Cari (Logan) Cullen is the director of the Midwest Early Recovery Fund. Previously, Cari served as the Humanitarian Special Projects Team Lead at Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota where she worked on Disaster Case Management and Recovery Programming, served as Project Manager for the Midwest Consortium for Disaster Services, managed special events for New American Services, and initiated and lead the agency’s work with victims of labor trafficking.

Cari started her career as a Children’s Pastor in St. Cloud, Minnesota and in 2010 moved to Sierra Leone, West Africa to serve as the In-Country Program Director for a small NGO serving orphans. She got her start in disaster work as Camp Noah’s Senior Program Manager for Camp Development. There she worked with communities affected by disaster to assist them in understanding and meeting the emotional and spiritual needs of children post-disaster. Cari has worked with a wide variety of communities and populations. She is focused on understanding and addressing the unique needs of communities and individuals in disaster recovery, and fostering the assets and strengths of the community and individuals to build capacity and strengthen resilience.

Cari resides in Fargo, North Dakota. She has a Master of Arts in Christian Education from Bethel Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota and bachelor’s degrees in Cross-Cultural Studies and Bible from the University of Northwestern, St. Paul. When she is not working, Cari is reading, traveling for fun and solidifying her position as the favorite aunt of seven of the best little people on the planet.

Read Cari’s blog posts.

Contact: cari.cullen@disasterphilanthropy.org

Taylor Dudley is the international program associate at the Center for Disaster Philanthropy (CDP). With experience in a range of industries, Taylor brings a unique perspective of project and program management and strategic thinking to the team.

In her role, Taylor will support international grantmaking through data collection and analysis, grant processing, and grantmaking administrative functions. Prior to working with CDP, Taylor worked for All Hands and Hearts in Guatemala leading disaster recovery work through a community center rebuild and water catchment projects, but has also worked with Oxfam, the Institute for Sustainable Energy and a handful of smaller NGOs. Before her career change, she worked in trade show production and corporate event management for eight years, gaining a deep understanding of collaboration, adaptability and working in fast-paced environments.

Taylor has a Bachelor of Science in Event Management from the University of Central Florida and an MBA focused on Social Impact from Boston University. She was recently recognized as a 30 Under 30 awardee by the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network of Atlanta.

Taylor grew up in Florida, where she gained firsthand experience with disasters and developed a passion for climate-related and environmental volunteer work. She is now based in Atlanta, where she likes spending time outdoors hiking, camping, biking and kayaking.

Contact: taylor.dudley@disasterphilanthropy.org

Ruja Entcheva is the marketing and communications manager for CDP. In her role, Ruja manages all marketing and communications activities, including leading social media efforts, maintaining various websites, creating email campaigns and supporting other digital engagement activities.

Ruja’s passion for communications comes from a strong desire to do good and make a difference in the world. Prior to joining CDP, she executed strategic communications plans and led the development and implementation of social media strategies for a variety of organizations working in the social sector to help them connect with their audiences and strengthen their impact.

Most notably, Ruja worked on the development and creation of the Community Foundation of Sarasota County’s Be the One video, and on introducing Red Nose Day to Sarasota to raise money for children in poverty. She also led media outreach efforts for the Suncoast Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, the local chapter of a nationwide movement to increase the number of children reading on grade-level by the end of third grade.

Born in Bulgaria, Ruja now lives in Florida with her dog, Sirius Black. When she’s not planning the next social media campaign, you can find Ruja at a concert, playing with Sirius or traveling with her family. Ruja has a bachelor’s degree in Communications: Public Relations from the Florida State University.

Read Ruja’s blog posts.

Contact: Ruja.Entcheva@disasterphilanthropy.org.

Tanya Gulliver-Garcia brings practical, academic and philanthropic understandings of disasters to her work as the director of learning and partnerships. She is a self-described “disaster junkie” who is passionate about ensuring the most marginalized and vulnerable in our communities are able to recover and build resilience. Her work is grounded in principles of equity and an understanding of how the intersections of race, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, class, etc. impact the lives of individuals and their families/communities.

Prior to CDP, Tanya worked as the Associate Director of Programs and Planning at Foundation for Louisiana (FFL).  Her duties included helping FFL strengthen its capacity to manage various programmatic initiatives while also building an effective evaluation practice. She led FFL’s Equitable Disaster Resilience Framework and associated Strategic Response Fund,  as well as the foundation’s LGBTQ Fund.

Tanya has lived and worked for most of her life in and around Toronto, Canada. Her most recent work includes serving as the Research Coordinator for the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness/Homeless Hub (COH) based at York University. The COH works to mobilize research results so that they have a greater impact on the elimination of homelessness in Canada.

After graduating university in 1991, Tanya made a commitment to only work in social justice-related work and has focused on poverty, homelessness, LGBTQ rights, community development and marginalization of vulnerable communities. She taught three different undergrad courses in Toronto including “Homelessness in Canadian Society”,  “Environmental Disasters” and a field course in community development that brought Toronto-area students to New Orleans to assist in rebuilding post-Katrina. She teaches a self-created course “Disasters and Social Justice” at Tulane University’s Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy.

She also has worked as a freelance writer and editor for a number of years and served on the board of directors of the Professional Writers Association of Canada for eight years, including three as president.

Tanya is ABD in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University with a special interest in community resiliency and recovery after catastrophic disasters. Her research work was based in St. Bernard Parish.

Tanya has a Bachelor’s in Sociology from Glendon College, York University (which was completed bilingually in English and French) and a Masters of Environmental Studies from York University (for which she developed North America’s first risk-based heat registry to protect low income and marginally housed communities from extreme heat).

Tanya currently lives in the Broadmoor neighborhood of New Orleans. In her spare time she is an active volunteer with the American Red Cross serving as a lead responder for local disasters, the Government Liaison Lead for the state, liaison to the state Emergency Operations Center and a disaster instructor. She has responded to several major disasters across the United States and in her adopted state of Louisiana.

Read Tanya’s blog posts.

Contact: Tanya.Gulliver-Garcia@disasterphilanthropy.org

Devin Mathias leads the development team of the Center for Disaster Philanthropy (CDP). He has been a fundraising and marketing professional for more than twenty years.

He led annual giving for the University of Florida and the University of Michigan, followed by a tenure in management, marketing and development consulting. While consulting, his clients included a wide variety of leading nonprofits, such as the Boston Children’s Hospital, the Chicago Botanic Garden, Cornell University, Duke University, the Fashion Institute of Technology, Johns Hopkins University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Public Radio International, Stanford University, the University of California – Santa Cruz and the University of Pennsylvania. These efforts focused on marketing, capital campaigns, major gifts fundraising and annual giving efforts.

Devin then served as the Chief Development & Communications Officer for The Cornucopia Institute, the leading organic food industry watchdog organization. He helped lead an overhaul of the development and communications strategies and served as interim executive director after the founding executive director’s departure.

Devin’s philanthropic career was inspired by participating in leadership roles for Penn State’s Dance Marathon while earning his undergraduate degree in communications. While working for the University of Florida, Devin earned his MBA from the Warrington School of Business.

He lives in State College, Pennsylvania with his wife, Tiffany, and three children. He is on the board of his local Rotary club and is active in a number of volleyball leagues and tournaments.

Devin has presented for and served in leadership roles with organizations such as the Association of Fundraising Professionals, the Association of Donor Relations Professionals and the Annual Giving Directors’ Consortium.

Contact: devin.mathias@disasterphilanthropy.org

Kristina “Yna” Moore leads the marketing and communications team of the Center for Disaster Philanthropy (CDP). She has been practicing strategic communications in pursuit of transformative positive change in our communities and the world for more than 15 years. As a former communications consultant, her clients included the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity (PRE), a project of Tides that provides grantmakers with tools and resources to overcome institutional and structural racism in communities through capacity building, education and convening; and Allied Media Project’s Critical Minded Initiative, which supports critics of color to inform cultural and political discourse in the U.S.

Yna led the growth of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy’s (NCRP) communications and marketing program for more than 13 years, most recently as its former senior director of communications.

Prior to NCRP, a research and advocacy organization that amplifies the voices of nonprofits and underrepresented communities, Yna worked at several other nonprofits in communications, programs and research capacities including the Henry L. Stimson Center, an international security think tank, START International, which promotes science capacity development that advances knowledge and action on critical sustainability issues, and the Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs.

Yna grew up in the Philippines where she witnessed the immediate devastation and long-term impacts of the 7.7 magnitude earthquake that hit Luzon in 1990 and Mt. Pinatubo’s eruption the following year on surrounding communities and beyond, as well as annual typhoons and flooding.

Her articles have appeared on Nonprofit Quarterly.

Yna has a bachelor’s degree in social sciences from the Ateneo de Manila University and a master of arts degree in technology and public policy from the University of Denver. She is a member of the Public Relations Society of America.

Contact: kristina.moore@disasterphilanthropy.org
Follow on Twitter: @ynamoore

Guy Pinguino is the accounting associate at the Center for Disaster Philanthropy (CDP). He supports all day-to-day accounting and financial responsibilities for CDP.

Prior to joining CDP, Guy held different accounting roles in sectors ranging from telecommunications to municipal finance. He is excited to bring this experience to CDP to help make a concerted effort for change and progress in the world.

Outside of work, Guy enjoys reading, traveling with his wife and playing soccer with his Australian Shepherds Cappuccino and Mocha. Guy holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and a Bachelor of Arts in Business Management from Robert Morris University, summa cum laude, and currently resides in Illinois.

Natalie Worthan joins the Center for Disaster Philanthropy as systems and special projects manager.

Natalie has over 13 years of service leading development teams in nonprofit organizations. Prior to joining the CDP, Natalie most recently served as Assistant Director of Annual Giving at the West Point Association of Graduates creating meaningful engagements with constituents and enabling enrichment programs for cadets at the Military Academy. Throughout her professional experiences, she consistently champions the impact an individual or organization has by investing in our future.

Natalie earned a B.A. in Political Science and History from Birmingham Southern College.  In addition, she has a Certificate in Fundraising from New York University.

Natalie currently calls Odenton, Maryland home. She has a proud military family which consistently moves in support of the current Army needs. Natalie’s family has lived in Georgia, New York, California, Kansas and most recently, Italy. When Natalie is able to create some personal time, she enjoys running the Washington Mall in D.C., exploring the rich culture in her community, and traveling with her family.

Contact: natalie.worthan@disasterphilanthropy.org.