- Board of Directors
- Management
In addition to Marie’s previous professional work as a practicing attorney she served as the administrator of The Alison J. and Ella W. Parsons Foundation. She is an extremely active volunteer in the Hampton Roads community. Marie serves as Vice Chair of the Education Panel and is a member of the Community Funding committee of the United Way of South Hampton Roads. She serves as an Adult Sunday School teacher and Bible study leader at Second Presbyterian Church. Marie is a donor advisor of The Parsons Fund of the Hampton Roads Community Foundation and has served in various volunteer roles at Norfolk Christian School that include: PTA President of the Middle School, Vice President of the Ambassadors Booster Club and concession stand manager.
Robert W. Hayes Company, Inc., a manufacturer’s representative for commercial and industrial heating, ventilating and air conditioning equipment, has been a frequent sponsor of the ForKids Art Auction. Vince is an ongoing volunteer at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital and was a charter member of the Downtown 100. He has previously served on the Board of VOLUNTEER Hampton Roads and as Board member and President of ASHRAE. He has also participated in and served as a committee member of Leadership Hampton Roads.
In addition to his professional work as a Certified Public Accountant, Chuck serves on the Executive Board and as Audit Committee Chair for the Norfolk State University Foundation and as Treasurer for the Ward’s Corner Lions Club Charity Foundation. He has also served multiple terms as the President of the Ward’s Corner Lions Club.
ForKids’ innovative, result-driven programs for homeless families have garnered numerous awards including the 2008 Special Project Award from the Hampton Roads Housing Consortium for the redevelopment of W. 38th Street, the 2008 Campbell and Company Award for Excellence in Fundraising from the Association of Fundraising Professionals International,the 2006 Bank of America Neighborhood Builders Award, the 2005 Virginia Housing Award for Best Housing Program and the 2004 United Way Agency of the Year.
During her tenure with ForKids, Thaler has secured millions in federal government grants while successfully reducing ForKids’ dependence on government funding. Since 2001 she has increased community contributions from less than $100,000 to over $1.6 million in FY2009. Her success in implementing results-driven practices while bringing ForKids onto a firm financial footing earned her the 2009 Excellence in Nonprofit Leadership Prize from the Virginia Beach Foundation and the “Women In Business Achievement Award” from INSIDE Business magazine in 2005.
Thaler’s work to end homelessness has taken her to Washington D.C. to participate in a White House Roundtable discussion on national solutions for family homelessness and to Moscow to provide training in case management best practices for the AIDS Foundation East-West. She was a member of the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Commission to End Homelessness that created the 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness in Norfolk. Thaler is currently active in the Western Tidewater Continuum of Care and on numerous boards and advisory councils.
Prior to her work with ForKids, she worked as a Senior Consultant for Arthur Andersen in Washington, D.C. and wrote on housing and development issues for the Urban Land Institute. She holds a Bachelors Degree in Business from Miami University and a Masters Degree in Urban and Environmental Planning from the University Of Virginia School Of Architecture.
Tom is a retired US Navy Rear Admiral and former Navy SEAL. His last assignment here in Norfolk was as Director of Anti Terrorism for the Navy. Tom helped start the Sports Program here at ForKids five years ago. His other volunteer activities and community involvement currently include serving as a Board Member of the Hampton Roads Civic Leadership Institute, and Vice President of the Exalted Warrior Foundation. Tom has previously served as Board Member and HERO’s Campaign Leader for the Southeastern Virginia Red Cross, and as a Board Member of the Naval Special Warfare Foundation.
Howard’s practice is focused on commercial and multi-family real estate, commercial leases, ground leases, land use planning and permits and pass-through entities. Mr. Gordon’s experience includes representing owners and developers in the acquisition of land, development, leasing and financing of numerous shopping centers and multi-family housing projects, as well as hotels and development of a traditional neighborhood. He also has represented borrowers in the closing of conventional, FHA-insured, conduit and specialty loans secured by commercial and multi-family properties. Mr. Gordon has represented developers of multi-family housing properties which received Low Income Housing Tax Credits or Section 8 Housing Assistance Payment Contracts and were financed by either loans from the Virginia Housing Development Authority, loans insured by FHA or local housing authority bonds. He has also represented developers of hotels which have used New Markets Tax Credits to reduce the equity required for development.
Mr. Gordon is a fellow of the Virginia Bar Foundation and of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers. He is a member of the Virginia Bar Association, Norfolk and Portsmouth Bar Association and is a past chairman of the Virginia State Bar, Real Property Section Board of Governors. He is listed in The Best Lawyers in America and Virginia Business magazine’s “Legal Elite” among the real estate practitioners. Additionally, Mr. Gordon has been named a “Super Lawyer” for Real Estate by Virginia Super Lawyers magazine. He is very active in community and civic organizations, including Norfolk Collegiate School, Norfolk Sports Club, and its scholarship foundation, the Virginia Arts Festival and the TOWN Foundation. Martindale Hubbell has rated Mr. Gordon an AV attorney, its highest rating available.
Before joining the firm, Mr. Gordon was a partner with Hofheimer Nusbaum, P.C., which merged with Williams Mullen in 2004. Mr. Gordon also served as law clerk to John A. MacKenzie, Judge of the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia, from 1972 to 1973.
Mr. Gordon received his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1972. He earned his bachelor of arts degree in economics from the University of Virginia in 1969.
David worked at Amerigroup and Wachovia Capital before returning to his hometown of Suffolk to purchase Tile and Terrazzo in 2006. David is a Member of the Suffolk Leadership Board of the Chamber of Commerce and the CHKD Developmental Advisory Board. He also serves on the Development Board of Advisors for the University of South Carolina.
Prior to joining Harbor Group International in 2007, Brian was with Ambassadors International, a publicly-traded cruise, travel and marina construction company, where he served as CFO, Treasurer and Secretary from 2003 to 2007. From 1994 to 2003, Brian served in a variety of senior financial positions with The Irvine Company, a diversified real estate investment and development company. Prior to this, Brian was with Deloitte & Touche, an international professional services firm. He is a certified public accountant and a licensed real estate broker.
Brian received his Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Notre Dame. He serves as a member of the board of advisors of Anthem Entertainment and Delfín Design and is involved with IrishAngels, a venture advisory group associated with Notre Dame. Brian is a past member of the board of directors of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County and the audit committee of Families Forward.
Cherry is responsible for a portfolio of new business and product development projects across the company. Ms. Wittelsberger oversees the integration into company operations of new products, emerging product requirements for current products, or other strategic development initiatives, including acquisitions or key partnerships.
With nearly two decades of management experience in the managed healthcare and insurance industry, Ms. Wittelsberger has managed multiple operational departments within managed care organizations, with responsibilities for meeting corporate objectives related to budgets, staff development, quality measures and companywide initiatives. Prior to Amerigroup, she served as Vice President, Solutions Development, HealthAnswers, Inc. and previously as Director, Standards and Compliance, Consortium Health Plans, Inc. Ms. Wittelsberger is a Certified Project Management Professional and a graduate of Loyola College (Baltimore) with a master’s degree in business administration (concentration in healthcare) from the University of Baltimore. She served as the Board President for the Executive Women’s Golf Association Hampton Roads Chapter from 2002-2004.
Joanne is a retired Captain of the United States Coast Guard where she served the Civil Engineering Division of the Maintenance & Logistics Command (Atlantic). Her volunteer activities and community involvement include: President of the Society of American Military Engineers, Hampton Roads Post; religious education volunteer at the Church of the Ascension; Director of Girls Athletics for the Kempsville Recreation Association and Softball Director for Kempsville Pony Baseball and Softball.
Ed is a past chair the Downtown 100 and was a frequent ForKids Hot Meals and Homework volunteer. In addition to serving on the ForKids Board, he is a Board member of the Hampton Roads Association for Commercial Real Estate and the Executive Advisory Council, ODU School of Business. Ed previously served on the Board of Big Brothers Big Sisters, and as a panel member of the United Way Funding Panel.
Under Raymond’s leadership Gromelski and Associates provides IT support services including training for large government agencies and major corporations. His primary responsibilities include business planning and development, marketing, financial management, proposal development, personnel management, project management, and general business operations. He has written several business plans for start-up, acquisition, and expansion of these companies. With several thousand professionals located throughout the country, his team planned and directed several national training programs. The company has been recognized for innovative approaches for the design and delivery of training programs. They received national recognition for training program planning and evaluation techniques at the 1990 and 1991 Computer Training & Support Conference in Orlando, Florida.
With a Ph.D. in Urban Services with specializations in public administration and education, his professional development is in program design and implementation, policy analysis, organizational development, and program monitoring and evaluation. His dissertation was a program evaluation and cost-benefit analysis of a government program. For his research methodology, Dr. Gromelski received an award from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University for “Innovative Doctoral Research”. His publications include "An Evaluation Model for Manpower Training Program Managers", Evaluation Review 8: 843-859, Sage Publications, December 1984. Dr. Gromelski wrote white papers which describe the challenges, program design, and implementation strategy for training certification and standardization for transportation security professionals. In 2004, Dr. Gromelski, Admiral Robert J. Natter (retired) and Rear Admiral Paul O. Soderberg (retired) were contracted by McDonalds USA to conduct a review of training operations and processes to assess potential areas for improvement.
Raymond is a member of the Civic Leadership Institute and his volunteer experience includes seven years of coaching with the Great Neck Baseball League and serving on the Board of the Broad Bay Point Greens Civic League.
Carolyn brings significant Human Resources expertise to ForKids having previously worked at Cox Communications as a Manager and Vice President of Human Resources over a twenty year period. She is the Chair of the Women’s Leadership Council of the United Way of South Hampton Roads, and serves on its Board of Directors as well.
A native of Liverpool, England, Helen worked in London and Dublin before moving with her husband to Norfolk in 2000. She serves on the ForKids Board because she feels strongly about the need to provide safe living spaces and life skills to struggling families.
In addition to her professional work, Kim serves on the ODU Advisory Board for the Institute for Jewish Studies and Interfaith Understanding and is an Honorary Board member and past President of both the Ohef Sholom Temple and the Holocaust Commission. She is also currently a Board member of the United Jewish Federation Women’s Campaign and serves on its Strategic Planning Committee. Kim has previously served on the Board of the Tidewater Performing Arts Society, and has worked with Spectrum Puppets presenting Child Abuse Prevention programming.
LaTisha advises corporate clients on mergers and acquisitions, securities offerings, corporate governance matters, and compliance with federal securities laws and listing requirements. With respect to mergers and acquisitions, Ms. Owens has represented buyers and sellers in transactions valued at up to $1 billion. Representative transactions include representation of a partnership and its major investor in the sale of a minority interest in the partnership valued at approximately $1 billion, representation of a private equity firm in the sale of a restaurant franchise for $120 million in a merger transaction and representation of a real estate company in a reorganization that included the redemption of its limited partners in transactions totaling $80 million.
Her securities practice includes work under both the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Ms. Owens devotes a significant amount of time to advising public companies and their boards of directors on corporate governance matters including compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, insider trading, proxy statements, shareholder relations, and board and shareholder meetings. She also advises clients on the corporate and securities law implications of executive compensation arrangements and employee benefits.
LaTisha has served on the Boards of Volunteer Hampton Roads and the Commonwealth of Virginia, Board of Medical Assistance Services in addition to Chairing the Mt. Lebanon Christian Academy, Camp Excel Committee. She has served as Special Counsel to the Commonwealth of Virginia, Division of Child Support Enforcement and as Team Captain for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.
LaTisha received her BA from the College of William and Mary, and her Juris Doctor from the University of Texas School of Law.
Amy is a Trusts and Estates attorney. She is a past Advisory Board member for the March of Dimes.
In addition to her professional endeavors she is personally interested in the power of education to change lives, music education and art performance, and mentoring pre-teen and teenage girls.
She currently serves on the Board of the Downtown Norfolk Council and is a member of the Steel Magnolias Investment Club. Chelsy has previously served as the Vice President of the Asian-American Business League and served on the Board of Virginia Social Ventures.
Mechelle has served on the Norfolk Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Commission to End Homelessness.
Tod, a New Orleans native, started his career with WWL-TV in 1980 as a production assistant and was promoted to engineer in 1982 while working toward his college degree. Upon completion of his degree in 1984, Smith joined Shell Oil Company and served in a number of roles in the corporate, refining and marketing and customer services organizations.
He rejoined WWL in 1993 as a marketing executive and in 1995, was named director of research and audience development. He was promoted to local sales manager in 1999 and remained in that position until joining Peter A Mayer Advertising as vice president and media director in 2005.
Smith was named President and General Manager of Belo Corporation’s Fox/MyNetwork duopoly, KMSB/KTTU in Tucson, Arizona in 2006 and assumed his present position as President & General Manager of Belo’s Norfolk, Virginia ABC affiliate, WVEC in 2009. He has also been an adjunct professor of Marketing at Tulane University and has served on the boards of a number of community and business organizations including the United Negro College Fund, Louisiana Region; the Advertising Federations of both Tucson and New Orleans; the Louisiana Minority Purchasing Council; Youth on Their Own (Tucson, AZ) and the development board of Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughter (Norfolk, VA).
Smith holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in management and economics from Loyola University of New Orleans and is a graduate of the National Association of Broadcasters Management Development Seminar for Television Executives at Northwestern University.
Rob’s company, SteelMaster Buildings, designs, engineers and manufactures pre-engineered steel buildings for use throughout the world. Located in Virginia Beach, SteelMaster employs over 60 people with 50 distributors in 60 different countries.
Rob is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and a combat veteran of Operation Desert Storm who served in the Navy for 6 years. Upon completion of a Masters degree from Troy University, he joined Landmark Communications acting in various leadership positions within The Virginian-Pilot for the next 10 years.
John P. Baiocco is a Senior Executive Vice President and Senior Lending Officer for TowneBank in Norfolk, VA. He has a Bachelor's Degree in Economics and English from The College of William and Mary and has worked in the banking industry in Hampton Roads for twenty-five years.
John serves on the board of directors of The Hope House Foundation, The Center for Financial Training, and The American Institute of Banking.
John lives in the Great Bridge area of Chesapeake with his wife Joy, a special education teacher, and their three sons, Patrick, Peter, and Christopher.
President of Suburban Asset Management
Chris is a graduate of Cape Henry Collegiate and the University of Colorado. In addition to ForKids, he is also a board member for CHKD Health System, VA Arts Festival and Heritage Bank. He is also a trustee of the Perry Foundation and the Windward Fund.
Dr. Simpson joined Old Dominion University in January 2008 as Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, and Professor of Ocean, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences. She obtained her Ph.D. at the ETH-Zurich, Switzerland in 1981. Dr. Simpson is an elected Fellow of the Geological Society of America and is a member and past Spring Meeting Chair of the American Geophysical Union.
Dr. Simpson is a 2009 Civic Leadership graduate and has served on several non-profit boards in the communities in which she has worked. She began serving on the Advocacy Committee this spring, attended the Art Auction, and is currently contributing at the major gift level.
ForKids’ innovative, result-driven programs for homeless families have garnered numerous awards including the 2008 Special Project Award from the Hampton Roads Housing Consortium for the redevelopment of W. 38th Street, the 2008 Campbell and Company Award for Excellence in Fundraising from the Association of Fundraising Professionals International,the 2006 Bank of America Neighborhood Builders Award, the 2005 Virginia Housing Award for Best Housing Program and the 2004 United Way Agency of the Year.
During her tenure with ForKids, Thaler has secured millions in federal government grants while successfully reducing ForKids’ dependence on government funding. Since 2001 she has increased community contributions from less than $100,000 to over $1.6 million in FY2009. Her success in implementing results-driven practices while bringing ForKids onto a firm financial footing earned her the 2009 Excellence in Nonprofit Leadership Prize from the Virginia Beach Foundation and the “Women In Business Achievement Award” from INSIDE Business magazine in 2005.
Thaler’s work to end homelessness has taken her to Washington D.C. to participate in a White House Roundtable discussion on national solutions for family homelessness and to Moscow to provide training in case management best practices for the AIDS Foundation East-West. She was a member of the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Commission to End Homelessness that created the 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness in Norfolk. Thaler is currently active in the Western Tidewater Continuum of Care and on numerous boards and advisory councils.
Prior to her work with ForKids, she worked as a Senior Consultant for Arthur Andersen in Washington, D.C. and wrote on housing and development issues for the Urban Land Institute. She holds a Bachelors Degree in Business from Miami University and a Masters Degree in Urban and Environmental Planning from the University Of Virginia School Of Architecture.
Chief Services Officer, Sally Berger, LPC, has been with ForKids since 2008. Joining ForKids as the Clinical Therapist, she was promoted to replace the retiring Services Director in 2009. A Norfolk native, Sally relocated back to Norfolk from Missouri where she was a Department Chair of Psychology and Alcohol and Drug Studies at Missouri Valley College. Sally has 18 years of experience providing direct care working in group home settings, private practice, and non-profit community settings. Sally specializes in families, trauma, and substance abuse. She is currently an adjunct professor at Tidewater Community College in the Department of Psychology. She earned her BS in Psychology and Special Education from Salem College in West Virginia, a MS Ed. in Counseling Psychology from Old Dominion University and is a doctoral candidate in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis from the University of Missouri. Licensures include LPC (Licensed Professional Counselor) and NCC (National Certified Counselor).
Senior Director of Grants and Research, Vikki Henderson has been with ForKids for five years, recently transitioning from Associate Director of Finance and Administration to direct the newly formed Grants and Research Department. A Norfolk native, Vikki spent 15 years working in Dallas, Texas, at Dallas Services, an early childhood center for special needs children with a budget of $2.5 million. Vikki worked her way up from Administrative Assistant to Bookkeeper to Comptroller to Associate Director. Through each of these positions, she learned critical elements of the day-to-day operations of running a non-profit. She has applied this knowledge to ForKids, where Vikki spent four years managing the operations of eleven properties, the federal Continuum of Care grants process, and all financial processes of the agency. Vikki is currently completing her Bachelor’s degree in Business at Strayer University. In her new role at ForKids, she oversees the application and reporting of over 65 different grants which fund the agency. In addition, her department implements the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) for ForKids’ Housing and Urban Development grants, the Chesapeake Central Intake System, and the communities of Suffolk and Western Tidewater.
Chief Development Officer, Bill Young joined the ForKids team in December of 2009 to grow and diversify ForKids’ income streams following a 15-year career in a variety of for-profit businesses. Bill heads up the ForKids’ development team, including fundraising, community relations, volunteer coordination, special events, and marketing as well as new business development. Bill came to ForKids from Beaufort Advisors, a small, rapidly growing healthcare consulting firm in Norfolk where he served as VP of Business Development. Prior to Beaufort, Bill served as the Chief Operating Officer and owner of Taste Unlimited for eight years until negotiating its sale in 2006. He holds an MBA from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia where he was a Shermet Scholar and the recipient of the C. Lewis Sheppard award for distinguished community service. He received his BA in Economics from the University of Virginia.
Chief Financial Officer, MacKenzie Arbogust joined ForKids in September 2009. MacKenzie oversees the financial and operational aspects of ForKids, including budget development, annual external audit, facilities management, and human resources. MacKenzie came to ForKids from AARP’s Legal Counsel for the Elderly (LCE) in Washington, D.C., where she worked as the Manager of Business Operations. LCE provides free legal services to D.C. seniors who earn up to 200% of the national poverty level and is supported by governmental grants and the AARP. Prior to her tenure at AARP, MacKenzie worked in the Northern Virginia high tech corridor as an analyst in varying roles for 5 years before going back to school full time to pursue her MBA. She has her BS from the College of William and Mary and her MBA from the Robert McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University, where she was a Connelly Scholar.
