SAVING THE WEST FOUNDATION - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Founder
- Member of the Board
- Vice - President of the American Hellenic Council
Alexandra Warren is a business woman, filmmaker, and Founder, Chairman & CEO of the Saving The West Foundation.
Alex is the Vice-President of the American Hellenic Council, an advocacy group promoting Greek issues before Congress.
Arkles Brooks has recently joined the Saving the West Foundation team, where he teaches Master Gardening Techniques and Permaculture principles for the Young Gardener's Program. Brooks also teaches at Castelar Middle School as a Substitute and supports outreach efforts in underrepresented communities primarily with Seeds of Carver Urban Garden and his Non-for-profit organization, Seed to Flower.
Ark's introduction to urban gardening began when he met his gardening mentor when he was only 14 years of age, Mr. Wright. Under Wrights tutelage, Brooks developed an outstanding urban garden that produced hundreds of pumpkins and beans and large crops of greens that were distributed through the church to many families. Empowered by this, Ark continued to garden and feed people with food he grew throughout his college years while obtaining advanced degrees. On the spiritual side, Ark studied Tai Chi and Chi Gong and many other spiritual disciplines and learned to relate them to enhance gardening practices. Brooks also practices Kriya Yoga, Tai Chi Chuan, Shaolin Kung-fu, Transcendental Meditation, Reiki and other healing arts and teaches Chi Gong to both children and adults.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- President and CEO of the Ross Group, Inc
Armen D. Ross is currently President and CEO of The Ross Group, Inc. (TRG) He leads a team of professionals that provide services to clients with business and projects before local, state, and federal government entities. TRG's services include economic development, land use planning, entitlement processing, building permitting, public affairs, government relations, and community relations.
Job Titles:
- Founder and Executive Program Director of Uprise Youth Club
Angelica is the founder and Executive Program Director of Uprise Youth Club. She is a Los Angeles native, where she obtained her first job as a teen at a local recreation center. At that recreation center is where her devotion and future dream of working with youth began. Since then, Angelica has been coaching and mentoring youth in a variety of enrichment and sports programs, teaching youth living in low-income communities valuable life lessons. Angelica's passion for youth is what compelled her to start Uprise Youth Club as well as volunteer her services to her community and communities like her's, where services like these are needed the most. Her passion for helping kids learn and become better citizens is what fueled her efforts to start a coaching service where kids can have fun as they grow into successful adults.
Job Titles:
- Executive Program Director, STWF ED Center
- Executive Program Director, STWF ED Center / Executive Program Director, STWF ED Center
In August 2019 Maribel Rosales was appointed Executive Program Director of the Saving the West Foundation. Since Maribel joined the Foundation she rapidly grew the enrollment of its Education Center Program by three times its original size. A bilingual native of Inglewood, Maribel is familiar with problems that many West-Central Los Angles families face when it comes to education and gaining access to high-quality social services. Her past titles include Office Administrator at Hajoca Supply, where she oversaw the sales division and was Gaming Industry Manager at Game Stop Corporation. Using talents she garnered at her previous occupations, such as gathering statistics and organizing community events, in addition to her charismatic communication skills, Ms. Rosales has helped shaped the Saving the West Foundation Ed Center into a hub of the Crenshaw / West Adams Community.
Ray Charles Jr. is an alumnus of Whittier College where he majored in Business Administration and Economics. He is an accomplished entrepreneur, award-winning author, award-winning film producer, and international lecturer.
He's also the son of the legendary entertainer, known worldwide as Ray Charles. His riveting 2010 memoir, You Don't Know Me: Reflections of My Father, about family life as the son of the beloved music legend was the winner of a 2011 NAACP Image Award eclipsing competitive nominations including memoirs from statesman and political leaders, Nelson Mandela and Condoleezza Rice. His international lectures on the Global Influence of Music, Film, and Poetry part 1, 2, and 3 have been enthusiastically received in China, France, and Germany!
Ray's film and television producing highlights include; co-executive producer of "Ray Charles 50 years of Music"for Fox Television; co-producer - award winning film "Ray" a Taylor Hackford film for Crusader Entertainment / Walden Media; co-producer - Ray Charles with the "Voices of Jubilation / Christmas Jubilee Concert DVD; co-producer and appeared in Black Prince an Anatoli Ivanov film and Grand Jury Prize award-winning film of the New York International Film Festival based on the life of Alexander Pushkin, filmed in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia; and co-producer -Hotel California, a Geo Santini film for Alliance Entertainment Group. Ray is currently in development with Broadcast Urban Films to produce the "Reginal Lewis Story" the first African American billionaire.
Ray is actively engaged in the development and enhancement of his local community. He is a board member of the LAPD Hollenbeck PAL Initiative in Los Angeles California, board member of the Ed Center which is an after-school tutoring and enrichment program for youth in our local communities in Los Angeles and the NAACP Beverly Hills Branch.
Ray is an alumnus of Whittier College, he is a member of the Lancer Society of Whittier College a private fraternity where he serves on the Lancer Scholarship Committee, and he serves on the Board of Whittier College Poet Council for strategic imperatives!
Richard Katz served in the California State Assembly representing the 39th assembly district for 16 years from 1980 through 1996, during which time he negotiated major interstate agreements related to water, energy and planning.
While the Assembly, Katz Chaired the Transportation Committee for 10 years and served as Minority Leader before leading the Democrats back to majority status in 1996. In June of 2005, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa appointed Katz to serve with him on the Governing Board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, where Katz served for 8 years.
When Mayor Garcetti was elected in 2013, he appointed Richard Katz to the Los Angeles City Planning Commission, where he served for 4 years. Richard Katz is the owner of a successful public policy/government relations firm, Richard Katz Consulting (RKC), Inc. He currently serves as the Chairman Emeritus of the Valley Economic Alliance, the Advisory Board of the Luskin School of Public Affairs at UCLA and on the Boards of Heal the Bay, the Saving the West Foundation and the Los Angeles Coalition.
A native of Los Angeles, Richard Katz lives in Studio City with his twelve-year-old son Mitchell Robert Katz.
Job Titles:
- College Application Course Instructor
Sidney Velasquez is a rising sophomore majoring in American Studies at Yale University. She is originally from Los Angeles, CA, but currently resides in Seville, Spain as an au pair. She is involved with Yale Tour Guides; tutors New Haven students through the Yale African American Cultural Center; volunteers her time with the Yale Undergraduate Prison Project; and most recently took on a legal internship with Root & Rebound - an organization that provides legal aid to currently and formerly incarcerated people in California. She has a passion for equity, justice, and prison/police abolition. Through her work with the Ed Center, she hopes to continue to bridge the gaps in higher education among first-generation and/or low-income students. In her free time, she scrolls through TikTok, Twitter, and listens to endless political podcasts.