Michael A. Mata
Michael A. Mata has designed and administered community and faith-based programs for over 30 years, particularly in the areas of community development, congregational redevelopment, intercultural programs, organizational and leadership development, ministry/nonprofit management and community youth development. He directs the Graduate Los Angeles Program in Transformational Urban Leadership at Azusa Pacific Seminary and is the Community Transformation Specialist with Compassion Creates Change, Inc.. Prior to his current assignments he was the Urban Development Director for World Vision U.S. Program where he was responsible for guiding the department’s implementation of its Signature Programs Model (community transformation focused on community youth development). Mata was the Mildred M. Hutchinson Assistant Professor of Urban Ministry (the first endowed chair in urban ministry) and Director of the Urban Leadership Institute at the Claremont School of Theology. As an ordained minister, he served fifteen years as part of the pastoral team at Los Angeles First Church of the Nazarene (a multi-ethnic/multi-congregation church with a highly regarded community program and prominent youth program).
Tim alderson
Tim Alderson is the Executive Director of Seeds of Hope, the food justice ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, which grows and distributes food in over 100 communities of need across six Southern California counties. His lifetime in agriculture has included nearly 20 years as CEO of AgriGator, Inc., a multi-national soil amendment manufacturer, as well as numerous industry boards including the board of directors of the National Agri-Marketing Association. He was the founding chairman of the California School Garden Network and was appointed by two California governors to the board of the Schools Agriculture and Nutrition Program where he currently serves as President. He was also appointed to the California Department of Education School Garden Advisory Committee. Tim lives in Pasadena, California where he has served as Chairman of the city’s Recreation and Parks Commission and the Mayor’s Workforce Housing Task Force.
Mario Fedelin
In 2004 Mario served as an AmeriCorps member with City Year San Jose and City Year Philadelphia. After his service he joined City Year Staff in Philadelphia and worked with a national network to create a high school civic leadership program that united diverse groups of high school students to explore and serve their community. In 2007 Mario moved back to California to be a founding staff member of City Year Los Angeles. As a Program Director at City Year, Mario worked with schools in Boyle Heights, Pico-Union, South Central and Watts providing an outcomes-based service model to curb the high school push-out crisis. In 2014 Mario conceived of, designed and launched Changeist. Changeist mobilizes young people from all different walks of life, places them on diverse teams and immerses them in a 7-month civic action experience, exploring the issues they care most about. Changeist launched in 2015 with 75 middle school youth, and in 2019 was identified by the Governor’s office as the youth development model to scale across California to increase civic engagement for all Californians. With the support from California Volunteers, Changeist will engage more than 500 youth in 2019 and grow to over 1000 youth annually.
Mario currently serves as an Advisory Board Member for a Community Center in Pico-Union, Co-chair of the Invest in Youth Coalition, a graduate of SCLN’s Leadership LA, a recipient of the Comcast NBCUniversal City Year Alumni Leadership award and most recently was selected out of thousands of applicants from over 160 countries to be a 2019 Obama Foundation Fellow. The Obama Fellowship supports outstanding civic innovators from around the world in order to amplify the impact of their work and to inspire a wave of civic innovation.