Our Staff and Board

Staff Biographies

China Brotsky
Managing Director, Tides Shared Spaces

Executive Director, The NonprofitCenters Network

China Brotsky is a Senior Vice President at Tides and Managing Director of Tides Shared Spaces, a Tides initiative 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 Center for Sustainability, a multi-tenant nonprofit center in San Francisco 's Presidio National Park and home to Tides. China is recently completed another multi-tenant center - Thoreau Center New York - in Lower Manhattan , responsible for partnership development, design and construction, financing and leasing for that project. China also co-founded and directs The NonprofitCenters Network, a cross-sector national network of nonprofits and their real estate partners. She has lectured and consulted nationally on the creation and operation of nonprofit facilities. China also served as the founding executive director of Groundspring.org, a nonprofit internet tools provider and grantmaker. 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 Global Greengrants Fund and CorpWatch. China received a B.S. in accounting from Golden Gate University and is a CPA in the state of California .

Roxanne Hanson
Associate Director

As Associate Director of The NonprofitCenters Network, Roxanne manages NCN's membership, education and publications on the creation and operation of quality nonprofit office and program space. Prior to joining NCN, Roxanne spent twelve years working in the national and international nonprofit community based in Washington, DC. She has provided fundraising, program and planning consultation for both large and small nonprofit organizations. She has been an active board member of community arts organizations and serves as a volunteer management trainer. She is currently the International Issues contributing writer to Volunteer Today.

Shantel Nilson
Coordinator

Shantel has seven years experience in accounting and administration. Before coming to Tides Shared Spaces, Shantel worked for an architectural modeling company where she nearly ran every operation from handling HR to payroll to managing special projects. Shantel has a certificate in Accounting.

Board Biographies

Chair

Alexander Zwissler
Executive Director
Chabot Space & Science Center, Oakland, CA

Alexander Zwissler is the Executive Director of the Fort Mason Foundation, a non-profit organization that manages the Fort Mason Center, a former US Army base on the San Francisco Bay, which has been converted to a cultural and recreational complex housing museums, theatres, non profit agencies, exhibition halls and classroom space, and hosting 1.6 million visitors per year. Prior to joining Fort Mason in early 1999, he had a 17-year career in the cable television and telecommunications industry.

Vice-Chair

Sue Dennis

Sue M. Dennis is the Executive Director of The Interchurch Center responsible for all activities in the 600,000 square foot Class A commercial office building. Under her administration, TIC won The Office Building of the Year Award given by the Building Owners and Managers Association of New York (BOMA-NY). Sue is a member of BOMA-NY’s Board and serves on their Education, Scholarship and Advocacy Committees. She chairs the Economic Development Committee of Morningside Area Alliance, the Long-term Planning Committee and BOMI Convention 2007 Committees for BOMA-NY and the Education Committee of the New York Society of Association Executives (NYSAE).

Vice-Chair

Tim Wintermute
Executive Director
Luella Hannan Memorial Foundation, Detroit, MI

Tim Wintermute has been actively involved in working with nonprofit organizations since 1971 when he began working at Project FIND, a nonprofit social service agency for low income senior citizens residing in New York City. In 1982, he started his own consulting business in Ann Arbor, Michigan and assisted a number of nonprofits in the development and construction of over 3,000 units of housing. After serving in a consultant capacity to the Hannan Foundation, Tim was named its Associate Director, then appointed Executive Director in 1996. In 1993, the Foundation converted Hannan House, a 50,000 square foot facility, into a center that provides office space and infrastructure support for a number of non profit organizations.

Treasurer

Michael Gathercole
Chief Operations Officer
Fairhill Center, Cleveland, OH

Michael became Fairhill’s Associate Director in January, 2001, after retiring from a 38 year career in the British Diplomatic Service where some of his appointments were in senior property and operations management positions. Michael plays a leading role in the management of 140,000 square feet of leasable space at Fairhill and in the planning and execution of projects to bring a further 50,000 sq. ft. back into use. He supervises the Computer Learning Center and Intergenerational Resource Center and is currently leading the development of an assistive technology center.

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.

Dave Buckler
Chief Financial Officer
Detroit Youth Foundation, Detroit, MI

David Buckler, C.P.A. is Director of Finance for the Detroit Youth Foundation. David is responsible for finance, information systems and investment management of the foundation and is also coordinating the renovation/construction of YouthVille Detroit, a 75,000 square foot, multi-tenant youth development center. He formerly served as CFO of both a major Detroit law firm and a large bank. David is an active board member of Detroit’s chapter of Habitat for Humanity and holds a residential builder’s license from the State of Michigan.

Martha A. Burton
Vice President, Renewal Partner

Senior Advisor, Tides Canada Foundation
Vancouver, British Columbia

Martha A. Burton is the Vice President of Renewal Partners and a Senior Advisor at Endswell Foundation. Their complementary missions have been to utilize early stage investing and charitable grant making to promote a sustainable economy for British Columbia . Renewal is a seed capital company that invests in businesses that share its belief that the natural world and societal well-being are as important as economic returns. Renewal has invested in over fifty companies and has helped to develop some of the best known social purpose companies in Canada . Endswell is British Columbia 's largest private foundation focused on environmental issues. She oversees the management of all the investments in the Renewal Partners portfolio. Martha is responsible for finance and special projects, and works closely with Joel Solomon, President of Endswell Foundation and Renewal Partners in overall coordination of the entities. Martha is also a Senior Advisor for Tides Canada Foundation and Sage Foundation, providing guidance on structures, investment, and management systems. Her real estate expertise comes from her position as Vice President, partner and Operations Manager of the Solomon Group of real estate management companies. She was educated at Middle Tennessee State University , and is licensed as a Real Estate Broker in Tennessee . She has a long history of community service in Nashville.

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.

LoriAnn Girvan
Project Manager in Housing Development
Common Ground Community, New York, NY

LoriAnn Girvan is a Project Manager in Housing Development for Common Ground Community, New York City 's largest supportive housing developer. She is also a 2004-06 Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania 's Center for Urban Redevelopment Excellence. Prior to this position, Lori served as an independent consultant, providing technical support and training in program design and participatory planning to social change organizations. Most recently, her services have focused on market research and business planning for nonprofits developing Multi-tenant Nonprofit Centers in the United States and Canada . As a consultant to Third Sector New England, she coordinated the predevelopment analysis for a 125,000 sq. ft. office and program facility for Boston-area nonprofits. Lori previously served as Executive Director of Equality Colorado, a statewide civil rights organization. She also has over ten years of professional experience in West and Southern Africa , where she designed and managed research and capacity-building initiatives in legislative strengthening and gender-equitable economic development. Lori has an M.A. in African Area Studies from the University of California and has completed her Master's coursework in Urban Planning at McGill University . She is a graduate of Colgate University. Lori is a founding member of the board of the NonprofitCenters Network.

Neel Hajra
Chief Operating Officer
Nonprofit Enterprise at Work, Ann Arbor, MI

Neel Hajra is the Chief Operating Officer of Nonprofit Enterprise at Work, Inc. (NEW) in Ann Arbor , Michigan . NEW is a management support organization that operates an office facility for 20 nonprofits, and also provides a wide range of capacity-building services to area nonprofits. Hajra oversees all of NEW's programs and internal activities in order to ensure efficient operation and mission alignment. In addition to his COO duties, Hajra remains active in providing technology advice to nonprofits. Before joining NEW, he represented Ford Motor Company as an attorney in the Global Business Operations Group. Hajra received both his Bachelor of Science in Physics and his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Michigan.

Shelley Hamilton
Executive Director
MarinSpace, San Rafael, CA

Shelley Hamilton joins MarinSpace after spending 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 (www.fortmason.org) 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).

Andy Johnston

Executive Director
Loudoun Cares, Leesburg, VA

After leaving Loudoun United Way in the winter of 2003, Andy Johnston became executive director of Loudoun Cares a multi-tenant nonprofit center start-up effort in the fastest growing county in the United States . Loudoun Cares currently has twelve health and human service nonprofit organizations interested in partnering in a future facility. Prior to joining Loudoun Cares, Johnston worked as a consultant with nonprofit organizations and helped establish an environmentally focused residential development, EcoVillage of Loudoun County. In 1999, he became Assistant Director of Loudoun United Way , with primary responsibility for community development initiatives, as well as fundraising, public relations, and managing a grantmaking process that distributed more than $1,000,000 to agencies serving Loudoun residents. Johnston also worked with community leaders to establish the Loudoun Human Services Network, serving as one of the co-chairs of this "coalition of community organizations working through advocacy and collaboration to ensure availability and access to human services for Loudoun County residents."

Andra Lichtenstein
Founder
Capital Incubator, Berkeley, CA

Andra Lichtenstein is the founder of Capital Incubator, a consulting firm that provides technical assistance to nonprofit organizations in facilities development including: debt financing; fundraising and capital campaigns; strategic partnerships and collaborations; and acquisition, design and construction. She has over twenty-five years of experience in the nonprofit sector as a development director, executive director, board member and financial advisor. For nine years she was the Planning and Development Director of LifeLong Medical Care, a community health center in Berkeley, where she raised funds for operations as well as oversaw a capital development project to build a new health center with housing. As Assistant Vice President at Cain Brothers, she oversaw the processing of tax-exempt bond financings for nonprofit capital projects.

Jonathan Spack
Executive Director
Third Sector New England, Boston, MA

Jonathan Spack has over twenty-five years experience leading and consulting to nonprofit organizations. During his 22 years as Executive Director of Third Sector New England and its predecessor, he has successfully guided the organization through several transitions, including its recent transformation to a multi-service information and management resource for community based nonprofits. TSNE's programs and services include a national publication, The Nonprofit Quarterly , a biennial skills-building conference, fiscal sponsorship services, management consulting, two unique grant programs, and an Executive Transitions Program serving Massachusetts , Rhode Island , and Connecticut . In 2004 TSNE acquired a 120,000 sq. ft., first-class office building in downtown Boston which it has developed as a Nonprofit Center . Mr. Spack's expertise includes Board-staff relations, business strategy and planning, and organizational change management. A former legal services attorney, he holds a law degree from New York University and a Master's degree in Human Services Management from the Heller School at Brandeis University . He is co-author of the Executive Director's Guide, published by TSNE in 2002. Mr. Spack is a founding member of the Nonprofit Centers Network.

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.