Pvjobs Board Members

PVJOBS -- Board Members http://www.pvjobs.org/body_board_members.html

Directors
(Last updated July 24, 2008)

Mary Richert
(President)

ary Richert has been the Director of General
Operations for the Venice Family Clinic, the
largest free clinic in the nation, for fourteen years. She
has been the President of the Venice Chamber of
Commerce since 2001 and helped to develop the
business community with direct linkages to government
and business resources.
Ms. Richert also serves as the Co-Chair of the Pacific
Area Community Police Advisory Board and is the Vice
President of Membership of the Pacific Area LAPD
Boosters. She holds a degree in urban planning from
Cleveland State University. Prior to moving to Los
Angeles, she was a Commercial Planner for the City of
Cleveland, Director of an Economic Development office
in Pennsylvania, and Project Manager for a large building
and development company in New Hampshire. Ms.
Richert is very familiar with new construction and
renovation projects and brings this knowledge to the
Board of Directors as its new President

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Robert E. Bates, CPA, CFE
(Treasurer)

obert is a CPA and Certified Fraud Examiner
(CFE). He is the President of Corporate Sentinel
Incorporated, a company that focuses on fraud prevention
and detection. He has 17 years experience as a financial
professional at all levels of business: as an executive,
consultant, auditor, board member, and educator.
Currently, he is a professor of accounting at Glendale
Community College, the treasurer for the LAPD Pacific
Area Boosters Association, on the Board of Directors for
the Los Angeles Chapter of the Association for Certified
Fraud Examiners and an Assistant Scoutmaster for the
Boy Scouts of America, Troop 303.

Sibyl Buchanan (Secretary)
ibyl Buchanan has worked for Playa Vista since
1991, serving as the project’s key contact for the
local community. As Director of Community Affairs,
Ms. Buchanan is responsible for implementing Playa
Vista’s community relations programs, including dealing
with residents, businesses and government
representatives.
Ms. Buchanan previously served as a member of the
construction project team for MaguireThomas Partners,
where she worked on such projects as Crocker Center
(now Wells Fargo Center) and Library Square (now US
Bank).
Ms. Buchanan is actively involved with several
community, service and business
Groups, as well as educational institutions, and is a past
Honorary Mayor of Westchester. Currently, Sibyl serves
as a Board Member of the Marina Foundation, Positive
Alternative Choices Today (PACT), Mar Vista Family

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Center, Boys and Girls Club of Venice, Rotary Club of
Playa Sunrise, Venice Chamber of Commerce, and is a
Vice President of the LAX Coastal Area Chamber of
Commerce and a Vice President of the Westside Council
of Chambers of Commerce.

Sibyl is an elected board member of the Neighborhood
Council of Westchester/Playa (NCWP) representing the
Business Seat. She served two years as the Council's
Election Committee Co-chair and is currently in her
fourth year serving as Chair of the Council's Membership
and Marketing Committee. Additionally, Sibyl serves on
the NCWP Planning & Land Use Committee and the
Airport Relations Committee.
Sibyl serves on the Advisory Board for the LAPD Pacific
Area Boosters Association and is a member of the Ocean
Park Order of the Eastern Star, Westchester Elks Lodge,
and a Life Member of Hadassah.
In addition, Ms. Buchanan serves as an officer of the
Board of Directors for PVJOBS (Playa Vista Job
Opportunities and Business Services), an innovative
program that matches local at-risk youths and adults with
quality construction jobs at Playa Vista. Sibyl oversees
the Playa Vista Educational Trust, a community-wide
school adoption program that offers student scholarships
and several funding opportunities for 15 local schools
surrounding Playa Vista. She is also an officer of
PVPAL (Playa Vista Parks and Landscaping), the
homeowners master association for the Playa Vista
community.
Ms. Buchanan received her B.S. degree from Hofstra
University in New York and resides in Playa del Rey
with her husband, Mitchell Poris.

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Jim Bickhart
(Member)

im Bickhart is policy director for the Southern
California Transportation and Land Use Coalition. A
long-time Venice resident, he previously served as
district director for former State Assembly Speaker
Antonio Villaraigosa and planning and legislative deputy
for Los Angeles City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter.
During Playa Vista's Phase 1 approval process, he
worked with LADOT staff to establish the requirement
that led to the development of PVJOBS.
Brad Carson
(Member)

Los Angeles County Deputy Probation Officer,
Brad Carson is well acquainted with the problems
facing the at-risk and is committed to breaking the cycle
of inter-generational gang violence. He received the
employee of the year award from CPPCA (Chief
Probation and Parole Officers of California) for his
involvement in establishing a gang truce between Venice
13 (V13) and the Venice Shoreline Crips (VSLC) in
1994. He also helped broker a gang cease-fire between
VSLC and the Culver City Boys (CC) in 1997. Brad is
committed to improving the quality of life and the
sustained rehabilitation of the ex-gang-affiliated through
gainful employment. From the beginning, his guidance
has been instrumental in developing program design.
Cynthia Garvey-Truhan
(Member)

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Challis Macpherson
(Member)

hallis Macpherson has been a long-time community
activist in the local area. Knowledgeable about
local issues and committed to serving her community, she
has proved to be an invaluable asset.
She is a founding member of the original P.V. Jobs Task
Force that proceeded PVJOBS. Challis was on the
board of the Venice Town Council, which sued Summa
Corp., the original developer that proceeded Playa
Capitol, over their excessive project plans. She is a
long-time member of Friends of the Ballona Wetlands,
the Sierra Club and Heal the Bay. She organized her
community, the Oxford Triangle, into a responsive
Neighborhood Watch with close ties to the LAPD
Pacific Division.
Challis has been a resident of Venice since 1965, and a
member of the Community Planning Advisory Committee
(CPAC) which has advised Councilmember Galanter on
land use issues in Venice since 1993. She received her
BA in Fine Arts from UCLA in 1984.

Mike Mitchell
(member)

grew up on a farm about five miles from a rural town
in Southwest Wisconsin. The town is Hillsboro,
population 1231. Yes…that’s right….just over 1000
people! There were 65 people in my graduating class in
High School.

I was feeding calves by the time I was five, and driving
tractor and milking cows by the age of eight. Needless to
say, I learned how to work hard and work long hours at

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an early age. I guess that’s why I’m not afraid of hard
work and long hours today. I just get paid more now to
work hard.

I was active in some sports and music through high
school. I received the school music award and had the
lead role in Guys and Dolls my senior year. Although it
was fun to be popular, being popular as a farmer in a
small town lost its appeal, so I joined the US Navy.

I spent the next five and one half years working on and
serving aboard submarines. I gained in rank quickly and
was in charge of Auxiliary Division. We serviced all air
systems from emergency ballast tank blow @ 4500 psig
to 100 psig breathing air systems. We serviced all of the
hydraulic systems, auxiliary seawater cooling,
atmosphere control equipment, potable water, and air
conditioning / refrigeration. Guess what? Yes…I had to
work hard there too! My job wasn’t fun, but it was
interesting and I certainly learned a lot.

When I was about to end my enlistment and go back to
the farm instead of re-enlisting and going to Japan, I
intercepted a phone call that was meant for one of my
shipmates. The call was from an HR director for Air
Products and Chemicals, Inc., a global industrial gas
supplier. Since I ran the oxygen generators on board, and
knew what liquid nitrogen was because we used it to
store bull semen and freeze brand cattle on the farm, he
took an interest in me. He ended up hiring my shipmate,
and he also hired me!

I spent the next 20 years at Air Products, first operating
air separation plants, then managing them. I lived in
Washington State, West Virginia, and later here in LA. It
was a good career and once again, I worked hard and
learned a lot. Over time, I was able to find time to

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interact with the end users, our customers, of the oxygen,
nitrogen, and argon we supplied. I helped them improve
their processes and use less of our product. Seemingly
this is counter productive from a profitability perspective;
however, it was quite the opposite. We formed great
partnerships with these customers and I loved working
directly with them. We were able to raise prices and sign
longer terms because of the relationships we were
building. I wanted more of that, so I tried to get into
sales. Unfortunately sales and operations don’t mix. Once
you are an “ops guy” you can’t get into sales. I was
always runner up or two on the hiring ladder, but didn’t
make the selection. I needed to make a decision that was
very uncomfortable. Remain in my comfort zone at Air
Products, or find a different career in sales.

It took me a year to leave, but I did it. I had been looking
at Insurance, Financial Planning, and Real Estate. I chose
Real Estate, and guess what? Now I’m working my butt
off again and learning a lot. It paid off because in my first
year I was the top producer in my office and rookie of
the year for Boardwalk Realty. I am learning from the
best minds in real estate, which is expensive, but has
resulted in the acquisition of knowledge far superior than
my colleagues with years in the business.

The learning and application of what I learn is terrific, but
not quite as good as my recent delve into spiritualism. I
was not in a good place a year ago emotionally despite
my success. My life didn’t seem to have enough purpose.
Then I met community people in the local chamber of
commerce and soon after, Rotary. The owner of
Innovative Realtors and a couple other people at
Innovative are spiritual people, and they helped me to get
my head into a better place as well. This all happened at
pretty much the same time. It just came together. Now
my wife is infected with this unusual disease (blessing)

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too! How cool is that?! I’m looking forward to getting to
know you all better and helping to make what you have
built even better than it already is.
Jim Moore
(Non-voting member)

im holds degrees from M.I.T. (Mathematics/
Computer Science) and Carnegie Mellon University
(Computer Science/Artificial Intelligence). His research,
for USC was in the areas of Cognitive Modeling,
Linguistics and Natural Language Understanding. With
IBM he expanded his interests to Robotic Vision and
Knowledge Engineering. Additionally, Jim consulted
widely, within the company, on a variety of topics and
also served as IBM's nationwide liaison with colleges for
departments of Computer Science and Mathematics. On
his "retirement" from IBM, he took up consulting
(personal computing and Internet web site design). He is
PVJOBS' webmaster.
Jim's non-technical interests include leadership in his
condominium and the Villa Marina Council, and service
on other non-profit boards: Centinela Freeman Regional
Medical Center, SOMH (Save Our Marina Hospital) and
We CAHRE (Community Action for Healthcare Reform
and Education).

David L. Moring
(Member)

avid L. Moring is an employment law attorney with
more than 30 years of business experience. He was
in-house counsel for General Telephone and Montgomery
Ward before starting his own practice.
Over his career, David has developed conflict resolution
programs and has provided counseling to employers and
employees for bettter working relationships. He has also

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been very involved in training employees in career
transition and job search techniques. He is recognized
for offering sound legal and practical advice regarding in
all phases of employment matters.
David has served on the Board of Directors of a many
community based social service agencies, including El
Nido Family Centers, the Kellogg Training and
Consulting Center and the Venice Community Housing
Corporation. He served as an appointed member of the
Venice Planning Advisory Committee and was a founding
member of the Grass Roots Venice Neighborhood
Council. He received the 2003 Special Service Award
from the ACLU of Southern California.
Tom Moxley
(Member)

Frank Quiambao
(Member)

Kim Savage
(Member)

im Kovacs Savage is the Executive Director of
Federal Relations at UCLA. In this capacity, she
oversees the university's interactions in Washington, D.C.
with Congress, executive branch agencies, the White
House, and higher education associations. Kim has
worked in Government Relations at UCLA for nearly 8
years.
Prior to returning to work at her alma mater, Kim worked
in Washington, D.C. for the private publishing company,
the Bureau of National Affairs. She also served as the
Assistant Budget Director of the White House
Conference on Small Business.
Kim holds a B.A. in History from UCLA. She is a recent

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graduate of the Southern California Leadership
Network's professional development program -
Leadership Southern California. Other community
activities include serving on the Board of Managers of
the North Valley Family YMCA and the Board of
Directors of Supporters in Law Enforcement in
Devonshire which is an LAPD fundraising organization.

Timothy Shannon
(Non-voting Member)

imothy Shannon is a nationally recognized
professional, specializing in the design and
implementation of Workforce Development and Social
Service Programs. He is a senior partner of Shannon and
Associates, a limited partnership that provides
consultative services under his direction to for-profit
corporate entities, community-based-organizations, and
the legislative and executive branches of Local, State and
Federal Government. Among his many accomplishments
was the design and implementation of the National Pilot
Project for Centralized Service (One-Stop Centers) in
Greater Metropolitan Areas. He has doctoral degrees in
psychology and statistical analysis from the University of
La Verne and Walden University . Author of
Empowerment for Change and The System for Caring,
Timothy is a welcome addition to our board of directors.

Ernest M. Roberts
(Non-voting member, Executive Director)

rnest Roberts has over 23 years experience in the
technical and construction fields. He was the owner
and operator of The House Doctor, a construction and
home improvement service business, for 6 years, where
he hired the at-risk exclusively. He received his
bachelor's in psychology from USC. Ernest is also
President of the West Los Angeles College PACE

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Alumni Association. Personal experiences led him to
dedicate his life to uplifting the at-risk. Ernest resides
with his wife, Juliette, in the Crenshaw district of Los
Angeles. He is the proud parent of five children and
grandparent to three others. Deeply empathetic and detail
oriented, he runs the day-to-day operations of the
program.

For more information, contact us at 310-448-4684
This site is �2002 PVJOBS

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