As with your endeavor, ours began with an idea - to provide a home for the efforts of compassionate, creative individuals and groups to benefit humanity. To be effective today, a non-profit requires both commercial business knowledge and the real world experience of developing and operating projects at home and abroad. This is exactly what our team's combined education, skills and experience offers.
The entruste board is made up of active members on non-profit boards, involved in domestic and overseas projects and just like you, we are striving to make the world a better place.
mark williams | director
Mark has been involved with worthy causes for over 25 years both as a donor fundraiser for the Leukemia Research Foundation, Susan Komen 3-Day for the Cure, and as the founder and current projector director for utu - a non-profit dedicated to HIV/AIDS education and prevention in sub-Saharan Africa. He also is on the advisory board of Future Doctors for Sudan. Mark combines his profession as building contractor, entrepreneur and investor with a constant search for new challenges and adventure. His extensive travel and work in Asia, South America and Africa provides a wealth of knowledge which has proven invaluable in facing difficult situations. His experience of working with a variety of organizations and cultures gives him concrete insight to what works within the global philanthropic community.
james chesher | secretary
James Chesher holds a BA in English Literature from San Jose State University and an MA in Philosophy from U.C. Santa Barbara. He was an adjunct instructor at Santa Barbara City College for 15 years, during which he co-owned and managed a painting business. For the past 20 years James has been a full time Professor of Philosophy at Santa Barbara City College. He has published several essays as chapters in philosophy books, a number of book reviews, co-authored two books, The Business of Commerce (Hoover Press) and A Primer on Business Ethics (Roman & Littlefield). He is co-founder of the Santa Barbara City College Center for Philosophical Education and assistant editor of STOA, an international undergraduate journal in philosophy. Since its inception, Jim has been on the advisory board of utu.
jody garcia | advisor
Building on over fifteen years of experience in the non profit and public sectors, Jody Garcia is currently an independent strategy consultant with a focus on developing, implementing and evaluating market-based solutions within the health and environmental sectors for impact and sustainability. Previously, she was a Commercialization Officer for PATH, a global health organization, focused on business development, project strategy, partner negotiations, market analysis, and implementation of pilot activities for a wide range of health issues. Prior to PATH, she was a manager for The Nature Conservancy and led collaborative efforts to conserve areas of significant biodiversity in California. Other previous employers include UNESCO-DIVERSITAS, Washington CASH, and Stephens Inc Investment Banking. Ms. Garcia is a graduate of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, and holds master and bachelor of science degrees from Stanford University. She has worked or volunteered in South Africa, France, Haiti, Chile, Mexico, India, Cambodia and Vietnam.