Board of Directors

Sheila Paul Shedd serves as the Director for Corporate Engagement in the Career & Professional Development Services division at Arizona State University. She oversees the Corporate Engagement and Alumni Relations unit that engages organizations, both domestic and global, to provide quality internships and career opportunities for over 100,000 students and 450,000+ alumni.

Prior to this, Sheila served as an Associate Director for Workforce Development at Maricopa Community Colleges. In her role, she built and sustained strategic partnerships with the economic and workforce development ecosystem, with the ultimate goal of positioning Maricopa’s students for quality careers across the 10 Colleges and 2 Skill Centers that made up the Maricopa Community College system.

Sheila also served as the Director of the Workforce Arizona Council, the State’s Workforce Investment Board that advised the Governor on workforce development. Sheila was instrumental in the re-engineering of the state’s workforce system that included initiatives to strengthen its delivery of services.

Prior to entering the Economic and Workforce Development arena, Sheila spent her professional career as a Municipal Clerk to several Mayors and Councils in South Florida for 10 years as well as spending time as a licensed Business Broker where she assisted in the successful transfer and acquisition of small to medium-sized companies in Arizona.

Sheila earned her Master’s in Business Administration and double-majored in Business Management and International Business at Florida International University. Sheila also serves as a public speaker on workforce development topics. Most recently, she represented the United States workforce system at the 2015 SelectUSA Summit headlined by President Barack Obama and U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Tom Perez.

Sheila is of Haitian-American descent and speaks fluent French Creole. She enjoys spending time with her husband, David.

In her role as Vice President of Branch Operations, Kristy is responsible for the general operations of Tech Finders and providing a consultative approach to staffing for clients and candidates. She absolutely loves what she does and feels privileged to lead a team that is the absolute best and most passionate team of recruiters in the valley. With more than twenty years in the staffing services industry, Kristy’s experience spans from front-line sales and service responsibility to high-level strategic analysis, planning and implementation. Her areas of specialty are: strategic program development & implementation, recruiting, sales, sales management and sales training, team leadership, P&L development, management & attainment, and forecasting and budgeting. Kristy enjoys her family, friends, community involvement, running and exercising in her free time.

Rick LeBrun spent the last 29 years of his 39 year career in public accounting as a partner with a national CPA firm. Rick served the firm as the in charge partner for the New Jersey office for 1 year, the in charge partner for the Chicago office for 15 years, the firm’s managing partner for 5 years and the in charge partner for the California office for 8 years. During his time in California, he opened two additional offices and became the regional director for the West Coast. He provided a wide range of audit, accounting, and advisory services to churches, loan fund entities, denominations, colleges and universities, mission agencies, health care, and other not-for-profit organizations. He provided consulting for internal controls and administrative procedures, internal financial reporting, and accounting and tax compliance. He had extensive experience in accounting systems analysis, design, and implementation for not-for-profit applications. He has been a featured speaker at conferences and seminars on various exempt organization issues. His passion is strategic planning, business turnaround and development Rick was a member of the AICPA, the Barnabas Group, the California CPA Society, and Christian Leadership Alliance. Rick is currently retired.

Hall is the Workforce Manager at City of Peoria. She brings more than 20 years of higher education and workforce development experience. Kirsten has worked at Thunderbird Graduate School of International Management and holds a Certificate of International Management from that global institution. She worked at Estrella Mountain Community College, developing their new corporate training division as well as Phoenix Workforce Connections in Business Services. She currently is working for the city of Peoria and is lead on the West Valley Workforce Development Implementation Strategy for Westmarc. She has just been selected as an Honorary Commander for Luke Air Force Base and looks forward to building the bridge between transitioning military and the workforce. She is a small group leader at the new church Life Church of the Northwest Valley in Peoria, AZ and has been a mom mentor for House of Hope, a 2 year residential, transitional housing program for homeless mothers. She’s currently an online adjunct faculty at Grand Canyon University, teaching marketing and public relations. Kirsten has been on the Board of Directors for Career Connectors for three years and is now serving in an officer capacity, as Vice Chair for the Board. She has her Bachelor’s of Management from University of Phoenix, the Thunderbird Graduate School Academic Certificate and her MBA from Grand Canyon University. She has two children and five grandchildren.

Sintra Hoffman is the President and Chief Executive Officer of WESTMARC.  She previously served as Assistant Division Director for the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT). Her professional background includes more than 19 years of experience in local, state and federal government. Sintra lead ADOT’s Office of Public Affairs which focused on building and sustaining relationships with leaders in Arizona’s cities, towns, counties and business community. Prior to her time at ADOT, she spent 10 years with the City of Surprise, serving as the Director of Intergovernmental Relations and Deputy City Manager. Sintra was recognized as by Arizona Business Magazine as one of the Most Influential Women in 2016. Sintra has been recognized for her accomplishments in transportation lobbying and problem solving. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Masters of Administration in Public Administration.

Jason has worked for Policy Development Group since 1998 and represents clients at all levels of government – local, state, and federal. Prior to joining PDG, Jason served as legislative director for Congressman Jim Kolbe. During his nearly eight year tenure on Capitol Hill in Congressman Kolbe’s office, Jason rose through the ranks to ultimately staff the Appropriations Subcommittee on Treasury and Postal Service which Kolbe chaired. During his time on Capitol Hill, Jason was responsible for advising Congressman Kolbe on a range of issues including defense, education, currency reform, law enforcement, judicial matters, and immigration. A Tucson native, Jason graduated from Baylor University and holds a diploma for the completion of the US Naval War College’s College of Naval Command and Staff program. In 2010, Governor Janice K. Brewer appointed Jason to the Commission on Appellate Court Appointments Nominating Committee where he served until 2015. Additionally, Governor Brewer appointed Jason to serve on the Governor’s Regulatory Review Council in 2012 where he continues to serve.

He has served as an Honorary Commander for Luke Air Force Base and remains a member of Fighter Country Partnership serving as the Vice-Commander of the Blue Blazer Squadron and the Vice-Chairman of the Honorary Commander Committee. In addition, Jason has served for many years as a teacher, committee member and deacon at North Phoenix Baptist Church.

Jason resides in Phoenix with his wife, son, and three stepsons.

Currently at Freedom Financial Network, Linda brings her extensive experience leading people strategy in fast growing, high performance organizations with a passion for employee engagement and enablement. With expertise in Talent Acquisition, Performance Management, Succession, Learning & Development, Linda defines success as getting the right talent, in the right place, at the right time in all areas of the business. As Freedom experiences accelerated growth, she will ensure we continue with our strong culture of respect, openness, teamwork and passion for excellence. At Freedom Linda leads our Talent Acquisition, Human Resources and Training and Development functions. Her background includes HR leadership roles at GT Advanced Technologies and United Rentals. At United Rentals she was recognized for creating “Women United” career advancement program. She has a BA in Business Management.

Jessica founded Career Connectors in 2009 after the economy had a personal impact on her family. Originally started as a small volunteer group to help write resumes, it quickly turned into a larger organization helping people get back to work. She is now the Executive Director of Career Connectors as well as a known speaker, trainer and career transition expert. Jessica brings a strong background in organizational development techniques, career coaching, DISC behavioral assessment, training and development, pre-employment assessments, outplacement services and hiring.

Jessica Pierce is the also the President of Thrive139, it’s where Competence + Character + Chemistry makes the right Culture Match, with the niche focus on hiring and people development for churches and nonprofit organizations.

Jessica recently spoke at The White House in the Forum on Job Clubs in United States, her focus being on employer engagement. She was also named as one of Phoenix’s 40 Under Forty in 2011, the premier program honoring the best young leaders in the Phoenix metro market and an award recipient of the 2013 Arizona Foothill’s Women Who Move the Valley, then also an award nominee for the 2014 Phoenix Chamber of Commerce’s Athena Awards. Jessica has been featured in the Arizona Republic, on NBC Channel 12, ABC Channel 15, SimplyHired and multiple other radio and newspaper outlets.

Jacqueline Smith joined Grand Canyon University in 2008 and is currently Executive Director of The Career IMPACT Center, where her team works with current students and alumni to help prepare them for purposeful careers. The Center has grown from two employees in 2009 to over ten today, along with over fifteen student workers. The Career IMPACT Center not only hires and trains 2,400 student workers but also provides a wide variety of tools to the professional job seeker, including resume reviews, career advising consultations and an on-line job board.

Prior to coming to GCU, Jacqueline worked in academics and career services for Brown Mackie College in Northern Kentucky. She also has over twenty years of recruiting experience.

A native of Marion, Ohio, Jacqueline received her undergraduate degree from The Ohio State University in 1986 and her master’s degree in leadership from Grand Canyon University in 2012.

Jacqueline currently resides in Phoenix, where she lives with her husband Dave and Pomeranian, Leo.

Wow, I can’t believe that I have been with Dignity Health for over 17 years now. Time goes by so fast, especially when you are doing something that you love. As the Regional Director of Talent Acquisition, overseeing the hiring of our hospitals in Arizona, Bakersfield/Merced, California and Nevada, I embrace my role in ensuring that our hospitals are staffed with the most talented professionals who truly dedicated to their roles as ambassadors of Hello Humankindness. From entry level to hospital presidents, our talent team is very selective, ensuring that all successful candidates are as passionate about patient care and family customer service as we are. This is a true honor to hold, and it is with that honor that I am commiteed to our job seekers to educate them on what types of traditional and non-traditional career opporunities are availalbe in healthcare, share the various pathways into healthcare and provide guidence and support in an area that I am passionate about.

Born and raised in Chicago, Frank lived in New York City, Detroit, Connecticut and Bavaria, Germany, before moving to Arizona in the late 1990s.
In 1999 he co-founded the branding agency Six Degrees in Scottsdale, which he leads as CEO. Six Degrees serves national and international clients with branding, advertising and market research services. Before coming to Arizona, Frank held corporate positions at General Motors and Pfizer and served as a Managing Partner at Interbrand New York and VP of Global Brand Research at Opinion Research Corporation. His brand-building experience covers various sectors including hospitality, financial, medical device, consumer goods, pharmaceutical, automotive, technology—and in one notable exception—the re-branding of sovereign nation state. Frank’s professional work has taken him to 17 countries on four continents.
Frank is married to Estella, a Registered Oncology Nurse at Honor Health. The two met at Knox College and have two adult sons, Philip and Avery. Frank’s hobbies include international travel, the culinary arts & wine and, occasionally, car racing.
Frank holds a doctorate in psychology from Yale University and speaks fluent German.

Erik Stauber is a non-profit professional with significant experience in managing fundraising strategies and orchestrating marketing and public relations efforts. For the past 5 years, he has been a Director at the Barrow Neurological Foundation supporting communication and fund raising efforts for the hospital.

Erik holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the Washington State University and a Master of Arts degree from Pacific Christian College.

Previously, he has been a consultant specializing in working with foundations and churches to develop successful strategies for campaigns, program development, and training for staff. An ordained Pastor, he has been in vocational and volunteer ministry for over 15 years.

Married to Rosie and they have two college age children, Makoy age 20 and Cydni age 19. Erik enjoys golf and other outdoor sports in his spare time.