The San Diego Center for Children Board of Trustees is committed to supporting the Vision, Mission and Strategic Goals of the Center. In this leading volunteer role, members bring their talent, expertise and passion, as they personally invest in the success and well-being of our entire San Diego community.
Gwynn Thomas, Chairperson
Gwynn Thomas is Vice President of HUB International Insurance Services, Inc., Carlsbad office, the 9th largest insurance broker in the world. Gwynn has over 25 years of experience as an insurance professional specializing in large commercial property and casualty risks including nonprofits. She has held a Certified Insurance Counselors Designation for more than 15 years.
Gwynn is a member of the San Diego Yacht Club (SDYC) where her husband sits on the Board of Directors and she sits on the SDYC Community Programs Outreach Committee managing several children’s outreach programs for nonprofits, including the Monarch School and Rady Children’s Hospital. Gwynn was the founder and chair of Race for Rady. She also sits on the San Diego Center for Children Finance Committee.
Paul Davis, Vice-Chairperson
Paul has a B.A. in English and Communication Studies (1986) with a Masters in Executive Leadership from the University of San Diego (2008), and has held various leadership positions since 1997. His past community and professional associations include the American Society for Training and Development and Volunteer San Diego where he served on the board for 8 years. Paul, who is a 2003 LEAD Graduate, has been active in community based non-profits and serves on the Alumni Board at the University of San Diego, as well as the Board of Directors of Home Start. He has been active with past non-profits, including Special Delivery San Diego, Children’s Hospital, YMCA Youth and Family Services, Center for Community Solutions, and Room to Read, among others. He has a passion for mentoring youth leaders and recently served as mentor and advocate for Brush Up on A Smile to collect toothbrushes and toothpaste for San Diego’s homeless and is advisor to Leaders for Tomorrow.
Frank Fornaca, Treasurer
Frank Fornaca is the president of The ReadiGroup, Inc., a real estate investment company specializing in the rehab, sale, and/or lease of residential properties in San Diego County and the Houston Texas areas. Prior to this he was the Director of Information Technologies at the San Diego Center for Children from 2004 through 2012. He was a long time member of the organization’s Senior Staff.
He currently sits on the Board of Directors of his family business, the parent of Frank Motors in National City. He has both a Masters in Business Administration and a Masters of Science in Information Systems from National University.
Jacqueline Greulich, Secretary
Jacqueline Greulich serves as the Student and Career Services Manager for the University of San Diego (USD) School of Business. Mrs. Greulich is responsible for connecting undergraduate and graduate students with professionals in the commercial/residential real estate industry. She also manages the important coordination of student mentorships, internships and job placements.
Mrs. Greulich has over 20 years of human resource experience, most recently as the Human Resources Director for the San Diego Center for Children. In addition to working in the nonprofit sector, Mrs. Greulich has also worked in the commercial real estate, manufacturing and biotech industries.
Mrs. Greulich graduated with a degree in business management from USD. In addition to serving on the Board of Trustees for the San Diego Center for Children, Jackie sits on the board for Alpha Project for the Homeless, volunteers for the Burnham Foundation, is a graduate of Lead San Diego 2001 and recipient of the TWIN YWCA award.
Joseph Binning
Joseph Binning is the President and Founder of MEPCor Inc., a full-service Building Information Modeling service company based in San Diego, catering nationally to the design and construction industry. Joseph has been involved in the Building Information Modeling industry for the past 22 years. Since its inception, Joseph saw the future in 3D modeling and project coordination and started MEPCor.
He has worked on notable projects throughout the country and was one of the first recipients in the country to receive an accredited degree in Building Information Modeling. With over forty years in construction, he brings both passion and vision, organization, and experience to any project he is associated with, and is sought out nationally for his expertise.
Joseph has a big heart for giving back and understands the work and sacrifices needed to achieve a goal in order to benefit a cause. As a past participant of the Ironman series Triathlons, and as a participant and mentor with Team in Training, the world’s largest endurance training program, he raises money for patient and family support for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to battle cancers of all types.
Joseph also has an appreciation for the children served by the San Diego Center for Children, as he once experienced the same struggles as a child and can relate to what the experience means to each child as they experience it. It is his belief that no child should suffer, in any way, at any time, and those with the ability to help, should.
Joseph has been a dedicated volunteer at the Center for many years involved in multiple projects, including being Wacky Willy at their annual holiday fundraiser. Due to the joy he personally experiences in giving back and in witnessing the happiness from the children served by the Center, he sees himself continuing to be involved in a variety of ways for years to come.
Ann Garland, Ph.D.
Ann Garland, Ph.D.. is Professor and Founding Chair of the Department of Counseling & MFT at the University of San Diego. Prior to this appointment (Fall 2012), she had been a Professor of Psychiatry at U.C.S.D. (since 1994) and Deputy Director of the “Child and Adolescent Services Research Center” (CASRC)at Rady Children’s Hospital. At CASRC she led multiple research projects focused on understanding and improving community-based child and family mental health care. Her research has been supported by grants from federal sources such as N.I.M.H., as well as state, and local public agencies. She has published over 80 peer-reviewed publications and has served on multiple editorial and advisory boards. In addition, she has been a mentor and supervisor for dozens of researchers and practitioners across mental health disciplines, many of whom are now faculty members in universities across the country.
Dr. Garland received her doctorate in Clinical & Community Psychology from Yale University. She also holds a Master’s degree in Human Development from Teacher’s College, Columbia University, and a Bachelor’s degree with distinction from U.C. Berkeley. She is a native San Diegan, living with her husband and daughter in northern San Diego.
Candace Kasperick
Candace is a registered nurse currently employed by San Diego Unified School District. As a program nurse for children and youth in transition, she supports homeless, foster, military and refugee children.
Candace has over 20 years of nursing experience including direct patient care, nursing supervision and consultant work for some of the nation’s top medical device companies. She graduated from San Diego State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology. Candace earned her Nursing Degree from the College of the Desert and Master’s Degree with a healthcare focus from the University of California, Irvine. Candace is a member of the California Nurses Association.
In addition to serving on the Board of Trustees for the San Diego Center for Children, Candace serves on the Promises2Kids board and was a board of director for St. Vincent de Paul Village.
Mindy Mattison
Mindy Mattison, M.A., CCC-SLP received her Masters of Arts degree in Communicative Disorders. She worked as a speech-language pathologist at Rady Children’s Hospital in the Speech, Hearing and Neurosensory Center, and subsequently started her private practice. She founded the speech-language therapy program at La Jolla Country Day School and practiced there for over 20 years.
Mindy serves on the Advisory Board of the Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences department at San Diego State University and is actively involved in various organizations and foundations that support children’s well-being. She continues to mentor new speech-language pathologists and volunteers with children on the autism spectrum through Somali Family Services on a weekly basis.
Mindy collaborates with her husband, Dr. John Mattison, on enhancing the bio-psycho-social status of children and their families. Together they thrive on bringing more skills and joy into the lives of all children, supporting both research and practice.
In addition to her passion for children, Mindy loves spending time with her family, including the furry members.
Jean Pohl
Mrs. Pohl is a retired education professional and a longtime volunteer of the San Diego Center for Children, having previously served multiple terms on the board. Mrs. Pohl is also the founder and former president of Iris Auxiliary, the Center’s longest and most active supporter group. She also serves as an educational advocate for children with special needs throughout San Diego County.
Patricia Riley
Patricia Riley is General Counsel at McKinney Advisory Group, a full-service real estate advisory company headquartered in San Diego. Her multi-faceted background includes representing commercial real estate developers, investors, and publically-traded companies in the negotiation and documentation of complex real estate transactions, portfolio management, and other diverse legal and business matters. Patti enjoys her in-house role strategizing as a team with company principals and other key professionals to optimize business and legal operations.
Prior to her role with McKinney Advisory Group, Patti served as Senior Legal Counsel with Realty Income Corporation, a publically-traded REIT. She began her legal career with Luce, Forward, Hamilton and Scripps, a large full-service law firm, and also served for many years as general counsel for a major shopping center developer.
Patti has a special interest in the mission and purpose of the San Diego Center for Children as she is also a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and an adoptive parent of two beautiful daughters.
Patti received her B.A. from the University of Notre Dame (1985) and her J.D. from the University of Michigan (1988). She also holds an M.A. from the University of San Diego (1995), where she served as an adjunct professor teaching courses in legal ethics and mediation. Her past board experience includes the National Conflict Resolution Center. She and her family enjoy volunteering with Cat AdopTion Services (CATS), an organization that cares for and places cats rescued from high-kill shelters.
Veronica Rubio
Veronica Rubio is Senior Vice President and Senior Private Wealth Advisor with Umpqua Bank. Based in San Diego, Veronica is responsible for addressing all financial needs of wealthy families, non-profits and professional services firms; including investment management, estate and wealth planning, lending and banking.
Prior to joining Umpqua Bank, Ms. Rubio served as Senior Vice President and Senior Private Banker for City National Bank in San Diego. Previously, she also served as Managing Director and Senior Relationship Manager for First Republic Bank, and Senior Private Client Manager for U.S. Bank’s Private Client Reserve and U.S. Trust/Bank of America Wealth Management.
Ms. Rubio is a graduate of the University of San Diego with a B.A. in Business Administration, focusing on International Business, Marketing and Management. She also attended the Wharton School of Business and received certificates for the Investment Management and Consultative Selling Programs. She has her Series 7 and 66 licenses, Accidental and Health Insurance, Life Insurance and Property & Casualty insurance licenses.
Ms. Rubio is a member of the San Diego Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and is fluent in the Spanish language. Ms. Rubio is proud to be a native San Diegan.
Meg Schneider
Meg Schneider received her Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in English, minoring in Economics, from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia in 1989.
In the Washington DC area, Meg worked as a Technical and Proposal Writer for a large government contractor for many years. After moving to San Diego, she stayed home to raise her 4 children. Throughout these years, Meg assisted at her children’s schools (K – 12th grade) in various areas: coaching girl’s volleyball and basketball at the junior high level for 8 years; supporting the school library for 10 years, helping to update and expand the reading programs and book selections; and successfully running large fundraising efforts.
Additionally during this time, Meg provided her expertise and talents to assist the Habitat for Humanity with their efforts. This included writing personal biography stories featuring individuals and families benefiting from new homeownership opportunities, neighborhood revitalization and home rehabilitation programs, veteran assistance projects as well as many of the amazing volunteers involved with Habitat.
Currently, Meg serves as the Director of Advancement and Development for St. Martin of Tours Academy in La Mesa. Meg is responsible for launching large-scale and ongoing fundraising efforts, and growing the Academy’s enrollment and position within the community. Through her important efforts, Meg contributes to the Academy’s goal in successfully bridging the gap between tuition and the costs it takes to provide a rigorous and high-quality education to students, including advanced technological updates and enrichment curriculum.
Meg is very excited to be a part of the San Diego Center for Children’s Board of Trustees and looks forward to her involvement in the coming years.
Doreen Schonbrun
Doreen Schonbrun holds a BA in Art History/Criticism from the University of California, San Diego. She is an artist, collector and teacher of art and art history classes – including teaching the children at the San Diego Center for Children. Ms. Schonbrun has served as Chair of the Center’s Anniversary Dinner fundraiser for six years and has been a member of San Diego Museum of Art’s Presidents Circle for 14 years.
She supports efforts to improve the role that science and technology can play in the restoration, preservation, discovery and understanding of art and has worked with the Center of Interdisciplinary Science for Art Architecture and Archaeology (CISA3) at UCSD to make its efforts better known. Ms. Schonbrun has supported a project to establish a relationship between San Diego and Florence, Italy, where UCSD graduate students learn about specialized technologies and apply them to works of art.
She also acts as co-director of a lecture series on “Science and the Arts” for the highly acclaimed “Group of 12 and Friends,” a community-based group of like-minded individuals who meet monthly at the Sanford Burnham Research Institute. Ms. Schonbrun resides in La Jolla with her husband, Dr. Myron Schonbrun.
DeAnne Steele
DeAnne Steele is a managing director and Head of the National Portfolio Management and Consultancy Practice at U. S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management. In this role, DeAnne integrates global economic outlooks and findings from the Global Wealth & Investment Management, a Bank of America Corporation, Chief Investment Office into day to day investment management strategies within U.S. Trust to help broaden portfolio impact for clients’ long term goals. Through the consultancy group, she and her nationwide team streamline access and resources to U.S. Trust advisors and clients to better help navigate the evolving complexities of wealth using the latest research and analytics. She is a member of the Fiduciary Investment Committee, the Impact Investment Strategy Group and the U.S. Trust Investment Strategy Forum.
Prior to joining U.S. Trust, DeAnne co-managed a mutual fund and appeared on Bloomberg and Reuters Television, in addition to serving in various trust and investment positions in New York and the western United States. She has written, co-authored and contributed to articles for various publications. DeAnne is a frequent speaker on topics such as the global economy, financial markets, ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) or Impact Investing, Women and Wealth and Diversity and Inclusion.
DeAnne earned her Masters Degree in Business Administration from UCLA Anderson School and her Bachelor of Arts in English and Political Science from UCLA. She holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®) and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA®) designations. She is a member of the CFA® Institute and CFA® Society of Los Angeles.
Moisés Barón, Ph.D.
Dr. Barón, is the President and CEO of the San Diego Center for Children. To read, Dr. Barón’s biography, please click here.
