For 20+ years, Cynthia has championed nonprofit causes and mobilized thousands of individuals to tackle the toughest of issues facing communities across the globe. Issues like crime, youth delinquency, dropout rate, youth unemployment, affordable housing, the troubling out-of-school time, hunger, equitable education, illiteracy, homelessness, childhood obesity, and access to opportunity in our most distressed communities.
A consummate optimist, her superpower is seeing potential where others see problems and creating a shared vision that inspires action. She cut her teeth on nonprofit work during her final year of college as an intern at a grassroots agency. Swiftly recognized for an ability to influence local leaders, she finished a capital campaign in under a year as a 21-year-old fundraising director. She grew the agency from $80K to $250K during her initial stint. Shortly thereafter, she was recruited to run a collaborative inter-faith group focused on improving opportunity for marginalized youth in a historic area of San Antonio, where she began honing her management and fundraising skills.
A year later, the opportunity arose to lead SA Youth, and the Board immediately sought Cynthia out.
She tripled the budget in year one. She succeeded at getting the agency off United Way probationary status and into the funding expansion category. In year two, she opened a second center, then she started YouthBuild—an education and training program that created second chances for youth ages 16 to 25. In year four, she leveraged multiyear federal funding, catapulting the agency to five locations. During overlapping funding cycles, SA Youth operated a ~$7M budget with ~180 staff at 18 locations. Year-over-year, her dedicated team produced demonstrable gains in education and character development as well as reductions in crime and delinquency.
But Cynthia didn’t stop at building a solid foundation of operational support and program excellence. Adopting a cause-minded leadership philosophy, she noticed nonprofits working in silos, often refusing to collaborate or share resources—so she launched an expansive out-of-school-time network which deployed the collective-impact model to share resources and professionalize OST programs. Concerned about the 25% illiteracy rate in San Antonio, she joined forces with the leader of a budding literacy coalition. An unstoppable force, they incorporated as a 501(c)(3), secured resources, and scaled impact across the city, focusing on early interventions and science-based reading instruction.
Time and again, organizations, school districts, and professionals have sought Cynthia’s advice and support. Her stewardship has resulted in strengthening the nonprofit sector. She has been affiliated with numerous professional organizations, nonprofits, and business networks, reflecting her passion for civic engagement. She’s helped multiple school districts secure state and federal funding, served on several scholarship committees and professional groups, and has lectured at colleges and universities. With expertise in marketing and public relations, fundraising, program design, and strategic planning, today she strategizes with and mentors professionals who go on to do amazing work. Working closely with for-profit and nonprofit clients, she’s crafted strategic business plans, policies and SOPs, and funding strategy.
Most people are surprised to learn Cynthia grew up in the impoverished Mississippi Delta as a child farmworker laboring up to 12 hours a day in fields. She’s the only child of eight to graduate traditional high school and finish college.
She’s raised three talented children and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two teenaged children.