Alchemy Partners

Annenberg Alchemy is a free capacity-building and leadership development program designed to assist small to midsize Los Angeles-based nonprofit organizations and their leaders. Our training team represents seasoned and trusted professionals from the social impact sector. With their expertise we continue to strengthen our curricula annually, developing insightful, relevant and compelling content for our nonprofit partners each year. Below you’ll find their individual backgrounds and work experience.

Andy Goodman

STORYTELLING TRAINER
Andy Goodman is co-founder and director of The Goodman Center, which teaches communications and marketing professionals how to reach more people with more impact. Along with Storytelling as Best Practice, he is author of Why Bad Ads Happen to Good Causes and Why Bad Presentations Happen to Good Causes. He also publishes a monthly journal titled free-range thinkingTM, where he shares best practices in the field of public interest communications. Goodman is internationally known for his speeches and workshops on storytelling and has led over 500 trainings for clients including CARE, the Nature Conservancy, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, NOAA, the San Diego Zoo, MIT, Princeton, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, GE, Bank of America, and many others. He has designed communications curriculum for the College for Social Innovation in Boston as well as for the African Leadership University in Mauritius. When not teaching, traveling, or recovering from teaching and traveling, Goodman serves on the advisory board of the Institute for Human Caring.

David Greco

NONPROFIT FINANCIALS TRAINER

David Greco is a nationally recognized speaker, author, and consultant on creating a more sustainable and effective social sector. He brings more than 25 years of experience in driving the growth and impact of social sector organizations. David currently serves as the Executive Director of All Stars Helping Kids, which invests in youth to help break the cycle of poverty. David began his career working on political campaigns before moving into the nonprofit sector where he has worked to provide access to education for economically disadvantaged youth, built community coalitions around improving the social determinants of health for young people, and supported environmental education and wildlife habitat conservation. A fundraiser by background, he has successfully scaled programs, developed new services, expanded into new markets and business lines, and launched new earned revenue ventures.

Prior to leading All Stars, David founded Social Sector Partners to help nonprofits and funders better understand what it really costs for nonprofits to be sustainable and achieve impact. He worked with nonprofits on how to develop revenue and fundraising strategies that cover their full cost and partnered with funders to adapt grantmaking practices to better support nonprofit sustainability and impact. He created and led the Full Cost Project in California to increase the number of grantmakers providing full-cost funding, served as Interim President and CEO for Northern California Grantmakers, was the Vice President of the Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) for more than five years, and Vice President of the Youth Leadership Institute. He regularly speaks at national conferences, has trained thousands of social sector leaders on financial sustainability, and has partnered with the staff, trustees, and grantees of dozens of foundations.

He serves on the Southern California Advisory Board for Opportunity Fund and was previously on the board of Social Venture Partners Los Angeles. He is a professor at Pepperdine University in the Master of Arts in Social Entrepreneurship and Change program and the author of Think Money First! Ending the Culture of Scarcity and Achieving Real Impact. David served for 10 years in the Air Force and Air Force Reserves and earned his M.A. in Political Science from Villanova University and B.S. in History & Politics from Drexel University.

David A. Kietzman

COMMUNICATIONS & IMPLEMENTATION SUPPORT

David is an expert in solving problems through communications. In the last two decades, he led four organizations and launched multiple social impact enterprises often drawing local and national recognition for his work. He has also received recognition and training from Los Angeles Social Venture Partners, Annenberg Foundation, New Leaders Council and the Wells Fargo Executive Leadership program.

When David consults with clients, he offers not only the perspective of a marketing expert but also that of a leader, having helmed similar organizations and earned a master’s degree in public management from Cal State Los Angeles. The seasoned managing partner’s first foray into business was as a graphic designer after obtaining an art degree from Point Loma Nazarene University. He taught art abroad in Central America and locally in Los Angeles before entering the social impact sector. David launched various nonprofit and business ventures, including San Fernando Valley’s Youth Speak Collective. His latest venture with Momentum Solutions allows him to mix creativity, a social impact leadership background and a professional coaching certification when working with their clients.

David has an authentic dedication to the values of inclusion, creative leadership and innovation. He serves clients, donors, civic leaders and community residents that share his values. Past clients range from family foundations, Fortune 1000 businesses, nonprofit organizations to coaching individual leaders.

He teaches nonprofit fundraising and governance at Cal State Los Angeles in their Masters of Public Administration program, in addition being a guest lecturer and trainer at USC, UCLA, CSUN, First 5 L.A., Executive Service Corps and other institutions. Recently, he became a founding member of the Make Change Awards and L.A. Latino Giving Circle and sits on several nonprofit Boards in Southern California. When he isn’t working, David enjoys exploring the many communities that make up the City of Angels with his family.

Evelin E. Montes

FACILITATION & IMPLEMENTATION SUPPORT

Evelin E. Montes is a certified professional coach who serves as a vessel for individuals as they explore, dig deep and identify personal strengths and fresh perspectives to tackle challenges. Leveraging her extensive resume of 20 years in the social impact sector, she is a thought partner to clients as they launch new initiatives and strengthen their programs.

Evelin has supported various institutions such as the Annenberg Foundation, The California Endowment, California Community Foundation, the California Conference for Equality and Justice, the California Latino Leadership Institute and the Liberty Hill Foundation. She started her career through Public Allies-Los Angeles, a 10-month AmeriCorps leadership development program, which gave her an understanding of the Los Angeles social impact and political landscape. After earning a bachelor’s degree in urban and environmental policy from Occidental College, she worked alongside community leaders around tenant rights and affordable housing issues in MacArthur Park and Westlake — the area where she was born and raised.

She grounds her coaching, facilitating and training in the belief that we are all worthy individuals capable of great things. Evelin is passionate about racial, gender and LGBTQIA+ justice. She enjoys working with women of color who hold leadership positions and are seeking to strengthen their supervising skills, build their confidence, and fortify their communication styles.

Evelin is also an alumni of The Funders’ Network PLACES Fellows (Professionals Learning About Community, Equity, and Smart Growth), an active volunteer with the California Conference for Equality and Justice (CCEJ), and sits on the Leadership Council of the Latino Giving Circle Network of the Latino Community Foundation. She is a proud daughter of immigrants from El Salvador and lives in the Mid-City community of Los Angeles with her regal beagle and her two precocious cats.

Gayle Northrop

SUCCESSION PLANNING TRAINER

Gayle Northrop is a consultant, coach and educator, as well as president of Northrop Nonprofit Consulting, a firm specializing in strategic planning, organization development and leadership development for social impact organizations worldwide. With broad international experience, Gayle has dedicated her career to helping drive positive social change through strengthened systems, improved service delivery, and more effective measurement and communication of impact. Since its inception in 2001, Northrop Nonprofit Consulting has worked with organizations across the legal spectrum, including Human Rights Watch, Red Bull, Virgin Unite, Homeboy Industries, and the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project.

Gayle is on the faculty of UCLA Anderson School of Management where she teaches social entrepreneurship in MBA programs, serves as senior faculty advisor for Impact@Anderson, and leads a global immersion course on Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation in South Africa. She also teaches a course (“Social Entrepreneurship: Sector Agnostic Models of Impact”) to
undergraduate students eager to explore ways to blend purpose and profit in their careers and in their lives.

Gayle’s work in Africa includes co-founding and now serving on the board of Spark Health Africa, an organization working with governments to strengthen African health systems for better health outcomes. She is an advisor to the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business where she works on strategy, program design, and a multiyear initiative driving social innovation in health in the global south.

Gayle has launched, taught, and evaluated a number of leadership development programs for social sector leaders, working with organizations such as the Center for Nonprofit Management, Community Partners, Johnson & Johnson, the Low Income Investment Fund, and the Institute for High Quality Care. She has served on numerous boards, including PATA (Pediatric & Adolescent AIDS Treatment for Africa), the Giving Keys, United Friends of the Children, and the Child Educational Center. Gayle received her MBA from UCLA Anderson and holds BA degrees in Communication and American Studies from Stanford University.

Janet McIntyre

BOARD GOVERNANCE TRAINER

Janet McIntyre works with nonprofit organizations’ staff and board members in areas of organizational development and leadership development. She is a certified professional coach, facilitator, and trainer with over 20 years of professional experience in the nonprofit sector. In addition to coaching and organizational consulting, she facilitates board and staff retreats, and designs and delivers training on such topics as coaching for managers, team building, creating a culture of fundraising, and board development.

She is currently at the Executive Service Corps of Southern California where she oversees two leadership institutes: Wells Fargo Executive Directors Leadership Institute and the Developing Development Program in which she also serves as the lead instructor. Upon graduating from Occidental College with a B.A. in Public Policy and a minor in Asian Studies, she worked in arts and cultural organizations for over 15 years. Most recently, she was the Executive Director of the Hollywood Arts Council, and prior to that she was the Director of Development at Classical KUSC Public Radio and worked in various development roles at the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Hollywood Bowl.

She earned an Executive Master of Leadership from the Price School of Public Policy – with an emphasis in nonprofit management – at the University of Southern California, and she earned her certification in coaching at the Coaches Training Institute. She has served as a member of the Board of Trustees at Occidental College and currently serves on the board of Jericho Road Pasadena.

Kelly Brown

DEI TRAINER

Kelly Brown is Principal Consultant at Viewpoint Consulting, which provides program design, research, and analysis to nonprofits, philanthropic organizations and individuals investing resources to strengthen underserved communities. Prior to this, she was the Director of the D5 Coalition, a five-year effort to advance philanthropy through diversity, equity, and inclusion. Brown has served as Director of Programs and Evaluation at Marguerite Casey Foundation and as Grants Director at the Vanguard Public Foundation. She was Director of Marketing and Industry Relations at OPNET, a social venture that created digital workforce opportunities for low-income young adults, and Administrative Director for the TransAfrica (formerly TransAfrica Forum), a national foreign policy and research organization at the forefront of efforts to secure a peaceful transition to a multi-racial democracy in South Africa. In addition to managing the budgets, boards, and operations for two integrated nonprofits, she helped organize Nelson Mandela’s inaugural visit to the United States.

Meredith Fenton

MARKETING TRAINER

Meredith Fenton is a strategist, trainer, facilitator, and coach who partners with change-making leaders, organizations and movements to shape effective strategy, mobilize resources, tell powerful stories, build capacity, and win social change. A few of her current and recent partners include Immigrant Legal Resource Center, Irvine Foundation, SIREN, PolicyLink, Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, Food System 6, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Latino Community Foundation, and Neighborhood Funders Group.

For four years, Meredith was a Vice President at Fenton – the social change agency (with a coincidental name) where she led partnerships with a wide range of organizations and foundations within the firm’s social justice practice, including Anchor Institutions Philanthropy Project, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, PICO California, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, First Place for Youth, Transgender Law Center, SF Foundation, and Earthjustice. She also served as the lead trainer of the firm and provided hands-on training as well as communications coaching to both emerging and seasoned communications talent working in a variety of organizations and foundations.

Previously Meredith served as the Director of Communication Strategies at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and as the National Program Director of COLAGE. Outside of her business, Meredith is currently the chair of the Board of Directors of Californians for Justice. She is also a performer, producer, volunteer, and activist who works with such groups as the Queer Cultural Center, Waves Ahead, Showing Up for Racial Justice, Wellesley College Board of Admissions, and the Radical Communicators Network. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Wellesley College and lives in Oakland, CA with her partner and their Muppet of a dog.

Susan Decker

FUNDRAISING TRAINER

Susan Decker is the principal for Decker Consulting and has served for over fifteen years as a senior governance consultant with BoardSource, a Washington, D.C. based nonprofit governance sector leadership organization. Over the last decade, she has directed and served as faculty for the Master of Leadership Development at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College in Indiana. This graduate program works with business, non-profit, and public sector professionals in their educational journey of developing and expanding their leadership skills.

She has over 25 years of nonprofit management and leadership experience, currently working with nonprofit organizations on exceptional governance practices, fundraising, board development to increase engagement, and strategic planning. She has worked with client organizations across the globe with a diversity of mission, size, and geographic scope. Susan works collaboratively with the board and staff to facilitate growth opportunities for the organization.

As a trainer of consultants, Susan has served as the lead for the BoardSource Certified Governance Training program and the Certificate of Nonprofit Board Consulting. In this role, she has worked with over 200 nonprofit consultants, guiding them on best practices in building engaging and focused board training based upon sound governance practices.

Previously, Susan worked with two national public charities, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. At St. Jude she had responsibility for special event fundraising of $150M annually and a staff of nearly 200 while at Komen, she had governance oversight for over 100 local boards. She also served as the National Director of the Race for the Cure® series; the world’s largest run/walk series.

Susan has served on a number of nonprofit boards of directors, serving in leadership positions such as Chair of the Governance Committee and Chair of the Board. She currently serves on a local nonprofit board. Her work has been recognized with the ATHENA Leadership Award for contributions to her community and the Sister Mary Joseph Pomeroy Award for Excellence in Service at Saint-Mary-of-the-Woods College.