Officers and Board of Directors

Thomas B. Dougherty, Jr., Board Member

Thomas Dougherty

Thomas B. Dougherty, Jr. is widely recognized for his organizational management and leadership skills. He currently leads a team of passionate people who are practitioners of effective volunteer management solutions for nonprofit organizations in New Jersey.   As Jersey Care’s Vice President of Programs his leadership has driven programs to exponential growth.  The organization’s mission is to increase civic engagement statewide by coordinating volunteer opportunities to address community-identified needs. They are one of 250 global volunteer action centers affiliated with HandsOn Network, an enterprise of Points of Light.

Prior to Jersey Cares, he served as an AmeriCorps VISTA Member with The League powered by Learning to Give, connecting K-12 schools in New York City with curriculum to promote academic service learning in the classroom.  He has also worked in the private sector with Starbucks Coffee Company as a Regional Manager supporting Licensed Store operations; providing leadership to over 10 District Managers supporting over 200 stores across multiple sectors.

Thomas has participated in numerous speaking engagements.  He was a Nonprofit Summit Panel Participant at the New York State Commission on National and Community Service with the  New York State Executive Chamber, an Educational Seminar Speaker on Academic Service Learning at the New York State School Board Association 90th Annual Conference, and a panelist at the American Society of Public Administration 75th Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. examining how to work across sectors to provide services after a national disaster. Thomas received his Associate of Science in Business Administration from Mesa College, San Diego, California.

 

Benjamin T. Downing, Board Member

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Benjamin Downing  has over a dozen years of strategic marketing and analytics experience with start-ups, mission-driven organizations, entertainment and media companies. Currently Benjamin is the Senior Director of Inbound Marketing at Signpost, a hands-off marketing platform that automatically drives new and repeat customers for local businesses. Previously, Benjamin was the Director of Marketing Operations for the technology-based small business lender OnDeck, which has lent over $3 billion to over 40,000 businesses in the United States and Canada.

In addition to his professional work, Benjamin has volunteered and supported philanthropic causes.  Utilizing his extensive data and communication skills, Benjamin has helped numerous social impact enterprises in developing a customer/client/donor base, acquiring new business partners/collaborators and soliciting grant makers and funders.  In addition, he has strategized and advised Bella Communities on outcome and impact measurements  by defining and driving data collection, analytics and insights to expand resident supportive service programs.  Benjamin received his Bachelor of Arts from Columbia College in Chicago. 

 

E. Ruell Fiant, Board Member

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E. Ruell Fiant has spent most of his professional career spanning 30 years in higher education.  He served in various roles including Assistant Controller at IUPUI,  Director for the Southern Division of Higher Education, Director of Business Services and eventually Vice President for Finance and Administration at the College of Southern Nevada,  and a tenured professorship in Accounting and Finance as well as Faculty Senate Chair at the College of Southern Nevada.  During his leadership at the College of Southern Nevada, the college enrollment grew four-folds and he served on over 100 college and community committees, search committees and Boards.  His academic achievements also included numerous teaching awards, being a published author and a co-founder of a conference on creative higher learning and teaching.

Ruell’s involvement extended beyond the classroom and campus.  Ruell serves on multiple Boards of Directors including Golden Rainbow of Las Vegas, North Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, Allied Arts Council in Las Vegas, New West Theater, Las Vegas, and The Cabaret, Indianapolis.  In addition  to serving on Boards, he is also an avid volunteer for various non-profit organizations.   Ruell received his dual Master’s degrees in Accounting and Education Administration from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and his Bachelor of Science from Butler University, Indiana.

 

Michael Fodor, MBA, Board Member

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Mike Fodor is a  multidisciplinary leader well suited for early stage startups or entrepreneurial teams to launch new initiatives.  Mike is a senior management professional with a proven record in developing corporate governance, fiscal discipline, information technology infrastructure and organizational design to create efficient and sustaining organizations.  He is currently the Senior Director of Product Management and Analytics Applications for Numerify, an enterprise-wide analytics solution provider. Previously, Mike was the Senior Director at Nutanix and has held senior level positions with numerous high-tech firms in Northern California.

With his professional experience in early-stage and start-up organizations and belief in social responsibility, Mike directs Bella Communities in its crucial organizational development phase, guiding the fundamental operations of the affordable housing and program services offered for low income families and the developmentally disabled, and structuring the organization’s sustainability model to carry out the organization’s mission.  Mike currently serves on the Board of Directors for Life Services Alternatives.  Mike received his undergraduate B.S. degree in Computer Systems Engineering from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from UCLA’s Anderson Business School.  

 

Deborah Jordan, Board Member

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Deborah Jordan is a nonprofit executive with 25 years of experience. Deborah currently is the President of the USANA True Health Foundation. Deborah has served as Executive Director of the Community Center of La Canada Flintridge, and as the Executive Director and President of the Board for the USC Verdugo Hills Hospital Foundation and Executive Director of the Asia Society Southern California where the program and fundraising focus is on US-Asia relations. Prior to that, as Program Director at the Milken Family Foundation, Jordan worked with the state department of education and local district superintendents in 32 states to distribute individual gifts of $25,000 to the country’s top educators.  Promoted to the Director of External Affairs and Events at the Milken Institute, she was one of the stalwart architects of the Milken Institute Global Conference – the largest economic conference on the West coast.  

 Deborah currently is active in the community being a member of the Utah Society of Fundraisers, Association of Fundraising of Professionals, and the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce. She previously served on the Board of the Community Center of La Canada Flintridge, the Community Advisory Board for USC Verdugo Hills Hospital, and the Glendale Healthier Kids Coalition.  She served as Vice President of Outreach and Events of the LAPD Van Nuys Division, a booster organization which helps raise funds for the local police division.  Jordan graduated with her Bachelor’s Degree in Public Relations from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California. 

 

Khoi Pham, PSC, HCCP – Executive Director/Officer

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Khoi Pham has consulted and volunteered for non-profits and also has helped charitable organizations in far away places as Vietnam and Haiti.  In 2009 Khoi co-founded Bella Communities  to address low-income housing issues and resident supportive services.  Khoi received his B.A. of Economics Cum Laude from UCLA and also his MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, Los Angeles, California.  Prior to his social entrepreneurship work, Khoi worked in Fortune 100 Corporate Intrapreneurship designing workflow and processes, budgeting and integrating financial ERP systems, and facilitating change management.

Khoi has presented at the American Association of Service Coordinators 2013 & 2014 Annual Conferences, topic on “Building Your ResidentCorps and Empowering them to be Community Volunteers”; the Points of Light 2014 Annual National Conference on Volunteering and Service, topic on “Mobilizing Low-Income Volunteers Through Economic Opportunity”; and  presented at Pace University, New York, 2013, topic on  “Volunteerism and the Barefoot Philanthropist”.    Khoi was an adjunct lecturer at Woodbury University, Burbank, California, and is currently a FDIC Money Smart Trainer and serves as Chair of Community Service Committee of the Anderson UCLA Alumni New York Chapter.  Khoi holds a CPA (inactive) and CMA license, a Professional Service Coordinator (PSC) designation and a Housing Credit Certified Professional Certification.