Our Team
The Operations Team
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Tom Hogan: President
Tom splits his time between high tech marketing and Comunidad. He is the president of Hogan Communications, a marketing firm specializing in positioning, staffing and launching startups. He has also taught Holocaust and Genocide Studies at UC Santa Cruz and Santa Clara University. |
| Pamela Pearson: Director of Escuela Program
Pamela recently retired from a 20-year career in health care administration and human resources management. recently completed her studies in interior architecture, specializing in the design of health care facilities. Besides Comunidad, Pamela has been active in several non-profit organizations focusing on children’s education and cultural diversity. |
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Bill Rush: Director of Transportation and Facilities (Pilot)
Bill has been an active pilot since 1969 and spends a great deal of time traveling, working and providing charitable support in Mexico. Bill is a currently a Sr. Executive for Suhr Risk Services of California Insurance Brokerage, which he joined in 1998 after running a Silicon Valley insurance brokerage firm for more than 20 years. Bill is the past President of the Silicon Valley Insurance Brokers and Agents Association and has served on the Finance Committee of the Insurance Brokers and Agents of the West |
| Larry Tabor, Chief Dentist (Pilot)
After a rewarding 22 year run as a business owner Dr. Tabor embarked on a career change to healthcare. Since receiving his degree from the University of the Pacific he has been active in many dental outreach programs in the US and Mexico, including service as a director of Los Medicos Voladores (The Flying Doctors), and advisor to several schools, organizations and manufacturers. Dr.Tabor maintains a private practice in Castro Valley, California |
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Gabrielle Baccari-Mariscal, Director of International and Governmental Relations
Gabrielle has been actively involved with a number of non-profit organizations for several years and is dedicated to mentoring and working with children. Prior to Comunidad, Gabrielle was a board member of Los Medicos Voladores, (The Flying Doctors). Gabrielle is a Corporate Real Estate Manager for a high- tech firm, responsible for managing the company’s real estate portfolio in North America and Latin America.
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Diane Manning Director of Beca (scholarship) program
Diane has held a variety of international management positions with Silicon Valley high-tech firms, most recently in the Asia Pacific and Global Education Sales groups at Sun Microsystems. She loves travel and collecting artisan crafts from out-of-the way villages in Mexico, Central America, South America, Spain and Morocco among others. Diane is active with several non-profits who work with indigenous people, including Aid to Artisans and the Global Fund for Women. She is fluent in 4 languages, including Spanish. |
| Meg MacDonald: Chief Physician (Pilot) Meg is a family physician with seventeen years of experience and has been on many trips to Mexico with other volunteer groups before Comunidad. She came from Canada six years ago and has since learned to speak Spanish and fly airplanes, too. She currently has a private practice in San Jose, California. |
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The Comunidad Board
Tom Hogan, Chairman
One of the founders of Comunidad, Tom is president of Hogan Communications, a high-tech marketing firm that works with the VC (venture capitalist) community to position, staff and launch startup companies. Prior to founding HogCom, he was VP of Corporate Marketing for such organizations as Oracle, Nortel, Lucent and VitalSigns Software. Tom has been active in human rights most of his professional life, primarily in the fields of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, which he has taught at UC Santa Cruz and Santa Clara University.
Mary Ann Park
Mary Ann Park is a partner in M&M Leadership Solutions, LLC, a group which provides executive coaching for educational administrators and teachers. Prior to starting this company, Mary Ann was superintendent of the Los Gatos Union School District, a successful K-8 district in Silicon Valley, in which student achievement was rising and parent and community partners were active in the district. Mary Ann also owned a forensic drug company in the 90’s, leaving that field to pursue a career in educational leadership serving as a curriculum, personnel director, and director of a school reform movement.
Bijan Faranghui
Bijan is the founder and managing partner of the PET/CT Imaging companies of the Bay Area, providing diagnostic imaging for cancer patients in San Francisco, Berkeley, San Jose and Buenos Aires, Argentina.
A former management strategy consultant with Booz Allen & Hamilton, Bijan has held management positions with both international and worldwide responsibilities for Abbott Labs, Becton-Dickinson and ADAC Laboratories.
Bijan continues to develop new sites for PET/CT Imaging including ventures in India and the Middle East. Currently, his group is commercializing ground-breaking technologies with UCSF that will lead to greater diagnostic accuracy for melanoma.
Joe Piazza
Joe’s diverse business foundation have included the P&L and turnaround experience as CEO of Ducati North America, and multi-subsidiary experience as Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing of Global Motorsport Group. His previous leadership positions of both public and privately owned companies have focused on exceeding the sales and profitability organically and through strategic acquisitions. His other executive responsibilities have included product development experience in China, Taiwan, and Korea, merger and acquisition experience, international subsidiary management in Germany and Italy, and several business development opportunities.
Joe also founded the Piazza Advantage Group, a consulting practice that specializes on providing optimal business practices for wholesale distributors, manufacturers, franchise businesses, and Internet related companies. In addition, the Piazza Advantage Group through Coldwell Banker (NRT) is also a top producing high-end real estate practice with annual sales over $40 million per year in the Silicon Valley of Northern California.
Elaine Cummings
As a founding principal of Eastwick Communications, Elaine offers more than 20 years of PR savvy to her clients and to Comunidad. Elaine has been instrumental in establishing Eastwick’s reputation for delivering strategic thinking and stellar results, with projects such as:
- Serving as agency for industry powerhouses Oracle, Adobe, Business Objects and Seagate.
- Launching a number of industry firsts including the first electronic book (Softbook) and the Palm platform.
- Leading category creation initiatives including Mercury’s Business Technology Optimization (BTO) effort.
Elaine oversees the agency’s operations and staff development and training programs. Prior to founding Eastwick, Elaine learned the high tech PR ropes during many years at Regis McKenna, working with Apple Computer, Novell and a variety of start-up companies in the software and systems markets. During the early years of her career, Elaine learned consumer PR at an agency in San Francisco and worked with a computer retail chain learning the channel business.
Mike Wilken
Mike is a renowned cultural anthropologist who has lived and worked among the tribal communities of Baja since 1980. Trained at UC Santa Cruz, Mike is the founder of CUNA (the Assocation to Preserve Native Cultures in Baja California) and ADESU, Alliance for sustainable development in the indigenous communities of Baja California. His role in Comunidad is to ensure that the projects we are engaged in match the needs of the indigenous communities and to ensure that we understand and respect their traditions and lifestyles.