Assist Management Consulting, LLC
Staff and Associates
Yvette-Janine Pardo, President of Assist Management Consulting, LLC (Assist), has worked with nonprofit organizations in development, administration, grant writing, and operations since 1985. After 11 years of working with nonprofits, she founded Assist in 1996. She is a board member for the Women's City Club of Pasadena and a former board member of Blinn House Foundation. Her expertise is in health care management and administration and medical research writing (NIH grant writing). She has had the honor of working with the Culver City Adult School; UN, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development; Los Angeles Free Clinic; Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, Division of Adolescent Medicine; Venice Family Clinic; California Family Health Council; Prototypes; United American Indian Involvement, Inc.; Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science; Westside Family Health Center; Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Riverside Chapter; and more. She is certified in nonprofit management by California State University, Los Angeles, and she teaches an NIH grant writing seminar series for Charles Drew University School of Medicine and Science. She has assisted investigators at CDU, UCLA, RAND, and Cal State University Dominguez Hills, and Jackson State University. Her undergraduate studies (sociology, with an emphasis on deviant behavior at the University of California, Los Angeles), her certification of nonprofit management, along with her hands-on experience in social service and healthcare management and administration, have allowed her to develop expertise in the following areas: · Organizational assessment of structure and operations · Program development and planning · Review, evaluation, and design of grant-funded programs · NIH Grant writing · Re-engineering and re-structuring · Strategic planning and program evaluation planning · Contract and grant management Rodney D. Presley, MSW, LICSW, Vice President of Assist Management Consulting, LLC, has over 20 years experience in program development, strategic planning, grants management, and administration in nonprofit health care, mental health and social services settings in California, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. He has worked in various agencies and organizations including: Planned Parenthood Santa Monica, Los Angeles Free Clinic, Venice Family Clinic, Comprehensive Child Crisis Services (City & County of San Francisco), and USC School of Social Work. Rodney was a board member for Los Angeles Regional Family Planning Council and Reservoir Hill Mutual Homes Cooperative (in Baltimore). He was also a presenter for Sheppard Pratt Health Systems’ Speakers Bureau where he provided trainings for Baltimore County Department of Social Services. Rodney has a B.S. degree in Health Science from San Jose State University and a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Southern California, School of Social Work. Terri DiMarco has over 20 years experience in professional sales, strategic marketing and advertising communications. She has extensive experience working with clients to promote their products and services for business to business clients and non-profits. She has experience in sales and customer program development, agency management, sales management, strategic marketing plans, training, direct response advertising and project development and implementation. Terri has been the owner and sole proprietor of DiMarco Media Group, where she was a publisher's representative for European and Asian trade business publications. Terri also worked as Vice President Print Production and Media for a direct response agency where she planned, implemented, scheduled and monitored all direct mail production for major local and national non-profit organizations including The Salvation Army, Boy Scouts of America, Goodwill Industries, Habitat for Humanity and Volunteers of America. Terri has exceptional marketing development and product positioning skills, is an excellent proposal writer, communicator and speaker. She is a highly effective leader and business manager, team player and is able to manage multiple projects to meet common deadlines for Assist's clients.. Cornelia F. Dvorak has a bachelor of science in biological sciences and 25 years of experience as a chemist and microbiologist in analytical laboratories. Ms. Dvorak first developed her writing skills during her teenage years working for the family enterprise, an internationally distributed equine magazine. More recently, she has been involved in writing and editing operating procedure manuals and detailed analytical reports for clients. She has also assisted a laboratory in preparing for national accreditation, primarily through researching accreditation requirements and developing manuals for use by laboratory analysts. Jeremy Loudenback is an associate writer with Assist. He provides writing and editing services, including copy editing, grant development, and Web site development, among others. Previously, he worked as a community news reporter for a newspaper and as an assistant editor for publications at a nonprofit organization. He also contributes art and music criticism to local publications and Web sites. Elvina M. Luistro, M.H.A. , has extensive management consulting experience that includes process reengineering, quality assessment, strategic planning, and project management. Several prestigious academic medical centers are among the healthcare providers from across the nation that comprise her list of prior clients. Before joining the Assist team, Ms. Luistro was a consultant with a large, nationally based management consulting firm. Ms Luistro has a master’s degree in health administration from the University of Washington, Seattle and a bachelor of arts in women’s studies and a bachelor of science in applied ecology from the University of California, Irvine. Amy Nespor, Ph.D.: Supporting evaluator: Dr. Nespor has over fifteen years of research, project management, product development, training, teaching, and grant writing experience in such industries as academia, healthcare, and biopharm. Dr. Nespor has experience writing NIH grants, training, editing, and overseeing the implementation of an electronic medical record system in a large healthcare organization, and communicating the scientific/medical aspects of biopharm products to national and international sales and marketing teams. She is working with Assist as a supporting program evaluator and as such assists in development of logic models, and the creation of evaluation data collection tools. Dr. Nespor has extensive experience with writing grants and scientific publications, with over 10 publications, presented her work at 16 scientific conferences, created written scientific/medical communications summarizing scientific articles for global clinical sciences and medical affairs personnel, and created publication plans for three portfolio products with FDA. She also has extensive experience with statistical analysis. Dr. Nespor graduated from the University of Maryland at College Park with a Ph.D. in Neuroscience and has experience in animal and human neuroanatomy, physiology, neuroendocrinology, behavioral pharmacology, cognition, and principles of behavioral, psychological, biological, and pharmacological research. Dr. Nespor has completed two post-doctoral fellowships (at Howard University and the University of California at Irvine). She also worked at Kaiser Permanente and Baxter Healthcare. Role on AXIS project: Dr. Nespor will be working with the AXIS internal evaluation staff to ensure data collection and tracking tools are implemented. James E. Siegrist, J.D. , a graduate from University of California, Los Angeles and Hastings, is a California licensed attorney who assists in grant and copywriting, reviewing, and editing. James provides expertise in grants written for non-profit organizations with legal services. He also provides English/Spanish document translations for both non-profit and for-profit business communities. Sarah Sadeghi has a Master of Arts in Organizational Behavior and Evaluation and has previously provided evaluation consulting services to non-profit organizations in the Inland Empire. She has assisted clients to develop program logic, strategically connecting every aspect of their program or intervention to the organization’s mission and goals. She also designs evaluation plans primarily for purposes of program improvement and outcomes assessments. As an Associate Evaluation Consultant with Assist Management Consulting,LLC, she utilizes her evaluation expertise in grant writing. Sandra C. Wang, M.P.H., has a Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology from University of California, Los Angeles and a Master of Public Health degree with an emphasis in Community Health Education from California State University, Northridge. Ms. Wang is currently a consultant for Assist Management Consulting, LLC, where she assists non-profit organizations and companies with implementation and maintaining grant funded programs. Ms. Wang has worked with Gentiva Rehab Without Walls, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles-Division of Adolescent Medicine, Los Angeles Free Clinic, National Neurological Research Bank, St. John’s Hospital and Health Center, and McBride Special Education School. Ms. Wang has worked as a health educator, advocator, program evaluator, customer satisfaction survey consultant, program coordinator, Data specialist, rehabilitation specialist, and managed an international human specimen bank./p> Associates from other companies: Jocelyn Baker Jocelyn Baker provides a wide range of copywriting and editing services for Assist and its clients. She is a former political reporter and marketing specialist whose areas of expertise include grant writing, publication development, content for brochures and marketing materials, business plan development, and Web site copy, to name a few. In addition, she has edited and ghostwritten several books and book chapters. Jocelyn spent two years heading the public relations department of a non-profit before directing operations for two technology-based companies. She is experienced in the oversight of day-to-day activities of both for-profit and nonprofit organizations, including policy development, hiring, human resources, team-building, outcomes evaluations, and staff motivation. Jocelyn used to work with Assist as one of the grant writers from 2000-2005. She still assists. Belva Edwards Belva Edwards is the Principal of Abacus Financial Group, a boutique business management company in Los Angeles, California. For more than seven years, Abacus Financial has handled the day-to-day financial affairs for busy corporate executives, professional athletes and entertainers. Abacus Financial provides quality service in the areas of accounting & bookkeeping, payroll services, tax preparation and nonprofit and business management. Belva worked with Assist since 2000 assisting our nonprofits. Instead of keeping accounting services in house, we now refer our clients to Abacus Financial Group. Floraline I. Stevens, EdD Evaluation Consultant Floraline I. Stevens, EdD: Dr. Stevens has been in the evaluation business since 1966 when she left being a training teacher after being tapped by her school district to be an evaluator of federal programs. The decision to become an evaluator led to her doctorate in evaluation and transformed her career goals. Also, her decision led to a very successful venture into becoming the CEO of a successful program evaluation and educational research firm established in 1994. Her firm, Floraline I. Stevens and Associates, was organized following her retirement as the Director of the Research and Evaluation Branch for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) for 19 years. She was cited as an innovative administrator who brought new ways of processing and analyzing assessment and program evaluation data to school district reports. Also, she served as a senior research fellow for the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in Washington, D.C. followed by two years as a program director for the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the Education and Human Resources Directorate. For five years, she was as a research associate for the Mid-Atlantic Educational Research Laboratory at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA where she conducted an applied research project in Washington, D.C., Camden and Newark, New Jersey, and Los Angeles. She has written research papers and articles and is known nationally for her NCES monograph, Opportunity to Learn for Poor and Minority Students published in 1992, and her 1993 NSF publication, User-Friendly Handbook for Project Evaluation. If you are interested in becoming an Assist associate, please contact us .
Founder
GhostWriters Anonymous
310.659.9927 (Phone)
310.861.5199 (Fax)
Principal
Abacus Financial Group, Inc
866.469.7535 (Toll Free)
866.469.7536 (Fax)
Mission Statement
To provide unparalleled assistance to those who assist-nonprofit, public, and private sector entities-in organizational design and development, resulting in positive community outcomes.
