Joseph Falk, Chairman, is Past President and Legislative Chairman of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers. He was President of NAMB in 2001-2002 and continues to serve on the Board of Directors. In 2007, Mr. Falk was named a member of the Consumer Advisory Council to the Federal Reserve Board. Mr. Falk is a graduate of Franklin and Marshall College and received his MBA from the Harvard Business School in 1978. Joe is a licensed mortgage broker. He is President of his own mortgage firm, a consultant with the law firm of Akerman Senterfitt, and is the Vice-Chairman of the Miami Science Museum's Board of Trustees.

Mr. Falk resides in Miami, Florida.

Brian S. Adler, Vice-Chairman, is a Partner in the Land Use & Government Relations Group at the law firm of Bilzin Sumberg Baena Price & Axelrod LLP. Focused primarily on land use, zoning and environmental matters in unincorporated Miami-Dade County and the various municipalities throughout South Florida, Brian represents property owners, developers and contractors in permitting, platting, zoning, comprehensive planning and development, from inception to representation at hearing and post-hearing approvals. Brian grew up in Miami and graduated cum laude from both the University of Miami in 1990 and from the University of Miami School of Law in 1993, where he currently serves as an Adjunct Professor in the School of Law's Masters Program (LLM) in Real Property Development.

Brian has volunteered and/or served on committees for numerous charities, including serving as past co-chair and committee member for several Cystic Fibrosis Foundation events. In addition, he has mentored foster children aging out of the system for Educate Tomorrow and is an annual volunteer at the Miami-Dade County Special Olympics. 

Brian is the Vice-Chair of SAVE Dade and serves on the Policy and Lobbying Sub-Committee. 

Glenn Kaufhold, Vice-Chairman, has had an extensive career in non-profit management, fundraising and marketing/PR. He is currently Executive Director & CEO of the Miami Dade College Foundation. Previously, he was Associate Vice President for Corporate and Foundation Relations at FIU, and Associate Director of The Wolfsonian-FIU. A long-time resident of Boston, Glenn was Director of Development & Marketing for Fenway Health, and Director of Development at Boston University School of Dental Medicine. He was also Co-Founder and Executive Director of Special Athletes/Special Smiles, a national oral health initiative created in partnership between Boston University and Special Olympics International. In addition to his work with SAVE Dade, he is on the boards of New World School of the Arts and Tigertail Productions.

Abby Corbett, Treasurer, is an attorney in the Miami office of Stearns Weaver Miller Weissler Alhadeff & Sitterson, P.A., where she specializes in complex commercial litigation. Prior to joining Stearns Weaver, Ms. Corbett served as a law clerk for the Honorable Judge Paul C. Huck of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Before her clerkship, Abby was an Associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Covington & Burling LLP where she was a member of the corporate, real estate, and election law groups. While at Covington, she assisted several corporations and political candidates with federal election law issues.

Abby is a 2006 magna cum laude graduate of Georgetown University Law Center. At Georgetown, she served as a Legal Research and Writing Law Fellow, President of the Georgetown Student Animal Defense Fund, and as a Law Fellow at the Human Rights Campaign. Before attending law school, Abby worked on various political campaigns, including managing a successful U.S. Congressional reelection campaign in 2002. A fourth-generation Floridian, Abby grew up in Central Florida and received her undergraduate degree summa cum laude from Florida Southern College where she majored in political science.

Ms. Corbett is a member of the bars of the State of Florida, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

Gregory Stott, Vice Chair, has an accreditation from The College for Financial Planning as an Accredited Asset Management Specialist, and is currently the CFO for David Bromstad, LLC.

Gregory was instrumental in getting the only LGBT Visitor Center ever sponsored by MetLife here in Miami, Florida. Gregory has his series 7, 63, 65, Life, Health, and Variable Annuity licenses. His advocacy story is what brought him to SAVE Dade, where he fights for the rights of all people who are LGBT. Having lost a lover at age 24, he knows too well that there is still much work to be done!

“I believe in, by doing good for others, I will do well”

Jessica Lam, Secretary, has been a very influential and groundbreaking individual in the Community.  She is an advocate for gay and lesbian issues and transgender acceptance in society, with particular emphasis on children and today’s youth.  She has worked with organizations such as Pridelines Youth Services, the YES! Institute, the Alliance for GLBTQ Youth, and Safe Schools of South Florida, among others.  Jessica currently serves as Secretary for the Board of Directors for SAVE Dade and the Aqua Foundation for Women.  She is also involved with Playing the Game of Life℠ and is the founder of Jesilam Enterprises, Inc.

Jessica’s background is in Communications and Information Technology. She has extensive experience as a public speaker and as an advocate for women’s and transgender issues. Some of her accomplishments include coordinating the first Transgender Education Medical Symposium in May 2010, in North Miami Beach, FL.  She is also a frequent speaker at many Universities and High Schools and engages students and educators through workshops, lectures and stories.  She has appeared nationally on television programs such as Larry King Live, and internationally on Don Francisco Presenta, Maria Elvira Live and 7 Dias, among others.  She has spent a lifetime of working towards helping the world understand and to accept the differences between all people.

Elizabeth Regalado, Secretary, interest and expertise in social services planning and coordination evolved from her role as Assistant Director in the County Manager's Office of Homeless Coordinator, overseeing the countywide process of assessing  and placing  homeless individuals into the continuum of care and services. She has served in various capacities within county government, including the Census 2000 Outreach Campaign and has had oversight of programs providing a variety of services to individuals with HIV/AIDS, substance use and mental health disorders.  Her interest is to ensure that social services are delivered in an integrated and comprehensive manner with emphasis on accountability and the impact these services have on the consumers.

Chris Anderson is a transactional attorney at Robert Allen Law in Miami, Florida. His practice focuses on the representation of clients in a wide variety of corporate matters and in commercial and residential real estate transactions. He also has provided legal counsel and managed transactions of important blue-chip artwork by artists such as Pablo Picasso, Robert Motherwell, Diego Rivera, Bradley Walker Tomlin and Roberto Matta.

Chris is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Miami School of Law, where he was the co-president of OUTlaw, Articles and Comments Editor for the University of Miami Law Review, and was inducted to the Order of the Coif. He completed his undergraduate work at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

Leslie Bowe currently works in the Office of Compliance Business Services, formerly Minority Women and Business Enterprises as adistinguished employee of Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Recently he served as the Administrative Assistant to School Board Member Agustin J. Barrera, District 6 and School Board Member Evelyn Greer, District 9. He has also worked in Facilities Construction, Human Resources, Procurement and various District offices and school sites.

The former Vice-Mayor of the Village of Pinecrest, he was elected in 1996 to its founding Village Council credited with establishing well-regarded municipal services including police, parks and recreation, building and planning services, and public works. Major achievements: Village Seal, Village Street Signs, acquisition and development of Pinecrest Gardens (the former site of the historic Parrot Jungle and Gardens), 10th Anniversary Celebration (a concert featuring KC and the Sunshine Band, and fireworks spectacular at Evelyn Greer Park.)

He is currently the President-elect of the Vizcayans and serves on the Board of Trustee of Fairchild Botanic Gardens. He was a representative of the Miami-Dade County League of Cities to various community and governmental organizations. He served on the league’s Executive Board as Second Vice-President.

Leslie Bowe has shown a strong dedication to the improvement in the quality of life for residents of Miami-Dade County. Over the past 20 years, Mr. Bowe has sat as Member or Committee Chair for numerous non-profit organizations throughout the County and nation that benefit and financially support local arts, recreation facilities and national leaders. The South Dade YMCA, Preserve the Jungle Inc., Zoological Society of Florida, Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Project, Children’s Home Society of Florida, United Way Leadership Circle, University of Miami, and Pinecrest Gardens Foundation have been just a few. Mr. Bowe now serves on the Board for SAVE Dade.

Merry Bodner is an Adjunct Professor of Communications at Franklin University and has been active in social justice since marching for civil rights in the mid-sixties. During her lengthy career in advertising, she has done volunteer marketing for The Lighthouse for the Blind, Special Olympics, the Columbus (OH) Youth Orchestra, Special Education PTAs, and many faith-based organizations.

Since moving to Miami six years ago, Merry has served as VP of Temple Israel Sisterhood, co-chair of Pridelines Youth Services” “A Night in the Jungle” fundraiser, and as a member of Temple Israel’s Social Justice Committee. She is presently chairing SAVE Dade’s Marketing & Communications Committee.

Nate Bodner - Since moving to Miami five years ago, Nate Bodner has been actively involved in Pridelines Youth Services, Temple Israel and SAVE Dade.

Beginning his Pridelines stint by volunteering at the Youth Prom, he moved on to become a weekly volunteer with the youth, a member of the Board of Directors and co-chair of a very successful fundraiser, “A night in the Jungle.” He also taught “Money Talks, a financial awareness class.

At Temple Israel, Mr. Bodner was a member of the Social Justice Committee and a member of the Board, playing a leading role in strategic planning for the organization.

Mr. Bodner recently retired as VP of Supply Chain Management at Nueva Cocina, a Miami-based gourmet Latino foods company. Previously, he served as VP of Purchasing for Borden Foods, Director of Commodities for Kraft-General Foods, and Director of Purchasing for Entenmann’s Bakeries.

During his tenure at General Foods and Borden, he also served as Chairman of the Sweetener Users Association, a Washington-based trade organization, and as a member of the USDA Agricultural Technical Advisory Committee for Trade in Sweeteners, appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture.

At SAVE Dade, Mr. Bodner will put his organizational and lobbying experience to work as Chairman of the Policy and Lobbying Committee.

Maria Bures, Director, is a filmmaker with a twenty-year background in advertising and television production. She recently directed Raising Hope, a one-hour documentary that is currently airing on PBS stations across the country. Maria has directed and produced spots, interstitials, music videos and television programs for a wide variety of clients and advertisers including Discovery Health, Disney Latin America, SC Johnson, Western Union, Paragard, CarePlus Health Plans, Toyota, Procter & Gamble among many others, and has executive produced more than 600 commercials for a wide variety of Fortune 500 companies.   In 2010 she directed and produced SAVE Dade's own public service announcement, "Why Vote?"

Maria’s commitment to the LGBT community began in San Francisco during the 1980s, and she is currently at work completing Somos: The Lost Generation, a documentary film on LGBT Latinos who emigrated to San Francisco from various Latin American countries searching for freedom in the 1990s.  Maria has been a volunteer at Save Dade since 2000, and has served on the Board of Save Dade Foundation since 2009.

Monica Cepero is a seasoned political insider with over 16 years of State and Local government experience at the top levels of leadership. At the State level of government in Florida, Ms Cepero served worked for former Governor Jeb Bush for seven years, where she served in a lead lobbying role on his behalf to both the Florida House of Representatives and to the Florida Senate. She served as his Environmental Policy Advisor, where she was responsible for the policy and budget recommendations of over $6.5 billion for the environmental and agricultural agencies of the State. Her career in public service, however, began following college when she worked for the City of Tallahassee for eight years, serving in a variety of budget and policy based positions. Currently, Ms Cepero serves as the Assistant to the County Administrator in Broward County. In this role, she serves as the liaison overseeing the administration of the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, the County’s Transportation and Transit system, the Environmental Protection and Growth Management Department, and the County’s Finance and Administrative Services Department (which includes the County’s Tax Collector component).

On a personal level, Ms Cepero has lived in Florida for most of her life, and earned her Bachelor of Science degree in International Affairs and Master’s in Public Administration degree from the Florida State University. Philanthropically, she serves a variety of non-profit organizations. She currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors to two other advocacy based organizations: Susan G Komen for the Cure, a vibrant organization committed to saving lives and ending breast cancer and to Sustainable Florida which promotes sustainable best management practices through collaborative educational efforts throughout the State. She is also a former member of the Board of Directors of the Women’s Fund of Miami-Dade County, a grant making organization that serves as a catalyst for social change and economic justice within the community with the goal of creating a community where all women and girls reach their full potential. Ms Cepero’s passion for public policy and championing equal rights for all, is what drives her to serve the LGBT community. She and her partner Vicki have a 10 yr old son who sails competitively and they live in Coconut Grove.

Juan Del Hierro is more than a volunteer. He is dedicated and active in a variety of ways within the community. He founded an organization that provides empowerment services to the boys from the Juvenile Justice Center.  He is a member of the Community Advisory Board for the M-Powerment Project for young gay, bisexual and transgender men of color.  Juan is also involved in Community Partnership for the Homeless’ Community Advisory Board.  Within the Faith Community, Juan is the Chair of Faith in the City, an interfaith group of non-profit leaders from the Downtown-Overtown Miami area.  Currently, Juan works at Unity on the Bay as Director of the Sacred Service Ministry, overseeing their volunteer and outreach programs. He will be completing his licensing as a Unity Teacher and will join Unity’s Ministerial Program in the Fall.  Within SAVE Dade, Juan led the Grassroots Action Committee between 2007-2009 and is currently a SAVE Inc. Board Member, Chair of the Community Relations Committee, and continues to support the lobbying and grassroots efforts.

Orlando Gonzales joined SAVE Dade as a volunteer, where he chaired the Champions of Equality Awards successfully garnering greater financial returns in three years.  Orlando served as interim executive director of SAVE Dade during a reorganization primarily managing the executive director search and operations.  An entrepreneur, Orlando manages a business in scholastic journalism with Jostens Inc.  He has exercised his interests and experience in fundraising and development, communications, and public relations with public service organizations.  Human rights, the proliferation of art and culture, as well as the defense of the first-amendment are the social causes Orlando regularly champions.  He’s a graduate of Georgetown University where he focused his studies in community service, race, culture, and women’s studies.

Alexander Palenzuela was born and raised in Miami until he left to attend Phillips Academy Andover and to live with a family for a year in Rennes, France on the School Year Board program. He attended the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris. He returned to Miami and graduated cum laude from the University of Miami School of Law.

He began practicing law at Legal Services of Greater Miami, Inc. where he defended low income renters and home owners to preserve their housing. He then worked in the law department of the City of Hialeah. Alexander is a partner at Weiss Serota Helfman Pastoriza Cole & Boniske, P.L. where he practices municipal and labor law. In addition to his work for SAVE Dade, he is on the Board of the Miami Council for International Visitors.

Christian Ulvert is the founder and president of EDGE Communications, LLC, a South Florida based communications and political consulting firm.  A communications and public policy expert, Ulvert served the Florida House of Representatives Democratic Caucus as a senior communications advisor and counseled House Minority Leader Dan Gelber during his two-year leadership term.  Ulvert has served on and managed several successful campaigns across the state of Florida, ranging from municipal, issue advocacy and statewide campaigns. Prior to founding EDGE Communications, Ulvert was a partner and senior public policy advisor with a Tallahassee-based lobbying firm focusing on state governmental relations.  A native of Miami, Fla., Ulvert graduated from the Florida State University with a Bachelors of Science in Political Science and a Masters in Public Administration and Policy.