Executive Director

Lori D. Williams is an Executive Director at Kaiser Permanente, leading its Health Plan Regulatory and Public Exchange Operations. In this role she is responsible for ongoing management of the Affordable Care Act implementation across all regions, ensuring all relevant federal commercial and Medicaid insurance regulations are successfully implemented at KP and making sure it can continue to participate in the public Exchanges. Ms. Williams holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology with a concentration in Human Factors Engineering from California State University, Northridge and completed the Harvard School of Business Executive Leadership Program.

Natalia Flores is General Manager at THINK Together, the largest provider of extended learning time programs in California serving over 100,000 students at more than 400 locations in 40 school districts. Mr. Flores oversees two of its five regions, the Bay Area and the OCLA (Orange County and Los Angeles), its new Auxiliary Programs department, which provides customized educational programing to school districts, and its High School Expanded Learning Programs, which focus on embedding a culture of College and Career readiness in all of its programs. Ms Flores is daughter to immigrant parents from Jalisco, Mexico, an alumna of Lynwood Unified School District, and a Lynwood resident. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Chicano Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles and a Master’s degree in Education from Cal State University, Long Beach.

Lalo Trujillo is the founder and principal of Mission Trail Advisors, LLC, which specializes in advising school districts and municipal entities on financing for facilities improvement programs. He has over 25 years of experience in the commercial banking and municipal bond industry and has held leadership positions at the municipal bond departments of major commercial banks, investment banks, and in the financial advisory industry. Mr. Trujillo has served as Director of Finance for a city and a governmental agency in southern California. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and earned a Master of Business Administration degree from the Anderson School of Management at UCLA.

Theresa Price is founder and president of the National College Resources Foundation and The College Expo, which connect students to colleges, universities, and post-secondary certification programs, as well as scholarships and college preparatory programs and resources. Ms. Price began her career in radio and television working for KGFJ-AM, KACE-FM, KCBS-TV, and Cox Broadcasting before founding her own marketing firm, Jabez 3 Enterprises, serving entertainment and recording companies, as well as local businesses. She attended California State University, Long Beach with a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism.

Mario Cardenas served as General Director of Plaza Mexico in Lynwood, a 48‐acre lifestyle and retail shopping center that combines the finest traditional Mexican marketplace with the American outdoor shopping experience. As a regional hub of Mexican‐American culture, Plaza Mexico hosts large festivals and celebrations of Mexican holidays, as well as high profile media events and concerts featuring nationally recognized entertainers, celebrities and political leaders. Mr. Cardenas is a graduate of Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa and actively involved in the cultural and civic leadership of the community. He has experience serving on many different boards and is the former President of Council of Mexican Federations (COFEM).

Dr. Gudiel Crosthwaite is Superintendent of the Lynwood Unified School District, and joined the district in 2010 as Director of Elementary Reform. He began his career in education in 1994 as an eighth-grade teacher and later served as a high school English and English Language Development teacher before becoming an administrator at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. Dr. Crosthwaite earned an undergraduate degree from University of California, Los Angeles. He holds two master’s degrees; one from California State University, Los Angeles in Educational Administration and another from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He earned his Ph.D in Education from Claremont Graduate University.

Dr. Yesenia Fernandez  is currently Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership, Cal State Dominguez Hills. Previously she was a district administrator in Lynwood. In addition, she spent fifteen years at Bell Gardens High School as an English teacher, administrator, and student advocate. She was a first generation college student who earned a Bachelors in English and a Masters in Educational Leadership from Cal State Los Angeles and a Ph.D. in Education at Claremont Graduate University. She now studies how systemic racism in the public school system perpetuates segregation and precludes students of color ​from higher education and its intersection with school leadership.

Mark Flores is Director of Recreation and Community Services for the City of Lynwood. Mr. Flores has over 25 years of experience managing and developing municipal recreation and community programs, facilities, and large-scale public events. He received his bachelor’s degree from Loyola Marymount University.

David A. Henriquez is Deputy Manager of Flight Electronics for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena. He interest in space began in childhood pretending a tree in his backyard was a rocket ship he could use to explore the solar system. Today, Mr. Henriquez is responsible for managing development of the command, data handling, and motion control electronics used on JPL robotic missions, supervising a team of 120 employees. He has over 20 years of experience working on planetary missions from the Cassini Mission to Saturn to the Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity rover missions to Mars. Mr. Henriquez holds a Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering and a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Southern California.

Dr. Shawna Petit-Dinkins is Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services for the Lynwood Unified School District. She has over 25 years of experience in education and has worked for Los Angeles Unified and Chino Valley Unified school districts as a teacher, instructional coach, secondary literacy expert, program administrator, principal, director of special education, and director of program improvement. Dr. Dinkins dedicated her professional career to serving students and families and advocating on their behalf. She holds an undergraduate degree from the University of California, Los Angeles a Doctorate of Education in Urban Leadership from the University of Southern California.

Darrell Stewart is Business Development Manager for Intel Corporation in its State, Local and Education group.  He joined Intel in 2000 as part of its Reseller Channel Organization working with school districts to leverage E-Rate funding strategies.  Prior to Intel, Mr. Stewart worked for Anixter, Lucent Technologies and Brite Voice Systems.  He serves on the board of the California Emerging Technology Fund, Loyola High School, and Classroom of the Future.  Mr. Stewart is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles.

Dennis Wang has over 15 years’ experience in strategy consulting and corporate development in the technology industry. Dennis Wang serves as the Chief Operating Officer for Golden Star Technology (GST) executing business operations and exploring new solutions and markets. Dennis’ experience encompasses building company culture to the development of sales and engineering to a wide range of industry clients on a national and global level.Prior to joining GST, Dennis worked as a financial due diligence analyst for M&A deals at KPMG and a Senior Strategic Consultant at Galt & Company, a NYC-based boutique consulting firm.Dennis serves as a Board of Regents for Georgetown University as well as the member of the Georgetown Finance Board. He is Secretary for the AJ Scholarship Foundation which grants over 50+ scholarships to community college students each year. He is a member of the Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Partner Advisory Council, member of the Hewlett-Packard Inc. Public Sector Advisory Council and member of the Lenovo Advisory Board.Dennis currently resides in downtown Los Angeles and received his Bachelor of Science in Finance and International Business from Georgetown University and an Executive MBA from the University of Southern California.