacifica Center for Children and Families, Community Environmental Council, French Hospital Medical Center Foundation, Pacific Wildlife Care, Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, Santa Barbara Zoo, and Stuart C. Gildred YMCA in Santa Ynez.

Becca is an advisory board member and workshop facilitator for the Center for Nonprofit has also served as a member of the faculty of CLU’s Executive Skills for Church Leaders program. Active in the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Becca is a member of the San Luis Obispo Chapter and is a past president of the Santa Barbara/Ventura Counties Chapter, where she was selected as Fundraiser of the Year in 2008.

Becca earned her bachelor’s degree in from California State University, Northridge, graduating summa cum laude.

Regan Schaffer is a Professor of Management and Organizational Behavior in the business administration division of Seaver College at Pepperdine University. In addition to serving on the faculty she fulfills several other roles. Dr. Schaffer currently serves as director of the Service Leadership Project which is a required capstone course for undergraduate business, accounting, international business majors and nonprofit management minors that applies the principles of servant leadership to team consultancy projects with local nonprofit organizations. She also is the executive director of the Nonprofit Leadership Collaborative which includes an academic minor, fellowships, community-based research initiatives and an annual Nonprofit Leadership Institute hosted at Pepperdine. Finally, she is the Faculty Director of Service-learning and collaborates with numerous faculty on curriculum design and assessment.

Dr. Schaffer completed her undergraduate degree at Abilene Christian University, and her MS in educational psychology and EdD in management from Pepperdine University. She has served on Pepperdine’s faculty since 1999 and has taught in their London, Lyon and Lausanne overseas programs. Her research interests include curriculum design and assessment, nonprofit management practices and leadership development. Her passion, however, is her teaching. Her course titles reflect her research interests: Service Leadership, Community-based Research in the Nonprofit Sector, Nonprofit Leadership and Management and various topics through Pepperdine’s First Year Seminar program. She has been honored with the Center for Teaching Excellence Innovative Teaching Award and the highly selective Howard A. White Award for Teaching Excellence.

Dr. Schaffer is actively involved with numerous nonprofit organizations throughout Los Angeles having served on the boards of Habitat for Humanity, Let’s Start Talking International, Made in the Streets and in an advisory capacity to several others. Together with her students she has partnered with over 600 nonprofit organizations to address community needs. She consults secondary and higher education institutions on service-learning pedagogy and conducts workshops for both faculty and nonprofit leaders on effective community-based initiatives.

Professor Schaffer lives on the Pepperdine campus with her husband and three sons. They can often be found hiking the Malibu hills, visiting the local beach, or attending a campus or community event.