Staff
Sean Lawrence
Executive Director
slawrence@gchope.org
Sean grew up a missionary kid in SE Asia and would later work with his church in Southern California to develop a missions program that extended to Japan and Rwanda. In addition, Sean spent several years reporting on missions work and humanitarian crises events around the world for a mission’s magazine. He looks forward to using his experience in relief and missions work to the benefit of our partners.
Sean arrives at GCH from a most recent background in marketing writing for both non-profits and the private sector. Sean joined Giving Children Hope in June 2010 and rather enjoys his grueling 5 minute commute from his home Fullerton which he shares with his wife Crystal and their three young sons.
Joe Bergfalk
Director of Budgets and Finance
He is recently retired after a 32-year career with the YMCA. He held positions that include CEO of the San Gabriel Valley YMCA and the YMCA of Riverside City and County, Senior Vice President of the YMCA of Greater Long Beach as well as numerous Executive Director assignments in that association.
Mr. Bergfalk has a Bachelor’s degree from California State University, Long Beach and a national status as a YMCA Senior Director and master trainer.
Joe lives in Buena Park with his wife, Nancy.
Bill Barta
Operations Consultant
bbarta@gchope.org
Bill is a consultant to the CEO in the areas of operations, container shipping, partner relations, and the capital campaign initiative. He worked two years at Giving Children Hope from 2000-2002 before going to the Union Rescue Mission as its COO.
Bill is from Ohio originally and went on to the US Military Academy at West Point where he was elected Class Treasurer and MVP of the Army football team. He retired as an Army Lt. Col with combat experience in Vietnam, and duty in Korea, France, and Germany. He ended his career in the Pentagon as a Plans Director in the Office of the Chief of Staff of the Army where he received the Legion of Merit award. He obtained his Master’s in Systems Management at USC and after retirement worked in the President’s Office at World Vision Int’l as the Senior Executive Assistant before taking a job as VP Operations at International Aid Inc, a large relief ministry in Michigan.
Cathy Baek
Communications Coordinator
cbaek@gchope.org
Cathy recently joined Giving Children Hope’s team. She is in charge of all the communications/media related tasks, including maintaining the website, writing news posts and creating videos. Prior to GCH, Cathy worked as a reporter and producer for Buena Park TV3 and was a freelance Video Journalist for The Press Enterprise.
She has lived in sunny southern California pretty much her entire life, and attended USC, receiving her B.A. in Communication and East Asian Languages and Cultures.
Cathy got married a couple of months ago and is enjoying her newlywed life. She also likes cruising on her bike, eating dark chocolate and baskets of strawberries.
Barbara Berg
Bookkeeper
bberg@gchope.org
Drew Bryson
Development/Volunteer Coordinator
dbryson@gchope.org
Drew works to unite energy and passion of LA and OC volunteers to the mission and vision of GCHope Projects.
Drew has worked for several years as a Youth Pastor in Orange County, during which time he earned his Master’s of Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary. In his current position, Drew sees his ministry as the inspiring in GCH volunteers the same deep care that God has for the underprivileged in our world. His passions include literature, really good television and Lakers Basketball. Drew is definitely the second best Frisbee handler on staff.
Drew has the unwarranted privilege of living with the top two most beautiful women in the world, his wife Jennifer and their daughter Abigail.
Gina Centanni
Receptionist
gcentanni@gchope.org
Gina is the receptionist extraordinaire. She fields calls and blasts through daily tasks with a smile, witty joke, and nostalgic story of her missionary times overseas. She is the second-most organized person on the planet and makes the rest of the staff look like slackers. Basically, she’s fantastic. Please don’t recruit her away from us; we need her.
Paul Geisert
Giving for Living Coordinator
pgeisert@gchope.org
Peter Karl
Procurement Manager
pkarl@gchope.org
Peter grew up in New Canaan, Connecticut and has always had a passion for plants and taking care of the poor. He majored in Horticulture at Redwoods College in Humboldt county, California. Peter successfully ran a landscape contracting business in Orange County for 25 years.
He has also worked with the homeless and shelters in Orange County in association with several churches. Peter began working part-time with GCH when it was in its infancy. He was greatly impacted on a trip to Russia and former Soviet nations of their need for updated medical equipment and supplies, realizing that a child would be permanently disabled because of the lack of simple medicines like aspirin or a baby warmer.
When he got back from the trip, Peter worked full-time running the warehouse, development and volunteer operations from 1997-1998. He then moved to Texas to work with his wife in property acquisition and management but came back to California to make a global difference. He is amazed at how God’s favor has grown the charity to its current status helping so many people locally and around the world.
Marius Marza
Warehouse Manager
mmarza@gchope.org
Jessica Rickerts
Executive Assistant/Special Events Coordinator
jrickerts@gchope.org
Jessica keeps the place from spiraling into chaos. She maintains order with multi-tasking abilities that make us question her humanity. She maintains balance by streaming Pandora Radio, watching John Cusack films, and kicking back large amounts of caffeine.
Born and raised in Orange County, Ca, Jessica graduated summa cum laude from California State University, Fullerton, with a B.A. in Communications, emphasizing Public Relations, and a minor in English. Her previous experience includes six years working in the auto appraisal industry and a position at a public relations/event planning firm. She is not the grammar tyrant Holly Johns is, but she’s in close second.
She joined Giving Children Hope in May of 2008.
Rosa Rueda
Giving for Living Coordinator
rrueda@gchope.org
Elizabeth Saldana
Director of Community Relations
esaldana@gchope.org
Elizabeth joined the Giving Children Hope family in August of 2007.
She was born in Quito, Ecuador and migrated here with her parents at the age of one. She was raised in Cypress, California and graduated from Cypress College with her A.A. in Human Services. She is working on her B.A. in Social Work at California State University, Fullerton.
She is happily married with three beautiful children and is blessed to have found friends here at Giving Children Hope.
Christine Sanchez
We’ve Got Your Back & Giving for Living Director
csanchez@gchope.org
Christine Sanchez splits her time running the Giving for Living program and teaching ESL at the University of the West. Her passion for the nonprofit arena began with her work with at-risk youth in the Boyle Heights area of Los Angeles. Though Sean calls her the Director of Everybody’s Business, she claims that she is only trying to strengthen the relationships with our nonprofit partners by looking for additional ways to provide them with the items necessary to meet their agency needs.
She started her career in corporate America before her calling to the nonprofit and teaching sectors. She graduated with honors earning her Bachelor of Arts Degree from Mount Saint Mary’s College and is currently working toward her Master’s Degree in Religion. In her free time, she is hauling her sons to hockey practice or screaming her head off at their games! When she has more time to spare, she enjoys reading, writing, and trying new recipes.
America Tapia
We’ve Got Your Back Warehouse Manager
atapia@gchope.org
America started volunteering for Giving Children Hope in 2000 and joined our family in 2003. She grew up in Mexico City but currently lives in Cypress. America loves munching on all kinds of candy, and has many talents, including computer programming and database entry and dancing! If you ever need a dancing partner or need help finding something in the warehouse, she’s the person to ask!
Janet Valencia
Logistics Coordinator
jvalencia@gchope.org
Janet is Giving Children Hope’s Logistics Coordinator. She manages all the logistic and operation details for GCHope’s domestic and international projects.
She enjoys traveling, reading, and going to Disneyland. Two of her best travel memories are hiking the Grand Canyon and backpacking in the Middle East. Her favorite Disneyland rides are Space Mountain and Peter Pan’s Flight. Janet is also very active in her church. She works with the children/youth ministries and with the mission trip ministry.
In April 2011, she graduated from Pepperdine University with her Masters degree in Public Policy.
