Terry Brandt, Executive Director
Terry L. Brandt is the founding Executive Director for Albina Opportunities Corporation. Mr. Brandt has over 30 years of experience specializing in commercial real estate investment and development, project management consulting, and entrepreneurial small business growth. He is a graduate of Seattle University and has been a life-long resident of the Pacific Northwest. He has been active as a board member, advisor and task force committee member for a number of private and governmental organizations throughout his career that support socially responsible investing, community sustainability, smart growth and small business development.
Fred Carter, Treasurer and Advisor
Fred Carter is a Certified Public Accountant and has owned his own firm since 1988. He is a graduate of Portland State University and is active in a number of different organizations. Besides serving on AOC’s board, he serves on the Oregon Association of Minority Entrepreneurs, Project Pooch and NW Priority Credit Union. He has been a member of the Oregon Society of Certified Public Accountants and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants since 1980
Manuel A. Castaneda, Board Member
Originally from a small village in Mexico, Manuel Castaneda moved to the United States when he was 14 years old. One of 12 children, he worked in agriculture in Washington and Oregon, planting and picking many crops like asparagus, cucumbers, strawberries, onions and cherries. At age 16, he obtained a job in landscape maintenance and became crew leader the same year. At age 20, he started Pro Landscape, Inc. with nothing more than an $800 credit card that was used to purchase a lawnmower. In 1985, he began a small soil stabilization project and by 2007, his company had almost 50 employees and over 7 million dollars in revenue.
Mr. Castaneda has been blessed with many mentors and friends that have shared their wisdom. Community service has been a big part of his life, including 10 years as a radio host at KBOO radio, which he started while in high school. He also has 7 years of experience hosting community access TV and 10 years’ experience playing keyboards in a band. He has served 10 years on the Board of Directors for The Hillsboro Chamber of Commerce and been involved for 8 years with the Mentor-Protégé program through the Port of Portland, (first as a protégé and later as a mentor for minority and small business owners). Currently, he serves on the board of trustees for Pacific University, is the past chair for the Washington County Business Council, and serves on the Board of AOC. He enjoys traveling around the world, meeting new people with new ideas, crabbing and skiing.
Elisa Dozono, Board Member
An attorney with Miller Nash, Ms. Dozono focuses her practice on business litigation and government relations. With over 11 years of experience in communications management and government relations, she has served as corporate media manager for the Port of Portland, communications director for the former Portland Mayor Vera Katz, and media relations director for former Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber’s transition. In 1996, she led the Clinton/Gore campaign in Oklahoma and has worked as a news producer for Portland’s KATU television.
Ms. Dozono serves as president-elect of the Oregon Asian Pacific American Bar Association, is a member for the Oregon Minority Lawyers Association, Oregon Women Lawyers, Multnomah Bar Association, Federal Bar Association and has received numerous awards including the Judge Learned Hand Emerging Leadership Award by the Oregon Area Jewish Committee.
She also serves as chair of the Metropolitan Exposition Recreation Committee, serves on the board of directors for the Japan America Society of Oregon and is a member of the Oregon Business Association Transportation committee, World Affairs Council and Portland City Club.
Howard Feldman, PhD, Vice-Chair of Board
Professor Howard Feldman is the Executive Director of Nonprofit Management Programs for the Pamplin School of Business at the University of Portland. Previous to starting this program, he was the Associate Dean for Graduate Programs in the School of Business. His teaching interests lie in the areas of strategic management, entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, and social responsibility. Professor Feldman has published extensively, in journals such as The Journal of Business Venturing, The Journal of Small Business Management, The Case Research Journal, the Journal of Applied Case Research, and others. He has presented papers at numerous regional, national and international meetings on both research and teaching issues. He has also taught and lectured at graduate business schools in Madrid, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Chernivtzi, Ukraine, as well as teaching for 9 years at the U. of Colorado-Boulder before coming to Portland. He has served on several boards of directors for nonprofit organizations and was the president of a Portland social service agency from 1998-2000 and 2001-2002. Previous to joining academia, Professor Feldman worked in industry for seven years, primarily in marketing and management positions in New Jersey and Atlanta, Georgia.
Ward Greene, Board Member
Ward Greene was born in Boston, raised in New York, went to college in Florida, graduated from law school in North Carolina, practiced law in Wisconsin, and then became a “native” Oregonian in 1977.
He is a commercial lawyer and the managing partner of a small firm in Portland. He has served as president of the local bar association and vice president of the Oregon State Bar, and has held a number of honorary positions at other bar and volunteer organizations. Ward is one of the founders of Senior Advocates for Generational Equity (SAGE) and has been a lifelong progressive.
Sheila Holden, Board Member and Advisor
Sheila Holden is Regional Community Manager for Pacific Power and serves as a Board Director for Albina Community Bank. In addition, Ms. Holden serves as President of the North/Northeast Economic Development Alliance. Ms. Holden is also a member of the N/NE Business Association and Chair of the Interstate Urban Renewal Area Advisory Committee.
Tony Hopson, Board Member
Tony Hopson is a native of Portland, Oregon, and is a respected neighborhood and community leader. He graduated from Willamette University with Bachelor of Arts degrees in Psychology and Sociology and a teaching certificate in 1977. That same year he earned a counseling certificate from Portland State University. From 1977 to 1985, Hopson taught, counseled and coached for Portland Public Schools.
Hopson founded Self Enhancement, Inc. (SEI) in 1981 as a one-week summer camp committed to improving collegiate and employment opportunities for high school students. The initial camp served 80 students. In 1988, SEI became a year-around program. During a capital campaign that began in 1989, SEI raised over $10 million to build the 62,000 sq. ft. Center for Self Enhancement which opened its doors in 1997.
Since then, SEI has expanded to serve more than 3,000 students and over 5,000 families per year with its comprehensive, wraparound services. In 2006, the program was recognized nationally as a premier youth development program by the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, and with their support, is replicating the SEI program in Miami, Florida in partnership with Alonzo Mourning and Dwyane Wade.
Hopson has also been recognized for his activism and community leadership by receiving numerous awards including: the Urban League of Portland’s “Equal Opportunity Award”, the “Living Legend Award” from Willamette University, Portland’s “First Citizen Award”, the “Oregon Ethics in Business Award”, and the “Distinguished Service Award” from the University of Oregon.
Mark Kalenscher, Secretary of Board and Advisor
Mark R. Kalenscher retired from a fifteen-year career with Intel in 1995. While at Intel, he served in a variety of management positions including European Logistics Manager, Contracting Business Manager, and several management and analyst positions in Intel Operations and Corporate Finance. Throughout Mark’s Intel career, he continuously improved productivity, efficiency, and customer service by simplifying and automating purchasing and distribution processes.
After leaving Intel, Mark has focused his time on investing, philanthropy, and spending time with his family. He presently sits on the boards of several non-profit organizations and served as a director and treasurer of the Cascadia Revolving Fund from 2001 through 2006. Mark has an MBA from Arizona State University and has successfully completed the Certified Financial Planning professional education program and board examination.
Jeffrey Lang, Board Member
Jeffrey Lang is one of the two founding partners of Gales Creek Insurance Services, a national firm based in Portland, Oregon that builds innovative insurance products for many sectors of the US economy, including the nonprofit & entertainment industries. Before Gales Creek he held positions in London and San Francisco where he has used Risk Management and Pooling techniques to lower the cost of insurance to the consumer. Today he designs and implements new programs for associations and affinity groups that have been underserved by the traditional insurance market.
Mr. Lang has been very active in the Portland community with an emphasis on disenfranchised groups in the inner city. He helped found the Community Energy Project, which teaches and provides weatherization resources to seniors and low income residents. He is an officer of MESO, Micro Enterprise Services of Oregon, which provides loans, grants and technical assistance to individuals to help them launch small businesses. Mr. Lang is a board member of Friends of Tryon Creek State Park, which operates environmental education programs for youth as well as a Nature Center and a summer camp.
Mark Ling, Board Member and Advisor
Mark Ling is a graduate of Southern Illinois University and has worked in various accounting disciplines for over 25 years, ranging from public accounting, to non profits, and corporate. He started his own consulting firm in 2003 to provide controller services for emerging and established businesses. The current economic climate has caused more business owners to focus their attention towards analysis and projections. His firm continues to service businesses in a wide range of industries, including retail, healthcare, construction and service based industries.
Moving from St. Louis to Portland in 2002, Mark and his wife started two separate businesses shortly after. This experience has given him a first-hand understanding of the day-to-day challenges facing small business owners from both a technical and emotional perspective.
Having been introduced to the mission of AOC, Mark has chosen to serve his adopted community through AOC.
Julie Mancini, Board Member
Julie Mancini is the director of the Mercy Corps Action Center in Portland. This cornerstone of the agency’s Global Engagement initiative seeks to radically alter the way people in the developed world, particularly youth, think about the world and their role in it. Mancini is responsible for developing the content and audiences, and managing the operations, of this headquarters-based experiential learning center. Mancini brings to Mercy Corps her long experience in arts, literary and non-profit organizations. She most recently was founder of Lyceum, a Portland-based agency representing authors and speakers nationally. Before that, she was a vice president at Gard Communications, a Portland public affairs and public relations firm, leading its consulting practice for non-profits. She worked for two years as head of Caldera, an Oregon creative center offering arts and nature programs to disadvantaged children.
Central to Mancini’s career was her 15 years at Portland Arts & Lectures, a non-profit literary organization she headed and developed from a small, occasional series into a diversified, well-funded and well-attended family of events and programs. Known as Literary Arts, Inc., itincludes Poetry in Motion, Writers in the Schools, the Oregon Book Awards and the Oregon Literary Fellowships. Portland Arts & Lectures gave rise to similar programs in Seattle, Rochester, Pittsburgh and Chicago.
Earlier in her career, Mancini taught child development, founded and ran an experimental preschool, and headed a school program for emotionally disturbed children. She holds a BA in early childhood education from Boston College, an MA in child development from Tufts
University and an honorary PhD in humane letters from the University of Portland. She completed Stanford University’s executive program for non-profit leaders.
Mancini is a founding board member of the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art and a board member of the Regional Arts and Culture Council, the Catlin Gabel School, the Oregon Council for the Humanities (appointed by Gov. Ted Kulongoski), and The Haven Project. In addition, she is a board member of Social Venture Partners and an advisory board member of the Portland Center for the Performing Arts, Stand for Children and p:ear, which provides arts education for homeless youth.
Robert Stoll, Chair of the Board
Robert Stoll is an experienced trial lawyer, having successfully tried more than 150 jury and non-jury trials, in both state and federal courts in Oregon and elsewhere on the West Coast, covering a very wide range of issues. He has been very active in community affairs over the years, especially in matters related to children and the disadvantaged. For many years he has been involved in mentoring disadvantaged children and in civil rights issues. He was the founder of the predecessor of Albina Opportunities Corporation and was involved in AOC’s formation. He has also served on numerous boards of directors, including the Urban League of Oregon, the National Lawyers Committee For Civil Rights Under Law, the Oregon Center For Public Policy, the ACLU of Oregon and the Oregon Art Museum. Robert has been very active in Democratic party politics, having successfully chaired numerous gubernatorial, U.S. presidential, U.S. Senate and Congressional campaigns in Oregon. Although he grew up in Portland, he is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin and of Harvard Law School.