Emerging Markets, Inc. is extraordinary as a consulting firm because we bring highly relevant resources to bear on Los Angeles issues and geographies. We could never realistically employ the in-house expertise necessary to achieve this level of competency. Instead, we rely on a larger pool of intellectual resources – colleagues, friends, consultants, activists, issue specialists, students, neighborhood leaders, etc. Our growing professional network, some paid and others unpaid, comprise our pool of intellectual capital. A small sample of these unique, diverse people are described below:

Juan Aquino
Juan Aquino is an Associate at Emerging Markets, Inc. His work involves providing strategic recommendations for economic development in two of the firm's key neighborhood initiatives. His responsibilities include conducting primary, secondary, and nontraditional market research, analyzing that research and bringing investment recommendations to clients, creating partnerships between financial institutions and community organizations as part of a neighborhood delivery system, delivering financial literacy programs through nontraditional channels, and facilitating socially responsible land development. Prior to joining the team, Juan worked in the field of environmental justice – both for the California Climate Action Registry drafting industry-specific protocols relating to greenhouse gas emissions, and for the California Protection Agency (CAL/EPA) in the Environmental Justice Unit. Juan's commitment and dedication to improving the lives of low-income individuals continued as a social worker at the nonprofit Child and Family Services, an organization that provides subsidies for childcare. Juan managed a portfolio of 200 cases of direct childcare services to low-income families. He functioned as a resource to low-income families, providing counseling services and technical assistance to increase access to the statewide childcare system. Juan has also worked in the financial sector as a loan administrator for a Los Angeles finance company. Juan holds a dual bachelors degree in Spanish and Sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is also a second year Masters candidate in the Urban Planning program at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Nancy Berglass
Nancy is the Principal of Nancy Berglass Consulting, drawing upon over twenty five years of comprehensive experience in the non-profit and philanthropic sector. Nancy's perspective is rare, having served successfully in the full range of leadership, management and service roles in the field. She has provided executive advising, planning, assessment, training and research services to scores of entities, from grassroots and emerging community organizations to leading institutions. For many years, as Senior Program Officer of Los Angeles' Parsons Foundation, Nancy facilitated grantmaking and bridge-building between philanthropy and community-based organizations in fields such as health, arts, civic engagement, economic development, and social justice. In 1994, Nancy was awarded the Kellogg National Leadership Fellowship. She graduated from the University of California at Santa Cruz with highest honors, and has pursued continued education at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

Paul C. Brophy
Paul C. Brophy is a principal with Brophy & Reilly LLC, a Maryland-based consulting firm specializing in housing, community development, and the management of complex urban redevelopment projects. He has been involved with housing, economic development, and neighborhood improvement in the United States since 1970 as a practitioner, an author, and a professor. His clients have included the Enterprise Foundation, where he advises on catalytic consulting; the Goldseker Foundation; Bank of America; Shorebank; the Ford Foundation; the MacArthur Foundation; the Annie E. Casey Foundation;  HUD; and other for-profit and nonprofit businesses and financial institutions.

Malcolm Carson
Malcolm is a staff attorney with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA) specializing in community capacity building, transportation advocacy and environmental justice. In his current capacity, he works to improve quality of life for residents of low-income communities by providing legal assistance to community-based organizations and policy advocacy in local, state, regional and federal transportation, land-use and environmental planning processes. Malcolm and his colleagues at LAFLA also offer workshops on public participation in the planning process as well as nonprofit incorporation and tax-exemption, fundraising and employment law. Mr. Carson has more than ten years of experience working with neighborhood and community groups on land-use, redevelopment, community development, environmental and other issues. He holds a Juris Doctorate in Law and a Master's in City and Regional Planning from UC Berkeley and previously worked as an attorney with the National Economic Development and Law Center, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP, and the City and County of San Francisco. Malcolm also serves on the City of Los Angeles Board of Transportation Commissioners and on the regional Community Advisory Committee for the I-710 Long Beach Freeway expansion project.

Way-Ting Chen
As a partner of Blue Garnet Associates and a consultant to Emerging Markets, Inc., Way-Ting Chen bridges nonprofit, for profit and government sectors to work closely with individuals at all levels of social-purpose organizations to identify strategic challenges, understand their fundamental causes and devise effective and practical solutions. Prior to this, she served as engagement manager at Booz Allen Hamilton in New York, where she led projects involving business strategy and organizational design and transformation for Fortune 500 clients. Way-Ting also worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where she conducted economic development research and assessed country risk for the Federal Reserve System. Currently, Way-Ting serves as Vice-Chair of the California Association of Nonprofits (CAN), and is a founding member of Los Angeles Social Venture Partners. Way-Ting received an International MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and graduated with a BA with honors in Economics and Political Science from Swarthmore College.

Rudy Espinoza
Rudy Espinoza is an Associate at Emerging Markets, Inc. His work involves providing strategic recommendations for economic development in four of the firm's neighborhood initiatives. His responsibilities include conducting primary, secondary and nontraditional market research, analyzing that research and bringing investment recommendations to clients, creating partnerships between financial institutions and community organizations as part of a neighborhood delivery system, delivering financial literacy programs through nontraditional channels, and facilitating small business development. Prior to joining the team, Rudy was a childcare worker in a pre-teen group home in Riverside County. His duties included managing the facility's operations, ensuring the facility's compliance with county standards and creating an environment where clients had an opportunity to succeed given their unique circumstances. Rudy also became a student organizer while attending the University of California, Riverside, where he obtained a degree in business administration. Currently a second year Masters candidate in the Urban Planning program at the University of California, Los Angeles, Rudy's research focuses on culturally-oriented planning and small business development in the Latino communities of Los Angeles.

Jill Bangser Fioravanti
Jill Bangser Fioravanti brings energy and experience to her work in the community development field. She is currently employed at the Cabrillo Economic Development Corporation, a nationally recognized affordable housing community development corporation serving Ventura County. She has helped launch one of Cabrillo EDC's new program areas centering around neighborhood revitalization, recently authored a countywide housing research study, and leads organizational development and strategic planning activities in the organization. Jill previously assisted Cabrillo EDC to establish a non-profit lending affiliate that provides subordinate mortgages to LMI families, including loan product development and successful application for federal status as a CDFI. She also consults independently for nonprofits and foundations, including an Annie E. Casey Foundation asset-building strategy on EITC preparation and financial education programs. Jill holds a bachelor's degree in psychology from Stanford University, and is currently a candidate for a Masters in Business Administration from the University of California Los Angeles.

Daniel Gatica
Daniel Gatica was born and raised in the Pacoima area, where he currently oversees Northeast San Fernando Valley operations for workforce development nonprofit Chrysalis. Prior to Chrysalis, he was Assistant Director of Pacoima Graffiti Busters, where the anti-graffiti service grew in budget and neighborhood coverage. Daniel has also worked at Panorama City's El Proyecto Del Barrio, overseeing at-risk youth programs and creating youth-led advisory committees. Prior to his nonprofit work, Daniel taught for the Los Angeles Unified School District as a Special Education Assistant, simultaneously implementing educational lesson plans while prescribing individual psychomotor fitness plans. Still living in Pacoima, Daniel currently serves on the executive board of the Pacoima Chamber of Commerce, Pacoima Graffiti Busters, and the Regional Enterprise Facilitation and Economic Revitalization Project.

Linda Griego
Linda Griego is an entrepreneur, successful business owner and civic leader. Currently, Linda serves as the managing general partner of Engine Co. No. 28, a successful downtown restaurant completely renovated from a 1912 abandoned firehouse. She is president of Zapgo Entertainment Group, a television production company, and owner-operator of the Oso Lodge in northern New Mexico. Over the past 15 years, Linda has served Los Angeles in many capacities including: interim president and chief executive officer of the Los Angeles Community Development Bank; president and chief executive officer of Rebuild LA (RLA); special advisor to the late U.S. Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown on economic development in Southern California; and deputy mayor of Los Angeles to the late Tom Bradley, in charge of economic development. Linda has and continues to serve on numerous high profile boards for banks, foundations, utilities, policy institutes, and other large corporations, as well as an array of City commissions and committees.

Luz Herrera
Luz Elena Herrera is a community lawyer. Born in Tijuana, Mexico, and now living in Whittier, Luz has earned degrees from Stanford University and Harvard Law School. Well networked in the Latino professional community, she ultimately declined a career in a large international law firm and opened her own office in the City of Compton. Luz stresses respect and honesty in delivering quality legal services to immigrant communities regardless of their education, income, or legal status. She has recently been retained as a clinical instructor and business law fellow at Harvard's Hale & Dorr legal service center, where she will be teaching and refining her model for effective community lawyering before returning to her Compton practice.

R. Christine Hershey
As the founder of Cause Communications, the nation's first nonprofit integrated communications firm, R. Christine Hershey has helped drive initiatives for organizations such as the Pew Charitable Trusts, James Irvine Foundation and The California Endowment. She has more than 25 years of high-level strategic experience in the corporate and philanthropic sectors. Chris regularly consults with CEOs and senior executives across the country, advising on questions of positioning and strategy. In 2005, she authored the Communications Toolkit: A guide to navigating communications for the nonprofit world, which emerged as a best practices tool distributed nationwide, in 21 countries and across six continents.

Anderson Hitchcock
Anderson Hitchcock is a senior consultant with Anderson Group Consulting. His areas of expertise include board trainings, strategic planning, business outreach and surveying, community organizing, and special events coordinationg. Anderson makes a point to be well-networked in South Los Angeles communities, particularly along the Crenshaw Corridor, from West Adams to the South Bay. Anderson also has published and worked within the Institute for ESL (Economics for a Second Language), a group seeking to channel African American spending in the travel and leisure industry via family reunions.

Gloria Lazalde
Gloria Lazalde has two decades of experience in the management of workforce development pipelines. Beginning her career as an occupancy specialist for Nobles Property Management, Gloria was responsible for certification processes in a 430-unit public housing complex serving over 2,500 residents. In 1998, she joined the Valley Economic Development Center as a Career Coach and Program Manager for the Pacoima Workforce Development Initiative, responsible for a variety of programs including management of a technology learning center, delivery of financial literacy classes, customized skills training, and the Health Entry Access Training (HEAT) workforce pipeline into local hospitals. Gloria's knowledge of both the public housing and workforce development environment shapes her holistic perspective of the needs of her clients and the approach she takes on job development and placement. In 2004 she joined Youth Policy Institute (YPI) as Director of Adult Services where she oversees programs in education, workforce, and technology. As a consultant, Gloria has contracted with the Urban Education Partnership to serve as Interim Director for Family Care Healthy Kids (FCHK), managing the school-based parent centers of Pacoima. She has also deployed financial literacy programs for a major commercial bank through churches and parent centers through a peer teaching model, and set up a workforce pipeline to the financial services industry in the Westlake-Pico Union area. Gloria sits on the Community Advisory Council of Mission Community Hospital, as well as the Board of Youth Speak Collective. Gloria is a life-long resident of the Northeast San Fernando Valley.

Dean S. Lee
Dean is Emerging Markets' staff photographer. From time to time, Dean is retained to dangle out of helicopters and shoot urban aerials for research purposes. He has also been convinced to shoot resident portraits, community events, and other less risky gigs. When the camera is set down, Dean is a sound mixer and technician for television and film, a professional chef for over a decade, and plays drums. Dean will not wear business attire except for funerals and weddings.

Mary M. Lee
Mary Lee is a practicing attorney and housing expert, whose work has been focused on the legal rights of low-income people for over 20 years. A graduate of Claremont's Pitzer College and U.C. Berkeley's law school, Mary has defended the right to fair housing as part of many respected groups including: the Fair Housing Council of the San Fernando Valley; the Western Center on Law and Poverty; the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; and the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA). She has served as the Board Chair of the Fair Housing Congress of Southern California, as well as the Managing Attorney of LAFLA's South Central Los Angeles office. She now maintains a private practice; her primary emphasis continues to be housing law, including housing discrimination, landlord/tenant, foreclosure, and land use law. Mary has also developed broad expertise in the field of Community Economic Development, where she has assisted the development of several nonprofits committed to improving the quality of life in low-income neighborhoods including Concerned Citizens of South Central Los Angeles, and the Community Coalition for Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment. Her efforts on behalf of non-profit organizations include drafting legislation at the state and local level, providing training and technical support, strategic planning, and litigation in state courts. In addition, Mary has extensive teaching experience. She has been an adjunct professor of law at Loyola Law School, and taught public policy at Occidental College. She currently teaches a class she designed on Fair Housing/Fair Lending regulations as part of the Mortgage Finance certificate program within the Los Angeles Community College District.

Jan McElwee
Jan McElwee is the principal of the McElwee Group and one of the foremost consultants in the field of philanthropy in Southern California. For a decade, she managed the national corporate giving program for Carter Hawley Hale Stores, which included Neiman Marcus, Waldenbooks, The Broadway, Bergdorf Goodman, and Contempo Casuals. As director of external relations, she built community ties in numerous metropolitan areas, especially Southern California, where the corporation was headquartered. Today, she assists corporate, private, and family foundations in planning their giving programs and establishing funder collaboratives. She also works with nonprofits in the areas of board development, fundraising, and strategic planning.

Brian Moore
Brian Moore is an Associate at Emerging Markets, Inc. He provides the consulting group with GIS resources, statistical analysis, and demographic research. He also works directly with neighborhood agencies crafting and carrying out programs. Before joining EMI in January 2005, Brian worked as a program manager for the Fair Housing Council of Riverside County, Inc., as well as systems administrator and analyst for the Center for Sustainable Suburban Development at the University of California, Riverside. Brian is also a master's candidate (2006) in urban planning at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Hilda Nuñez
Hilda Nuñez is a ten-year expert in parent outreach, community organization, and para-professional service delivery in the Northeast San Fernando Valley. After attending college at the University of Chihuahua, Mexico, she worked as a parent outreach coordinator at Maclay Middle School in Pacoima, a parent center leader for the Parent Institute for Quality Education, a community inspector for Pacoima Beautiful, and an instructor for a wide range of neighborhood training classes including financial literacy.

Andrew J. Posey
With his 20 years of strategic marketing and branding experience in both the corporate and nonprofit sectors, Andrew has a proven track record of helping major brands reach their marketing goals. He has managed multi-faceted marketing campaigns for 20 years for companies including Ford, Nestle and Pepsi. His experience has given him a deep knowledge of branding and positioning, and how to create and implement targeted marketing programs on a regional and national scale.

Migdalia Rosado
Migdalia, known as Mickey in the community, has worked as a producer and manager in the mortgage industry for over 8 years. Prior employers include Ameriquest and Greenpoint in Northern California, as well as Countrywide and Wells Fargo in Southern California. Mickey's skills lie in niche marketing and outreach in diverse segments. Currently, in conjunction with her business partner, she has launched two niche ventures – Dynasty 1 and Se Puede Real Estate and Investments – aimed at the Asian and Latino segments in Los Angeles. Mickey also has experience with the LGBT segment. Prior to her work in the mortgage industry, Mickey founded and ran a successful plumbing supply company. She is a first generation Puerto Rican, born in New York and raised in Southern California. Her B.A. is from UCLA, and her M.A. in Cross-Cultural Studies was earned at Fuller Theological Seminary.

Jacob Singer
Jacob Singer is a turnaround and transition consultant who works with several organizations facing immediate, complex and potentially catastrophic business challenges. He is also an adjunct professor teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in business strategy, organizational development, entrepreneurship, and nonprofit management with a particular focus on social enterprises and sustainable practices.

Jennifer Li Shen
As a partner of Blue Garnet and a consultant to Emerging Markets, Inc., Jennifer Li Shen brings a unique combination of expertise in business strategy and organizational change with experience in nonprofit, private foundation, and for profit arenas to realize her passion for social entrepreneurship and innovation. Previously, Jennifer served Fortune 100 clients as a management consultant at Boston Consulting Group. Jennifer also managed grantmaking at Fannie Mae Foundation in housing and community development, and worked at TCC Group as a consultant to nonprofits, foundations and corporate philanthropy. She is a founding partner of Los Angeles Social Venture Partners and active member of its Investment Committee. She also serves as a community funding board member of Liberty Hill Foundation and a business plan evaluator for Yale-Goldman Partnership on Nonprofit Ventures. Jennifer holds an MBA from Yale University and a BA in Political Science with concentration in Public Policy from Swarthmore College.

Thomas Tseng
Thomas Tseng is the principal and co-founder of New American Dimensions, a marketing research and consulting firm specializing in innovative, pioneering marketing solutions. Thomas has worked with Fortune 500 executives, marketers, and key business leaders to identify growing opportunities of ethnic consumer markets. He has written extensively and his articles have appeared in the Washington Post, Emerging Markets Magazine, Quirk's Marketing Review, and the Long Beach Business Journal. He is also a research fellow at the Davenport Institute for Public Policy at Pepperdine University, and is frequently cited as an ethnic marketing and urban affairs authority.

Margarita Velasquez
Margarita, Maggie to her friends, has 10 years of experience in workforce development. She has worked as a Program Coordinator for the Pacoima Workforce Development Initiative, serving as a liason between employers and career coaches. She has also worked in Pacoima's parent centers of Broadous and Telfair Elementary schools, serving as a case manager and referral agent. Prior to her five years in workforce development, Maggie worked for the U.S. Bureau of the Census and the state's Employment Development Department. She is a proud graduate of San Fernando High School and Los Angeles Mission College.