LILYANNA THOMPSON, M.P.H. – President
Lily holds a Master of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health with a concentration in Tropical Medicine. She works in global market development for Thermo Fisher Scientific, helping to democratize access to precision medicine technologies. Visiting the rural Guatemalan highlands and the Behrhorst Clinic as an Arizona State University undergraduate researcher, she became passionate about health and development in Guatemala and has since worked on several projects addressing health and well-being in indigenous Maya communities. Lily served as an inaugural member of the ALDEA Young Professionals Council for 1.5 years before joining the Board of Directors in 2022.
NARRA COX, Ph.D. – Vice-President
Narra is a professor emerita of Continuing Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she served as a Professor and Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs in the Division of Continuing Studies. Her area of interest was school and community health and she was the founder and director of the HIV Outreach Project, a partnership with the State of Wisconsin to facilitate training and community planning for HIV prevention and care. Narra became familiar with the work of Dr. Carroll Behrhorst in the 1970’s through the Walks for Development and as a participant in the School for International Training’s program in Guatemala. Many years later she was a participant on a BPD (now ALDEA) Guatemala tour and subsequently served on the board for 7 years. Following her retirement from UW-Madison Narra returned to the board in 2020 to support the important work of ALDEA in reducing chronic childhood malnutrition in rural Guatemala.
C.J. SULTZ, M.B.A. – Secretary
C.J. retired after working for 25 years in brand management, customer marketing, and business insights, for such companies as Unilever, Kellogg’s, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s. When she’s not otherwise occupied with non-profit endeavors, she runs her own marketing firm, Glen Vista Consulting. She received her M.B.A. from the University of Michigan and a B.S. in Marketing and Sociology from Indiana University, and resides in Glenview, Illinois. Her interest in ALDEA stems from her board participation with Feed the Dream, a Chicago area-based non-profit which provided funding to ALDEA before dissolving in 2018. C.J. joined the ALDEA board in January 2019 and is also the board chair for Heartland Animal Shelter.
MARTHA TRESSLER, M.M. – Treasurer Martha is an accountant (CPA) with a Master of Management from Northwestern University. She moved to the United Kingdom in 1980, and
worked in the accounting and corporate finance fields until starting her own financial services consultancy business in 2000. Her first contact
with what is now ALDEA and ABPD was through the Freedom From Hunger Foundation Walks for Development (1969-1972) when the Behrhorst Clinic was one of the funding beneficiaries, and she has followed the development of the organization closely over the years. Now retired, she has more time to devote to volunteer activities and is delighted to serve on the board and support the valuable work ALDEA and ABPD are doing.
PAUL CHAN, M.D. Paul is a Professor of Medicine at University of Missouri-Kansas City and Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute. He is a general cardiologist with a research focus on cardiac arrest, care disparities, and quality of care. Paul has been involved with ALDEA since 1990, when he spent the summer in Chimaltenango studying the effects of the Guatemalan civil war on children. He previously served as Treasurer and President of the Board between 2002-2006 and has been involved with several international health and development organizations. Paul now returns to the board at ALDEA to support its work on rural health and development in the Guatemalan highlands.
MARYPAT ENGLISH, M.B.A.
Marypat has enjoyed an extensive career in the financial services industry and has spent the last 16 years at Wells Fargo as Head of Midwest Institutional Equity Sales. Although a native New Yorker, she has called Chicago her home since 1993. Marypat holds a B.A. in English from Manhattan College and received her M.B.A. from Boston College. She is Dare to Lead™ trained and has had a lifelong passion for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Marypat has three children and her son (Luke) is from Mazatenango, Guatemala.
CHRISTINA GIVEY, M.S.
Christina is a management consultant specializing in healthcare strategy and process improvement. Prior to healthcare consulting, she was a Program Policy Advisor with Oxfam America’s aid and development programs in Central and South America. She received an MSc in Human Rights from the London School of Economics and Political Science and holds a BA in Anthropology from Harvard College. She and her family live in Northern Virginia.
CARY HILL, M.D.
Cary graduated from UC Davis Medical School in 1983 and completed his Residency in obstetrics and gynecology in 1987. His practice is located at Palo Alto Medical Foundation where he has also held numerous administrative positions. His role in administration started shortly after joining the group in 1990. Currently, he is on the Sutter Health Bay Area Board of Directors and is the Vice President of Capstone Insurance, a medical malpractice insurance company. He has also served on the Palo Alto Foundation Medical Group Board, started a high-risk pregnancy department, and coordinated the incorporation of infertility and gynecological oncology into the group while he was the ob/gyn department chairman.
YESSENIA ORDÓÑEZ, M.B.A.
With over 20 years of experience in nonprofit and community development for the under-served, Yesse’s heart beats for supporting education and health initiatives. ALDEA’s mission to empower rural communities in Guatemala resonates deeply with her lifelong commitment to giving back. As a native of Guatemala, she is driven to be a catalyst for empowerment and growth within the communities of her home country, following in the inspiring footsteps of the women in her family. Their legacy of teaching in the inner city and nurturing fuels her passion to uplift and transform lives in Guatemala.
BRUCE ROBBINS, M.D.
Bruce worked for 36 years as a pathologist in the Scripps Hospital system in San Diego. His work included sub-specialty expertise in immunology and leukemia/lymphoma diagnosis as well as multiple administrative roles including Medical Director of the Scripps Mercy Hospital clinical laboratory, and president of a private pathology laboratory business. He attended Stanford University as an undergraduate, and then UC San Diego Medical School. While in medical school, Bruce spent the summer of 1978 studying Spanish in Antigua, Guatemala and tropical medicine in Costa Rica. He returned to Guatemala in the summer of 1979 to volunteer at the Behrhorst Clinic in Chimaltenango. In 2016, he and his wife Elaine participated in the ALDEA Guatemala tour. This experience rekindled his passion and commitment to ALDEA’s mission, and he joined the board in June 2016. Bruce retired from medical practice in 2017, and now has more time for ALDEA and his other passions.
THOMAS A. SHARPE, JR., M.B.A.
Tom is Co-Founder of Onetegrity, LLC, a professional services firm advising thought leaders on bringing innovation to bear on public missions. He retired in June 2017 as the Commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service, where he led the federal government’s large scale centralized procurement organization. Prior, Tom was a consulting principal with IBM Global Services. He holds an M.B.A. from Marywood University and a B.S. from the University of Scranton. Tom resides in Washington, DC and New York City. He joined the ALDEA board in January 2018.
GORDON STARKEBAUM, M.D.
Gordon graduated from Columbia University Medical School in 1970. He spent three months working with Dr. Behrhorst in the spring of 1970 which left an indelible mark on his approach to the practice of medicine. He was trained as a rheumatologist at the University of Washington and was at the UW-affiliated VA Puget Sound Health Care System for over 35 years where he was Chief of the Arthritis Section, then Chief of Staff. He is now mostly retired. He was appointed Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington and Masters of the American College of Rheumatology.
JOHNNY WALKER, M.S.
Johnny is honorary consul for Guatemala serving South Carolina, USA. He serves on the Rotary District 7750 Global Grants Committee, and is a member and past-president of the Rotary Club of Aiken Sunrise. He is a member of La Red, supporting families in zones 3 & 7 of Guatemala City. Professionally he is Senior Fellow Engineer (Ret.) for Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, LLC, and was Chief Information Security Officer for Process Engineering. He loves visiting Guatemala and working on maternal and child health projects. He currently teaches Yoga at an assisted living facility in South Carolina.
