BOARD OF DIRECTORS
The C.A.R.E. Board is composed of 3 volunteers with unique talents and professional backgrounds. The Board is responsible for organizational planning, creating policy, fundraising and supporting the public image of C.A.R.E.
Joseph M. Michaels, Board Member / President & CEO
Joseph M. Michaels has been active in all phases of multi-family development with an emphasis in affordable housing for over 25 years. He joined Las Palmas as President and Executive Director in 2000.
Since 1992, Mr. Michaels has exclusively participated in the development of affordable housing projects utilizing federal tax credits, tax-exempt bonds and public sector subordinate financing. He has personally directed the development of 73 tax credit projects. Mr. Michaels has secured construction and permanent financing through tax-exempt bonds and conventional funding sources.
A graduate of Loyola Marymount University with a Bachelor in Business Administration degree, Mr. Michaels also received from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), the Certificate of Real Estate with a specialization in Finance. He is a licensed California Real Estate Broker, and a member of the National City Collaborative Board of Directors.
Jo Ann Leone LCSW & MFT, Board Member
Jo Ann Leone is a licensed clinical social worker and marriage and family therapist whose career in the social services spans more than 30 years. She is currently the Assistant Executive Director of Maloney-Wilding Foundation serving foster youth and young adults transitioning out of the foster care system. Her early experiences in case management and direct clinical practice, have served as the foundation for her work in program management, development and direction. Ms. Leone was the start up manager for the South region’s First 5 funded Healthy Development Services, as well as, therapeutic pre-school program. Ms. Leone has served as the Director of the National City Collaborative Family Resource Centers, a foster parent recruiter and trainer for Casey Family Programs, and many other children’s services programs.
Jo Ann Leone has earned a Bachelors Degree from Syracuse University, in Syracuse, New York and a Masters Degree in Social Work from San Diego State University. She has been a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and a Marriage and Family Therapist since 1981 and operates a private practice. Ms. Leone is a member of the National Association of Social Workers. She serves on the Technical and Professional Advisory Committee(TPAC) for First 5 San Diego. She formerly served on the San Diego County Commission on Children, Youth and Families.
Alison Wishard Guerra Ph.D., Board Member
Alison Wishard Guerra is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Education Studies at the University of California, San Diego. She received her Ph.D. in Education from UCLA in 2005 with an emphasis in Psychological Studies in Education. Dr. Wishard Guerra’s research focuses on culture and development in early childhood, with particular focus on social and language development among Latino children from low-income families. Her research looks specifically at how social relationships and interactions may serve as protective factors for later cognitive development among at-risk children. She studies within group variations related to immigration and acculturation experiences and their associations to children’s developmental outcomes. Dr. Wishard Guerra is a member of the National Early Head Start Research Consortium where she continues an active line of research investigating longitudinal social and cognitive developmental outcomes. Within the consortium she is leading a team to investigate the links between stability and continuity in early child care experiences and developmental outcomes of 3000 children participating in the Early Head Start National Research Project from birth to three years old.
Dr. Wishard Guerra was a member of the expanded research consortia that developed the California Preschool Learning Foundations on English-Language Development, and she has served as an expert reviewer of English Language Development and Cultural Diversity in the development of Volumes 2 (Physical Development, Health, and Visual and Performing Arts) and 3 (Science, and History/Social Sciences) of the California Preschool Learning Foundations and the California Preschool Curriculum Framework, published by the California Department of Education. Her current research at UCSD investigates the role of social pretend play in the development of oral language and school readiness among Mexican heritage children. In the Education Studies department she teaches courses on early childhood education, culture and developmental theory, quantitative research methodology, dissertation writing seminar, and research on curriculum design. Dr. Wishard Guerra is a 2009 – 2010 Hellman Foundation Fellow and the recipient of a 2009 – 2011 and 2011-2013 UC Links grants.