Leadership

Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County

Araceli joined the organization in 2018 to lead a team that could assist people who were impacted by the Coyote Creek Flood. She quickly built an efficient and effective multilingual, multicultural team that included Vietnamese- and Spanish-speaking staff to serve those who lived in the most severely impacted neighborhoods.

As an active member of CADRE’s leadership team, she served as its liaison to the county Office of Emergency Services during the shooting incident at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in July 2019 and during the county’s pandemic state-of-emergency declaration in March 2020. She organized CCSCC’s expansion of food distribution at parishes across the Diocese of San Jose, in coordination with the Advocacy and Community Engagement team and CORAL after-school program staff.  She created a highly efficient drive-through food delivery system that was focused on the health and safety of volunteers, staff, and customers.

Trained in CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) and LISTOS (Spanish-speaking disaster preparedness) processes, Araceli is now a CERT trainer who also leads neighborhood sessions in disaster preparedness. Araceli is a San Jose native and is bilingual in English and Spanish.

EHS Supervisor- Emergency Response at CBRE onsite at Google.  I have my Master’s Degree in Emergency Management.

Virginia “Ginny” Ortiz, MPH, is the Disaster Program Manager for the American Red Cross Silicon Valley Chapter in San Jose, CA. She came to the Bay Area from Washington, DC where she worked in federal government. Prior to her civil service, she served in the Peace Corps as a community health volunteer and volunteer leader. A brief volunteer experience with the Red Cross in 2017 inspired her to combine her passions for public health and community service with disaster preparedness and response.

Ginny has a Masters in Public Health and a certificate in Environmental & Occupational Health from the Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Director, Housing (U.S. Refugee Resettlement)@ Church World Service Global HQ

Lindsey joined CADRE in 2017 while leading the recovery response efforts to the 2017 Coyote Creek flooding in San Jose, CA, for Catholic Charities Santa Clara County.

Growth and executive leader with extensive experience leading strategy and programs to success in non-profit and for-profit sectors – especially Emergency Response, Housing services and Refugee Resettlement. Strengths include cross-functional leadership, social impact strategy, business operations, DEI, fundraising strategies and an extraordinary ability to build rapport with teams from diverse backgrounds and cultures.

I am passionate about creating a culture of innovation and compassion, bridging the gap between technology, government and non-profits, and enabling people to utilize their strenghts for the community well-being.

My experience living and working internationally, mainly India and Guatemala, has given me a rich understanding of other countries and cultures and the ability to quickly adapt to change. You can expect from me a results-driven, action-oriented leader motivated to learn, make things happen, and ready to do the greatest work of my life.

Lindsey has an MBA with concentrations in strategy, consulting and entrepreneurship from Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.  She is fluent in Spanish.

Silicon Valley Independent Living Center

Sheri is the Executive Director of SVILC and a founding CADRE team member dating back to the 1990s with the network. Being part of CADRE, she acts as the Coordinating Agency for the Access and Functional Needs team created in 2017 and promotes ongoing efforts to ensure that the needs of the disability community are addressed when planning for and responding to disasters. SVILC is a non-profit organization which serves people with disabilities in Santa Clara County. SVILC’s hopes to create fully inclusive communities that value the dignity, equality, freedom and worth of every human being.

Santa Clara County Veterans Commission and Team Rubicon

I am building a stronger and better connected community, as Chair of Cambrian Community Council, bringing safety and preparedness as a board member to Campbell CERT, an Instructor and member to the SCC CERT Council. I’ve made many trips to the Paradise area with support materials with partners like Seva, helped with other independent groups with large animal rescue. I am a Viet Era Army Veteran, 1^st Lt, and the new Chair of SCC Veterans Commission with a focus of reducing suicide and increasing benefits and am a member of Team Rubicon that like CERT, serves others before, during and after a disaster. I’ve been a member of CadreSv board for a year, bringing, doing what I can to make all our varied resources recognized and used more fully, as we in our varied non-profits have a lot to offer in care and support of others.

Disability Integration Regional Lead

Disaster Health Services Manager

ESGR – Area 2 Chairperson

Professor Emeritus – San Jose State University

American Red Cross

Liz Dietz, EdD, RN, CS-NP, CSN, was a founding member of CADRE during the Loma Prieta Earthquake in Oct 19, 1989.  Liz is a 40-year volunteer with Silicon Valley Red Cross serving on the Board of directors, Disaster Health Services Manager, Disability Integration Regional Lead, and Service to Armed Forces Regional Advisor.  Liz is a Professor Emeritus from San Jose State University in the School of Nursing having taught there for 29 years.  Liz and her husband Larry who is also a Public Affairs Red Cross Manager live in The Villages.

Kelle Kroll Group

Japantown Prepared!

Rich Saito retired from the San Jose Police department in 2006. After the Fukushima earthquake/tsunami, he was asked to start a disaster preparedness program for Japantown in North San Jose. Along with other community volunteers, they formed a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) called Japantown Prepared. He is also a volunteer the San Jose Office of Emergency Management, San Jose Amateur Radio Civil Emergency Service (RACES) and the Japanese American Museum of San Jose.

Civil Air Patrol and Team Rubicon

Food/Feeding Lead

Marsha Hovey, C.E.M. has over forty years of emergency management experience in Santa Clara County as a 9-1-1 dispatcher, Emergency Services Coordinator for Santa Clara County OES, City of Cupertino Emergency Manager and West Valley-Mission Community College District. She retired in 2010 so she could become more involved with other organizations, like CADRE, and continue to make a difference. She is the 2017 Santa Clara County Emergency Manager’s Association Emergency Manager of the Year.

Immigrantinfo.org

CADRE Founding Member, Franci Collins has been a Disaster Volunteer with the American Red Cross for over 30 years and was a founding member of CADRE after the Loma Prieta Earthquake As a Community Partner Services Liaison, she collaborates with service providers to identify vulnerable populations and address special needs. She is the creator and administrator of www.ImmigrantInfo.org, which provides information and links to resources for immigrants. She is also a writer, professional Hypnotherapist, and consultant for non-profit organizations.