Nonprofit Management

Philip Arca has demonstrated a lifelong commitment to social justice that involves direct support of individuals, systemic change, sustainability, creativity, and the joy of allowing all to realize their fullest potential. On a practitioner level, he is a seasoned turnaround leader with broad and deep experience.

Most recently, he has been Interim Executive Director for an art/science center, foster youth program, senior nutrition services, a youth science outreach effort in the East Bay, a law center in Marin, consulting with various real estate/social enterprise projects in Oakland, and on the advisory boards of the Sustainable Business Alliance, The International Toy Museum, and with The Inspire Awards. Arca was recently accepted as a Charter Member of the National Association of Accredited Interim Executive Directors (NAAIED).

He is formerly the Executive Director of a $7 million, 85 employee, 800 volunteer, faith-based social services organization working throughout Alameda County. In addition, he has worked with The Oakland Zoo, startup of a new U.S. fair trade coffee initiative, and the strategic alignment and growth of a statewide communications organization focused on children’s issues.

Recently he has been involved with OpenIDEO, the SF MeetUp organizing team and is a fan of human centered design. He was on the editorial board of the Social Enterprise Reporter. He has taught classes at CSUEB and JFK University. He has published articles in Advancing Philanthropy and The Nonprofit Times. He is a graduate of Santa Clara University with an MPA from USC.

He enjoys family, theater, ukulele/guitar, Dragonboat paddling, cycling, and motorcycling. If requested to be a dog, would be a basset hound — improbable with a consequently necessary sense of a humor.

While teaching capital campaigns and special event fundraising, Jim Armstrong often uses sailing and baseball references in his CSUEB classes. Beyond the classroom, Armstrong is a senior consultant specializing in major gift development with Brown Schroeder Associates. During a career that spans 40-years, he's built gift programs for Fort Mason Center, Children's Hospital Foundation, SF State, Larkin Street Youth Services, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco, the University of San Francisco, and United Way. His Planning Special Events, published by Jossey-Bass in 2001, is part of the Excellence in Fundraising series for The Fundraising School, at the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy. Armstrong is a frequent contributor to professional publications and presenter at professional conferences. He is an AFP-Golden Gate Chapter board member and has maintained Certified Fundraising Executive status since 1982.

Jennie Brick is the senior finance and administration consultant for Pacific Training and Resources. Having worked in the nonprofit sector for over 25 years, Brick is experienced in creating systems to streamline and accommodate the challenging world of the nonprofit administrator.

She has trained management, staff, board members, and volunteers in the areas of budgeting, general fiscal operations, public speaking, and office administration. Brick works with a wide range of organizations from small to large including human service, political, arts, animal advocacy, LGBT, and health service organizations. Her personal goal is to empower nonprofits to create sustainable fiscal systems that will allow them to grow and achieve programmatic success.

Stephanie Casenza has devoted her career to helping advance the mission and vision of a broad range of organizations as a professional and a volunteer. Moving easily between the business and not-for-profit worlds, she has held management, development, and public relations roles for advertising/public relations agencies and for social services, higher education, healthcare, and arts organizations throughout California.

Casenza has taught courses at University of California, San Diego Extension, at San Diego State University, and through Nonprofit Management Solutions in San Diego. In addition, she has served on more than a dozen nonprofit boards. She currently serves as Director of Development and Communications for Sunny Hills Services, a child welfare organization that assists the most troubled and vulnerable youth overcome very challenging circumstances so they can learn to lead fulfilling lives. She earned a master’s in Executive Leadership from the School of Business at University of San Diego and her undergraduate degree in journalism from San Diego State University. She also received the universal accreditation for public relations from the Public Relations Society of America.

Jeff Cook believes marketing is all about developing thoughtful, strategic, and exciting solutions for successfully supporting and advancing your nonprofit organization's mission. Cook has been a faculty member in the nonprofit management program since 2005. A New York native, he graduated from Delaware Academy before earning a bachelor's degree at Hartwick College. After moving to California, he entered the University of San Francisco, graduating with a master's degree in nonprofit administration. Today, he serves as chief communications officer at California State University, Fullerton. Cook has volunteered with and served on the governing boards of political, environmental, religious, LGBT, and refugee/immigrant-services nonprofits.

I sincerely believe as professionals that we have a duty to bring along the next generation of professionals. The joy of teaching is to inspire students to move forward with the desire of learning and doing and not be afraid to take risks.Life is not about the ultimate destination but the journey getting there and what we experience and learn along the way.

Dwight Dickerson, Esq. is the Director of the Paralegal Studies Program at California State University, East Bay and a former member of the ABA Standing Committee on Paralegals Approval Commission and an active member of and presenter for The American Association for Paralegal Education.

He has been a member of the faculty of the CSUEB Paralegal Studies Program since 1991, and is an instructor of Contract Law and Nonprofit Law on the CSUEB Hayward Hills campus. Dickerson graduated from Brandeis University with honors majoring in American Urban Studies and received his J. D. from the University of Michigan Law School. He has been an active member of the State Bar of California since December 1977, specializing in real estate, consumer business, and non-profit law related matters.

Kimberly Legocki has more than 20 years of marketing communication, e-marketing, public relations, social media, and digital branding experience. She has diverse knowledge in marketing direct to consumers and through multi-tier B2B distribution channels for start-ups, higher education, health care, aviation, SaaS solutions, publishing, chemicals, and industrial manufacturing. Legocki teaches undergraduate and graduate marketing courses in the College of Business Economicsat Cal State East Bay. She also teaches core social media strategy classes in the International Diploma Program at U.C. Berkeley.

Joel Mackey is an attorney currently serving as the executive director of the West Contra Costa Public Education Fund (Ed Fund). Prior to joining the Ed Fund, he worked as the legal and policy analyst with Making Waves in Richmond, CA.

Previously, Mackey served 14 years as the executive director of East Bay Habitat for Humanity and nearly four years as the executive director of Harbor House in Oakland. He also worked as an associate with law firms in San Francisco and Chicago.

Mackey's nonprofit experience includes service on numerous nonprofit boards, including East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation, Berkeley Community Law Center, the Homeless Action Center, Consumer Credit Counseling, the People's Credit Union, and the Family Independence Initiative.

He is a graduate of Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, and Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary at Northwestern University. He completed his undergraduate studies at Trinity College.

Mackey also maintains a small legal and consulting practice focusing on strategic planning, organizational development, mediation, and for-profit and nonprofit start-ups.

Craig Nathanson, Ph.D. has been an adjunct faculty member in Continuing Education since 2001 at Cal State East Bay in California teaching in the areas of leadership and human resources.

Dr. Nathanson worked 25 years in various senior management positions in U.S. fortune 50 companies and has written and published six books including his latest, “Joyful work in midlife: The five stages”, which accumulates 20 years of research by Dr. Nathanson in the intersection of work and midlife.

Dr. Nathanson developed and leads two thriving online communities at thevocationalcoach.com and thebestmanager.com.

Dr. Renee Rubin Ross works with non-profit and higher education organizations to tell the story of their accomplishments and plan for the future, strengthening fundraising, communication, and overall effectiveness.

Renee is a facilitator in the truest sense of the word: She is skilled at making things facile, or easier, for people and organizations to get to the heart of the messages and processes that they’re seeking.

Renee’s passion for strategic planning, facilitation, grant writing and research emerges from her longtime interest in helping non-profit organizations work more effectively. This interest led her to service as a Program Officer at the Jim Joseph Foundation, working with more than 15 non-profit organizations to focus their message for greater alignment with grant guidelines and sharing grantees’ stories and successes. Renee’s curiosity about organizational effectiveness also led to research on schools’ communication with parents, exploring how schools incorporate parents’ volunteer and financial investment into the school.

All of this has culminated in her current work doing strategic planning, facilitation, grant writing and research for Bay Area based non-profits in the arts, education, the environment, girls’ advocacy, and religion.

Renee lives in the East Bay with her family. In her free time, she can be found cooking healthy food, baking sourdough bread, playing guitar or gardening.

Eleanor A. Smith, principal of Eleanor A. Smith Associates, has provided strategic consulting services to foundations and nonprofit organizations since 1997. Services include strategic planning, evaluation, grant-making guidance and support, best practices research, program development, market and stakeholder research, and feasibility analysis. Smith teaches workshops and courses in Program Evaluation and Program Development at CSUEB and Strategic Planning and Program Evaluation at SFSU.

She holds a master's degree in City and Regional Planning from the University of California at Berkeley and a BA in Comparative Culture from the University of California at Irvine.