Our People

President and Chief Operating Officer Elizabeth Cushing brings 20 years of nonprofit management experience with organizations focused on youth development, children's advocacy and women's issues to Playworks. Elizabeth is responsible for creating, communicating, and sustaining our strategic development, communications and training initiatives, as well as managing major foundation relationships and contributing to expansion strategy. Elizabeth is a product of Oregon public schools, Stanford University and the Coro Fellows Program in Public Affairs.

Regional Executive Officer Eunice Dunham moved to Boston to launch Playworks' program there after four years on the staff as a site coordinator and area director in California. Eunice is using the experience of establishing programs in Boston in her new role identifying and cultivating new cities and school districts for Playworks' continued national expansion.

Chief Program Officer David Gallagher began his career with Playworks as a “coach” in an Oakland elementary school. After years of managing school programs in the Bay Area, he moved onto spearheading Playworks Training, and later transitioned into the role of national program director. As CPO, David and the national program team are responsible for managing our cities and programs, ensuring that quality standards and program operations are consistent and supported across the country. In his spare time, David enjoys coaching a high school soccer team and loves a fierce game of curbside 4-square.

Director of IT Richard Ng was drawn to Playworks because of its mission and model of structured and meaningful play with children. Born and raised in Oakland, Richard spent many years working with children as a recreation leader. Over the last nine years, he worked as an IT network administrator for Golden Gate Regional Center, a state-funded not-for-profit agency serving the developmentally disabled.

Salesforce Administrator Kyle DeRoos spent five exciting as a program coordinator and program manager in Oakland and the Silicon Valley before trading in his whistle and kickball for a mouse and keyboard in the national office. Since moving indoors, Kyle spent two years on the development team before transitioning to focus on administering our data management system, Salesforce.com. After ten years with the organization, Kyle is still amazed at the impact Playworks can have on students who often slip between the cracks of traditional school programming. And he's super good at traveling baseball.

James "Jamie" Firmage started his career in Sales and Marketing with a job as a day camp director and now after a 20+ year career at the director level in sales and marketing, has come full circle at Playworks. Jamie joined Playworks from Vivo Girls Sports, a social networking start-up, in a sales consulting role for the rapidly expanding Playworks Training department and has now joined the team full-time the as the national senior account manager. His past experience includes selling online, including social media and offline direct mail and marketing services into financial services, nonprofit, high-tech and advertising industries.

Dave Gilmore worked as a program coordinator in Playworks' Baltimore launch year, then left to work as a middle school special education teacher in Queens, NY. Dave returned from the his experiences in the classroom in 2007 to serve as Playworks Baltimore's executive director. After two and a half years in that position, Dave joined the national staff as director of program operations in August, 2009. He currently supports Playworks through organizing the flow of communication and supplies between the Playworks national and city offices. A native of Baltimore, Dave is based in the Playworks Baltimore office and has also worked out of the national office in Oakland.

Payroll Contracts Administrator Beth Jersey is responsible for payroll at Playworks. She has the distinct pleasure of making the entire staff happy at least twice a month. She brings more than 20 years of payroll and accounting experience, much of it in the corporate world, and is happy to now work with an organization that makes a difference in children's lives. When she's not working, you can find her in her garden, taking long walks, reading mysteries or crossword puzzling.

Cheryl Lewis joined Playworks as human resources associate in the summer of 2009. Prior to Playworks, she was worked as the employment and training specialist at San Francisco International Airport. She has also managed internship programs and job placement for foster care youth and other youth in San Mateo and San Francisco counties. At Playworks, Cheryl supports hiring and other HR efforts to improve education through safe and interactive play. Cheryl's passion is volleyball, including two seasons as head coach for South San Francisco High School's volleyball program.

In 2002, Dana LoVecchio started her tenure with Playworks in the East Bay, CA as a program corrdinator where she used four square, tag, and kickball to create a safe, invlusive school enviornment for her students. After two years of running on the playground, she became a program manager and supported staff in San Francisco, CA.
 
In 2006 Dana joined Playworks Training and has delivered high quality professional development workshops across the country. As the training program director, creates standards for all of Playworks Training products, oversees the quality of all trainers and trainings, develops Playworks' Training of Trainers program, provides professional development workshops for clients across the country, as well as Playworks staff, designs and organizes breakout sessions for Play On - Playworks' annual national conference - and still finds the time for four square, tag, and kickball.

 Rob Norris, IT Associate jumped ship from nine years in the for-profit world at Amazon.com, where he was system administrator at Alexa Internet.  Rob also worked for four years as Operations Consultant at the Chinese Historical Society of America in San Francisco's Chinatown. When he's not running the support function at Playworks, Rob is an avid cook, brewer (beer) and music aficionado. Rob gets annoyed thinking about how the Patriots lost to the Giants in Super Bowl XLII. His Amazon Green-Cheeked parrot is also another source of annoyance.

As the marketing representative for Playworks Training, Alex strives to increase access to resources that will help build play into our communities. She is inspired by the artistic, culinary, environmental and entrepreneurial expressions within the Bay Area and around the world, that offer opportunities to re-define persons and people. With a background in sociology, art, adventure and eco-tourism and development, Alex hopes to focus her efforts on institutionalizing playful and positive change.

Her favorite game during office recess is Sepak Takraw, a kick volleyball game taught by a co-worker who recently traveled to Thailand.

As Playworks' Human Resources Director, Patti is responsible for all Employee Relations, Workers Compensation, Compensation and Professional Development.  She also works with the HR Administrator regarding the Human Resources Information Systems and Benefits. She has been in Human Resources for 25+ years and has 15 years experience as a member of multi-industry, multinational executive committees. Patti also been a human resources consultant to several small and non profit organizations. She grew up in San Francisco and graduated from Lowell High School.

Daisy Ruiz is a native of Los Angeles. She joined Playworks as a volunteer and helped launch the Spanish language version of the Playworks website, Playworks en Espanol. She enjoys the culture of play that Playworks is trying to spread to schools across the country and likes that the office maintains a fun yet professional vibe. Daisy is currently pursuing her Masters degree in nonprofit management at the University of San Francisco. In her free time she enjoys reading, writing, traveling and watching her Lakers win yet another championship.

Account manager for Playworks Training, Hector Ramon Salazar, is in his eighth year with the organization.  Providing direct service as an AmeriCorps member, program coordinator and program manager in Oakland, Richmond and San Jose for the previous seven years, Hector has now shifted his focus to the national expansion of Playworks Training.  He received both his bachelor's and master's degree in education from Oakland's Holy Names University. During his time at HNU, he served as a point guard and head assistant coach on the men's basketball team while working as director for the Youth Summer Hoop camp. In his spare time, Hector enjoys playing catch with his son Xavier, coloring with his daughter Nina and participating in some sort of food activity with his wife Anna.

Director of Grants Nancy Shillis comes to Playworks with 20 years experience as a grantmaker in a number of Bay Area philanthropic institutions, working primarily in the field of youth development. Nancy works with city directors on fund development strategies to grow and sustain their programs. She is thrilled to work for a nonprofit focused on helping kids get a healthy dose of play everyday, having seen first-hand how play has positively impacted her own children’s development.

Ben Stein hails from the city of Pittsburgh, PA where he spent his time cheering for the Penguins. He joined Playworks in 2005 as a program coordinator in San Francisco where he lived and worked for two years. In 2007, Ben became an program manager, supervising nine schools in East Oakland, where he spent another two years.

Currently, Ben is a trainer for Playworks and develops curriculum for trainings. He has trained adults and other youth workers all across the country to work with kids from pre-kindergarten through high school. In addition, he's provided technical assistance to the staff at many playgrounds around the country. Ben is also responsible for our internal training of our own trainers as well.

In his spare time, he rides his bike and travels the world!