Richard Doss, Chairman
Pacific Coast Civil

Jack Shine, Vice Chairman
American Beauty Development

Jack Shine, President and CEO of American Beauty Development Co., has built residential and commercial projects throughout Los Angeles County for over 50 years. A native of Los Angeles and a graduate of the University of Southern California, Jack Shine entered the real estate industry in 1958. American Beauty Development Co. has developed over 15,000 residential units and almost 50,000 square feet of commercial space.

Jack has served as President of the Building Industry Association of Southern California and has been acknowledged as “Builder of the Year” on three occasions. Jack is also a founder and past President of the Government Affairs Council, and served as a president, chairman, or board member of numerous other professional organizations and government committees. In 2001, by appointment of the Governor, Mr. Shine became a Board Member of the California Housing Finance Agency, where he continues to serve.

Jack has been an honorary member of the Board of Directors of the Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Health Foundation and Board member of the Santa Clarita Valley Boys and Girls Club. He is a Trustee of the Society of Fellows of the Anti-Defamation League and in 1988 and was the recipient of the Anti-Defamation League Pacific Southwest Region Achievement and Community Service Award. Jack is a founding member and past President of the Santa Clarita Valley Arts Council. He is a past president of the Los Angeles County Music and Performing Arts Commission, a member of Fraternity of Friends, a founder of the Music Center, and a past member of the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles Music Center Opera Company. He regularly lectures on opera to schools and community groups.

Mike Mizrahi, Secretary
Southern California Gas Company

Michael Mizrahi is Regional Public Affairs Manager for SoCalGas in the utility’s northern service territory.

Mizrahi supervises five public affairs managers who are Company liaisons with civic and community groups and local government officials throughout the counties of Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Tulare, Kings, Fresno and Kern.  The area also includes the cities of Santa Clarita, Pasadena, South Pasadena, San Marino, Glendale and Burbank. Mizrahi joined The Gas Company in 1984 and has managed several public affairs groups for the utility and its parent company, including public affairs strategy and planning, media and community relations, special events planning, and legislative analysis.

Active in community and business affairs, he currently serves on the Habitat SF/SCV board’s Executive Committee.  He also chairs Habitat’s Public Relations/Marketing Committee, which oversees the affiliate’s “Habitat for Heroes” program for Santa Clarita Valley veterans. Mizrahi is a past board member of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, where he also served on the Executive Committee and co-chaired the Environment, Energy and Infrastructure Committee.  He also served on the board of the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley, the Arroyo-Verdugo Workforce Investment Board and on the boards of the Valley Interfaith Council (VIC) and the VIC Foundation.

A native of Los Angeles, Mizrahi has a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from San Diego State University, and a master’s degree in Public Relations from Boston University.  He and his wife, Karen, currently reside in the San Fernando Valley, in the city of Woodland Hills.  The Mizrahis have two grown children.

Donald R. Rhodes, Finance Chair
Jaye, Reader & Rhodes, LLP

Tom Stemnock, Executive Board Member
Planning Associates, Inc. 

Tom Stemnock is a Civil Engineer and Land Use Planner with over 40 years of experience in the development of residential, commercial and industrial properties in the City of Los Angeles.  He is the owner of Planning Associates, Inc., a professional consulting firm which provides environmental, land use planning and development entitlement services to clients for projects in Los Angeles. He has a B.S. in Civil Engineering and M.S. in Land Use Planning.

He joined the Board to assist Habitat for Humanity in evaluating potential project sites and in obtaining the necessary permits to build new homes for Habitat clients.

He joined in order to help working families who cannot afford to purchase their own home.  He is especially proud of our Enriched Neighborhood Model where we also train our families to become self-sufficient and escape the continuing cycle of poverty housing by becoming more aware of the day to day; skills necessary to sustain home ownership and the value of education.

He looks forward to our new veteran housing program, Habitat for Heroes, a program to help veterans returning to our community to obtain decent affordable housing.

“There is no better feeling than handing a deserving family the keys to their new home!”

Hunt Braly
Hunt C. Braly Attorney at Law
Hunt C. Braly has been practicing law in Santa Clarita since 1992, specializing in land use, real estate, and all issues dealing with local and state government.

From July 1983 until December 1992, Hunt C. Braly served as Chief of Staff to State Senator Ed Davis, the former Los Angeles Police Chief and Vice Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In that capacity, Mr. Braly was integrally involved with the drafting and successful passage of legislation and initiatives.

When Senator Davis retired in 1992, Mr. Braly established his own law and lobbying practice in Santa Clarita. In May, 1999 Mr. Braly became a founding partner of Hacker, Kanowsky & Braly, LLP, a full service law firm in Santa Clarita. In 2004, the firm changed its name to HackerBraly, LLP. Mr. Braly specialized in land use, development, and real estate law, along with lobbying matters with the firm until the firm disbanded in July, 2011. Since then he has had his own firm, Hunt C. Braly, Attorney at Law.

Since 1992, Mr. Braly has been retained as a legislative advocate to represent numerous clients in Sacramento, including the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, Castaic Lake Water Agency, Pacific Voice Track, Voluntary Plan Administrators, Pacific ProVenture Group, Knowaste, The Animal Welfare Alliance, and the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority. In addition he is a registered legislative advocate in Los Angeles County, where he has represented the Mountains Conservancy Foundation, Warner Financial Development, the Frawley Family Trust, Premiere Studio Rentals and Hank Arklin. Mr. Braly has performed public affairs work in local communities for clients such as Patrick/Eller Media, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, Philip Morris Corporation, Prime West Realty, the Castaic Lake Water Agency, Hank Arklin, Gate/King Partners, Pacific Bay Homes and Public Storage, Inc. Mr. Braly also has worked in conjunction with prominent public affairs firms, such as the Dolphin Group; Stoorza, Metzger and Boyer; and Marathon Communications, on various issues.

In Sacramento, Mr. Braly has been involved in numerous water related legislative issues on behalf of his clients, the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District and the Castaic Lake Water Agency. These activities have included obtaining funding in two statewide bond measures.

He is a graduate in Political Science from the University of Southern California and received his JD from Loyola Law School.  He has resided in Santa Clarita since 1989 and is married to Pamela and has two grown daughters, Alex and Morgan.

Tom Caldwell
Pepperdine University

Tom joined Habitat’s Board in 2006 with a desire to share God’s love with those less fortunate than himself.  Tom currently works at Pepperdine University where he assists the University’s donors in improving their income and avoiding estate tax liability using charitable trusts and annuities.  He also drafts donor estate plans and handles gifts of real estate.  Prior to that Tom was in private practice where he focused on complex real estate transactions and financing,  corporate transactions and non-profit law.  Previously Tom was Counsel for Guitar Center, Inc., a then-public company where he negotiated commercial real estate leases, contributed to an aggressive corporate acquisition strategy and  handled general corporate legal matters. Thomas graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 2001 with a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration and Finance and a minor in International Business.  His Juris Doctor degree  was obtained from Pepperdine University School of Law in 2005. Additionally, Tom graduated from the Pepperdine’s Graziadio School of Business Management with a Masters of Business Administration.  Tom studied international business and finance in Denmark and Mexico, and participated in Pepperdine’s London program.  Tom is a founder and board member of Impacting Hearts and Emerging Light, charitable organizations that mentor inner city foster youth.

“I originally came out to the build site with my church to hammer some nails.  One of the Board members came up to me and said that attorneys were more helpful volunteering legal work than hammering nails.  I guess he said that because my drywall seems weren’t lining up straight…it has been a joy to see this organization grow into the professional organization it is today as we started from very humble roots.”

Oscar Dominguez
Union Bank

Gus Duffy
Gus Duffy Architects 

Carl Goldman
KHTS AM 1220 

Carl has co-owned and operated KHTS AM 1220, Santa Clarita’s hometown station, with his wife Jeri Seratti Goldman, since 1990 and Santa Clarita’s most read website, www.hometownstation.com.  Carl and his has an impact on virtually every non-profit organization in Santa Clarita Valley. Carl currently heads the Board of the Santa Clarita Disaster Coalition, he serves on the Board of the William S. Hart Union School District’s WISH Foundation (the Foundation for the School District), and the Action Family Counseling Foundation. In addition, Carl serves on numerous other advisory boards and committees. He also heads up the annual Sacramento Road trip, taking 81 community leaders to our State Capitol to advocate for local issues and an annual Community Leadership Advocacy trip to Washington DC. Carl is also proud of re-launching the annual Congressional Art Award, now in its 8th year as an annual event.

In 2008, Carl was named Santa Clarita’s Man of the Year, where he is currently President of the Man of the Year Foundation.

He has two sons, both are Hart District products, Ryan, (24), a graduate of West Point, currently based at Ft. Campbell, KY serving as a 1st Lieutenant and recently married to Haley an Elementary School teacher in Clarksville, TN and Kyle (18), who is in 12th grade in Santa Clarita.

Carl current passion is heading up the the SCV Habitat for Heroes Advisory Committee for Habitat for Humanity SF/SCV.

David Gressman
Community Member 

A Banker for 39 years, David Gressman is currently the Senior Vice President/Commercial Regional Manager for Rabobank covering Eastern Ventura County, the Santa Clarita Valley, the San Fernando Valley and other parts of Los Angeles County. David spent the bulk of his career at Security Pacific Bank and City National Bank, specializing in all types of commercial lending including international banking, real estate and middle market banking. David has a Masters Degree in Public Administration from California Lutheran University. He resides in the City of Moorpark in Ventura County.

Steve Lavaeddin
First Republic Bank

Steve started his banking career in March of 1992 as a part-time teller and has served in several positions including regional manager overseeing retail sales and operations for as many as 17 offices. He has strong lending experience and is knowledgeable in all banking areas.  His expertise is in Private Banking, deposit relationship management, commercial lending, and operations, and he is currently leading these areas at Boston Private Bank & Trust’s Encino office.  Steve is also often considered a “concierge” and a “trusted advisor” to many of his clients.  In September 2011, Steve was honored by the San Fernando Valley Business Journal as one of the “Valley’s Most Trusted Advisors.”

Personally, Steve is a volunteer with L.A.P.D Search & Rescue as well as the Vice President of this non-profit organization (CEMP.org). He also serves on the Board of the Encino Chamber of Commerce (EncinoChamber.org.)  He and his wife, Toni, live in the Santa Clarita Valley with their three dogs – two Mexican Hairless Xolo’s and a Jack Russell Terrier.  They enjoy biking, hiking, and trips to Lake Havasu where they spend much time water boating, wakeboarding, and jet skiing.

I enjoy giving back to my community and helping less fortunate families have a decent place to live.  I come from less fortunate beginnings myself and understand the challenges that many of the families we serve face each day.  Volunteering with Habitat for Humanity, Search & Rescue, and the Encino Chamber helps me appreciate life and to not take things for granted.”

Jim Mooneyham
National Construction Rentals

Robert Niesner
Legacy Construction & Development, Inc.

Robert Niesner is a second generation builder, and personally has over 30 years of experience as a general contractor, developer and investor in the real estate industry.  His firm, Legacy Construction and Development, Inc., has offices in Westlake Village and Santa Barbara.  Bob and his firm have completed many High End residential projects in addition to numerous commercial, industrial, medical, and educational facilities.  Bob also utilizes his real estate broker’s license in the course of facilitating investment opportunities for himself and clients.  Bob attended the University of Southern California and has recently been involved with the development of using new technology in the building industry. He has a State of California General Contractor License and State of California Real Estate Broker License.

Bob believes that it is essential to give back in meaningful ways to one’s community, whether through service of time, ideas, recruitment, financial support or professional expertise. Since his involvement with Habitat for Humanity, he has found that this organization provides much more than ones basic need for shelter. Habitat provides a family in need, with all the essentials needed to support a higher quality of life for themselves, and the confidence and knowledge to further advance others and enable new opportunities for future generations.

Robert Phillipps
Citi

Ronnie Willett
Kaiser Permanente

Ronnie Willett has over 30 years in the healthcare industry with experience in strategic planning, marketing, demand forecasting and operations. She has operational experience including management of support functions in a 262-bed hospital and associated Medical Office Buildings.  She is responsible for oversight of 235 FTEs, a $14M annual budget and oversight of owned and leased assets. She has led diverse stakeholders through processes resulting in deliverables that described service distribution strategies and key markets for growth and is responsible for ensuring regulatory compliance with federal, state, local and Joint Commission standards around life safety, environment and emergency management. She played a key role in the development of the Labor Management Partnership at Woodland Hills developing robust relationships with labor partners and managers.

“Habitat provides the venue for families to re-gain self-worth and self-esteem by providing a basic need-A HOME.  Through my participation on the Board of Directors, I’m devoted to helping make this a reality for the many qualified families in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita Valleys.”