The NonprofitCenters Network

Staff Members

China Brotsky
Founder

China Brotsky is part of the executive team at Tides which is responsible for the integrated management of the Tides organizations. China is also Managing Director of Tides Shared Spaces, which creates, operates and promotes sustainable work space for nonprofits. China joined Tides in 1990 as Chief Financial Officer. During her tenure at Tides, China managed the restoration and development of the Thoreau Centers for Sustainability in San Francisco and New York. China also co-founded and directs The NonprofitCenters Network. She lectures and consults internationally on the creation and operation of green nonprofit facilities and the development of shared services programs. She also served as the founding executive director of Groundspring.org, a nonprofit technology service provider. Prior to Tides, China served six years in public accounting and was the Deputy Director of Finance and Administration at the Exploratorium Science Museum. China is a member of the board of directors of Community Investment Support fund. She received a B.S. in accounting from Golden Gate University and is a CPA in the state of California.

Roxanne Hanson
Director of Education and Consulting

As Director of Education and Consulting, Roxanne Hanson leads technical assistance, project consulting, educational programs, and product development on nonprofit shared space and services, primarily through The NonproftCenters Network. Prior to joining Tides, Roxanne spent twelve years working in the national and international nonprofit community based in Washington, DC where she developed and facilitated sessions on volunteer management, leadership, strategic planning, and international development for both large and small nonprofit organizations. She has provided marketing, fundraising, program and planning consultation for a variety of diverse social change organizations. She has been an active board member of community arts organizations and served as a volunteer trainer.

Maria Martinez
Membership & Marketing Coordinator

Maria Martinez works with the vibrant community of NCN members across North America, reaching out to new nonprofit centers, helping to organize training events, and producing new publications for our sector. Prior to joining NCN, Maria worked for the Garden Conservancy, a national preservation organization, where she supported ongoing preservation projects, organized educational seminars, and worked with their membership. Maria received a B.A. in mathematics from Smith College. She is an avid gardener and serves as a tree care volunteer for Friends of the Urban Forest.

Saul Ettlin
Coordinator

Saul Ettlin supports Tides’ real estate, education and consulting activities. Saul has over ten years of nonprofit management, capacity building and leadership development experience working primarily in and with small political and environmental organizations. Before coming to Tides, Saul was the Director of the Municipal League of King County, a 100 year-old citizen driven, civic organization best known for its nationally unique candidate evaluation program. Saul holds a Bachelor’s degree in Community Development and a Master’s in Nonprofit Management.

Steering Committee Members

Chair
Shelley Hamilton
Executive Director
MarinSpace, San Rafael, CA

Shelley Hamilton is the Executive Director of MarinSpace.  Prior to MarinSpace, she spent more than 10 years as a consultant in both the public benefit and information technology sectors. She is founder and principal of NetCentric Designs, a business strategy, team facilitation, and organizational design firm. For the past 7 years, Shelley's projects have focused on collaborative nonprofit capital infrastructure projects, mainly in the form of creating and operating multi-tenant nonprofit centers. She has facilitated strategic planning, organizational development, and program design projects for the Thoreau Center for Sustainability, Fort Mason Center and the United Way of Grand Forks, ND. Shelley was the lead project consultant for both Collaborating for Success Nonprofit Centers Conferences (San Francisco '01 & New York '03).

Vice-Chair
Andy Johnston
Executive Director
Loudoun Cares, Leesburg, VA

Andy Johnston has been the Executive Director of Loudoun Cares, a 501c3 nonprofit charity based in Leesburg, VA, since its founding in 2003. In this capacity he has developed programs and initiatives to strengthen the local nonprofit sector. These include the local Information & Referral Telephone Helpline and the Claude Moore Community Builders program which trains and coordinates placements of high school youth for volunteer opportunities with local nonprofits. In 2010 Loudoun Cares realized the first phase of a long time dream when four nonprofit agencies signed the first leases for the Loudoun Cares Nonprofit Center. He now leads a $2.5 million dollar effort to renovate an additional 10,000 sq ft of the building to provide for more office and conference/training space. Andy is a member of the Nonprofit Centers Network Steering Committee and a passionate advocate for the development of nonprofit infrastructure throughout the country and internationally.

Vice-Chair
Margie Zeidler
Founder
Urbanspace Property Group Ltd.

Margaret Zeidler is the Founder and President of Urbanspace Property Group Ltd, a mission-driven development company specializing in the adaptive re-use of old buildings. Originally a trained architect, Ms. Zeidler has brought her love of historic buildings and belief in the power of built-form to help foster community to two, century old, former factory buildings. The first project–401–houses a diverse community of over 130 artists, cultural entrepreneurs, micro-enterprises and social innovators. The Robertson Building, also located in Toronto, has become a hub for organizations, large and small, the majority of whom are social mission-driven, be they profit or not-for-profit. Ms. Zeidler is the recipient of the Jane Jacobs Prize (2003), the Toronto “Best Friend of the Arts” Award (2004). She co-founded the Centre for Social Innovation in Toronto in 2004 (a 20,000 square-foot shared space for social enterprise and innovation located at the Robertson building) as well as The Centre for City Ecology and Jane’s Walk (an annual event to celebrate the life and ideas of Jane Jacobs) in 2007.

Gil Alvarado
Chief Financial Officer
Sierra Health Foundation, Sacramento, CA

Gil Alvarado serves as vice president of administration/CFO at Sierra Health Foundation. In this role, he is responsible for strategic business planning and management of all foundation administrative activities, investments and finances, and provides leadership to ensure compliance with state and federal fiscal and regulatory policy. He serves on the board of the Foundation Financial Officers Group, and is involved in the local nonprofit community, serving on the board of Women’s Empowerment and as a committee member of MedStart. Before joining Sierra Health, he held the position of chief financial and information officer for the Paso del Norte Health Foundation in El Paso, Texas.

Jerry Bilton
Executive Director
The Community Service Building, Wilmington, DE

Jerry Bilton is a Certified Facility Manager and holds an MA in Economics from the University of Delaware. He has been Executive Director of the nonprofit Community Service Building Corporation since 1996. The corporation owns and operates a twelve-story multi-tenant nonprofit Center in Wilmington, Delaware housing 78 nonprofit tenants. Jerry is responsible for construction, operations, maintenance, tenant and public relations, and contract and fiscal management. The CSB is Delaware's first commercial building recognized by the EPA as an Energy Star Building. Previously Jerry was employed as a construction project manager for PNC Bank where he built and renovated banks and bank offices. Throughout his career, he has volunteered to assist nonprofit organizations with their facility needs.

Joseph Connor
Founder/Chief Executive Officer
The Collaboratory for Community Support, Ann Arbor, MI

Joseph A. "Jay" Connor, JD/MBA, is the Founder/CEO of The Collaboratory for Community Support and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Michigan. He has extensive leadership experience in the business, nonprofit, and public policy arenas. From Conner's work with leaders of diverse constituencies in communities across North America, Jay has seen that in order to be effective, emerging community leaders must be comfortable at the intersection not only of organizations and cultures, but also of the nonprofit, business and governmental sectors. This is a key message of his new book, published Spring 2004 by Wilder Press, Community Visions, Community Solutions: Grantmaking for Comprehensive Impact.

Stephanie FallCreek, D.S.W
President and CEO
Fairhill Partners, Cleveland, OH

Since, 1992, Dr. FallCreek has served as CEO of Fairhill Partners, a 10-acre, 10-building nonprofit center that provides over 23,000 older adults with primary healthcare, home-delivered meals, employment assistance, and temporary housing annually. As CEO & President, she is responsible for the management of a diverse staff as well as the Collaborative Campus Services and Successful Aging Programs. She is best known for her work in health promotion, as well as for advocacy in public policy on successful aging and inter-generational programming. She co-authored A Healthy Old Age: A Sourcebook for Health Promotion with Older Adults. Dr. FallCreek was named a Crain’s Cleveland Business Woman of Note in 2004 and received the Molly Mettler Award for Leadership in Health Promotion. She is Adjunct Faculty at Case Western Reserve University in the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences. Dr. FallCreek received her Doctorate of Social Welfare in 1984 from the University of California Berkeley. 

Kim Frentz
President
Ventura Partners, San Francisco, CA

Kim Frentz has been involved in real estate development throughout the United States for over twenty-five years. She has worked on a broad range of residential and commercial projects including full-service offices, historic mixed-use projects, and retail/office condominiums. Since returning to California in 1989, Kim has focused her work on nonprofit commercial development. She and the staff at Ventura Partners provide a comprehensive package of services ranging from project management to leasing and property management for commercial and mixed-use properties. They also work with clients to develop Asset Reserve Analyses and Facilities Operating Plans that provide blueprints for the long-term health of their properties. Her most recent venture is the start-up of GreenWorthy Janitorial, an innovative cleaning service using green products and methods and emphasizing recycling and waste management in commercial settings.

Rebecca Jasso
Founder
United Way of Greater Houston, Houston, TX

Rebecca Jasso is in her twelfth year as Area Director of the United Way of Greater Houston’s Bay Area Service Center. The 30,000 sq. ft Center houses fifty social service programs and provides meeting facilities for non-profit organizations. Jasso leads efforts to assess community needs, support the development of an effective social service network and coordinates a Volunteer Advisory Committee that reviews and monitors services provided at the Center. Jasso’s twenty years experience as the Executive Director of voluntary health and social service agencies in Texas and California gives her a working knowledge of the day to day issues facing agencies housed at the Center. Jasso received her undergraduate degree from the University of Texas-Austin and a master’s in European History from Stanford University. She taught European History and chaired the Ethnic and Women’s Studies Program at the University of Redlands, California prior to entering the non-profit arena.

Anne-Marie Jones
Director
The California Endowment, Los Angeles, CA

Anne-Marie Jones, director of the Center for Healthy Communities (CHC), first joined The California Endowment in June 2001. As director of the CHC, a program of The Endowment, Jones is responsible for overseeing its public programming, capacity-building training programs and grant-making functions, among other responsibilities. Prior to her appointment in 2010 as director, Jones served as a project manager for the foundation from 2007-2010. In that capacity, Jones managed multi-departmental and organization wide projects, including the relocation of The Endowment’s regional offices, among numerous other responsibilities. Jones also served as special assistant to the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer from 2001-2007. As special assistant, Jones served as the primary project liaison for the development of The Endowment’s headquarters and conference and resource center located in downtown Los Angeles. Prior to joining The Endowment, Jones was the director of Contracts Administration and Collaborations for Beyond Shelter, a nonprofit organization that develops systemic approaches to combat poverty and homelessness among families with children, and to enhance family economic security and well-being. In addition, she earlier served as director of Collaborations and New Initiatives for the organization. A resident of Los Angeles, Jones earned her B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California and her Master of Public and International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. She is also a member of Southern California Blacks in Philanthropy.

Joanne Keys
Executive Director
Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, Denver, CO

As Executive Director, Joanne is responsible for the overall mission and success of the organization. She brings over 20 years of management and executive level experience in the business and technology sectors, including as a Vice President with American Management Systems (a Fortune 500 company) and, most recently, as the President of NANA Pacific (an Alaskan‐native owned technology corporation). She has spent many years managing multi‐continental/multi‐cultural projects and businesses, and is helping the Alliance incorporate a broader business perspective into the sustainability arena. Ms. Keys has always had a passion for the environment, having served for many years in volunteer wildland firefighting and in Search and Rescue in remote locations. This includes over six years in Antarctica supporting the US Antarctic Program’s scientific missions. These experiences solidified her passion for the environment and for planetary sustainability. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Virginia Tech.

Glen Newby
President and CEO
New Path Youth and Family Services

Glen has close to forty years of human service delivery experience in Ontario, Canada, twenty-five of which has been at the executive level. Glen has served on numerous community-based advisory groups and non-profit Boards that include service agencies, community planning organizations, ratepayer groups, and cottage associations. Glen serves on a number of advisory committees related to social entrepreneurship and social investment, and is the thought leader behind a variety of social tourism initiatives. Glen is a founding member of the unique, cross sector Coalition of Children, Youth and Family Services in Simcoe County. He has just recently retired from the Board of Directors of Children’s Mental Health Ontario (CMHO) where he served as President. Glen is currently CEO of New Path Youth & Family Services, a multi service children’s mental health centre that serves the central east region of Ontario. Glen also serves as President and CEO of New Path Foundation, an organization which develops and manages various investments and social enterprise activities, including the Common Roof™ projects. Glen has led the Common Roof™ model development since inception in 1995, and through New Path Foundation, has provided leadership in creating sustainable multi-tenant facilities for non-profit organizations in Ontario and elsewhere.

Amy Tobin
Executive Director
David Brower Center, Berkeley, CA

For 15 years, Amy Tobin has worked with nonprofit community, arts, and activist organizations. She is committed to fostering communities and social change through collaborative programs and multi-media arts events, generally doing anything possible to bring people together in physical proximity. Amy was the founding Artistic Director of The Hub at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. She has served as a development and program consultant in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City, and has produced hundreds of community events, benefits, and shows. Amy received the Joshua Venture fellowship for Jewish social entrepreneurs in 2001. She serves on the steering committee for the Nonprofit Centers Network, the advisory committee of Joshua Venture Group, and the board of the Downtown Berkeley Association. Amy is also a writer, vocalist, and performer. She has released two albums and tours nationally with The Esther Show, a cabaret rock opera and modern interpretation of the biblical Book of Esther.

Alan Zimlicki
Consultant
ASZ Associates, Cambridge, MA

Alan Zimlicki, the principal of ASZ Associates, has a Master of Science in Urban Planning and extensive planning, redevelopment and real estate development experience. He was project director of the National Urban Design award winning East Cambridge Riverfront Redevelopment Project and has since developed housing, office buildings, R&D buildings, retail, assisted living residences and various public facilities such as parks, parking garages, roadways and community facilities. Alan has a wide range of experience with the use of creative finance techniques, private finance, government finance and finance strategies for community economic redevelopment.