YWCA Board of Directors
Officers
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Vivian D. Howell
President
President, YWCA Board of Directors
AdministratorVivian D. Howell began her association with YWCA Greater Los Angeles in 2004 as a volunteer in the capacity of the Chair of the Society of Benefactrix and as a member of the Fund Development Committee, particularly in support of the Annual Benefactrix Ball. In 2006, she was Chair of the Benefactrix Ball. Her commitment to the vision and mission of the YWCA GLA was evident as she consistently supported its programs and development. Vivian was recruited to the Board of Directors in 2007. She has a reputation of dotting the "i's" and crossing the "t's" and was instrumental during aligning the By-Laws and Board Procedures with the Five-year Strategic Plan. Vivian is dedicated to and has an extensive history of community and professional volunteerism. She is an active life-member of the California Women Lead that works to empower California's future women leaders. Since 1996, she has been a volunteer mediator and facilitator with the Dispute Resolution Program of the City of Los Angeles Office of the City Attorney. She also was a volunteer with the Rosa Parks Sexual Assault Center in Los Angeles, a member of the Board of the Youth Motivation Task Force and an appointee to the Affirmative Action Advisory Council of the Department of Water and Power.
Vivian's career includes over 28 years of leadership roles of increasing responsibility at the City of Los Angeles, where she was recruited as the Director of Property at the Port of Los Angeles and is currently the Manager of Business Solutions and Space Planning with the Los Angeles World Airports' (LAWA) Commercial Development Group. Administratively, she has been engaged in real estate and land development projects with political, inter-agency and department undertones in the areas of appraisals, negotiation, acquisition, relocation and subdivision planning. On behalf of LAWA, Vivian accomplished the largest single commercial acquisition of $125Mil, previously staffed the Mayor of Los Angeles' Economic Development Cabinet and is executing the largest subdivision in the County of Los Angeles of 17,750 acres. While serving on the Bank of California's High Technology Industry Business Development Team, she pioneered the Tax-Oriented Lease Transaction. Vivian instructs courses in real estate, conflict resolution and mediation. She has accepted numerous speaking and presentation engagements at community venues, public entities, educational seminars and conventions.
Vivian holds a Master of Business Administration from Loyola Marymount University's Executive MBA Program and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration - Finance from California State University, Los Angeles and holds numerous professional licenses, designations and certifications. She maintains an active membership and the highest certification with the International Right of Way Association, as Region 1 Vice Chair, which includes 12 Chapters located throughout California, Arizona and Nevada.
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Eleanor Beasley
Vice President
Eleanor Beasley, CPT
Business Banking Consultant
Eleanor Beasley is an entrepreneur and financial services professional with 34 years’ experience in the industry specializing in Treasury Management Senior Level Management, Sales, Service, Training, and Projects; Branch and Account Analysis Operations, Consumer and Commercial Lending. Eleanor is also a Small Business Advisor with a focus on start-up.
Eleanor is a community servant and has consistently volunteered her expertise to non-profit organizations for more than 20 years. She received the 2007 Los Angeles Business Journal Volunteer of the Year Award. Her primary focus has been on women and children’s needs in the low-to-moderate income neighborhoods of Greater Los Angeles. She volunteers over 150 hours per year to improving the lives of women and children.
She is currently serving the community as the Vice President & President-Elect of the Board of Directors for the YWCA Greater Los Angeles, a non-profit focused on eliminating racism and supporting women and youth. She also serves as board member and Personnel Committee Chair for Crystal Stairs, a non-profit that subsidize child care cost for low income families. Eleanor is a founding member and active board member of the Bloom Again Foundation, a non-profit that supports women in need who experienced a recent medical emergency. Eleanor recently joined her first national non-profit board with the National Women’s Hall of Fame organization that recognize women trailblazers and host historical women’s museum in Seneca Falls, New York.
Eleanor previously served the community as follows: Union Bank Foundation – Board Member; Susan G. Komen for the Cure – Executive Board Officer & Komen Pink Sunday Founder; Motivating Our Student Through Experience (MOSTE) – Past Executive Board President & MOSTE Advisory Board Founder; California Women’s Foundation Los Angeles Donors Circle – Founding Member; Emma Bowdry Scholarship Fund – Advisory Board Member; United Children’s Fund – Fundraiser; Junior Achievement of America – Corporate Liaison
Eleanor is a mother of one daughter and grandmother to one grandson.
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Lisa Cagnolatti
Elected Member
Southern California Edison
V.P. Business Customer Div.Lisa Cagnolatti is vice president of the Business Customer Division of Southern California Edison's (SCE) Customer Service Business Unit. Elected to the position on November 1, 2007, she oversees the company's relationships with its major industrial, commercial and government customers as well as SCE's efforts to stimulate business development in the 15 counties it serves.
Cagnolatti joined SCE in 1996 as commercial segment manager in the Business Customer Division. In the Transmission and Distribution Business Unit, she held the positions of Rurals Manager, and Orange Region Manager, Construction and Maintenance where she was responsible for electricity distribution services to more than one million customers in Orange County and on Catalina Island. She also previously served as director of the Revenue Services Organization. Most recently, Cagnolatti served as director of the Customer Communications Organization where she was responsible for call center operation, which annually fields more than 12.7 million customer calls.
Cagnolatti began her professional career as a production team manager with Procter and Gamble in Oxnard, Calif. where she managed two operating teams in the Paper Manufacturing Division. She then joined Southern California Gas Company as an account executive in 1985. During her 11 years with the gas company, she held positions of increasing responsibility in Environmental Affairs, Regulatory Affairs, Marketing and Sales. While there, Cagnolatti helped develop deregulation and open access programs for the company's largest customers and managed relationships with the natural gas marketing firms.
Cagnolatti holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from UCLA and a Master's degree of Business Administration from Pepperdine University. In addition to her formal education, Lisa has several certifications including: Chartered Industrial Gas Consultant from the Institute of Gas Technology; Certified Energy Manager from the Association of Energy Engineers; and Certified Leadership and Team Building Facilitator.
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Maria L. Garcia
Elected Member
Regional Manager/First Vice President
FVP, District Manager-Los Angeles
JPMorgan Chase, Retail BankingMaria Garcia who joined JPMorgan Chase through several mergers and acquisitions, will be celebrating her 25th year anniversary with JPMorgan Chase in November 2011. Throughout her career with JPMorgan Chase, Maria has held various positions within the retail branch system. Working with bank clients to meet their everyday banking needs, has always been the motivating factor for Maria.
In July of 2007 she was presented with the opportunity to become a district manager in the Greater Los Angeles area and manage one of the most complex and diverse districts for the company. Currently, Maria is managing two districts, located in metropolitan Los Angeles/ San Gabriel Valley area. She is responsible for twenty branch offices and her team consists of 20 vice president-branch managers, and over 280 branch employees. In addition to helping her teams serve the needs of Chase clients, she is responsible for the development of her team, and representing Chase in the Los Angeles community, creating job opportunities in the marketplace as the retail branches continue to grow.
Maria also sits on the boards of the YWCA of Greater Los Angeles, St. Thomas Aquinas School, Monterey Park and St. Turibius School, Los Angeles. She has served as a bank spokesperson on Spanish language media, providing information on various bank products and services, for the benefit of the community.
Maria was born and raised in Los Angeles. She currently resides in Whittier, California with husband of twenty years, Gilbert and children, Victoria Christine 16 and Andrew Julian 12.
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Samantha Jones
Elected Member
Senior Vice President, Regional Manager
Commercial Banking
Wells Fargo & CompanyLeads a team that provides financial services to middle-market companies with annual revenues between $20 million and $500 million in West L.A. and East San Fernando Valley. Prior to becoming the regional manager in 2010, Samantha served as a Sr. V.P. in Commercial Banking as a loan team manager in West L.A. Samantha joined Wachovia in 2002, where she held various risk management positions in both Commercial Banking and Real Estate in Atlanta and L.A. Prior to joining Wachovia, she worked at Morgan Stanley in the real estate group where she focused primarily on acquisitions and origination/structuring of third-party real estate funds. Samantha earned her bachelor's degree in economics with a minor in management at Spellman College in Atlanta and her M.B.A in finance and real estate from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Samantha has served as a board member for the Risk Management Association and various school organizations in both Atlanta and Los Angeles. Samantha and her family live in Los Angeles.
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Patricia Keane
Secretary of Board
Deputy County Counsel
Office of the County CounselPatricia Keane is a Deputy County Counsel for the Office of the Los Angeles County Counsel, which serves as attorney for and provides legal advice and representation to the Board of Supervisors of the County of Los Angeles, County departments, and other public offices and agencies. Ms. Keane's practice focuses on the various aspects of land use and planning law. She represents the Regional Planning Department regarding wide-ranging land use and planning matters. Prior to working for the Office of County Counsel, Ms. Keane clerked for the U.S. District Court and spent 6 years in private practice advising clients regarding the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act and other environmental laws related to private and institutional development projects. Ms. Keane graduated from Wittenberg University, in Springfield, Ohio, with a B.A. in English and German in 1998. She graduated Order of the Coif from UCLA School of Law in 2001. At UCLA, Ms. Keane was Editor-in-Chief of the UCLA Law Review. In addition to her membership on the YWCA-GLA Board of Directors, Ms. Keane is active in the local community. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Arroyo Food Co-Op, a grassroots, community-based effort to bring a member-owned, local and sustainable grocery store to the Altadena and Pasadena communities, and she is also a Commissioner on the City of Pasadena's Recreation and Parks Commission. In her spare time, Ms. Keane is an avid distance runner.
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Amanda J. Lee
Elected Member
Instructor
AEA Academy
Amanda J. Lee has worked as a Research Assistant to build a massively distributed collaborative learning experiment with FemTechNet—a network of hundreds of U.S and international students and experts whose work is in and/or who work in the women's studies or technology field. This DOOC (Distributed Online Collaborative Course) is fastened around multiple, pre-recorded video dialogues of conversations among students, scholars and artists who discuss historical background and cutting edge scholarship in the field of technology through the lens of other disciplines like art, science, gender studies, or media/visual studies. Committed professors from leading universities will use these video dialogues to formulate their own customized courses—set to launch in September 2013. This project fosters a diverse, multifaceted collaboration and an innovative, transdisciplinary approach to enhance learning. In addition, Ms. Lee was employed as a Teaching Assistant for the Director of the Applied Women's Studies program at Claremont Graduate University.
In her previous work, Ms. Lee worked as a Technical Writer and Editor developing formal website content that represented the marketing plans of various companies located in the Silicon Valley of the San Francisco Bay Area. She was also employed as an English Instructor at AEA Academy in Chino Hills, CA teaching both native and international middle school, high school and adult students to strengthen and master their speaking, writing and critical analysis skills within the English Language.
Ms. Lee holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English (Writing) from Biola University. In addition, she is currently pursuing her Master's degree in Applied Women Studies with a concentration in Nonprofit Business Leadership at Claremont Graduate University. In 2011-2012, she was the recipient of the Pacific Life Foundation Award, the Fernandez Prize and multiple fellowships.
Ms. Lee was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. She currently resides in La Mirada, CA.
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Alva P. Mason
Elected Member
Manager, Strategic Dealer Representation
Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A. Inc.Alva Mason is Manager, Strategic Dealer Representation, Diversity and Inclusion for Toyota Motor Sales. Mason is respons¬ible for development and implementation of strategies that enable Toyota and Lexus field offices to increase the number of minority dealers. Alva also has responsibility for a broad range of community outreach programs.
In her previous position, Mason was Operations Manager for Retail Market Development, with responsibility for develop¬ment, launch, training and ongoing support of the Strategic Planning Model. She also administered all aspects of the annual Market Representation National Conference.
Prior to joining Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc., Mason worked successfully on the retail side of the automotive industry for thirteen years as a Secretary-Treasurer solely responsible to the corporation for all financial aspects of the business.
Mason received her Bachelor's Degree in Accounting from Howard University in Washington, DC. She has also completed a certificate program for Diversity Management at the University of Houston.
Mason is a member of the board of directors for the YWCA of Greater Los Angeles and the Millennium Momentum Foundation. She is a former member of the Los Angeles Girl Scout Council Board of Directors and past Chairman of the Fund Committee, President Emeritus of Howard University Alumni Club of Southern California, and a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.
Mason is the recipient of the 2007 Woman of the Year Award for the National Association of Minority Automotive Dealers, and in the Toyota Driver's Seat publication in September 2007. Mason was featured in The Lovick Career Journal in February 2009 and Who's Who in Black Los Angeles publication 2009 and 2010. She is a member of Toastmasters International.
Mason resides in Inglewood, Ca. with her three daughters.
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Renuka Patel
Elected Member
Senior Vice President Community Bank Training Executive Union Bank Renuka Patel is a Community Bank Training Executive for Union Bank, N.A. Based in LA, she is responsible for managing all areas of training bank wide from overall training strategy and implementation. Patel has 19 years of retail banking experience, 17 of which have been with Union Bank. Patel stepped into her current role as Senior Vice President and Community Bank Training Executive in 2011 after serving as Senior Vice President and Market President of Central California. Her previous positions include serving as Senior Vice president and Region Manager of Northern California, Vice President and branch manager, and financial services officer. Prior to joining Union Bank in 1994, Patel held positions at Millenium Bank and Wells Fargo Bank. Throughout her career, Patel has maintained an active role in the community. She has served on the board of the Sacramento Urban League, The Children’s Hospital and American Heart Association, and has been a member of the Rotary Club and Kiwanis. Patel holds a general certificate of education degree from University of Oxford, England and is a graduate of the Pacific Coast School of Banking.
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Anne Marie Hickambottom
Manager, Strategic Plan Developm
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May Chen Tham
Special Projects Manager
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Eleanor Beasley
Elected Member
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Tracy Clark
Director of Development
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Lisa Cagnolatti
Elected Member
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Maria L. Garcia
Elected Member
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Donna Crowder
Director of Human Resources
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Belinda A. Heard
Elected Member
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Elaine D. Moore
Chief Administrative Officer
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Patrica Keane
Elected Member
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Ruth Lopez-Novodor
CEO
Beverly Oncology & Imaging Medical Group, Inc.
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Elsa Luna
Chief Financial Officer
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Karen Mayeda
Private Consultant
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Faye Washington
Cheif Executive Officer
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Gloria Rice
Accounting Manager
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Mauria McPoland
Elected Member
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Maria Robinson-Glover
Manager Annual Programs
California Institute of the Arts
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Janie Barreto
Director, Child Development
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Ruby Brown
LA Job Corps Center Director
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Sharon Shelton
Senior Director, Program Service
