OUR GREAT STAFF

Shaun Griffin – Executive Director:

Shaun Griffin is the co-founder and director of Community Chest. Shaun has spent a lifetime trying to build bridges where there were none for all members of the human community. During the mid-80s he worked in Stanford University’s foremost community outreach program, starting several disability initiatives on that campus. He later founded a minority youth outreach program for four universities in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2004, he received the Mike O’Callaghan Humanitarian Award, named after the former Nevada Governor.

Shaun is also a published author. His last book of poems was Bathing in the River of Ashes, published by the University of Nevada Press in 1999. Death to Silence (translations from the Chilean poet, Emma Sepúlveda) was released by Arte Público Press in 1997. In 1995, he received the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts. For many years he has taught a poetry workshop at Northern Nevada Correctional Center and published an annual journal of their work, Razor Wire.

He has lived in Nevada since 1978— except for the four years when his wife was in graduate school in the Bay Area. He and his family live in Virginia City, at the western-most edge of the Great Basin.

Erik Schoen – Community Development Director:

Erik Schoen has been a professional counselor since receiving his Masters Degree from Arizona State University in 1993. He received his first state license in Oregon as a Licensed Professional Counselor in 1996, his second in Nevada as a Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor in 1998. He is also a state-certified supervisor for interns practicing to be Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselors. Since 1993, Erik has worked in drug and alcohol treatment facilities (both inpatient and out), domestic violence treatment centers for both women and men, agencies for the treatment of chronic mental illness, private practice, and more.

Eric has helped many individuals to successfully address their substance abuse issues – ranging from alcohol, marijuana, inhalants, hallucinogens, cocaine, and methamphetamine . He has also helped high schools in developing a comprehensive and coordinated approach to prevention and treatment by focusing on resiliency factors, utilizing peer leaders, and implementing school assistance programs. Erik is currently the Community Development Director at Community Chest where he has been for over 10 years. In his current capacity, Erik works within communities to help develop positive, strengths-based, and collaborative approaches to addressing myriad issues that face communities.

Adrienne Sutherland - Co Occurring Therapist and Community Advocate:

Adrienne Sutherland has been in the counseling field since 2007. She began her career at the University of Nevada, Reno with the ACCESS Program, a program designed to provide extra support to students as they endeavored to earn a bachelor's degree. She later worked on a collaborative grant between the court system, university, and law enforcement to provide drug and alcohol treatment to students who had incurred substance related infractions, attempting to change the culture of underage binge drinking. Most recently, she has worked with children and adolescents with co-occurring disorders at a local residential treatment facility in an effort to promote healthier family systems and positive ways of coping with stress and trauma. She has a background in Cultural Anthropology and in 2010 she earned a Master of Arts in Counseling and Educational Psychology, focusing on school counseling and substance abuse treatment and prevention.

Adrienne grew up in a military family and has been all over the world, including places such as Alaska, Vermont, Panama, and Russia. She has lived in Nevada since 1998 and is the mother of two young children. Adrienne enjoys hiking, snowboarding, reading and traveling.

Kelly Coons - Accountant and Business Manager :

Kelly is a native Nevadan who has 7 beautiful children and a wonderful husband. She has worked in financial services for over 20 years. She enjoys camping, snowsports, and serving the community. Kelly is thoughtful, energetic, and loves to laugh. Kelly is a crucial member of the Community Chest team.








Tamara Burnet – Comstock Youth Works Director:

Tamara has lived and worked in the Storey and Lyon County areas for 33 years. Her interests and passions have included the Silver City Advisory Board, Dayton and Silver City Fire Departments, Silver City Task Force and Teens in Recovery. She is a board member of the Healthy Communities Coalition of Lyon & Storey County, and serves on many sub- committees that focus on the overall betterment of the Dayton and Silver City community. She has been a Realtor in the area for 22 years and has witnessed tremendous growth and the need for services to accommodate such growth.

Tamara’s work at Community Chest Inc. is facilitating the Comstock In School & Out of School YouthWorks Program. The programs consist of individualized academic instruction, employment skills training, peer coaching, employer supervision and mentoring. Tamara also leads entrepreneurial ventures and learning circles to address the inequities youth have faced. These gatherings provide youth a constructive forum for them to establish action plans and move on up in life.

Darren Mckay – Youth Development & Prevention Coordinator:

Born in Reno, NV, Darren gained a love of the outdoors growing up in Northern Nevada snowboarding, skateboarding, and backpacking. In high school, he had a meaningful experience that opened his eyes to the power of volunteering and international travel. It was spending a Spring Break building houses in Tijuana, Mexico. This project illuminated the fact that a challenging service-learning project could also be fun, meaningful, and rewarding.

Darren earned his B.A. degree in Science, Technology, and Media from Pitzer College where he served as the president of the Outdoor Adventures club. One of his highlights from college was studying in Botswana, Africa where he learned the local language and worked as an intern with a video production company. Since graduating in 2004, Darren has worked a plethora of jobs including: academic tutor, camp counselor, film production assistant, door-to-door energy salesman, field instructor, outdoor education instructor, fruit picker, adventure tour guide, office manager, and others.

Darren has been with Community Chest since 2008. Some of his favorite programs here are: Global Voice, Global Youth Service Day, Stand Tall Prevention teams, and the Comstock Kids Summer Program. He is working on completing his Master's in Educational Leadership at UNR. Please contact him if you are interested in for service-learning opportunities or if you just want to say hi.

Sabrina Lupo - Case Manager :

Sabrina grew up in Arizona and moved to Nevada in 2008 to attend college. She will graduate from The University of Nevada, Reno with her Bachelor of Liberal Arts in 2012. Sabrina will continue studying at UNR to earn her Master of Arts in Counseling. She also has experience in working with victims of domestic violence and individuals in crisis. She enjoys cooking/baking, doing yoga, and reading. Sabrina is very passionate about pursuing her dreams and will continue to work hard to achieve them.

Sabrina is the Case Manager for the Employment Assistance Program at Community Chest, and has helped many individuals to obtain jobs, make career changes, and start on the path toward self-sustainability. Anyone looking for a job or for an employee is encouraged to call Sabrina.




Kelly Ibarra - Case Manager :

Kelly Ibarra grew up in Southern California moved to Nevada in 1990. Kelly has been married to her wonderful husband for 29 years they have two wonderful children a Son, and daughter. Kelly and her husband have been blessed with two beautiful Granddaughters. Kelly has 31 years of experience working in the Social Work field from working with individuals with Physical and Mental disabilities, Elders, Domestic Violence, Alzheimer's and for the past 2 years as an Employment Case Manager. Kelly was nominated for the "Visionary award" through NNADV. Kelly enjoys dancing, the outdoors, family, and friends. Kelly is bi-lingual fluent in Spanish.

Kelly is the Case Manager for the Employment Assistant Program at Community Chest. Kelly has a passion for helping others and looks forward to helping the residents of Virginia City and surrounding rural Counties to find employment and overcome barriers.




Pam Trabert – Thrift Store Manager:

Pam moved to Reno, NV in 1982. She was born in Minneapolis, MN and her family moved to Denver, CO in 1956. She and her husband started visiting Virginia City in Spring of 1982. They eventually fell in love with the history and its people. They moved into their current home eight years ago here in Virginia City. She started working at Community Chest on December 18, 2006. She enjoys the people she works with at Community Chest, the clients of the Food Closet, and the tourists who come to visit our Thrift Store.




Michael-Ann Lazzarino - Elementary Programs Director :

Michael-Ann Lazzarino has served Nevada youth for over 12 years. She has worked in treatment facilities, youth programs, and taught prevention classes. Michael-Ann attended the University of Nevada Reno for Elementary education, and is continuing her higher education path in the field of Human Development and Family Studies. She has been married for seven wonderful years and has two beautiful children. Michael-Ann loves camping, hiking and spending time with her family.




Bobbi Pickels - Elementary Programs Teacher :

Bobbi has lived in Nevada for 26 years. She has been married for 22 years and has four grandchildren. She was born in California, but was raised in Iowa. Bobbi has had many jobs in her lifetime - a real jack of all trades. After working many years in retail, she took some time off to discover her passion. Bobbi realized that her purpose in life was to reach out in the community and help wherever she could. Bobbi started to volunteer at Advocates to End Domestic Violence serving Carson City and Story County residents. She has many hours of training in domestic violence and volunteers one evening a week to answer the crisis line. Bobbi is also a trained sexual assault response advocate, and is on call for one week in every month. Bobbi also helps to facilitate the Women's Parlor every Monday night at 5:30pm here at Community Chest. She started to work in the Comstock Kids Program in early 2012. Bobbi feels that working with children is rewarding and always unpredictable, and she enjoys every minute!




Sharon Smith - Elementary Programs Teacher :

More information coming soon.




Cindy Boyd – Director of COW & Lead Teacher of Bus # 1:

Cindy Boyd has worked for Community Chest as the Director of Classroom on Wheels since 1997. Her persistence to work for an organization that changes peoples lives but her in a position to work with Pre-K children and their families. Her bus serves students in Storey County. Before joining our family, Cindy worked for Big Sister of America and was a foster care mother. Currently, she lives in the Virginia City Highlands and volunteers with the Red Cross on her spare time.





Natasha Higgins Martin – Lead Teacher of COW NOW Bus # 2:

Natasha Higgins Martin was born and raised in Nevada. She attended Cerro Coso College and the University of Phoenix. Natasha is a mother of five active and sport driven boys. She is also the president of the Silver Stage Cal Ripkin Baseball League in Silver Springs. Before joining the Class on Wheels family, she worked as a para-professional and substitute teacher for the Lyon County School District. She first became aware of the COW program because her children had the opportunity to attend when they were three years old. Cindy, recruited Natasha in 2007. Currently she works as the Lead Teach of COW NOW Bus # 2 in Fernely and Silver Springs, NV.


Beanie Hancock – Lead Teacher of COW NOW Bus # 3:

Beanie Hancock was born and raised in San Francisco, California. Before joining the COW program she worked as a para-professional and school bus driver for the San Antonio School District for 23 years. She had three children and four grand-daughters. Beanie moved to Nevada in 2005 and has since fallen in love with the Dayton community. In 2006, the director of COW persuaded Beanie to come out of retirement to become a Lead Teacher of COW Bus # 3.





Kelly Rauhut – Lead Teacher of COW NOW Bus # 4:

Originally from Kansas, Kelly Rauhut has lived in the Bay Area, CA for 16 years before permanently moving to the Carson Valley in 2005. Kelly received his Associate of Science degree in Early Childhood Education from San Jose City College. He has worked in the Special Education field for 12 years as an Instructor/Para-professional. He has also worked 10 years as a Lead Pre-K Teacher. Kelly loves to travel overseas on cruises, enjoys his two family dogs, has cheered for the New Orleans Saints football team many years, and continues to participate in educational trainings and workshops. Some of his favorite activities in the classroom are art and science using recycled items & storytelling at circle-time promoting reading. His enthusiasm for children's literature inspires children's interest in reading. Mr. Kelly is enjoying his new "Classroom on Wheels" environment on Bus #4 currently in the Sutro/Dayton area.





ADVISORY STAFF


Deborah Loesch-Griffin

Deborah Loesch-Griffin earned her Education Specialist degree in Evaluation (1986) and doctorate degree in Educational Psychology and Child Development from Stanford University in 1987. She owns and operates a small business, Turning Point, Inc., and provides evaluation coaching, capacity-building, facilitation, mentoring for non-profits in youth development, and community-building training. From 1998-2008, TPI engaged in a partnership with the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) to co-sponsor the Center for Program Evaluation (CPE). As it’s Co-Director, Deborah developed a program for training individuals as professional evaluators.

Deborah is also the co-founder of Community Chest, Inc., in Virginia City, Nevada. She continues to work with Community Chest, Inc. as a Community Youth Development Specialist. In this role she organizes the annual Global Voice Program, mentors CCI’s youth development staff, facilitates the community-building initiative in Lockwood, and coordinates the Comstock Growers and Gardeners group who sponsored Storey County’s first farmers market in the Summer 2009. She is most interested in sustainable living and engaging youth as stewards of our environment as well as keeping all our citizenry healthy and providing local, affordable healthy alternatives.