About Us

Sarah Stark is Audit Partner at Grant Thornton’s Irvine practice and serves as Treasurer on the Board. She earned a B.S. in business administration with an accounting concentration from California State University, Fullerton. For the last nine years, Ms. Stark served as a guest professor to undergraduate and graduate-level audit classes at her alma mater. She is a CPA and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

David Seidner serves as Board Secretary. He is co-owner of Cardinal Development, a real estate firm specializing the development of commercial projects throughout Southern California.

Jacob C. Gonzales joined the Goodwill board of directors in 2017. Mr. Gonzales is an experienced trial attorney, litigator and shareholder at jcg | law. He has handled a variety of complex business legal matters at both trial and appellate levels.

Zachary Parker is President of Redline Detection, an Orange-based industry-leading designer and manufacturer of professional grade diagnostic leak detection equipment for automotive and heavy-duty truck markets. Parker has lead the Redline team for 13 years, ushering in growth and global industry recognition, including most recently being named SEMA 2020 Manufacturer of the Year.

Gregory Wright is Senior Director, Research & Development at Edwards Lifesciences. Wright leads the Tissue Center of Excellence, supports company initiatives, and collaborates with local universities to build the talent pipeline here in Orange County. Wright developed and co-invented Edwards’ next generation tissue RESILIA™, launched KONECT RESILIA, an aortic valve conduit, and has written several other publications and patents. Wright holds a Master of Science degree in Biology, Physiology and Chemistry from California State University, Fullerton.

Jesse Aragon serves as Director of Operational Planning at SoCalGas where he is responsible for operational planning and budgeting for the company’s capital and operating expenditures. Aragon is a certified public accountant (CPA) and has more than two decades of experience working in the financial and corporate tax industries.

Joanne Schroeder is a Vice President and Officer at Arcadis, a global publicly traded €4 billion company headquartered in The Netherlands. Schroeder is an experienced entrepreneur and environmental engineer with more than 25 years driving public and private companies to best leverage technology, data, environmental, health, safety and sustainability (EHS&S)/ESG functions, information and systems in the digital age.

Dr. Sridhar Sundaram joined the esteemed faculty of Cal State Fullerton in July of 2021 as Dean of the College of Business and Economics, the second largest business college in the nation. Dr. Sundaram’s career in higher education spans more than 30 years, having most recently served as the Dean of the Kate Tiedemann School of Business and Finance at the University of South Florida. Dr. Sundaram has vast expertise in leadership, curriculum and new program development as well as community engagement and fundraising.

Kevin B. Jones leads Kevin Jones & Associates and serves on the Donated Goods Retail Committee. He has more than 30 years’ experience in all aspects retail and wholesale operations. Mr. Jones brings expertise in product acquisition, project management, sales and inventory, retail accounting and operations to the board.

Justin Ayre is an executive vice president in PIMCO’s financial institutions group in the Newport Beach office, specializing in investment management services for financial institutions. Prior to joining PIMCO in 2012, he was a director in KPMG’s risk consulting practice, performing financial risk advisory services for U.S. financial institutions. He has 20 years of investment and financial services experience.

James Conner leads Conner Advisory, LLC and has more than forty years’ experience. He is highly skilled in providing advice and consultation on financial reporting and accounting matters.

Cynthia Quimby serves as a Government Relations Manager for Southern California Edison (SCE) where she represents SCE in its relationships with cities and communities in North Orange County. Prior to joining SCE, she was the owner of Quimby Group Consulting, a fundraising and event planning firm for federal, state and local candidates, elected officials, political action committees and nonprofits. Quimby’s career also includes service as Deputy Chief of Staff for a State Senator in Orange County.

Everett K. Sands is CEO and President of Lendistry, a minority-led fintech Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) that provides lending solutions to small businesses and recovery grant administration solutions to federal, state, and local governments. Since Lendistry’s launch in 2015, the company has deployed nearly $8.5 billion in small business recovery and growth capital to 576,000 businesses. Sands has more than 20 years of experience in lending, banking, commercial real estate and economic development public policy.

Suzi Brown is Vice President of Communications for Disneyland Resort. Brown has more than three decades of experience in key communications roles, including 11 years at Disneyland, and currently oversees internal, external and executive communications. She works closely with resort leaders to develop communications strategies and plans designed to engage and inform the 30,000 Disneyland Resort Cast Members. Prior to joining Disney, Brown’s experience spanned several industries, including roles at Anaheim Elementary School District, Carl’s Jr. Restaurants and the City of Anaheim. 

Timothy McElfish is Managing Partner at Ferruzzo & Ferruzzo, LLP and chairs the firm’s Corporate and Real Estate Practice Group. McElfish leads all aspects of merger and acquisition transactions, entity formation and commercial finance. His practice provides outside counsel for a wide range of businesses that include entity restricting, transactional and corporate governance matters, as well as advanced estate planning and business succession planning. McElfish has also served for the last ten years as an Adjunct Law Professor in the area of Federal Income Tax.