BEHIND BSF
DeMilo Young
CEO/Executive Director
DeMilo (she/her/hers) is a business owner with more than 25 years experience working with youth in outreach and after school programs. DeMilo was born at the San Diego Naval Hospital and raised in Southeast San Diego near the Valencia Park neighborhood. DeMilo has managed performance companies which offered performance and dance instruction to after school and summer programming to youth at the Jackie Robinson YMCA and for San Diego Unified District Schools. DeMilo is an advocate of racial justice and equity who has organized peaceful marches, vigils and events in response to racial violence across the United States that also reached Europe. Her belief is that education is a key factor in fighting racism and injustice. Her work with the family of Tamir Rice (12 year old youth shot at a park in Cleveland) was one of reasons behind creating a youth enrichment program that supports our children and gives them a safe space to create, learn and explore.
Abby Reynolds
CFO/Treasurer
Abby Hidalgo Reynolds (she/her/hers), a Latina San Diego native, has been homeschooling her 3 children since 2004. She enjoys gardening, planning road trips, and watching her kids perform. Over the years, she has taken on many active roles in her community such as a board member of a non-profit youth theatre group, a Girl Scout leader, and a historical reenactor at Old Town State Park (to name just a few). She is thrilled to work with this amazingly passionate team helping support BIPOC businesses and families.
Kerry-Ann Maddox
Board Secretary
When Kerry-Ann (she/her/hers) reflects on BIPOC, she thinks about the social differences between Jamaica and the United States. In Jamaica it was class, not race, that she felt was the more dominant issue. This distinction is the driving force behind her involvement with BSF. She wants to be a change agent for future BIPOC generations.
Emily Dragon
Board Member
Emily is a business owner and welder with an interest in economic research. For the past twelve years she has worked in several industries, as fight choreographer for theater, ghost writer and editor now for her publishing company (Reflective Publishing), underwater photographer (Water Dragon Photography), and fabrications welder. She is proud to be a part of a foundation that is well-organized, soundly structured, and has a clear goal for decisive change.
Brandi Sasore
Board Director
Brandi Sasore is an Indiana native with deep roots in the Indianapolis community. Her 15-year background in program development, planning and marketing for Indianapolis nonprofits gives her a unique perspective on what drives people to think, do and act.
Brandi is the Co-Founder and Chief Branding Officer of Buzzworthy, a boutique marketing, communications and branding firm focused on building purpose-driven brands. She founded Buzzworthy as a way to marry her passion for helping her community with her desire to make a larger impact, and affect real change. She firmly believes when we put people and community first, everyone thrives.
Starmeshia Jones
Social Media Director
Starmeshia (she/her/hers) is passionate about social justice, mental health, all things travel, and wellness in all forms. She is a school psychologist and an old soul from the East Coast, She deeply affirms that all facets of Black Lives Matter and believes that BIPOC businesses are the lifeline of their communities. She is honored to stand beside those called to do this work.
Blanca Lozano
Associate Executive Director
Blanca (she/hers) is a graduate from UC San Diego with a major in Sociology and a minor in Climate Change Studies. She is a climate activist in San Diego for many years, with a focus on addressing how BIPOC communities are disproportionately impacted by environmental racism through redlining, food deserts, lack of green spaces in neighborhoods, and inaccessibility of outdoor recreational spaces. In her free time Blanca enjoys surfing, reading, tending after her monarch garden, and exploring the endless beauty that nature has to offer.
Jesse Henshaw
Assistant Program Director, Education Initiative
Jesse, started volunteering with an after school program in a low income neighborhood and shared that this experience opened his eyes to the many challenges that youth of today face.
He has since spent the last five and a half years learning, and building a strong connection with the youth and the communities he's served, and he is really excited to be a part of the BIPOC Support Foundation. Jesse believes that it is a truly rewarding feeling to mentor and empower the youth.
Cassiopeia Guthrie
Advisory Board
A Leading Edge and National Geographic certified educator, Cassiopeia is credentialed in K-12 Education (Multiple Subjects, Single Subjects English/Social Science) with specializations in biliteracy and middle level education, storytelling through digital media, and blended and online instruction. She currently works as a district Ed Tech TOSA in the greater San Diego region. Cassiopeia is passionate about equity work in the educational and arts spaces, and believes that culturally and historically responsive curriculum, restorative justice, and competency- and project-based learning are important tools in our educator toolboxes.
Peter Ronchetti
Advisory Board
Peter Ronchetti has formed & led teams in the hospitality business for over 35 years, with the emphasis on relationship building and collaboration, in all cases focusing on change management and business growth. For the last 17 years he has been engaged in Theme Park General Management in the UK (Thorpe Park, Surrey) and California (LEGOLAND, Carlsbad), where via a process of brand building and significant capital developments we have enjoyed sustained business growth, with positive guest and staff KPI results.